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Louisiana Anthology

George Washington Cable.
“Posson Jone.”

Volume 2 Chapter Preface

[Page i]

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

OF

L O U I S I A N A,

EMBRACING TRANSLATIONS OF

MANY RARE AND VALUABLE DOCUMENTS

RELATING TO THE

NATURAL, CIVIL AND POLITICAL

HISTORY OF THAT STATE.

COMPILED WITH

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES,

AND AN

INTRODUCTION,

BY

B. F. FRENCH,

Member of the Louisiana Historical Society; of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science;

Honorary Member of the Historical Society of

Pennsylvania; Corresponding Member of the Academy of

Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, etc. etc.

PART II.

SECOND EDITION.

PHILADELPHIA:

DANIELS AND SMITH.

New York, G P. Putman; Boston, LITTLE AND BROWN;

New Orleans, B.M.

NORMAN; London, JOHN CHAPMAN; Paris, GALIGNANI AND CO.

1850.

[Page ii]

ENTERED according to the Act Of Congress,

in the year 1850, by

B. F. FRENCH,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern

District of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA:

PRINTED BY T. K. & P. G. COLLINS.

[Page iii]



TO THE

MEMBERS OF THE LOUISIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

THIS VOLUME

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

BY

BENJAMIN F. FRENCH.

[Page iv]

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[Page v]

PREFACE.

IN preparing this volume for the press, it has been my object to clear up as much as possible, by the publication of important narratives, all doubts respecting the claim of Spain to the first discovery, and of France to the first settlement and exploration of the Mississippi River. In the sixteenth century, the name of Florida was given to all that country lying south of Virginia, and extending westward to the Spanish possessions in Mexico, including, of course, the present State of Louisiana. It was inhabited by several powerful tribes of warlike Indians, who subsequently resisted every attempt of England, France and Spain, to subjugate them. In 1512, Ponce de Leon, a companion of Columbus, sailed for Florida, and effected a landing near the present town of St. Augustine. He was attacked by the natives, and driven back with severe loss to his ships, mortally wounded. He returned with the wreck of his expedition to Cuba, where he shortly afterwards died.

In 1520, Vasquez de Ayllon fitted out another expedition to take possession of Florida, but he was slain by the Indians, and his fleet returned to Cuba. In 1528, Pamfilo de Narvaez sailed from Cuba with four ships and a strong military force to conquer the country. He arrived in tbe Bay of Espiritu Santo (Tampa Bay), on the 12th of April, where he landed his army. After penetrating the country some hundreds of miles, and suffering severe loss and incredible hardships, he returned to the sea-coast, and embarked the miserable remnant of his army in five frail vessels for Cuba. During his voyage a severe storm arose, in which he suffered shipwreck, and only a portion of his army ultimately reached Mexico in 1537.

In 1539, Hernando de Soto, the companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, obtained permission of Charles the Fifth to conquer the country, and the title of governor and captain-general was conferred upon him. After nearly fourteen months spent in preparation, he set sail from Spain on the 6th of April, 1538, and on the 31st May, 1539, he arrived in the bay of Espiritu Santo, where he landed his army. He penetrated the interior of the country, and passed down the valley of the Coosa River. He marched from thence to Alabama river, where he fought a great battle with the Indians. Leaving Mauvila, he marched northward and westward, and spent the second winter in Mississippi, where he lost a part of his army in a battle with the Chickasaws. Thence he bent his course to the Mississippi River, which he crossed in the latitude of the Chickasaw Bluffs, and spent the next winter in the mountainous region of Arkansas. In the following spring he returned to the Mississippi River, where he died. The account of this famous expedition was written by Garcilaso de la Vega, and a gentleman of Elvas, and published in Spain some years afterwards. "It may be doubted," says Mr. Sparks, "whether either of these works can be trusted as affording genuine historical materials. They have been cited by respectable writers in default of other authorities; but they border so closely upon the regions of romance that they may as justly be ranked in this class of compositions as in that of history. This is generally conceded in regard to Garcilaso de la Vega, but his predecessor, the gentleman of Elvas, is thought to have higher claims."

Since the above was written by Mr. Sparks, another account of this expedition into Florida and Louisiana has been found in manuscript, in Spain, written by Luis Hernandez de Biedma (facteur de sa Majesté), and presented by him to the king in 1544, which seems to have furnished the materials for these histories, and establishes beyond a doubt the claim of Spain to the discovery of the Mississippi River, and the extensive country lying on both sides of it. It is written in a plain and unpretending style, and gives apparently a faithful account of the countries traversed by De Soto-- the manners and customs of the Indians--their towns and villages--the mountains, rivers, and valleys--the currents, islands, and other physical features of the great Mississippi valley and river; and finally the preparation and departure of his successor Luis de Moscoso, from the mouth of the Arkansas, until his arrival in the river of Panuco in 1543. A translation of this rare and curious manuscript, together with an autograph letter of the Adelantado de Soto is now published for the first time in this volume. After the death of Hernando de Soto, more than a century elapsed before any further attempt was made to explore the Mississippi. In 1673, M. Talon, the French governor of Canada, took measures to secure the dominion of France over all the countries lying south and west of the Canadian lakes; and, anxious to discover the sources, course, and direction of the great river which had been mentioned to the French missionaries by the Indians of the west, to flow towards the south, he sent Marquette and Joliet to explore it to the sea. They embarked in May, and proceeded down the river as far as the Arkansas, from whence they returned to Canada, and published an account of their voyage in the French language several years after. But it was left for the greatest traveler of his age, the Sieur Robert Cavalier de la Salle, to finish what they had begun. He set out from Canada in 1682, and reached its mouths on the 9th of April, and took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, and called it Louisiana. The valuable and rare map accompanying this volume is a well- executed fac simile of the original. It aspires to a degree of accuracy that is of great importance both to the historian and antiquarian. It preserves not only the Indian names of the lakes and rivers, but traces the routes of the early explorers, and lays down the localities of the numerous Indian tribes who once held sway over this extensive country.

CONTENTS. An Account of the Louisiana Historical Society . . . . . . . . l A Discourse on the Life, Writings, and Character of the Hon. Francis X. Marlin, LL. D., first President of the Louisiana Historical Society, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 An Analytical Index of all the public documents in Paris relating to the Discovery and early Settlement of Louisiana, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 A Translation of an original letter of Hernando de Soto on the Conquest of Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 A Translation of a recently-discovered manuscript Journal of the Expedition of Hernando de Soto into Florida, by Luis Hernandez de Biedma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 A Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando de Soto into Florida, by a Gentleman of Elvas, translated from the Portuguese by Richard Hackluyt, in 1609 . . . . . . . . . . 114 A description of the English province of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French la Louisiane. As also of the great and famous river Meschacebe or Mississippi, the five vast navigable lakes of fresh water, and the parts adjacent. Together with an account of the commodities of the growth and production of the said province, by Daniel Coxe, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 A TranslatIon of Marquette and Joliet's account of a Voyage to Discover the Mississippi River, in 1673 . . . . . . . . .279 [Page viii]

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Volume 2 Chapter 1 [Page 1]

LOUISIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

New Orleans, May 1, 1850. To B. F. French, Esq.

Dear Sir:--

Agreeably with your request, I hand you the following paper, showing the progress as well as origin of our Historical Society, which you are at liberty to publish in the forthcoming volume of your Historical Collections of our State.

The Society was originally established in 1836, as appears from some of its records delivered to me by its then Secretary, Louis Janin, Esq., of this city. The first President was Hon. H. Bullard. Secretaries, Mr. Harrison, a prominent young lawyer of that time, and editor of " Louisiana Condensed Reports," and Mrs Janin. Among the officers are recorded the names of Martin, Porter Romac Canonge, Barton; and among tile members, Clapp, Gray, Eustis, McCaleb, Ingalls, Winthrop, Rost, Watts, Deblieux, Leonard, etc. The papers of the old Society which are preserved are very few among them the able address of Judge Bullard, which you have published in the first volume of your Collections, and the Constitution. We extract this from its preamble. Page 2

"The undersigned, citizens of Louisiana, wishing to unite their labors in investigating the history and geography of the country formerly possessed by France and Spain, under the name of Louisiana, being assembled in New Orleans on the 15th day of January, 1836, and having agreed to associate themselves together, to adopt, &c. &c. &c."

Among old memoranda, I find a resolution to inquire of Hon. John Dutton relative to settlement of Acadian Coast and Indian tribes; of Dr. Sibley, Bullard and Carr, about Natchitoches; of Sir William Dunbar's representatives, about old papers, and in regard to late Historical Society at Baton Rouge; of Mr. Taylor relative to Lafourche and the little colony of Spaniards; of Col. Skipwith about Baton Rouge Convention, etc. etc.

The Society appears soon after to have fallen into decay, for some reason or other, and become almost entirely extinct.

In June, 1846, the Society was again revived by a meeting of the following gentlemen, at the State House, New Orleans.

JOHN PERKINS,

J.D. B. DE BOW,

E. J FORSTALL,

HON. C. GAYARRE,

GEN. JOSEPH WALKER,

ALFRED HENNEN.

Gen. Walker was called to the chair, and J. D. B. De Bow appointed Secretary. A committee to draft Constitution, consisting of Dr. Hawkes, Alfred Hennen, and J. D. B. De Bow, reported the following, which was adopted. [Page 3]

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

LOUISIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

ADOPTED JULY 1, 1846.

The preservation of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and records containing historical facts, biographical anecdotes, temporary projects, and beneficial speculations, conduces to mark the genius, delineate the manners, and trace the progress of society in the United States, and must always have a useful tendency to rescue the true history of the country from the ravages of time, and the effect of ignorance or neglect. A collection of observations and descriptions in natural history and topography, together with specimens of natural and artificial curiosities, and a selection of everything which can improve and promote the historical knowledge of our country, either in a physical or political view, has long been considered as a desideratum. Such is the introductory language of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the oldest association of the kind in any of the States of the Union, and in no language more forcible and comprehensive, it is conceived, can the objects of the Society we are about to organize be expressed.

ARTICLE I. This Society shall be called the Historical Society of Louisiana.

ARTICLE II.

It shall consist of resident and honorary members, the former to be of the State of Louisiana, the latter of other States. Page 4

ARTICLE III.

The officers of the Society shall be a President, six Vice- Presidents, two Secretaries, whereof one shall be a recording, and the other a corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer and Librarian elected annually, and by ballot.

ARTICLE IV.

There shall be an Executive Committee consisting of seven members appointed annually by the President, whose duty it shall be to solicit and receive donations, to recommend plans for promoting the ends of the Society, to digest and prepare business, and to execute such other duties as may be entrusted to them from time to time, reporting the result at the regular meetings of the Society.

ARTICLE V.

The Society shall meet regularly on the first Wednesday evening of each month.

ARTICLE VI.

All resident members shall contribute for the use of the Society five dollars annually, to be paid over to the Treasurer.

ARTICLE VII.

Members shall be elected by ballot, on their names being presented to the Society, but no individual can be elected a member without receiving the votes of four-fifths of those present.

ARTICLE VIII.

This Constitution shall not be altered, or amended, or abrogated, without a vote of four-fifths of the members present, previous notice of one month having been given.

An election for officers resulted in Hon. François Xavier Martin being elected the President.

J. D. B. De Bow, from the Executive Committee, reported the following circular letter :-- Page 5

CIRCULAR OF THE LOUISIANA HISTORICAL

SOCIETY.

For the purpose of eliciting information in relation to the various subjects proper for the cognizance of Historical Associations, the following queries are published. They will be sent to the members of the Society at large, and it is to be hoped will receive a due portion of regard. A general invitation is, however, extended to all persons who may have it in their power, in any manner, to promote the objects of the association. If the Louisiana Historical Society does not publish its "Collections" as other societies have, much will have been gained by preserving them among its archives as subjects for the future historian. Letters on any and every subject interesting to the Society will be received with pleasure, and they may either be addressed to the President, to the Executive Committee, or to the Secretary.

HON. F. XAVIER MARTIN, President.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

J. P. Benjamin,

Alfred Hennen,

E. J. Forstall,

L. Janin,

Dr. Hawkes,

Prof. J. L. Riddell,

J. D. B. De Bow.

QUERIES.

1. Time of settlement of your parish; dates of oldest land grants; number and condition first settlers; whence emigrating; other facts relating to settlement and history?

2. Indian name parish; what tribes originally; what relics or monuments of them; if Indians still, in what condition?

3. Biography, anecdotes, &c., of individuals distinguished in your vicinity in the past for ingenuity, enterprise, literature, talents, civil or military, &c. ?

4. Topographical descriptions of your parish, mountains, rivers, ponds, animals, vegetable growth, rocks, minerals, sands, clays, chalk, flint, marble, pitcoal, pigments, medicinal and poisonous substances, &c.? Page 6

5. Former and present state of cultivation in parish; changes taking place; introduction of cotton, sugar and rice; what lands occupied and unoccupied; quality of soil; improvements suggested in cultivation and new growths; improvements ill communication, roads, bridges, canals, &c.; value of land; kind and qualities of timber; density of population, capacity of raising stock, &c.?

6. Instances of longevity and fecundity; observations on diseases in your section; on the weather, climate, healthy or otherwise on the necessity of summer seats, &c. ?

7. Increase and progress of population in your parish, distinguishing blacks and whites; advantages of schools and libraries enjoyed; proportion educated?

8. Churches or chapels in the parish; when and by whom erected; how supplied with clergy; how supported and attended; oldest interments, church vaults, &c.?

9. Date, extent, consequences and other circumstances of droughts, freshets, whirlwinds, storms, lightning, hurricanes, or other remark-able physical events in your section, from remote periods other meteorological phenomena?

10. Literary productions emanating from your neighborhood; your literary, scientific or art associations, if any; what manuscripts, private records, letters, journals, &c., or rare old books, interesting in their relation to the history of Louisiana, are possessed by individuals within your knowledge state any other matters of interest?

Judge Martin, who has writtten the history of the State, and was a curious collector of old documents, stated in some of his remarks before the Society, the following, which was noted by the Secretary.

There was an old Spanish book or manuscript regarding Louisiana, its physical history, &c., once consulted by him, having borrowed it from the owner, Don Seriaco de Ceraos, who died in 1515. The daughter of a physician sent out by the King of France to this city, married Judge Watts. He may have left some papers. Hon. Edward Everett was chairman of a committee of Congress to purchase the French and Spanish books collected by the Spanish Page 7 consul. Bishop Blanc might obtain from the curates of our parishes much valuable information. Sir William Dunbar left valuable papers, information of which might be had from Mr. Robert Ogden.

In the fall of 1846, the Hon. B. F. Porter of Alabama delivered a public address before the Society.

In December of the same year, our venerable President, Judge Martin, died at his residence in this city. An eulogium was pronounced over his remains by the Hon. H. A. Bullard.

The Society has received interesting letters from Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, and Wm. Gilmore Simms, of South Carolina; Hon. Thomas H. Benton, Missouri; Hon. Lewis Cass, Michigan; Hon. H. Clay, Kentucky; Professor Stephens, of Georgia; Mr. Greenhow, of Washington, D. C.; Judge Bry, Ouachita, &c.

Dr. Wurdeman, of South Carolina, presented the Society a few books relating to Cuba; and Senator Johnson, of Louisiana, has regularly furnished Congressional and other documents.

In the summer of 1847 the Society was incorporated, and Hon. H. Bullard elected President. The Secretaries, John Perkins and J. D. B. De Bow, were appointed to visit the various societies at the north, and open interchanges of documents and correspondence. This duty they regularly performed.

Hon. T. H. McCaleb was requested to correspond with the heirs of the late Judge Porter about documents; and Judge Bullard, with Mr. Bouligny, about his papers regarding the landing of O'Reilly.

Hon. Charles Gayarré was elected to deliver the annual address, which he did, upon the "Romance of the History of Louisiana." Page 8

Under the auspices of the Society, the legislature, in 1847, made an appropriation of two thousand dollars, to procure copies of original documents from Spain.

The agent employed was Sr. Pascual de Gayangos, and he seems to have entered upon his duties and prosecuted them with much disinterested zeal. His labors were mainly directed to the archives in the city of Seville, whither they had been transported from the city of Madrid in 1828. Some researches were made in Madrid. The papers in both places were found to be in extreme disorder, tied up in bundles, not even labelled, and without classification. The time allowed for examination was very small, the archives being opened only three hours in the day, for five days in the week. It is not permitted to make extracts, except by the officers of the establishment, and this increased the delay and the expense, as the rates were high. Besides, the offices are closed on every holiday--and sometimes for long vacations. There appears to have been a further embarrassment in the refusal of the Duke of Sotomayor to permit the examination of the papers of his father, while Minister to the United States, on the ground that he was concerned in secret correspondence for the separation of a part of the United States. Mr. Saunders made a personal representation, which obtained an order that Mr. Gayangos might examine all the papers in the office of Grace and Justice, where all that relates to Louisiana is said to be, but have no Copies without the consent of the Minister. Mr. Saunders, in his letter to Mr. Gayangos, expresses the opinion that the important secret papers had been taken away. In a subsequent letter, the agent states that he has been unable to find the secret papers relating to the correspondence of Gen. Wilkinson with the Consul of Spain.

In another letter, he speaks of having obtained proofs by their own correspondence, of the intrigue in which Wilkinson and others were concerned, to separate Kentucky, Ohio, and other States from the Union. It seems, at this day, that men must have been crazy to entertain such a notion, but nevertheless, the charge has been often made, and now appears to be susceptible of documentary evidence.

Sr. Gayangos has sent to Mr. Gayarré several bundles of important documents, derived from these sources. He has not yet had access to the Foreign Office, nor quite completed his examinations into the office of Grace and Justice--Gracia y Justicia. Page 9

The papers received are in the custody of the Secretary of State, and have not yet been examined.

The State has purchased about a thousand pages of manuscripts (in two quarto volumes,) being principally short extracts taken from memoirs, letters, reports, &c., by Mr. Magne, one of the editors of the "L'Abeille," during his residence in Paris.

Mr. Forstall has also given a full and elaborate index and analysis of the documents relating to Louisiana, in Paris.

In the summer of 1848, John Perkins, Esq., was delegated by the Society to make researches in Europe for interesting matter relative to Louisiana. What he has yet achieved will appear from the following most interesting letter.

Paris, March 24, 1849. Sir:-I owe you an apology for the little allusion I have heretofore made to the historical researches in which you feel so much interest. I assure you they have not been out of my mind; but my health was so delicate for the first three months after my arrival at Paris, that I seldom left my room, except for a ride, and was never free from pain. Of course, work was out of the question. I, however, through the kindness of our Consul, Mr. Walsh, made the acquaintance of a gentleman who, writing the history of La Salle, had occasion thoroughly to examine all the papers relating to the early settlement of our State, and I found from him that the field was much wider than I expected. Not only is the Marine Department rich in materials of historical interest to Louisiana, but there are also in the War and Foreign Departments, the archives and different public libraries of Paris, many documents of a most interesting kind, that seem to have escaped the attention of Mr. Forstall, and even of Mr. Gayarré.

I have now, through the assistance of our Minister, Mr. Rush, and the courtesy of the gentlemen at the head of the different departments, been permitted unrestricted examination of these papers, and their value cannot be exaggerated. The want of system, and the Page 10 loose manner in which they were thrown together, complained of by Mr. Forstall, and that rendered Mr. Broadhead's researches for the State of New York so laborious, are only to a certain extent remedied. There are still mingled in large volumes papers without order of date, and some of no date, whose epoch can be assigned only by a knowledge of the date of the events to which they refer. The present Government has, however, appointed a commission to classify and arrange, with a view to future publication, the most important papers touching French colonial settlements in America, and it is expected that by the end of another year, there will be published all that relates particularly to Louisiana, up to the period of the discovery by sea of the mouth of the Mississippi, by D'Iberville, in 1697, and the first establishment of Louisiana, in accordance with the project of M. De Rémonville. M. Margry expects to publish his life of La Salle about the same time. These two publications will cover everything of interest up to that date. The period of sixty-six years, that extends from that time to the termination of the French rule in 1763, the epoch of the cession of Louisiana to Spain, is full of interest; and the documents derive more than merely historical interest from the minute details given of the agriculture, climate, and diseases of the new settlement.

From that date to the sale of Louisiana to Jefferson, the papers are less numerous, and treat of circumstances more generally known. There are a few, however, even of this epoch, of much interest. Under the circumstances, I conclude it would most subserve the purposes of our Historical Society to begin with a transcript of the papers where the publication on the part of the French Government ceases. Accordingly, I hope to send you during the ensuing season a digest, chronologically arranged, of all the papers in the different archives of the French Government referring to Louisiana, from the date of D'Iberville landing in 1697, down to its final acquisition in 1803 by the United States. The labor of this composition has been great much more than I could have achieved even with health by myself. I have been fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Margry, to whose minute familiarity with the archives of the Government and the early history of our State must be ascribed any merit that the digest may be found to possess.

When I tell you that it fills a large quarto of 500 closely written pages, you will see how impossible the idea I first conceived of sending home certified copies of the documents themselves. Louisiana Page 11 ought to have them. She owes it to herself to collect this proper patrimony of her sons, in the record of an early history abounding in vivid incident, and illustrated with a display of the noblest traits of man's nature. New York has set a good example in the large appropriation that enabled our present Secretary of Legation, Mr. Brodhead, to pursue his researches for four years in France, England, and the Hague. He who would now write a history of that State must begin by complimenting the enlightened spirit that places all his materials in the hall of her Historical Society. Massachusetts two years since made a similar collection at the instance of Messrs. Sparks and Everett, whose personal examination of the different foreign archives taught them the value of manuscripts, now fortunately within the reach of every student of Harvard. If the memoranda I send can assist in anyway the Historical Society of Louisiana, in accomplishing the purpose of its institution, and in attracting attention to the interest of our early history, I shall be gratified, and shall feel that I have acknowledged in some sort, the politeness of Gov. Johnson's note calling my attention to the subject.

With much regard, your friend,

JOHN PERKINS.

J. D. B. De Bow, Esq.

The Louisiana Historical Society has yet scarcely more than passed its infancy. It will be for those who come after us to adorn and complete the edifice whose foundation we have but barely laid.

I annex a list of regular and honorary members, but few of whom have taken any active part in the business of the Society.

Your obedient servant,

J. D. B. DE BOW, Secretary. [Page 12]

M E M B E R S

OF THE

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF LOUISIANA.

Hon. H. A. Bullard, President, New Orleans.

J. D. B. De Bow, Esq., Secretary,

"

Hon. F. X. Martin,

"

Hon. Isaac Johnson,

"

Hon. Joseph Walker,

"

Hon.Solomon W.Downs,

"

Henry Johnson,

"

Hon. George Eustis,

"

Hon. Thomas Slideil,

"

Hon. Geo. Strawbridge,

"

Hon. C. Gayarré,

"

Hon. Charles Watts,

"

Rev. Dr. F. L. Hawks,

"

Benj. F. French, Esq.

"

E. J. Forstall, Esq.

"

Miles Taylor, Esq.

"

Seth Lewis, Esq.

"

Professor C. J. Forshey,

"

A. M. Michel, Esq.

"

Bernard Marigny, Esq.

"

E. Mazureau, Esq.

"

Lucius Duncan, Esq.

" Page 13 LIST OF MEMBERS.



Alexander Gordon, Esq.

New Orleans.

Hon. Seth Barton, Esq.

"

Maunsel White, Esq.

"

J. Nicholson, Esq.

"

Sidney Johnson, Esq.

"

Hon. A. B. Roman,

"

Hon. Trasimond Lundry,

"

Hon. Isaac Preston,

"

Hon. P. A. Rost,

"

Hon. Henry Bry,

Monroe.

Hon. Pierre Soule

New Orleans.

Hon. Henry Carleton,

"

David Randall, Esq.

Donaldsonville.

Lafayette Saunders, Esq.

Feliciana.

Thomas Beatty, Esq.

Thibodeaux.

Judge Butler

Feliciana.

John Dutton, Esq.

Plaquemines.

J. Winchester, Esq.

St. James.

Judge Jones

Tammany.

G. Walterston, Esq.

Livingston.

Col. Nicholas,

Ascension.

Judge Guion,

La Fourche.

C. Morgan, Esq.

Point Coupée.

J. B. Carr, Esq.

Natchitochcs.

Dr. R. H. Sibley,

Rapides.

Dr. W. Davidson,

"

Judge King,

St. Landry.

J. K. Elgee, Esq.

Rapides.

Hon. B. F. Porter,

Alabama.

Samuel J. Peters, Esq.

New Orleans.

Dr. W. Kennedy,

"

Dr. T. Clapp,

"

Dr. Weddersfrandt,

"

Dr. W. M. Carpenter,

"

Dr. A. B. Cenas,

"

Dr. F. Lebeau,

"

Dr. F. A. Jones,

"

Dr. Harrison,

"

Dr. W. B. Hart,

"

Dr. C. Luzenberg

" Page 14

Dr. F. Axson,

New Orleans.

Dr. W. McCauley,

"

Dr. E. H. Barton,

"

Dr. J. L. Riddell,

"

Judge Deblieux,

"

Judge Leonard,

"

John R. Grimes, Esq.

"

Hon. R. H. Wilde,

"

Hon. T. H. McCaleb,

"

Judge Morphy,

"

Thomas J. Duraut, Esq.

"

Judge Labranche,

"

H. B. Cenas, Esq.

"

J. L. Sigur, Esq.

"

W. E. Elmore, Esq.

"

Professor Dimitry,

"

M. M. Cohen, Esq.

"

B. M. Norman, Esq.

"

E. A. Bradford, Esq.

"

General Planche,

"

Bishop Leonidas Polk,

"

Bishop Blanc,

"

Judge Canonge,

"

Martin Blache, Esq.

"

Edward Simon, Esq.

"

J. Dunbar, Esq.

"

W. Micon, Esq.

"

Levi Pierce, Esq.

"

A. Moise, Esq.

"

Gustavus Schmidt, Esq.

"

C. Roselius, Esq.

"

A. Maybin, Esq.

"

R. Ogden, Esq.

"

W. Relf, Esq.

"

Charles Derbigny, Esq.

"

H. Bullard, Jr., Esq.

"

W. Walker, Esq.

"

L. Janin, Esq.

"

A. Hennen, Esq.

"

J. Perkins, Esq.

"

J. Winthrop, Esq.

" Page 15

HONORARY MEMBERS.

W. Gilmore Simms,

South Carolina.

Joel R. Poinsett,

"

Thomas Benten,

Missouri.

Lewis Cass,

Michigan.

Henry Clay,

Kentucky. [Page 16]

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[Page 17]

A DISCOURSE

ON

THE LIFE, CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS

OF THE

HON. FRANCOIS XAVIER MARTIN, LL. D.

LATE SENI0R JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT, AND FIRST PRESIDENT

OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF LOUISIANA.

BY

HENRY A. BULLARD,

ONE OF THE LATE COLLEAGUES OF THE DECEASED. Gentlemen:--

It has been the usage of most polished nations, on the demise of men who had become eminent in any of the departments of public affairs, to set apart a short time to be devoted to the consideration of their merits and their services. If they had deserved well of their country--if they had left their impress on the generation in which they flourished, it is proper that their memory should go down to posterity accompanied by the testimonials of their cotemporaries. This is less important in relation to the successful soldier who has fought the battles of his country, and the distinguished statesman who has skillfully piloted the vessel of state, because history is almost exclusively devoted to recount their exploits and blazon their triumphs; but those whose fame is to be measured by their usefulness, during a long and noiseless career, in the more tranquil and less ambitious pure suits of life, and especially in the magistracy, ought not to be permitted to pass off the stage without dwelling for a few moments upon their merits, and holding them up as examples worthy of being followed by the generation which is to succeed us.

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It was in compliance with this usage that the Bar of New Orleans, on the demise of François Xavier Martin, did me the honor, as the oldest of the late colleagues of the deceased, to request me to pronounce, on this occasion, a discourse upon his life and character. Of a man whom I have known for more than thirty years, nearly twelve of which were passed in the discharge of arduous duties by his side, it is impossible for me to speak in the set phrase of common-place eulogium--such language would be unsuited to the occasion--unworthy of him and of myself. I shall endeavor rather, by spreading before you what he has accomplished, and what he has written, to let him portray himself, and thereby show you what eminent qualities he possessed as a scholar, a jurist, and a man.

Judge Martin was born at Marseilles, in France, on the 17th of March, 1762, and descended from one of the most ancient and respectable families of Provençe. His father was a merchant of high standing, a man of piety and extreme exactness in the management of his business. He was the third of a large number of children. His early education was strictly domestic, and his studies were conducted by a learned ecclesiastic, who acted at the same time as chaplain of the family. Under his tuition he acquired a critical knowledge of the Latin language, and the elements of the English and Italian. As he was destined for commercial pursuits, his education, up to the age of seventeen, was such as to qualify him for that profession. So exact was his knowledge of Latin, and his recollection of some of the classics, that he was fond of reciting, at a very advanced age, long passages from Horace, who was his favorite author.

He had one uncle, who was connected with the French army in Canada, in the commissary department, about the time of the conquest of that province by Great Britain; and another in Martinique, who had the supply of provisions from the French navy in those seas, and who had amassed a considerable fortune. He was a bachelor, and somewhat advanced in years. Young Martin, at the age of about seventeen or eighteen years, sailed for Martinique, with a view of joining his uncle, and going into business under his auspices, and by his assistance. He had not been long there, before his uncle concluded to return to France, where he died soon afterwards. He withdrew his capital from business, but left his nephew the means of commencing an establishment on his own account; but through youth and inexperience, he was unsuccessful. How long he remained in the island, I have not been able to learn with much precision--it is supposed about three or four years. Having been interested in Page 19 commercial adventures to the Carolinas, where the person concerned with him had died, he embarked on board a schooner bound for North Carolina, in hopes of recovering something which was due to him. In this also he was unsuccessful. It was under such circumstances that the subject of this memoir found himself in Newbern, North Carolina, at the age of about twenty, destitute of resources, among strangers whose language he understood imperfectly, if he could speak it at all. But he did not suffer himself to despair; ashamed to return to his native place, he determined to employ to the best account the means which his early education had furnished him. He engaged in various pursuits, and among others the teaching of the French language. It occurred to him that something might be done in the printing business, of which be was at that time entirely ignorant. He offered himself to the only master printer then in Newbern, by the name of James Clark, a kind-hearted man, who gave him employment in his office. But finding that young Martin knew nothing of the practical business of a compositor, he made the remark to him. The excuse given by Martin was that the types are distributed in the boxes differently in France, and that it would take some time to get the run of them. The good easy man was patient with him, until he became a very expert compositor, and continued for some time in his employment. In the mean time, he became more generally known, acquired a better knowledge of English, and wherever he was known was respected for his industry and diligence. He finally either bought out his first employer, or with the assistance of friends purchased an old font of types and a press, and set up for himself as a printer. He published a newspaper, school books, almanacs, the journals and acts of the general assembly, and did other jobs of that kind, until his establishment became somewhat lucrative.

His connection with the press inspired him with the idea of devoting himself to the study of the law. In this he was encouraged by several friends, but especially by one who was at the same time eminent in the profession, and possessed a liberal mind. That man was Abner Nash, who had become acquainted with him, discovered his capacity, his classical attainments, and his constancy in adverse fortune. It was under the auspices, and with the assistance of Mr. Nash, that he prosecuted his legal studies. Judge Martin always spoke of that gentleman as his early benefactor and friend.

He was of course first educated in the common law, and at that time acquired the accurate and extensive knowledge of its principles which marked his whole future career in his profession. He was a great admirer of those strong barriers Page 20 which that system of laws throws around the personal rights of the citizen, against the invasions of arbitrary power--of its broad distinctions, the flexibility with which it adapts itself to the progressive changes of society, and the complex transactions of man. Hence he sometimes felt himself cramped by the restraints of a written code--and I remember that perhaps on more than one occasion, when reminded by counsel of that injunction of the Louisiana code which forbids the judge disregard the words of a law under the pretext of pursuing its spirit, he replied, "Certainly never under the pretext of pursuing its spirit; but if in the sincere desire to ascertain the will of the lawgiver, you discover that it would be violated by giving a literal interpretation to the words he has employed to express it, you are bound to give those words a reasonable interpretation, rather than that which corrodes the text and frustrates in truth the will of the legislator."

I have not been able to ascertain precisely at what period he was admitted to the bar. But it is certain that he engaged in practice to a considerable extent, became extensively known as a sound and able lawyer, and one of the most distinguished sons of North Carolina. William Gatson, who at different periods of his life was remarkable for his eloquence as a member of Congress, and his ability and learning as a judge of the Supreme Court of float State, was a student in his office.

During the earlier part of his career as a lawyer, he prepared and published a small treatise on the duties of sheriffs, and another relating to the duties of justices of the peace, and a third upon executors and administrators. These works were useful compilations to that class of public officers. They were prepared by him partly to profit by the printing of them himself, but principally with a view of impressing more deeply on his own mind the principles and rules of those branches of the law. It was indeed his favorite mode of study, and one which he frequently recommended to young men to pursue.

At a later period, he was encouraged by the legislature of North Carolina to prepare a compilation of the British statutes which were in force in that State at the period of the revolution. It was a work of immense labor to examine critically the whole body of British statutory law, with a view of ascertaining which of them were applicable to that colony. I have often heard him express his surprise at finding how very few acts of Parliament existed which had any relation to the general principles of the English law, which appear to have been left almost exclusively to the courts of justice. Most of them Page 21 related to mere fiscal regulations, and there was not to be found a single enactment which related to the order of descent and the distribution of estates. The whole rested upon immemorial usage. We certainly did not inherit from our English ancestors our rage for excessive legislation.

It was while preparing this work that the idea occurred to him of collecting materials for the history of North Carolina, which was not, however, published until 1827, but may as well be mentioned in this connection. As early as 1791 his attention was turned to that subject; but having been employed in 1803, by the legislature of North Carolina, to publish a revisal of the acts of the General Assembly, passed during the proprietary, royal, and state governments, he acquired in carrying out the views of the legislature such information as suggested to him the idea of collecting more ample material for such a history. Having been afterwards elected a member of the House of Commons, as the representative of the town of Newbern, he had access to the records of the State. These materials, so far as they related to transactions before the revolution, he had already arranged before he came to Louisiana. The history was published in New Orleans, in two volumes, octavo. It relates to the history of the Carolinas before the revolution, preceded by a sketch of the discovery and first settlement of the other British colonies in North America. This work evinces great labor and research. It appears from the preface that the author had prepared ample notes and materials for a continuation of his history through the war of the revolution, and bringing it down to the year 1810, when he left North Carolina. But the continuation of the work never was written out.

In the year 1802, Judge Martin gave to the profession the first translation into English of the treatise of Pothier on Obligations. Its publication preceded by about four years the appearance of that of Evans, in England, with ample and useful notes--and its circulation, though extensive in the United States, was probably curtailed by that circumstance. While the publication of this work in English was a valuable addition to the library of the American bar, as it embodies the quintessence of the law of contracts and obligations in general, equally authoritative wherever the written reason of the Roman law is respected, the preparation of it for the press tended to imprint more deeply on the mind of the translator the principles of that branch of the civil law, and to direct his attention to the original sources from which they flowed. He thus became thoroughly acquainted with that great work, the masterpiece of its author--and Page 22 so completely master of the subject, that it appeared to have become a part of the texture of his own mind--and to the fast he exhibited a surprising familiarity with the principles which it unfolds with equal simplicity and precision.

It was thus that François Xavier Martin, thrown in his youth among strangers, with whose language he was imperfectly acquainted, by unwearied diligence and rigid economy, uniting the study and practice of the law, with the superintendence of a printing press, not only emerged from poverty to an easy competency, but became the associate of the ablest men of his day in North Carolina, and acquired those stores of knowledge, both of the civil and the common law, which prepared him for eminence and usefulness in the new and more extended theatre to which he was soon afterwards called.

Those who have experienced in themselves that sinking of the heart, that utter solitude of soul, which is produced by being cast in youth, destitute and among strangers, without a profession--far from the endearments of home-- without experience--without a guide--without a patron--chilled by the cold indifference of the surrounding crowd--even although those among whom he is thrown may be connected with him by the sympathies of a common language and a kindred origin, may form some conception of that firmness of purpose, that energy of character, which enabled the subject of this notice, under circumstances still more discouraging, to triumph over "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

So favorably was Mr. Martin known at that time to the public, that as early as the winter of 1809, towards the close of Mr. Jefferson's administration, he was designated as a proper person to be appointed one of the Judges of the Superior Court of the Territory of Mississippi. His commission was issued under the signature of Mr. Madison, on the 7th of March, 1809, three days after his inauguration as President of the United States. He continued but a short time in that Territory, and on the death of Judge Thompson he was commissioned on the 21st of March, 1810, a Judge of the Superior Court of the Territory of Orleans, and shortly afterwards entered upon the duties of that office in this city.

Before I proceed to detail the labors of the deceased in Louisiana, let us pause for a few moments and consider the condition of things here at that time, and especially the state of our Jurisprudence.

Seven years before the period of which I am speaking, Louisiana was a Spanish Province; governed by a system of laws written in a language understood by only a small part of the population, and which Select Picture 6 to view Page 22 PICTURE 6 Page 23 had been forced upon the people at the point of the bayonet by O'Reilly, and which superseded the ancient French laws by which the Province had been previously governed. Upon the change of Government, the writ of habeas corpus, that great bulwark of personal liberty, had been introduced, together with the system of proceedings in criminal cases, and the trial by Jury, according to the principles of the Common Law. In 1808 was promulgated the Digest of the Civil Laws, then in force in Louisiana, commonly called the Old Code. That compilation was little more than a mutilated copy of the Code Napoleon. But instead of abrogating all previous laws, and creating an entire system, as had been done in France by the Code Napoleon, superseding the discordant customs, ordinances and laws in the different departments, our code was considered as a declaratory law, repealing such only as were repugnant to it, and leaving partially in force the voluminous codes of Spain. The Superior Court had already been organized for some years, and was composed of three Judges, any one of whom formed a quorum: and as the several Judges then sat separately in the different Districts, each could pronounce a judgment in the last resort. There was no means of establishing uniformity of decision: no publicity had been given to the decisions, and the public was without any guarantee for their uniformity. The law was wholly unsettled, and in a state of chaos. The Court of Cassation in France had begun, it is true, to fix the interpretation of their Code, but the rules applicable to ours were obviously different in many respects, in consequence of the manifest difference in their creating and repealing clauses. It became necessary to study and compare the French and the Spanish Codes, and although the Roman Law never had, proprio vigore, any binding force here, yet in doubtful cases, or in cases in which the positive law was silent, it might well be consulted as the best revelation of the principles of eternal justice, and, as it were, an anticipated commentary upon the Code.

Judge Martin felt at once the difficulty of the task before him, and be determined to commence without delay the publication of Reports of cases decided by the Superior Court. He was induced to undertake that labor for the double purpose of giving publicity to the decisions of the Court, in the nature of a compte rendu to the people, and thus guarding against misrepresentations or misapprehensions, and to insure to a certain extent uniformity of decision. The first volume appeared in the spring of 1811, and a second in 1813, bringing down the decisions of the Court from 1809 to the establishment of the State Government. Page 24

At that period, a Supreme Court was created, having appellate jurisdiction only. That Court was at first composed of Judges Hall, Matthews and Derbigny, and Judge Martin was appointed the first Attorney-General of the State, on the 19th of February, 1813. He was an able criminal lawyer; and although it has been said he was not eloquent, yet he is admitted to have discharged the duties of that office with zeal and ability. After the resignation of Hall, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court on the first of February, 1815. From that period he continued in office until the 18th of March, 1846--a period of more than thirty-one years. He entered on his eighty-fifth year on the very day he was superseded by the appointments under the new constitution.

The time at which Judge Martin was appointed to the Supreme Court, will ever form a memorable epoch in the history of Louisiana. A powerful invading army menaced the Capital: the citizens were in arms: Martial law had been proclaimed by the General in command, and by an act of the Legislature passed on the 18th of December previous, all judicial proceedings in civil cases were suspended until the first of May: no business was transacted at the January and February terms of the Court. In the mean time, the enemy had been repulsed and peace restored. Official information, however, had not yet reached here of the treaty of Ghent, and when the Court met early in March, martial law was still in force. A motion was then made that the Court should proceed to the trial of a particular case then pending. This motion was resisted on two grounds: first, that the city and its environs were, by general orders of the officer commanding the Military District, put, on the 15th of December previous, under strict Martial Law; and secondly, that by the third section of an act of Assembly, approved on the 18th of December, all proceedings in any civil case were suspended.

It was upon this occasion that Judge Martin pronounced his first opinion as a Judge of the Supreme Court, and the judgment of that Court upon these two important questions of Constitutional Law. In answer to the bold and novel assertion that by the proclamation of martial law the officer who issued it had conferred upon himself, over all his fellow-citizens within the space he had described, a supreme and unlimited authority, which being incompatible with the exercise of the functions of Civil Magistrates, necessarily suspends them, he declared that the exercise of an authority vested by law in that Court could not be suspended by any man. He then went into the question as to the power of the Executive, or any subordinate Page 25 acting under his authority, to suspend the regular operation of the laws, aid the writ of habeas corpus; and he demonstrated by unanswerable arguments, and by the highest authority both in the United States and in England, that it can only be done by Legislative authority. He showed that in England, martial law could not be declared to the extent contended for but by the authority of Parliament, and that even during the invasion of the Pretender, the Crown did not assume that power, but referred it to the decision of Parliament. The second point involved also an important question of constitutional law, and the application of that clause in the Constitution of the United States, which prohibits the State Legislatures from passing any law impairing the obligation of contracts. Upon this part of the case, he argued that the obligation of the contract referred to in the Constitution consisted in the necessity every man is under, in foro legis, to do or not to do a particular thing: that the Constitution spoke of the legal obligation rather than the moral, and that any law assuming to interfere between the debtor and the creditor, and absolutely recalling the power which the creditor enjoys of compelling his debtor, in foro legis, to perform his contract, would be a law impairing its obligation: and that a law destroying or impairing the remedy is as unconstitutional as one affecting the right in the same manner. He goes on to show that a law procrastinating the creditor in his remedy, generally speaking, destroys a part of the right, on the principle that he who pays later pays less--mimus solvit que serius solvit. But he continues: "It does not necessarily follow that an act called for by other circumstances than the apparent necessity of relieving debtors, one of the consequences of which is nevertheless to work some delay in the prosecution of suits, and consequently to retard the recovery and payment of debts, must always be declared unconstitutional. In making a contract, each party must know that his legal remedy must depend on the laws of the country in which he may institute his suit. That the lex loci as to his remedy, even in the States that compose the Federal Union, is susceptible of juridical improvement. That the number of Courts of original and appellate jurisdiction, the nature and extent of the respective jurisdiction of these, the number, time and duration of their sessions, must from time to time, especially in new and growing settlements, be regulated by the Legislature, according to the wants and exigencies of the country." He adds that in times of war, domestic commotion or epidemy, circumstances may imperiously demand for a while even a total suspension of judicial proceedings: that under such circumstances, the Page 26 Courts might of their own authority be justified in adjourning, and that the Legislature might well declare the necessity of such an adjournment, and, with a view to that order and regularity which uniformity produces, fix a day on which judicial business might be resumed, without impairing the obligation of contracts. The act of the Legislature was therefore declared to be of binding force.

These two great principles, that the habeas corpus cannot be constitutionally suspended by any Executive or Military authority, and that the Legislative power is itself incapable of impairing the obligation of private contracts, form the very basis of constitutional freedom in a government of laws. Without the first there would be no guard against arbitrary imprisonment--no safety for personal liberty; and without the second, private rights would be at the mercy of arbitrary legislation. The Courts, governed by the Constitution as the supreme and paramount law, are guardians of both.

The elaborate treatises and numerous adjudged cases published since that day have thrown but little additional light upon that part of Constitutional Law. These principles have been, it is believed, uniformly recognized as sound, and especially by very recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. Indeed, it may be asserted without hesitation that Judge Martin was an able constitutional lawyer, well acquainted with the complex machinery of our American Governments. It is a branch of public law, with which the Jurists of England and of the Continent are very imperfectly acquainted, because it is here alone that a great central power exists, round which numerous co-ordinate, though limited sovereignties, revolve, in well defined orbits, and their centrifugal tendencies are controlled and counteracted by the insensible attraction of the great centre; and where the Judicial tribunals are invested with the power of pronouncing, in all cases assuming a Judicial form, upon the validity of acts of ordinary legislation emanating from either, and thus maintaining the harmony and regularity of the whole system.

And here let me remark, once for all, that Judge Martin exhibited on that occasion, as well as every other, during his long Judicial career, the highest degree of moral courage and firmness of purpose. Nothing could deter him from the fearless expression of his opinion, without the slightest regard to persons. To him, it was quite immaterial who the parties were; as much so as it is to the Geometrician by what letters may happen to be designated the angle he is about to measure. The first opinion pronounced by him affords also a fair sample of Page 27 his style as a writer. It is true his style underwent a great change at a more advanced period of life--but at the time I am speaking of, it was plain and strong, and free from ambiguity, and much more copious than in after life. He came at last to pride himself upon the terseness of his style and his great brevity, and often repeated the injunction of the poet:

"Sæpe stylum vertas, iterum quæ digna legi sint

Scripturus--;" though he sometimes appears to have forgotten another caution of the same author:

"Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio."

Judge Martin did not lose by removing to Louisiana his fondness for book-making. Besides other publications which I shall have occasion to mention, he published in 1816 his Digest of the Territorial and State Statutes up to that time, called "Martin's Digest," in two volumes, in French and English. This work was undertaken under a resolution of the General Assembly. It is, mentioned mainly to show with what indefatigable industry he pursued his labors, besides those of the Bench, and his constant devotion to studies connected with his profession. His Digest was in constant use by the profession for many years.

He continued to publish his Reports of the Decisions of the Supreme Court until 1830, and, including the two small volumes containing the Decisions of the Superior Court, already mentioned, he produced twenty volumes, embracing the entire period from 1809 to 1830. During nearly all that time from 1810 he was one of the Judges, and performed his full share of the labor of the Court. The opinions prepared by him exhibit evidences of deep learning and extensive research, while at the same time he superintended himself the printing and publication of his Reports.

But what is most surprising is that, while thus engaged in groping his way with his colleagues through the labyrinth of our earlier law, often bewildered by the cross-lights of conflicting codes and discordant commentators--while thus assiduously employed, and doing his full share in reducing it to something like a regular system--he should have found time to collect, from various sources, both public and private, very ample materials for a History of Louisiana. His History was put to press in 1827, and narrates the principal events in the Province, Territory and State, from its first settlement down to the Treaty of Ghent. It contains many curious and interesting statistical Page 28 tables, showing the comparative state of commerce, agriculture, and population, at different periods. Its pages exhibit to the young Louisianian, to use the language of the author in his preface, his remote progenitors--a handful of men, left on the sandy shore of Biloxi, harassed during the day by the inroads, disturbed at night by the yells, of hostile Indians--the incipient state of civil government under the authority of the Crown--the tardy progress of agriculture and trade under the monopolies of Crozat and the Western Company--the massacre of the French among the Natchez--the destruction of that nation and the subsequent war with the Chickasaws--the slow advances of the Colony after the Crown resumed its government--the cession to Spain, and the languishing state of his country while a Colony of that Kingdom--and may afterwards behold the dawn of liberty on his natal soil under the Territorial Government of the United States, and finally the rise of Louisiana to the rank of a sovereign State. The subject is one full of romantic interest, and though not treated by our author in the most attractive form, yet the work is always referred to with entire confidence in the historical accuracy of its statements, and of the events which it records. It is faithful repository of materials for a more extended and elaborate history. It is, however, upon the juridical labors of Judge Martin that his fame must hereafter rest. He became, at the same time, so extensively and favorably known as a jurist and a scholar, that he was elected in 1817, a member of the Academy of Marseilles, his native place. Some years afterwards the University of Nashville, in Tennessee, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws; and in 1841, the University of Cambridge, the oldest College in North America, honored him with the same degree.

It is manifestly impossible to speak of the judicial labors of Judge Martin, without embracing a view of those of his colleagues, at least as low down as 1834, when Judge Porter retired. It was during that period the greatest changes took place in our positive Legislation, and in the development of our Jurisprudence. In 1825 the Code was amended, and among the amendments were embraced many of the principles already settled by the Supreme Court. About the same period, the Code of Practice was promulgated; and its first effect was to unsettle the practice, and to give rise to an infinite numher of intricate and difficult questions; and finally, in 1828, all the old Civil Laws of the country were abrogated. From that period the Spanish Law ceased to have any force here, and it was no longer necessary to recur to it as the guide of decision, except in the few cases which Page 29 arose before that period. The study of the Spanish law was no longer prosecuted, except as a matter of curiosity, and the adjudged cases, which turned upon some principle or exception of the Spanish law, could not always be safely followed under the new legislation of the State. The new Code introduced many important modifications, particularly relating to restrictions upon testamentary dispositions--changing the rules of inheritance--providing something like a regular administration of estates, and in other respects profiting by the able commentaries which had already appeared in France upon the Napoleon Code. The system was much more complete, though not entirely free from provisions--apparently contradictory--but it was certainly a great approximation to what Lord Bacon in one of his aphorisms regards as the best law--that which leaves the least room for the discretion to the Judge. It cannot be expected that I should enter on this occasion much at large on the labors of the Court during the period I have mentioned. There is, however, one class of cases depending upon that branch of international Jurisprudence, called the conflict of laws, which engaged its attention more frequently than perhaps any other Court is the United States. This arose from our peculiar position. This great commercial emporium, having relations with most of the States of the Union, and most of the nations of Europe, which are governed by different laws, and many emigrants being married abroad and under other Regimes, and acquiring property here, innumerable questions arose touching the rights of the parties, and the construction of contracts executed abroad, or entered into here, to have their effect elsewhere. These questions were often perplexing, and it is generally conceded that the decisions of that Court threw great light upon the subject, and satisfactorily solved most of the questions thus presented. Such at least is the opinion of Judge Story, as expressed by him in perhaps the most learned, though not the most satisfactory of his able Treatises upon different branches of the law--I mean his Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws. There is one opinion, however, delivered by Judge Martin, upon which a single remark may not be amiss--I allude to the case of Humphreys & Dupau. The question was whether a promissory note, made here and payable in New York, bearing a rate of interest not permitted by the laws of New York, was valid or usurious. The Judge put forth on that occasion all hid learning, ingenuity, and even subtlety, to show that the validity of the contract, though to be executed in New York, was to be tested by the laws of Louisiana. The decision did not escape the censure of Page 30 Judge Story, who, in his first edition of his Conflict of Laws, comments on it somewhat at length, and endeavors to show that it is erroneous in itself, and even unsupported by the authorities cited in support of it. Judge Martin never possessed any improper obstinacy or pride of opinion; on the contrary, he was always open to conviction, and often yielded his first conclusions to the force of argument and authority. But on that occasion he was tenacious of his opinion--so much so that when he visited the North some years afterwards, he repaired to Cambridge for the purpose principally of discussing with his critic the doctrines maintained by him in the case above alluded to. He thought he had on the way enlisted Chancellor Kent as an ally in the Controversy; whether it was so is questionable. He, however, repaired to Cambridge, and a long discussion ensued. As usual among lawyers, each maintained his ground, and each was confirmed in his opinion by his own arguments. In the next edition of the Conflict of Laws, the learned author returns to the charge, and combats, at much greater length, the soundness of that decision. Under such circumstances, it may well be doubted, to say the least of it, but it will depend on others whether it shall be ultimately overruled.

