The Old Santa Fe Trail | Page 4

of the
American bison, or buffalo as the animal is erroneously called. While
not so quaint in its language as that of Coronado's historian, a lustrum
later, the statement cannot be perverted into any other reference than to
the great shaggy monsters of the plains:--
Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times and eaten of

their meat. I think they are about the size of those of Spain. They have
small horns like the cows of Morocco, and the hair very long and
flocky, like that of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To
my judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this country. The
Indians make blankets of the hides of those not full grown. They range
over a district of more than four hundred leagues, and in the whole
extent of plain over which they run the people that inhabit near there
descend and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout the
country.
It will be remembered by the student of the early history of our country,
that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the unfortunate
Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead, landed in
Spain, he gave such glowing accounts of Florida[1] and the
neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, and
many a heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits were
perennial, and where it was thought flowed the fabled fountain of
youth.
Three expeditions to that country had already been tried: one
undertaken in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, formerly a companion of
Columbus; another in 1520, by Vasquez de Allyon; and another by
Panphilo de Narvaez. All of these had signally failed, the bones of most
of the leaders and their followers having been left to bleach upon the
soil they had come to conquer.
The unfortunate issue of the former expeditions did not operate as a
check upon the aspiring mind of De Soto, but made him the more
anxious to spring as an actor into the arena which had been the scene of
the discomfiture and death of the hardy chivalry of the kingdom. He
sought an audience of the emperor, and the latter, after hearing De
Soto's proposition that, "he could conquer the country known as Florida
at his own expense," conferred upon him the title of "Governor of Cuba
and Florida."
On the 6th of April, 1538, De Soto sailed from Spain with an armament
of ten vessels and a splendidly equipped army of nine hundred chosen
men, amidst the roar of cannons and the inspiring strains of martial
music.
It is not within the province of this work to follow De Soto through all
his terrible trials on the North American continent; the wonderful story

may be found in every well-organized library. It is recorded, however,
that some time during the year 1542, his decimated army, then under
the command of Luis de Moscoso, De Soto having died the previous
May, was camped on the Arkansas River, far upward towards what is
now Kansas. It was this command, too, of the unfortunate but cruel De
Soto, that saw the Rocky Mountains from the east. The chronicler of
the disastrous journey towards the mountains says: "The entire route
became a trail of fire and blood," as they had many a desperate struggle
with the savages of the plains, who "were of gigantic stucture, and
fought with heavy strong clubs, with the desperation of demons. Such
was their tremendous strength, that one of these warriors was a match
for a Spanish soldier, though mounted on a horse, armed with a sword
and cased in armour!"
Moscoso was searching for Coronado, and he was one of the most
humane of all the officers of De Soto's command, for he evidently bent
every energy to extricate his men from the dreadful environments of
their situation; despairing of reaching the Gulf by the Mississippi, he
struck westward, hoping, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, to arrive in
Mexico overland.
A period of six months was consumed in Moscoso's march towards the
Rocky Mountains, but he failed to find Coronado, who at that time was
camped near where Wichita, Kansas, is located; according to his
historian, "at the junction of the St. Peter and St. Paul" (the Big and
Little Arkansas?). That point was the place of separation between
Coronado and a number of his followers; many returning to Mexico,
while the undaunted commander, with as many as he could induce to
accompany him, continued easterly, still in search of the mythical
Quivira.
How far westward Moscoso travelled cannot be determined accurately,
but that his route extended up the valley of the Arkansas for more than
three hundred miles, into what