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1541.] SPANIARDS IN ARKANSAS AND MISSOURI.

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deeply into the interior of the continent. The highlands of White River, more than two hundred miles from the Mississippi, were probably the limit of his ramble in this direction. The mountains offered neither gems nor gold; and the disappointed adventurers marched to the south. They passed through a succession of towns, of which the position cannot be fixed, till at length we find them near the hot springs and saline tributaries of the Washita. It was at Autiamque, a town on the same river, that they passed the winter; they had arrived at the settlement through the country of the Kappaws.

In the spring of 1542, Soto determined to descend the Washita to its junction, and to get tidings of the sea. As he advanced, he was soon lost amidst the bayous and marshes which are found along the Red River and its tributaries. At last, he arrived at the province where the Washita, already united with the Red River, enters the Mississippi. The province was called Guachoya. Soto anxiously inquired the distance to the sea; the chieftain of Guachoya could not tell. Were there settlements extending along the river to its mouth? It was answered that its lower banks were an uninhabited waste. Unwilling to believe so disheartening a tale, Soto sent a party of nine men to descend the banks of the Mississippi, and explore the country. They travelled eight days; and, impeded by frequent bayous, impassable cane-brakes, and dense woods, they were able to advance not much more than thirty miles. The governor received the intelligence with gloomy forebodings. His horses and men were dying around him. He attempted to overawe a tribe of Indians near Natchez by claiming a supernatural birth, and demanding obedience and tribute. "You say you are the child of the sun," replied the undaunted chief. Dry up the river, and I will believe you. Do you desire to see me? Visit the town where I dwell. If you come in peace, I will receive you with special good-will; if in war, I will not shrink one foot back." The stubborn pride of Soto

6.6

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DEATH AND BURIAL OF DE SOTO.

[1542.

changed by long disappointments into a wasting melancholy. A malignant fever ensued, during which he had little comfort, and was neither visited nor attended as the last hours of life demand. Believing his death near at hand, he held a solemn interview with his faithful followers; and, yielding to the wishes of his companions, who obeyed him to the last, he named a successor. On the next day, which was the twenty-first of May, 1542, he died. Thus perished Ferdinand de Soto, the governor of Cuba, the successful associate of Pizarro. His miserable end was the more observed, from the greatness of his former prosperity. His soldiers pronounced his eulogy by grief at their loss; the priests chanted over his body the first requiems that were ever heard on the waters of the Mississippi. To conceal his death, his body was wrapped in a mantle, and, in the stillness of midnight, was silently sunk in the middle of the stream. The discoverer of the Mississippi slept beneath its waters. He had crossed a large part of the continent in search of gold, and found nothing so remarkable as his burialplace.

No longer guided by the energy and pride of Soto, the company resolved on reaching New Spain without delay. Should they descend the river in such miserable boats as they could construct? or seek a path to Mexico through the forests? They were unanimous in the opinion, that it was less dangerous to go by land; the hope was still cherished that some wealthy state, some opulent city, might yet be discovered, and all fatigues be forgotten in the midst of victory and spoils. Again they penetrated the western wilderness; in July, they found themselves in the country of the Natchitoches; but the Red River was so swollen that it was impossible for them to pass. As they proceeded, the Indian guides purposely led them astray; "they went up and down through very great woods," without making any progress. The wilderness into which they had at last wandered, was sterile and scarcely inhabited; they reached the great buffalo prairies of the west, the hunt

1543.] SPANIARDS DESERT THE UNITED STATES. 29

ing grounds of the Pawnees and Comanches, the migra tory tribes on the confines of Mexico. Desperate as the resolution seemed, it was determined to return once more to the banks of the Mississippi, and follow its current to the sea. There were not wanting men whose hopes and whose courage were not yet exhausted, who wished rather to die in the wilderness than to leave it in poverty; but Moscoso, the new governor, had long "desired to see himself in a place where he might sleep his full sleep."

