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Updated: June 26, 2025
Two of these were Frenchmen, and the third was an Indian lad who had escaped with his chief from the doomed village of Seloy, only to share the fate of the equally doomed fort in which he had sought shelter. These had thrown themselves from the walls of the fort upon its capture by the Spaniards, and had reached the forest unharmed.
Two officers, Patiflo and Vicente, had taken possession of the dwelling of the Indian chief Seloy, a huge barn-like structure, strongly framed of entire trunks of trees, and thatched with palmetto leaves. Around it they were throwing up entrenchments of fascines and sand, and gangs of negroes were toiling at the work. Such was the birth of St. Augustine, the oldest town of the United States.
As the young warrior, whose person bore every evidence of long and hasty travel, stood silently before him, the old chief said, "I am Micco. Who art thou, and what is thy errand here?" The stranger answered, "I am known as E-chee, and am of that place by the great waters called Seloy. He whom I seek most anxiously among thy people is named to me as thy son, Has-se, the Bow-bearer."
The chief entreated Laudonniere to tarry many days in Seloy; but the latter answered that the orders of his own great chief were for him to proceed without delay to the river known as the River of May, and there erect a fort and found his colony. So, after an exchange of presents, they parted, and taking to their boats, the white men regained their ship.
When it was reached, the smaller vessels crossed the bar at its mouth, and came to anchor opposite the Indian village of Seloy, where Réné de Veaux had first set foot upon the soil of the New World, and where he had received the name of Ta-lah-lo-ko.
On the very night of the arrival of Cat-sha and his prisoners, the warrior who kept guard at the end of the trail was startled by hearing a few wild notes of a death-song rise from a small thicket but a short distance from him. Then came a loud cry, and the words, "Thus does E-chee of Seloy defy the Seminole dogs and rejoin his people!"
And the Spaniards seeing they could not reach them, by reason that the French ships were better of saile then theirs, and also because they would not leaue the coast, turned backe and went on shore in the riuer Seloy, which we cal the riuer of Dolphines 8 or 10 leagues distant from the place where we were.
This bold maneuver having succeeded, we sought the river Seloy and port, of which I have spoken, where we had the good fortune to find our galley, and another vessel which had planned the same thing we had. Two companies of infantry now disembarked: that of Captain Andres Soyez Patino, and that of Captain Juan de San Vincente, who is a very distinguished gentleman.
He was joined by others from the village, and all searched the thicket for some trace of him who had uttered the remarkable cry. Finally they discovered in it the head-dress of feathers that the young Indian of Seloy had worn as a Seminole warrior, and were forced to conclude that he had drowned himself rather than to live as one of them.
He had compelled several of the Seloy Indians to go with him and act as guides; but finally, believing that they were purposely leading him astray, he put them to death with great cruelty, and trusted to his own knowledge to lead him to the great river.
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