sissippi. To conceal his death, his body was wrapped in a mantle, and in the stillness of midnight was sunk in the middle of the stream.

No longer guided by the energy and pride of Soto, the company resolved on reaching New Spain without delay. To do this they must either descend the river in such frail boats as they could put together, or attempt the long pathway 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 could not be crossed by them. 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 had now reached the great buffalo prairies of the west, the hunting-grounds of the Pawnees and Comanches, the migratory tribes on the confines of Mexico. The Spaniards believed themselves to be at least one hundred and fifty leagues west of the Mississippi. Desperate as the resolution seemed, it was determined to return once more to its banks, 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 at Minoya, 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. The Indians whom they had enslaved died in great numbers; in Minoya the Christians were attacked by a dangerous epidemic, and many died.

Nor was their labor yet at an end; it took the first five months of 1543 for men in their condition to build brigantines. 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 a few kernels of their own maize, and often died from weakness and want of food. The rising of the Mississippi assisted the launching of the seven brigantines; they were frail barks, which had no decks; and as, from the want of iron, the nails were of necessity short, they were constructed of very thin planks, so that any severe shock would have broken them in pieces. Thus provided, after a passage of seventeen days, the fugitives, on the eighteenth of July, reached the Gulf of Mexico; the distance seemed to them two hundred and fifty leagues, and was not much less than five hundred miles. Like Cabeza, they observed that for some distance from the mouth of the Mississippi the sea is not salt, so great is the volume of fresh water which the river discharges. 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, on the tenth of September entered the river Pa

nuco.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SPANIARDS HOLD FLORIDA.

SUCH is the history of the first voyage of Europeans on the Mississippi; the honor of the discovery belongs to the Spaniards. There were not wanting adventurers who, in 1544, desired to make one more attempt to possess the country by force of arms; their request was refused. Religious zeal was more persevering; in December, 1547, 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 experienced warriors had failed. The Spanish governors were directed to favor the design; all slaves that had been taken from the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico were to be manumitted and restored to their country. 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.

Death seemed to guard the approaches to that land. While the Castilians were everywhere else victorious, they were driven for a time to abandon the soil of Florida, after it was wet with their blood. But under that name they continued to claim all North America, even as far as Canada and Newfoundland. No history exists of their early exploration of the coast, nor is even the name of the Spanish navigator ascertained who, between the years 1524 and 1540, discovered the Chesapeake, and made it known as "the bay of St. Mary." Under that appellation the historian Oviedo, writing a little after 1540, describes it as opening to the sea in the latitude of

thirty-six degrees and forty minutes, and as including islands; of two rivers which it receives, he calls the north-eastern one Salt river, the other the river of the Holy Ghost; the cape to the north of it, which he places in the latitude of thirty-seven. degrees, he names Cape St. John. The bay of St. Mary is marked on all Spanish maps, after the year 1549. But as yet not a Spanish fort was erected on the Atlantic coast, not a harbor was occupied, not one settlement was begun. 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, with the special co-operation of Calvin himself, had for a short season occupied the coasts of Brazil and the harbor of Rio Janeiro, was now to be planted on the borders of Florida. Coligny had long desired to establish a refuge for the Huguenots and a Protestant French empire in America. Disappointed in his first effort by the apostasy and faithlessness of his agent, Villegagnon, he still persevered, moved alike by religious zeal and by a passion for the honor of France. The expedition which he now planned was intrusted to the command of John Ribault, of Dieppe, a brave man, of maritime experience, and a firm Protestant; and was attended by some of the best of the young French nobility, as well as by veteran troops. The feeble Charles IX. conceded an ample commission, and in February, 1562, the squadron set sail for the shores of North America. Land was first made by the voyagers in the latitude of St. Augustine; the noble river which we call the St. John's was named the river of May, from the month in which it was discovered. The land seemed rich in gold, silver, and pearls, and its caterpillars were taken for "fairer and better silkworms" than those of Europe. As they sailed toward the north, three streams were named the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne. In searching for the Jordan, they came "athwart a mightie river," which they called Port Royal. Casting anchor at ten fathom of water, Ribault landed with a party at Hilton Head, where they saw "high oaks and an infinite store of cedars," and heard "the voices of stags and divers other sorts of beasts." Some who threw nets wondered at the num

ber of fish which they caught. After sheltering his ships in the sound, he explored the country on Broad river many leagues high, and was at first feared and then welcomed by the red men whom he chanced to meet. The stags were of "singular fairness and bigness." Palm-trees abounded. A stone engraven with the arms of France was set up to mark possession of the country, and a party of twenty-six was left on the bank of Beaufort river to hold it. Their earth-work fort may have stood on the first firm land of Port Royal island above Archer's creek; in honor of Charles IX. it was named Carolina.

In July, 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 re-enforcements for Carolina were never levied. The situation of the garrison became precarious. The natives were friendly, but the soldiers themselves were insubordinate, and dissensions prevailed. The commandant at Carolina repressed the turbulent spirit with arbitrary cruelty, and lost his life in a mutiny which his ungovernable passion had provoked. The new commander succeeded in restoring order. But the love of his native land is a passion easily revived in the breast of a Frenchman; and in 1563 the company embarked in such a brigantine as they could themselves put together. Intoxicated with joy at the thought of returning home, they had neglected to provide sufficient stores, and they were overtaken by famine at sea. A small English bark which boarded their vessel, setting the most feeble on shore upon the coast of France, carried the rest to the queen of England.

After the treacherous peace between Charles IX. and the Huguenots, Coligny renewed his solicitations for the colonization of Florida. The king gave consent; in 1564 three ships were conceded for the service; and Laudonnière, who, in the former voyage, had been upon the American coast, a man of great intelligence, though a seaman rather than a soldier, was appointed to lead forth the colony. Emigrants readily appeared, for the climate of Florida was so celebrated that, according to rumor, the duration of human life was doubled under its genial influences; and men still dreamed of rich mines of gold in the interior. Coligny was desirous of obtain