"Non nostrum est tantas componere lites."

Not only was Judge Martin aided in moulding into form and symmetry our system of Jurisprudence, by the quick perception of what is just, and the instinctive sense of equity of Mathews, and the more ardent industry and extensive research and erudition of Porter, and previously by the unpretending but extensive learning of Derbiguy, but the period between the organization of the Territorial Government and the repeal of the Spanish Law was the classical age of the Bar of Louisiana. The Court was assisted in its researches, and enlightened in its path, by the various learning and elegant scholarship, and profound knowledge of different systems of Jurisprudence of Livingston and Brown, Workman and Moreau Lisbet, and Duncan and numerous others. It does not become me to speak of the survivors of that distinguished corps. They form the living and brilliant link which connects that generation of lawyers with the present. It was then the source of the Roman, Spanish, and French laws were extensively explored, and a taste for comparative Jurisprudence was created for the first time in the United States. The principles of the common, the customary, and the Roman laws were invoked together, and placed in juxtaposition. The illustrious writers on Page 31 Jurisprudence of the 16th century in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany were consulted and compared. The most antiquated of the Gothic Codes were studied, not as monuments of literary curiosity, but as fragments of pre-existing systems of human laws, originating either with the Romans or their barbarian conquerors. The whole of these various and often discordant materials were fused into one mass, and the Court left to select such principles as appeared most consonant with the general scope and enactments of the Codes. Whoever has read the first twenty- five volumes of our Reports cannot fail to have observed what vast stores of legal erudition were brought to light in the discussion of leading cases, and how much the range has been narrowed since our jurisprudence has become better settled, under the more full and explicit text of the new Code.

It is thus we have witnessed the formation, even its process of crystallization, as it were, of the existing Jurisprudence of Louisiana.* *The jurisprudence of Louisiana is a mixture of the Roman, French, and Spanish law, tinctured with no inconsiderable portion of the common law of England, as understood and expounded in the sister States of the Union, especially in criminal and commercial matters. These different elements of law are, however, blended in so confused a manner, that it is often extremely difficult to trace the lines of demarcation, or to determine what the law is on any given subject.

When the province of Louisiana was transferred to the United States, the colonial laws of Spain did, at least to a certain extent, govern the country, although in point of fact, beyond the precincts of the capital, the military posts scattered far apart over its immense territory, and the settlements contiguous to and dependent on them, there were neither judges, nor any regular administration of justice.

The indolent, arbitrary, and yet paternal government of Spain felt really little interest in the prosperity of the colony, from which it derived no revenue, and which it had acquired and preserved, rather with a view of debarring all foreign access to New Spain, than from any desire of enriching itself by the productions of the soil, or to profit by the exhaustless resources of the country, which the industry and enterprise of its present possessors have so successfully explored. Spain, nevertheless, with its habitual love of display, had established a colonial government, surrounded with the insignia of royalty, and having an administrative hierarchy dependent on it, which, though of little practical utility, and attended with much useless expense, still gave to the whole a semblance of power and regularity, which was sufficient, under ordinary circumstances, to inspire respect on the part of the colonists.

When the United States had acquired possession of Louisiana, this form of government necessarily disappeared, and the new one introduced was framed with the simplicity and economy suited to republican habits and institutions.

Changes in the legislation, as well as in the administration of the laws of the country, became of course indispensable but they were made with great Page 32 Its ingredients are derived from various sources, and after being filtered through numerous codes, meet in one harmonious mass. The caution, and care was taken neither to shock received opinions, nor to change abruptly institutions which had the sanction of long usage, and to which the inhabitants had become attached. Notwithstanding all these precautions, murmurs and discontents were often heard shortly after the cession of the colony, which the firm and conciliating conduct of Congress and of Mr. Jefferson soon succeeded in appeasing, and which a few years of increasing prosperity wholly effaced.

In the meantime, the territory of Orleans was severed from the rest of the ancient French colony of Louisiana, and erected into a distinct portion of the Union, the executive department of which was under the direction of a governor, the legislative in the hands of a council, and the judiciary under the direction of three judges, elected every four years, and certain inferior magistrates.

The highest court of judicature, called the Superior Court of the territory of Orleans, was composed of three judges, of which one constituted a quorum, and was invested with original and appellate jurisdiction in criminal and civil causes.

The criminal law, which had governed Louisiana prior to its transfer, was entirely abolished, and in its place were substituted certain penal statutes providing for the punishment of offences, which they did not define, but left the definitions to be sought for at common law, in reference to which all future criminal proceedings were to be conducted.

Civil suits were brought by petition, and the practice was simple.

In relation to the civil jurisprudence of the country, the necessity was immediately felt of reducing it to some sort of order, to enable those who had been appointed to govern, as well as to judge, to know what it was, a fact of which, at the time of their appointment, they were profoundly ignorant. The legislative council, having made a vain attempt to "procure a civil and criminal code for the "territory," to use the language of Judge Martin, the first territorial legislature appointed, in the year 1806, Messrs. James Brown and Moreau Lislet, two members of the bar, to prepare a digest of the laws in force in the territory. These gentlemen, having finished the task imposed on them in 1505, reported "a Digest of the civil laws now in force in the Territory of Orleans, with alterations and amendments, adapted to the present form of government," which was adopted by the Legislature, and constitutes what is at present called the old Civil Code.

The gentlemen thus appointed to prepare a digest of the laws in force in Louisiana, instead of looking to the Spanish colonial law, and consulting exclusively the Partidas and the Recopilacion de las Indias, &c., as they surely would have done had the Spanish law alone been in force, transcribed literally, and incorporated into their Digest large portions of the projét of the Code Napoleon. The reasons assigned for this by Judge Martin is, that no copy of the Code Napoleon, although promulgated in 1804, had as yet reached New Orleans. The same learned, and we must add, accurate writer, in all which concerns contemporaneous events, speaks of this conduct on the part of the compilers of the Digest as praiseworthy, adding that, "although the project is necessarily much Page 33 protection of wives, incautiously engaged for the contracts of their husbands, rests upon a Roman Senatus Consultum--their ultimate rights in the property acquired during the marriage, upon the customs of the erratic tribes that overrun Gaul, and were carried by the Visigoths across the Pyrenees. The wisdom of Alphonso is found infused into many of the institutions which owe their origin to Alfred the Great. The common law has paid back a part of what it had borrowed from the Roman Jurisprudence. The commercial law, standing out almost independently of the Code, rests in a great measure more imperfect than the Code, it was far superior to anything that any two individuals could have produced early enough to answer the expectations of those who employed them."

Judge Martin says-- "The Fuero Viejo, Fuero Juzgo, Partidas, Recopilaciones, Leyes de las Indias, Autos Acordados, and Royal Schedules remained part of the written law of the territory, when not repealed expressly, or by a necessary implication." And he adds:--

"Of these musty laws the copies were extremely rare; a complete collection of them was in the hands of no one, and of very many of them not a single copy existed in the province."

"To explain them, Spanish commentators were consulted, and the Corpus Juris Civilis, and its own commentators were resorted to, and to eke out any deficiency, the lawyers, who came from France or Hispaniola, read Pothier D'Aguesseau, Dumoulin," &c.

The result of the labors of Messrs. Brown and Moreau Lislet was a Digest, containing upwards of 500 pages, printed in English and French, and divided into three books, of which the first treats of persons; the second of things or estates; and the third of the different manner of acquiring the property of things. Each book is subdivided into titles, and each title into chapters and articles. This Digest is the groundwork of the Civil Code actually in force in Louisiana, from which it does not differ very essentially.

Louisiana having become a State in 1812, organized in 1813 a Supreme Court, composed of three judges, which, in conformity with the 2d section of the 4th article of the Constitution of the State, had "appellate jurisdiction only, which jurisdiction shall extend to all civil cases, when the matter in dispute shall exceed the sum of three hundred dollars." It is from this period that the jurisprudence of the State began to assume some definite form, and to extend itself so as to embrace the numerous controversies which soon arose among an intelligent, commercial, and litigious population.

The Supreme Court thus formed and constituted, had most arduous and difficult duties to perform--duties which required, besides the patience, learning and integrity always requisite to discharge the functions of a judge, incessant and laborious researches into the ancient jurisprudence of Rome, France and Spain, joined to a through knowledge of constitutional law, and an intimate acquaintance with the habits and wants of the people, on whom the decisions were to operate. Page 34 upon the usages of commercial States, but more especially of the United States and Great Britain, but slightly modified by positive local legislation. The whole body of our law thus forms a system, most admired by those who understand it best, and who can trace back its principles to the sources from which they originally flowed. Of the spring-heads of our law it may be said, as it has been of the waters of Castalia:

"There shallow drafts intoxicate the brain,

But drinking deeply sobers us again." If I might be allowed to enlarge still further upon this interesting topic, I would say that the same process of the formations of laws has been going on in all ages, and in every region within the range of history. Conquest, and commerce, and the migration and intermingling of races have everywhere brought about changes of laws. The oracular obscurities of the twelve tables were brought by the Decemvirs from Greece. At a later period, the same laws, developed and improved, were disseminated everywhere by the victorious legions of the Republic. They became mingled with local usages, which were respected by the conquerors. The migratory Germanic tribes carried with them their customs, which acquired the force of laws--and hence many of the different customs and fueros which prevailed in France and in Spain. The Norman conquest introduced into England many of the customs of that province, and the law itself was administered by Normans in Norman French. Hence we may trace to the customs of Normandy the widow's third, and other peculiarities of the English Law. The Military Feudality of the middle ages upset the whole system of land titles and tenures, and established that relation of lord and vassal, a fruitful source of innumerable laws and customs. In Rome, not only the edicts of the Prætor often modified the existing laws, but the wildest decrees of the plebeian order were respected, even under the reign of the Caesars. The Saracen conquest of Spain left indelible impressions on the laws and institutions of the peninsula and the Alcalde of the present day derives his name from and exercises similar functions to those of the Cadis of Bagdad. Even among ourselves, local usages, and the usages of trade are referred to in order to aid in the construction of local contracts. Law is not, then, always the solemn expression of Legislative will. The whole doctrine of Bills of Exchange originated in, and is based upon, the customs of merchants, and the Maritime Law upon the practice of States and Towns engaged in navigation and trade. The customs of Paris Page 35 became the law of Louisiana by the charter of Crozat, and were swept away in their turn by the ordinance of O'Reilly. Indeed, the internal history of the law--that is to say, a history of its different elements, tracing them from their origin through the successive and often insensible modifications to their amalgamation as they are now found, combined and harmonizing together--such an analysis, I say, constituting the chemistry of legal science, would require almost endless research and labor. The same process of fusion and diffusion is still going on under the auspices of the great principle of the comity of nations. The able and learned works upon most of the branches of Jurisprudence by Story and Kent, tend to demonstrate to what extent the Roman is blended with the common law, and to what extent both have been improved by the mutual infusion of principles. Whenever the municipal law has not expressly provided for a particular case, a principle in itself reasonable is sometimes adopted from a foreign system by the tribunals, and thus becomes at last an element of our own Jurisprudence. The whole law of Evidence, with the exception of a few elementary principles, is borrowed from the common law. The practice of the Federal tribunals, professing to be governed by State laws, threatens us with alarming innovations, by introducing among us the discretion of a Master in Chancery, to decide upon important interests, and by their forms of execution menacing the overthrow, in favor of foreign creditors, of our equitable system of distribution of a debtor's effects, and making his property anything but the common pledge of his creditors. How far such innovations can be tolerated it is not for me to say.

I have entered into these details principally with a view of enabling you to form a more just estimate of the intricacy of the subject, and of the great labor and research required by the Court in the administration of justice under laws so unsettled, and of such various origin and discordant materials, and especially to fix the just value of the services of Judge Martin, who during that entire period, and even as late as 1846, continued to labor with unmitigated zeal and industry, combining all the learning required for such a task with a constant devotion to public duties.

He almost always enjoyed a vigorous health, maintained by great temperance and daily exercise. His temperance was indeed remarkable. Though a native of the country of the vine, he never had tasted wine, as he has often assured me, until approaching the age of sixty, and then in great moderation, and never in his whole life had he tasted ardent spirits of any kind. Being a bachelor, he was Page 36 undisturbed by domestic cares and duties. All the powers of his mind were devoted to the law, rather as a profound thinker than a great reader. He investigated particular subjects deeply, rather than attempting to keep up by regular reading with the legal erudition of the day. He rarely indulged even in a momentary flirtation with the Muses, and I have never heard him speak of any other poets than Virgil, Horace, and Boileau. With works of imagination his acquaintance was extremely limited, and he never enjoyed the romantic literature of the age, though cotemporary with Sir Walter Scott, and the great writers of the French school. The law had no such rival in his affections, and all the rays of a vigorous intellect were converged to one focus. He enjoyed at the same time a constant serenity of mind, and possessed an equanimity at all times, and under all circumstances, most remarkable. He was never querulous nor petulant, and even in the ardor of debate in consultation with his colleagues he possessed the most perfect self-control, and never became angry or impatient. It was perhaps on such occasions that he displayed to the greatest advantage all the vigor and acuteness of his mind, and the resources of his learning. Those who have contended with him best know how expert and powerful a wrestler he was--and yet he often detected the fallacy of his own reasoning, and convinced himself that he had been originally wrong. His great peculiarity was in pushing first principles to their most remote, ultimate consequences, let them end where they might. His method of reasoning was sometimes eminently Socratic, and it was necessary in discussions with him to be extremely cautious how you admitted his premises. If you answered unguardedly a series of questions affirming the remote principle from which he started, you ran the risk of finding yourself involved at last in a mesh of sophisms, and convicted on your own confessions. It often happened that he would return the next day after a protracted discussion, and say, "Well, I have consulted my pillow on that question, and after all I believe I was wrong."

Judge Martin was an agreeable companion. His conversation was always amusing and entertaining. He was uniformly calm and quiescent, and never querulous or garrulous, notwithstanding his very advanced age and its increasing infirmities. He was sometimes facetious, and many of you probably remember the case in which he spoke of the violent proceedings of a mob, to tear down a house in order to get rid of the obnoxious tenants, as the service of the frontier writ of ejectment. Never disposed to be censorious, he was, when the occasion required it, inexorable in his denunciation of the fraudulent conduct Page 37 of parties litigant before the Court, exposing their turpitude to public censure with an unsparing severity. This he could do with great propriety and consistency, for he felt the full force of, and himself acted up to the great precepts of the law--"honesté vivere"--"alterum non loedere"--"et suum cuique tribuere."

Judge Martin's general health continued in a great measure unimpaired to a good old age. He rarely lost a single day in his attendance at Court, or at the stated times for consultation. But his eyesight began to fail many years ago, and as early as 1836 he became so blind as to be no longer capable of writing his opinions, and from that period he dictated to an amanuensis. But he bore this great privation with remarkable fortitude, and it did not seem to disturb the habitual serenity and cheerfulness of his disposition. He continued, however, to hope for the restoration of his sight; consulted numerous oculists, but never found but one disposed to attempt an operation, and he promised too much, and was distrusted. To the last, even at the age of 84, he never exhibited any of the usual marks of extreme old age- -although his memory was somewhat impaired, his reasoning powers were still vigorous; he had none of the garrulity of age, and his existence closed without the usual evening twilight of intellect.

In the summer of 1844, he visited his native France, for the first time since he had left there in his youth. He remained in Paris some weeks, and his eyes were examined by the ablest oculists of that capital. But they declined attempting an operation, it having been well ascertained that the case was hopeless--a confirmed gutta serena. He Returned to Louisiana in the autumn of the same year, and resumed his duties on the bench.

The long and painful struggle of Judge Martin in his youth against poverty exerted a great influence upon his habits and turn of mind through life. The accumulation of wealth by constant economy became habitual with him, at the same time that he was scrupulously honest and fair in all his dealings. Indeed, he had always a strong and abiding sense of what is just, which showed itself in his conduct, both as a man and as a judge.

His reports form the most useful of his works. They constitute the first chart of a coast at that time in a great measure unexplored--and although not complete, and leaving much for his successors to supply, yet they served at least to show the intricacy of the navigation, and to point out many of its difficulties and dangers. Such a publication was a novelty at the time in this State, and the Page 38 want of it could not have been supplied by the Reports of any other State or country. While it tended to produce uniformity of decision at home, it made our peculiar jurisprudence better known abroad. It exhibited some of its peculiarities and excellencies in such strong light that it has contributed in some particulars, and especially that part of our system, which guards so effectually the rights of married women, to recommend in several of the States the adoption of similar provisions.

There are some strong points of resemblance between Judge Martin and Peter Stephen Duponceau, who declined the appointment of Judge in the Territory of Orleans, about the time that office was accepted by Judge Martin. Both were Frenchmen by birth, and arrived at an early period in the United States, and identified themselves with the country; both wrote in the English language; both were jurists and civilians of eminence; each gave to the profession a translation of a foreign work of great merit-- Martin, the Treatise of Pothiers on Obligations--Duponceau, that of Binkersh k on Public Law, and both contributed to create a taste for such studies. Martin was more exclusively a lawyer, although, as we have seen, he published two works of History. Duponceau was the more elegant and accomplished scholar, and particularly distinguished as a Philologist, and so thoroughly versed in the aboriginal languages of this continent as to have received the reward of the French Institute for the best essay on that subject. He published also an original Treatise on the Constitution of the United States, and another on the Jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. The style of Martin was more wrote with great purity in a language which was not their vernacular pointed and brief--that of Duponceau more polished and copious. Both wrote with great purity in a language which was not their vernacular tongue. While Martin was satisfied with usefulness on the Bench, Duponceau prosecuted a more extensive line of studies and pursuits, and was assiduous and useful, among other things, in his efforts to introduce the culture of silk in the United States. Both lived to a very advanced age, were respected and honored by the public for the purity of their lives, and their profound learning and usefulness, and both in turn reflected honor on the land of their adoption.

A great majority of the most eminent lawyers in the United States and in England have passed through the same severe ordeal of early poverty. It is a stern but salutary discipline. Few professional men, who were born to affluence and nurtured in luxury and ease, have made a distinguished figure in after life. It is adversity which teaches us the importance of relying upon ourselves, and draws out Page 39 all the energies and resources of the mind. Nothing discourages and nothing daunts such men. They feel that time and perseverance will not fail to reward their solitary studies, and gratify their long deferred hopes of distinction. The lives of such men are without any striking event or incidents on which the attention of the biographer is fixed; they pursue the even tenor of their way, contented with the cultivation of the intellectual powers, and the distinction which their profession gives them in society. The example of such men is cheering in the highest degree to whose who are just entering on a professional career. Let them learn never to despair. If true to themselves, and devoted to their studies, under whatever disadvantages of early fortune they may labor--however hard the struggle with want, and competition, it will come at last the noblest and purest of all triumphs, that of an innate energy of soul over adversity and want and neglect. If their studies are commensurate with the almost boundless field of the science to which they are devoted, embracing, in the language of Justinian, "divinarum atque humanarum rerum notitia-- justi atque injusti scientia," they are prepared to act a distinguished part in any of the departments of public affairs to which they may be called in after life. The profession in the United States has always been the high road to honorable distinction. Many of those who by their intelligence, influence and eloquence prepared the public mind for revolution to resist the encroachments of power, were lawyers who had studied deeply the true theory of popular government. They afterwards were lawyers who prepared and sustained the Declaration of Independence--and especially those who devised the admirable Constitution under which we live and prosper, and who were among its first expounders. The profession here deals not only with private rights, and the controversies between man and man--their studies embrace the great relations of the governed with the governor--they regard public offices as public trusts--and discuss freely the limitations of delegated power, and the duties and attributes of restricted sovereignty. The lawyer who fearlessly and boldly advocates such principles is already half a statesman. The profession in this country have always been, and from the nature of their studies must always be, the advocates and supporters of free government and popular institutions. François Xavier Martin, let it not be forgotten, was a foreigner by birth, and a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was received as a brother--became early identified with the country, and had no connection for more than sixty years with the political vicissitudes Page 40 of his native land. He was thoroughly American in his feelings and opinions. He was an American lawyer and an American magistrate. If strict integrity of life--if a love of truth, for the sake of truth and justice--if a fearless independence and impartiality in the discharge of public duties--if a profound knowledge of law and the most exemplary devotion to duty during a long life constitute the elements of greatness, surely he may well be pronounced great. What a commentary this upon the liberal institutions of this widespread Republic, and the generous spirit of a vast majority of its citizens! It opens wide its arms to receive and cherish all those who, driven by political calamities, or impelled by a hope of ameliorating their condition in life, are wafted to our shores. They bring with them the arts and industry and learning of their country. It matters not what may have been the land of their nativity--it matters not what may have been the religion of their fathers or their own, or in what language their first thoughts may have been uttered--they are welcomed as men and as brothers--they become gradually assimilated to the common mass of citizens, and their origin is perhaps forgotten in a second generation. We become one in feeling--one in opinion, and participators in and contributors to the common renown of our great Republic. The Bar of New Orleans, at whose request I appear before you, is at this moment composed of men who were born in most of the polished nations of the globe--France, Germany, Belgium, England, the United States, Ireland, and Sweden. They all contribute to the stock of learning for which the Bar is so eminently distinguished. In proportion as our country spreads itself, wider and wider, by the peaceful conquests of civilization, those who take refuge here from other countries, forgetting their native land for that of citizens; and if a frenzy for foreign conquest by arms should seize us, it may be pleaded at least as an excuse for us that we are influenced by no selfish and narrow views; but those conquests will extend still further the influence of free institution, and furnish a refuge and a home for the oppressed of other lands. It is thus our government is destined to illustrate the noble thought of a living poet:

"Man is one;

And he hath one great heart. It is thus we feel,

With a gigantic throb athwart the sea,

Each other's rights and wrongs; thus are we men."--Festus. Volume 2 Chapter 3 [Page 41]

AN

ANALYTICAL INDEX

OF THE

WHOLE OF THE PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

RELATIVE TO

LOUISIANA,

DEPOSITED IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE DEPARTMENT

"DE LA MARINE ET DES COLOMES"

ET

"BIBLIOTHEQUE DU ROI"

AT PARIS.

BY EDMUND J. FORSTALL. [Page 42]

[Blank Page] [Page 43]

AN

ANALYTICAL INDEX, &C.

__________________

PORTFOLIO NO. I.

1st. Remarks on the province of Louisiana, 5th August, 1751--depth of water at the Balize 14 feet--war with Indians--mode of warfare required: detachment from the main body, always within reach of assistance, and the main body always within reach of supplies, &c.

2d. 1716, 11th February--memorial of the regency council--advantages of New Orleans developed--proximity to Vera Cruz and Havana--river courses and latent wealth of the interior--fertility of the soil, favorable to tobacco, rice, and cacao--only issue to the Gulf of Mexico--party of twenty Canadians exploring the Red River--voyage performed in three months--their visit to the province of Leon in Mexico-copper mines discovered--iron, lead, gold and silver found in abundance--plan of colonization presented-this memorial is signed by L. A. de Bourbon and the Marshall d'Estrées, and is approved by the "conseil de Regence."

3d. Statistical account by Mr. de Kerlerec of the Indians inhabiting the Mississippi and the Missouri--prospects of the colony--this report is signed Kerlerec, 12th December, 1758.

4th. 1712--memorial respecting the situation of Louisiana--project to deepen the pass from the river to the lake Maurepas, from Tunicas, about seventy-three leagues from New Orleans, by cutting a point of land--pirogues are stated as being then in communication with the lakes through that pass. This memorial is signed "Dartagnette."

5th. 1712-1726--laws and ordinances relative to Louisiana. Page 44

6th. History of the irruptions of the North Americans upon the lands of Louisiana. This document is signed by "Villars, Favre Daunoy," April, 1778.

7th. Account of the death of Lasalle.

8th. 1680--memorial explaining the reasons which led France in 1680, to undertake the colonization of the country north of the Gulf of Mexico. This memorial is signed by "De la Boulay."

9th. l725--questions propounded to Mr. de la Chaise by the "Copaganie des Indes"--and his answers thereto.

10th. 1740--memoir of the Engineer Duvergés recommending certain works at the Balize.

11th. 1748--Letter from Mr. de Vaudreuil respecting the Balize --depth of the water at one of the passes 18 feet.

12th. Letter to the French minister respecting wax from a certain tree, 1748.

13th. 7, Dec. 1759--Letter to the French minister from Mr. de Richemore, recommending two financial plans.

14th. Letter from Mr. de Richemore to ministers, containing an account of all the officers and cadets in service.

15th. April, 1764--memorial from Mr. Brand, praying for an exclusive privilege to establish a printing office in New Orleans.

16th. April, 1764--letter from Mr. d'Abaddie to the Duke of Choiseul, showing the advantages of the colony--speaking of the first experiments in the culture of the cane, and forwarding samples of sugars from the estate of Chevalier de Masan.

17th. June, 1764--letter from the same, complaining of the demoralization produced by the circulation of depreciated paper, and the immoderate use of ardent spirits, even by the higher class of society.

18th. Memorial of the merchants of New Orleans to Mr. d'Abaddie, "Directeur General Commandant la Province de la Louisiana."

19th. 4th Dec. 1768--letter from Gov. Ulloa to the Marquis de Grimaldi, announcing the revolution in Louisiana-his expulsion and his arrival at Havana.

20th. Statement by Gov. Ulloa of the events in Louisiana--a document containing about 300 hundred pages, very full and very well drawn up; whereby it is clearly demonstrated that Aubry in the whole matter was the principal informer. That the plan was not for the purpose of remaining under a kingly dominion, but that the end was freedom--that for that purpose Messrs. Noyan and Masan were deputed to the English Governor of Florida, then residing at Pensacola, for the purpose of securing the protection of the British Government Page 45 in behalf of the intended Republic. That the Governor of Florida having refused all aid, the address to France was resorted to by the rebels as the means of concealing their plan. That the leaders were Mr. de Lafrenière, a creole, Mr. Foucault, Mr. Villeré, brother-in-law of Lafrenière; Mr. Heri, Messrs. Noyan, Verret, Marquis; four brothers, Le- Roy, who have since assumed the name of Lafrenière; Lere, Banlieu and Chauvain, Judice, de Lery, Darimsbourg, Hardi de Boisblanc, Thomassin, Fleurian, Cabaré, Ducros and Millet--that their place of meeting was at a Mad. Pradel's, near the city of New Orleans, where they collected to the number of 500. The plan embraced the whole of Louisiana. This document is full of interest, and shows the cause of the lukewarmness of the French Government in the whole matter. The whole statement of Gov. Ulloa is corroborated by the French Gov. Aubry, who it appears, with the French troops under his command, was treated as an enemy as well as Ulloa. Thus Lafrenière, his brother-in-law Villeré, Marquis, and their associates, died victims of their love for liberty, and not of their love for France, as generally believed.

21st. Memorial of the inhabitants and merchants of Louisiana to the King of France, explaining the causes which led to the expulsion of Ulloa. This document, penned by Lafrenière, was drawn up it appears after the failure of the application to the British Government for protection, on the standard of liberty being raised-it is couched in fine language, contains valuable statistical information, and shows that Louisiana in its infancy contained talented men and noble souls.

22d. Letter from the Marquis de Grimaldi to the Count of Fuentes, then Ambassador to the Court of France, giving an account of a council of state, wherein the whole matter of the Louisiana Rebellion is taken up--the council having with only one dissenting voice decided to consider Louisiana as a Spanish possession. The Marquis announces the appointment of Gen. O'Reilly with extraordinary powers, modified, however, by the King of Spain, so as confine to expulsion all cases deserving greater punishment. The Ambassador in the same letter is desired to demand of the King of France to disapprove the conduct of his subjects in Louisiana.*

23d. Letter from Aubry to the Duke of Choiseul, wherein he tries to show that to France Louisiana can be of no advantage-and that

* The ministers who met to decide upon the fate of Louisiana, after the expulsion of Ulloa, were the Dukes d'Alba, Munian, the Counts d'Aranda, Musquir, Arriega, and the Marquis de Grimalda. Page 46 to Spain it can be of no other advantage than to protect its Mexican possessions against smuggling. This letter bears date 1768.

24th. Letter from the same to the same, bearing date 24th August, 1769-- referring to his former accounts of the doings of the rebels from 29th Oct. 1768, to 20th May, 1769--confirming all the statements of Ulloa--he announces the arrival, at a moment when he considered all lost, of a liberator, Gen. O'Reilly, with 3000 troops--he gives an account of the transfer of the government to that general--he appears then to have considered the whole matter as ended, and that the past would have been forgotten--the leaders having by his advice quietly submitted.

25th. 1765--16th Nov. Decree prohibiting the introduction of slaves from Martinique, on account of their propensity to poisoning.

26th. 1766, 29th Sept.--letter from Aubry and Foucault, notifying the refusal of the French troops to enter into the service of Spain.

27th. 1716--letter from Mr. Duclos to the French minister relative to Natchez.

28th. No date--finances of Louisiana--first account of the introduction of government paper money in Louisiana by Ordinance of the King of France, bearing date 14th Sept. 1735-amount issued 200,000 livres. The reasons alleged for this issue are the same which were given by some of our modern financiers, to justify their application to the Bank of the United States for their depreciated paper, to enable the New Orleans banks to resume specie payment. At that epoch the King of France was a merchant, had public stores, and the circulation of his paper money was to have been obtained by its being made legal tender for all goods purchased from the public stores. This document is not dated, and appears to have been written in 1744-5.

29th. No date--opinion of Messrs. Bienville and Salmon regarding the emission of paper money, which they recommend.

30th. Statistics of the Indian nations from Mobile to Carolina--plan presented to secure the trade then carrying on between the Indians and Carolina. This document is without date, and appears to have been drawn up under the administration of Gov. de Kerlerec.

31st. 1740--Muster roll of all the officers and cadets in Louisiana.

32d. 1710, 13th May-instruction of the King of France to Mr. De la Mothe Cadillac, as Governor of Louisiana. This document shows the great difficulties the first inhabitants had to labor under.

33d. 1743, 21st July--letter from Vaudreuil Salmon, touching the waxtree.

34th. Memorial of Dr. Brat on the same subject. Page 47

35th. Memorial on Natchitoches. This document is interesting; that country is there represented as favorable to all the agricultural products of Europe, and to cotton, tobacco, &c. It bears no date, and appears to have been drawn up by Mr. St. Denis.

36th. 1765--report of the arrival of 193 Acadians sent to Opelousas.

37th. 1764, 7th June--memorial of the merchants of New Orleans to Mr. d'Abbadie, depicting the wretched condition of the colony produced by depreciated paper money. This document contains a practical refutation of the credit system as eulogized by our present chamber of commerce in their pamphlet entitled "Credit System." It shows the demoralizing effects produced by the shadow being mistaken for the substance.

38th. 1764, 10th April--letter to Mr. d'Abaddie, respecting 3000 Indians collected in Mobile--the advantages of the colony, and the progress in the manufacture of sugar.

39th. 1764--letter from Mr. d'Abaddie to the Duke of Choiseul announcing the establishment at Lafourche Chetimaches, of about 200 Indians from Mobile--the Teansas.

40th. 1704--statistics of the colony-population including the garrison, 180 men.

27 families--3 girls and 7 boys from 1 to 10 years.

80 houses covered with lataniers, laid out in straight streets.

190 acres land cleared for the building of the city.

9 oxen, of which 5 belong to the King.

14 cows.

4 bulls belonging to the King. This document is signed "Lasalle."

41st. 1702--letter from De Lasalle, announcing his arrival at Pensacola and Mobile. This document is interesting.

42d. 1702, 11th Dec.--letter from De Lasalle to the minister, stating that he has been compelled to dispatch a vessel to Vera Cruz to inform the Viceroy of Mexico of the siege of St. Augustine by the English and Indians, with 16 ships.

Pensacola appears to have been founded four years after the discovery of Louisiana.

43d. 1729-36--history of the wars in Louisiana--Dartaguette was killed in battle with the Indians. Page 48

PORTFOLIO NO. II.

44th. 1769--remarks of Mr. Aubry on the rebellion in Louisiana.

45th. Memorial on the finances of Louisiana posterior to 1731.

46th. 1697, 14th Oct.--Quebec, letter touching information required about the Spanish possessions in Mexico bordering the tributaries of the Mississippi: this document is interesting; it speaks of Lasalle, and presents some remarks on the mines.

47th. 26th July--Dartaguette in Louisiana speaks of the inundation by the Mississippi; its waters having risen to the garrets of houses in New Orleans.

48th. 22d February, 1759--survey of the domains of the King adjoining Mrs. Pradel's plantation.

49th. 1748, 21st May--memorial of Mr. Gradesfils in Louisiana, showing the great advantages of that colony.

50th. Project of colonization for Louisiana, demand of a large tract of land on condition of its being cultivated in tobacco, cotton, sugar-cane and indigo. This project, drawn up in Versailles, bears no date.

51st. 1717--memorial of Mr. Hubert on Louisiana, attempting to show that the colonization of that country, if energetically pursued, would gradually lead to the conquest of the whole of North America.

52d. Memorial to show that Louisiana might become as important as Mexico.

53d. 1719--memorial of Mr. Bienville announcing the fall of Pensacola into his hands, and the events ensuing the same.

54th. 1738--insignificant letter respecting the Jesuits.

55th, 1754, 20th Sept.--letter from Mr. de Kerlerec to Dauberville, on the necessity of military station at the Balize. This letter contains an interesting account of the mouth of the river, and a proposal to establish there a floating battery with heavy guns.

56th. Statement of occurrences in Biloxi.

57th. Project to restore confidence in Louisiana destroyed by irredeemable paper money; proposal to make the King's paper legal tender; form of an dict. This document must have been written some time about 1754.

58th. Memorial on Louisiana, representing the necessity of retaining that colony, in order to prevent the English becoming masters of not only the whole of North America, but also of Mexico. By this Page 49 document it appears that Mr. St. Denis headed the 20 Canadians on the exploring expedition from the Red River to the province of Leon in Mexico; it appears to have been written about the year 1715.

59th. Memorial on the same subject at the same epoch.

60th. do.

do.

61st. 1692, 14th Sept.--account of the attack by five 60 gun vessels of the Fort Louis in Louisiana, under the command of Mr. de Bouillon, Governor of Newfoundland.

62d. 1700--memorial for the colonization of the Mississippi.

63d. List of the officers under the command of Dartaguette, and in Louisiana.

64th. 1749, 17th Dec.--memorial of Mr. Le Bailly Messager, on Louisiana. This document is interesting; a central power is proposed to be established on the Wabash--fertility of the soil, &c.

65th. 1750--memorial of the same, on the same subject.

66th. 1754, 6th March--memorial on Louisiana; by Mr. Colom, to increase the commerce of Louisiana with the Islands and the metropolis; the plan embraces the whole of the basin of the Mississippi, and is interesting.

67th. No date--report of three commissioners touching an interview with the Governor of Pensacola, de Galve, for the purpose of devising the means to prevent the English taking possession of that post. Determination on the part of the Governor of Pensacola to rely upon the Bull of Pope Alexander the VI., conceding the line 180 to the Catholic Kings, the power of the Pope to grant crowns repudiated by the commissions. This document is curious, and appears to have been written in 1700.

68th. 1709--observations on the Bull of Pope Alexander; development of the immense advantages to be derived by France from the possession of Louisiana.

69th. 1701, 17th July--memorial on Louisiana; advice to the King as to the measures to be adopted for its welfare.

70th. 1709, 27th April--memorial. on Louisiana; situation of the colony.

71st. 1712, June--memorial of Mr. Tions de Gouville, on the advantages of Louisiana, and the causes which have checked all progress in that country.

72d. No date--memorial on fortifications required.

73d. 1738, 10th May--Hubert's memorial on Louisiana. This document is very interesting for its statistical information. Page 50

74th. 1714--memorial to show the necessity of inviting emigration to Louisiana. This document is interesting, and contains extracts of letters from Crozat.

75th. 1716--great and masterly development of the destinies of Louisiana.

76th. 1714, 17th April--memorial on the wretched condition of the colony.

77th. 1716--a memorial is to be found on Louisiana after Lasalle's discovery, in the registers of the navy department, 8 f, 123 vo. (This is a memorandum in this portfolio.)

78th. 1720--memorial on the fortifications of Pensacola, and of the impossibility on account of the nature of the soil to establish good foundations.

79th. 1723--letter and memorial of Mr. Hubert on the advantages of Louisiana.

80th. 1753--prohibition by the Marquis Duquesne against the exportation of grain from Canada; he styles himself Governor of "la Nouvelle France, and of all the lands and countries of Louisiana."

81st. 1755--Quebec, Canada, proces verbal of a voyage to the river Senaramixi.

82d. 1751, Tombeckbé, 18th June--letter announcing the capture of five deserters; speeches of the Indians who brought them back, to obtain their pardon.

83d. 1787--extract of a letter from Mr. de Villiers on the subject of a tobacco contract with the King of Spain.

84th. Canada, 1753--ordinance of the Marquis Duquesne, fixing the maximum of wheat to 3 livres per minot on plantations, and 3 livres 10 sols in town.

85th. 1716--memorial of Mr. Crozat on Louisiana, important developments.

86th. 1751, 15th July--accusation of Mr. Michel against Mr. Fleurian, procureur-general, and Captain Derneville.

87th. No date--memorial explanatory of patent letters proposed to the King.

88th. 1769--grievances against Governor Ulloa and Aubry. The document is not signed.

89th. 1745--interesting memorial on the administration of Louisiana. By this document it appears that the Ursulines are bound to attend to the hospital, and to educate 30 orphan girls.

90th. 1716--letters patent projected for Louisiana. Page 51

91st. 1662--memorials respecting the doings of the West India Company; forms of concessions.

92d. 1723--memorial on the rivers, lands and Indians of Missouri. This document is interesting, and shows that there was a traffic then carrying on between Missouri and Mexico.

93d. No date--memorial for a concession of lands from Manchac to New Orleans.

94th. No date--memorial on the subject of Father Beaubois, superior of the "Missionnaires Jesuites" in Louisiana. This document appears to have been addressed to Governor Bienville.

95th. 1738--memorial of Governor Bienville, touching his intended operations against the Chicacas.

96th. 1735--opinion of Mr. Bienville in case of war.

97th. 1785, 25th August--Mr. Bienville sends an account on Georgia; of their system of colonization, &c. This document is interesting.

98th. 1735, 20th Sept.--Mr. de Bienville on the Chicachas.

99th. 1735, 14th April--Mr. de Bienville on the Indians.

100th. 1739, 25th March-- do.

do.

l01st. No date--report on the necessity of separating the government of Louisiana from that of Canada, to which under the West India Company it was attached. This document was evidently written in 1731; recommends a new organization.

102d. 1731, 25th March--Mr. Paria advises the minister of the defeat of the Renards, by the Illinois and other Indians living on the borders of Canada; he enters into some details respecting Indian warfare. Speaks of one of the passes at the Balize having 17 feet water, which shortly before had only 12; is of opinion that two vessels employed three months each year, say April, May and June, would give 22 feet on the bar. Speaks of a report by him on the Balize which I have not yet found. This document is very interesting.

103d. 20th August--account of the Natchez war, by Mr. D'Iron, 1731.

104th. 1735--Mr. de Bienville on Louisiana in case of war; its relation with the Indians.

105th. 1737, 20th Dec.--Mr. Bienville's report of two expeditions of the Chactaws against the Chicachas.

106th. 1738, 13th August--Mr. Bienville's report of deserters brought back by the Alibamous.

107th. 1738, 26th April--Mr. Bienville's report on the interior of Illinois and Ohio, and of the Indians there. Page 52

108th. 1738, 22d March--Mr. Bienville's report of an exploring voyage to the river Jachoux (Yazoo), details on those countries; discovery of the Chicachas road which led to the voyage.

109th. 1738, 29th May--Mr. Bienville's report of the voyage of exploration on the Wabash; interesting account of the adjoining country.

110th. 1702, 20th June--memorial of Mr. d'Iberville on the Mississippi, the Mobile, and surrounding countries; their inhabitants, latitudes of many places taken by him; statistics of all the Indian nations, including the Illinois and Ohio. He states the number of families at 21,860; plan of action proposed. This document is ably drawn up and full of interest; it bears the signature of Mr. d'Iberville.

111th. 1708, 25th Feb.--memorial of Mr. Dartaguette, giving an account of the information received by him from Mr. Demny of the fort of Louisiana; statistical report on Mobile.

112th. Letter from Bienville, with a full account of the doings in Mobile and Louisiana; represents the country in a state of great poverty; contains interesting information on the Indians and the English.

113th. 1731--letter from Mr. de St. Denis to Mr. Salmon, giving an account of a battle with the Indians.

114th. 1763--evacuation of Louisiana. It is proposed to send to St. Domingo the troops in Louisiana; this plan is approved.

115th. 13 Fructidor An 10, General Milford Tastanagy proposes to answer the application made by the American minister for the purchase of Louisiana; General Milford promises to prove to the first consul that a cession would be fatal to France.

116th. 1747, Feb.--Governor Vandreuil states his preparations in case of attack by the English; sends a plan of the mouth of the Mississippi (not yet found); says that the bar at the Balize contains 11 or 12 feet, mud and sandy bottom, and 15, 16 and 17 feet on the eastern pass, and a shorter bar.

117th. 1712, 8th Sept.--memorial to prevent debauchery (libertinage) in Louisiana.

118th. 1762, 13th Nov.--cession of Louisiana to Spain; ratification by the King of Spain.

119th. Questions by General Victor to the First Consul regarding Louisiana and his answers.

120th. 1753--Mr. de Kerlerec, suit of André Barri.

121st. 1701--memorial of Mr. d'Iberville on Pensacola. Page 53

122d. 1703--project to take Charleston and to burn it.

123d. 1750, 1st Feb.--letter of Pierre Rigaut, Marquis de Vaudreuil, informing the King of the necessity he had been under of issuing paper money.

124th. Memorandum to show in what light the West India Company ought to have been considered by the French Government.

125th. No date--memorial of the West India Company.

126th. 1685--memorial of the West India Company.

127th. 1753, 8th March--Mr. Kerlerec announcing his arrival in Louisiana, he gives an account of his reception, and some statistical details.

128th. 1770, 16th June--memorial of Mr. Robé; Ordonnateur of Louisiana.

129th. 1715--instructions of the King to Messrs. Lamothe, Cadillac and Duclos, Governor and Ordonnateur of Louisiana.

130th. 1752--three tables to carry on the official correspondence between the colony and its metropolis by the means of ciphers, and the key for the same.

NO. 520 St. Yago; NO. 530 lui; NO. 540 ab; NO. 550 Croix; No 460 beau; 400 Canada, &c.

131st. 1732, 9th May--proces verbal of Messrs. Perrier and Salmon respecting the arrival of 146 Swiss soldiers.

132d. 1760, 2d June--result of the sitting at the government house respecting certain works to be undertaken.

133d. 1707, 22d June--proposals of Mr. le Count de Ponchartrain for the formation of a Company in Louisiana.

134th. 1733--Mr. de Bienville announces his arrival at the Cape Francois; hopes to be in New Orleans 30 days after.

135th. 1732,12th May--letter from Mr. Salmon touching the condition of Louisiana and Mobile.

136th. 1715--extract of a letter written at Caskasias, a village in Illinois, sometimes called l'Immaculée conception de la Ste. Vierge, dated 9th Nov. 1712, by Father Gabriel Marest, a Jesuit residing since several years in that country as a missionary. This letter was printed in 1715 in the "Lettres édifiantes;" it is full of interest, and contains great statistical information.

137th. 1761, 12th Dec.--letter of Mr. Thiton de Sileque in behalf of Mr. de Kerlerec, stating his services for the King.

138th. No date--picture of the troubles in Louisiana, and of the demoralization occasioned by paper money; plan to restore confidence; means recommended; "to coerce forthwith the withdrawal of paper Page 54 money and its payment in full." This document appears to have been written in 1760.

No date--Mr. de Kerlerec asks the cordon rouge and sends his "feuille de service."

139th. No date--remarks on the commerce of Louisiana and its cession to Spain. This document must have been written in 1770.

140th. 1764, May--memorial of Mr. de Kerlerec on the advantages of a commercial treaty with Spain, with a view of establishing an entrepot in New Orleans.

141st. 1764, May--letter of Mr. de Kerlerec enclosing the above memorial.

142d. No date--extracts of all the letters of Mr. de Kerlerec on the demoralized condition of Louisiana. This document must have been written in 1764.

143d. No date--memorial of the corps of engineers; the artillery and cadets of Louisiana.

144th. No date--memorial on the population of Louisiana; Paris and other large cities of the kingdom had been sending to Louisiana their debauched women; fortunately for the colony, says the paper, the women died as they arrived; recommends colonization on a more respectable plan.

145th. No date--memorial on Louisiana, from which it appears that the Capucins established themselves there in 1722; that their establishment obtained the royal sanction on the 15th July, 1725. That the first treaty between the Jesuits and the West India Company was entered into in 1721; and that they obtained the royal sanction to their establishment on the 20th February and 17th August, 1726; that their ecclesiastical functions were subject to the control of the Superior of the Capucins.

PORTFOLIO NO. III.

146th. 1765-1767--correspondence of Aubry and Foucault with the government touching the administration of the country.

147th. 1763--project of evacuation of Louisiana by the French on the cession to Spain.

148th. No date--memorial on Louisiana. This document appears to have been written towards the year 1730; it is remarkable for its extensive views; it treats of the country of Mobile, of the Balize, of its passes, of the country between the Balize and New Orleans, of the Page 55 neighborhood of this city, of Pointe Coupée, of Natchez, or Arkansas, of Illinois; it contains 40 pages, and concludes by offering a plan of colonization for the whole. On the passes it states :--

"River St. Louis (Mississippi) throws itself into the sea by five mouths, thus distinguished: eastern pass, south-cast pass, south pass, south-west pass, and the Balize. In 1720 the south pass was the only one used."

"It has been observed since these passes have been used that only one or two can be navigated at the same time, and that even then they have only 10 to 12 feet water on their bars, which vary each year according to the violence of the winds," &c. &c.

"Besides these five passes, the river throws its waters through smaller issues forced by it, and called Bayous. If three of the above passes were closed, as also the bayous, all the waters would be forced into the two passes situated in opposite directions, such as the pass of the east and the south-west pass; the current being increased there would be less deposits; besides the wind from the sea, which would stem the current of one pass, by throwing a greater bulk of water in the other would increase its current, whereby the bar thereof would clear itself of mud deposits, &c. &c. These passes and bayous may be easily closed by three or four rows of pilotis placed close to each other, and at a distance of about 150 to 200 toises from the mouth of the Mississippi to the pass. The interval would serve as a bed for the drift wood, which being thus stopped would soon be covered with the deposits of the river. I believe that such a work would soon afford a great protection against the river."

At the time this memorial was written, the sugar-cane was producing 2500 pounds of sugar, besides the molasses.

A plan is presented for the employment of 325 white families, and 19,000 blacks, in the cultivation of the sugar cane and tobacco.

149th. 1710--memorial on the advantages to Louisiana of inviting the Acadians established at Detroit to return to this colony.

150th. 1778--memorial of Mad. Dubreuil, praying for a pension from the French Government, as daughter of Mr. Delachaise, director of the West India Company, who was the first administrator of Louisiana, whose wisdom and activity tended to consolidate the colony.

151st. No date--memorial of the citizen Bounevie to the citizen Decres, minister of marine and the colonies, proposing to undertake an exploring voyage from the western part of Louisiana to the Pacific Ocean.

152d. 1754--expose by Mr. Colon of the advantages to France of Page 56 the possession of Louisiana. This paper is highly interesting and full of statistical information; it treats fully of the agriculture of the country.

153d. 1754--memorial of Mr. Colon on the commerce of Louisiana.

154th. 1754--project of association for Louisiana by Mr. Colon.

155th. No date--picture of the wretched condition of the colony produced by the depreciated currency; plan to restore confidence. This document must have been penned about the year 1765 or'6

156th. An 12, Frimaire 20--proces verbal of the "prise de possession" of Louisiana by France. This document is signed Laussat, and is addressed to the citizen Decrès, minister of marine and the colonies.

157th. 1766 to 1768--private letters of Mr. Foucault to the French minister, NO. 1 to 70.

158th. Paris--29 Fructidor--An 9-memoranda on Louisiana by Mr. Joseph Pontalba, of Louisiana. Its position as to the United States; its population; the character of its inhabitants; its culture; its commerce; its resources; the importance it might acquire and the means to obtain the same. Speaks of a plan proposed by a rich inhabitant of Ohio (evidently Gen. Wilkinson), to detach the whole of the western country from the east, to form an independent government with Louisiana, &c. &c. This document, dated "Croissy, near Chalons," is addressed to the minister Decrès.

159th. 1803, 20th Dec.--" the Moniteur," containing the Proclamation of Wm. C. C. Claiborne, announcing the "prise de possession" of Louisiana. This paper, NO. 378, gives a full account of all the events accompanying this change: the new organization and the appointments made.

160th. l709--extract of a memorial by Mr. Mandeville, ensign of the Vaubant Company in Louisiana.

161st. No date--memorial praying the King to commute the penalty incurred by smugglers to transportation to Louisiana.

