CHAP. consideration of safety would induce the governor to II. set fire to a hamlet. He did not delight in cruelty; 1541. but the happiness, the life, and the rights of the Indians, were held of no account. The approach of the Spaniards was heard with dismay; and their departure hastened by the suggestion of wealthier lands at a great distance. 1542. Mar. 6. 17. In the spring of the following year, 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. Near the Mississippi, he came upon the country of Nilco, which was well peopled. The river was there larger than the Gaudalquiver at Seville. At last, he arrived April 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 one of his men with eight horsemen, to descend the banks of the Mississippi, and explore the country. They travelled eight days, and were able to advance not much more than thirty miles; they were so delayed by the frequent bayous, the impassa 1 McCulloh places Guachoya near the Arkansas river. He does not make sufficient allowance for an exaggeration of distances, and for the delays on the Mississippi during the night-time; p. 529531. I do not think there is room for a doubt. Nuttall, Martin, and many others, agree with the statement, which is given in the text. DEATH AND BURIAL OF FERDINAND DE SOTO. 63 II. ble cane-brakes, and the dense woods. The gov- CHAP. ernor received the intelligence with concern; he suffered from anxiety and gloom. His horses and 1542. men were dying around him. A tribe of Indians near Natchez sent him a defiance; and he was no longer able to punish their temerity. His stubborn pride was changed by long disappointments into a wasting melancholy; and his health sunk rapidly and entirely under a conflict of emotions. A mortal sickness ensued, during which he had little comfort, and was neither visited nor attended as he should have been. Believing his death near at hand, he yielded to the wishes of his companions, and named a successor. On the next day he died. Thus May perished the governor of Cuba, and 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 grieving for 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 burial-place.2 21. No longer guided by the energy and pride of Soto, the company resolved on reaching New-Spain with- June. 1 Portuguese Account, c. xxix. 2 Portuguese Relation, c. xxx. p. 531, 532. Vega, 1. v. part i. c. vii. and viii. Vega embellish- CHAP. out delay. II. Should they embark in such miserable boats, as they could construct, and descend the river? 1542. Or should they 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 July. they penetrated the western wilderness; in July, they found themselves in the country of the Natchitoches ;1 but the Red river was so swollen, that it was impossible for them to pass. They soon became bewildered, and knew not where they were; 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 wandered, was sterile and thinly inhabited; the few inhabitants were migratory tribes, subsisting by the chase. The Spaniards, at last, believed themselves to be three hundred miles or more, 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; but Moscoso, the new governor, had long "desired to see himself in a place where he might sleep his full sleep." Dec. They came upon the Mississippi at Minoya, a few leagues above the mouth of Red river; often wading 1 Vega introduces the Natchitoches too soon. L. v. part i. c. i. See Portuguese Account, c. xxxii. and xxxiii. p. 534, 535. Compare Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 264. 2 Portuguese Relation, c. xxxiv. SPANIARDS DESERT THE UNITED STATES. 65 II. .1542. through deep waters; and grateful to God if, at CHAP. night, they could find a dry resting-place. The Indians, whom they had enslaved, died in great numbers; in Minoya, many Christians died; and most of them were attacked by a dangerous epidemic.' Jan. to Nor was the labor yet at an end; it was no easy 1543. task for men in their condition to build brigantines. Erecting a forge, they struck off the fetters from the July. 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 caulked 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 the least shock would have broken them in pieces. Thus provided, in seventeen days the fugitives reached the July gulf of Mexico; the distance seemed to them two hundred and fifty leagues, and was not much less than 2-18 II. CHAP. five hundred miles. They were the first to observe, that for some distance from the mouth of the Mis1543. sissippi 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 Sept. days before the men, who finally escaped, now no more than three hundred and eleven in number, entered the river Panuco.1 10. Such is the history of the first visit of Europeans to the Mississippi; the honor of the discovery belongs, without a doubt, to the Spaniards. There 1544. were not wanting adventurers, who desired to make one more attempt to possess the country by force of arms; their request was refused. Religious zeal 1 On Soto's expedition, by far the best account is that of the Portuguese Eye-witness, first published in 1557, and by Hakluyt, in English, in 1609. It may be found in Hakluyt, v. v. p. 477–550. There is an imperfect abridgement of it in Purchas, v. iv. p. 15281556; and a still more imperfect one in Roberts' Florida, p. 33-79. This narrative is remarkably good, and contains internal evidence of its credibility. Nuttall erroneously attributes it to Vega. The work of Vega is an extravagant romance, yet founded upon facts. Numbers and distances are magnified; and every thing embellished with great boldness. His history is not without its value, but must be consulted with extreme caution. Herrera, d. vi. l. vii. c. ix.—xii., and d. vii. l. vii. c. i.—xi. is not an original authority, and his statements furnish merely cumulative evidence. The Ensayo Cronologico contains nothing of moment on the subject. Lescarbot, N. Fr. tom. i. p. 36, and Charlevoix, N. Fr. tom. i. p. 24, and v. iii. p. 408, offer no new views. Du Pratz is unnecessarily sceptical. The French translator of Vega has not a word of valuable criticism. Of English authors, neither Purchas nor Harris have furnished any useful illustrations. Of books, published in America, Belknap, in Am. Biog. v. i. p. 185 -195, comments with his usual care. McCulloh, in his Researches, Appendix, iii. p. 523-531, makes an earnest attempt to trace the route of Soto. So Nuttall, in his Travels in Arkansas, Appendix, p. 247-267. Nuttall had himself roved through the same regions, and his opinions are justly entitled to much deference. Flint only glances at the subject. Stoddard, in his Sketches, p. 4, is vague and without detail. I have compared all these authors; the account in Hakluyt, with good modern maps, can lead to firm conclusions. 2 Ensayo Cronologico, Año, MDXLIV. |