In December, they came upon the Mississippi, a few leagues above the mouth of Red River, often wading through deep waters, and grateful to God if, at night, they could find a dry resting-place. Nor was it an easy

task for men in their condition to build the means of escape. Erecting a forge, they struck off the fetters from the slaves; and, gathering every scrap of iron in the camp, they wrought it into nails. Timber was sawed by hand with a large saw, which they had always carried with them. They calked their vessels with a weed like hemp; barrels, capable of holding water, were with difficulty made: to obtain supplies of provision, all the hogs, and even the horses, were killed, and their flesh preserved by drying; and the neighboring townships of Indians were so plundered of their food, that the miserable inhabitants would come about the Spaniards begging for their own maize. In early summer of 1543, the rising of the Mississippi assisted the launching of the seven brigantines; they were frail barks, which had no decks, and constructed of so thin planks that a little shock would have broken them in pieces. Thus provided, in seventeen days the fugitives reached the Gulf of Mexico; the distance seemed to them two hundred and fifty leagues, and was not much less than five hundred miles. Following, for the most part, the coast, it was more than fifty days before the men who finally escaped, now no more than three hundred and eleven in number, entered the River Panuco.

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SPANISH MISSIONARIES IN FLORIDA.

[1549.

CHAPTER III.

COLONIZATION OF FLORIDA.

THERE were not wanting adventurers who desired to make one more attempt to possess Florida by force of arms; their request was refused. Religious zeal was more persevering. Louis Cancello, a missionary of the Dominican order, gained, through Philip, then heir apparent in Spain, permission to visit Florida, and attempt the peaceful conversion of the natives. Christianity was to conquer the land against which so many expeditions had failed. In 1549, a ship was fitted out with much solemnity; but the priests, who sought the first interview with the natives, were feared as enemies, and, being immediately attacked, Louis and two others fell martyrs to their zeal.

Florida was abandoned. It seemed as if death guarded the avenues to the country. The coast of our republic, on the Gulf of Mexico, was not, at this time, disputed by any other nation with Spain; while that power claimed the whole sea-coast, even to the remotest north. In Spanish geography, Canada was a part of Florida. Yet, within that whole extent, not a Spanish fort was erected, not a harbor was occupied. The first permanent establishment of the Spaniards in Florida was the result of jealous bigotry.

For France had begun to settle the region with a colony of Protestants; and Calvinism, which, under the auspices of Coligny, with the special coöperation of Calvin himself, had, for a short season, occupied the coasts of Brazil and the harbor of Rio Janeiro, was now to be planted within the borders of our republic. The expedition, which Coligny planned, was intrusted to the command of John Ribault, of Dieppe, a brave Huguenot, of maritime experience, and was attended by some of the best of the young French nobility, as well

1562, 1563.] HUGUENOTS IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

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as by veteran troops. The feeble Charles IX. conceded an ample commission, and the squadron set sail for the shores of North America. Land was first made in the latitude of St. Augustine; the river which we call the St. John's was discovered, and named the River of May. It is the St. Matheo of the Spaniards. In searching for the Jordan or Combahee, they came upon Port Royal entrance, which seemed the outlet of a magnificent stream. The greatest ships of France, and the argosies of Venice, could ride securely in the deep water of the harbor. On the shore, within that entrance, a monumental stone, engraved with the arms of France, was proudly raised; and, as the company looked round upon the immense oaks, which were venerable from the growth of centuries, the profusion of wild fowls, the groves of pine, the flowers perfuming the whole air, they exulted as they called the country a province of their native land. Ribault determined to leave a colony; twenty-six composed the whole party, which was to keep possession of the continent; and Fort Carolina, so called in honor of Charles IX. of France, gave an abiding name to the region.

Ribault and the ships arrived safely in France. But the fires of civil war had been kindled in all the provinces of the kingdom; and the promised reënforcements for Carolina were never levied. The situation of the French became precarious. Their commandant lost his life in a mutiny which his own ungovernable passion had provoked. His successor restored order; but the love of his native land is a passion easily revived in the breast of a Frenchman; and the company resolved to embark in such a brigantine as they could themselves construct. Intoxicated with joy at the thought of returning home, they neglected to provide sufficient stores; and they were overtaken by famine at sea, with its attendant crimes. A small English bark at length boarded their vessel, and, setting the most feeble on shore upon the coast of France, carried the rest to the queen of England. Carolina was still a desert.

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