EXPEDITION OF NARVAEZ.

55

signal exploit, the memory of his defeat on that occasion. He had sufficient interest at the court of Charles V. to obtain the title of adelantado, and a commission to conquer and rule the whole region extending from Cape das Palmas to Cape Florida; and having raised an armament of four barques and a brigantine, with a force of four hundred men and forty-five horses, he set sail from St. Lucar, in June, 1527. While waiting to take in supplies at Cuba, Narvaez and his companions suffered severely from a hurricane, which injured the fleet so much that it was found necessary to desist from any further operations during the winter.

In February, 1528, the armament put to sea, and after encountering much rough weather, reached the coast of Florida, near Appalachee Bay. After taking possession of the country with the usual solemnities, Narvaez commenced his march into the interior, (May 1st, 1528). His object was to reach a city called Appalachee, where the natives, anxious to be rid of the invaders, had told them there was abundance of gold. They had little more than a day's provision; when that slender stock was consumed, they were obliged to satisfy their hunger with roots and such fruit as they could find in the woods. For fifteen days they travelled without meeting a human habitation. At the end of that time they reached an Indian village, where they found guides to conduct them to Appalachee. The country which they had to traverse was wild and unequal; sometimes mountainous, but more frequently overspread with deep marshes, rendered nearly impassable by huge trees blown down and lying across them in every direction.

At length, on the 26th of June, the wearied Spaniards arrived in sight of a small collection of Indian wigwams, which they were told was the famed city of Appalachee. The place proved an easy capture; but its conquerors soon found upon what a chimerical foundation all their golden hopes had been reared. In Appalachee they found nothing. The exasperated Indians lurked in the woods and watched all their movements. The whole of their subsequent career was a

series of disasters. After rambling about for many hundred miles, in a vain search after some rich country, they returned to the sea-shore, somewhere near the mouth of the river Appalachicola, in a state of wretched destitution. A third of their number had fallen under the arrows of the Indians, and of the remainder a large proportion laboured under disease brought on by fatigue and privation.

No alternative now remained but to construct vessels and put to sea. Their shirts were sewn together for sails, and ropes were made of the fibrous bark of the palm tree. In six weeks they had completed five boats, capable of holding from forty to fifty men each. They set sail on the 20th of September, in these small barks, so overladen that their gunwales were but a few inches above the water. They coasted towards the west, and passed the mouth of the Mississippi. The boat in which Narvaez had embarked was carried out to

sea and never again seen. The other boats laboriously pursued their voyage towards the west, and were cast upon different parts of the continent or the islands along the shore, where nearly all perished of sickness or famine. But five of their number reached Mexico, to tell the story of their suffer

EXPEDITION OF SOTO.

57

ings, and to persist in declaring "that Florida was the richest country in the world."*

Among the survivors of this expedition was Alvaro Nunez, who, on his return to Spain, applied for a grant of territory and a government in Florida. But he was forestalled in his suit, by a rival possessing overwhelming interest. Ferdinand de Soto, one of the most distinguished captains of Pizarro's army, had returned to Spain from the conquest of Peru, with immense wealth, and all the reputation which success confers on eminent abilities. By his judicious liberality at court, he won the unbounded favour of the emperor, whose pecuniary difficulties made him quick to discern the merits of a wealthy subject. Soto, who had held a subordinate command in Peru, imagined that, in a higher station, he might expect the same success and a more brilliant fame. He accordingly applied for and easily obtained from the emperor, the government of

Florida, ambition rendering him insensible to the lesson inculcated by the fate of Narvaez. So ample were his means, and so great his reputation, that he was able to equip an armament of ten ships, on board of which were a thousand men, most * Bancroft.

58

SOTO'S DISCOVERIES.

of them trained to arms. Abundance of munitions of war, more than three hundred and fifty horses, bloodhounds to hunt the natives, chains for the captives, and the instruments of a forge, were provided.

The expedition.sailed from Cuba and disembarked in the bay of Spiritu Santo, on the coast of Florida, in May, 1539. To cut off all hopes of return, Soto, in imitation of Cortez, sent back his ships; and then commenced his long and toilsome march into the interior. But he was disappointed in all his hopes of gaining the confidence of the native chieftains; neither by kindness, nor patience, nor demonstrations of his power, could he succeed in conquering their deeply-rooted aversion to the Spanish name. After fighting many battles and suffering much loss to little purpose; after proceeding in devious wanderings into Georgia and Alabama, he at length reached the river Mississippi, at a point near the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude. To him belongs the honour of having discovered the Father of Waters.

After crossing the river, the Spaniards marched more than two hundred miles towards the north-west; and still disappointed in their hopes of finding a rich country, like Peru, they then turned to the south. The spring of 1542 found them at the junction of the Red River and the Mississippi. Here, the commander, worn out by fatigue, chagrin, and disappointment, fell ill of a fever and died. His followers, having secretly buried his remains, turned again to the west, and resuming their march, under the command of Luis de Moscoso, endeavoured to penetrate through the savannahs and marshes of Louisiana, to Mexico. But they were compelled by insurmountable difficulties, to return once more to the Mississippi; where they succeeded in constructing barks sufficiently strong to bear them on its waters to the sea. By this means, three hundred and eleven men, the remnant of Soto's grand army of conquest, succeeded in reaching Panuco, on the coast of Mexico (1543). Never were brilliant hopes of wealth and conquest more miserably disappointed.

The disastrous expeditions of the Spaniards to Florida, had

already cost them fourteen hundred lives. Not discouraged, however, with respect to the ultimate conquest of the country, they fitted out another expedition in 1549, under Luis Cancello, a Dominican missionary, with the purpose of converting the Indians to the Christian religion. They were provided with great crosses, before which they expected the natives to prostrate themselves. The missionaries were met on the shore, the moment they landed, and three priests, and as many sailors, fell victims to their implacable hostility. Their companions hastily retreated to the ships and abandoned the enterprise.

Another expedition of two thousand Spaniards and six