162d. No date--memorial on Louisiana after the treaty of peace of 1764.

163d. Correspondence of Messrs. de Kerlerec and Foucault on the disordered state of the administration in Louisiana; complaints of the quality of the goods from France for the King's stores; insubordination of the officers.

164th. 1752, 30th Sept.--important observation on the commerce of Louisiana, which Mr. Dubreuil takes the liberty of submitting to the King. Page 57

165th. 1794--An 2--16 Floreal--Paris--letter from the American citizen Mountflorence, to the "Comité de Salut Public," handing extracts from a Boston paper, announcing that there was a revolution preparing in Louisiana to shake off the Spanish yoke, and to follow the impulsion given by North America.

166th. 1763, 10th June--Messrs. Bienville and Salmon, on the commerce with Spain and the cultures of the colony.

167th. 1701--account by Mr. Lamothe de Cadillac respecting the destruction of the Indians on the Huron and Erie.

168th. 1761, 10th Sept.--letter from Mr. de Kerlerec complaining of the insubordination of certain officers, &c.

169th. 1716--memorial on Louisiana; means to take for protecting Louisiana against the English and the Spaniards.

170th. No date--project of letters patent of the King, granting a concession to the West India Company, for thirty years of the commerce of Louisiana discovered by Mr. Delasalle. This document must have been written in 1711 or 12; it grants great privileges to the company, and is divided by articles.

171st. No date--articles rejected from the above project of letters patent prayed for by Mr. Duche.

172d. 1708--memorial on the formation of a commercial company in Louisiana.

173d. 1733--letter of Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon respecting a Mr. Claude Jausset dit Laloire; the first born Louisianian.

174th. 1733--Messrs. Bienville and Salmon on the interdiction of the Jesuits in New Orleans; they remonstrate against such interdiction, and regret that virtuous men should be removed to make room for the dissolute.

175th. 1733, 6th March--letter from Mr. Perrier announcing the transfer by him of the government of Louisiana.

176th. 1733, 28th July--letter of Messrs. Bienville and Salmon advising the receipt of the classing of officers by the minister.

177th. 1733, 22d Sept.--letter from the same, relative to the marriage of an officer, Mr. Buissonnière, with a Miss Trudeau, in defiance of his superiors.

178th. 1733--letter from Messrs. Bienville and Salmon, relative to the "Conseil Supérieur"

179th. 1733, 30th Sept.--memorial complaining of the irredeemable paper money left by the West India Company, and of the loss sustained by the widow of a Mr. Elias, director of the "concession of law." Page 58

180th. 1734, April 3d--Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon, their answer to the proposal of a paper emission; are of opinion that the King's paper would enjoy a better credit than that of the West India Company, but that the inhabitants had lost so heavily by the emissions of that company, that much time would be required before paper currency could again obtain general circulation, and that to attain such an end it would be requisite that the contemplated issues should carry with them undoubted guarantees.

181st. 1734, 28th April--Mr. de Bienville on the subject of a petition against him.

182d. 1734, 26th April--letter of Mr. de Bienville and Salmon, On the subject of difficulties regarding the rank of officers.

183d. No date--necessity for a larger force in Louisiana; proposal to increase the number of soldiers in the same proportion as the English, in time of peace as well as in time of war, observing that the increase of the French navy was only a casus belli with the English.

184th. 1761, Madrid 8th and 10th Dec.--letter from the Marquis d'Ossun to Mr. de Kerlerec, on the preparations to be made in case of attack by the English.

185th. Without date--memorial on the disastrous effects of the monopole granted to the West India Company.

186th. No date-pro formâ expenses to be incurred by the King in taking back Louisiana.

187th. No date--memorial representing the increase of population of the English in Canada, and the necessity from its neighborhood to Louisiana, to take the necessary measures to prevent its loss.

188th. 1731, 23d June--retrocession by the West India Company of its privileges to the King. The concession extended to Illinois. By this document it appears that the letters patent were granted by

Edicts in August and September, 1717

" May,

1719

" July,

1720

" and June,

1725

189th. No date--proposal by the syndics and directors of the West India Company.

190th. No date--project of ordinance to accept the retrocession by the West India Company.

191st. Project of deliberation by the syndics and directors of the Page 59 West India Company, for the retrocession of the privileges of the company.

192d. 1760, 7 Dec.--Mr. de Rochemore, attributing to the agio of depreciated currency the wretched condition of Louisiana.

193d. 1788, 27th March--document whereby it would appear that Mr. de Villars, Commissioner of Louisiana for the King, had addressed him to the following effect under date of 27th March, 1788. "That General Wilkinson, one of the largest proprietors in the new State of Kentucky, had come down to Louisiana, giving to understand to the administrators of the colony, that the adjoining United States had come to the determination of forcing a passage through, the Mississippi, the navigation of which to remain hereafter open to both countries, but that he had obtained of them to suspend their movements until his return."

On the other hand, Messrs. Vincent and Marbois observe that people are in great error if they think that Congress can entertain such ideas, that the population of the western country can only increase at the expense of the 13 Eastern States, these States possessing really only a border Country of about 100 leagues on the ocean.

194th. 1772, 13th Feb.--claims of the "Fermiers Généraux" on the merchants of Louisiana for arrears of duties.

195th. 1716--instructions of the King to Messrs. l'Espinoy and Hubert, "commissaire ordonnateur," respecting Louisiana.

196th. 1723, Paris--letter of Mr. de Purry to the Duke of Bourbon, on Louisiana. Mr. de Purry, from Neufchatel, Switzerland, had been Director-general of the West India Company, in whose service he remained for five years; he had come to France on the invitation of Law. This letter is full of interest, and shows great ability; he presents a plan of colonization which would have been admirable; places great stress upon the culture of the silk worm, &c.

197th. No date--answer to the observations made on Mr. Purry's letter.

PORTFOLIO NO. IV.

198th. 1769, 1st Sept.--Statement by Aubry of the rebellion in Louisiana; copy of his correspondence with O'Reilly, whereby it is evident that it was on his information that the following gentlemen were arrested, to wit :--

Messrs. de la Frenière, Procureur-Général. Page 60

Mr. Hardy, Assesseur an Conseil.

Mr. Mazan, a reformed captain, and Chevalier de St. Louis.

Mr. Marquis, reformed Commandant of the Swiss Company.

Mr. Noyan, reformed Captain of Cavalry.

Mr. Caresse, Captain of Militia.

Mr. Milhet, Captain of Militia.

Mr. Milhet, Lieutenant of Militia.

Mr. Poupet, Merchant.

Mr. Petit, Merchant.

Mr. Doncet, Lawyer.

Mr. Foucault, Ordonnateur.

Aubry hands to the French minister a copy of his letter to Governor O'Reilly, under date 20th August, 1769, denouncing the above-named persons, as also Mr. Villeré, who he states had joined the rebels on the 29th with 400 men from the Acadian coast, thereby increasing the force in the city to 1000 men, under the direction of La Freniére. "Mille projects," says Mr. Aubry, "se sont succédés les uns aux autres; on a eu le dessein d'ériger le pays en Republique; on a présenté au conseil une requête pour y établir une Banque, à l'imitation de celle d'Amsterdam et de Venise; car ce sont les propres termes dont ils se sont servis."

199th. August 28th, 1769--proces verbal of the arrest of Foucault by Messrs. Aubry and B. de Grand Maison; F. E. de Mazillière and John Trudeau; seals affixed by the Notary Garic on all effects be-longing to said Foucault; papers relative to the conspiracy delivered to Governor O'Reilly.

200th. Proces verbal by the Notary Garic of the estate of Foucault.

201st. 27th August, 1769--proclamation of General O'Reilly, announcing the promulgation of the Black Code or Edict of the King, for the government and administration of justice, police and discipline, and the commerce of black slaves in Louisiana. In the same proclamation, Messrs. Fleurian and Ducros are presented as judges.

202d. 1769, 21st August--General O'Reilly announces a general pardon, save the chiefs of the rebellion, who are to undergo their trial.

203d. 1769, 19th August--copy of a letter from General O'Reilly to Governor Aubry, asking information on the rebellion; the names of the chiefs, &c. &c.

204th. 1769, 23d August--letter from the same to the same, asking all information and papers of whatsoever nature in his possession, in order that the chiefs of the rebellion might he convicted. Page 61

205th. 1769, 24th August--copy of the answer of Mr. Aubry to governor O'Reilly, giving all the information required, together with he names of the leaders. The Chevalier d'Arinsbourg, commandant of the Acadian coast was among the number.

(N. B. Mr. d'Arinsbourg was saved through the intercession of Mr. Forstall, under whose uncle General O'Reilly had served in the regiment of Hibernia in Spain.)

206th. 1750--discovery in Louisiana of a flint mine (crystal); he place made a secret.

207th. 1766, 7th Sept.--ordinance of Governor Aubry in the name of Governor Ulloa, ordering all invoices of goods to be delivered, that the value of such goods might be regulated; and making paper money legal tender.

208th. 1766, 12th Sept.--protest of the merchants and inhabitants of Louisiana against the above ordinance, signed as follows: B. Duplessis, Moulin, Jean Mercier, Jr., Petit, J. Vienne, Blache, Toutant Beauregard, Durel, Rose, J. Senilh, Duprest, Bienvenu, Goumigu, Revoil, Voix, L. Ducrest, D. Brand, Guezille, Braquier, Papion, Braquier Jeune, J. Boudet, Doraison, St. Anne, P. Caresse, Cavelier Frères, Hinard, P. Poupet, Broussard, Revoise, Durand, Estebe, J. Lafitte, cadet, Jean Souvaistre, A. Bodaille, Cantrelle, Astura, Brunet, Fournier and St. Pé, Dumas and Gricunnard, Rodrigue, fils ainé, Louis Ransom, Testas, Moullineau, P. Segond, P. Guignam, A. Boisdoré, L. Boisdoré, G. Guignam, Chateau, Sarpy, Détouvit, Villefranche, Salomon, P. Simon, E. Hughes, Macmara, J. Arnoult, J. Sarrou, Dubourg, Durand, Cadet, Ducarpe, B. Gaillardié, Raguet, J. Nicolas, Jh. Millet, Delapize, Brion, Bertrémieux Ainè, Blandin Dulestre, A. Reynard, Fortier, Blaignad, Bijon, L. Daubech, Langlois, M. Duralde, Bourjeaux, M. Bonnemaison, Joly, F. Hery, Forstall, B. Lenfant, A. Olivier. This protest, certified by Foucault, is couched in most energetic language.

209th. 10th Sept. 1766-protest of the captains of vessels against Aubry's ordinance.

210th. 28th August,1766--memorial of Foucault to Governor Ulloa.

211th. 20th Jan. 1768--letter of Governor Aubry, giving an account of his government jointly with Governor Ulloa, who for want of troops cannot take possession of the country.

212th 1768, 20th Jan.--letter of Mr. Aubry on the same subject.

213th. 1768, 4th Jan.--copy of a letter from Mr. Aubry to his Page 62 Excellency General Hardiman, Governor of Pensacola, for his Britannic Majesty, demanding 20 Spanish deserters.

214th. 1768, 14th Nov.--remarks of Mr. Aubry on the rebellion of Louisiana.

215th. 1768, 14th Dec.--protest of Gov. Aubry against the ordinances of the superior council.

216th. 1738--memorial respecting marriages between Indians and whites.

217th. 1726--memorial on Louisiana, pointing out the manner of placing the colony on solid foundations. This paper signed by Messrs. Drouot and Valentin, contains valuable statistical information.

218th. 1724--memorial on the culture of tobacco.

219th. No date--memorial suggesting the establishment of a floating battery at the Balize, signed "Bertrand."

220th. 1719, 10th July--details of a mining expedition in the neighborhood of Kaskasias. This paper is signed "Perry."

221st. 1723--memorial on the means of upper Mississippi.

222d. 1763--correspondence between Colonel Robertson, commanding Mobile for his Britannic Majesty, and Governor d'Abaddie. This part of Louisiana was ceded to England by the treaty of Paris, of 10th February, 1763, the seventh article of which reads thus :-

ART. 7.--The river and the port of Mobile, and the left bank of the Mississippi, New Orleans, and the islands on which it is situated excepted, are ceded, &e.

223d. 20th Dec.--letter from Governor Aubry to his government respecting the Louisiana rebellion; he states that he cannot express himself freely, that he can trust no one, not even his own Secretary, lest he should be treated in the same manner as Ulloa.

224th. 1768, 28th Dec.--remarks of Aubry on the Louisiana rebellion.

225th. 1768, 8th March--letter of Mr. Aubry on the rebellion, enclosing copy of a letter by him addressed to Mr. Baccalary, Governor of Havana.

226th. 1763, 20th Oct.--proces verbal of the transfer of Mobile by the French government to the English government. This document is signed "Derville, Farende, Robert Fannar."

227th, 1763, Oct. 20th.--proclamation of Robert Fannar, on his taking possession of Mobile, and of all that part of Louisiana situated on the left hand or eastern bank of the river Mississippi, from its source down to the river d'Iberville, thence across Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea. Page 63

PORTFOLIO NO. V.

228th. 1721, 5th Sept.--by.laws of the West India Company, for the government of Louisiana, approved by the King.

229th. 1721, 2d Sept.--rules by the same company to encourage the culture of tobacco, rice, and the introduction and education of silk-worms.

230th. No date--report on the Indians; extracts from Governor de Vandreuille's correspondence, announcing a treaty of peace with the Chactas, a nation counting 4000 warriors, and occupying an extent of country exceeding 40 leagues. This document must have been written about the close of 1739.

23lst. 1761, 6th March--extract of a letter from Mr. de Kerlerec to the Marquis d'Ossun, complaining of the conduct of the government of Campeachy towards French vessels that had entered that port in distress, whilst on a voyage from New Orleans to Havana, for assistance on behalf of the colony.

232d. 1761, Oct. 3d, St. Ildephonse--letter from the Marquis d'Ossun, informing Mr. de Kerlerec of instructions given to the government of Mexico, Havana, Pensacola, and of all other Spanish pos. sessions in behalf of all French vessels; speaks of the projects of England to obtain possession of Mexico, and of the necessity of retaining Louisiana as the best means of defeating their plans.

233d. 1761, 10th Jan.--letter from Mr. de Kerlerec to the Marquis d'Ossun complaining of the silence of his Court; proposes to use ciphers for their correspondence.

234th. 1761, 31st Oct. Escurial--memorial from the French ambassador respecting the impossibility to supply Louisiana with the assistance needed, all French vessels being captured by the English; points out the common interest of Spain and France in retaining Louisiana; suggests a depot in Havana, Campeachy, and other neigh. boring ports, of provisions, fire-arms, and munitions of war, to be within reach of New Orleans whenever required. All such provisions and other articles required, to be paid for by the French government.

235th. 1763, 9th July--decree by the "conseil supérieur de la Louisiane," forbidding the introduction of slaves from St. Domingo, poisoning being common in that island among the negroes. Page 64

236th. 1752, 12th Sept.--letter from Mr. Michel "Ordonnateur" to the minister, complaining of the want of proper officers for the "conseil supérieur," and begging the government to supply the colony with two young engineers and one surveyor.

237th. 1752, Feb.--letter from Mr. de Vaudreuil to the minister advising the capture by a Spanish "Garde Cote," of the French vessel "l'Etoile," and demanding her restitution.

238th. 1754, 4th July--letter from Mr. de Kerleree and d'Auberville, announcing the arrival of families from Lorraine, sent by government; speaks favorably of those families whom they advise having placed in the parish "des Allemands."

239th. 1754, 9th July--Mr. d'Auberville to the minister with the budget of the colony for 1754, and a list of all officers employed.

240th. 1754, 21st Sept.--Messrs. de Kerlerec and d'Auberville to the minister, requesting the government to send two miners to work the mines discovered in Illinois, lead and copper.

241st. 1652, 22d Sept.--Mr. Michel to the minister with full reports on the condition of the country; gives interesting details on the culture of cotton; the difficulties to separate the seed from the wool; of a gin invented by Mr. Dubreuil; the culture of tobacco, rice, indigo and the commerce of peltries; the advantages that might be obtained by irrigation of the land, in dry seasons, and the renovation of the fields by introducing the water of the Mississippi on old lands, &c. &c.

242d. 1753, 9th March--Mr. d'Auberville to the minister, showing the necessity of rebuilding the government house; announcing the death of Mr. Michel, and the situation of the treasury on that day.

243d. 1735, 31st August--Messrs. Bienville and Salmon, improvement in the management of the militia hospital since placed under the care of the Ursulines; complains of medicines furnished by government.

244th. 1731, 10th Jan.--letter from Mr. Dirou d'Artaguette to the minister defending himself against charges brought by Governor Perrier; interesting details of his wars with the Indians.

245th. 1728, 8th Dec.--Mr. Dirou to the minister, on the situation of the country of Mobile.

246th. 1739--Chicachas war; details of the forces sent from France.

247th. 1736, 28th June--Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon, interesting details on the Chicachas campaign; the retreat of Mr. de Bienville with 544 men under his command. Page 65

248th. 1751, 12th Jan.--Mr. de Vaudreuil to the minister, announcing the termination of the war with the Chactas; begs for the cross of St. Louis for Captain de Grandpré, as a reward for the services rendered by him during the last campaign.

249th. 1729, 22d Sept.--Chicachas war; expedition from France. 500 men; detail on the projected campaign.

250th. 1731, 5th Dec.--Messrs. Perrier and Salmon, announcing the recording in the minutes of the "conseil supérieur," of the letters patent of the King respecting the retrocession by the West India Company of all their privileges in Louisiana; interesting statistical statements and other documents, showing the true condition of the colony at that epoch.

251st. 1736, 9th June--Mr. Dirou d'Artaguette, announcing the failure of the expedition of Mr. de Bienville, at the bead of 1500 men including his allies, against the Chicachas.

252d. 1731, 20th April--Mr. Dirou d'Artaguette, details on the Indian war; calls for aid.

253d. 1762, Jan.--letter from the King of France to Mr. de Kerlerec, in which he states "by the preliminaries of peace agreed upon at Fontainbleau on the 3d Nov. last, having ceded part of the province of Louisiana to the King of England, I have resolved upon ceding the other part to my cousin, the King of Spain." Then follows an order for the delivery to England and Spain of the whole of the province, in accordance with the limits fixed upon in the said preliminaries.

254th. 1762--instructions of the King to Mr. d'Abbadie regarding the delivery of Louisiana to England and Spain.

255th. 1731, 24th June--Dirou d'Artaguette, announcing new disorders among the Natchez; the murder of two officers near the Arkansas; destruction of the Tunicas by the Natchez; calls for assistance.

256th.--No date-instructions of the King to Mr. d'Abbadie, regarding the artillery and munitions of war at Mobile. This letter must have been written in 1762.

257th. 1721, 13th Sept.--instructions from the West India Company to the directors and sub-directors in Louisiana, for their guidance in the management of the affairs of the Company.

258th. 1719, 28th Oct.--report of Mr. Hubert on Pensacola; Dauphin Island; Ship Island and l'Ozage; recommends Ship Island as the best harbor for men-of-war.

259th. 1721,31st Sept.--instructions by the West India Company Page 66 to the directors and sub-directors in Louisiana, signed in Paris by "Demachault and Dedune."

260th. 1713, 15th July--interesting memorial by Mr. Duclos on Louisiana, including the country of Mobile, addressed to Count Pontchartrain.

261st. 1718, 21st June, Paris--memorial on Louisiana, signed "L. A. de Bourbon, le Marechal d'Estrées," par le conseil "Lachapelle."

This memorial is full of interest. France had then in view the possession of the whole of North America; to attain such an end Louisiana was considered as the basis of the whole plan, and a colonization upon a large plan was recommended. A naval depot was suggested on Ship Island; a general plan of fortifications was proposed from Pensacola to the "Baie St. Bernard." The English plan of colonization was strongly recommended, to wit: 500 to 600 families at a time provided by government with all the necessary utensils, cattle, &c. &c., and provisions for one year. The whole to be returned by the parties when in a situation to do so; none but good peasants to be sent; the plan comprehendng the Wabash, the Illinois, the Yazoo, the Missouri and Natchitoches; the working of the mines of Missoun proposed; the memorial is thus concluded: "A large commerce can be carried on between Mexico and Missouri. Missouri has another branch nearly as important; its source is said to be from the same mountain; it is believed that this branch empties itself in the South Sea. The Canadians invited in those parts would soon create establishments for a commerce with Japan and China. Such would be the importance of such a trade that the truth of these reports is worthy the attention of government."

262d. No date-report from la Rochelle, announcing the departure of the frigates "la Victoire et la Duchesse de Noailles," with 570 men for Louisiana.

263d. 1718, 21st July--incomplete memoranda concerning Mr. de St. Denis' journey through the Red River to Mexico.

264th. 1713--Mr. Crozat informs the government of the efforts of the British to seduce the Indians on the upper Mississippi and in the Natchez country; applies for two officers and 40 men for Illinois.

265th. 1716, 7th Sept.--incomplete memoranda on certain changes proposed for Dauphin Island, and the Fort St. Louis of Mobile ; instructions to be given to the military posts in Louisiana, and particularly to that of Alibamons. Page 67

266th. 1714, 27th Dec.--military establishments (posts) in Louisiana ordered by the King in a letter under this date.

267th. 1716 21st July--memorandum on the morus tobacco, and a leaf named Appalachine, considered a specific for the gout and for the stone, and other diseases, by the Indians of Appalache. These memorandas are by Mr. Lamothe, who strongly recommends the in introduction of silk worms.

268th. 1716--instructions to Mr. de la Mothe, respecting the works on Dauphin Island, &c. &e.

269th. 1716, 21st Feb.--Mr. de la Mothe on the discovery of certain mines.

270th. 1718, March lst--inventory of the public stores, &c. &c., in the King's warehouses in Dauphin Island and in Mobile.

271st. 1721, 2d Sept.--appointment by the King of the Chevalier Le Blond de la Tour, as Lieutenant-general of the province of Louisiana.

272d. Petition of the West India Company to the King, praying that by letters patent of the 15th January, 1724, Mr. Delachaise having been made a member of the supreme council, although deputed by the King with extraordinary powers to investigate the affairs of the company in Louisiana, by decree of his Majesty's council of 8th December, 1722, that the said Delachaise be permitted to act as honorary counsellor in the "Conseil de Régie Générale," and in that capacity to serve the company in the furtherance of the welfare of the colony. This petition is signed by the directors of the West India Company in Paris.

273d. 1723, 24th April--letter from Mr. de Bienville, dated 20th June, 1722, announcing the order of the Viceroy of Mexico for (he cession of Pensacola to Spain. This letter is accompanied by the order of the King of France.

274th. 1724, 26th Oct.--prices fixed for merchandize tendered by the inhabitants in payment of debts to the West India Company.

275th. 1721--documents relative to the beaver trade in Canada; petition against the monopoly of that trade.

276th. 1725--sundry letters relative to the war with the "Renards."

277th. 1743--Mr. de Vaudreuil's account of the situation of the colony respecting the Indians.

278th. 1726, 7th August--ordinance by Messrs. de Boisbriant, Commander-General of the province of Louisiana, and Delachaise, "Commissaire du Roi," and first Counsellor of his Majesty in the Page 68 "Conseil Supérieur de la Régie;" measures to be adopted in consequence of the rupture between England and Spain.

279th. 1765, 1st June--printed extracts from the minutes of the "Conseil Supérieur" relative to the Abbot de l'Isle Dieu.

280th. 1755, Paris, 2d Sept.--printed treaties on the patent letters to the Capuchins of Champagne, concerning the missions through Louisiana.

281st. 1726, 13th Sept.--articles of agreement between the Ursulines and the West India Company, for the service of a military hospital in New Orleans. These articles, to the number of 28, containing all the conditions attached to certain grants; are signed by " l'Abbé Ragolet."

282d. No date-project for the retrocession of Louisiana by the West India Company to the King.

283d. 1739, 25th Oct.--memorial of the Chevalier de Fabrau on Louisiana, without interest.

284th. 1742--agreements consequent to the retrocessiou of Louisiana by the West India Company on the 27th March, 1731.

285th. No date--memorial on the same subject.

286th. 1759, 6th March-- Mr. Rochimore, complaining of ,the insubordination of officers.

PORTFOLIO NO. VI.

287th. 1731, Oct. 30th--Ursuline Convent founded in 1727; memorial of Father d'Avangeon on the advantages of that institution; the object is represented to have been the education of young girls, the nursing of the sick as "hospitalières;" the service of the military hospital; prays for aid in order to increase the number of sisters, originally 6 to 12, and the confirmation in "franc alleu" of the lands granted in New Orleans, and that they may be permitted to enjoy the privileges belonging to their order in France.

288th. 1764, 15th Feb.--instructions to Mr. d'Abbadie respecting the Jesuits, which instructions are stated to have been carried into effect, the company having been dissolved and their estates having been sold previous to the receipt of the letters patent of the King bearing date the 3d June, 1763.

289th. 1724, August--inspection by the Louisiana committee, of the different military posts of that colony, to wit: New Orleans, the Balize, Biloxi, Dauphin Island, Mobile, Alibamons, Natchez, Natchitoches, Page 69 Yazoo, Arkansas, Illinois. The committee recommend the giving up of the military posts of Biloxi, Dauphin Island, and Arkansas.

290th. 1741, 30th April--Mr. de Bienville, interesting account relative to the Indians.

291st. 15th Sept.--report of Mr. Duvergé, concerning different operations intrusted to him for the improvement of the colony; presents a plan for an establishment at Ship Island, at Alibamons, and on the Wabash; also, but on a smaller scale, at Biloxi and in Illinois; recommends the clearing of the Manchac of trees impeding the navigation of that rivulet; proposes a road from Biloxi to the Illinois by land; submits a plan for the raising of silk worms; speaks of a military post on the St. Bernard, &c. &c. This report embraces a complete organization for the government of Louisiana, and is highly interesting, presenting large views on the commerce and agriculture of the country, and was approved by the directors of the West India Company in Paris, on the 15th September, 1720.

292d. 1727, 24th April--missions to be supplied by the Capuchins throughout Louisiana.

293d. 1733, 15th Jan.--plan of the fort of Natchitoches, (signed) Broutin.

294th. 1734, 25th July--plan of a large portion of the city of New Orleans, (signed) Broutin, including Toulouse, St. Peter, St. Anne, and Dumaine, Levée and Condé streets; on this plan are indicated the following buildings to be undertaken during 1734, to wit: barracks, fronting the river between St. Anne and Dumaine; government house, fronting the levee, between St. Peter and Toulouse; the custom house, (Intendance,) also fronting the levee between Dumaine and St. Anne.

295th. 1733--plan (signed) "Broutin," elevation of a building to be placed on the top of a wine cellar in the custom built in 1732.

296th. 1733, 15th Jan.--(signed) "Broutin," plan of the powder magazine; on this plan are seen the dresses of the inhabitants of that epoch.

297th. 1733, 15th Jan.--plan (signed) "Broutin," of the wall surrounding the powder magazine.

298th. 1733, 15th Jan.--plan (signed) "Broutin," side view of the powder magazine built in 1732.

299th. 1734, 12th July--proces verbal of Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon accompanying the above plans.

300th. 1734, 25th July--plan (signed) "Broutin," of barracks, Page 70 &c; to be erected during 1734, between St. Anne and Dumaine streets.

301st. 1733, 15th May--Mr. de Bienville relative to the Indians; interesting details respecting the Natchez, the Chicachas, &c.; original letters from persons inhabiting among those nations and the Illinois; the Alibamons, the Natchitoches, the Talapenches, the Chitimachas, the Attakapas, and the Loupelousas.

302d. 1734, 27th July--Mr. de Bienville on the Chicachas, Natchez and Chactas; interesting details; a few speeches by the Indian chiefs.

303d. 1734, 25th Jan.--Mr. de Bienville on the Indians.

304th. 1733, 26th July--the same on the same subject.

305th. 1716, 8th Oct.--memorial on the importance of colonizing Louisiana; an armed colonization is recommended instead of soldiers, as being less costly and more useful.

306th. 1733, 15th May--plan (signed) "Devin," of the Fort Condo at Mobile.

307th. 1734--memorial on the necessity of colonization in Louis- iana; void of interest.

308th. 1734, 6th April--Mr. Perrier on the movements of the Indians.

309th. 1734, 26th April--Mr. de Bienville on the Indians; ac- count of a battle, &e.

310th. 1732, 14th May.--Mr. Perrier on the Indians; and of the missionaries among them.

311th. 1731, 10th Dec.--Mr. Perrier on the war with the Natchez; the situation of the colony, and the budget for 1732, &c. &c.

312th. 1772--petition from the commerce of Bordeuux, claiming a continuation of franchise on goods from Louisiana on the following grounds:

1st. Because although the cession of Louisiana to Spain by treaty took place in 1762; it was only publicly known in France in 1765.

2d. Because the King of Spain only took possession of that colony in March, 1766.

3d. Because the Revolution of 1768 and 1769 in that country, was the cause of most of the agents of the Bordeaux merchants being either shot or sent to the mines.

313th. 1747, Feb.--Mr. de Vaudreuil, murder of a cadet and of a soldier by the Chatas; details on the Indians.

314th. 1747, Jan.--Mr de Vaudreuil, on the Indians and the doings of the English. Page 71

315th. 1736; 18th June--Mr. de Beauchamp calls for a corps of miners and bombardiers to carry on the war with the Chicachas, whom he represents as living like weazels, in cabins resembling ovens partly under ground, and communicating with each other.

316th. 1626, 29th March--memorial of Mr. de merveilleux on the erection of a fort at Pascagoula, recommended by Mr. Delachaise.

317th. 1759, 5th July--proces verbal of the confiscation of the English schooner the "Three Brothers," commanded by Joseph Boull, aged 36 years, belonging to Rhode Island, (signed) Rochemore.

318th. 1750, 11th June-extract of a letter from Mr. Durand to the Marquis of Puyzenet, dated London, speaking of the Quakers and of the Moravians, in the highest terms; recommends them for the colonization of Louisiana; and adds, "it appears that Admiral Anson was intrusted with a project, which not having received, its execution cannot now be fully ascertained. A plan found in the papers of King William the Third shows, however, that that prince bad conceived the idea of taking possession of the Isthmus of Darien, and by the means of the river running nearly through from one sea to the other, to open communications between the fleets in the Atlantic and South Seas, granting at the same time, commissions to all privateers, for the purpose of annoying the French and Spanish commerce, and of gradually keeping the latter power in the dependence of England."

319th. 1722, 6th Nov.--Mr. de Bienville, handing a speech made by him to the Indians.

320th. No date--coup d'oeil on Louisiana, by Mr. Roquevante, wherein he endeavors to show the advantage of the fur trade on the Canadian plan.

321st. No date--project for the guidance of the military "commandants" towards the Indians in Louisiana.

322d. 1740, 28th June--memorial of Mr. Duvergé relating to the discovery of the road from New Orleans to the upper country, through the Chicachas; the whole is very interesting and contains about 100 pages.

323d. 1731, 16th March--letter from Mr. Regis a Roullet on the Indian war.

324th. 1733, 19th March--plan (signed) "Broutin," elevation of the Ursulines Convent.

325th. 1733, 19th March--other view of the same building.

326th. 1733, 1st May--plan of a military hospital. Page 72

327th. 1731, 21st Feb.--letter of Mr. Regis de Roullet on the Indian War.

328th. 1723, 3d May--interesting documents, containing the speeches of several of the leading Indian warriors, asking the pardon of a soldier condemned to death.

329th. 1732, 9th July--plan of the parish church of New Orleans, bricks between posts, (signed) "De Bat."

330th. 1726, 22d Jan.--discussions between the Jesuits and the West India Company, void of interest.

331st. 1719--history of a journey in the interior of Louisiana, by Bernard de la Harpe, containing a memorial for assistance.

332d. 1740--paper on the Indians.

333d. 1730--project of a private letter from the West India Company to Mr. Perrier, respecting the English and Spaniards in Louisiana.

334th. 1740, 29th August--Mr. de Bienville on the Chicachas war.

335th. 1740, 31st Oct.--Mr. de Bienville on the same subject.

336th. 1733, 8th Sept.--Mr. de Bienville renders an account of the situation in which he has found the colony respecting the Indians.

337th. 1733, 25th Jan.--Mr. de Bienville on the Indians.

338th. 1731, 25th March--relation by Mr. Perrier of the defeat of the Natchez.

339th. 1717--memorial on Louisiana, of little interest.

340th. 1721, 4th Oct.--letter from Messrs. de Bienville, Le Blond, Latour and Duverge respecting Mr. Laharpe's relation of his voyage to the Bay of St. Bernard.

341st. 1720--letter from Mr. de la Harpe, accompanying the history of his discoveries. This letter is dated Dauphin Island.

342d. 1759, Jan. 3d--memorial on the functions of Civil Engi- neer and General Surveyor.

343d. 1766, July 9th--letter from Mr. Aubry explaining the reasons which have induced Governor Ulloa to delay taking possession of Louisiana.

344th. 1767, 11th Jan.--letter from the Duke of Choiseul to Mr. Aubry, approving the continuation of his government for the King, of Spain; the latter paying all expenses.

345th. 1749, 2d Jan., Paris--copy of a letter from the Count de Maurepas to Messrs. de Vaudreuil and Michel, on the culture of indigo. Page 73

346th. 1730, 1st August--Mr. Perrier on the Indian war.

347th. 1726--discussions between the Jesuits and the West India Company.

348th. 1768, 22d Jan.--Foucault to the minister, complaining of the difficulty of his position, and referring to his joint communications with Aubry.

349th. 1735, 15th April--Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon, on commerce and agriculture.

350th. 1744, 10th Feb.--paper on the Indians.

351st. 1743, August--Mr. de Vaudreuil report on Mobile.

352d. No date--memorial on Louisiana, disapproving the emission of paper money by the administrators of the colony; demoralization which must flow from such emissions.

353d. 1754, 6th Nov.--Mr. de Kerlerec on the Indians.

354th. 1748, 1st Oct.--Mr. de Vaudreuil on the same subject.

355th. 1743, Dec.--Loubrey, Commandant of Mobile, on the Indians.

356th. 1743, July--Mr. de Bienville on the Indians.

357th. 1714--memorial of Mr. Crozat for the raising of troops for Louisiana.

358th. 1767, 25th Oct.--pamphlet containing extracts on the following subjects

NO. 1. America civilized.

Nos. 2 to 7. Prophecy on America; the manufactures of North America destined to destroy the supremacy of Great Britain.

PORTFOLIO NO. VII.

359th. 1768, 20th Jan.--letter from Mr. Aubry explaining the extreme difficulty of his position, compelled as he was, being a French Governor, to govern for the King of Spain; Governor Ulloa with only ninety soldiers not deeming it prudent to receive possession of the colony.

360th. 1767, 29th Jan.--agreement between Aubry and Ulloa, by which the former consents to defer the delivery of Louisiana to the latter, both in the mean time governing the colony.

361st. 1767, 30th March--Mr. Aubry expressing his desire for the arrival of Spanish troops in order to give up the government of Louisiana; states his joint action with Ulloa ia all necessary measures; complains of Ulloa's quick temper, &c. &c. Page 74

362d. 1766, 20th April--instructions to Mr. Aubry for the cession of Louisiana.

363d. 1765, 30th Sept.--Aubry announces some disturbances among the Pakanas in the neighborhood of Illinois, and an expedition headed by Mr. de Lavilleboeuvre, an officer well acquainted with the Indian language, against a party of Indians who had made themselves masters of property and cabins belonging to the English on the Iberville. The delivery of the property by the Indians to Mr. de Lavilleboeuvre; speaks of the difficulties arising from the occupation by three nations of the same river.

364th. 1765, 16th Sept.--letter from Aubry to Governor Johnston of Mobile; explaining his difficult position regarding the Indians; promises his best efforts to maintain peace.

365th. 1765, 31st August--instructions of Mr. Aubry to Mr. de Lavilleboeuvre as commandant of an expedition against the Alibamons, for the purpose of demanding property seized by them on the Iberville, and belonging to the English.

366th. 1764, 15th Jan.--Mr. Aubry, explaining tho difficulties encountered by Mr. d'Abbadie on the part of the English at Tombeckbe and Alibamons, &c. &c.

367th. 1764--copies of speeches of Messrs. d'Abbadie and Farmer to the Indians.

368th. 1765--words of the Troquois, Loups, and Chonans from Fort Duquesne (Pitt), by a Loup chief accompanied by two warriors carrying 25 scalps, (English.)

369th. 1769--answer of Mr. de Noyan.

370th. 1763, 3d Sept.--Black Code of France put in operation.

371st. 1776, Madrid, 8th July--instructions respecting the per- mission granted for the exportation of timber, provisions, &c. &c., for the relief of the French Islands.

372d. 1777, 26th April--letter from Messrs. d'Aunoy and Villars to the French government, announcing the seizure by Governor Galvez of 11 English ships richly laden and moored opposite to some of the plantations, and his defence to the planters under heavy penalties to carry on any traffic with the English.

373d. 1777, 17th Oct.--answer of the minister-to Messrs. d'Aunoy and Villars inviting them to continue their communications.

374th. 1786, Versailles, 10th Feb.--letter from Mr. de Vergusnes on the subject of a French vessel seized in the Mississippi, and correspondence with the Spanish government to the same effect.

375th. An 10th, Paris, 8th Thermidor--refutation by General Page 75 Milford Tartamgy of an article in the Gazette de France, recommending the cession of Louisiana to the United States. Louisiana being there represented as a narrow strip of moving sands, marshes, and bogs, etc. etc.

376th. No date--memorial on Lower Louisiana, from Iberville to the sea. Void of interest.

377th. 1769, 23d May--Mr. Aubry on the rebellion and the demoralization produced by paper money; states the interference of Mr. Lafreniere to prevent further disturbances; hands the following documents.

378th. 1769, Feb.--extract from the registers of the "conseil supérieur" containing transcript of a letter dated Port au Prince, 9th February, 1769, and signed St. Leger, in the name of the "conseil souverain" of that place, approving the rebels in driving out of the country Governor Ulloa, and of another letter from the Doyen of the council of Port au Prince couched in nearly the same words.

379th. An 10th, 27th Fructidor, Paris--letter from Mr. Laussat, Colonial Prefect of Louisiana, submitting several questions to the government.

380th. No date--sounding of the coast of Florida; the Tortugas; of St. Rose Island; of Pensacola and of Mobile, by Mr. de Iberville, from 1698 to 1699; at the Balize in 1733 to 6 and 7; passe à la Loutre 15 ½ feet; soundings of Ship Island in 1798 by Mr. de Iberville, also of the Chandleur Islands; bay of St. Bernard in 1720, &c. &c.

381st. Paris--questions upon which the attention of the government is particularly called. They appear to have been propounded by Mr. Laussat; the reimbursement to the planters of paper money issued by the Spanish government, and amounting to $800,000, form part of these queries.

382d. No date--memorial advising the French republic to demand the session of Louisiana.

383d. 1759, 28th March--memorial on Louisiana; project proposed for the colonization of that province by Bertrand Duvernet, on condition of a grant of 40 Leagues of land on both sides of the river from the city of New Orleans up.

384th. 1751, August--observations on two circumstances considered as favorable to the improvement of Louisiana; this document is not without interest.

385th. 1765 to 1768, NO. 1 to 170--letters of Mr. Foucault to the ministers, relative to the administration. Page 76

386th. 1760, 22d Dec.--reports of Mr. Duverger, chief engineer, to Mr. Andry on fortifications directed by him.

387th. 1761,8th Jan.--letter from Mr. Rochemore inclosing copy of the instructions to Mr. Aubry, and reporting on the fortifications intrusted to that officer.

388th. 1766, 1st August--memorial on Louisiana; mutility of that colony for France.

389th. 1731, Jan.--Mr. de Perrier, movement of the Indians in Louisiana since the capture of the Natchez Fort.

390th. 1759--trial and confiscation of the English schooner "Three Brothers," to be continued.

391st. 1768, 16th Dec 9.--Mr. Aubry speaks of the disturbances in Louisiana, and expresses his fears.

392d. No date--memorial touching the retrocession by the West India Company, to the King of France. Uninteresting.

393d. 1760, 1st June--Rochimore, Conveying statements of presents made to the Indians.

394th. 1768, 20th Jan.--Mr. Aubry respecting the cession to Spain; incloses copy of correspondence between Governor Ulloa and him. Void of interest.

395th. 1753--extracts of letters from Messrs. de Kerlerec and Foucault to the government, uninteresting; matters of administration.

396th. 1753, 23d Nov.--project of alliance with the Canices submitted to Mr. de Kerlerec.

397th. 1716--journal of the expedition against the Natchez. Very interesting; the expedition was headed by Mr. de Bienville.

398th. 1712--different projects granting to Mr. Crozat the exclusive commerce of Louisiana during 15 years.

399th. 1752, 30th Sept.--memorial of Mr. Dubreuil Villars relative to the agriculture of Louisiana.

400th. 1772, 13th Seat.--letter from Mr. Fazende to ministers stating the reasons which had prevented his accompanying the accounts rendered by him.

401st. 1741, 17th March--memorial on tobacco.

402d. 1750--memorial on Louisiana, and project for the cultivation of tobacco on a large scale.

403d. 1763, 23d Nov.--process verbal of the delivery of the military post of Tombeckbé to Lieutenant Thomas Ford.

404th. 1764, 10th Jan.--Mr. d'Abbadie advises the delivery to the English government of Mobile, &c. Page 77

PORTFOLIO NO. VIII.

405th. No date--memorial containing the history of Louisiana since its discovery by Lasalle in 1682. It appears that nothing was done until after the peace of Berwick. Mr. d'Iberville at that epoch was intrusted with a new expedition, and was accompanied by his brother, Mr. de Bienville, who remained in that colony as Lieutenant-Governor until 1712, when Mr. de la Mothe Cadillac took charge of the government, having been appointed Governor in the room of Mr. Dumerry, who had died during his passage from France. Mr. Crozat on the 14th September, 1712, obtained by letters patent of the King, the exclusive privilege of the commerce of the colony; this privilege Mr. Crozat gave up in 1717, and in August of the same year, the same exclusive privilege was granted by letters patent to the West India Company, that company having been established by an edict of the King at the same time; this latter privilege was granted for 25 years, to wit: from the 1st January, 1718, to the first December, 1842, and included the fur trade. The whole of this document, which appears to have been written about the year 1730, is interesting.

406th. No date--memorial on the same subject showing the necessity of a retrocession of the privileges of the West India Company to the King.

407th. 23d Nov. 1732--highly interesting letter from the "missionnaire," Mr. R. P. Baudoin, on the Tchactas nation, dated from their village of Tchicachee.

408th. No date--memorial on Louisiana; Indian war; miserable condition of the colony.

409th. 1740, 28th June--memorial of Mr. Dubreuil on the subject of a canal undertaken by him one league above New Orleans, and of the great advantages that may be derived from the whole of the Barrataria district.

410th. No date--uninteresting memorial on Louisiana.

411th. No date-- do. do. do.

412th. 1757, 1st June--memorial on Louisiana, showing its advantages to France.

413th. No date--notes on the preceding memoir.

414th. No date--memorial on the Indians of Louisiana; their number, and the commerce that can be carried on with them.

415th. No date--memorial on the same subject, and very full. Page 78

416th. No date--memorial containing a description of Louisiana, of its ports, of its soil, of its rivers, of the Indian nations, and pointing out the great advantages to be derived by colonization. This paper is evidently of a very ancient date.

417th. No date--general idea touching the mode of creating a commerce for Louisiana; the author refers to Mr. de Bienville, then in Paris.

418th. No date--memorial on Louisiana, to render that colony flourishing; this paper appears to have been drawn up for the West India Company; it is interesting.

419th. No date--memorial to induce France to retain Louisiana; speaks of the several climates, and of the facilities with which it might be made to supply France with silk, tobacco, &c. &c., and cotton.

420th. Memorial on the importance of Louisiana; void of interest.

421st. No date--letter from Mr. Baron, complaining of Governor Perrier.

422d. No date--memorial on Louisiana; contains some interesting details. This paper appears to have been written by Mr. de Kerlerec.

423d. 1749--project for the cultivation of tobacco in Louisiana, and the trade in timber, by Mr. Faby.

424th. No date--memorial pointing out the necessity of fixing the limits between Canada and Louisiana.

425th. 1748, 2d Nov.--Mr. Michel opposing the reunion of Canada and Louisiana.

426th. 1746, 28th August--journal of the voyage of a Major Beauchamp of Mobile, to the Tchactas nation, by order of Mr. de Vaudreuil, to demand satisfaction for the murder of three Frenchmen.

427th. 1747, 28th March--observations of Mr. Augeas on the different soils bordering on the Mississippi.

428th. 1746--memorial on the situation of the colony. This paper is drawn up with a good deal of care.

429th. 1754--memorial from Messrs. Kerlerec and d'Auberville, recommending a floating battery at the Balize.

430th. 1750--memorial on the situation of the inhabitants of Louisiana, and of the advantages to be derived by an importation of negroes to be employed in the cultivation of tobacco.

43lst.--1749--situation of Louisiana; a poor production.

432d. 1750, 12th Oct.--letter from Mr. Livaudais on the changes produced in the passes by equinoxial gales; in the month of July Page 79 this engineer states the passes to have been S. S. E., and N. N. W., and at the time he was penning his report they were E. and W.

433d. 1731, 15th Nov.--Mr. de la Boulage on Louisiana.

434th. 1754, 13th Sept.--paper from Mr. Duvergé pointing out the necessity of having landmarks at the Balize for vessels coming in; plan proposed by him and approved by Mr. de Kerlerec.

435th. 1738, 15th August, Paris--Mr. Courtuzur to Count de Maurepas, proposing the formation of a company in Louisiana.

436th. 1789--very able memorial on the culture of tobacco.

437th. 1741--paper relative to the advantages the public service might derive from the timber on the Barrataria

438th. No date--memorial of what would be required by Louisiana; void of interest

439th. 1764, 7th April--Mr. Aubry announcing the delivery to Great Britain of the portion of Louisiana ceded, and mentioning the failure of an expedition to Illinois by the English.

440th. 1761, 15th Dec.--letters in cipher of Mr. de Kerlerec representing the miserable condition of the colony.

441st. 1762, 10th Feb.-- do. do.; giving an account of the Indians.

442d. 1761, 8th June-- do. do. do.

443d. 1761, 8th March-- do. do. do.

444th. 1760, 21st Dec.-- do. do. do.

445th. 1762, 28th April--letter from Mr. de Kerlerec on the difficulty of this position with the English Indians.

446th. 1763, 23d Oct.--letter from de Kerlerec on the formalities required for the evacuation of Mobile.

447th. 1763, 2d May--Mr. de Kerlerec acknowledging receipt of the King's ordinance announcing cessation of hostilities with the English; speaks of the Indians who have sacrificed their all to the French, and who will find themselves deprived of presents.

448th. 1762, 24th June--Mr. de Kerlerec, letter in ciphers complaining of frauds by the persons supplying the King's stores.

449th. 1st March, 1765--Mr. Aubry, on the conduct of the Indians towards the English; copy of a speech of the Chaouanan chief named Charlot to Mr. d'Abbadie.

450th. 1765, 12th March--Mr. Aubry on the difficulty of his position, it being impossible to satisfy at the same time the Indians, the English, the Spaniards, and the French congregating in New Orleans.

451st. 1765, 6th May--copy of a letter from Mr. St. Ange, commandant Page 80 of Illinois, regarding the bad disposition of the Indians towards the English; incloses several Indian speeches.

452d. 1765, 16th May--Mr. Aubry, inclosing copy of Mr. St. Ange's communication.

453d. 1765, 10th July--Mr. Aubry speaks of a cessation of hostilities between the English and Indians at Illinois; inclosing several Indian speeches.

454th. 1762, 26th July--Mr. de Kerlerec in ciphers, speaks of the difficulty of his position with the Cherokee Indians.

455th. 1767, 27th Jan.--Mr. Aubry states that the British have taken possession of Illinois; proces verbal of the delivery of that section of Louisiana.

456th. 1713, 25th Oct.--memorial submitted to the Count de Pontchartrain by Mr. Duclos on Louisiana; this paper contains a good deal of statistical information, and a historical account of the beginning of the colony; 100 pages.

PORTFOLIO NO. IX.

457th. 1759, 27th Jan.--memorial on Louisiana, proposing to favor the emigration from Canada.

458th. 1741, 4th Oct.--Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon, handing the report of Mr. Duvergé on the Balize; of the changes at different epochs; refers to several charts I have not been able to discover; this document is interesting.

459th. 1725--memorial on the navigation of Illinois.

460th. 1728--extract of a letter from Mr. Perrier, regarding the munitions of war supplied by him to the Spaniards of St. Augustine, and the means by him taken to prevent the English interrupting cultivation.

461st. 1760, 17th Dec.--Mr. de Rochemore, on the sugar.cane, cultivated by the Jesuits in 1744, in their gardens.

462d. 1724, 20th May--report on the mine "de Lamothe," distant 14 leagues from Kaskassia.

463d. 1780, 13th Feb.--letter from Mr. Fabre Daunoy to the French government, announcing the expedition of Mr. de Galvez at the head of two thousand men for Mobile, where lie is said to expect a reinforcement of two thousand more front Havana, the whole of the force then to march against Pensacola; advising the capture of the British possessions on the Mississippi. Page 81

464th. 1752--preliminary articles of peace between the French and the Cherokees, prepared by Mr. de Kerlerec.

465th. No date--speech of Poudiak, an Indian chief, to Mr. de Noyau; in the same paper are several other speeches.

466th. 1764, 15th Jan.--correspondence of Mr. d'Abbadie on the cession of Mobile.

467th. 1760--complaints of Mr. Rochemore against Messrs. de Kerlerec and de Macarty.

468th. 1760--

do.

do.

469th. 1737, 21st Feb.--letter from Mr. de Cremont announcing his arrival, and giving some details on the colony.

470th. 1763--correspondence of Mr. d'Abbadie on the difficult position of Mobile towards the Indians.

471st. 1763, 13th Dec.--project of operations between Louisiana and Canada; void of interest.

472d. 1764--four dispatches from Mr. d'Abbadie, on the difficulties encountered in Mobile with the Indians; correspondence on this subject.

473d. 1764--correspondence of Mr. d'Abbadie on the same subject; encloses copy of a letter from Mr. John Stuart of Illinois, complaining of munitions of war being supplied the Indians.

