ringlets over his shoulders, was a much greater curiosity to them than
they were to him. The old chief took an immediate fancy to him, and as
he had given to Laudonniere the Indian name of Ta-lah (a palm) upon the
occasion of his previous visit to Seloy, he now called Réné Ta-lah-lo-ko
(the palmetto, or little palm), a name ever afterwards used by all the
Indians in their intercourse with him.

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. As they left, Réné gave many a backward glance at the pleasant
little village of Seloy, and would have loved to linger there among its
simple and kindly people.

As they crossed the bar, in going again to the ships, their boats were
surrounded by a number of what they called dolphins, but what are today
called porpoises, sporting in the great billows; and on their account
Laudonniere named the river they had just left the River of Dolphins.

Spreading their white wings, the ships sailed northward forty miles
during the night, and daylight found them standing off and on at the
mouth of the great River of May. By the aid of a chart, made by Admiral
Ribault two years before, they crossed its dangerous bar, and sailed up
its broad channel.

Short as was the time since they had been discovered off Seloy, swift
runners had already conveyed the great tidings of their coming to Micco,
the chief of this part of the country, and he and his people were thus