Their steps were graves; o'er prostrate realms they trod. They worshiped Mammon, while they vowed to God Let nobler bards in loftier numbers tell That gold, for which unpitied Indians fell, That gold, at once the snare and scourge of hell, Thenceforth by righteous heaven was doomed to shed Unmingled curses on the spoiler's head; For gold the spaniard cast his soul away,— XXII. -THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. BANCROFT. Twenty years after Columbus's first discovery, Ponce de Laon (pon'tha da la on'), an aged Spaniard, accidently discovered Florida, which received its name from the abundance of flowers with which its forests were adorned. The belief soon afterward became quite general among the Spaniards that this region abounded in riches; and, accordingly. De Soto (da so'-to), who had acquired wealth and distinction as an associate of Pizarro, fitted out an expedition to explore and conquer the country. In 1539, he landed on its shores, and penetrated into the interior; and during his wanderings, which asted nearly three years, he discovered the Mississippi River (1541). In the following extract from Bancroft s "History of the United States," an account is given of this event and of the death of the great explorer. 1. All the disasters which had been encountered, far from diminishing the boldness of De Soto, served only to confirm his obstinacy by wounding his pride. Should he, who had promised greater booty than Mexico or Peru had yielded, now return as a defeated fugitive, so naked that his troops were clad only in skins and mats of ivy? The search for some wealthy region was renewed; the caravan marched still further to the west. 2. For seven days it struggled through a wilderness of forests and marshes, and at length came to Indian settlements in the vicinity of the Mississippi. The lapse of nearly three centuries has not changed the character of the stream. It was then described as more than a mile broad, flowing with a strong current, and, by the weight of its waters, forming a channel of great depth. The water was always muddy; trees and timber were continually floating down the stream. 3. The Spaniards were guided to the Mississippi by the natives; and were directed to one of the usual crossing-places, probably to the lowest, Chickasa (Chick'a-saw) Bluff, not far from the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude. The arrival of the strangers awakened curiosity and fear. A multitude of people from the western banks of the river, painted and gayly decorated with great plumes of white feathers, the warriors standing in rows with bow and arrows in their hands, the chieftains sitting under awnings as magnificent as the artless manufactures of the natives could weave, came rowing down the stream in a fleet of two hundred canoes, seeming to the admiring Spaniards "like a fair army of galleys." 4. They brought gifts of fish, and loaves made of tho fruit of the persimmon. At first they showed some dosire to offer resistance; but, soon becoming conscious of their relative weakness, they ceased to defy an enemy who could not be overcome, and suffered injury without attempting open retaliation. The boats of the natives were too weak to transport horses; almost a month expired before barges, large enough to hold three horsemen each, were constructed for crossing the river. At length the Spaniards embarked upon the Mississippi, and were borne to its western bank. 5. The Dahcota tribes, doubtless, then occupied the country southwest of the Missouri; Soto had heard its praises; he believed in its vicinity to mineral wealth; and he determined to visit its towns. In ascending the Mississippi, the party was often obliged to wade through morasses: at length they came, as it would szem, upon the district of Little Prairie, and the dry and elevated lands which extend toward New Madrid. 6. Here the religions of the invaders and the natives came in contrast. The Spaniards were adored as chil dren of the sun, and the blind were brought into their presence, to be healed by the sons of light. "Pray only to God, who is in heaven, for whatsoever ye need," said Soto in reply; and the sublime doctrine which, thousands of years before, had been proclaimed in the deserts of Arabia, now first found its way into the prairies of the Far West. 7. The wild fruits of that region were abundant; the pecan nut, the mulberry, and the two kinds of wild plums, furnished the natives with articles of food. At Pacaha (pa-caw'haw), the northernmost point which Soto reached near the Mississippi, he remained forty days. The spot cannot be identified; but the accounts of the amusements of the Spaniards confirm the truth of the narrative of their ramblings. Fish were taken, such as are now found in the fresh waters of that region; one of them, the spade fish,-the strangest and most whimsical production of the muddy streams of the West, so rare, that, even now, it is hardly to be found in any museum,-is accurately described by the best historian of the expedition. 8. An exploring party which was sent to examine the regions of the North, reported that they were almost a desert. The country still nearer the Missouri was said by the Indians to be thinly inhabited; the bison abounded there so much, that no maize could be cultivated; and the few inhabitants were hunters Soto turned, therefore, to the west and northwest, and plunged still more 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. 9. 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 among the Tunicas, near the hot springs and saline tributaries of the Washita (wash-i-taw!). 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. 10. The native tribes, everywhere on the route, were found in a state of civilization beyond that of nomadic hordes. They were an agricultural people, with fixed places of abode, and subsisted upon the produce of the fields more than upon the chase. Ignorant of the arts of life, they could offer no resistance to their unwelcome visitors; the bow and arrow were the most effective weapons with which they were acquainted. They seem not to have been turbulent or quarrelsome; but as the population was moderate, and the earth fruitful, the tribes were not accustomed to contend with each other for the possession of territories. 11. Their dress was, in part, mats wrought of ivy and bulrushes, or of the bark and lint of trees; in cold |