474th. 1727, 15th Nov.--Mr. Perrier on the situation of the Colony.

475th. 1702--Memorial on Mobile and the Mississippi plan of Colonization.

476th. 1749--Mr. de Vaudreuil renders an account of the situation of the Colony.

477th. 1741, 25th Jan.--Mr. de Beauchamp on the Indian wars.

478th. 1742, 15th March--M. Duvergé handing his "feuille de service."

479th. 1742, 18th February and 28th March--Mr. de Bienville giving an account of the situation of the Colony.

480th. 1742, 13th Feb.--Mr. Salmon announces the attack on a convoy ascending the Illinois, by the Indians.

481st. No date--Mr. Perrier announces the defeat of the Natchez.

482d. 1731, 5th Dec.--Messrs. Perrier and Salmon, on Louisiana and Illinois, details on the mines and agriculture.

483d. 1697--project of colonization on the Mississippi. This document is highly interesting.

484th. 1759--Mr. Rochemore, relative to his administration. Page 82

485th. 1742, 24th March--Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon. Report on the waxtree.

486th. 1765, 2d Aug.--Mr. Foucault regarding reproaches addressed to Mr. d'Abbadie for having granted an exclusive privilege to five or six merchants of trading with the Indians. States the reasons which had induced Mr. d'Abbadie to introduce letters of Exchange on France; adds that he had approved both measures which the miserable condition of the Colony had rendered of an absolute necessity that a friendly intercourse might be kept up with the Indians.

487th. 1731, 24th June--Mr. Diron Dartaguette giving an account of an attack by the Natchez on barges ascending to the Arkansas and of the destruction of the Tonicas on the 13th June by the Natchez.

488th. No date--memorial on Louisiana, showing that the first establishment in Louisiana was at Mobile, where a fort was built; the next at Biloxi, where are two copper mines; and then at New Orleans. Barrataria is represented as a valuable section for its timber. The author says that at Natchitoches near the village of Caddaquioux is to be found a very rich silver mine, the produce of which had been tried by a Portuguese, named Antoine, a miner from Mexico. He speaks of the emigration to Louisiana of Canadian families in 1686; states that in 1699, Mr. d'Iberville arrived with another colony of Canadians, which was followed by other families headed by a Mr. Du Tessenet; the emigrants came by land, first ascending the St. Laurent to the lake Erie, then ascending a small river emptying itself in that lake, to the portage des miamis; their effects being thence transported by the Indians to the river Miamis, where pirogues, out of a single tree, and large enough to contain 30 persons, were built for the voyage down the Mississippi, first descending the Oyo. The author further points out the high lands of Manchac as the best place for a city, and New Orleans as a place of deposit; the whole of the document is interesting.

489th. 1759, 13th Oct.--Mr. Rochemore, giving an account of the trial of the English sloop Texel, from Jamaica with a rich cargo, and of her condemnation; states that Mr. de Kerlerec had notwithstanding this trial released the vessel.

490th. 1759, 13th Oct.--the same subject.

491st. 1685, August--Mr. de Beaujeu, on the expedition of Lasalle which terminated his life; advises the minister to apply to Mr. Demanille, a priest of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, for information he as well as himself having formed part of Lasalle's expedition.

492d. No date--account of the defeat of Major Dartaguette, of Page 83 his death and of that of 45 of his men; among whom there were 17 or 18 officers; the French detachment was composed of 130 men, 38 Iroquois, 38 Arkansas, 190 Illinois and Miami, in all 396 men. The expedition left Illinois on the 20th February, 1736, reached the Chicachas country on the 24th March, and attacked them on the same day; they were abandoned by the Illinois and Miami, which compelled Dartaguette to retreat, hence the defeat and heavy loss sustained.

493d. 1736, 26th May--interesting account by Du Tertre of the attack of the French to the number of 7 to 800 men of the fortified village of the Chicachas, on a hill at about 250 leagues from New Orleans. The French being defeated with a loss of 120 men; fortifications described; surrounded by timber one cubic foot placed circularly with three rows of loopholes; the Chicachas were bedded to the stomach in the earth, observed the greatest silence, and suffered the French to approach within good musket shot before firing; their first fire killed 50 men, the second 30, 1

494th. 1733, 19th March--plan of the Ursulines Convent, (signed) "Broutin."

495th. 1734, 15th March--plan of Mobile, (signed) "Devin."

496th. 1702--objections to plan proposed by Mr. d'Iberville, to invite the Illinois and Scioux to emigrate to the Mississippi.

497th. 1702--memorial on the Mississippi and Mobile; reasons Of Mr. d'Iberville for giving the preference to Mobile; among others the impossibility of forming a military establishment at the mouth of the Mississippi; population of Mobile 139, to wit: 9 officers, 24 sailors, 2 couriers, 14 workmen, 64 Canadians, 26 soldiers.

498th. 1741, 5th May--interesting report of Mr. Duvergé civil engineer.

499th. 1740, 5th May--Mr. Duvergé on his discovery of a road from New Orleans to Illinois, through the Chicachas nation; complains of the treatment of certain officers towards him.

500. 1738, 26th April--journal of Mr. Duvergé during his voyage to recognize the Chicachas road; accompanied by a plan, which is not to be found.

501st. 1736, 19th Sept.--Mr. Duvergé complaining of the conduct of the government towards him.

502d. 1734, 4th May--Mr. Duvergé complaining of being without commission as engineer.

503d. 1733, 9th August--Mr. Duvergé on the same subject; all his letters possess more or less information. Page 84

504th. 1736, 13th Sept.--Mr. de Bienville on the Indians.

505th. 1731, 30th Nov.--memorial of Mr. St. Denis, on the means to protect the country against the insults of the Indians, &c.; void of interest.

506th. 1731, 30th Nov.--Mr. St. Denis, bitter complaints of the abandonment of the colony by the government.

507th. 1736, 29th May--Mr. de Bienville on the Indians.

508th. 1735, 16th Sept.--Messrs. de Bienville and Salmon on the Indians.

509th. 1736--do.

do. on the Chicachas.

510th. 1745, 1st April--Mr. de Laye, presenting a plan of campaign against the Chicachas, and to destroy their fort.

511th. 1750--memoranda for the King, extracted from the correspondence of Mr. de Vaudreuil on the Indians.

512th. 1759, 30th June--correspondence between Messrs. Rochemore and de Kerlerec, on the necessity of emitting paper money to pay the officers of the King.

513th. No date--miserable condition of the colony, plans proposed; mere repetitions.

514th. 1726--agreement with Mr. Basin, a miner and a drawer; memoranda of tools required to work the mines.

515th. 1729--memorial on the changes it would be advisable to make in the administration of the West India Company; this document is interesting, as it shows the whole organization of the company.

516th. 1722, 1st July--Mr. Chassin, of Illinois, interesting details on the mines; speaks of siver coins and plates brought by the Indians trading with Mexico.

517th. 1723, 21st Sept.--Mr. Furry to the Duke d'Orleans, praying that he be permitted to have his memoir on Louisiana printed, and offering to prove that there is no country in France or Europe equal to Louisiana, and that none but ignorants and traitors can have a different opinion.

518th. 1725--memorial of Hubert on Louisiana, drawn up by order of the Duke of Noailles.

519th. 1722, 9th Dec.--memorial of Drouet de Valdeterre on Louisiana, presents a complete organization.

520th. 1720, 25th Dec.--interesting memorial on Louisiana, Bernard de la Harpe.

521st. 1717, 5th July--propositions by the West India Company to the navy council, and memorial to that effect. Page 85

Three large and well bound minute books, to wit: Vol. I., 1712 to 1720, contents:

1st. Letters patent granted by the King to Mr. Crozat for the exclusive commerce of Louisiana, dated "Fontainebleau, 14th September, 1712." Privileges of Mr. Crozat, returned to the King 23d August, 1717. Letters patent in the form of an edict creating the West India Company in August, 1717; exclusive privileges granted to that company for 25 years, to begin 1st January, 1718, and to close in December, 1742.

Instructions by the company; its administrative acts; organization prepared in Paris; appointments by the King of officers recommended by the company.

This book of record was kept by the company.

Vol. II. 1721 to 1731, contents:

1st September, 1721, concession of lands to Mr. de Boisbriant.

16th May, 1722, ordinance in behalf of the Capuchins for an establishment in Louisiana.

19th December, 1722, ordinance relative to the Capuchins.

December, 1722, Mr. Delachaise appointed by the King with extraordinary powers, to investigate the whole of the West India Company's affairs in Louisiana.

January, 1724, presentation by the King of Mr. Delachaise to fulfill the functions of first counselor in the conseil supérieur of Louisiana.

January 11th, 1724, letters patent giving admission to Mr. Dela-chaise in the conseil snpérieur of Louisiana.

February, 1724, Brevet permitting Mr. Delachaise to accept the appointment of honorary counselor in the "conseil de la Régie of Louisiana."

July 5th, 1725, Brevet permitting the establishment of the Capuchins in Louisiana.

September 13th, 1726, treaty with the Ursulines.

September 18th, 1726, Brevet in favor of the Ursulines. Decree regulating the concessions granted, and to be hereafter granted in Louisiana, &c. &c.

Vol. III., contents:

Edicts; letters patent; declarations; decrees; ordinances and rules concerning Louisiana.

From 24th September, 1712, to 27th August, 1746, edicts, letters patent, declarations, ordinances and decrees of the council of state, ordinances and rules of governors, and decrees and rules of the "conseil Page 86 supérieur" concerning Louisiana, from 23d January, 1731, on which day the West India Company surrendered its government to the King, to 27th August, 1746.

Declaration of the King of 17th July, 1743, regarding the judgments to be rendered in land contestations, and on the subject of land concessions to be granted in the colony.

In the "BIBLIOTHEQUE DU ROI," Paris, NO. 650. "Relation ou annale véritable de ce qui s'est passé dans le Pays de la Louisiane, pendant 22 années, par Perricaul," (from 1700 to 1722,) small quarto, methodically written and divided into chapters, 374 pages.

NO. 1074. "Journal du voyage de la Louisiane, fait par le Sr. Bernard de la Harpe, et des découvertes qu'il a faites dans la partie de l'ouest de cette colonie," (in the year from 1718 to 1722 inclusive.) Large folio, 160 pages.

NO. 628. Sup. fi. (same volume as the above.) "Journal du voyage fait par deux frégates du Roy, la Pradine commandée par Mr. d'Iberville, et le Marin par Mr. le Chevalier de Surgères, qui partirent de Brest le 24 Oct. 1698." Large folio, 86 pages.

There are several other interesting letters and papers relating to Louisiana, in the same volume, and at the same period; also a manuscript map of the Mississippi river, dated 1700.

In this map the Red river is called, Sablonnière, the Arkansas, Tonti, and the Missouri, Rivière des Osages. You will also receive by this opportunity copies of two very interesting documents.

1st. 1st September, 1769, letter of Governor Aubry to his government, giving a full account of the occurrences in New Orleans on the arrival of Governor O'Reilly, of his participation in the arrest and condemnation of Messrs. de la Frenière and others; of the means used to bring the conspirators together at the government house, where they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a body of grenadiers, at the close of a speech of Governor O'Reilly, which is given at full length in said letter.

2d. Records of the trial and condemnation of Messrs. Nicolas Lafrenière, Jean Baptiste Noyan, Balthazar Mazan, Pierre Marquis, Joseph Villeré, Pierre Carrère, Pierre Hardi de Boisblanc, Joseph Petit, Jean Milhet, Joseph Milhet, Pierre Poupet, Julien Jerome Doucet, Foucault et Bienville, whereby it appears that Pierre Marquis was commander-in-chief: that his project was to establish a Republic similar to that of Switzerland, and a bank under the name of the "Mont de piété;" that this bank was put in operation under the direction of Mr. Hardy de Boisblanc; that a form of government Page 87 had been prepared; that previous to his arrest, Marquis had thrown it into the fire; that on the 20th Oct. 1769, the accused were found guilty of high treason; that on the 24th Governor O'Reilly approved the sentence, condemning Messrs. Nicolas Chauvin Lafrenière, Jean Baptiste Noyan, Pierre Carrere, Pierre Marquis and Joseph Milhet, to be hung. And declaring infamous the memory of Mr. Villeré, (killed in prison.) Also condemning Mr. Joseph Petit to perpetual imprisonment in one of the strong castles of his Catholic Majesty. Messrs. Balthazar Mazan and Julien Jerome Doucet, to 10 years' imprisonment; and Messrs. Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc, Jean Milhet et Pierre Poupet to six years' imprisonment; ordering all the papers, documents, &c., found in the possession of the conspirators to be burned upon the public place by the public executioner, and confiscating the whole of their property in favor of the crown. That on the 25th Oct. the Licentiate Felix del Rey informed Governor O'Reilly officially that the above sentence could not be carried into execution because a hangman was not to be found in the country. That on the same day Governor O'Reilly ordered the conspirators condemned to death to be shot. That on the 26th October, 1769, at 3 o'clock P. M., Messrs. Nicolas Chauvin Lafrenière, Pierre Marquis, Joseph Mllhet, Jean Baptiste Noyan, and Pierre Carrere, with their arms well secured by ropes, were taken out of the barracks of the Regiment of Lisbon, where they had been imprisoned, and conducted under a strong escort of officers and grenadiers, to the place designated for their execution, where a large number of troops had been formed into a square, that their sentence was there read to them in the French language, immediately after which they were shot. That on the same day all the seditious papers found among the conspirators were burned on the public square. That on the following day Messrs. Joseph Petit, Balthazar Mazan, Julien Jerome Doucet, Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc, Jean Milhet, et Pierre Poupet, were shipped to the Havana to be confined in the Moro Castle. [Page 88]

[Blank Page] Volume 2 Chapter 4 [Page 89]

A TRANSLATION

OF AN

ORIGINAL LETTER

OF

HERNANDO DE SOTO

ON THE

CONQUEST OF FLORIDA. [Page 90]

[Blank Page] [Page 91]

A TRANSLATION OF AN ORIGINAL LETTER

OF

HERNANDO DE SOTO.

HERNANDO DE SOTO TO THE MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES

OF ST. JAGO DE CUBA. MOST NOBLE SIRS:

Since my arrival in this country, I have written three letters by different opportunities to Havana, and without being honored with a reply to either, I embrace this occasion to address you another, believing it will always be agreeable to you to hear from me. I sailed from Havana with my fleet on Sunday, May 18th,* although I had written you I would not weigh anchor before the 25th. I set sail sooner than I had intended, in order to profit by a favorable wind. We had no sooner, however, entered the Gulf than we were becalmed, which prevented us from reaching this coast before Whitsunday the 25th. We missed our port by five or six leagues through the carelessness of the pilots, which obliged me to embark on board of one of the brigantines to go in search of it, which detained me three days more. But another cause of this delay was my ignorance of the channel, which led me into a bay some twelve leagues or more inland, from which I found it difficult to extricate myself. This loss of time, therefore, obliged me to send Vasco Parcallo de Figueroa, my lieutenant.general, with the brigantines to take possession of a village at the foot of the bay, and I ordered him to land all the troops and horses there, where I afterwards joined him, with some difficulty, on Trinity Sunday. The Indians became frightened, and deserted the

Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca, says the 25th of May, 1539. Page 92 country, so that in a distance of thirty leagues or more we did not meet with a human being.

As soon as I landed I was informed that a Christian was in the power of a cacique of the country. I accordingly dispatched Baltasar de Gallegos with forty horsemen and as many foot soldiers, to bring him into camp. After marching a day's journey he overtook the Christian in company with eight or ten Indians, who were coming to me. I was much pleased with this good fortune, for this man knew the language of the country, although he had almost forgotten his own. His name is Juan Ortiz, a gentleman of Seville. I afterwards went in person to the cacique of this province, and learned from him that his intentions were entirely pacific. I then dispatched Baltasar de Gallegos with eighty lancers and one hundred foot soldiers, to reconnoitre the country. He found it cultivated with fields of Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, and other vegetables, sufficient for the supply of a large army. Having arrived at a cacique's called Hurripacuxi,* who is the chief of several provinces, I negotiated with him a treaty of peace, which he broke very soon after. I had him immediately arrested, with seventeen others, among whom were several old men, who were influential with the Indians, and acquainted with the interior of the country. They told me that after three days' journey I would come to a country well peopled and cultivated, and to a large city called Aquerra; and after two more days' we should reach another city called Ocale, where it would be pleasant for us to spend the winter.

They related to me so many improbable things about its magnificence, that I dare not repeat them all to you. They said we should find here all kinds of poultry, and deer Guayhacos enclosed in parks. Besides persons who carried on a brisk trade with them in gold and pearls, which were found in their province in great quantities. I trust in God it may be so, for I have threatened to punish them if they attempt to deceive me. The Christian has so far rendered me very important services. Indeed I do not know what would have become of us if we had not been so fortunate as to have met with him. I constantly return thanks to God for his watchful care over us. There are still at sea eighty foot soldiers in the brigantines. My general has taken forty horsemen with him, for the purpose of assisting Juan d'Anasco, who has surprised a large body of Indians. When he returns I shall go into winter quarters at Ocale, where I

The Urribacuxi of Vega. Page 93 hope to find all that my army should stand in need of. I hope that God will prosper this expedition for his service, and that I may ever be found useful to my country. In spite of the arduous duties I have to perform, I can never forget my country, and the many obligations I am under to my friends. I am indeed sorry it is not in my power to greet them in person. I beg of you to continue to govern the country well, for which I shall never cease to thank you. As it regards the fort which was commenced before my departure, I wish you to have it finished, as the time may come when it will be useful for the defence of the city. I now pray God to keep your lordships from all harm, and prosper your undertakings. I subscribe myself in this city and port of Saint Esprit, in the province of Florida, this ninth day of July, 1539,

Your lordships' obedient servant,

HERNANDO DE SOTO. [Page 94]

[Blank Page] Volume 2 Chapter 5 [Page 95]

A TRANSLATION

OF A

RECENTLY DISCOVERED MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL

OF THE

EXPEDITION OF HERNANDO DE SOTO

INTO

FLORIDA.

BY LUIS HERNANDEZ DE BIEDMA. [Page 96]

[Blank Page] [Page 97]

A NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION

OF

HERNANDO DE SOTO.

BY

LUIS HERNANDEZ DE BIEDMA,

(Facteur de sa Majesté.)

PRESENTED TO THE KING AND COUNCIL OF THE INDIES, 1544.*

HAVING arrived at the Port of Baya Honda,+ we landed six hundred and twenty men, and two hundred and twenty-three horses. As soon as we had done so, we were informed by one of the Indians we had captured, that a Christian++ was living a few leagues off, who had served in the expedition of Pamfile de Narvaez. The cacique of this province on hearing we had landed, asked the Christian if he wished to return to us. He answered him in the affirmative, and immediately sent him, with nine Indians, to our camp. His body was naked, and in his hand he had a bow and arrows. As soon as we perceived them coming we took them for spies, and marched out to meet them, but they fled in every direction. The horsemen dashed after them and wounded one of the Indians, and would have killed the Christian if he had not invoked "the Virgin Mary;" and made signs that he was a Christian, for he had almost forgotten to speak our language. He was immediately conducted to the governor. He * This narrative was presented, says Munoz, to the King and

Council of the Indies in 1544, by Luis Hernandez de Biedma, who accompanied the expedition in the capacity of "Facteur de sa Majesté," and has been but very recently discovered in Spain. + The Espiritu Santo of Vega, and now called Tampa Bay. ++ Juan Ortiz, a gentleman of Seville. Page 98 stated that he had been twelve years among the Indians, and spoke their language perfectly; but that he was unacquainted with the country, and was unable to tell us anything about it, except that there was no gold in it.

We now set out from the Port of Baya Honda, to penetrate the interior of the country, with all the troops except twenty-six horsemen and sixty foot soldiers, which we left behind to defend the fort, until they should receive orders from the governor to join him. We marched in a westerly direction, and then north-east. We heard of a cacique who received tribute from all the nations. His name was Hurripacuxi,* and lived about twelve leagues from the coast. We continued to march across swamps and rivers for fifteen or twenty leagues, and reached a village about which we had been told strange stories. Among others, they pretended that when the inhabitants shouted aloud, the birds flying in the air would fall dead to the ground. We arrived at a small village called Eto-cale.+ Here we found some Indian corn, beans, and little dogs, which was not a meal for our hungry army. We remained here seven or eight days, during which time we made an attempt to entrap some Indians, to serve us as guides to the province of Apalache. We then set out in the direction of New Spain, marching ten or twelve leagues from the coast. After five or six days' journey, we passed some hamlets, and arrived at a village called Aquacalecuen, when we found the Indians had fled to the woods.

We remained here five or six days to procure guides, and took with us ten or twelve women, one of whom informed us that she was the daughter of a cacique, who afterwards joined us. After six or seven days' journey, we met a hundred and fifty Indians armed with bows and arrows, who were watching an opportunity to rescue the cacique we had brought with us. We killed a few and captured others; among the latter were some who were acquainted with the interior of the country. We then passed a river, and crossed a country called Veachile, where we found a great many deserted villages. We came to a village called Aquile,++ on the frontier of the province of Apalache, and separated from Veachile by a river,§ over which we threw a bridge of rafts tied together. We crossed it with difficulty, for the Indians had posted themselves on the opposite bank, and fought with great * The Urriba cuxi of Vega. + Near the Suwanee. ++ Supposed to he a village of that name now south of the Allachua prairie. § Supposed to be the Suwanee River. Page 99 bravery. We marched to the village of Ivi-ta-chuco,* but as soon as the Indians saw us, they set fire to their village and fled. The province of Apalache contains many villages, but we found provisions very scarce there. From Apalache we marched to the province of Yustaga. The governor now thought it time to hear from those he had left behind at Baya Honda, as it was not his intention to advance so far into the country as to render it impossible to have any communication with them.

We had now traveled one hundred and ten leagues. The governor went in search of the sea, which was nine leagues distant. We had now come to that part of the coast where Pamfile de Narvaez had built his vessels. We recognized the spot on which he had built his smithy, and saw a great quantity of horses' bones scattered about.+ The Indians told us the Christians had built their vessels here. As soon as Juan d'Anasco had marked the trees on the shore, the governor ordered him to go to Baya Honda, and send forward the troops he had left there, and to return himself by sea with the brigantines to Apalache. As soon as the brigantines had arrived, the governor sent them again to sea, under the command of the Chevalier Francisco Maldonado de Salamanca, to find a port to the East. He coasted along shore until he reached a bay++ which had a good harbor. On the bank of a river was an Indian village, some of whom came to trade with him. He spent two months in making this exploration. As soon as he returned, the governor ordered him to take the brigantines, on board of which was Donna Isabella de Bobadilla, to Havana, and on his arrival there, to set sail again with them to the river Saint Esprit, where he agreed to meet him in six months, if he should not hear from him sooner.§

As soon as the brigantines had set sail for Cuba, we began our march to the north, and journeyed five days through a desert until we came to a large and rapid river, which we crossed over in boats.

This province is called Acapachiqui.** We observed some * The Vitachuco of Vega. + Supposed to be the site of the present town of St. Marks, where Pamfile de Narvaez embarked the miserable remnant of his troops, on the 22d September, 1525, to return to Spain. ++ Supposed to be Pensacola Bay, the Achusi of Vega. § In the following year (1542) Maldonado returned to the Port of Achusi (Pensacola), to communicate with De Soto, but not finding him there he returned to Havana. ** The Capachiqui of Yoga. Page 100 villages, but as the country was covered with very extensive swamps, we could not explore them. The Indian huts in this province were differently constructed from those we had previously seen. They were dug in the ground, and resembled caverns, while those we had passed were above ground, and covered with branches of palm trees and straw. We continued our march until we came to two rivers, which we crossed by making rafts of pine trees, and entered a province called Otoa,* where we found a much larger village than we had yet seen. We captured some Indians, to serve us as guides and interpreters. We took five or six days to cross this country to a province called Chisi.+ From Chisi we went to a province called Attapaha. Here we found a river which flowed towards the south, like those we had already passed, and emptied into the sea where Vasquez de Ayllon had landed. This province is well peopled. The governor questioned the Indians about the province of Cafitachiqui.++ They told him it was impossible to get there, as there were no roads, nor provisions of any kind which he could obtain, and that he must die of hunger if he attempted it.

Nevertheless, we continued our march until we came to some caciques (Ocute and Cofoque), who gave us some provisions, and told us that if we would declare war against the Queen of Cafitachiqui,§ they would furnish us with all that we needed on the road, and warned us that they had no communication with her, as they were at war with her. Seeing that we were resolved on going there, they furnished us with eight hundred Indians to carry our provisions and baggage, and guides who took us in an easterly direction, but after three days we found them deceiving us, nor did we know which road to take to this province. The governor sent men in different directions to find a road, and gave them each ten days to go and come, with orders to report any villages which they might see. Those who went in the direction of south, and south-east, returned four days after, and reported they had found a little hamlet, and some provisions. They brought with them some Indians, who understood our guides, which was very fortunate for us, as we had but few interpreters. We immediately marched for this hamlet, to wait there until the messengers who had gone in the other direction could join us. Here we found fifty fanegas of Indian * The Aute of Vega. + The Chisca of Vega. ++ Supposed to be about the head waters of the Savannah River. § The Copachiqui of Vega. Page 101 corn, some wheat, and a great many mulberry trees, and other wild fruit. As soon as the other messengers came we set out for the village of Cofitachiqui, which was twelve days' journey from this hamlet, situated on the banks of a river, which we took for the Saint Helene.*

When we arrived, the queen sent us one of her nieces, in a litter carried by Indians. She sent the governor a present of a necklace of beads, canoes to cross the river with, and gave us half the village to lodge in. The governor opened a large temple built in the woods, in which was buried the chiefs of the country, and took from it a quantity of pearls, amounting to six or seven arrobes, which were spoiled by being buried in the ground. We dug up two Spanish axes, a chaplet of wild olive seed, and some small beads, resembling those we had brought from Spain for the purpose of trading with the Indians. We conjectured they had obtained these things by trading with the companions of Vasquez de Ayllon. The Indians told us the sea was only about thirty leagues distant. They also informed us that Vasquez de Ayllon had not penetrated far into the country, but had mostly followed the sea shore, until his death. That a large number of his soldiers died of hunger, and out of six hundred who had landed in this country with him, only fifty-seven had escaped.

We remained ten or twelve days in the queen's village, and then set out to explore the country. We marched in a northerly direction eight or ten days, through a mountainous country, where there was but little food, until we reached a province called Xuala,+ which was thinly inhabited.++ We then ascended to the source of the great river, which we supposed was the Saint Espirit. At the village of Guasuli, they gave us a great many dogs, and some corn to eat, which served us until we reached a village called Chisca,§ where we found an abundance of provisions. It is built on an island in the Saint Esprit river, and near its source.** The Indians live here in walled villages, and make a great deal of oil from nuts. We remained here twenty-six or seven days, to rest our horses, which had become very * Supposed to be in the Cherokee country, and probably the Hiwassee or Tennessee River. + The most northern point of De Soto's travels, and probably in the latitude of 35 N. ++ Supposed to be the mountainous country of the Cherokees. § Supposed to be in the country of the Chicachas. ** Supposed to be the Flint or Apalachicola River. Page 102 thin. We continued our march along this river,* until we arrived in the province of Costehe, where the villages were likewise built on the islands of the river. The province of Coca is one of the best countries we have seen in Florida. The cacique came to meet us, borne in a litter, and accompanied by a numerous train. But the next morning his followers deserted him. We kept the cacique a prisoner until he agreed to furnish us with Indians to carry our baggage. In this country we found prunes resembling those of Spain, and vines which produced excellent grapes.

Leaving this province we marched west and south-west, for five or six days. We passed a great number of villages, and at the end of that time we entered the province called Italisi. The inhabitants fled in every direction; but the cacique came soon after, and presented us with twenty-six or seven women, and some deer skins. We then proceeded south, and passing through some villages, we arrived in the province of Tascalusa,+ whose cacique was of such a height that we took him for a giant. On arriving at his village we gave him a tournament, and offered him other amusements, of which he took no notice. We requested him to give us some Indians to carry our baggage, which he refused with a sneer. The governor then took him a prisoner, which greatly enraged him; and was the cause of his treachery to us afterwards. He told us that he could not give us anything here, but we must go to his village, called Mavila, where he would furnish him with all the provisions we stood in need of. We came to a large river which empties into the bay called Chuse.++ The Indians informed us that Narvaez's vessels had touched here for water, and left a Christian called Teodoro, who was still among the Indians. They showed us a poignard which had belonged to him. We took two days to construct a raft to cross the river. In the meantime the Indians killed one of the governor's guard. The governor punished the cacique for it, and threatened to burn him alive if he did not deliver up the murderers. He then promised to deliver them up at Mavila. This cacique had a number of servants with him. He had one to brush off the flies, and another to carry a sunshade.

We arrived at Mavila§ at nine o'clock in the morning. It was a * Probably the Coosa River. + This province probably gave name to the River Tuscaloosa in Alabama. ++ Pensacola Bay, the Achusi of Vega. § This town, the Mauvila of Vega, is supposed to have stood on the north side of the Alabama, about the junction of that river with the Tombecbe, about Page 103 village built on a plain, and surrounded by strong walls. On the outside the Indians had pulled down their huts; so as not to embarrass them. Some of the chiefs met us and told us we could encamp on the plain, but the governor preferred going with them into the town. We saw only three or four hnndred Indians, who entertained us with dancing and feasting, but there was hid in the town five or six thousand men, to surprise us. After the dancing was over the cacique retired into one of his huts. The governor requested him to come out, which he refused to do. The captain of the governor's guard went in after him, and found it filled with warriors, armed with bows and arrows. He reported to the governor what he had seen, and told him that he suspected they were going to commit some treason. The governor then sent for another cacique, who also refused to come. The Indians now began to shoot their arrows from the loopholes in their houses, while others discharged them from the outside. We were not upon our guard, as we had supposed them friends, and consequently we suffered severely. We retreated to the outside of the village. Our baggage remained where it had been thrown down, and as soon as the Indians discovered we had fled, they shut the gates of the village, and commenced to pillage our baggage.

The governor ordered sixty or eighty horsemen to arrange them-selves into four platoons, and attack the village in four different places. He directed the first who should enter the village to set fire to the houses, while the rest of the soldiers were ordered not to let any escape. We fought from morning till night, without a single Indian asking for quarters. When night came, only three Indians were found left guarding the twenty women who had danced before us. Two of these were killed, and the other, ascending a tree, took the string from his bow and hung himself from one of the limbs. We lost twenty men killed, and had two hundred and fifty wounded.* During the night we dressed the wounded with the fat of the slain Indians, because our medicine was burnt with the baggage. We remained here twenty-seven or eight days, until the wounded could recover. We then departed, taking with us the women, whom we distributed among the wounded to nurse them.

The Indians had told us we were more than forty leagues from the one hundred miles from Pensacola. There is little doubt that it gave the name to the present river and bay of Mobile. * Garcilaso de la Yega states the loss of the Spaniards to be eighty-two, and the Indians above eleven thousand. Page 104 sea. We desired the governor to approach it, so that we might get some news from the brigantines, but he dared not do it, as it was now already in the middle of November, and he wished to find a country where there were provisions, and could go into winter quarters. We marched north ten or twelve days, suffering intensely from the cold, until at length we reached a fertile province, where we went into winter quarters. The cold here is greater than in Spain. This province is called Chicaca.* The Indians defended the rivers we had to cross, but afterwards they fled to the woods. In seven or eight days after, the cacique sent envoys to the governor. They were well received by him, and he sent word to the cacique to present himself. The cacique came in a litter, and brought with him rabbits, and whatever he could procure in the country, to give us to eat. At night we surprised some Indians who pretended they had come into our camp to see how we slept. Suspecting their motives we increased our guards. As these Indians knew how we had placed our guards, three hundred entered the village and set fire to it. They killed fifty-seven horses, three hundred hogs, and thirteen or fourteen of our men, and afterwards fled.

We remained here the next day, in a very bad condition. We had a few horses left, but we had no saddles, lances, or shields, for all had been burnt. In five days after, the Indians renewed the attack. They marched to battle in great order, and attacked us on three sides. We went out to meet them, and put them to flight. We sojourred here two months, during which time we made saddles, lances, and shields, after which we marched to the north-west, until we reached the province of Alibamo.+ Here the Indians had built a strong palisade, and had three hundred men to defend it, with orders to die rather than to let us pass through. As soon as we perceived the warriors behind the palisade, we thought they had provisions, or something valuable behind it. We were in great want of provisions, and knew that we had to cross a great desert before we could find any. We, therefore, arranged ourselves into two divisions, and attacked the enemy. We carried the palisade, but we lost seven or eight men, and had twenty-five wounded. We found enough provisions behind the palisade to last us our journey of ten or twelve days through the desert. The wounded and sick gave us a great deal of trouble, and on the last day we very unexpectedly entered a village called Quiz Quiz.++ * Supposed to be the country of the Chicasaws. + This province gave its name to the Alabama River. ++ The Chisca of Garcilaso de la Vega. Page 105 The people here were poor and miserable, and were working their corn fields when we entered it. The village was built on the banks of the Saint Esprit. It was tributary, like many others, to the sovereign of Pacaha.

We left the village to encamp on the banks of the river. Here we found the Indians had gathered to dispute our passage. They had with them a great number of canoes. We remained here twenty- eight or nine days, and built four large pirogues, capable of containing seventy or eighty men each, and five or six horses. In the meantime, every day at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Indians got into two hundred and fifty canoes, dressed with flags, and approached our side of the river to shoot their arrows at us, but as soon as we had finished our pirogues they made a precipitate retreat. The river* here was about a league wide, and from nineteen to twenty fathoms deep. We ascended this river to the province of Pacaha, but before we arrived there we came to another province, whose sovereign was named Yeasqui. He came to us and professed a great deal of friendship, but he was at war with the nation we had just left. He was well received by the governor, and that night we encamped on a plain in sight of his village, where we remained two days. The caciques of this country make a custom of raising, near their dwellings, very high hills, on which they sometimes build their huts. On one of these we planted the Cross, and went with much devotion on our knees to kiss the foot of it. On the same evening we returned to our camp, and on the following morning we set out for Pacaha. We journeyed two days, and reached a village in the midst of a plain surrounded by walls, and a ditch filled with water, which had been made by the Indians. We approached it cautiously, and when we got near it, we saw the inhabitants going off. We entered it without any trouble, and took a few Indians. While we remained here the cacique whom we left behind us joined us, with a numerous troop of Indians, and offered to assist us. The governor received him graciously, and presented him with all the treasures we had found in the village, after which he went away quietly.

We remained at this village twenty-six or seven days, anxious to learn if we could take the northern route, and cross to the South Sea. We then marched north-east, where we were told we would find large towns. We traveled eight days through swamps, after which we met a troop of Indians, who lived under movable tents. They informed * The Mississippi River. Page 106 us that there were other tribes like themselves, who pitched their tents wherever they found deer, and carried their tents and provisions with them on their backs from place to place. We next came to the province of Calusi. The natives attend but little to the cultivation of land, and live principally on fish and game. Seeing there was no way of reaching the South Sea, we returned towards the north, and afterwards in a south- west direction, to a province called Quigata,* where we found the largest village we had yet seen in all our travels. It was situated on one of the branches of a great river. We remained here six or eight days to procure guides and interpreters, with the intention of finding the sea. The Indians informed us there was a province eleven days off, where they killed buffaloes, and where we could find guides to conduct us to the sea.

We set out for this province, which they called Coligua.+ There was no road leading to it, and every day brought us to a swamp, where we feasted on fish. We then crossed vast plains and high mountains, when suddenly we came to the town of Coligua, where we found an abundance of provisions, and a quantity of dry hides. We inquired here for other villages, and they directed us to go west and south-west, and we should find them. We accordingly followed their direction, and came to some scattered villages bearing the name of Tatel Coya. Here we found a large river,++ emptying into the Rio Grande. We were told that if we were to ascend this river we should find a large province called Cayas.§ We repaired thither, and found it a mountainous country, and composed of populous villages. We then set out for the province of Tula** winter quarters. But before reaching it, we had to cross very high mountains. We came to an Indian village, where they defended themselves so bravely that we lost seven or eight men, and as many horses. The following morning the governor took guides, and ordered the troops to be in readiness to march to the next province, which the Indians called Quipana, situated at the foot of very high mountains. From thence we turned towards the east, and crossing these mountains we descended into an inhabited plain, favorable to our designs, and where there was a large * Supposed to be near Little Rock, Arkansas. + The Coligoa of Vega, supposed to have been situated towards the sources of the St. Francis, or the hills of the White River. ++ Probably the St. Francis. § Supposed to have been the country of the Quapaws. ** Supposed to have been the country between the Washita and the Little Missouri. Page 107 village built on the banks of a river,* which emptied into the great river we had passed. This province was called Vicanque. Here we went into winter quarters, and suffered so much from the cold and snow that we thought we should all have perished.

The Christian+ whom we took, and who had served us as an interpreter, died in this place. In the beginning of March we descended this river, passing through populous provinces, until we came at last to a country the Indians called Anicoyanque. A cacique called Guachoyanque came to see us. He lived on the banks of the Great River. The governor set out immediately with the Cacique for the village of Guachoyanque.++ His village was fortified and well surrounded by walls. At this place the governor had determined to build some brigantines to send to Cuba, to let them know that he was still alive. He sent his captain to find out the direction of the sea. He returned back in a few days, saying that the vast swamps which the Great River had formed, prevented him from doing so. At length the governor, finding his situation becoming every day more embarrassing, and his affairs going wrong, fell sick and died.§ He appointed Luis de Moscoso his successor. Not finding any way of reaching the sea by the Great River, Luis de Moscoso determined on going by land to Mexico. When we set out, we traveled twenty-seven days in a westerly direction to the province of Chaviti, where the Indians made salt.** From thence we went in three days to the province of Aquacay.

The Indians told us here that the country beyond was a wilderness and uninhabited. That to find villages we must go towards the south-east. We then came to a province called Nissione, then to * Supposed to be the Arkansas. + Juan Ortiz. ++ Supposed to be situated a short distance from the Mississippi, the Guachoya of Vega. § Thus died at the age of forty-two, Hernando de Soto, one of the bravest of the many leaders who figured in the first discoveries of the Western world. No one was better qualified to rule the hardy spirits under him. He was stern in command; agreeable in his common intercourse, gentle and courteous in his manners; patient and persevering under all difficulties. His body was enclosed in the trunk of a green oak, and conveyed to the middle of the Mississippi, where it was sunk in nineteen fathoms water. Thus the first discoverer of the Mississippi River made his grave in the bosom of its waters. ** Supposed to be the salines of the Washita River.

Nassonis. Page 108 Naudacho,* and Lacame. We made inquiries here about the province of Xuacatino. The cacique of Naudacho gave us a guide to conduct us through the country. He led us accordingly into a wilderness, and when we got there he told us that his master had ordered him to take us to a country where we should die with hunger. We now took another guide, who conducted us to the province of Hais, where we saw buffaloes, but the Indians prevented us from killing them. We came to Xuacatin, and passed some small villages, without finding any provisions. We then returned towards the south, determined to die or reach New Spain. We continued to march in this direction eight or nine days more, hoping to provide ourselves with provisions for the journey.+ We arrived at last at some miserable huts, where the Indians lived by hunting and fishing, and finding that our corn must soon give out, we resolved to return to the village where Governor Soto had died, to build some vessels to return to our country. But when we arrived there we did not find the facilities we had expected, and were obliged to seek another place, to go into winter quarters, and build our vessels.

God permitted us to find two villages to suit our purposes,++ upon the Great River.§ These villages were fortified. We remained here six months to build seven brigantines. We launched them on the river, and it was a miracle they did not leak. They sailed well, although they were calked with the thin bark of mulberry trees. When we embarked the troops we intended if we could find a village on the seashore to stop there, until we could send two brigantines with dispatches to the Viceroy of New Spain, to send us vessels to return it to Spain. On the second day out, as we were descending the river, some forty or fifty canoes came towards us, in one of which were eighty warriors. They shot arrows at us, and captured some of the small canoes we had taken with us, in which were twelve of our best soldiers. The current of the river was so rapid that we could not go to their assistance. Encouraged by this victory, the Indians continued to harass us until * Nagodoches. + The march of Moscoso west of the Mississippi was evidently on the hunting-grounds of the far west, and got upon the prairies, where in many parts they were little better than deserts. ++ Aminoya and----, supposed to have been situated in the neighborhood of the present town of Helena, a few miles above the mouth of the Arkansas River. § Moscoso and his followers committed themselves to the Mississippi on the second of July, 1543. Page 109 we reached the sea, which took us nineteen days. They soon discovered that we had neither arquebuses nor cross-bows to reach them. The only arms we had were some swords and shields, consequently they had nothing to fear from us. We entered the sea through one of the mouths of the river,* and for three days and nights we could not see land, but after that we came in sight of it, and took in some water to drink. At length we perceived towards the west some small islands, which we followed, keeping close to the shore, to find something to eat, until we entered the River Panuco, where we were kindly received by the inhabitants.

Signed

LUIS FERNANDEZ DE BIEDMA,

(Facteur de sa Majesté.) * The Mississippi. The Indian name of this river, says de la Vega, on the authority of Juan Coles, one of De Soto's followers, was Chucagua. In one place they called it Tamalisen, in another Tapata, and where it enters the sea, River. The Spaniards called it "La Pallisade," "Rio Escondido," or the lost river. + The Spaniards went to sea on the 18th July, and arrived in the river Panuco on the 10th September, 1543. The inhabitants of Panuco, says Garcilaso de la Vega, were all touched with pity at beholding this forlorn remnant of the gallant armament of the renowned Hernando de Soto. They were blackened, haggard, shriveled, and half naked, being clad only with the skins of deer, buffaloes, bears, and other animals, looking more like wild beasts than human beings. ____________________________________________________________________ [Page 110]

[Blank Page] Volume 2 Chapter 6 [Page 111]

A NARRATIVE

OF THE

EXPIDITION OF HERNANDO DE SOTO

INTO

FLORIDA.

BY A GENTLEMAN OF ELVAS.

PUBLISHED AT EVORA 1557.

TRANSLATED FROM THE PORTUGUESE

BY

RICHARD HACKLUYT.

LONDON, 1609. [Page 112]

[Blank Page] [Page 113]

A NARRATIVE

OF THE

EXPEDITION OF HERNANDO DE SOTO

INTO

FLORIDA.

CAPTAIN SOTO was the son of a squire of Xerez of Badajoz. He went into the Spanish Indies, when Peter Arias of Avila was Governor of the West Indies. And there he was without anything else of his own, save his sword and target: and for his good qualities and valor, Peter Arias made him captain of a troop of horsemen, and by his commandment he went with Fernando Pizarro to the conquest of Peru: where (as many persons of credit reported, which were there present) as well at the taking of Atabalipa, Lord of Peru, as at the assault of the city of Cusco, and in all other places where they found resistance, wheresoever he was present, he passed all other captains and principal persons. For which cause, besides his part of the treasure of Atabalipa, he had a good share; whereby in time he gathered a hundred and four score thousand ducats together, with that which fell to his part; which he brought into Spain; whereof the Emperor borrowed a certain part, which he repaid again with 60,000 rials of plate in the rent of the silks of Granada, and all the rest was delivered him in the contractation house of Seville. He took servants to wit, a steward, a gentleman usher, pages, a gentleman of the horse, a chamberlain, lackeys, and all other officers that the house of a noble may require. From Seville he went to the court, and in the court, there accompanied him John Danusco of Seville, and Lewis Moscoso D'Alvarado, Nuño de Touar, and John Rodriquez Lobillo. Page 114 Except John Danusco, all the rest came with him from Peru: and every one of them brought fourteen or fifteen thousand ducats: all of them went well and costly appareled. And although Soto of his own nature was not liberal, yet because that was the first time that he was to show himself in the court, he spent frankly, and went accompanied with those which I have named, and with his servants, and many others which resorted unto him. He married with Donna Isabella de Bobadilla, daughter of Peter Arias of Avila, Earl of Punno en Rostro. The Emperor made him the Governor of the Isle of Cuba, and Adelantado or President of Florida; with a title of Marquis of certain part of the lands that he should conquer.

When Don Ferdinando had obtained the government, there came a gentleman from the Indies to the court, named Cabeça de Vaca, which had been with the Governor Pamphilo de Narvaez which died in Florida, who reported that Narvaez was cast away at sea with all the company that went with him. And how he with four more escaped and arrived in Nueva España. Also he brought a relation in writing, of that which he had seen in Florida; which said in some places: In such a place I have seen this; and the rest which here I saw, I leave to confer of between his Majesty and myself. Generally he reported the misery of the country, and the troubles which he passed: and he told some of his kinsfolk, which were desirous to go into the Indies, and urged him very much to tell them whether he had seen any rich country in Florida, that he might not tell them, because he and another, whose name was Orantes, (who remained in Nueva España with purpose to return into Florida: for which intent he came into Spain to beg the government thereof of the Emperor) had sworn not to discover some of those things which they had seen, because no man should prevent them in begging the same. And he informed them that it was the richest country of the world. Don Ferdinando de Soto was very desirous to have him with him, and made him a favorable offer: and after they were agreed, because Soto gave him not a sum of money which he demanded to buy a ship, they broke off again. Baltasar de Gallegos, and Christopher de Spindola, the kinsmen of Cabeça de Vaca, told him, that for that which he had imparted to them, they were resolved to pass with Soto into Florida, and therefore they prayed him to advise them what they were best to do. Cabeça de Vaca told them, that the cause why he went not with Soto, was because he hoped to beg another government, and that he was loth to go under the command of another: and that he came to beg the conquest Page 115 of Florida: but seeing Don Ferdinando de Soto had gotten it already, for his oath's sake he might tell them nothing of that which they would know: but he counseled them to sell their goods and go with him, and that in so doing they should do well. As soon as he had opportunity, he spake with the Emperor, and related unto him whatsoever he had passed and seen, and come to understand. Of this relation, made by word of mouth to the Emperor, the Marquis of Astorga had notice, and forthwith determined to send with Don Ferdinando de Soto his brother Don Antonio Osorio: and with him two kinsmen of his prepared themselves, to wit, Francis Osorio, and Garcia Osorio. Don Antonio dispossessed himself of 60,000 rials of rent which he held by the church; and Francis Osorio of a town of vassals, which he had in the country de Campos. And they made their rendezvous with the Adelantado in Seville. The like did Nuñez de Touar, and Lewis de Moscoso, and John Rodriguez Lobillo, each of whom had brought from Peru fourteen or fifteen thousand ducats. Lewis de Moscoso carried with him two brethren; there went also Don Carlos, which had married the governor's niece, and took her with him. From Badajoz there went Peter Calderan, and three kinsmen of the Adelantado, to wit, Arias Tinoco, Alfonso Romo, and Diego Tinoco. And as Lewis de Moscoso passed through Elvas* Andrew de Vasconcelos spake with him, and requested him to speak to Don Ferdinando de Soto concerning him, and delivered him certain warrants which he had received from the Marquis of Villa Real, wherein he gave him the captainship of Ceuta in Bararie, that he might show them unto him. And the Adelantado saw them; and was informed who he was, and wrote unto him, that he would favor him in all things, and by all means, and would give him a charge of men in Florida. And from Elvas went Andrew de Vasconcelos, and Fernan Pegado, Antonio Martinez Sequrado, Men Roiz Pereira, John Cordero, Stephen Pegado, Benedict Fernandez, and Alvaro Fernandez. And out of Salamanca, and Jean, and Valencia, and Albuquerque, and from other parts of Spain, many people of noble birth, assembled at Seville, insomuch that in Saint Lucar many men of good account, which had sold their goods, remained behind for want of shipping, whereas for other known and rich countries, they are wont to want men: and this fell out by occasion of that which Cabeça de Vaca+ told the Emperor, and informed such persons as he had conference * Elvas is a city in Portugal. + Cabeça de Vaca was the Governor of the River of Plate. Page 116 withal touching the state of that Country. Soto made him great offers, and being agreed to go with him (as I have said before) because he would not give him money to pay for a ship, which he had bought, they brake off, and he went for governor to the river of Plate. His kinsmen, Christopher de Spindola and Baltasar de Gallegos, went with Soto. Baltasar de Gallegos sold houses and vineyards, and rent corn, and ninety ranks of olive trees in the Xarafe of Seville. He had the office of Alcalde Mayor, and took his wife with him. And there went also many other persons of account with the President, and had the offices following by great friendship, because they were offices desired of many, to wit, Antonie de Biedma was factor, John Danusco was auditor, and John Gayton, nephew to the Cardinal of Ciguenza, had the office of treasurer.

The Portuguese departed from Elvas the 15th of January, and came to Seville the 19th of the same month, and went to the lodging of the Governor, and entered into a court, over the which were certain galleries where he was, who came down and received them at the stairs, whereby they went up into the galleries. When he was come up, he commanded chairs to be given them to sit on. And Andrew de Vasconcelos told him who he and the other Portuguese were, and how they all were come to accompany him, and serve him in his voyage. He gave him thanks, and made show of great contentment for his coming and offer. And the table being already laid, he invited them to dinner. And being at dinner, he commanded his steward to seek a lodging for them near unto his own, where they might be lodged. The Adelantado departed from Seville to Saint Lucar with all the people which were to go with him. And he commanded a muster to be made, at the which the Portuguese showed themselves armed in very bright armor, and the Castellans very gallant with silk upon silk, with many pinkings and cuts. The Governor, because these braveries in such an action did not like him, commanded that they should muster another day, and every one should come forth with his armor; at the which the Portuguese came as at the first armed with very good armor. The Governor placed them in order near unto the standard, which the ensign bearer carried. The Castellans, for the most part, did wear very bad and rusty shirts of mail, and all of them head- pieces and steel caps, and very bad lances. Some of them sought to come among the Portuguese. So those passed and were counted and enrolled which Soto liked and accepted of, and did accompany him into Florida; which were in all six hundred men. He had already bought seven ships, and had all necessary provision Page 117 aboard them. He appointed captains, and delivered to every one his ship, and gave them in a roll what people every one should carry with them.

