. . . . . . . Soon the courteous guise
Of men, not purporting nor fearing ill,
Won confidence: their wild distrustful looks
Assumed a milder meaning. MADOC.

We have said that the band of the exiles was reduced to half the number
that had, six months before, left the shores of Europe, so full of hope
and of holy resolution; and still, in spite of all their outward trials
and difficulties, the hope and the resolution of the survivors were as
high and as firm as ever. They trusted in the God whom they had served
so faithfully; and they knew that, in his own good time, he would give
them deliverance. But their days of darkness were not yet over. The
inclemency of the winter had indeed passed away, and the face of nature
began to smile upon them; yet sickness still prevailed, and the many
graves that rose on the spot which they had chosen for a burial ground,
daily reminded them of the losses that almost every family had already
sustained. The grief that had thus been brought upon them by death was
also greatly aggravated by the harassing attacks of the Indians, who
Were evidently still lurking in the neighboring woods; and who now
frequently came in small parties, and committed depredations of every
kind that lay in their power. Their real but concealed object was to
capture Rodolph, either alive or dead; for nothing short of his
destruction, or at least that of some member of his family, could
satisfy the bereaved Chief for the loss of his son. He, therefore,
left a party of his bravest and most subtle warriors in an encampment
about a day's journey from the Christian village, with orders to make
frequent visits to the settlement, and leave no means untried which
either force or cunning could suggest, that might lead to the full
gratification of his revenge.