It was a gloomy omen of the many misfortunes
that awaited us !

We ascended the Rio Trinidad under the
guidance of some Indians with whom we had
already established friendly relations, thanks to
a few bottles of rum and some knives and
muskets. These Indians, who hated the Span-



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62 ADVENTURES OF A FRENCH CAPTAIN.
iards, had a kindly remembrance of the French,
whom they had known in the neighboring
State of Louisiana. They seemed glad to be
able to do us a service. After several days we
landed on an immense uninhabited plain, sev-
eral leagues in extent, and surrounded by a belt
of woods down to the very edge of the river.
A fruitful soil, an abundance of tropical plants
and flowers, a river as wide as the Seine, but
full of alligators, a sky as pure and a climate as
temperate as that of Naples — ^such were the
advantages of the place we had chosen, and
which we now christened " Camp Asylum."

Our first days here were not devoid of hard-
ships. The colony was obliged to protect itself
against wild beasts and reptiles, especially the
rattlesnakes, which abound in those parts, while,
as if to make things worse, the boats bringing
the stores from Galveston to Camp Asylum
were delayed on the road, so that we suffered
all the torments of hunger for a whole week.