In the year of our Lord 1538, in the month of April, the Adelantado delivered his ships to the captains which were to go in them; and took for himself a new ship, and good of sail, and gave another to Andrew de Vasconcelos, in which the Portuguese went; he went over the bar of St. Lucar on Sunday, being St. Lazarous on Sunday, in the morning of the month and year aforesaid, with great joy, commanding his trumpets to be sounded, and many shots of the ordnance to be discharged. He sailed four days with a prosperous wind, and suddenly it calmed; the calms continued eight days with swelling seas, in such wise that we made no way. The fifteenth day after his departure from St. Lucar, he came to Gomera, one of the Canaries, on Easter day in the morning. The Earl of that island was appareled all in white, cloak, jerkin, hose, shoes and cap, so that he seemed a Lord of the Gipsies. He received the Governor with much joy; he was well lodged, and all the rest had their lodgings gratis, and got great store of victuals for their money, as bread, wine, and flesh; and they took what was needful for their ships, and the Sunday following, eight days after their arrival, they departed from the Isle of Gomera. The Earl gave to Donna Isabella, the Adelantado's wife, a bastard daughter that he had, to be her waiting-maid. They arrived at the Antilles, in the Isle of Cuba, at the port of the city of St. Jago, upon Whit-Sunday. As soon as they came thither, a gentleman of the city sent to the sea-side a very fair roan horse, and well furnished, for the Governor, and a mule for Donna Isabella, and all the horsemen and footmen that were in the town came to receive him at the seaside. The Governor was well lodged, visited, and served of all the inhabitants of the city, and all his company had their lodgings freely: those which desired to go into the country, were divided by four and four, and six and six, in the farms or granges, according to the ability of the owners of the farms, and were furnished by them with all things necessary.

The city of St. Jago hath fourscore houses, which are great and well contrived. The most part have their walls made of boards, and are covered with thatch; it hath some houses built with lime and stones, and covered with tiles. It hath great orchards and many trees in them, differing from those of Spain: there be fig trees which bear figs as big as one's fist, yellow within, and of small taste; and other trees which bear a fruit which they call Ananes, in making and bigness like to a small pineapple: it is a fruit very sweet in taste: the shell being taken Page 118 away, the kernel is like a piece of fresh cheese. In the granges abroad in the country there are other great pineapples, which grow on low trees, and are like the Aloe tree: they are of a very good smell and exceeding good taste. Other trees do bear a fruit which they call Mameis, of the bigness of peaches. This the islanders do hold for the best fruit of the country. There is another fruit which they call Guayabas, like filberts, as big as figs. There are other trees as high as a javelin, having one only stock without any bough, and the leaves as long as a casting dart; and the fruit is of the bigness and fashion of a cucumber; one bunch beareth twenty or thirty, and as they ripen the tree bendeth downward with them: they are called in this country Plantanos, and are of a good taste, and ripen after they be gathered; but those are the better which ripen upon the tree itself; they bear fruit but once, and the tree being cut down, there spring up others out of the but, which bear fruit the next year. There is another fruit, whereby many people are sustained, and chiefly the slaves, which are called Batatas. These grow now in the Isle of Terçera, belonging to the kingdom of Protugal, and they grow within the earth, and are like a fruit called Iname; they have almost the taste of a chestnut. The bread of this country is also made of roots which are like the Batatas.* And the stock whereon those roots do grow is like an elder tree: they make their ground in little hillocks, and in each of them they thrust four or five stakes; and they gather the roots a year and a half after they set them. If any one, thinking it is a batata or potato root, chance to eat of it never so little, he is in great danger of death: which was seen by experience in a soldier, which as soon as he had eaten a very little of one of those roots, he died quickly. They pare these roots and Stamp them, and squeeze them in a thing like a press: the juice that cometh from them is of an evil smell. The bread is of little taste and less substance. Of the fruits of Spain, there are figs and oranges, and they bear fruit all the year, because the soil is very rank and fruitful. In this country are many good horses, and there is green grass all the year. There be many wild oxen and hogs, whereby the people of the island are well furnished with flesh. Without the towns abroad in the Country are many fruits. And it happeneth sometimes that a Christian goeth out of the way and is lost fifteen or twenty days, because of the many paths in the thick groves that cross to and fro made by the oxen; and being thus lost they sustain themselves with fruits and palmîtos--for there be many

* The Cassavi root. Page 119 great groves of palm trees through all the island--they yield no other fruit that is of any profit. The Isle of Cuba is three hundred leagues long from the east to the west, and is in some places thirty, in others forty leagues from north to south. It hath six towns of Christians, to wit, St. Jago, Baracôa, Bayamo, Puerto de Principes, S. Espirito, Havana. Every one hath between thirty and forty households, except St. Jago and Havana, which have about sixty or eighty houses. They have churches in each of them, and a chaplain which confesseth them and saith mass. In St. Jago is a monastery of Franciscan friars; it hath but few friars, and is well provided of alms, because the country is rich. The Church of St. Jago hath honest revenue, and there is a curate and prebends, and many priests, as the church of that city, which is the chief of all the island. There is in this country much gold and few slaves to get it; for many have made away themselves, because of the Christians' evil usage of them in the mines. A steward of Casquez Porcallo, which was an inhabitor in that island, understanding that his slaves would make away themselves, stayed for them with a cudgel in his hand at the place where they were to meet, and told them that they could neither do nor think anything that he did not know before, and that he came thither to kill himself, with them, to the end, that if he had used them badly in this world, he might use them worse in the world to come: and this was a means that they changed their purpose, and turned home again to do that which he commanded them.

The Governor sent from St. Jago his nephew Don Carlos, with the ships in company of Donna Isabella to tarry for him at Havana, which is a haven in the west part toward the head of the island, one hundred and eighty leagues from the city of St. Jago. The Governor, and those which stayed with him, bought horses and proceeded on their journey. The first town they came unto was Bayamo: they were lodged four and four, and six and six, as they went in company, and where they lodged, they took nothing for their diet, for nothing cost them aught save the maize or corn for their horses, because the Governor went to visit them from town to town, and seized them in the tribute and service of the Indians. Bayamo is twenty-five leagues from the city of St. Jago. Near unto the town passeth a great river which is called Tanto; it is greater than Guadiana, and in it be very great crocodiles, which sometimes hurt the Indians, or the cattle which passeth the river. In all the country are neither wolf, fox, bear, lion, nor tiger. There are wild dogs which go from the houses into the woods and feed upon swine. There be certain Page 120 snakes as big as a man's thigh or bigger; they are very slow, they do no kind of hurt. From Bayamo to Puerto de los Principes are fifty leagues. In all the island from town to town, the way is made by stubbing up the underwood; and if it be left but one year undone, the wood groweth so much that the way cannot be seen, and the paths of the oxen are so many, that none can travel without an Indian of the country for a guide: for all the rest is very high and thick woods. From Puerto de los Principes the Governor went to the house of Vasquez Porcallo by sea in a boat (for it was near the sea) to know there some news of Donna Isabella, which at that instant (as afterwards was known) was in great distress, insomuch that the ships lost one another, and two of them fell on the coast of Florida, and all of them endured great want of water and victuals. When the storm was over, they met together without knowing where they were: in the end they descried the Cape of St. Anton, a country not inhabited of the island of Cuba; there they watered, and at the end of forty days, which were passed since their departure from the city of St. Jago, they arrived at Havana. The Governor was presently informed thereof, and went to Donna Isabella. And those which went by land, which were one hundred and fifty horsemen, being divided into two parts, because they would not oppress the inhabitants, traveled by St. Espirito, which is sixty leagues from Puerto de los Principes. The food which they carried with them was Caçabe bread, which is that whereof I made mention before: and it is of such a quality that if it be wet it breaketh presently, whereby it happened to some to eat flesh without bread for many days. They carried dogs with them, and a man of the country, which did hunt; and by the way, or where they were to lodge that night, they killed as many hogs as they needed. In this journey they were well provided of beef and pork, and they were greatly troubled with musquitoes, especially in a lake, which is called the mere of Pia, which they had much ado to pass from noon till night. The water might be some half league over, and to be swam about a crossbow shot; the rest came to the waist, and they waded up to the knees in the mire, and in the bottom were cockle shells, which cut their feet very sore, in such sort that there was neither boot nor shoe sole that was whole at half way. Their clothes and saddles were passed in baskets of palm trees. Passing this lake, stripped out of their clothes, there came many mosquitoes, upon whose biting there arose a wheal that smarted very much; they struck them with their hands, and with the blow which they gave they killed so many that the blood did run down the arms and bodies of the men. That Page 121 night they rested very little for them, and other nights also in the like places and times. They came to Santo Espirito , which is a town of thirty houses; there passeth by it a little river; it is very pleasant and fruitful, having great store of oranges and citrons, and fruits of the Country. One-half of the company were lodged here, and the rest passed forward twenty-five leagues to another town called la Trinidad, of fifteen or twenty househo]ds. Here is an hospital for the poor, and there is none other in all the island. And they say that this town was the greatest in all the country, and that before the Christians came into this land, as a ship passed along the coast there came in it a very sick man, which desired the captain to set him on shore, and the captain did so, and the ship went her way. The sick man remained set on shore in that country, which until then had not been haunted by Christians; whereupon the Indians found him, carried him home, and looked unto him till he was whole; and the lord of that town married him unto a daughter of his, and had war with all the inhabitants round about, and by the industry and valor of the Christian, he subdued and brought under his command all the people of that island. A great while after, the Governor Diego Velasques went to conquer it, and from thence discovered New Spain. And this Christian which was with the Indians did pacify them, and brought them to the obedience and subjection of the governor. From this town de la Trinidad unto Havana are eighty leagues, without any habitation, which they traveled. They came to Havana in the end of March, where they found the Governor, and the rest of the people which came with him from Spain. The Governor sent from Havana John Dannusco with a caravele and two brigantines with fifty men to discover the haven of Florida, and from thence he brought two Indians which he took upon the coast, wherewith (as well because they might be necessary for guides and for interpreters, as because they said by signs that there was much gold in Florida) the Governor and all the company received much contentment, and longed for the hour of their departure, thinking in himself that this was the richest country that unto that day had been discovered.

Before our departure the Governor deprived Nuño de Touar of the office of Captain-general, and gave it to Porcallo de Figueroa, an inhabitant of Cuba, which was a mean that the ship was well furnished with victuals; for he gave a great many loads of Casabe bread and many hogs. The Governor took away this office from Nuño de Touar, because he had fallen in love with the daughter of the Page 122 Earl of Gomera, Donna Isabella's waiting- maid, who, though his office were taken from him (to return again to the Governor's favor), though she were with child by him, yet took her to his wife, and went with Soto into Florida. The Governor left Donna Isabella in Havana, and with her remained the wife of Don Carlos, and the wives of Baltasar de Gallegos, and of Nuño de Touar. And he left for his lieutenant a gentleman of Havana, called John de Poias, for the government of the island.

On Sunday the 18th of May, in the year of our Lord 1539, the Adelantado or president departed from Havana in Cuba with his fleet, which were nine vessels, five great ships, two caravels, and two brigantines. They sailed seven days with a prosperous wind. The 25th day of May, the day de Pasca de Spirito Santo* (which we call Whitson Sunday), they saw the land of Florida, and because of the shoals, they came to an anchor a league from the shore. On Friday the 30th of May they landed in Florida, two leagues from a town of an Indian lord called Ucita. They set on land two hundred and thirteen horses, which they brought with them to unburden the ships, that they might draw the less water. He landed all his men, and only the seamen remained in the ships, which in eight days, going up with the tide every day a little, brought them up unto the town. As soon as the people were come on shore, he pitched his camp on the sea-side, hard upon the bay which went up unto the town. And presently the Captain-general, Vasquez Porcallo, with other seven horsemen foraged the country half a league round about, and found six Indians, which resisted him with their arrows, which are the weapons which they used to fight withal. The horsemen killed two of them, and the other four escaped; because the country is cumbersome with woods and hogs, where the horses stuck fast, and fell with their riders, because they were weak with traveling upon the sea. The same night following, the Governor with an hundred men in the brigantines lighted upon a town, which he found without people, because that as soon as the Christians had sight of land, they were descried, and saw along the coast many smokes, which the Indians had made to give advice the one to the other. The next day Luys de Moscoso, master of the camp, set the men in order, the horsemen in three squadrons, the vanguard, the battalion, and the rereward; and so they marched that day and the day following, compassing great creeks which came out of the bay. They came to the town of Ucita,

* Tampa Bay, on the west side of Florida. Page 123 where the Governor was on Sunday the first of June, being Trinity Sunday. The town was of seven or eight houses. The lord's house stood near the shore upon a very high mount, made by hand for strength. At another end of the town stood the church, and on the top of it stood a fowl made of wood with gilded eyes. Here were found some pearls of small value, spoiled with the fire, which the Indians do pierce and string them like beads, and wear them about their necks and handwrists, and they esteem them very much. The houses were made of timber, and covered with palm leaves. The Governor lodged himself in the lord's houses, and with him Vasquez Porcallo, and Luys de Moscoso; and in others that were in the midst of the town, was the chief Alcalde or justice, Baltasar de Gallegos lodged; and in the same houses was set in a place by itself all the provision that came in the ships; the other houses and the church were broken down, and every three or four soldiers made a little cabin wherein they lodged. The Country round about was very fenny, and encumbered with great and high trees. The Governor commanded to fell the woods a crossbow shot round about the town, that the horses might run, and the Christians might have the advantage of the Indians, if by chance they should set upon them by night. In the ways and places convenient they had their sentinels of footmen by two and two in every stand, which did watch by turns, and the horsemen did visit them, and were ready to assist them if there were any alarm. The Governor made four captains of the horsemen and two of the footmen. The captains of the horsemen were one of them Andrew de Masconcelos, and another Pedro Calderan de Badajoz; and the other two were his kinsmen, to wit, Arias Timoco, and Alfonso Romo, born likewise in Badajoz. The captains of the footmen, the one was Francisco Maldonado of Salamanca, and the other Juan Rodriquez Lobillo. While we were in this town of Ucita, the two Indians which John Danusco had taken on that coast, and the Governor carried along with him for guides and interpreters, through carelessness of two men which had the charge of them escaped away one night; for which the Governor and all the rest were very sorry, for they had already made some roads, and no Indians could be taken, because the country was full of marsh grounds, and in some places full of very high and thick woods.

From the town of Ucita the Governor sent the Alcalde mayor, Baltasao de Gallegos, with forty horsemen and eighty footmen into the country to see if they could take any Indians; and the Captain John Rodriquez Lobillo another way with fifty footmen: the most of Page 124 them were swordsmen and targeters, and the rest were shot and crossbowmen. They passed through a country full of hogs, where horses could not travel. Half a league from the camp they lighted upon certain cabins of Indians near a river. The people that were in them leaped into the river, yet they took four Indian women. And twenty Indians charged us and so distressed us, that we were forced to retire to our camp, being, as they are, exceeding ready with their weapons. It is a people so warlike and so nimble, that they care not a whit for any footmen. For if their enemies charge them they run away, and if they turn their backs they are presently upon them. And the thing that they most flee is the shot of an arrow. They never stand still, but are always running and traversing from one place to another, by reason whereof neither crossbow nor arquebuss can aim at them; and before one crossbowman can make one shot an Indian will discharge three or four arrows, and he seldom misseth what he shooteth at. An arrow where it findeth no armor, pierceth as deeply as a crossbow. Their bows are very long, and their arrows are made of certain canes like reeds, very heavy, and so strong that a sharp cane passeth through a target. Some they arm in the point with a sharp bone of a fish like a chisel, and in others they fasten certain stones like points of diamonds. For the most part when they light upon an armor they break in the place where they are bound together. Those of cane do split and pierce a coat of mail, and are more hurtful than the other. John Rodriquez Lobillo returned to the camp with six men wounded, whereof one died; and brought the four Indian women which Baltasar Gallegos had taken in the cabins or cottages. Two leagues from the town, coming into the plain field, he espied ten or eleven Indians, among whom was a Christian, which was naked and scorched with the sun, and had his arms razed after the manner of the Indians, and differed nothing at all from them. And as soon as the horsemen saw them they ran toward them. The Indians fled, and some of them hid themselves in a wood, and they overtook two or three of them which were wounded; and the Christian seeing a horseman run upon him with his lance, began to cry out, "Sirs, I am a Christian, slay me not, nor these Indians, for they have saved my life." And straight-way he called them and put them out of fear, and they came forth of the wood unto them. The horsemen took both the Christian and the Indians up behind them, and toward night came into the camp with much joy; which thing being known by the Governor, and them that remained in the camp, they were received with the like. This Christian's name was John Ortiz, and he was born in Seville, Page 125 of worshipful parentage. He was twelve years in the hands of the Indians. He came into this country with Pamphilo de Narvaez, and returned in the ships to the Island of Cuba, where the wife of the Governor Pamphilo de Narvaez was, and by his commandment with twenty or thirty others in a brigantine returned back again to Florida, and coming to the port in the sight of the town, on the shore they saw a cane sticking in the ground, and riven at the top, and a letter in it; and they believed that the governor had left it there to give advertisement of himself when he resolved to go up into the land, and they demanded it of four or five Indians which walked along the sea-shore, and they bade them by signs to come on shore for it, which against the will of the rest John Ortiz and another did. And as soon as they were on land, from the houses of the town issued a great number of Indians, which compassed them about and took them in a place where they could not flee; and the other, which sought to defend himself, they presently killed upon the place, and took John Ortiz alive, and carried him to Ucita their lord. And those of the brigantine sought not to land, but put themselves to sea, and returned to the Island of Cuba. Ucita commanded to bind John Ortiz hand and foot upon four stakes aloft upon a raft, and to make a fire under him, that there he might be burned. But a daughter of his desired him that he would not put him to death, alleging that one only Christian could do him neither hurt nor good, telling him that it was more for his honor to keep him as a captive. And Ucita granted her request, and commanded him to be cured of his wounds; and as soon as he was whole he gave him the charge of the keeping of the temple, because that by night the wolves did carry away the dead corpses out of the same--who commended himself to God and took upon him the charge of his temple. One night the wolves got from him the corpse of a little child, the son of a principal Indian, and going after them he threw a dart at one of the wolves, and struck that carried away the corpse, who, feeling himself wounded left it, and fell down dead near the place; and he not woting what he had done, because it was night, went back again to the temple; the morning being come and finding not the body of the child, he was very sad. As soon as Ucita knew thereof he resolved to put him to death, and sent by the track which he said the wolves went, and found the body of the child, and the wolf dead a little beyond, whereat Ucita was much contented with the Christian, and with the watch which he kept in the temple, and from thenceforward esteemed him much. Three years after he fell into his hands there came another lord called Page 126 Mocoça, who dwelleth two days' journey from the port, and burnt his town. Ucita fled to another town that he had in another sea-port. Thus John Ortiz lost his office and favor that he had with him. These people being worshipers of the devil, are wont to offer up unto him the lives and blood of their Indians, or of any other people they can come by; and they report that when he will have them do that sacrifice unto him, he speaketh with them, and telleth them that he is athirst, and willeth them to sacrifice unto him. John Ortiz had notice by the damsel that had delivered him from the fire, how her father was determined to sacrifice him the day following, who willed him to flee to Mocoço, for she knew that he would use him well; for she heard say that he had asked for him and said he would be glad to see him, and because he knew not the way she went with him half a league out of the town by night and set him in the way, and returned because she would not be discovered. John Ortiz traveled all that night, and by the morning came to a river which is the territory of Mocoço, and there he saw two Indians fishing; and because they were in war with the people of Ucita, and their languages were different, and he knew not the language of Mocoço, he was afraid, because he could not tell them who he was, nor how he came thither, nor was able to answer anything for himself, that they would kill him, taking him for one of the Indians of Ucita, and before they espied him he came to the place where they had laid their weapons; and as soon as they saw him they fled toward the town, and although he willed them to stay, because he meant to do them no hurt, yet they understood him not, and ran away as fast as ever they could. And as soon as they came to the town with great outcries, many Indians came forth against him, and began to compass him to shoot at him. John Ortiz seeing himself in so great danger, shielded himself with certain trees, and began to shriek out and cry very loud, and to tell them that he was a Christian, and that he was fled from Ucita, and was come to see and serve Mocoço his lord. It pleased God that at that very instant there came thither an Indian that could speak the language and understood him, and pacified the rest, who told them what he said. Then ran from thence three or four Indians to bear the news to their lord, who came forth a quarter of a league from the town to receive him, and was very glad of him. He caused him presently to swear according to the custom of the Christians, that he would not run away from him to any other lord, and promised him to entreat him very well; and that if at any time there came any Christians into that country, he would freely let him go, and give him leave to go to Page 127 them; and likewise took his oath to perform the same according to the Indian custom. About three years after certain Indians, which were fishing at sea two leagues from the town, brought news to Mocoço that they had seen ships, and he called John Ortiz and gave him leave to go his way, who taking his leave of him, with all the haste he could came to the sea, and finding no ships he thought it to be some deceit, and that the cacique had done the same to learn his mind. So he dwelt with Mocoço nine years, with small hope of seeing any Christians. As soon as our Governor arrived in Florida, it was known to Mocoço, and straightway he signified to John Ortiz that Christians were lodged in the town of Ucita; and he thought he had jested with him as he had done before, and told him that by this time he had forgotten the Christians, and thought of nothing else but to serve him. But he assured him that it was so, and gave him license to go unto them, saying unto him that if he would not do it, and if the Christians should go their way, he should not blame him, for he had fulfilled that which he had promised him. The joy of John Ortiz was so great, that he could not believe that it was true; notwithstanding he gave him thanks, and took his leave of him, and Mocoço gave him ten or eleven principal Indians to bear him company; and as they went to the port where the Governor was, they met with Baltasar de Gallegos, as I have declared before. As soon as he was come to the camp, the Governor commanded to give him a suit of apparel, and very good armor, and a fair horse; and inquired of him whether he had notice of any country where there was any gold or silver. He answered, No, because he never went ten leagues compass from the place where he dwelt; but that thirty leagues from thence* dwelt an Indian lord, which was called Paracossi, to whom Mocoço and Ucita, with all the rest of that coast paid tribute, and that he peradventure might have notice of some good country, and that his land was better than that of the sea-coast, and more fruitful and plentiful of maize. Whereof the Governor received great contentment, and said that he desired no more than to find victuals, that he might go into the main land, for the land of Florida was so large, that in one place or other there could not choose but be some rich country. The Cacique Mocoço came to the port to visit the Governor, and made this speech following.

"Right high and mighty lord, I being lesser in mine own conceit for to obey you, than any of those which you have under your command,

* From Spirito Santo or Tampa Bay. Page 128 and greater in desire to do you greater services, do appear before your lordship with so much confidence of receiving favor, as if in effect this my good will were manifested unto you in works; not for the small service I did unto you touching the Christian which I had in my power, in giving him freely his liberty (for I was bound to do it to preserve mine honor, and that which I had promised him), but because it is the part of great men to use great magnificences. And I am persuaded that as in bodily perfections, and commanding of good people, you do exceed all men in the world, so likewise you do in the parts of the mind, in which you may boast of the bounty of nature. The favor which I hope for of your lordship is, that you would hold me for yours, and bethink yourself to command me anything wherein I may do you service."

The Governor answered him, "That although in freeing and sending him the Christian, he had preserved his honor and promise, yet he thanked him, and held it in such esteem as it had no comparison; and that he would always hold him as his brother, and would favor all things to the utmost of his power." Then he commanded a shirt to be given him, and other things, wherewith the cacique being very well contented, took his leave of him, and departed to his own town. From the Port de Spirito Santo where the Governor lay, he sent the Alcalde Mayor Baltasar de Gallegos with fifty horsemen, and thirty or forty footmen to the province of Paracossi, to view the disposition of the country, and inform himself of the land farther inward, and to send him word of such things as he found. Likewise he sent his ships back to the Island of Cuba, that they might return within a certain time with victuals. Basque Porcallo de Figueroa, which went with the Governor as Captain-general, (whose principal intent was to send slaves from Florida to the Island of Cuba, where he had his goods and mines,) having made some inroads, and seeing no Indians were to be got, because of the great hogs and woods that were in the country, considering the disposition of the same, determined to return to Cuba. And though there was some difference between and the Governor, whereupon they neither dealt nor conversed together with good countenance, yet notwithstanding with loving words he asked him leave and departed from him. Baltasar de Gallegos came to the Paracossi. There came to him thirty Indians from the cacique, which was absent from his town, and one of them made this speech:

"Paracossi, the lord of this province, whose vassals we are, sendeth Page 129 us unto your worship, to know what it is that you seek in this his country, and wherein he may do you service."

Baltasar de Gallegos said unto him that he thanked them very much for their offer, willing them to warn their lord to come to his town, and that there they would talk and confirm their peace and friendship, which he much desired. The Indians went their way and returned next day, and said that their lord was ill at ease, and therefore could not come; but that they came on his behalf to see what he demanded. He asked them if they knew or had notice of any rich country where there was gold or silver. They told him they did, and that towards the west there was a province which was called Cale; and that others that inhabited other countries had war with the people of that country, where the most part of the year was summer, and that there was much gold; and that when those their enemies came to make war with them of Cale, these inhabitants of Cale did wear hats of gold, in manner of head-pieces. Baltasar de Gallegos seeing that the cacique came not, thinking all that they said was feigned, with intent that in the meantime they might set themselves in safety, fearing that if he did let them go, they would return no more, commanded the thirty Indians to be chained, and sent word to the Governor by eight horsemen what had passed; whereof the Governor with all that were with him at the Port de Spirito Santo received great comfort, supposing that that which the Indians reported might be true. He left Captain Calderan at the port, with thirty horsemen and seventy footmen, with provision for two years, and himself with all the rest marched into the main land, and came to the Paracossi, at whose town Baltasar de Gallegos was; and from thence with all his men took the way to Cale. He passed by a little town called Acela, and came to another called Tocaste; and from thence he went before with thirty horsemen and fifty footmen towards Cale. And passing by a town whence the people were fled, they saw Indians a little distance from thence in a lake, to whom the interpreter spoke. They came unto them and gave them an Indian for a guide; and he came to a river with a great current, and upon a tree which was in the midst of it, was made a bridge, whereon the men passed; the horses swam over by a hawser, that they were pulled by from the other side; for one, which they drove in at the first without it, was drowned. From thence the Governor sent two horsemen to his people that were behind, to make haste after him; because the way grew long, and their victuals short. He came to Cale, and found the town without people. He took three Indians which were spies, and tarried Page 130 there for his people that came after, which were sore vexed with hunger and evil ways, because the country was very barren of maize, low, and full of water, bogs, and thick woods; and the victuals which they brought with them from the Port de Spirito Santo, were spent. Wheresoever any town was found, there were some beets, and he that came first gathered them, and sodden with water and salt, did eat them without any other thing; and such as could not get them, gathered the stalks of maize and eat them, which because they were young had no maize in them. When they came to the river which the Governor had passed, they found palmitos upon low palm trees like those of Andalusia. There they met with the two horsemen which the Governor sent unto them, and they brought news that in Cale there was plenty of maize, at which news they all rejoiced. As soon as they came to Cale, the Governor commanded them to gather all the maize that was ripe in the field, which was sufficient for three months. At the gathering of it the Indians killed three Christians, and one of them which were taken told the Governor, that within seven days' journey there was a very great province, and plentiful of maize, which was called Apalache. And presently he departed from Cale with fifty horsemen, and sixty footmen. He left the master of the camp, Luys de Moscoso, with all the rest of the people there, with charge that he would not depart thence until he had word from him. And because hitherto none had gotten any slaves, the bread that every one was to eat he was fain himself to beat in a mortar made in a piece of timber, with a pestle, and some of them did sift the flour through their shirts of mail. They baked their bread upon certain tileshares which they set over the fire, in such sort as heretofore I have said they used to do in Cuba. It is so troublesome to grind their maize, that there were many that would rather not eat it than grind it; and did eat the maize parched and sodden.

The second day of August, 1539, the Governor departed from Cale; he lodged in a little town called Ytara, and the next day in another called Potano, and the third day at Utinama, and came to another town which they named the town of Evil peace; because an Indian came in peace, saying, that he was the cacique, and that he with his people would serve the Governor, and that if he would set free twenty-eight persons, men and women, which his men had taken the night before, he would command provision to be brought him, and would give him a guide to instruct him in his way. The Governor commanded them to be set at liberty, and to keep him in safeguard. The next day in the morning there came many Indians, and set Page 131 themselves round about the town near to a wood. The Indian wished them to carry him near them, and that he would speak unto them, and assure them, and that they would do whatsoever he commanded them. And when he saw himself near unto them he broke from them, and ran away so swiftly from the Christians that there was none that could overtake him, and all of them fled into the woods. The Governor commanded to loose a greyhound, which was already fleshed on them, which passing by many other Indians, caught the counterfeit cacique which had escaped from the Christians, and held him till they came to take him. From thence the Governor lodged at a town called Cholupaha, and because it had store of maize in it, they named it Villa farta. Beyond the same there was a river, on which he made a bridge of timber, and traveled two days through a desert. The 17th of August he came to Caliquen, where he was informed of the province of Apalache. They told him that Pamphilo de Narvaez had been there, and that there he took shipping, because he could find no way to go forward. That there was none other town at all; but that on both sides was all water. The whole company were very sad for this news, and counseled the Governor to go back to the Port de Spirito Santo, and to abandon the country of Florida, lest he should perish as Narvaez had done; declaring that if he went forward, he could not return back when he would, and that the Indians would gather up that small quantity of maize which was left. Whereunto the Governor answered that he would not go back, till he had seen with his eyes that which they reported; saying that he could not believe it, and that we should be put out of doubt before it were long. And he sent to Luys de Moscoso to come presently from Cale, and that he tarried for him there. Luys de Moscoso and many others thought that from Apalache they should return back; and in Cale they buried their iron tools, and divers other things. They came to Caliquen with great trouble; because the country which the Governor had passed by, was spoiled and destitute of maize. After all the people were come together, he commanded a bridge to be made over a river that passed near the town. He departed from Caliquen the 10th of September, and carried the cacique with him. After he had traveled three days, there came Indians peaceably to visit their lord, and every day met us on the way playing upon flutes; which is a token that they use, that men may know that they come in peace. They said that in our way before there was a cacique whose name was Uzachil, a kinsman of the cacique of Caliquen their lord, waiting for him with many presents, and they Page 132 desired the Governor that he would loose the cacique. But he would not, fearing that they would rise, and would not give him any guides, and sent them away from day to day with good words He traveled five days; he passed by some small towns; he came to a town called Napetuca, the 15th day of September. Thither came fourteen or fifteen Indians, and besought the Governor to let loose the cacique of Caliquen, their lord. He answered them that he held him not in prison, but that he would have him to accompany him to Uzachil. The Governor had notice by John Ortiz, that an Indian told him how they determined to gather themselves together, and come upon him, and give him battle, and take away the cacique from him. The day that it was agreed upon, the Governor commanded his men to be in readiness, and that the horsemen should be ready armed and on horse-back every one in his lodging, because the Indians might not see them, and so more confidently come to the town. There came four hundred Indians in sight of the camp with their bows and arrows, and placed themselves in a wood, and sent two Indians to bid the Governor to deliver them the cacique. The Governor with six footmen leading the cacique by the hand, and talking with him, to secure the Indians, went toward the place where they were. And seeing a fit time, commanded to sound a trumpet; and presently those that were in the town in the houses, both horse and foot, set upon the Indians, which were so suddenly assaulted, that the greatest care they had was which way they should flee. They killed two horses; one was the Governor's, and he was presently horsed again upon another. There were thirty or forty Indians slain. The rest fled to two very great lakes, that were somewhat distant the one from the other. There they were swimming, and the Christians round about them. The calivermen and crossbowmen shot at them from the bank; but the distance being great, and shooting afar off, they did them no hurt. The Governor commanded that the same night they should compass one of the lakes, because they were so great, that there were not men enough to compass them both; being beset, as soon as night shut in, the Indians, with determination to run away, came swimming very softly to the bank; and to hide themselves they put a water lily leaf on their heads. The horsemen, as soon as they perceived it to stir, ran into the water to the horses' breasts, and the Indians fled again into the lake. So this night passed without any rest on both sides. John Ortiz persuaded them that seeing they could not escape, they should yield themselves to the Governor; which they did, enforced thereunto by the coldness of the water; and one by one, he first whom the cold did Page 133 first overcome, cried to John Ortiz, desiring that they would not kill him, for he came to put himself into the hands of the Governor. By the morning watch they made an end of yielding themselves; only twelve principal men, being more honorable and valorous than the rest, resolved rather to die than to come into his hands. And the Indians of Paracossi, which were now loosed out of chains, went swimming to them, and pulled them out by the hair of their heads, and they were all put in chains, and the next day were divided among the Christians for their service. Being thus in captivity, they determined to rebel; and gave in charge to an Indian which was interpreter, and held to be valiant, that as soon as the Governor did come to speak with him, he should cast his hands about his neck, and choke him: who, when he saw opportunity, laid hands on the Governor, and before he cast his hands about his neck, he gave him such a blow on the nostrils, that he made them gush out with blood, and presently all the rest did rise. He that could get any weapons at hand, or the handle wherewith he did grind the maize, sought to kill his master, or the first he met before him; and he that could get a lance or sword at hand, bestirred himself in such sort with it, as though he had used it all his lifetime. One Indian in the market-place enclosed between fifteen or twenty footmen, made a way like a bull, with a sword in his hand, till certain halbardiers of the Governor came, which killed him. Another got up with a lance to a loft made of canes, which they build to keep their maize in, which they call a barbacoa, and there he made such a noise as though ten men had been there defending the door; they slew him with a partizan. The Indians were in all about two hundred men. They were all subdued. And some of the youngest the Governor gave to them which had good chains, and were careful to look to them that they got not away. All the rest he commanded to be put to death, being tied to a stake in the midst of the market-place; and the Indians of the Paracossi did shoot them to death.

The Governor departed from Napetuca the 23d of September; he lodged by a river, where two Indians brought him a buck from the cacique of Uzachil. The next day he passed by a great town called Hapaluya, and lodged at Uzachil, and found no people in it, because they durst not tarry for the notice the Indians had of the slaughter of Napetuca. He found in that town great store of maize, French beans, and pompions, which is their food, and that wherewith the Christians there sustained themselves. The maize is like coarse millet, and the pompions are better and more savory than those of Page 134 Spain. From thence the Governor sent two captains each a sundry way to seek the Indians. They took an hundred men and women; of which as well there as in other place where they made any inroads, the captain chose one or two for the Governor, and divided the rest to himself, and those that went with him. They led these Indians in chains with iron collars about their necks; and they served to carry their stuff, and to grind their maize, and for other services that such captives could do. Sometimes it happened that going for wood or maize with them, they killed the Christian that led them, and ran away with the chain; others filed their chains by night with a piece of stone, wherewith they cut them, and use it instead of iron. Those that were perceived paid for themselves, and for the rest, because they should not dare to do the like another time. The women and young boys, when they were once an hundred leagues from their country, and had forgotten things, they let go loose, and so they served; and in a very short space they understood the language of the Christians. From Uzachil the Governor departed toward Apalache, and in two days' journey he came to a town called Axille, and from thence forward the Indians were careless, because they had as yet no notice of the Christians. The next day in the morning, the first of October, he departed from thence, and commanded a bridge to be made over a river which he was to pass. The depth of the river where the bridge was made, was a stone's cast, and forward a cross-bow shot the water came to the waist; and the wood whereby the Indians came to see if they could defend the passage, and disturb those which made the bridge, was very high and thick. The crossbowmen so bestirred themselves that they made them give back; and certain planks were cast into the river, whereon the men passed, which made good the passage. The Governor passed upon Wednesday, which was St. Francis' day, and lodged at a town which was called Vitachuco, subject to Apalache: he found it burning, for the Indians had set it on fire. From thence forward the country was much inhabited, and had great store of maize. He passed by many granges like hamlets. On Sunday, the 25th of October, he came to a town which is called Uzela, and upon Tuesday to Anaica Apalache, where the lord of all that country and province was resident; in which town the camp master, whose office is to quarter out, and lodge men, did lodge all the company round about within a league, and half a league of it. There were other towns, where was great store of maize, pompions, French beans, and plums of the country, which are better than those of Spain, and they grow in the fields without planting. Page 135 The victuals that were thought necessary to pass the winter, were gathered from these towns to Anaica Apalache. The Governor was informed that the sea was ten leagues from thence. He presently sent a captain thither with horsemen and footmen. And six leagues on the way he found a town which was named Ochete, and so came to the sea; and found a great tree felled, and cut into pieces, with stakes set up like mangers, and saw the skulls of horses. He returned with this news. And that was held for certain, which was reported of Pamphilo de Narvaez, that there he had built the barks wherewith he went out of the land of Florida, and was cast away at sea. Presently the Governor sent John Danusco with thirty horse-men to the Port de Spirito Santo where Calderan was, with order that they should abandon the port, and all of them come to Apalache. He departed on Saturday the 17th of Novemher. In Uzachil and other towns that stood in the way he found great store of people already careless. He would take none of the Indians, for not hindering himself, because it behooved him to give them no leisure to gather themselves together. He passed through the towns by night, and rested without the towns three or four hours. In ten days he came to the Port de Spirito Santo. He carried with him twenty Indian women, which he took in Ytara, and Potano, near unto Cale, and sent them to Donna Isabella in the two caravels, which he sent from the Port de Spirito Santo to Cuba. And he carried all the footmen in the brigantines, and coasting along the shore came to Apalache. And Calderan, with the horsemen, and some crossbowmen on foot, went by land; and in some places the Indians set upon him, and wounded some of his men. As soon as he came to Apalache, presently the Governor sent sawed planks and spikes to the seaside, wherewith was made a piraqua or bark, wherein were embarked thirty men well armed, which went out of the bay to the sea, looking for the brigantines. Sometimes they fought with the Indians, which passed along the harbor in their canoes. Upon Saturday, the 29th of November, there came an Indian through the watch undiscovered, and sat the town on fire, and with the great wind that blew two parts of it were consumed in a short time. On Sunday the 28th of December, came John Danusco with the brigantines. The Governor sent Francisco Maldonado, a captain of footmen, with fifty men to discover the coast westward, and to seek some port, because he had determined to go by land, and discover that part. That day there went out eight horsemen by commandment of the Governor into the field, two leagues about the town, to seek Indians; for they were Page 136 now so emboldened, that within two crossbow shot of the camp, they came and slew men. They found two men and a woman gathering French beans; the men, though they might have fled, yet because they would not leave the woman, which was one of their wives, they resolved to die fighting; and before they were slain, they wounded three horses, whereof one died within a few days after. Calderan going with his men by the sea-coast, from a wood that was near the place, the Indians set upon him, and made him forsake his way, and many of them that went with him forsook some necessary victuals, which they carried with them. Three or four days after the limited time given by the Governor to Maldonado for his going and coming, being already determined and resolved, if within eight days he did not come, to tarry no longer for him, he came, and brought an Indian from a province which was called Ochus, sixty leagues westward from Apalache; where he had found a port of good depth, and defence against weather. And because the Governor hoped to find a good country forward, be was very well contented. And he sent Maldonado for victuals to Havana, with order that hem should tarry for him at the port of Ochus, which he had discovered, for he would go seek it by land; and if he should chance to stay, and not come thither that summer, that then he should return to Havana, and should come again the next summer after, and tarry for him at that port; for he said he would do none other thing but go to seek Ochus Francisco Maldonado departed, and in his place for captain of the footmen remained John de Guzman. Of those Indians which were taken in Napetuca, the Treasurer John Gayton had a young man, which said that he was not of that country, but of another far off toward the sun rising, and that it was long since he had traveled to see countries; and that his country was called Yupaha, and that a woman did govern it; and that the town where she was resident was of a wonderful bigness, and that many lords round about were tributaries to her; and some gave her clothes, and others gold in abundance; and he told how it was taken out of the mines, and was molten and refined, as if he had seen it done, or the devil had taught it him. So that all those which knew anything concerning the same, said that it was impossible to give so good a relation, without having seen it; and all of them, as if they had seen it, by the signs that he gave, believed all that he said to be true.

On Wednesday, the third of March, of the year 1540, the Governor departed from Anaica Apalache to seek Yupaha. He commanded his men to go provided with maize for sixty leagues of desert. Page 137 The horsemen carried their maize on their horses, and the foot men at their sides; because the Indians that were for service, with their miserable life that they led that winter, being naked and in chains, died for the most part. Within four days' journey they came to a great river; and they made a piragua or ferry boat, and because of the great current, they made a cable with chains, which they fastened on both sides of the river; and the ferry boat went along by it, and the horses swam over, being drawn with capstans. Having passed the river in a day and a half, they came to a town called Capachiqui. Upon Friday the 11th of March, they found Indians in arms. The next day five Christians went to seek mortars, which the Indians have to beat their maize, and they went to certain houses on the back side of the camp environed with a wood. And within the wood were many Indians which came to spy us; of the which came other five and set upon us. One of the Christians came running away, giving an alarm unto the camp. Those which were most ready answered the alarm. They found one Christian dead, and three sore wounded. The Indians fled unto a lake adjoining near a very thick wood, where the horses could not enter. The Governor departed from Capachiqui and passed through a desert. On Wednesday, the twenty-first of the month, he came to a town called Toalli; and from thence forward there was a difference in the houses. For those which were behind us were thatched with straw, and those of Toalli were covered with reeds, in manner of tiles. These houses are very cleanly. Some of them had walls daubed with clay, which showed like a mud-wall. In all the cold country the Indians have every one a house for the winter daubed with clay within and without, and the door is very little; they shut it by night, and make fire within; so that they are in it as warm as in a stove, and so it continueth all night that they need not clothes; and besides these they have others for summer; and their kitchens near them, where they make fire and bake their bread; and they have barbacoas wherein they keep their maize; which is a house set up in the air upon four stakes, boarded about like a chamber, and the floor of it is of cane hurdles. The difference which lords or principal men's houses have from the rest, besides they be greater, is, that they have great galleries in their fronts, and under them seats made of canes in manner of benches; and round about them they have many lofts, wherein they lay up that which the Indians do give them for tribute, which is maize, deers' skins, and mantles of the country, which are like blankets; they make them of the inner rind of the barks of trees, and some of a kind of grass like unto nettles, which being Page 138 beaten, is like unto flax. The women cover themselves with these mantles; they put one about them from the waist downward, and another over their shoulder, with their right arm out, like unto the Egyptians. The men wear but one mantle upon their shoulders after the same manner; and have their secrets hid with a deer's skin, made like a linen breech, which was wont to be used in Spain. The skins are well curried, and they give them what color they list, so perfect, that if it be red, it seemeth a very fine cloth in grain, and the black is most fine, and of the same leather they make shoes; and they dye their mantles in the same colors. The Governor departed from Toalli the 24th of March; he came on Thursday at evening to a small river, where a bridge was made whereon the people passed, and Benit Fernandez, a Portuguese, fell off from it, and was drowned. As soon as the Governor had passed the river, a little distance thence he found a town called Achese. The Indians had no notice of the Christians: they leaped into a river: some men and women were taken, among which was one that understood the youth which guided the Governor to Yupaha; whereby that which he had reported was more confirmed. For they had passed through countries of divers languages, and some which he understood not. The Governor sent by one of the Indians that were taken to call the cacique, which was on the other side of the river. He came, and made this speech following:

"Right high, right mighty, and excellent lord, those things which seldom happen do cause admiration. What then may the sight of your lordship and your people do to me and mine, whom we never saw? especially being mounted on such fierce beasts as your horses are, entering with such violence and fury into my country, without my knowledge of your coming. It was a thing so strange, and caused such fear and terror in our minds, that it was not in our power to stay and receive your lordship with the solemnity due to so high and renowned a prince as your lordship is. And trusting in your greatness and singular virtues, I do not only hope to be freed from blame, but also to receive favors; and the first which I demand of your lordship is, that you will use me, my Country, and subjects as your own; and the second, that you will tell me who you are, and whence you come, and whither you go, and what you seek, that I the better may serve you therein."

The Governor answered him, that he thanked him as much for his offer and good-will as if he had received it, and as if he had offered him a great treasure; and told him that he was the son of the Sun, and came from those parts where he dwelt, and traveled through that Page 139 country, and sought the greatest lord and richest province that was in it. The cacique told him that farther forward dwelt a great lord, and that his dominion was called Ocute. He gave him a guide and an interpreter for that province. The Governor commanded his Indians to be set free, and traveled through his country up a river very well inhabited. He departed from his town the first of April; and left a very high cross of wood set up in the midst of the market-place; and because the time gave no more leisure, he declared to him only that that cross was a memory of the same whereon Christ, which was God and man, and created the heavens and the earth, suffered for our salvation; therefore he exhorted them that they should reverence it, and they made show as though they would do so. The fourth of April the Governor passed by a town called Altamaca, and the tenth of the month he came to Ocute. The cacique sent him two thousand Indians with a present, to wit, many conies and partridges, bread of maize, two hens, and many dogs; which among the Christians were esteemed as if they had been fat wethers, because of the great want of flesh meat and salt, and hereof in many places, and many times was great need; and they were so scarce, that if a man fell sick, there was nothing to cherish him withal; and with a sickness, that in another place easily might have been remedied, he consumed away till nothing but skin and bones were left; and they died of pure weakness, some of them saying, "If I had a slice of meat or a few corns of salt, I should not die. The Indians want no flesh meat; for they kill with their arrows many deer, hens, conies, and other wild fowl, for they are very cunning at it, which skill the Christians had not; and though they had it, they had no leisure to use it; for the most of the time they spent in travel, and durst not presume to straggle aside. And because they were thus scanted of flesh, when six hundred men that went with Soto came to any town, and found thirty or forty dogs, he that could get one and kill it thought himself no small man; and he that killed it and gave not his captain one quarter, if he knew it he frowned on him, and made him feel it in the watches, or in any other matter of labor that was offered, wherein he might do him a displeasure. On Monday, the twelfth of April, 1540, the Governor departed from Ocute. The cacique gave him two hundred Tamenes, to wit, Indians to carry burdens; he passed through a town, the lord whereof was named Cofaqui, and came to a province of an Indian lord called Patofa, who because he was in peace with the lord of Ocute, and with the other bordering lords, had many days before notice of the Governor, and desired to see him. He came to visit him, and made this speech following. Page 140

"Mighty lord, now with good reason I will crave of fortune to requite this my so great prosperity with some small adversity; and I will count myself very rich, seeing that I have obtained that which in this world I most desired, which is to see and be able to do your lordship some service. And although the tongue be the image of that which is in the heart, and that the contentment which I feel in my heart I cannot dissemble, yet is it not sufficient wholly to manifest the same. Where did this your country, which I do govern, deserve to be visited of so sovereign and so excellent a prince, whom all the rest of the world ought to obey and serve? And those which inhabit it being so base, what shall be the issue of such happiness, if their memory do not represent unto them some adversity that may betide them, according to the order of fortune? If from this day forward we may be capable of this benefit, that your lordship will bold us for your own, we cannot fail to be favored and maintained in true justice and reason, and to have the name of men. For such as are void of reason and justice, may be compared to brute beasts. For mine own part, from my very heart with reverence due to such a prince, I offer myself unto your lordship, and beseech you, that in reward of this my true good will, you will vouchsafe to make use of mine own person, my Country, and subjects."

The Governor answered him, that his offers and good-will declared by the effect, did highly please him, whereof he would always be mindful to honor and favor him as his brother. This country, from the first peaceable cacique, unto the province of Patofa, which were fifty leagues, is a fat country, beautiful, and very fruitful, and very well watered, and full of good rivers. And from thence to the Port de Spirit Santo, where we first arrived in the land of Florida (which may be three hundred and fifty leagues, little more or less), is a barren land, and the most of it groves of wild pine trees, low and full of lakes, and in some places very high and thick groves, whither the Indians that were in arms fled, so that no man could find them, neither could any horses enter into them, which was an inconvenience to the Christians, in regard of the victuals which they found conveyed away; and of the troubles which they had in seeking of Indians to be their guides.

