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Outina Consults a Sorcerer

Laudonniere had some of Chief Outina's soldiers in the fort. They had been made prisoner by Saturiba, and Laudonniere now decided to send these men back to Outina. This deed led to a treaty of friendship between them. The French were glad to make this pact, because the only route to the Appalachian Mountains, where gold and silver were found, passed through Outina's territory. After it was made, Outina asked Laudonniere for harquebusiers to help fight his enemy. Twenty-five men were sent to him under the command of Lieutenant Ottigny.

As soon as Outina was ready, his army began its march. The first day's journey was easy, but the second led through swamps thickly overgrown with thorns and brambles. It was very hot, and the Indians were forced to carry the Frenchmen on their shoulders, which the harquebusiers found a great relief. At last they reached the enemy's territory. Outina halted his force, summoned a sorcerer, who was more than a hundred and twenty years old, and questioned him about the enemy. The sorcerer prepared a place in the middle of the army and asked Ottigny to allow him to use his shield. He laid the shield on the ground, drawing a circle around it and inscribing it with various signs. Then, kneeling on it, he whispered some unintelligible words and made gestures as if he were engaged in animated conversation. After a quarter of an hour his appearence became so frightful that he looked scarcely human; he twisted hes limbs until the bones snapped out of place and did many other unnatural things. Then suddenly he became calm. He stepped out of his circle, saluted the chief, and revealed to him the number of the enemy and the place where they were to fight.

Monday, 15-May-95 14:17:42 PDT