Thanks to the glowing descriptions of the power and glory of the white men given by his friends, Rene found himself treated with distinguished consideration by the Alachuas, who regarded him with the greatest interest and curiosity.

He was always spoken of by them as the young white chief, and his slightest wishes were gratified as soon as he made them known.
At the end of a week Rene felt sufficiently strong and well to set about accomplishing the mission that had brought him to this pleasant country.

Accordingly he sought an interview with the Alachua chief, and displayed before him the trinkets contained in the package that he had so carefully brought with him from Fort Caroline.

As the chief gazed with delight and amazement at what he regarded as a most wonderful treasure, but what in reality was only a lot of knives, hatchets, mirrors, and fish-hooks, Rene explained to him the distress of the white men in Fort Caroline, caused by the destruction of their winter's supply of provisions.

He then said that if the chief would, out of the abundance of the Alachuas, give him twelve canoe-loads of corn, and send warriors enough to conduct them in safety to the white man's fort on the great river of the East, he would give him the package of trinkets there displayed, and would promise, in the name of his uncle the great white chief, a package of equal size and value for each canoe-load of provisions delivered at the fort.