In the town of Patofa the youth which the Governor carried with him for an interpreter and a guide, began to foam at the mouth, and tumble on the ground, as one possessed with the devil: they said a gospel over him, and the fit left him. And he said, that four days' journey from thence toward the sun rising, was the province that he Page 141 spoke of. The Indians of Patofa said, that toward that part they knew no habitation; but that toward the north- west, they knew a province which was called Coça, a very plentiful country, which had very great towns in it. The cacique told the Governor that if he would go thither, he would give him guides and Indians for burdens; and if he would go whither the youth spake of, that he would likewise give him those that he needed; and so with loving words and offers of courtesy, they took their leaves the one of the other. He gave him seven hundred Indians to bear burdens. He took maize for four days' journey. He traveled six days by a path which grew narrow more and more, till it was lost altogether. He went where the youth did lead him, and passed two rivers, which were waded: each of them was two crossbow shots over; the water came to the stirrups, and had so great a current, that it was needful for the horseman to stand one before another, that the footmen might pass above them, leaning unto them. He came to another river of a great current and largeness, which was passed with more trouble, because the horses did swim at the coming out, about a lance's length. Having passed this river, the Governor came to a grove of pine trees, and threatened the youth, and made as though he would have cast him to the dogs, because he had told him a lie, saying, it was but four days' journey, and they had traveled nine, and every day seven or eight leagues, and the men by this time were grown weary and weak, and the horses lean through the great scanting of the maize. The youth said that he knew not where he was. It saved him that he was not cast to the dogs, that there was never another whom John Ortiz did understand. The Governor, with them two, and with some horsemen and footmen, leaving the camp in a grove of pine trees, traveled that day five or six leagues to seek a way, and returned at night very comfortless, and without finding any sign of way or town. The next day there were sundry opinions delivered, whether they should go back, or what they should do; and because backward the country whereby they had passed was greatly spoiled, and destitute of maize, and that which they brought with them was spent, and the men were very weak, and the horses likewise, they doubted much whether they might come to any place where they might help themselves. And besides this, they were of opinion, that going in that sort out of order, that any Indians would presume to set upon them, so that with hunger or with war, they could not escape. The Governor determined to send horsemen from thence every way to seek habitation; and the next day he sent four captains, every one a sundry way with eight horsemen. At night they came again, leading Page 142 their horses, or driving them with a stick before; for they were weary, that they could not lead them, neither found they any way or sign of habitation. The next day the Governor sent other four with as many horsemen that could swim, to pass the swamps and rivers which they should find, and they had choice horses, the best that were in the camp. The captains were Baltasar de Gallegos, which went up the river; and John Danusco down the river; Alfonso Roma and John Rodriquez Lobillo went into the inward parts of the land. The Governor brought with him into Florida thirteen sows, and had by this time three hundred swine. He commanded every man should have half a pound of hog's flesh every day, and this he did three or four days after the maize was all spent. With this small quantity of flesh, and some sodden herbs, with much trouble the people were sustained. The Governor dismissed the Indians of Patofa, because he had no food to give them; who desiring to aceompany and serve the Christians in their neeessity, making show that it grieved them very much to return until they had left them in a peopled country, returned to their own home. John Danusco came on Sunday late in the evening, and brought news that he had found a little town twelve or thirteen leagues from thence: he brought a woman and a boy that he took there. With his coming and with those news, the Governor and all the rest were so glad that they seemed at that instant to have returned from death to life. Upon Monday, the twenty-sixth of April, the Governor departed to go to the town, which was called Aymay; and the Christians named it the town of Relief. He left where the camp had lain at the foot of a pine free, a letter buried, and letters carved in the bark of the pine, the contents whereof was this: Dig here at the foot of this pine, and you shall find a letter. And this he did, because when the captains came, which were sent to seek some habitation, they might see the letter, and know what was become of the Governor, and which way he was gone. There was no other way to the town, but the marks that John Danusco left made upon the trees. The Governor, with some of them that had the best horses, came to it on the Monday; and all the rest inforcing themselves the best way they could, some of them lodged within two leagues of the town, some within three and four, every one as he was able to go, and his strength served him. There was found in the town a store-house full of the flour of parched maize; and some maize, which was distributed by allowance. Here were four Indians taken, and none of them would confess any other thing, but that they knew of none other habitation. The Governor commanded one of them to be burned; and presently Page 143 another confessed that two days' journey from thence, there was a province that was called Cutifachiqui. Upon Wednesday came the captains Baltasar de Gallegos, Alfonso Romo, and John Rodriquez Lobillo, for they had found the letter, and followed the way which the Governor had taken toward the town. Two men of John Rodriquez's company were lost, because their horses tired; the Governor checked him very sore for leaving them behind, and sent to seek them; and as soon as they came he departed toward Cutifachiqui. In the way three Indians were taken, which said that the lady of that country had notice already of the Christians, and stayed for them in a town of hers. The Governor sent by one of them to offer her his friendship, and to advertise her how he was coming thither. The Governor came unto the town, and presently there came four canoes to him; in one of them came a sister of the lady, and approaching to the Governor she said these words:

"Excellent lord, my sister sendeth unto you by me to kiss your lordship's hands, and to signify unto you that the cause why she came not in person, is, that she thinketh to do you greater service staying behind, as she doth, giving order that with all speed all her canoes be ready, that your lordship may pass the river, and take your rest, which shall presently be performed."

The Governor gave her thanks, and she returned to the other side of the river. Within a little while the lady (Cutifachiqui) came out of the town in a chair, whereon certain of the principal Indians brought her to the river. She entered into a barge which had the stern tilted over, and on the floor her mat ready laid with two cushions upon it one upon another, where she sat her down; and with her came her principal Indians in other barges, which did wait upon her. She went to the place where the Governor was, and at her coming she made this speech following:

"Excellent lord, I wish this coming of your lordship into these your countries to be most happy; although my power be not answer-able to my will, and my services be not according to my desire, nor such as so high a prince as your lordship deserveth; yet since the good-will is rather to be accepted than all the treasures of the world, that without it are offered with most nnfailable and manifest affection, I offer you my person, lands, and subjects, and this small service."

And therewithal she presented unto him great store of clothes of the country, which she brought in other canoes, to wit, mantles and skins; and took from her own neck a great cordon of pearls, and cast it about the neck of the Governor, entertaining him with very gracious Page 144 speeches of love and courtesy, and commanded canoes to be brought thither, wherein the Governor and his people passed the river. As soon as he was lodged in the town, she (Cutifachiqui) sent him another present of many hens. This country was very pleasant, fat, and hath goodly meadows by the rivers. Their woods are thin, and full of walnut trees and mulberry trees. They said the sea was two days' journey from thence. Within a league and half a league about this town were great towns dispeopled, and overgrown with grass; which showed that they had been long without inhabitants. The Indians said that two years before there was a plague in that country, and that they removed to other towns. There was in their storehouses great quantity of clothes, mantles of yarn made of the barks of trees, and others made of feathers, white, green, red, and yellow, very fine after their use, and profitable for winter. There were also many deer's skins, with many compartments traced in them, and some of them made into hose, stockings, and shoes. And the lady perceiving that the Christians esteemed the pearls, advised the Governor to send to search certain graves that were in that town, and that he should find many; and that if he would send to the dispeopled towns he might load all his horses. They sought the graves of that town, and there found fourteen rows of pearls (three hundred and ninety-two pounds), and little babies and birds made of them. The people were brown, well made, and well proportioned, and more civil than any others that were seen in all the country of Florida, and all of them went shod and clothed. The youth told the Governor that he began now to enter into the land which he spoke of; and some credit was given hint that it was so, because he understood the language of the Indians; and he requested that he might be christened, for he said he desired to become a Christian. He was christened, and named Peter; and the Governor commanded him to be loosed from a chain, in which until that time he had gone. This country, as the Indians reported, had been much inhabited, and had the fame of a good country. And as it seemeth, the youth, which was the Governor's guide, had heard of it, and that which he knew by hearsay, he affirmed that he had seen, and augmented at his pleasure. In this town was found a dagger, and beads that belonged to Christians. The Indians reported that Christians had been in the haven (St. Helena), which was two days' journey from this town, many years ago. He that came thither was the Governor, the Licentiate Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, which went to conquer this country, and at his coming to the port he died (1525); Page 145 and there was a division, quarrels and slaughters between some principal men which went with him, for the principal government. And without knowing anything of the country, they returned home to Hispaniola. All the company thought it good to inhabit that country, because it was in a temperate climate (32 30'). And that if it were inhabited, all the ships of New Spain, of Peru, Santa Martha, and Terra Firma, in their return for Spain might well touch there, because it was in their way, and because it was a good country, and sited fit to raise commodity. The Governor, since his intent was to seek another treasure, like that of Atabalipa, Lord of Peru, was not contented with a good country, nor with pearls, though many of them were worth their weight in gold. And if the country had been divided among the Christians, those which the Indians had fished for afterwards would have been of more value; for those which they had, because they burned them in the fire, did lessen their color. The Governor answered them that urged him to inhabit, that in all the country there were not victuals to sustain his men one month; and that it was needful to resort to the Port of Ocus, where Maldonado was to stay for them: and that if no richer country were found, they might return again to that whensoever they would; and in the meantime the Indians would sow their fields, and it would be better furnished with maize. He inquired of the Indians whether they had notice of any great lord farther into the land. They told him that twelve days' journey from thence* there was a province called Chiaha, subject to the Lord of Coça. Presently the Governor determined to seek that land. And being a stern man, and of few words, though he was glad to sift and know the opinion of all men, yet after he had delivered his own, he would not be contraried, and always did what liked himself, and so all men did condescend unto his will. And though it seemed an error to leave that country (for others might have been sought round about, where the people might have been sustained until the harvest had been ready there, and the maize gathered), yet there was none that would say anything against him, after they knew his resolution.

The Governor departed from Cutifachiqui the third day of May. And because the Indians had revolted, and the will of the lady was perceived, that if she could, she would depart without giving any guides or men for burden, for the wrongs which the Christians had done to the Indians (for there never want some among many of a * Twelve days from St. Helena, and Coste seven days' journey from Chiaha. Page 146 base sort, that for a little gain do put themselves and others in danger of undoing), the Governor commanded her to be kept in safeguard, and carried with him, not with so good usage as she deserved for the good-will she showed, and good entertainment that she had made him. And he verified that old proverb which saith: "For well-doing I receive evil." And so he carried her on foot with his bondwomen to look unto her. In all the towns where the Governor passed, the lady commanded the Indians to come and carry the burdens from one town to another. We passed through her country an hundred leagues, in which, as we saw, she was much obeyed, for the Indians did all that she commanded them with great efficacy and diligence. Peter, the youth that was our guide, said that she was not the lady herself, but a niece of hers, which came to that town to execute certain principal men by commandment of the lady, which had withheld her tribute; which words were not believed, because of the lies which they had found in him before; but they bare with all things because of the need which they had of him to declare what the Indians said. In seven days' space the Governor came to a province called Chalaque, the poorest country of maize that was seen in Florida. The Indians feed upon roots and herbs, which they seek in the fields, and upon wild beasts, which they kill with their bows and arrows, and are a very gentle people. All of them go naked, and arc very lean. There was a Lord (Cutifachiqui), which for a great present, brought the Governor two deer skins; and there were in that country many wild hens. In one town they made him a present of seven hundred hens, and so in other towns they sent him those which they had or could get. From this province to another, which is called Xualla, he spent five days. Here he found very little maize, and for this cause, though the people were wearied, and the horses very weak, he staid no more but two days. From Ocute to Cutifachiqui, may be some hundred and thirty leagues, whereof eighty are wilderness. From Cutifachiqui to Xualla two hundred and fifty, and it is a hilly country. The Governor departed from Xualla towards Guaxule passed very rough and high hills. In that journey, the lady of Cutifachiqui (whom the Governor carried with him, as is aforesaid, with purpose to carry her to Guaxule, because her territory reached thither), going on a day with the bondwomen which led her, went out of the way, and entered into a wood, saying she went to ease herself, and so she deceived them, and hid herself in the wood; and though they sought her they could not find her. She carried away with her a little chest made of Page 147 canes in manner of a coffer, which they call petaca, full of unbored pearls. Some which could judge of them, said that they were of great value. An Indian woman that waltzed on her did carry them. The Governor, not to discontent her altogether, left them with her, making account that in Guaxule he would ask them of her, when he gave her leave to return; which coffer she carried away and went to Xualla with three slaves which fled from the camp, and one horseman which remained behind, who, falling sick of an ague, went out of the way and was lost. This man, whose name was Alimamos, dealt with the slaves to change their evil purpose, and return with him to the Christians, which two of them did; and Alimamos and they overtook the Governor fifty leagues from thence in a province called Chiaha; and reported how the lady remained in Xualla with a slave of Andrew de Vasconcellos, which would not come back with them; and that of a certainty they lived as man and wife together, and meant to go both to Cutifachiqui. Within five days the Governor came to Guaxule. The Indians there gave him a present of three hundred dogs, because they saw the Christians esteem them, and sought them to feed on them; for among them they are not eaten In Guaxule, and all that way, was very little maize. The Governor sent from thence an Indian with a message to the cacique of Chiaha, to desire him to gather some maize thither, that he might rest a few days in Chiaha. The Governor departed from Guaxule, and in two days' journey came to a town called Canasagua. There met him on the way twenty Indians, every one loaded with a basketful of mulberries; for there be many, and those very good, from Cutifachiqui, and so forward in other provinces, and also nuts and plums. And the trees grow in the fields without planting or dressing them, and as big and as rank as though they grew in gardens digged and watered. From the time that the Governor departed from Canasagua, he journeyed five days through a desert; and two leagues before he came to Chiaha, there met him fifteen Indians loaded with maize, which the cacique had sent; and they told him on his behalf, that he walted his coming with twenty barns full of it; and further, that himself, his country, and subjects, and all things else were at his service. On the fifth day of June, the Governor entered into Chiaha. The cacique voided his own houses, in which he lodged, and received him with much joy, saying these words following

"Mighty and excellent lord, I hold myself for so happy a man, in that it hath pleased your lordship to use me; that nothing could have Page 148 happened unto me of more contentment, nor that I would have esteemed so much. From Guaxule your lordship sent unto me, that I should prepare maize for you in this town for two months. Here I have for you twenty barns full of the choicest that in all the country could be found. If your lordship be not entertained by me in such sort as is fit for so high a prince, respect my tender age, which excuseth me from blame, and receive my good-will, which with much loyalty, truth and sincerity, I will always show in anything which shall concern your lordship's service."

The Governor answered him that he thanked him very much for his service and offer, and that he would always account him as his brother. There was in this town much butter in gourds melted like oil--they said it was the fat of bears. There was found, also, great store of oil of walnuts, which was clear as butter, and of a good taste, and a pet full of honey of bees, which neither before nor afterward was seen in all the country. The town was an island between two arms of a river, and was seated nigh one of them. The river divideth itself into those two branches, two crossbow shots above the town, and meeteth again a league beneath the same. The plain between both the branches is sometimes one crossbow shot, sometimes two crossbow shots over. The branches are very broad, and both of them may be waded over. There were along them very good meadows, and many fields sown with maize. And because the Indians staid in their town, the Governor only lodged in the houses of the cacique, and his people in the fields; where there was ever a tree every one took one for himself. Thus the camp lay separated one from another, and out of order. The Governor winked at it, because the Indians were in peace, and because it was very hot, and the people should have suffered great extremity if it had not been so. The horses came thither so weak, that for feebleness they were not able to carry their masters; because that from Cutifachiqui, they always traveled with very little provender, and were hunger- starved and tired ever since they came from the desert of Ocute. And because the most of them were not in case to use in battle, though need should require, they sent them to feed in the night a quarter of a league from the camp. The Christians were there in great danger, because that if at this time the Indians had set upon them, they had been in evil case to have defended themselves. The Governor rested there thirty days, in which time, because the country was very fruitful, the horses grew fat. At the time of his departure, by the importunity of Page 149 some, which would have more than was reason, he demanded of the cacique thirty women to make slaves of. He answered that he would confer with his chief men. And before he returned an answer, one night all of them with their wives and children forsook the town, and fled away. The next day, the Governor proposing to go to seek them, the cacique came unto him, and at his coming used these words unto the Governor:--

"Mighty lord, with shame and fear of your lordship, because my subjects against my will have done amiss in absenting themselves, I went my way without your license; and knowing the error which I have committed, like a loyal subject, I come to yield myself into your power, to dispose of me at your own pleasure. For my subjects do not obey me, nor do anything but what an uncle of mine commandeth, which governeth this country for me, until I be of a perfect age. If your lordship will pursue them, and execute on them that, which for their disobedience they deserve, I will be your guide, since at this present my fortune will not suffer me to perform any more."

Presently, the Governor with thirty horsemen, and as many footmen, went to seek the Indians, and passing by some towns of the principal Indians which had absented themselves, he cut and destroyed great fields of maize; and went up the river, where the Indians were in an island, where the horsemen could not come at them. There he sent them word by an Indian to return to their town and fear nothing, and that they should give his men to carry burdens, as all those behind had done; for he would have no Indian women, seeing they were so loth to part with them. The Indians accepted his request, and came to the Governor to excuse themselves; and so all of them returned to their town. A cacique of a province called Coste, came to this town to visit the Governor. After he had offered himself, and passed with him some words of tendering his service and courtesy, the Governor asking him whether he had notice of any rich country? he said yea: to wit, that toward the north there was a province named Chisca:* and that there was a melting of copper, and of another metal of the same color, save that it was finer, and of a far more perfect color, and far better to the sight; and that they used it not so much, because it was softer. And the self same thing was told the Governor in Cutifachiqui, where we saw some little hatchets of copper, which were said to have a mixture of gold. But in that part

* Chisca is directly north from Cutifachiqui, which is within two days of St. Helena. Page 150 the country was not well peopled, and they said there were mountains, which the horses could not pass: and for that cause, the Governor would not go from Cutifachiqui directly thither: and he made account, that traveling through a peopled country, when his men and horses should be in better plight, and he were better certified of the truth of the thing, he would return toward it, by mountains, and a better inhabited country, whereby he might have better passage. He sent two Christians from Chiaha with certain Indians which knew the country of Chisca, and the language thereof, to view it, and to make report of that which they should find; where he told them that he would tarry for them.

When the Governor was determined to depart from Chiaha to Coste, he sent for the cacique to come before him, and with gentle words took his leave of him, and gave him certain things, wherewith he rested much contented. In seven days he came to Coste. The second of July he commanded his camp to be pitched two crossbow shots from the town: and with eight men of his guard he went where he found the cacique, which to his thinking received him with great love. As he was talking with him, there went from the camp certain footmen to the town to seek some maize, and not contented with its they ran-sacked and searched the houses, and took what they found. With this despite, the Indians began to rise and to take their arms: and some of them, with cudgels in their hands, ran upon five or six Christians, which had done them wrong, and beat them at their pleasure. The Governor seeing them all in an uproar, and himself among them with so few Christians, to escape their hands used a stratagem, far against his own disposition, being, as he was, very frank and open: and though it grieved him very much that any Indian should be so bold, as with reason, or without reason to despise the Christians, he took up a cudgel, and took their parts against his own men; which was a means to quiet them. And presently he sent word by a man very secretly to the camp, that some armed men should come toward the place where he was; and he took the cacique by the hand, using very mild words unto him, and with some principal Indians that did accompany him, he drew them out of the town into a plain way, and unto the sight of the camp, whither by little and little with good discretion the Christians began to come and to gather about them. Thus the Governor led the cacique and his chief men until he entered with them into the camp: and near unto his tent he commanded them to be put in safe custody; and told them that they should not depart Page 151 without giving him a guide and Indians for burdens, and till certain sick Christians were come, which he had commanded to come down the river in canoes from Chiaha; and those also which he had sent to the province of Chisca: (for they were not returned; and he feared that the Indians had slain the one, and the other.) Within three days after, those which were sent to Chisca returned, and made report that the Indians had carried them through a country so poor of maize, and so rough, and over so high mountains, that it was impossible for the army to travel that way; and that seeing the way grew very long, and that they lingered much, they consulted to return from a little poor town, where they saw nothing that was of any profit, and brought an ox hide, which the Indians gave them, as thin as a calf's skin, and the hair like a soft wool, between the coarse and fine wool of sheep. The cacique gave a guide, and men for burdens, and departed with the Governor's leave. The Governor departed from Coste the ninth of July, and lodged at a town called Tali. The cacique came forth to receive him on the way, and made this speech:--

"Excellent lord and prince, worthy to be served and obeyed of all the princes in the world; howsoever for the most part by the outward physiognomy the inward virtue may be judged, and that who you are, and of what strength, was known unto me before now: I will not infer hereupon how mean I am in your presence, to hope that my poor services will be grateful and acceptable: since whereas strength faileth, the will doth not cease to be praised and accepted. And for this cause I presume to request your lordship, that you will be pleased only to respect the same, and consider wherein you will command my service in this your country."

The Governor answered him, that his good-will and offer was as acceptable unto him as if he had offered him all the treasures of the world, and that he would always entreat, favor, and esteem him as if he were his own brother. The cacique commanded provision necessary for two days, while the Governor was there, to be brought thither: and at the time of his departure, he gave him four women and two men, which he had need of to bear burdens. The Governor traveled six days through many towns subject to the cacique of Coça: and as he entered into his country many Indians came unto him every day from the cacique, and met him on the way with messages, one going, and another coming. He came to Coça upon Friday, the 26th of July. The cacique came forth to receive him two crossbow shots from the town in a chair, which his principal men carried on their shoulders, Page 152 sitting upon a cushion, and covered with a garment of marterns, of the fashion and bigness of a woman's huke: he had on his head a diadem of feathers, and round about him many Indians playing upon flutes, and singing. As soon as he came unto the Governor, he did his obeyance, and uttered these words following:--

"Excellent and mighty lord, above all them of the earth, although I come but now to receive you, yet I have received you many days ago in my heart, to wit, from the day wherein I had first notice of your lordship: with so great desire to serve you, with so great pleasure and contentment, that this which I make show of, is nothing in regard of that which is in my heart, neither can it have any kind of comparison. This you may hold for certain, that to obtain the dominion of the whole world, would not have rejoiced me so much as your sight, neither would I have held it for so great a felicity. Do not look for me to offer you that which is your own, to wit, my person, my lands, and subjects; only I will busy myself in commanding my men with all diligence and due reverence to welcome you from hence to the town with playing and singing, where your lordship shall be lodged and attended upon by myself and them; and all that I possess your lordship shall use as it were your own. For your lordship shall do me a very great favor in so doing."

The Governor gave him thanks, and with great joy they both went conferring together till they came to the town; and he commanded his Indians to void their houses, wherein the Governor and his men were lodged. There was in the barns and in the fields great store of maize and French beans. The country was greatly inhabited with many great towns, and many sown fields, which reached from the one to the other. It was pleasant, fat, full of good meadows upon rivers. There were in the fields many plum trees, as well of such as grow in Spain as of the country; and wild tall vines, that run up the trees; and besides these there were other low vines with big and sweet grapes; but for want of digging and dressing, they had great kernels in them. The Governor used to set a guard over the caciques, because they should not absent themselves, and carried them with him till he came out of their countries; because that carrying them along with him, he looked to find people in the towns, and they gave him guides, and men to carry burdens; and before he went out of their countries, he gave them license to return to their houses, and to their porters likewise, as soon as he came to any other lordship where they gave him others. The men of Coça seeing their lord detained, took it in evil

Page 153 part, and revolted, and hid themselves in the woods, as well those of the town of the cacique, as those of the other towns of his principal subjects. The Governor sent out four captains, every one his way, to seek them. They took many men and women, which were put into chains. They seeing the hurt which they received, and how little they gained in absenting themselves, came again, promising to do whatsoever they were commanded. Of those which were taken prisoners, some principal men were set at liberty, whom the cacique demanded; and every one that had any, carried the rest in chains like slaves, without letting them go to their country. Neither did any return, but some few, whose fortune helped them with the good diligence which they used to file off their chains by night, or such as in their traveling could slip aside out of the way, seeing any negligence in them that kept them; some escaped away with the chains, and with the burdens and clothes which they carried.

The Governor rested in Coça twenty-five days. He departed from thence the twentieth of August, to seek a province called Tascaluca; he carried with him the cacique of Coça. He passed that day by a great town called Tallimuchase; the people were fled; he lodged half a league further, near a brook. The next day he came to a town called Ytaua, subject to Coça. He stayed[cr] there six days, because of a river that passed by it, which at that time was very high; and as soon as the river suffered him to pass, he set forward, and lodged at a town named Ullibahali. There came to him on the way, of the caciques in behalf of that province, ten or twelve principal Indians to offer him their service; all of them had their plumes of feathers, and bows and arrows. The Governor coming to the town with twelve horsemen, and some footmen of his guard, leaving his people a crossbow shot from the town, entered into it; he found all the Indians with their weapons, and as far as he could guess, they seemed to have some evil meaning. It was known afterwards that they were determined to take the cacique of Coça from the Governor, if he had requested it. The Governor commanded all his people to enter the town, which was walled about, and near unto it passed a small river. The wall, as well of that as of others, which afterwards we saw, was of great posts thrust deep into the ground, and very rough; and many long rails, as big as one's arm, laid across between them, and the wall was about the height of a lance, and it was daubed within and without with clay, and had loopholes. On the other side of the river was a town, where at that present the cacique was. The Governor sent to call him, Page 154 and he came presently. After he had passed with the Governor some words of offering his services, he gave him such men for his carriages as he needed, and thirty women for slaves. In that place was a Christian lost, called Mançano, born in Salamanca, of noble parentage, which went astray to seek for grapes, whereof there is great store, and those very good. The day that the Governor departed from thence, he lodged at a town, subject to the lord of Ullibahali; and the next day he came to another town called Toasi. The Indians gave the Governor thirty women, and such men for his carriages as he needed. He traveled ordinarily five or six leagues a day, when he traveled through peopled countries; and going through deserts, he marched as fast as he could, to eschew the want of maize. From Toasi, passing through some towns subject to a cacique, which was lord of a province called Tallise, he traveled five days. He came to Tallise the 18th of September. The town was great, and situated near unto a main river. On the other side of the river were other towns, and many fields sown with maize. On both sides it was a very plentiful country, and had store of maize; they had voided the town. The Governor commanded to call the cacique; who came, and between them passed some words of love and offer of his services, and he presented unto him forty Indians. There came to the Governor in this town, a principal Indian in the behalf of the cacique of Tascaluca, and made this speech following :-

"Mighty, virtuous, and esteemed lord, the great cacique of Tascaluca, my lord, sendeth by me to kiss your lordship's hands, and to let you understand that he hath notice how you justly ravish with your perfeetions and power, all men on the earth; and that every one by whom your lordship passeth, doth serve and obey you, which he acknowledgeth to be due unto you, and desireth, as his life, to see and to serve your lordship. For which cause by me he offereth himself, his lands and subjects, that when your lordship pleaseth to go through his country, you may be received with all peace and love, served and obeyed; and that in recompense of the desire he hath to see you, you will do him the favor to let him know when you will come; for how much the sooner, so much the greater favor he shall receive."

The Governor received and dispatched him graciously, giving him beads, which among them were not much esteemed, and some other things to carry to his lord. And he gave license to the Cacique of Coça to return home to his own country. The Cacique of Tallise gave him such men for burdens as he needed. And after he had Page 155 rested there twenty days, he departed thence towards Tascaluca. That day when he went from Tallise, he lodged at a great town called Casiste. And the next day passed by another, and came to a small town of Tascaluca; and the next day he camped in a wood, two leagues from the town where the cacique resided, and was at that time. And he sent the master of the camp, Luys de Moscoso, with fifteen horsemen, to let him know he was coming. The cacique was in his lodgings under a canopy; and without doors, right against his lodgings, in a high place, they spread a mat for him, and two cushions one upon another, where he sat him down, and his Indians placed themselves round about him, somewhat distant from him, so that they made a place, and a void room where he sat; and his chiefest men were nearest to him, and one with a shadow of deer skin, which kept the sun from him, being round and of the bigness of a target, quartered with black and white, having a rundle in the midst; afar off it seemed to be of taffeta, because the colors were very perfect. It was set on a small staff stretched wide out. This was the device which he carried in his wars. He was a man of a very tall stature, of great limbs, and spare, and well proportioned, and was much feared of his neighbors and subjects. He was lord of many territories and much people. In his countenance he was very grave. After the master of the camp had spoken with him, he and those that went with him coursed their horses, prancing them to and fro, and now and then towards the place where the cacique was, who, with much gravity and dissimulation now and then lifted up his eyes, and beheld them, as it were, with disdain. At the Governor's coming, he made no offer at all to rise. The Governor took him by the hand, and both of them sat down together on a seat which was under the cloth of state. The cacique said these words unto him:-

"Mighty lord, I bid your lordship right heartily welcome. I receive as much pleasure and contentment with your sight, as if you were my brother, whom I dearly loved; upon this point it is not needful to use many reasons; since it is no discretion to speak that in many words, which in few may be uttered. How much the greater the will is, so much more giveth it name to the works, and the works give testimony of the truth. Now touching my will, by it you shall know how certain and manifest it is, and how pure inclination I have to serve you. Concerning the favor which you did me, in the things which you sent me, I make as much account of them as is reason to esteem them, and chiefly because they were yours. Now see what service you will command me." Page 156

The Governor satisfied him with sweet words and with great brevity. When he departed from thence he determined to carry him along with him for some cause, and at two days' journey he came to a town called Piache, by which there passed a great river. The Governor demanded canoes of the Indians; they said they had them not, but that they would make rafts of canes and dry timber, on which he naight well enough. And they made them with all diligence and speed, and they governed them; and because the water went very slow, the Governor and his people passed very well.

From the Port de Spirito to Apalache, which is about an hundred leagues, the Governor went from east to west; and from Apalache to Cutifachiqui, which are four hundred and thirty leagues from the south-west to the northeast; and from Cutifachiqui to Xualla, which are about two hundred and fifty leagues from the south to the north; and from Xualla to Tascaluca, which are two hundred and fifty leagues more, an hundred and ninety of them he traveled from east to west, to wit, to the province of Coça, and the other sixty from Coça to Tascaluca from the north to the south.

Having passed the river of Piache, a Christian went from his company from thence to seek a woman slave that was run away from him, and the Indians either took him captive, or slew him. The Governor urged the cacique that he should give account of him, and threatened him that if he were not found he would never let him loose. The cacique sent an Indian from thence to Mavilla, whither they were traveling, which was a town of a principal Indian and his subject, saying that he sent him to advise them to make ready victuals, and men for carriages. But (as afterwards appeared) he sent him to assemble all the men of war thither that he had in his country. The Governor traveled three days, and the third day he passed all day through a peopled country, and he came to Mavilla upon Monday the 18th of October, 1540. He went before the camp with fifteen horsemen and thirty footmen. And from the town came a Christian, whom he had sent to the principal man, three or four days before, because he should not absent himself, and also to learn in what sort the Indians were; who told him that he thought they were in an evil purpose; for while he was there, there came many people into the town, and many weapons, and that they made great haste to fortify the walls. Luys de Moscoso told the Governor that it would be good to lodge in the field, seeing the Indians were of such disposition; and he answered, that he would lodge in the town, for he was weary of Page 157 lodging in the field. When he came near unto the town, the cacique came forth to receive him with many Indians playing upon flutes and singing. And after he had offered himself, he presented him with three mantles of marterns. The Governor, with both the caciques, and seven or eight men of his guard, and three or four horsemen, which alighted to accompany him, entered into the town, and sat him down under a cloth of state. The cacique of Tascaluca requested him that he would let him remain in that town, and trouble him no more with traveling. And seeing he would not give him leave, in his talk he changed his purpose, and dissemblingly feigned that he would speak with some principal Indians, and rose up from the place where he sat with the Governor, and entered into a house, where many Indians were with their bows and arrows. The Governor when he saw he returned not, called him, and he answered that he would not come out from thence, neither would he go any farther than that town, and that if he would go his way in peace, he should presently depart, and should not seek to carry him perforce out of his country and territory.

The Governor seeing the determination and furious answer of the cacique, went about to pacify him with fair words; to which he gave no answer, but rather with much pride and disdain, withdrew himself where the Governor might not see him nor speak with him. As a principal Indian passed that way, the Governor called him, to send him word that he might remain at his pleasure in his country, and that it would please him to give him a guide, and men for carriages, to see if he could pacify him with mild words. The Indians answered with great pride, that he would not hearken unto him. Bal-tasar de Gallegos, which stood by, took hold of a gown of marterns which he had on, and he cast it over his head, and left it in his hands: and because all of them immediately began to stir, Baltasar de Gallegos gave him such a wound with his cutlass, that he opened him down the back, and presently all the Indians with a great cry came out of the houses shooting their arrows. The Governor considering that if he tarried there, he could not escape, and if he commanded his men to come in, which were without the town, the Indians within the houses might kill their horses, and do much hurt, ran out of the town, and before he came out, he fell twice or thrice, and those that were with him did help him up again; and he and those that were with him were sore wounded; and in a moment there were five Christians slain in the town. The Governor came Page 158 running out of the town, crying out that every man should stand farther off; because from the wall they did them much hurt. The Indians seeing that the Christians retired, and some of them, or the most part, more than an ordinary pace, shot with great boldness at them, and struck down such as they could overtake. The Indians which the Christians did lead with them in chains, had laid down their burdens near unto the walls; and as soon as the Governor and his men were retired, the men of Mavilla laid them on the Indians'backs again, and took them into the town, and loosed them presently from their chains, and gave them bows and arrows to fight withal. Thus they possessed themselves of all the clothes and pearls, and all that the Christians had, which their slaves carried. And because the Indians had been always peaceable until we came to this place, some of our men had their weapons in their fardels, and remained unarmed. And from others that had entered the town with the Governor they had taken swords and halberds, and fought with them. When the Governor was gotten into the field, he called for a horse, and with some that accompanied him, he returned and slew two or three Indians. All the rest retired themselves to the town, and shot with their bows from the wall. And those which presumed of their nimbleness, sallied forth to fight a stone's cast from the wall. And when the Christians charged them, they retired themselves at their leisure into the ton. At the time that the broil began, there were in the town a friar and a priest, and a servant of the Governor, with a woman slave; and they had no time to come out of the town, and they took a house, and so remained in the ton. The Indians being become masters of the place, they shut the door with a field gate; and among them was one sword which the Governor's servant had, and with it he set himself behind the door, thrusting at the Indians which sought to come into them; and the friar and the priest stood on the other side, each of them with a bar in their hands to beat him down that first came in. The Indians seeing they could not get in by the door, began to uncover the house top. By this time all the horsemen and footmen which were behind, were come to Mavilla. Here there were sundry opinions, whether they should charge the Indians to enter the town, or whether they should leave it, because it was hard to enter; and in the end it was resolved to set upon them.

As soon as the battle and the rereward were come to Mavilla, the Governor commanded all those that were best armed to alight, and made four squadrons of footmen. The Indians, seeing how he was Page 159 setting his men in order, concluded with the cacique, that he should go his way, saying unto him, as after it was known by certain women that were taken there, that he was but one man, and could fight but for one man, and that they had there among them many principal Indians, very valiant and expert in feats of arms, that any one of them was able to order the people there; and forasmuch as matters of war were subject to casualty, and it was uncertain which part should overcome, they wished him to save himself, to the end, that if it fell out that they should end their days there, as they determined rather than to be overcome, there might remain one to govern the country. For all this he would not have gone away; but they urged him so much, that with fifteen or twenty Indians of his own, he went out of the ton, and carried away a scarlet cloak, and other things of the Christians' goods, as much as he was able to carry, and seemed best unto him. The Governor was informed how there went men out of the town, and he commanded the horsemen to beset it, and sent in every squadron of footmen one soldier with a firebrand to set fire on the houses, that the Indians might have no defence; all his men being set in order, he commanded an arquebuss to be shot off. The sign being given, the four squadrons, every one by itself with great fury, gave the onset, and with great hurt on both sides they entered the town. The friar and the priest, and those that were with them in the house were saved, which cost the lives of two men of account, and valiant, which came thither to succor them. The Indians fought with such courage, that many times they drove our men out of the town. The fight lasted so long, that for weariness and great thirst many of the Christians went to a pool that was near the wall, to drink, which was all stained with the blood of the dead, and then came again to fight. The Governor seeing this, entered among the footmen into the town on horseback, with certain that accompanied them, and was a mean that the Christians came to set fire on the houses, and broke and overcame the Indians, who running out of the town from the footmen, the horse-men without drove in at the gates again, where being without all hope of life, they fought valiantly, and after the Christians came among them to handy blows, seeing themselves in great distress, without any succor, many of them fled into the burning houses, where one upon another they were smothered and burnt in the fire. The whole number of the Indians that died in this town, were two thousand and five hundred, little more or less. Of the Christians there died eighteen; of which one was Don Carls, brother-in-law to the Governor, Page 160 and a nephew of his, and one John de Gamez, and Men Rodriquez, Portuguese, and John Vasquez de Villanova de Barca Rota, all men of honor, and of much valor; the rest were footmen. Besides those that were slain, there were a hundred and fifty wounded, with seven hundred wounds of their arrows: and it pleased God that of very dangerous wounds they were quickly healed. Moreover there were twelve horses slain, and seventy hurt. All the clothes which the Christians carried with them to clothe themselves withal, and the ornaments to say mass, and the pearls, were all burnt there; and the Christians did set them on fire themselves; because they held for a greater inconvenience, the hurt which the Indians might do them from those houses, where they had gathered all those goods together, than the loss of them. Here the Governor understood that Francisco Maldonado waited for him at the Port of Ochuse, and that it wow six days' journey from thence (Mavilla), and he dealt with John Ortiz to keep it secret, because he had not accomplished that which he determined to do; and because the pearls were burnt there, which he meant to have sent to Cuba for a show, that the people hearing the news, might be desirous to come to that country. He feared also, that if they should have news of him without seeing from Florida neither gold nor silver, nor anything of value, it would get such a name, that no man would seek to go thither, when he should have need of people. And so he determined to send no news of himself until he had found some rich country. From the time that the Governor entered into Florida, until his departure from Mavilla, there died a hundred and two Christians, some of sickness, and others which the Indians slew. He stayed in Mavilla, because of the wounded men, eight and twenty days; all which time he lay in the field. It was a well inhabited and a fat country, there were some great and walled towns, and many horses scattered all about the fields, to wit, a crossbow shot or two, the one from the other. Upon Sunday, the eighteenth of November (1540), when the hurt men were known to be healed, the Governor departed from Mavilla. Every one furnished himself with maize for two days, and they traveled five days through a desert: they came to a province called Pafallaya, unto a town named Taliepatava: and from thence they went to another, called Cabusto: near unto it ran a great river. The Indians on the other side cried out, threatening the Christians to kill them, if they sought to pass it. The Governor commanded his men to make a barge within the town, because the Indians should not Page 161 perceive it: it was finished in four days, and being ended, he commanded it to be carried one night upon sleds half a league up the river. In the morning there entered into it thirteen men well armed. The Indians perceived what was attempted, and those which were nearest, came to defend the passage. They resisted what they could, till the Christians came near them; and seeing that the barge came to the shore, they fled away into the groves of canes. The Christians mounted on horseback, and went up the river to make good the passage, whereby the Governor and his company passed the river. There were along the river some towns well stored with maize and French beans. From thence to Chicaça the Governor traveled five days through a desert. He came to a river, where on the other side were Indians to defend the passage. He made another barge in two days; and when it was finished, the Governor sent an Indian to request the cacique to accept of his friendship, and peaceably to expect his coming: whom the Indians that were on the other side the river slew before his face, and presently making a great shout went their way. Having passed the river, the next day, being the 17th of December, the Governor came to Chicaça, a small town of twenty houses. And after they were come to Chicaça, they were much troubled with cold, because it was now winter and it snowed, while most of them were lodged in the field, before they had time to make themselves houses. This country was very well peopled, and the houses scattered like those of Mavilla, fat and plentiful of maize, and the most part of it was fielding: they gathered as much as sufficed to pass the winter. Some Indians were taken, among which was one whom the cacique esteemed greatly. The Governor sent an Indian to signify to the cacique that he desired to see him and to have his friendship. The cacique came unto him, to offer him his person, country and subjects, and told him that he would cause two other caciques to come to him in peace; who within a few days after came with him and with their Indians. The one was called Alimamu, the other Nicalasa. They gave a present unto the Governor of a hundred and fifty coneys, and of the country garments, to wit, of mantles and skins. The Cacique of Chicaça came to visit him many times; and sometimes the Governor sent to call him, and sent him a horse to go and come. He complained unto him that a subject of his was risen against him and deprived him of his tribute, requesting his aid against him, for he meant to seek him iu his country, and to punish him according to his desert. Which was nothing else but a feigned plot. For they determined, Page 162 as soon as the Governor was gone with him, and the camp was divided into two parts, the one part of them to set upon the Governor and the other upon them that remained in Chicaça. He went to the town where he used to keep his residence, and brought with him two hundred Indians with their bows and arrows. The Governor took thirty horsemen and eighty footmen, and they went to Saquechuma (for so was the province called of that chief man, which he said had rebelled). They found a walled town, without any men: and those which went with the cacique set fire on the houses, to dissemble their treason. But by reason of the great care and heedfulness, that was as well in the Governor's people which he carried with him, as of those which remained in Chicaça, they dare not assault them at that time. The Governor invited the cacique, and certain principal Indians, and gave them hog's flesh to eat. And though they did not commonly use it, yet they were so greedy of it, that every night there came Indians to certain houses a crossbow shot from the camp, where the hogs lay, and killed, and carried away as many as they could. And three Indians were taken in the manner. Two of them the Governor commanded to be shot to death with arrows; and to cut off the hands of the other; and he sent him so handled to the cacique. Who made as though it grieved him; yet they had offended the Governor, and that he was glad that he had executed that punishment on them. He lay in a plain country, half a league from the place where the Christians lodged. Four horsemen went a straggling thither, to wit, Francisco Osorio, and a servant of the Marquis of Astorga, called Reynoso, and two servants of the Governor, the one his page, called Ribera, and the other Fuentes, his chamberlain: and these had taken from the Indians some skins, and some mantles, wherewith they were offended, and forsook their houses. The Governor knew of it, and commanded them to be apprehended; and condemned to death Francisco Osorio, and the chamberlain as principals, and all of them to loss of goods. The friars and priests and other principal persons were earnest with him to pardon Francisco Osorio his life, and to moderate his sentence, which he would not grant for any of them. While he was ready to command them to be drawn to the market-place to cut off their heads, there came certain Indians from the cacique to complain of them. John Ortiz, at the request of Baltasar de Gallegos and other persons, changed their words, and told the Governor, that the cacique said, he had notice how his lordship held those Christians in prison for his sake, and that they Page 163 were in no fault, neither had they done him any wrong, and that if he would do him any favor, he should set them free. And he told the Indians, that the Governor said he had them in prison, and that he would punish them in such sort, that they should be an example to others. Hereupon the Governor commanded the prisoners to be loosed. As soon as March was come, he determined to depart from Chicaça, and demanded of the cacique two hundred men for carriages. He sent him answer that he would speak with his principal men. Upon Tuesday, the eighth of March, 1541, the Governor went to thc town where he was, to ask him for the men: he told him he would send them the next day. As soon as the Governor was come to Chicaça, he told Luys de Moscoso, the camp-master, that he misliked the Indians, and that he should keep a strong watch that night, which he remembered but a little. The Indians came at the second watch in four squadrons, every one by itself, and as soon as they were descried, they sounded a drum, and gave the assault with a great cry, and with so great celerity, that presently they entered with the scouts, that were somewhat distant from the camp. And when they were perceived of them which were in the town, half the houses were on fire, which they had kindled. That night three horsemen chanced to be scouts; two of them were of base calling, and the worst men in all the camp, and the other, which was a nephew of the Governor, which until then was held for a tall man, showed himself there as great a coward as any of them: for all of them ran away. And the Indians without any resistance came and set the town on fire; and tarried without behind the doors for the Christians, which ran out of thc houses, not having any leisure to arm themselves; and as they ran hither and thither amazed with the noise, and blinded with the smoke and flame of the fire, they knew not which way they went, neither could they light upon their weapons, nor saddle their horses, neither saw they the Indians that shot at them. Many of the horses were burned in the stables, and those which could break their halters got loose. The disorder and fight was such that every man fled which way he could, without leaving any to resist the Indians. But God (which chastiseth his according to his pleasure, and in the greatest necessities and dangers sustaineth them with his hand) so blinded the Indians, that they saw not what they had done, and though it that the horses which ran loose, were men on horseback, that gathered themselves together to set upon them. The Governor only rode on horseback, and with him a soldier called Tapia, and set upon the Page 164 Indians, and striking the first he met with his lance, the saddle fell with him, which with haste was evil girded, and so he fell from his horse. And all the people that were on foot were fled to a wood out of the town, and there assembled themselves together. And because it was night, and that the Indians thought the horses were men on horseback which came to set upon them, as I said before, they fled; and one only remained dead, and that was he whom the Governor slew with his lance. The town lay all burnt to ashes. There was a woman burned, who, after she and her husband were both gone out of their house, went in again for certain pearls which they had forgotten, and when she would have come out, the fire was so great at the door that she could not, neither could her husband succor her. Other three Christians came out of their lodgings so cruelly burned, that one of them died within three days, and the other two were carried many days each of them upon a couch between staves, which the Indians carried on their shoulders, for otherwise they could not travel. There died in this hurlyburly eleven Christians, and fifty horses; and there remained a hundred hogs, and four hundred were burned. If any perchance had saved any clothes from the fire of Mavilla, here they were burned, and many were clad in skins, for they had no leisure to take their coats. They endured much cold in this place, and the chiefest remedy were great fires. They spent all night in turnings without sleep: for if they warmed one side, they freezed on the other. Some invented the weaving of certain mats of dry ivy, and did wear one beneath, and another above: many laughed at this device, whom afterward necessity enforced to do the like. The Christians were so spoiled, and in such want of saddies and weapons which were burned, that if the Indians had come the second night, they had overcome them with little labor. They removed thence to the town where the cacique was wont to lie, because it was in a champaign country. Within eight days after, there were many lances and saddles made. There were ash-trees in those parts, whereof they made as good lances as in Biscay.

Upon Wednesday, the 15th of March, 1541, after the Governor had lodged eight days in a plain, half a league from the place which he had wintered in, after he had set up a forge, and tempered the swords which in Chicaça were burned, and made many targets, saddles, and lances; on Tuesday night, at the morning watch, many Indians came to assault the camp in three squadrons, every one by themselves. Those which watched gave the alarm. The Governor Page 165 with great speed set his men in order in other three squadrons, and leaving some to defend the camp, went out to encounter them. The Indians were overcome and put to flight. The ground was champaign and fit for the Christians to take the advantage of them; and it was now break of day. But there happened a disorder, whereby there were not past thirty or forty Indians slain: and this it was: that a friar cried out in the camp without any just occasion, "To the camp, to the camp." Whereupon the Governor and all the rest repaired thither, and the Indians had time to save themselves. There were some taken, by whom the Governor informed himself of the country through which he was to pass. The 25th of April, he departed from Chicaça, and lodged at a small town called Alimamu. They had very little maize, and they were to pass a desert of seven days' journey. The next day, the Governor sent three captains, every one his way, with horsemen and footmen to seek provisions to pass the desert. And John Dannusco the Auditor went with fifteen horsemen and forty footmen that way that the Governor was to go, and found a strong fort made, where the Indians stayed for him, and many of them walked on the top of it with their weapons, having their bodies, thighs, and arms ochred and dyed with black, white, yellow and red, striped like unto panes, so that they showed as though they went in hose and doublets: and some of them had plumes, and others had horns on their heads, and their faces black, and their eyes done round about with steaks of red, to seem more fierce. As soon as they saw that the Christians approached, with a great cry sounding two drums with great fury they sallied forth to receive them. John Dannusco and those that were with him thought good to avoid them, and to acquaint the Governor therewith. They retired to a plain place, a crossbow-shot from the fort, in sight of it: the footmen, the crossbow-men, and targeters placed themselves before the horsemen, that they might not hurt the horses. The Indians sallied out by seven and seven, and eight and eight, to shoot their arrows, and retired again: and in sight of the Christians they made a fire, and took an Indian, some by the feet, and some by the head, and made as though they went to cast him into the fire, and gave him first many knocks on the head: signifying that they meant so to handle the Christians. John Dannusco sent three horsemen to advertise the Governor hereof. He came presently: for his intent was to drive them from thence, saying, that if he did it not, they would be emboldened to charge him another time, when they might do him more harm. He made the horsemen to Page 166 alight, and set his men in four squadrons. The sign being given, they set upon the Indians, which made resistance till the Christians came near the fort, and as soon as they saw they could not defend themselves, by a place where a brook passed near the fort, they ran away, and from the other side they shot some arrows; and because at that instant we knew no ford for the horses to pass, they had time enough to get out of our danger. Three Indians were slain there, and many Christians were hurt, whereof within few days, there died fifteen by the way. All men thought the Governor to be in fault, because he sent not to see the disposition of the place on the other side of the river, and to know the passage before he set upon them. For with the hope they had to save themselves by flight that way, when they saw none other means, they fought till they were broken, and it was an encouragement to defend themselves until then, and to offend the Christians without any danger to themselves.

Three days after they had sought some maize, whereof they found but little store, in regard of that which was needful, and that for this cause, as well for their sakes that were wounded, it was needful for them to rest, as for the great jonrney they were to march to come where store of maize was: yet the Governor was enforced to depart presently toward Quizquiz. He traveled seven days through a desert of many marshes and thick woods: but it might all be traveled on horseback, except some lakes which they swam over. He came to a town of the province of Quizquiz without being descried, and took all the people in it before they came out of their houses. The mother of the cacique was taken there: and he sent unto him by an Indian, that he should come to see him, and that he would give him his mother, and all the people which he had taken there. The cacique sent him answer again, that his lordship should loose and send them to him, and that he would come to visit and serve him. The Governor, because his people for want of maize were somewhat weak and weary, and the horses also were lean, determined to accomplish his request, to see if he could have peace with him, and so commanded to set free his mother and all the rest, and with loving words dismissed them and sent them to him. The next day, when the Governor expected the cacique, there came many Indians with their bows and arrows with a purpose to set upon the Christians. The Governor had commanded all the horsemen to be armed, and on horseback, and in readiness. When the Indians saw that they were ready, they stayed a crossbow-shot from the place where the Governor was, near a brook. And after Page 167 half an hour that they had stood there still, there came to the camp six principal Indians, and said, "they came to see what people they were, and that long ago, they had been informed by their forefathers that a white people should subdue them; and that therefore they would return to their cacique, and bid him conic presently to obey and serve the Governor:" and after they had presented him with six or seven skins and mantles which they brought, they took their leave of him, and returned with the others, which waited for them by the brook side. The cacique never came again nor sent other message. And because in the town where the Governor lodged, there was small store of maize, he removed to another half a league from Rio Grande,* where they fonnd plenty of maize. And he went to see the river, and found, that near unto it was great store of timber to make barges, and good situation of ground to encamp in. Presently he removed himself thither. They made houses, and pitched their camp in a plain field a crossbow-shot from the river. And thither was gathered all the maize of the towns which they had lately passed. They began presently to cut and hew down timber, and to saw planks for, barges. The Indians came presently down the river: they leaped on shore, and declared to the Governor, "that they were subjects of a great lord, whose name was Aquixo, who was lord of many towns, and governed many people on the other side of the river, and came to tell him on his behalf, that the next day he with all his men would come to see what it would please him to command him. The next day, with speed, the cacique came with two hundred canoes full of Indians with their bows and arrows, painted, and with great plumes of white feathers, and many other colors, with shields in their hands, wherewith they defended the rowers on both sides, and the men of war stood from the head to the stern, with their bows and arrows in their hands. The canoe wherein the cacique was, had a tilt over the stern, and he sat under the tilt; and so were other canoes of the principal Indians. And from under the tilt where the chief man sat, he governed and commanded the other people. All joined together, and came within a stone's cast of the shore. From thence the cacique said to the Governor, which walked along the river's side with others that waited on him, that he was come thither to visit, to honor, and to obey him; because he knew he was the greatest and mightiest lord on the earth: therefore he would see what he would command him to do. The Governor yielded him thanks, and requested him to * Rio Grande, or Rio de Espiritu Santo. Page 168 come on shore, that they might the better communicate together. And without any answer to that point, he sent him three canoes, wherein was great store of fish and loaves, made of the substance of prunes like unto bricks. After he had received all, he thanked him, and prayed him again to come on shore. And because the cacique's purpose was, to see if with dissimulation he might do some hurt, when they saw that the Governor and his men were in readiness, they began to go from the shore: and with a great cry, the crossbow-men which were ready, shot at them, and slew five or six of them. They retired with great order: none did leave his oar, though the next to him were slain, and shielding themselves, they went farther off. Afterward they came many times and landed: and when any of us came toward them, they fled into their canoes, which were very pleasant to behold: for they were very great and well made, and had their tilts, plumes, paueses, and flags, and with the multitude of people that were in them, they seemed to be a fair army of galleys. In thirty days' space, while the Governor remained there, they made four barges: in three of which he commanded twelve horsemen to enter, in each of them four. In a morning, three hours before day, men which he trusted would land in despite of the Indians, and make sure the passage, or die, and some footmen, being crossbow-men, went with them, and rowers to set them on the other side. And in the other barge he commanded John de Guzman to pass with the foot-men, which was made captain instead of Francisco Maldonado. And because the stream was swift, they went a quarter of a league up the river along the bank, and crossing over, fell down with the stream, and landed right over against the camp. Two stones' cast before they came to land, the horsemen went out of the barges on horseback to a sandy plot very hard and clear ground, where all of them landed without any resistance. As soon as those that passed first were on land on the other side, the barges returned to the place where the Governor was: and within two hours after sun rising, all the people were over. The river was almost half a league broad. If a man stood still on the other side, it could not be discerned whether he was a man or no. The river was of great depth, and of a strong current: the water was always muddy: there came down the river continually many trees and timber, which the force of the water and stream brought down. There was great store of fish in it of sundry sorts, and the most of it differing from the fresh water fish of Spain, as hereafter shall be showed. Volume 2 Chapter 7 Page 169

Having passed Rio Grande, the Governor traveled a league and a half, and came to a great town of Aquixo, which was dispeopled before he came thither. They espied thirty Indians coming over a plain, which the cacique sent to discover the Christians' determination; and as soon as they had sight of them, they took themselves to flight. The horsemen pursued them, and slew ten, and took fifteen. And because the town, whither the Governor went, was near unto the river, he sent a captain, with as many men as he thought sufficient, to carry the barges up the river. And because in his traveling by land many times he went far from the river to compass the creeks that came from it, the Indians took occasion to set upon them of the barges, and put them in great danger, because that by reason of the great current, they durst not leave the shore, and from the bank they shot at them. As soon as the Governor was come to the town, he presently sent crossbow-men down the river, which came to rescue them; and upon the coming of the barges to the town, he commanded them to be broken, and to save the iron for others, when it should be needful. He lay there one night, and the day following he set forward to seek a province, called Pacaha, which he was informed to be near unto Chisca, where the Indians told him there was gold. He passed through great towns of Aquixo, which were all abandoned for fear of the Christians. He understood by certain Indians that were taken that three days' journey from thence dwelt a great cacique, whose name was Casqui. He came to a small river, where a bridge was made, by which they passed; that day till sunset, they went all in water, which in some places came to the waist, and in some to the knees. When they saw themselves on dry land, they were very glad, because they feared they should wander up and down as forlorn men all night in the water. At noon they came to the first town of Casqui: they found the Indians careless, because they had no knowledge of them. There were many men and women taken, and store of goods, as mantles and skins, as well in the first town, as in another, which stood in a field half a league from thence in sight of it; whither the horsemen ran. This country is higher, drier, and more champaign, than any part bordering near the river that until then they had seen. There were in the fields many walnut trees, bearing soft-shelled walnuts in the fashion like bullets, and in the houses they found many of them, which the Indians had laid up in store. The trees differed in nothing else from those of Spain, nor from those which we had seen before, but only that they have a smaller leaf. There were many mulberry trees and plum trees, Page 170 which bare red plums like those of Spain, and others gray, somewhat differing, but far better. And all the trees are all the year so fruitful, as if they were planted in orchards; and the woods were very thin. The Governor traveled two days through the country of Casqui, before he came to the town where the cacique was; and the most of the way was alway by champaign ground, which was full of great towns, so that from one town, you might see two or three. He sent an Indian to certify the cacique that he was coming to the place where he was, with intent to procure his friendship, and to hold hint as his brother. Whereunto he answered, that he should be welcome, and that he would receive him with special good-will, and accomplish all that his lordship would command him. He sent him a present upon the way; to wit, skins, mantles, and fish: and after these compliments, the Governor found all the towns, as he passed, inhabited with people, which peaceably attended his coming, and offered him skins, mantles, and fish. The cacique, accompanied with many Indians, came out of the town, and stayed half a league on the way to receive the Governor, and when he came to him, he spake these words following:--

"Right high, right mighty, and renowned lord, your lordship is most heartily welcome. As soon as I had notice of your lordship, of your power, and your perfections, although you came into my country killing and taking captives the inhabitants thereof and my subjects, yet I determined to conform my will unto yours, and as your own to interpret in good part all that your lordship did: believing that it was convenient it should be so for some just respect, to prevent some future matter revealed unto your lordship, and concealed from me. For well may a mischief be permitted to avoid a greater, and that good may come thereof: which I believe will so fall out. For it is no reason to presume of so excellent a prince, that the nobleness of his heart, and the effect of his will would permit him to suffer any unjust thing. My ability is so small to serve you as your lordship deserveth, that if you respect not mine abundant good-will, which humbly offereth all kind of service, I deserve but little in your presence. But if it be reason that this be esteemed, receive the same, myself, my country, and subjects for yours, and dispose of me and them at your pleasure. For if I were lord of all the world, with the same good-will should your lordship by me be received, served and obeyed."

The Governor answered him to the purpose, and satisfied him in few words. Within a while after both of them used words of great offers and courtesy the one to the other, and the cacique requested Page 171 him to lodge in his houses. The Governor, to preserve the peace the better, excused himself, saying that he would lodge in the fields. And because it was very hot, they camped near certain trees a quarter of a league from the town. The cacique went to his town, and came again with many Indians singing. As soon as they came to the Governor, all of them prostrated themselves upon the ground. Among these came two Indians that were blind. The cacique made a speech: to avoid tediousness, I will only tell in a few words the substance of the matter. He said, that seeing the Governor was the son of the Sun, and a great lord, he besought him to do him the. favor to give sight to those two blind men. The blind men rose up presently, and very earnestly requested the same of the Governor. He answered, that in the high heavens was he that had power to give them health, and whatsoever they could ask of him; whose servant he was: and that this Lord made the heavens and the earth, and man after his own likeness, and that he suffered upon the cross to save mankind, and rose again the third day, and that he died as he was man, and as touching his divinity, he was, and is immortal; and that he amended into heaven, where he standeth with his arms open to receive all such as turn unto him: and straightway he commanded him to make a very high cross of wood, which was set up in the highest place of the town; declaring unto him, that the Christians worshiped the same in resemblance and memory of that whereon Christ suffered. The Governor and his men kneeled down before it, and the Indians did the like. The Governor willed him, that from thenceforth he would worship the same, and should ask whatsoever they stood in need of, of that Lord that he told him was in heaven. Then he asked him how far it was from thence to Pacaha. He said, one day's journey, and that at the end of his country, there was a lake like a brook which falleth into Rio Grande, and that he would send men before to make a bridge whereby he might pass. The same day that the Governor departed thence, he lodged at a town belonging to Casqui; and the next day he passed in sight of other towns, and came to the lake, which was half a crossbow shot over, of a great depth and current. At the time of his coming, the Indians had made an end of the bridge, which was made of timber, laid one tree after another : and on one side it had a course of stakes higher than the bridge, for them that passed to take hold on. The Cacique of Casqui came to the Governor, add brought his people with him. The Governor sent word by an Indian to the Cacique of Pacaha, that though he were enemy to the Cacique of Page 172 Casqui, and though he were there, yet he would do him no disgrace nor hurt, if he would attend him peaceably, and embrace his friendship; but rather would intreat him as a brother. The Indian, which the Governor sent, came again, and said that the cacique made no account of that which he told him, but fled with all his men out at the other side of the town. Presently the Governor entered, and ran before with the horsemen, that way by which the Indians fled; and at another town, distant a quarter of a league from thence, they took many Indians; and as soon as the horsemen had taken them, they delivered them to the Indians of Casqui, whom, because they were their enemies, with much circumspection and rejoicing, they brought to the town where the Christians were: and the greatest grief they had was this, that they could not get leave to kill them. There were found in the town many mantles, and deer skins, lion skins, and bear skins, and many cat skins. Many came so far poorly appareled, and there they clothed themselves: of the mantles, they made them coats and cassocks, and some made gowns, and lined them with cat skins; and likewise their cassocks. Of the deer skins, some made them also jerkins, shirts, hose and shoes: and of the bear skins, they made them very good cloaks: for no water could pierce them. There were targets of raw ox hides found there; with which hides they armed their horses. Upon Wednesday, the 19th of June, 1541, the Governor entered into Pacaha. He lodged in the town, where the cacique used to regide, which was very great, walled, and beset with towers, and many loopholes were in the towers and wall. And in the town was great store of old maize, and great quantity of new in the fields. Within a league and half a league were great towns all walled. Where the Governor was lodged was a great lake, that came near unto the wall; and it entered into a ditch, that went round about the town, wanting but a little to environ it around. From the lake to the great river was made a wear by which the fish came into it; which the cacique kept for his recreation and sport. With nets that were found in the town, they took as much as they would; and took they never so much, there was no want perceived. There was also great store of fish in many other lakes that were thereabout, but it was soft, and not so good as that which came from the river, and the most of it was different from the fresh-water fish of Spain. There was a fish which they called bagres; the third part of it was head, and it had on both sides the gills, and along the sides great pricks like very sharp awls. Those of the kind that were in the lakes were as big as pikes; and in Page 173 the river there were some of an hundred, and of an hundred and fifty pounds weight, and many of them were taken with the hook. There was another fish like barbilles, and another like breams, headed like a delicate fish, called in Spain besugo, between red and gray. This was there of most esteem. There was another fish called peel fish; it had a snout of a cubit long, and at the end of the upper lip it was made like a peel. There was another fish called a western shad; and all of them had scales, except the bagres, and the peel fish. There was another fish which sometimes the Indians brought us, of the bigness of a hog; they called it the pereo fish; it had rows of teeth beneath and above. The Cacique of Casqui sent many times great presents of fish, mantles, and skins. He told the Governor that he would deliver the Cacique of Pacaha into his hands. He went to Casqui, and sent many canoes up the river, and came himself by land with many of his people. The Governor, with forty horsemen and sixty footmen, took him along with him up the river. And his Indians which were in the canoes, discovered where the Cacique of Pacaha was, in a little island, situated between two arms of the river. And five Christians entered into a canoe, wherein Don Antonio Osorio went before, to see what people the cacique had with him. There were in the isle five or six thousand souls. And as soon as they saw them, supposing that the Indians which were in the other canoes were also Christians, the cacique, and certain which were in three canoes, which they had there with them, fled in great haste to the other side of the river. The rest, with great fear and danger, leapt into the river, where many people were drowned, especially women and little children. Presently the Governor, who was on land, not knowing what had happened to Don Antonio and those that went with him, commanded the Christians with all speed to enter with the Indians of Casqui in the canoes, which were quickly with Don Antonio in the little island, where they took many men and women, and much goods. Great store of goods, which the Indians had laid upon hurdles of canes and rafts of timber to carry over to the other side, drove down the river, wherewith the Indians of Casqui filled their canoes; and for fear lest the Christians would take it from them, the cacique went home with them down the river, without taking his leave of the Governor; whereupon the Governor was highly offended with him, and presently returning to Pacaha, he overran the country of Casqui the space of two leagues, where he took twenty or thirty of his men. And because his horses were weary, and he wanted Page 174 time that day to go any farther, he returned to Pacaha, with determination within three or four days after to invade Casqui. And presently he let loose one of the Indians of Pacaha, and sent word by him to the cacique, that if he would have his friendship, he should repair unto him, and that both of them would make war upon Casqui. And presently came many Indians that belonged to Pacaha, and brought an Indian instead of the cacique, which was discovered by the cacique's brother, which was taken prisoner. The Governor wished the Indians that their master himself should come; for he knew very well that that was not he, and told them that they could do nothing which he knew not before they thought it. The next day the cacique came, accompanied with many Indians, and with a present of much fish, skins and mantles. He made a speech that all were glad to hear, and concluded saying, that though his lordship, without his giving occasion of offence had done him hurt in his country and subjects, yet he would not therefore refuse to be his, and that he would always be at his command. The Governor commanded his brother to be loosed, and other principal Indians that were taken prisoners. That day came an Indian from the Cacique of Casqui and said that his lord would come the next day to excuse himself of the error which he had committed, in going away without license of the Governor. The Governor willed the messenger to signify unto him, that if he came not in his own person, he would seek him himself, and give him such punishment as he deserved. The next day with all speed came the Cacique of Casqui, and brought a present to the Governor of many mantles, skins, and fish, and gave him a daughter of his, saying that he greatly desired to match his blood with the blood of so great a lord as he was, and therefore he brought him his daughter, and desired him to take her to his wife. He made a long and discreet oration, giving him great commendations, and concluded, saying, that he should pardon his going away without license, for that cross's sake which he had left with him; protesting that he went away for shame of that which his men had done without his consent. The Governor answered him that he had chosen a good patron; and that if he had not come to excuse himself, he had determined to seek him, to burn his towns, to kill him and his people, and to destroy his country. To which he replied, saying:

"My lord, I and mine are yours, and my country likewise is yours; therefore if you had done so, you should have destroyed Page 175 your own country, and have killed your own people; whatsoever shall come unto me from your hand, I will receive as from my lord, as well punishment as reward; and know you, that the favor which you did me in leaving me the cross, I do acknowledge the same to be a very great one, and greater than I have ever deserved. For you shall understand, that with great droughts the fields of maize of my country were withered; and as soon as I and my people kneeled before the cross, and prayed for rain, presently our necessities were relieved."

The Governor made him and the Cacique of Pacaha friends; and set them with him at his table to dine with him; and the caciques fell at variance about the seats, which of them should sit on his right hand. The Governor pacified them; telling them that among the Christians all was cue to sit on the one side, or on the other, willing them so to behave themselves, seeing they were with him, that nobody might hear them, and that every one should sit in the place that first he lighted on. From thence he sent thirty horsemen and fifty footmen to the province of Caluça, to see if from thence he might travel to Chisca, where the Indians said there was a work of gold and copper. They traveled seven days' journey, through a desert, and returned very weary, eating green plums, and stalks of maize, which they found in a poor town of six or seven houses. From thenceforward towards the north, the Indians said that the country was very ill inhabited, because it was very cold; and that there was such store of oxen, that they could keep no corn for them; and that the Indians lived upon their flesh. The Governor, seeing that toward that part the country was so poor of maize that in it they could not be sustained, demanded of the Indians which way it was most inhabited; and they said, they had notice of a great province, and a very plentiful country, which was called quigaute, and that it was toward the south.

The Governor rested in Pacaha forty days; in all which time the two caciques served him with great store of fish, mantles, and skins, and strove who should do him greatest service. At the time of his departure the Cacique of Pacaha gave him two of his sisters, saying that in sign of love that he might remember him, he should take them for his wives: the one's name was Macanoche, and the other's Mochila: they were well proportioned, tall of body, and well fleshed. Macanoche was of a good countenance, and in her shape and physiognomy looked like a lady; the other was strongly made. The Cacique of Casqui commanded the bridge to be repaired, and the Governor Page 176 returned through his country, and lodged in the field near his town, whither he came with great store of fish, and two women, which he exchanged with two Christians for two shirts. He gave us a guide and men for carriages. The Governor lodged at a town of his, and the next day at another near a river, whither he caused canoes to be brought for him to pass over, and with his leave returned. The Governor took his journey toward Quigaute. The fourth day of August he came to the town, where the cacique used to keep his residence: on the way he sent him a present of many mantles and skins, and not daring to stay for him in the town, he absented himself. The town was the greatest that was seen in Florida. The Governor and his people lodged in the one-half of it; and within few days, seeing the Indians became liars, he commanded the other half to be burned, because it should not be a shelter for them, if they came to assault him by night, nor a hinderance to his horsemen for the resisting of them. There came an Indian very well accompanied with many Indians, saying that he was the cacique. He delivered him over to the men of his guard to look unto him. There went and came many Indians, and brought mantles and skins. The counterfeit cacique, seeing so little opportunity to execute his evil thought, as he went one day abroad talking with the Governor, he showed him such a pair of heels, that there was no Christian that could overtake him, and he leaped into the river, which was a crossbow shot from the town: and as soon as he was on the other side, many Indians that were thereabout making a great cry began to shoot. The Governor passed presently over to them with horsemen and foot-men, but they durst not tarry for him. Going forward on his way, he came to a town where the people were fled, and a little further to a lake, where the horses could not pass, and on the other side were many women. The footmen passed, and took many of them, and much spoil. The Governor came to the camp, and that night was a spy of the Indians taken by them of the watch. The Governor asked him, whether he would bring him where the cacique was? he said he would. And he went presently to seek him, with twenty horsemen and fifty footmen; and after he had sought him a day and a half, he found him in a strong wood: and a soldier, not knowing him, gave him a wound on the head; and he cried out, that he should not kill him, saying that he was the cacique; so he was taken, and a hundred and forty of his men with him. The Governor came again to Quigaute, and willed him to cause his men to come to serve the Page 177 Christians; and staying some days for their coming, and seeing they came not, he sent two captains, every one his way on both sides of the river with horsemen and footmen. They took many men and women. Now seeing the hurt which they sustained for their rebellion, they came to see what the Governor would command them, and passed to and fro many times, and brought presents of cloth and fish. The cacique and his two wives were in the lodging of the Governor loose, and the halberdiers of his guard did keep them. The Governor asked them which way the country was most inhabited? They said, that toward the south down the river, were great towns and caciques, which commanded great countries, and much people. And that toward the north-west, there was a province near to certain mountains, that was called Coligoa. The Governor and all the rest thought good to go first to Coligoa: saying, that peradventure the mountains would make some difference of soil, and that beyond them there might be some gold or silver. As for Quigaute, Casqui, and Pacaha, they were plain countries, fat grounds, and full of good meadows on the rivers, where the Indians sowed large fields of maize. From Tascaluca to Rio Grande, or the Great River, is about three hundred leagues: it is a very low country, and hath many lakes. From Pacaha to Quigaute may be an hundred leagues. The Governor left the Cacique of Quigaute in his own town. And an Indian, which was his guide, led him through great woods without any way, seven days' journey through a desert, where, at every lodging, they lodged in lakes and pools in very shoal water; there was such store of fish, that they killed them with cudgels; and the Indians which they carried in chains, with the mud troubled the waters, and the fish being therewith, as it were, astonished, came to the top of the water, and they took as much as they listed. The Indians of Coligoa had no knowledge of the Christians, and when they came so near the town that the Indians saw them, they fled up a river which passed near the town, and some leaped into it; but the Christians went on both sides of the river, and took them. There were many men and women taken, and the cacique with them. And by his commandment within three days came many Indians with a present of mantles and deers' skins, and two ox hides: and they reported, that five or six leagues from thence toward the north, there were many of these oxen, and that because the country was cold, it was evil inhabited; that the best country which they knew, the most plentiful, and most inhabited, was a province called Cayas, lying toward the south. From Page 178 Quigaute to Coligoa may be forty leagues. This town of Coligoa stood at the foot of a hill, on the bank of a mean river, of the bigness of Cayas, the river that passeth by Estremadura. It was a fat soil and so plentiful of maize, that they cast out the old, to bring in the new. There was also great plenty of French beans and pompions. The French beans were greater, and better than those of Spain, and likewise the pompions, and being roasted, they have almost the taste of chestnuts. The Cacique of Coligoa gave a guide to Cayas, and stayed behind in his own town. We traveled five days, and came to the province of Palisema. The house of the cacique was found covered with deers' skins, of divers colors and works drawn in them, and with the same in manner of carpets was the ground of the house covered. The cacique left it so, that the Governor might lodge in it, in token that he sought peace and his friendship. But he durst not tarry his coming. The Governor, seeing he had absented himself, sent a captain with horsemen and footmen to seek him. He found much people, but by reason of the roughness of the country, he took none save a few women and children. The town was little and scattering, and had very little maize. For which cause the Governor speedily departed from thence. He came to another town called Tatalicoya; he carried with him the cacique thereof, which guided him to Cayas. From Tatalicoya are four days' journey to Cayas. When he came to Cayas, and saw the town scattered, he thought they had told him a lie, and that it was not the province of Cayas, because they had informed him that it was well inhabited. He threatened the cacique, charging him to tell him where he was: and he and other Indians which were taken near about that place, affirmed that this was the town of Cayas, and the best that was in that country, and that though the houses were distant the one from the other, yet the ground that was inhabited was great, and that there was great store of people, and many fields of maize. This town was called Tanico; he pitched his camp in the best part of it, near unto a river. The same day that the Governor came thither, he went a league farther with certain horsemen, and without finding any people, he found many skins in a pathway, which the cacique had left there, that they might be found, in token of peace. For so is the custom in that country.

The Governor rested a month in the province of Cayas. In which time the horses fattened and thrived more, than in other places in a longer time, with the great plenty of maize and the leaves thereof Page 179 which I think was the best that has been seen, and they drank of a lake of very hot water, and somewhat brackish, and they drank so much, that it swelled in their bellies when they brought them from the watering. Until that time the Christians wanted salt, and there they made good store, which they carried along with them. The Indians do carry it to other places to exchange it for skins and man tIes. They make it along the river, which when it ebbeth, leaveth it upon the upper part of the sand. And because they cannot make it, without utuch sand mingled with it, they throw it into certain baskets which they have for that purpose, broad at the mouth and narrow at the bottom, and set it in the air upon a bar, and throw water into it, and set a small vessel under it, wherein it falleth: Being strained and set to boil upon the fire, when the water is sodden away, the salt remaineth in the bottom of the pan. On both sides of the river the country was full of sown fields, and there was store of maize. The Indians durst not come over where we were; and when some of them showed themselves, the soldiers that saw them called unto them; then the Indians passed the river, and came with them where the Governor was. lie asked them for the cacique. They said that he remained quiet, but that he durst not show himself. The Governor presently sent him word, that he should come unto him, and bring him a guide and an interpreter for his journey, if he made account of his friendship: and if he did not so, he would come himself to seek him, and that it would be the worse for him. He waited three days, and seeing he came not, lie went to seek him, and brought him prisoner with 150 of his men. He asked him, whether he had notice of any great cacique, and which way the country was best inhabited. He answered, that the best country thereabout was a province toward the south, a day ~~nd a half's journey, which was called TuIla; and that he could give him a guide, but no interpreter, because the speech of that country was different from his, and because he and his ancestors had always wars with the lords of that province; therefore they had no commerce, nor understood one another's language. Immediately the Governor with certain horsemen, and fifty foottnen, departed towards Tulla, to see if the country were such, as he might pass through it with all his company: and as soon as he arrived there, and was espied of the Indians, the country gathered together, and as soon as fifteen and twenty Indians could assemble themselves, they set upon the Christians: and seeing that they did handle them shrewdly, and that the horsemen overtook them when they fled, they got up into the tops of their houses, Page 180 and sought to defend themselves with their arrows: and being beaten down from one, they got up upon another. And while our men pursued some, others set upon them another way. Thus the skirmish lasted so long, that the horses were tired, and they could not make them run. The Indians killed there one horse, and some were hurt. There were fifteen Indians slain there, and forty women and boys were taken prisoners. For whatsoever Indian did shoot at them, if they could come by him, they put him to the sword. The Governor determined to return toward Cayas, before the Indians had time to gather a head; and presently that evening, going part of the night to leave Tulla, he lodged by the way, and the next day came to Cayas: and within three days after he departed thence towards Tulla with all his company. He carried the cacique along with him, and among all his men, there was not one found that could understand the speech of Tulla. He stayed three days by the way, and the day that he came thither, he found the town abandoned: for the Indians durst not tarry his coming. But as soon as they knew that the Governor was in Tulla, the first night about the morning watch, they came in two squadrons two several ways, with their bows and arrows, and long staves like pikes. As soon as they were descried, both horse and foot sallied out upon them, where many of the Indians were slain: and some Christians and horses were hurt. Some of the Indians were taken prisoners, whereof the Governor sent six to the cacique, with their right hands and noses cut off: and sent him word, that if he came not to him to excuse and submit himself, that he would come to seek him, and that he would do the like to him, and as many of his as he could find, as he had done to those which he had sent him: and gave him three days' respite for to come. And this he gave them to understand by signs, as well as he could, for there was no interpreter. At the three days' end, there came an Indian laden with ox hides. He came weeping with great sobs, and coming to the Governor cast himself down at his feet. He took him up, and he made a speech, but there was none that understood him. The Governor by signs commanded him to return to the cacique, and to will him to send him an interpreter, which could understand the men of Cayas. The next day came three Indians laden with ox hides: and within three days after came 20 Indians, and among them one that understood them of Cayas; who, after a long oration of excuses of the cacique, and praises of the Governor, concluded with this, that he and the other were come thither on the cacique's behalf, to see what his lordship would Page 181 command him to do, for he was ready at his commandment. The Governor and all his company were very glad. For in nowise could they travel without an interpreter. The Governor commanded him to be kept safe, and bade him tell the men that came with him, that they should return to the cacique, and signify unto him, that he pardoned him for that which was past, and thanked him much for his presents and interpreter, which he had sent him, and that he would be glad to see him, and that he should come the next day to talk with him. After three days, the cacique came, and eighty Indians with him; and himself and his men came weeping into the camp, in token of obedience and repentance for the error passed, after the manner of that country. He brought a present of many ox hides: which, because the country was cold, were very profitable, and served for coverlets, because they were very soft, and wooled like sheep. Not far from thence toward the north were many oxen. The Christians saw them not, nor came into the country where they were, because those parts were evil inhabited, and had small store of maize where they were bred. The Cacique of Tulla made an oration to the Governor, wherein he excused himself, and offered him his country, subjects, and person. As well this cacique as the others, and all those which came to the Governor on their behalf, delivered their message or speech in so good order, that no orator could utter the same more eloquently.

The Governor informed himself of all the country round about; and understood, that toward the west was a scattered dwelling, and that toward the southeast were great towns, especially in a province called Autiamque, ten days' journey from Tulla; which might be about eighty leagues; and that it was a plentiful country of maize. And because wtater came on, and that they could not travel two or three months in the year for cold, waters, and snow: and fearing, that if they should stay so long in the scattered dwelling, they could not be sustained; and also because the Indians said, that near to Autiamque was a great water, and according to their relation, the Governor thought it was some arm of the sea: and because he now desired to send news of himself to Cuba, that some supply of men and horses might be sent unto him (for it was about three years since Donna Isabella, which was in Havana, or any other person in Christendom had heard of him, and by this time he had lost 250 men, and 150 horses), he determined to winter in Autiamque, and the next spring to go to the sea coast and make two brigantines, and send one of them to Cuba, and the other to Nueva Espanna, that that which went in safety, might give news Page 182 of him: hoping with the goods which he had in Cuba, to furnish himself again, and to attempt the discovery and conquest toward the west: for he had not yet come where Cabeça de Vaca had been. Thus having sent away the two caciques of Cayas and Tulla, he took his journey toward Autiamque: he traveled five days over rough mountains, and came to a town called Quipana, where no Indians could be taken for the roughness of the country: and the town being between hills, there was an ambush laid, wherewith they took two Indians; which told them, that Autiamque was six days' journey from thence, and that there was another province toward the south, eight days' journey off, plentiful of maize, and very well peopled, which was called Guahate. But because Autiamque was nearer, and the most of the Indians agreed of it, the Governor made his journey that way. In three days he came to a town called Annoixi. He sent a captain before with thirty horsemen and fifty footmen, and took the Indians careless; he took many men and women prisoners. Within two days after the Governor came to another town called Catamaya, and lodged in the fields of the town. Two Indians came with a false message from the cacique to know his determination. He bade them tell their lord, that he should come and speak with him. The Indians returned and came no more, nor any other message from the cacique. The next day the Christians went to the town, which was without people: they took as much maize as they needed. That day they lodged in a wood, and the next day they came to Autiamque. They found much maize laid up in store, and French beans, and walnuts, and prunes, great store of all sorts. They took some Indians which were gathering together the stuff which their wives had hidden. This was a champaign country, and well inhabited. The Governor lodged in the best part of the town, and commanded presently to make a fence of timber round about the camp distant from the houses, that the Indians might not hurt them without by fire. And measuring the ground by paces, he appointed every one his part to do according to the number of Indians which he had: presently the timber was brought by them; and in three days there was an inclosure made of very high and thick posts thrust into the ground, and many rails laid across. Hard by this town passed a river, that came out of the province of Cayas; and above and beneath it was very well peopled. Thither came Indians on the cacique's behalf with a present of mantles and skins; and an halting cacique, subject to the lord of Autiamque, lord of a town called Tietiquaquo, came many times to visit the Governor, and to bring him Page 183 presents of such as he had. The Cacique of Autiamque sent to know of the Governor, how long time he meant to stay in his country? And understanding that he meant to stay about three days, he never sent any more Indians, nor any other message, but conspired with the lame cacique to rebel. Divers inroads were made, wherein there were many men and women taken, and the lame cacique among the rest. The Governor respecting the services which he had received of him, reprehended and admonished him, and set him at liberty, and gave him two Indians to carry him in a chair upon their shoulders. The Cacique of Autiamque desiring to thrust the Governor out of his country, set spies over him. And an Indian coming one night to the gate of the inclosure, a soldier that watched espied him, and stepping behind the gate, as he came in, he gave him such a thrust, that he fell down; and so he carried him to the Governor: and as he asked him wherefore he came, not being able to speak, he fell down dead. The night following the Governor commanded a soldier to give the alarm, and to say that he had seen Indians, to see how ready they would be to answer the alarm. And he did so sometimes as well there, as in other places, when he thought that his men were careless, and reprehended such as were slack. And as well for this cause, as in regard of doing their duty, when the alarm was given, every one sought to be the first that should answer. They staid in Autiamque three months, with great plenty of maize, French beans, walnuts, prunes, and conies: which until that time they knew not how to catch. And in Autiamque the Indians taught them how to take them; which was, with great springs, which lifted up their feet from the ground: and the snare was made with a strong string, whereunto was fastened a knot of a cane, which ran close about the neck of the cony, because they should not gnaw the string. They took many in the fields of maize, especially when it froze or snowed. The Christains stayed there one whole month so inclosed with snow, that they went not out of the town: and when they wanted firewood, the Governor with his horsemen going and coming many times to the wood, which was two crossbow shots from the town, made a pathway, whereby the footmen went for wood. In this mean space, some Indians which went loose, killed many conies with their wives, and with arrows. These conies were of two sorts, some were like those of Spain, and the other of the same color and fashion, and as big as great hares, longer, and having greater loins.

Upon Monday the 6th of March, 1542, the Governor departed from Page 184 Autiamque to seek Nilco, which the Indians said was near the great river, with determination to come to the sea, and procure some succor of men and horses; for he had now but three hundred men of war, and forty horses, and some of them lame, which did nothing but help to make up the number; and for want of iron they had gone above a year unshod; and because they were used to it in the plain country, it did them no great harm. John Ortiz died in Autiamque, which grieved the Governor very much; because that without an interpreter he feared to enter far into the land, where he might be lost. From thenceforward a youth that was taken in Cutifachiqui did serve for interpreter, which had by that time learned somewhat of the Christians' language. The death of John Ortiz was so great a mischief for the diseovering inward, or going out of the land, that to learn of the Indians, that which in four words he declared, they needed a whole day with the youth; and most commonly he understood quite contrary that which was asked him; whereby it often happened that the way that they went one day, and sometimes two or three days, they turned back, and went astray through the wood here and there. The Governor spent ten days in traveling from Autiamque to a province called Ayays; and came to a town that stood near the river that passeth by Cayas and Autiamque. There he commanded a barge to be made, wherewith he passed the river. When he had passed the river there fell out such weather, that four days he could not travel for snow. As soon as it gave over snowing, he went three days' journey through a wilderness, and a country so low, and so full of lakes and evil ways, that he traveled a whole day in water, sometimes knee deep, sometimes to the stirrup, and sometimes they swam. He came to a town called Tutelpinco, abandoned, and without maize. There passed by it a lake, that entered into the river, which carried a great stream and force of water. Five Christians passing over it in a periagua, which the Governor had sent with a captain, the periagua overset. Some took hold on it, some on the trees that were in the lake. One Francis Sebastian, an honest man of Villa Nova de Barca Rota, was drowned there. The Governor went a whole day along the lake, seeking passage, and could find none, nor any way that did pass to the other side. Coming again at night to the town he found two peaceable Indians, which showed him the passage, and which way he was to go. There they made of canes and of the timber of houses thathed with cane, rafts, wherewith they passed the lake. They traveled three days, and came to a town of the territory of Nilco, Page 185 called Tianto. There they took thirty Indians, and among them two principal men of this town. The Governor sent a captain, with horsemen and footmen, before to Nilco, because the Indians might have no time to carry away the provision. They passed through three or four great towns; and in the town where the cacique was resident, which was two leagues from the place where the Governor remained, they found many Indians with their bows and arrows, in manner as though they would have stayed to fight, which did compass the town; and as soon as they saw the Christians come near them, without misdoubting them, they set the cacique's house on fire, and fled over a lake that passed near the town, through which the horses could not pass. The next day being Wednesday, the 29th of March, the Governor came to Nilco; he lodged with all his men in the cacique's town, which stood in a plain field, which was inhabited for the space of a quarter of a league: and within a league and half a league were other very great towns, wherein was great store of maize, of French beans, of walnuts, and prunes. This was the best inhabited country that was seen in Florida, and had most store of maize, except Coça and Apalache. There came to the camp an Indian accompanied with others, and in the cacique's name gave the Governor a mantle of martens' skins, and a cordon of pearls. The Governor gave him a few small margarites, which are certain beads much esteemed in Peru, and other things, wherewith he was very well contented. He promised to return within two days, but never came again: but on the contrary the Indians came by night in canoes, and carried away all the maize they could, and made them cabins on the other side of the river in the thickest of the wood, because they might flee if we should go to seek them. The Governor, seeing he came not at the time appointed, commanded an ambush to be laid about certain store- houses near the lake, whither the Indians came for maize: where they took two Indians, who told the Governor, that he which came to visit him, was not the cacique, but was sent by him under pretence to spy whether the Christians were careless, and whether they determined to settle in that country or to go forward. Presently the Governor sent a captain with footmen and horsemen over the river; and in their passage they were descried of the Indians, and therefore he could take but ten or twelve men and women, with whom he returned to the camp. This river, which passed by Nilco, was that which passed by Cayas and Autiamque, and fell into Rio Grande, or the Great River, which passed by Pachahas and Aquixo near unto the province of Guachoya: and the lord thereof came up the river in canoes to make war with Page 186 him of Nilco. On his behalf there came an Indian to the Governor and said unto him, that he was his servant, and prayed him so to hold him, and that within two days he would come to kiss his lordship's hands: and at the time appointed he came with some of his principal Indians, which accompanied him, and with words of great offers and courtesy he gave the Governor a present of many mantles and deers' skins. The Governor gave him some other things in recompense, and honored him much. He asked him what towns there were don the river? He answered that he knew none other but his own: and on the other side of the river the province of a cacique called Quigalta. So he took his leave of the Governor and went to his own town. Within a few days the Governor determined to go to Guachoya, to learn there whether the sea were near, or whether there were any habitation near, where he might relieve his company, while the brigantines were making, which he meant to send to the land of the Christians. As he passed the river of Nilco, there came in canoes Indians of Guachoya up the stream, and when they saw him, supposing that he came to seek them to do them some hurt, they returned down the river, and informed the cacique thereof: who with all his people, spoiling the town of all that they could carry away, passed that night over to the other side of the Rio Grande, or the Great River. The Governor sent a captain with fifty men in six canoes down the river, and went himself by land with the rest: he came to Guachoya upon Sunday, the 17th of April: he lodged in the town of the cacique, which was enclosed about, and seated a crossbow shot distant from the river. Here the river is called Tamaliseu, and in Nilco Tapatu, and in Coça Mico, and in the port or mouth Ri.

As soon as the Governor came to Guachoya, he sent John Danusco with as many men as could go in the canoes up the river. For when they came down from Nilco, they saw on the other side of the river new cabins made. John Danusco went and brought the canoes laden with maize, French beans, prunes, and many loaves made of the substance of prunes. That day came an Indian to the Governor front the Cacique of Guahoya, and said that his lord would come the next day. They next day they saw many canoes come up the river, and on the other side of the Great River they assembled together in the space of an hour: they consulted whether they should come or not; and at length concluded to come, and crossed the river. In them came the Cacique of Guachoya, and brought with him many Indians, with great store of fish, dogs, deers' skins, and mantles: and as soon as Page 187 they landed, they went to the lodging of the Governor, and presented him their gifts, and the cacique uttered these words:--

"Mighty and excellent lord, I beseech your lordship to pardon me the error which I committed in absenting myself, and not tarrying in this town to have received and served your lordship; since, to obtain this opportunity of time, was, and is as much as a great victory to me. But I feared that which I needed not to have feared, and so did that which was not reason to do. But as haste maketh waste, and I removed without deliberation; so, as soon as I thought on it, I determined not to follow the opinion of the foolish, which is to continue in their error; but to imitate the wise and discreet, in changing my counsel, and so I came to see what your lordship will command me to do, that I may serve you in all things that are in my power."

The Governor received him with much joy, and gave him thanks for his present and offer. He asked him, whether he had any notice of the sea. He answered no, nor of any towns down the river on that side; save that two leagues from thence was one town of a principal Indian, a subject of his; and on the other side of the river, three days' journey from thence down the river, was the province of Quigalta, which was the greatest lord that was in that country! The Governor thought that the cacique lied unto him, to rid him out of his own towns, and sent John Danusco with eight horsemen down the river, to see what habitation there was, and to inform himself, if there were any notice of the sea. He traveled eight days, and at his return he said, that in all that time he was not able to go above fourteen or fifteen leagues, because of the great creeks that came out of the river, and groves of canes, and thick woods that were along the banks of the river, and that he had found no habitation. The Governor fell into great dumps to see how hard it was to get to the sea; and worse, because his men and horses every day diminished, being without succor to sustain themselves in the country: and with that thought he fell sick. But before he took his bed he sent an Indian to the Cacique of Quigalta to tell him, that he was the child of the sun, and that all the way that he came all men obeyed and served him, that he requested him to accept of his friendship, and come unto him; for he would be very glad to see him; and in sign of love and obedience to bring something with him of that which in his country was most esteemed. The cacique answered by the same Indian:

"That whereas he said he was the child of the sun, if be would dry up the river he would believe him: and touching the rest, that he Page 188 was wont to visit none; but rather that all those of whom he had notice did visit him, served, obeyed, and paid him tributes willingly or perforce: therefore, if he desired to see him, it were best he should come thither: that if he came in peace, he would receive him with special good will; and if in war, in like manner he would attend him in the town where he was, and that for him or any other he would not shrink one foot back.

By that time the Indian returned with this answer, the Governor had betaken himself to bed, being evil handled with fevers, and was much aggrieved that he was not in case to pass presently the river and to seek him, to see if he could abate that pride of his, considering the river went now very strongly in those parts; for it was near half a league broad, and sixteen fathoms deep, and very furious, and ran with a great current; and on both sides there were many Indians, and his power was not now so great, but that he had need to help himself rather by slights than by force. The Indians of Guachoya came every day with fish in such numbers, that the town was full of them. The cacique said, that on a certain night he of Quigalta would come to give battle to the Governor. Which the Governor imagined that he had devised, to drive him out of his country, and commanded him to be put in hold: and that night and all the rest, there was good watch kept. He asked him wherefore Quigalta came not? He said that he came, but that he saw him prepared, and therefore durst not give the attempt: and he was earnest with him to send his captains over the river, and that he would aid him with many men to set upon Quigalta. The Governor told him that as soon as he was recovered, himself would seek him out. And seeing how many Indians came daily to the town, and what store of people was in that country, fearing they should all conspire together and plot some treason against him; and because the town had some open gaps which were not made an end of inclosing, besides the gates which they went in and out by: because the Indians should not think he feared them, he let them all alone unrepaired; and commanded the horse-men to be appointed to them, and to the gates: and all night the horsemen went the round; and two and two of every squadron rode about, and visited the scouts that were without the town in their standings by the passages, and the crossbowmen that kept the canoes in the river. And because the Indians should stand in fear of them, he determined to send a captain to Nilco, for those of Guachoya had told him that it was inhabited; that by using them cruelly, neither Page 189 the one nor the other should presume to assail him; and he sent Nuñez de Touar with fifteen horsemen, and John de Guzman captain of the footmen, with his company in canoes up the river. The Cacique of Guachoya sent for many canoes and many warlike Indians to go with the Christians: and the captain of the Christians, called Nuñez de Touar went by land with his horsemen, and two leagues before he came to Nico he stayed for John de Guzman, and in that place they passed the river by night: the horsemen came first, and in the morning by break of day in sight of the town they lighted upon a spy; which as soon as he perceived the Christians, crying out amain fled to the town to give warning. Nuñez de Touar and his company made such speed, that before the Indians of the town could fully come out, they were upon them: it was champaign ground that was inhabited, which was about a quarter of a league. There were about five or six thousand people in the town: and, as many people came out of the houses, and fled from one house to another, and many Indians came flocking together from all parts, there was never a horseman that was not alone among many. The captain had commanded that they should not spare the life of any male. Their disorder was so great, that there was no Indian that shot an arrow at any Christian. The shrieks of women and children were so great, that they made the ears deaf of those that followed them. There were slain a hundred Indians, little more or less: and many were wounded with great wounds, whom they suffered to eseape to strike a terror in the rest that were not there. There were some so cruel and butcherlike, that they killed old and young, and all that they met, though they made no resistance: and those which presumed of themselves for their valor, and were taken for such, broke through the Indians, bearing don many with their stirrups and breasts of their horses; and some they wounded with their lances, and so let them go: and when they saw any youth or woman they took them, and delivered them to the foot-men. These men's sins by God's permission, lighted on their own heads: who, because they would seem valiant, became cruel; showing themselves extreme cowards in the sight of all men when as most need of valor was required, and afterwards they came to a shameful death. Of the Indians of Nilco were taken prisoners, fourscore women and children, and much spoil. The Indians of Guachoya kept back before they came at the town, and stayed without, beholding the success of the Christians with the men of Nilco. And when they saw them put to flight, and the horsemen busy in killing of them, they Page 190 hastened to the houses to rob, and filled their canoes with the spoil of the goods; and returned to Guachoya before the Christians; and wondering much at the sharp dealing which they had seen them use toward the Indians of Nilco, they told their cacique all that had passed with great astonishment. The Governor felt in himself that the hour approached wherein he was to leave this present life, and called for the king's officers, captains, and principal persons, to whom he made a speech, saying:-- "That now he was to go to give an account before the presence of God of all his life past: and since it pleased him to take him in such a time, and that the time was come that he knew his death, that he his most unworthy servant did yield him many thanks therefore; and desired all that were present and absent (whom he confessed himself to be much beholding unto for their singular virtues, love and loyalty, which himself had well tried in the travels which they had suffered, which always in his mind he did hope to satisfy and reward, when it should please God to give him rest, with more prosperity of his estate), that they would pray to God for him, that for his mercy he would forgive him his sins, and receive his soul into eternal glory: and that they would quit and free him of the charge which he had over them, and ought unto them all, and that they would pardon him for some wrongs which they might have received of him. And to avoid some division, which upon his death might fall out upon the choice of his successor, he requested them to elect a principal person, and able to govern, of whom all should like well; and when he was elected, they should swear before him to obey him: and that he would thank them very much in so doing; because the grief that he had, would somewhat be assuaged, and the pain that he felt, because he left them in so great confusion, to wit, in leaving them in a strange country, where they knew not where they were. Baltasar de Gallegos answered in the name of all the rest. And first of all comforting him, he set before his eyes how short the life of this world was, and with how many troubles and miseries it is accompanied, and how God showed him a singular favor which soonest left it: telling him many other things fit for such a time. And for the last point, that since it pleased God to take him to himself, although his death did justly grieve them much, yet as well he, as all the rest, ought of necessity to conform themselves to the will of God. And touching the Governor which he commanded they should elect, he besought him, that it would please his lordship to name him which Page 191 he thought fit, and him they would obey. And presently he named Luys de Moscoso de Alvarado, his captain-general. And presently he was sworn by all that were present, and elected for governor. The next day, being the 21st of May, 1542, departed out of this life, the valorous, virtuous, and valiant Captain, Don Fernando de Soto, Governor of Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida: whom fortune advanced, as it useth to do others, that he might have the higher fall. He departed in such a place, and at such a time, as in his sickness he had but little comfort: and the danger wherein all his people were of perishing in that country, which appeared before their eyes, was cause sufficient why every one of them had need of comfort, and why they did not visit nor accompany him as they ought to have done. Luys de Moscoso determined to conceal his death from the Indians, because Ferdinando de Soto had made them believe that the Christians were immortal; and also because they took him to be hardy, wise, and valiant: and if they should know that he was dead, they would be bold to set upon the Christians, though they lived peaceably by them. In regard of their disposition, and because they were nothing constant, and believed all that was told them, the Adelantado made them believe, that he knew some things that passed in secret among themselves, without their knowledge, how, or in what manner he came by them: and that the figure which appeared in a glass, which he showed them, did tell him whatsoever they practiced and went about: and therefore neither in word nor deed durst they attempt anything that might be prejudicial unto him.

As soon as he was dead, Luys de Moscoso commanded to put him secretly in the house, where he remained three days; and removing him from thence, commanded him to be buried in the night at one of the gates of the town within the wall. And as the Indians had seen him sick, and missed him, so did they suspect what might be. And passing by the place where he was buried, seeing the earth moved, they looked and spake one to another. Luys de Moscoso understanding of it, commanded him to be taken up by night, and to cast a great deal of sand into the mantles, wherein he was wound up, wherein he was carried in a canoe, and thrown into the midst of the river. The Cacique of Guachoya inquired for him, demanding what was become of his brother and lord, the Governor: Luys de Moscoso told him that he was gone to heaven, as many other times he did: and because he was to stay there certain days he had left him in his place. The cacique thought with himself that he was dead; and commanded two young Page 192 and well-proportioned Indians to be brought thither; and said, that the use of that country was, when any lord died, to kill Indians to wait upon him, and serve him by the way, and for that purpose by his commandment were those come thither: and prayed Luys de Moscoso to command them to be beheaded, that they might attend and serve his lord and brother. Luys de Moscoso told him, that the Governor was not dead, but gone to heaven, and that of his own Christian soldiers, he had taken such as he needed to serve him, and prayed him to command those Indians to be loosed, and not to use any such had custom from thenceforth: straightway he commanded them to be loosed, and to get them home to their houses. And one of them would not go; saying, that he would not serve him, that without desert had judged him to death, but that he would serve him as long as he lived, which had saved his life.

Luys de Moscoso caused all the goods of the Governor to be sold at an outcry: to wit, two men slaves and two women slaves, and three horses, and seven hundred hogs. For every slave or horse, they gave two or three thousand ducats: which were to be paid at the first melting of gold or silver, or at the division of their portion of inheritance. And they entered into bonds, though in the country there was not wherewith, to pay it within a year after, and put in sureties for the same. Such as in Spain had no goods to bind, gave two hundred ducats for a hog, giving assurance after the same manner. Those which had any goods in Spain, bought with more fear, and bought the less. From that time forward, most of the company had swine, and brought them up, and fed upon them; and observed Fridays and Saturdays, and the evenings of feasts, which before they did not. For some times in two or three months they did eat no flesh, and whensoever they could come by it, they did eat it.

Some were glad of the death of Don Ferdinando de Soto, holding for certain that Luys de Moscoso (which was given to his case), would rather desire to be among the Christians at rest, than to continue the labors of the war in subduing and discovering of countries; whereof they were already weary, seeing the small profit that ensued thereof. The Governor commanded the captains and principal persons to meet to consult and determine what they should do. And being informed what peopled habitation was round about, he understood that to the west, the country was most inhabited, and that down the river beyond Quigalta was uninhabited, and had little store of food. He desired them all, that every one would give his opinion in writing, Page 193 and set his hand to it: that they might resolve by general consent, whether they should go down the river, or enter into the main land. All were of opinion, that it was best to go by land toward the west, because Nueva España was that way; holding the voyage by sea more dangerous, and of greater hazard, because they could make no ship of any strength to abide a storm, neither had they master, nor pilot, compass, nor chart, neither knew they how far the sea was off, nor had any notice of it; nor whether the river did make any great turning into the land, or had any great fall from the rocks, where all of them might be cast away. And some which had seen the seachart, did find, that from the place where they were by the sea-coast to Nueva España, might be four hundred leagues, little more or less; and said, that though they went somewhat about by land in seeking a peopled country, if some great wilderness which they could not pass did hinder them, by spending that summer in travel, finding provision to pass the winter in some peopled country, that the next summer after they might come to some Christian land, and that it might fortune in their travel by land to find some rich country, where they might do themselves good. The Governor, although he desired to get out of Florida in shorter time, seeing the inconveniences they lald before him, in traveling by sea, determined to follow that which seemed good to them all. On Monday, the fifth day of June, he departed from Guachoya. The cacique gave him a guide to Chaguate, and stayed at home in his own town. They passed through a province called Catalte: and having passed a wilderness of six days' journey, the twentieth day of the month he came to Chaguate. The cacique of this province had visited the Governor Don Ferdinando de Soto at Autiamque, whither he brought him presents of skins, and mantles, and salt. And a day before Luys de Moscoso came to his town, we lost a Christian that was sick; which he suspected that the Indians had slain. He sent the cacique word, that he should command his people to seek him up, and send him unto him, and that he would hold him, as he did, for his friend; and if he dld not, that neither he, nor his, should escape his hands, and that he would set his country on fire. Presently the cacique came unto him, and brought a great present of mantles and skins, and the Christian that was lost, and made this speech following:

"Right excellent lord, I would not deserve that conceit which you had of me, for all the treasure of the world. What enforced me to go to visit and serve the excellent Lord Governor your father in Autiamque, which you should have remembered, where I offered my Page 194 self with all loyalty, faith and love, during my life to serve and obey him? What then could be the cause, I having received favors of him, and neither you nor he having done me any wrong, that should move me to do the thing which I ought not? Believe this of me, that neither wrong, nor any worldly interest, was able to make me to have done it, nor shall be able to blind me. But as in this life it is a natural course, that after one pleasure many sorrows do follow: so by your indignation, fortune would moderate the joy, which my heart conceiveth with your presence; and that I should err, where I thought surest to have hit the mark; in harboring this Christian which was lost, and using in such manner, as he may tell himself, thinking that herein I did you service, with purpose to deliver him unto you in Chaguate, and to serve you to the uttermost of my power. If I deserve punishment for this, I will receive it at your hands, as from my lord, as if it were a favor. For the love which I did bear to the excellent Governor, and which I bear to you hath no limit. And like as you give me chastisement, so will you also show me favor. And that which now I crave of you is this, to declare your will unto me, and those things wherein I may be able to do you the most and best service."

The Governor answered him, that because he did not find him in that town, he was incensed against him, thinking he had absented himself, as others had done: but seeing he now knew his loyalty and love, he would always hold him as a brother, and favor him in all his affairs. The cacique went with him to the town where he resided, which was a day's journey from thence. They passed through a small town, where there was a lake, where the Indians made salt: and the Christians made some one day while they rested there, of a brackish water, which sprang near the town in ponds like fountains. The Governor stayed in Chaguate six days. There he was informed of the habitation towards the west. They told him, that three days' journey from thence was a province called Aguacay. The day that he departed from Chaguate, a Christian, called Francisco de Guzman, the base son of a gentleman of Seville, stayed behind, and went to the Indians, with an Indian woman which he kept as his concubine, for fear he should be punished for gaming debts that he did owe. The Governor had traveled two days before he missed him; he sent the cacique word to seek him up, and to send him to Aguacay, whither he traveled: which he did not perform. From the Cacique of Aguacay, before they came into the country, there met him on the way fifteen Indians with a present of skins, fish, and roasted venison. The Governor Page 195 came to this town on Wednesday, the fourth of July. He found the town without people, and lodged in it: he stayed there about a day; during which, he made some roads, and took many men and women. There they had knowledge of the South Sea. Here there was great store of salt made of sand, which they gather in a vein of ground like pebble stones. And it was made as they made salt in Cayas.

The same day that the Governor departed from Aguacay, he lodged in a small town subject to the lord of that province. The camp was pitched hard by a lake of salt water; and that evening they made some salt there. The day following he lodged between two mountains in a thin grove of wood. The next day he came to a small town called Pato. The fourth day after his departure from Aguacay he came to the first habitation of a province called Amaye. There an Indian was taken, which said that from thence to Naguatex was a day and a half's journey; which they traveled, finding all the way inhabited places. Having passed the peopled country of Amaye, on Saturday, the twentieth of July, they pitched their camp at noon between Amaye and Naguatex along the corner of a grove of very fair trees. In the same place certain Indians were discovered, that came to view them. The horsemen went out to them, and killed six, and took two, whom the Governor asked, wherefore they came? They said, to know what people he had, and what order they kept; and that the Cacique of Naguatex, their lord, had sent them, and that he, with other caciques which came to aid him, determined that day to bid him battle. While they were occupied in these questions and answers, there came many Indians by two ways in two squadrons: and when they saw they were descried, giving a great cry they assaulted the Christians each squadron by itself; but seeing what resistance the Christians made them, they turned their backs and betook themselves to flight, in which many of them lost their lives; and most of the horsemen following them in chase, careless of the camp, other two squadrons of Indians, which lay in ambush, set upon the Christians that were in the camp, which also they resisted, who also had their reward as the first. After the flight of the Indians, and that the Christians were retired, they heard a great noise a crossbow shot from tide place where they were. The Governor sent twelve horsemen to see what it was. They found six Christians, four footmen and two horsemen, among many Indians; the horsemen defending the footmen with great labor. These being of them that chased the first two squadrons, had lost themselves, and coming to recover the camp fell among those with whom they were fighting: and so they, and those Page 196 that came to succor them, slew many of the Indians, and brought one alive to the camp: whom the Governor examined, who they were that came to bid him battle. He told him, that they were the Cacique of Naguatex, and of Amaye, and another of a province called Hacanac, a lord of great countries and many subjects; and that the Cacique of Naguatex came for captain and chief of them all. The Governor commanded his right arm and nose to be cut off, and sent him to the Cacique of Naguatex, charging him to tell him, that the next day he would be in his country to destroy him; and if he would withstand his entrance, he should stay for him. That night he lodged there; and the next day he came to the habitation of Naguatex, which was very scattering: he inquired where the cacique's chief town was? They told him that it was on the other side of a river, that passed thereby: he traveled thitherward, and came unto it: and on the other side he saw many Indians, that tarried for him, making show as though they would defend the passage. And because he knew not whether it could be waded, nor where the passage was, and that some Christians and horses were hurt, that they might have time to recover, he determined to rest certain days in the town where he was. So he pitched his camp a quarter of a league from the river, because the weather was very hot, near unto the town, in a thin grove of very fair and high trees near a brook's side: and in that place were certain Indians taken; whom he examined, whether the river were wadeable or no? They said yea, at some times, and in some places. Within ten days after he sent two captains with fifteen horsemen a piece upward and down the river with Indians to show them where they should go over, to see what habitation was on the other side. And the Indians withstood them both, defending the passage of the river as far as they were able, but they passed in despite of them: and on the other side of the river they saw great habitation, and great store of victuals; and with these news returned to the camp.

The Governor sent an Indian from Naguatex where he lay, to command the cacique to come to serve and obey him, and that he would I forgive him all that was past; that if he came not, that he would seek him, and give him such punishment as he had deserved for that which he had done against him. Within two days the Indian returned, and said that the cacique would come the next day; which, the same day when he came, sent many Indians before him, among whom there were some principal men: he sent them to see what countenance they found in the Governor, to resolve with himself whether he should go or not. The Indians let him understand, that he was Page 197 coming, and went away presently: and the cacique came within two hours accompanied with many of his men: they came all in a rank one before another on both sides, leaving a lane in the midst where he came. They came where the Governor was, all of them weeping after the manner of Tulla, which was not far from thence toward the east. The cacique made his due obedience, and the speech following:

"Right high and mighty lord, whom all the world ought to serve and obey, I was bold to appear before your lordship, having committed so heinous and abominable an act, as only for me to have imagined, deserved to be punished; trusting in your greatness, that although I deserve to obtain no pardon, yet for your own sake only you will use clemency toward me, considering how small I am in comparison of your lordship; and not to think upon my weaknesses, which, to my grief and for my greater good, I have known. And I believe that you and yours are immortal; and that your lordship is lord of the land of nature, seeing that you subdue all things, and they obey you, even the very hearts of men. For when I beheld the slaughter and destruction of my men in the battle, which, through mine ignorance, and the counsel of a brother of mine, which died in the same, I gave your lordship, presently I repented me in my heart of the error, which I had committed; and desired to serve and obey you: and to this end I come, that your lordship may chastise and command me as your own."

The Governor answered him, that he forgave him all which was past, that from thenceforth he should do his duty, and that he would hold him for his friend, and that he would favor him in all things. Within four days he departed thence, and coming to the river he could not pass, because it was grown very big; which seemed to him a thing of admiration, being at that time that it was, and since it had not rained a month before. The Indians said, that it increased many times after that manner without raining in all the country. It was supposed, that it might be the tide that came into it. It was learned that the flood came alway from above, and that the Indians of all that country had no knowledge of the sea. The Governor returned unto the place where he had lodged before: and understanding within eight days after that the river was passable, he departed. He passed over and found the town without people: he lodged in the field, and sent the cacique word to come unto him, and to bring him a guide to go forward. And some days being past, seeing the cacique came not, nor sent anybody, he sent two captains sundry ways to burn Page 198 the towns, and to take such Indians as they could find. They burnt: great store of victuals, and took many Indians. The cacique seeing the hurt that he received in his country, sent six principal Indians with three men for guides, which knew the language of the country through which the Governor was to pass. He departed presently from Naguatex, and within three days' journey came to a town of four or five houses, which belonged to the cacique of that province, which is called Nissoone: it was evil inhabited, and had little maize. Two days' journey forward the guides which guided the Governor, if they were to go westward, guided him to the east; and sometimes went up and down through very great woods out of the way. The Governor commanded them to be hanged upon a tree: and a woman that they took in Nissoone guided him, and went back again to seek the way. In two days he came to another miserable town called Lacane: an Indian was taken in that place, that said, that the country of Nondacao was a country of great habitation, and the houses scattering the one from the other, as they used to be in mountains, and had great store of maize. The cacique came with his men weeping, like them of Naguatex: for this is their use in token of obedience: he made him a present of much fish, and offered to do what he would command him. He took his leave, and gave him a guide to the province of Soacatino. The Governor departed from Nondacao towards Soacatino, and in five days' journey came to a province called Aays. The Indians which inhabited it had no notice of the Christians: but as soon as they saw that they entered into their country, they assembled them-selves: and as they came together fifty or a hundred, they came forth to fight. While some fought, others came and charged our men another way, and while they followed some, others followed them. The fight lasted the greatest part of the day, till they came to their town. Some horses and men were wounded, but not to any hurt of their traveling: for there was no wound that was dangerous. There was a great spoil made of the Indians. That day that the Governor departed from thence, the Indian that guided him said that in Nondacao he had heard say, that the Indians of Soacatino had seen other Christians, whereof they all were very glad: thinking it might be true, and that they might have entered into those parts by Nueva España; and that if it were so, it was in their own hand to go out of Florida, if they found nothing of profit: for they feared they should lose themselves in some wilderness. This Indian led him two days out of the way. The Governor commanded to torture him. Page 199 He said, that the Cacique of Nondacao, his lord, had commanded him to guide them so because they were his enemies, and that he was to do as his lord commanded him. The Governor commanded him to be cast to the dogs: and another guided him to Soacatino, whither he came the day following. It was a very poor country: there was great want of maize in that place. He asked the Indians whether they knew of any other Christians. They said that a little from thence toward the south they heard they were. He traveled twenty days through a country evil inhabited, where they suffered great scarcity and trouble; for that little maize which the Indians had, they had hidden and buried in the woods, where the Christians, after they were well wearied with their travel, at the end of their journey went to seek by digginwhat theg y should eat. At last, coming to a province that was called Guasco, they found maize, wherewith they loaded their horses and the Indians that they had. From thence they went to another town called Naquiscoça. The Indians said they had no notice of any other Christians. The Governor commanded to torment them. They said, that they came first to another lordship which was called Naçacahoz, and from thence returned again to the west from whence they came. The Governor came in two days to Naçacahoz. Some women were taken there: among whom there was one which said that she had seen Christians and had been taken by them, and had run away. The Governor sent a captain with fifteen horsemen to the place where the woman said she had seen them, to see if there was any sign of horses, or any token of their being there. After they had gone three or four leagues, the woman that guided them said that all that she had told them was untrue. And so they held all the rest that the Indians had said of seeing Christians in the land of Florida. And, because the country that way was poor of maize, and toward the west there was no notice of any habitation, they returned to Guasco. The Indians told them there, that ten days' journey from thence toward the west, was a river called Daycao, whither they went sometimes a hunting and killing of deer: and that they had seen people on the other side, but knew not what habitation was there. There the Christians took such maize as they found and could carry, and going ten days' journey through a wilderness, they came to the river which the Indians had told them of. Ten horsemen, which the Governor had sent before, passed over the same and went in a way that led to the river, and lighted upon a company of Indians that dwelt in very little cabins: who as soon as they saw them took themselves to flight, leaving that which they had; all which was nothing but misery and poverty. Page 200 The country was so poor, that among them all there was not found half a peck of maize. The horsemen took two Indians, and returned with them to the river, where the Governor stayed for them. He sought to learn of them what habitation was toward the west. There was none in the camp that could understand their language. The Governor assembled the captains and principal persons to determine with their advice what they should do. And the most part said that they thought it best to return back to Rio Grande, or the Great River of Guachoya; because that in Nilco and thereabout was store of maize; Saying, that they would make pinnaces that winter, and the next summer pass down the river to the seaward in them, and coming to the sea they would go along the coast to Nueva España. For though it seemed a doubtful thing and difficult, by that which they had already alleged, yet it was the last remedy they had. For by land they could not go for want of an interpreter. And they held, that the country beyond the River of Daycao, where they were, was that which Cabeca de Vaca mentioned in his relation that he passed of the Indians which lived like the Alarbes, having no settled place, and fed upon Tunas and roots of the fields, and wild beasts that they killed. Which if it were so, if they should enter into it and find no victuals to pass the winter, they could not choose but perish, for they were entered already into the beginning of October: and if they stayed any longer they were not able to return for rain and snows, nor to sustain themselves in so poor a country. The Governor (that desired long to see himself in a place where he might sleep his full sleep, rather than to conquer and govern a country where so many troubles presented themselves) presently returned back that same way that he came.

When that which was determined was published in the camp, there were many that were greatly grieved at it: for they held the sea voyage as doubtful, for the evil means they had, and of as great danger as the traveling by land: and they hoped to find some rich country before they came to the land of the Christians, by that which Cabeca de Vaca had told the Emperor: and that was this: That after he had found clothes made of cotton wool, he saw gold and silver, and stones of great value. And they had not yet come where he had been. For until that place he always traveled by the sea-coast: and they traveled far within the land; and that going towards the west, of necessity they should come where he had been. For he said that in a certain place he traveled many days, and entered into the land to ward the north. And in Guasco they had already found some Turkey Page 201 stones, and mantles of cotton wool: which the Indians signified by signs that they had from the west: and that holding that course they should draw near to the land of the Christians. But though they were much discontented with it, and it grieved many to go backward, which would rather have adventured their lives and have died in the land of Florida, than to have gone poor out of it; yet were they not a sufficient part to hinder that which was determined, because the principal men agreed with the Governor. And afterward there was one that said, he would put out one of his own eyes, to put out another of Luys de Moscoso; because it would grieve him much to see him prosper: because as well himself as others of his friends had crossed that which he durst not have done, seeing that within two days he should leave the government. From Daycao, where now they were, to Rio Grande, or the Great River, was one hundred and fifty leagues: which unto that place they had gone westward. And by the way as they returned back they had much ado to find maize to eat: for where they had passed the country was destroyed; and some little maize that was left the Indians had hidden. The towns which in Naguatex they had burned (whereof it repented them) were repaired again, and the houses full of maize. This country is well inhabited and plentiful. In that place are vessels made of clay, which differ very little from those of Estremoz, or Montemor. In Chaguate the Indians by commandment of the cacique came peaceably, and said, that the Christian which remained there would not come. The Governor wrote unto him, and sent him ink and paper that he might answer. The substance of the words of the letter was to declare unto him his determination, which was to go out of the land of Florida, and to put him in remembrance that he was a Christian, that he would not remain in the subjection of infidels, that he pardoned him the fault which he had done in going away to the Indians, that he should come unto him: and if they did stay him, that he would advertise him thereof by writing. The Indian went with the letter, and came again without any more answer, than, on the back side, his name and seal, that they might know he was alive. The Governor sent twelve horsemen to seek him: but he, which had his spies, so hid himself, that they could not find him. For want of maize the Governor could not stay any longer to seek him. He departed from Chaguate, and passed the river by Aays; going down by it he found a town called Chilano, which as yet they had not seen. They came to Nilco, and found so little maize, as could not suffice till they made their ships; because the Christians, being in Guachoya in the seed time, the Indians for Page 202 fear of them durst not come to sow the grounds of Nilco: and they knew not thereabout any other country where any maize was: and that was the most fruitful soil that was thereaway, and where they had most hope to find it. Every one was confounded, and the most part thought it bad counsel to come back from the river of Daycao, and not to have followed their fortune, going that way that went over land. For by sea it seemed impossible to save themselves, unless God would work a miracle for them: for there was neither pilot, nor sea- chart, neither did they know where the river entered into the sea, neither had they notice of it, neither had they anything wherewith to make sai]s, nor any store of enequem, which is a grass whereof they make oakum, which grew there; and that which they found they saved to caulk the pinnaces withal; neither had they anything to pitch them withal; neither could they make ships of such substance, but that any storm would put them in great danger: and they feared much it would fall out with them, as it did with Pamphilo de Narvaez, which was cast away upon that coast. And above all other it troubled them most, that they could find no maize: for without it they could not be sustained, nor could do anything that they had need of. All of them were put to great confusion. Their chief remedy was to commit themselves to God, and to beseech him that he would direct them the way that they might save their lives. And it pleased him of his goodness, that the Indians of Nilco came peaceably, and told them, that two days' journey from thence, near unto the Great River, were two towns, whereof the Christians had no notice, and that the province was called Minoya, and was a fruitful soil: that, whether at this present there was any maize or no, they knew not, because they had war with them: but that they would be very glad with the favor of the Christians to go and spoil them. The Governor sent a captain thither with horsemen and footmen, and the Indians of Nilco with him. He came to Minoya, and found two great towns seated in a plain and open soil, half a league distant, one in sight of another, and in them he took many Indians, and found great store of maize. Presently he lodged in one of them, and sent word to the Governor what he had found: wherewith they were all exceeding glad. They departed from Nilco in the beginning of December; and all that way, and before from Chilano, they endured much trouble: for they passed through many waters, and many times it rained, with a northern wind, and was exceeding cold, so that they were in the open field with water over and underneath them: and when at the end of their day's journey, they found dry ground to rest upon, they gave great thanks to Page 203 God. With this trouble almost all the Indians that served them died. And after they were in Minoya, many Christians also died: and the most part were sick of great and dangerous diseases, which had a spice of the lethargy. At this place died Andrew de Vasconcelos, and two Portuguese of Elvas, which were very near him: which were brethren, and by their surname called Sotis. The Christians lodged in one of the towns which they liked best, which was fenced about, and distant a quarter of a league from the Great River. The maize that was in the other town was brought thither; and in all it was esteemed to be six thousand hanegs or bushels. And there was the best timber to make ships that they had seen in all the land of Florida; wherefore all of them gave God great thanks for so singular a favor, and hoped that that which they desired would take effect, which was, that they might safely be conducted into the land of the Christians.

As soon as they came to Minoya, the Governor commanded them to gather all the chains together, which every one had to lead Indians in; and to gather all the iron which they had for their provision, and all the rest that was in the camp: and to set up a forge to make nails, and commanded them to cut down timber for the briguntines. And a Portuguese of Ceuta, who having been a prisoner in Fez, had learned to saw timber with a long saw, which for such purposes they had carried with them, did teach others, which helped him to saw timber. And a Genevese, whom it pleased God to preserve (for without him they had never come out of the country, for there was never another that could make ships but he), with four or five other Biscayan carpenters, which hewed his planks and other timbers, made the brigantines: and two calkers, the one of Geneva, the other of Sardinia, did calk them with the tow of an herb like hemp, whereof before I have made mention, which there is named enequen. And because there was not enough of it, they calked them with the flax of the country, and with the mantles, which they raveled for that purpose. A cooper which they had among them fell sick, and was at the point of death: and there was none other that had any skill in that trade: it pleased God to send him his health. And albeit he was very weak, and could not labor, yet fifteen days before they departed, he made for every brigantine two half hogsheads, which the mariners call quarterets, because four of them hold a pipe of water. The Indians which dwelt two days' journey above the river in a province called Taguanate, and likewise those of Nilco and Page 204 Guacoya, and others their neighbors seeing the brigantines in making, thinking, because their places of refuge are in the water, that they were to go to seek them, and because the Governor demanded mantles of them, as necessary for sails, came many times, and brought many mantles, and great store of fish. And for certain it seemed that God wad willing to favor them in so great necessity, moving the minds of the Indians to bring them: for to go to take them, they were never able. For in the town where they were, as soon as winter came, they were so enclosed and compassed with water, that they could go no farther by land, than a league, and a league and a half. And if they would go farther, they could carry no horses, and without them they were not able to fight with the Indians, because they were many: and so many for so many on foot they had the advantage of them by water and by land, because they were more apt and lighter, and by reason of the disposition of the country, which was according to their desire for the use of their war. They brought also some cords, and those which wanted for cables were made of the barks of mulberry trees. They made stirrups of wood, and made anchors of their stirrups. In the month of March, when it had rained a month before, the river grew so big that it came to Nilco, which was nine leagues of: and on the other side, the Indians said, that it reached other nine leagues into the land. In the town where the Christians were, which was somewhat high ground, where they could best go, the water reached to the stirrups. They made certain rafts of timber, and laid many boughs upon them, whereon they set their horses, and in the houses they did the like. But Seeing that nothing prevailed, they went up to the lofts: and if they went out of the houses, it was in canoes, or on horseback in those places where the ground was highest. So they were two months, and could do nothing, during which time the river decreased not. The Indians ceased not to come unto the brigantines as they were wont, and came in canoes. At that time the Governor feared they would set upon him. He commanded his men to take an Indian secretly of those that came to the town, and to stay him till the rest were gone: and they took one. The Governor commanded him to be put to torture, to make him confess whether the Indians did practice any treason or no. He confessed that the caciques of Nilco, Guachoya, and Taguanate, and others, which in all were about twenty caciques, with a great number of people, determined to come upon him; and that three days before, they would send a great present of fish to cover their great treason and malice, and on the very day they would send some Indians before Page 205 with another present. And these, with those which were our slaves, which were of their conspiracy also, should set the houses on fire, and first of all possess themselves of the lances which stood at the doors of the houses; and the caciques, with all their men, should be near the town in ambush in the wood, and when they saw the fire kindled, should come, and make an end of the conquest. The Governor commanded the Indian to be kept in a chain, and the selfsame day that he spoke of, there came thirty Indians with fish. He commanded their right hands to be cut off, and sent them so back to the Cacique of Guachoya, whose men they were. He sent him word that he and the rest should come when they would, for he desired nothing more, and that he should know, that they thought not anything which he knew not before they thought of it. Hereupon they all were put in a very great fear: and the caciques of Nilco and Taguanate came to excuse themselves: and a few days after came he of Guachoya, and a principal Indian, and his subject, said, he knew by certain information, that the caciques of Nilco and Taguanate were agreed to come and make war upon the Christians. As soon as the Indians came from Nilco, the Governor examined them, and they confessed it was true. He delivered them presently to the piincipal men of Guachoya, which drew them out of the town and killed them. Another day came some from Taguanate, and confessed it likewise. The Governor commanded their right hands and noses to be cut off, and sent them to the cacique, wherewith they of Guachoya remained very well contented: and they came oftentimes with presents of mantles and fish, and hogs, which bred in the country of some swine that were lost by the way the last year. As soon as the waters were slaked, they persuaded the Governor to send to Taguanate. They came and brought canoes, wherein the footmen were conveyed down the river, and a captain with horsemen went by land; and the Indians of Guachoya, which guided him till they came to Taguanate, assaulted the town, and took many men and women, and mantles, which with those that they had already were sufficient to supply their want. The brigantines being finished in the month of June, the Indians having told us that the river increased but once a year, when the snows did melt, in the time wherein I mentioned it had already increased, being now in summer, and having not rained a long time, it pleased God that the flood came up to the town to seek the brigantines, from whence they carried them by water to the river. Which, if they had gone by land, had been in danger of breaking and splitting their keels, and to be all undone; because that for want of Page 206 iron, the spikes were short, and the planks and timber were very weak. The Indians of Minoya, during the time that they were there came to serve them (being driven thereunto by necessity) that of the maize which they had taken from them, they would bestow some crumbs upon them, and because the country was fertile, and the people used to feed of maize, and the Christians had gotten all from them that they had, and the people were many, they were not able to sustain themselves. Those which came to the town were so weak and feeble, that they had no flesh left on their bones: and many came and died near the town for pure hunger and weakness. The Governor commanded upon grievous punishments to give them no maize. Yet, when they saw that the hogs wanted it not, and that they had yielded themselves to serve them, and considering their misery and wretchedness, having pity of them, they gave them part of the maize which they had. And when the time of their embarkment came, there was not sufficient to serve their own turns. That which there was, they put into the brigantines, and into great canoes tied two and two together. They shipped twenty-two of the best horses that were in the camp, the rest they made dried flesh of; and dressed the hogs which they had in like manner. They departed from Minoya the second day of July, 1543. The day before they departed from Minoya, they determined to dismiss all the men and women of the country, which they had detained as slaves to serve them, save some hundred, little more or less, which the Governor embarked, and others whom it pleased him to permit. And because there were many men of quality, whom he could not deny that which be granted to others, he used a policy, saying, that they might serve them as long as they were in the river, but when they came to the sea, they must send them away for want of water, because they had but few vessels. He told his friends in secret, that they should carry theirs to Nueva España: and all those whom he bare no good- will unto (which were the greater number) ignorant of that which was hidden from them, which afterward time discovered, thinking it inhumanity for so little time of service, in reward of the great service that they had done them, to carry them with them, to leave them slaves to other men out of their own countries, left five hundred men and women; among whom were many boys and girls, which spake and understood the Spanish tongue. The most of them did nothing but weep; which moved great compassion; seeing that all of them with good-will would have become Page 207 Christians, and were left in state of perdition. There went from Minoya three hundred and twenty-two Spaniards in seven brigantines, well made, save that the planks were thin, because the nails were short, and were not pitched, nor had any decks to keep the water from coming in. Instead of decks they laid planks, whereon the mariners might run to trim their sails, and the people might refresh themselves above and below. The Governor made his captains, and gave to every one his brigantine, and took their oath and their word, that they would obey him, until they came to the land of the Christians. The Governor took one of the brigantines for himself, which he best liked. The same day that they departed from Minoya, they passed by Guachoya, where the Indians tarried for them in canoes by the river. And on the shore, they had made a great arbor with boughs. They desired him to come on shore; but he excused himself, and so went along. The Indians in their canoes accompanied him; and coming where an arm of the river declined on the right hand, they said that the Province of Quigalta was near unto that place, and importuned the Governor to set upon him, and that they would aid him. And because they had said that he dwelt three days' journey down the river, the Governor supposed that they had plotted some treason against him, and there left them; and went down with the greatest force of the water. The current was very strong, and with the help of oars, they went very swiftly. The first day they landed in a wood on the left hand of the river, and at night they withdrew themselves to the brigantines. The next day they came to a town where they went on shore, and the people that was in it durst not tarry. A woman that they took there being examined, said, that the town belonged to a cacique named Huasene, subject to Quigalta, and that Quigalta tarried for them below in the river with many men. Certain horsemen went thither, and found some houses, wherein was much maize. Immediately more of them went thither and tarried there one day, and which they did beat out, and took as much maize as they needed. While they were there, many Indians came from the nether part of the river, and on the other side right against them somewhat carelessly set themselves in order to fight. The Governor sent in two canoes the crossbowmen that he had, and as many more as could go in them. They ran away, and seeing the Spaniards could not overtake them, they returned back, and took courage; and coming nearer, making an outcry, they threatened them: and as soon as they departed thence, they went after them, some in canoes, and some Page 208 by land along the river; and getting before, coming to a town that stood by the river's side, they joined altogether, making a show that they would tarry there. Every brigantine towed a canoe fastened to their sterns for their particular service. Presently there entered men into every one of them, which made the Indians to fly, and burned the town. The same day they presently landed in a great field, where the Indians durst not tarry. The next day there were gathered together an hundred canoes, among which were some that carried sixty and seventy men, and the principal men's canoes had their tilts, and plumes of white and red feathers for their ensigns: and they came within two crossbow shots of the brigantines, and sent three Indians in a small canoe with a feigned message to view the manner of the brigantines, and what weapons they had. And coming to the side of the Governor's brigantine, one of the Indians entered, and said:

"That the Cacique of Quigalta, his lord, sent him his commendations, and did let him understand, that all that the Indians of Guachoya had told him concerning himself, was false, and that they had incensed him, because they were his enemies; that he was his servant, and should find him so."

The Governor answered him, that he believed all that he said was true, and willed him to tell him that he esteemed his friendship very much. With this answer they returned to the place where the rest in their canoes were waiting for them, and from thence all of them fell down, and came near the Spaniards, shouting aloud, and threatening of them. The Governor sent John de Guzman, which had been a captain of footmen in Florida, with fifteen armed men in canoes to make them give way. As soon as the Indians saw them come towards them, they divided themselves into two parts, and stood still till the Spaniards came nigh them, and when they were came near them, they joined together on both sides, taking John de Guzman in the middle, and them that came first with him, and with great fury boarded them: and as their canoes were bigger, and many of them leaped into the water to stay them, and to lay hold on the canoes of the Spaniards, and overwhelm them; so presently they overwhelmed them. The Christians fell into the water, and with the weight of their armor sunk down to the bottom; and some few, that by swimming or holding by the canoe could have saved themselves, with oars and staves which they had, they struck them on the head and make them sink. When they of the brigantines saw the overthrow, though they went about to succor them, yet through the current of Page 209 the river they could not go back. Four Spaniards fled to the brigantine that was nearest to the canoes; and only these escaped of those that came among the Indians. There were eleven that died there among whom John de Guzman was one, and a son of Don Carlos, called John de Vargas: the rest also were persons of account and men of great courage. Those that escaped by swimming said that they saw the Indians enter the canoe of John de Guzman at the stern of one of their canoes, and whether they carried him away dead or alive they could not certainly tell.

The Indians, seeing that they had got the victory, took such courage, that they assaulted them in the brigantines, which they durst not do before. They came first to that brigantine wherein Calderon went for captain, and was in the rearward: and at the first volley of arrows they wounded twenty-five men. There were only four armed men in this brigantine; these did stand at the brigantine's side to defend it. Those that were unarmed, seeing how they hurt them, left their oars and went under the deck: whereupon the brigantine began to cross, and to go where the current of the stream carried it. One of the armed men seeing this, without the commandment of the captain, made a footman to take an oar and steer the brigantine, he standing before him and defending him with his target. The Indians came no nearer than a bowshot, from whence they offended and were not offended, receiving no hurt: for in every brigantine was but one crossbow, and those which we had were very much out of order. So that the Christians did nothing else but stand for a butt to receive their arrows. Having left this brigantine they went to another, and fought with it half an hour; and so from one to another they fought with them all. The Christians had mats to lay under them, which were double, and so close and strong, that no arrow went through them. And as soon as the Indians gave them leisure, they fenced the brigantines with them. And the Indians seeing that they could not shoot level, shot their arrows at random up in the air, which fell into the brigantines, and hurt some of the men: and not therewith contented, they sought to get to them which were in the canoes with the horses. Those of the brigantines environed them to defend them, and took them among them. Thus seeing themselves much vexed by them, and so wearied that they could no longer endure it, they determined to travel all the night following, thinking to get beyond the country of Quigalta, and that they would leave them: but when they thought least of it, supposing that they had now left them, they heard Page 210 very near them so great outcries, that they made them deaf, and so they followed us all that night, and the next day till noon, by which time we were come into the country of others, whom they desired to use us after the same manner; and so they did. The men of Quigalta returned home; and the other in fifty canoes fought with us a whole day and a night; and they entered one of the brigantines, that came in the rearward, by the canoe which she had at her stern, and took away a woman which they found in it, and afterwards hurt some of the men in the brigantines. Those which came with the horses in the canoes, being wearied with rowing night and day, lingered behind; and presently the Indians came upon them, and they of the brigantines tarried for them. The Governor resolved to go on shore and kill the horses, because of the slow way which they made because of them. As soon as they saw a place convenient for it, they went thither and killed the horses, and brought the flesh of thcm to dry it on board. Four or five of them remained on shore alive; the Indians went unto them, after the Spaniards were embarked. The horses were not acquainted with them, and began to neigh, and run up and down in such sort, that the Indians, for fear of them, leaped into the water; and getting into their canoes went after the brigantines, shooting cruelly at them. They followed us that evening and the night following till the next day at ten of the clock, and then returned up the river. Presently from a small town that stood upon the river came seven canoes, and followed us a little way down the river, shooting at us: but seeing they were so few that they could do us but little harm, they returned to their town. From thence forward, until they came to the sea, they had no encounter. They sailed down the river seventeen days: which may be two hundred and fifty leagues' journey, little more or less: and near unto the sea, the river is divided into two arms; each of them is a league and a half broad.

Half a league before they came to the sea, they came to anchor to rest themselves there about a day; for they were very weary with rowing, and out of heart. For by the space of many days they had eaten nothing but parched and sodden maize; which they had by allowance every day an headpiece full by strike for every three men. While they rode there at anchor seven canoes of Indians came to set upon those which they brought with them. The Governor commanded armed men to go aboard them, and to drive them farther off. They came also against them by land through a thick wood, and Page 211 a moorish ground, and had staves with very sharp forked heads made of the bones of fishes, and fought very valiantly with us, which went out to encounter them. And the other that came in canoes with their arrows staid for them that came against them, and at their coming both those that were on land, and those in the canoes wounded some of us: and seeing us come near them, they turned their backs, and like swift horses among footmen got away from us; making some returns, and reuniting themselves together, going not past a bow shot off: for in so retiring they shot, without receiving any hurt of the Christians. For though they had some bows, yet they could not use them; and brake their arms with rowing to overtake them. And the Indians easily in their compass went with their canoes, staying and wheeling about as it had been in a skirmish, perceiving that those that came against them could not offend them. And the more they strove to come near them, the more hurt they received. As soon as they had driven them farther off, they returned to the briguntines. They stayed two days there: and departed from thence unto the place where the arm of the river entereth into the sea. They sounded in the river near unto the sea, and found forty farthoms water. They staid there. And the Governor commanded all and singular persons to speak their minds touching their voyage, whether it were best to cross over to Nueva España, committing themselves to the high sea, or whether they should keep along the coast. There were sundry opinions touching this matter: wherein John Danusco, which presumed much, and took much upon him in the knowledge of navigation, and matters of the sea, although he had but little experience, moved the Governor with his talk: and his opinion was seconded by some others. And they affirmed, that it was much better to pass by the high sea, and cross the gulf, which was three of four parts the lesser travel, because in going along the coast, they went a great way about, by reason of the compass which the land did make. John Danusco said, that he had seen the sea-card, and that from the place, where they were, the coast ran east and west unto Rio de las Palmas, and from Rio de las Palmas to Nueva España from north to south: and therefore in sailing always in sight of land would be a great compassing about and spending of much time; and that they would be in great danger to be overtaken with winter before they should get to the land of the Chrtstians: and that in ten or twelve days' space, having good weather, they might be there in crossing over. The most part were against this opinion, and said that it was more safe to go along the coast, though they staid the longer: because their ships were very Page 212 weak and without decks, so that a very little storm was enough to cast them away: and if they should be hindered with calms, or contrary weather, through the small store of vessels which they had to carry water in, they should likewise fall into great danger: and that although the ships were such as they might venture in them, yet having neither pilot nor sea-card to guide themselves, it was no good counsel to cross the gulf. This opinion was confirmed by the greatest part: and they agreed to go along the coast. At the time wherein they sought to depart from thence, the cable of the anchor of the Governors brigantine brake, and the anchor remained in the river. And albeit they were near the shore, yet it was so deep, that the divers diving many times could never find it; which caused great sadness in the Governor, and in all those that went with him in his brigantine: but with a grindstone which they had, and certain bridles which remained to some of the gentlemen, and men of worship which had horses, they made a weight which served instead of an anchor. The 18th of July (1543) they went forth to sea with fair and prosperous weather for their voyage. And seeing that they were gone two or three leagues from the shore, the captains of the other brigantines overtook them, and asked the Governor, wherefore he did put off from the shore? and that if he would leave the coast, he should say so; and he should not do it without the consent of all: and that if he did otherwise, they would not follow him, but that every one would do what seemed best unto himself. The Governor answered, that he would do nothing without their counsel, but that he did bear off from the land to sail the better and safer by night; and that the next day when time served, he would return to the sight of land again. They sailed with a reasonable good wind that day and the night following, and the next day till evening song, always in fresh water; whereat they wondered much: for they were very far from land. But the force of the current of the river is so great, and the coast there is so shallow and gentle, that the fresh water enters far into the sea. That evening on their right hand they saw certain creeks, whither they went, and rested there that night: where John Danusco with his reasons won them at last, that all consented and agreed to commit themselves to the main sea, alleging, as he had done before, that it was a great advantage, and that their voyage would be much shorter. They sailed two days, and when they would have come to sight of land they could not, for the wind blew from the shore. On the fourth day, seeing their fresh water began to fail, fearing necessity and danger, they all complained of John Danusco, and of the Governor Page 213 that followed his counsel: and every one of the captains said, that they would no more go from the shore, though the Governor went whither he would. It pleased God that the wind changed, though but a little: and at the end of four days after they had put to sea, being already destitute of water, by force of rowing they got within sight of land, and with great trouble recovered it, in an open road. That evening the wind came to the south, which on that coast is a cross wind, and drove the brigantines against the shore, because it blew verv hard, and the anchors were so weak, that they yielded and began to bend. The Governor commanded all men to leap into the water, and going betweeen them and the shore, and thrusting the brigantines into the sea as soon as the wave was past, they saved them till the wind ceased.

In the bay where they rode, after the tempest was passed, they went on shore, and with mattocks,which they had, they digged certain pits, which grew full of fresh water, where they filled all the casks thcy had. The next day they departed thence, and sailed two days, and entered into a creek like unto a pool, fenced from the south wind, which then did blow, and was against them; and there they stayed four days, not being able to get out; and when the sea was calm they rowed out. They sailed that day, and towards evening the wind grew so strong that it drove them on the shore, and they were sorry that they had put forth from the former harbor; for as soon as night approached, a storm began to rise in the sea, and the wind still waxed more violent with a tempest. The brigantines lost one another. Two of them, which bare more into the sea, entered into an arm of the sea, which pierced into the land two leagues be yond the place where the others were that night. The five which stayed behind, being always a league and half a league the one from the other, met together, without any knowledge the one of the other, in a wild road, where the wind and the waves drove them on shore; for their anchors did straighten and came home, and they could not use their oars, putting seven or eight men to every one, which rowed to seaward; and all the rest leaped into the water, and when the wave was passed that drave the brigantine on shore, they thrust it again into the sea with all the diligence and might that they had. Others, while another wave was incoming, with bowls laved out the water that came in overboard. While they were in this tempest, in great fear of being cast away in that place, from midnight forward they endured an intolerable torment of an infinite swarm of mosquitoes which fell upon them, which as soon as they had stung the flesh, it so Page 214 infected it, as though they had been venomous. In the morning the sea was assuaged and the wind slacked, but not the mosquitoes; for the sails, which were white, seemed black with them in the morning. Those which rowed, unless others kept them away, were not able to row. Having passed the fear and danger of the storm, beholding the deformities of their faces, and the blows which they gave themselves to drive them away, one of them laughed at another. They met all together in the creek where the two brigantines were which outwent their fellows. There was found a scum which they call copee, which the sea casteth up, and it is like pitch, wherewith in some places, where pitch is wanting, they pitch their ships; there they pitched their brigantines. They rested two days, and then eftsoons proceeded on their voyage. They sailed two days more, and landed in a bay or arm of the sea, where they stayed two days. The same day that they went from thence six men went up in a canoe toward the head of it, and could not see the end of it. They put out from thence with a south wind, which was against them; but because it was little, and for the great desire they had to shorten their voyage, they put out to sea by the force of oars, and for all that made very little way, with great labor, in two days, and went under the lee of a small island into an arm of the sea, which compassed it about. While they were there, there fell out such weather, that they gave God many thanks that they found out such an harbor. There was great store of fish in that place, which they took with nets, which they had, and hooks. Here a man cast an hook and a line into the sea, and tied the end of it to his arm, and a fish caught it, and drew him into the water unto the neck; and it pleased God that he remembered himself of a knife that he had, and cut the line with it. There they abode fourteen days; and at the end of them it pleased God to send them fair weather, for which, with great devotion, they appointed a procession, and went in procession along the strand, be seeching God to bring them to a land where they might serve him in better sort.

In all the coast wheresoever they digged they found fresh water; there they filled their vessels, and the procession being ended, embarked themselves, and going always in sight of the shore they sailed six days. John Danusco said that it would do well to bear out to seaward; for he had seen the sea- card, and remembered that from Rio de las Palmas forward, the coast did run from north to south, and thitherto they had run from east to west, and in his opinion, by his reckoning, Rio de las Palmas could not be far off from where they Page 215 were. That same night they put to sea, and in the morning they saw palm leaves floating, and the coast which ran north and south. From midday forward they saw great mountains, which until then they had not seen; for from this place to Puerto de Spiritu Santo, where they first landed in Florida, was a very plain and low country; and therefore it cannot be descried, unless a man comes very near it. By that which they saw, they thought they had overshot Rio de las Palmas that night, which is sixty leagues from the river Panuco, which is in Nueva España. They assembled all together, and some said it was not good to sail by night, lest they should overshoot the river of Panuco; and others said, it was not well to lose time while it was favorable, and that it could not be so near that they should pass it that night; and they agreed to take away half the sails, and so sail all night. Two of the brigantines, which sailed that night with all their sails, by break of day had overshot the river of Panuco without seeing it. Of the five that came behind, the first that came unto it was that wherein Calderan was captain. A quarter of a league before they came at it, and before they did see it, they saw the water muddy, and knew it to be fresh water; and coming right against the river, they saw where it entered into the sea, that the water broke upon a shoal. And because there was no man there that knew it, they were in doubt whether they should go in, or go along; and they resolved to go in; and before they came into the current, they went close to the shore, and entered into the port. And as soon as they were come in, they saw Indian men and women apparcled like Spaniards, whom they asked in what country they were? They answered in Spanish, that it was the river of Panuco, and that the town of the Christians was fifteen leagues up within the land. The joy that all of them received upon this news cannot sufficiently be expressed; for it seemed unto them that at that instant they were born again. And many went on shore and kissed the ground, and kneeling on their knees, with lifting up their hands and eyes to Heaven, they all ceased not to give God thanks. Those which came after, as soon as they saw Calderan come to an anchor with his brigantine in the river, presently went thither, and came into the haven. The other two brigantines which had overshot the place, put to sea to return back to seek the rest, and could not do it, bccause the wind was contrary and the sea grown; they were afraid of being cast away, and recovering the shore they cast anchor. While they rode there a storm arose, and seeing that they could not abide there, much less Page 216 endure at sea, they resolved to run on shore; and as the brigantines were but small, so did they draw but little water; and where they were it was a sandy coast. By which occasion the force of their sails drove them on shore, without any hurt of them that were in them. As those that were in the port of Panuco at this time were in great joy; so these felt a double grief in their hearts, for they knew not what was become of their fellows, nor in what country they were, and feared it was a country of Indian enemies. They landed two leagues below the port; and when they saw themselves out of the danger of the sea, every one took of that which he had, as much as he could carry on his back, and they traveled up into the country, and found Indians, which told them where their fellows were, and gave them good entertainment; wherewith their sadness was turned into joy, and they thanked God most humbly for their deliverance out of so many dangers. From the time that they put out of Rio Grande to the sea, at their departure from Florida, until they arrived in the river of Panuco, was fifty-two days. They came into the river of Panuco the tenth of September, 1543. They went up the river with their brigantines. They traveled four days; and because the wind was but little, and many times it served them not because of the many turnings which the river maketh, and the great current drawing them up by towing, and that in many places; for this cause they made very little way and with grcat labor; and seeing the execution of their desire to be deferred, which was to come among Christians, and to see the celebration of divine service, which so long time they had not seen, they left the brigantines with the mariners, and went by land to Panuco. All of them were apparcled in deers' skins tanned and dyed black, to wit, coats, hose, and shoes. When they came to Panuco, presently they went to the church to pray and give God thanks that so miraculously had saved them. The townsmen which before were advertised by the Indians, and knew of their arrival, carried some of them to their houses, and entertained them whom they knew and had acquaintance of, or because they were their countrymen. The Alcalde Mayor took the Governor home to his house: and commanded all the rest, as soon as they came, to be lodged six and six and ten and ten, according to the ability of every townsman. And all of them were provided for by their hosts of many hens, and bread of maize, and fruits of the country, which are such as be in the Isle of Cuba, whereof before I have spoken. The town of Panuco may contain about seventy families; the most of their houses are of lime and Page 217 stone, and some made of timber, and all of them are thatched. It is a poor country, and there is neither gold nor silver in it. The inhabitants live there in great abundance of victuals and servants. The richest have not above five hundred crowns rent a year, and that is in cotton cloths, hens, and maize, which the Indians their servants do give them for tribute. There arrived there of those that came out of Florida, three hundred and eleven Christians. Presently the Alcalde Mayor sent one of the townsmen in post to advertise the Viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoça, which was resident in Mexico, that of the people that went with Don Ferdinando de Soto to discover and conquer Florida three hundred and eleven men were arrived there, that seeing that they were employed in his majesty's service he would take some order to provide for them. Whereat the Viceroy, and all the inhabitants of Mexico wondered; for they thought they were miscarried because they had traveled so far within the main land of Florida, and bad no news of them for so long a time: and it seemed a wonderful thing unto them, how they could save themselves so long among infidels, without any fort, wherein they might fortify themselves, and without any other succor at all. Presently the Viceroy sent a warrant wherein he commanded, that whithersoever they sent they should give them victuals, and as many Indians for their carriages as they needed: and where they would not furnish them, they might take those things that were necessary perforce without incurring any danger of law. This warrant was so readily obeyed that by the way before they came to the towns they came to receive them with hens and victuals.

From Panuco to the great city of Temistitan, Mexico, is sixty leagues; and other sixty from Panuco to the port Port de Vera Cruz, where they take shipping for Spain, and those that come from Spain do land to go for Nueva España. These three towns stand in a triangle: to wit, Vera Cruz to the south, Panuco to the north, and Mexico to the west sixty leagues asunder. The country is so inhabited with Indians that from town to town those which are farthest are but a league and half a league asunder. Some of them that came from Florida stayed a month in Panuco to rest themselves, others fifteen days, and every one as long as he listed: for there was none that showed a sour countenance to his guests, but rather gave them anything that they had, and seemed to be grieved when they took their leave. Which was to be believed; for the victuals which the Indians do pay them for tribute, are more than they can spend: and in that town is no Commerce; and there dwelt but few Spaniards there, and they were Page 218 glad of their company. The Alcalde Mayor divided all the Emperor's clothes which he had (which there they pay him for his tribute) among those that would come to receive them. Those which had shirts of mail left were glad men; for they had a horse for one shirt of mail. Some horsed themselves; and such as could not (which were the greatest part) took their journey on foot: in which they were well received of the Indians that were in the towns, and better served than they could have been in their own houses, though they had been well to live. For if they asked one hen of an Indian, they brought them four: and if they asked any of the country fruit though it were a league off, they ran presently for it. And if any Christian found himself evil at ease, they carried him in a chair from one town to another. In whatsoever town they came, the cacique, by an Indian which carried a rod of justice in his hand, whom they call Tapile, that is to say a sergeant, commanded them to provide victuals for them, and Indians to bear burdens of such things as they had, and such as were needful to carry them that were sick. The Viceroy sent a Portuguese twenty leagues from Mexico with great store of sugar, raisins of the sun, conserves, and other things fit for sick folks, for such as had need of them: and had given order to clothe them all at the Emperor's charge. And their approach being known by the citizens of Mexico, they went out of the town to receive them: and with great courtesy, requesting them in favor to come to their houses, every one carried such as he met home with him, and clothed them every one the best they could: so that he that had the meanest apparel, it cost about thirty ducats. As many as were willing to come to the Viceroy's house he commanded to be appareled, and such as were persons of quality sate at his table: and there was a table in his house for as in any of the meaner sort as would come to it: and he was presently informed who every one was, to show him the courtesy that he deserved. Some of the conquerors did set both gentlemen and clowns at their own table, and many times made the servant sit cheek by cheek by his master: and chiefiy the officers and men of base condition did so: for those which had better education did inquire who every one was, and made difference of persons: but all did what they could with a good will: and every one told them whom they had in their houses, that they should not trouble themselves, nor think themselves the worse, to take that which they gave them: for they had been in the like case, and had been relieved of others, and that this was the custom of that country. God reward them all: and God grant that those which it pleased him to deliver out of Florida, and Page 219 to bring again into Christendom, may serve him: and into those that died in that country, and unto all that believe in Him and confess his holy faith, God for his mercy's sake grant the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

From the Port de Spiritu Santo, where they landed when they entered into Florida, to the Province of Ocute, which may be 400 leagues, little more or less, is a very plain country, and has many lakes and thick woods, and in some places they are of wild pine-trees; and is a weak soil. There is in it neither mountain nor hill. The country of Ocute is more fat and fruitful; it has thinner woods, and very goodly meadows upon the rivers. From Ocute to Cutifachiqui may be 130 leagues: 80 leagues thereof are desert, and have many groves of wild pine trees. Through the wilderness great rivers do pass. From Cutifachiqui to Xuala, may be 250 leagues: it is all an hilly country. Cutifachiqui and Xuala stand both in plain ground, high, and have goodly meadows on the rivers. From thence forward to Chiaha, Coça, and Tascaluça, is plain ground, dry and fat, and very plentiful of maize. From Xuala to Tascaluça may be 250 leagues. From Tascaluça to Rio Grande, or the Great River, may be 300 leagues: the country is low, and full of lakes. From Rio Grande forward, the country is higher and more champaign, and best peopled of all the land of Florida. And along this river from Aquixo to Pacaha, and Coligoa, are 150 leagues: the country is plain, and the woods thin, and in some places champaign, very fruitful and pleasant. From Coligoa to Autiamque are 250 leagues of hilly country. From Autiamque to Aguacay, may be 230 leagues of plain ground. From Aguacay to the river of Daycao 120 leagues, all hilly counfry.

From the Port de Spiritu Santo unto Apalache, they traveled from east to west, and northwest. From Cutifachiqui to Xuala from south to north. From Xuala to Coça from east to west. From Coça to Tascaluca, and to Rio Grande, as far as the provinces of Quizquiz and Aquixo, from east to west. From Aquixo to Pacaha to the north. From Pacaha to Tulla from east to west: from Tulla to Autiamque from north to south, to the province of Guachoya and Daycao. The bread which they ate in all the land of Florida is of maize, which is like coarse millet. And this maize is common in all the islands, and from the Antilles forward. There are also in Florida great store of walnuts, plums, mulberries, and grapes. They sow and gather their maize every one their several crop. The fruits are common to all, for they grow abroad in the open fields in great abundance, without Page 220 out any need of planting or dressing. Where there be mountains, there be chestnuts; they are somewhat smaller than the chestnuts of Spain. From Rio Grande westward, the walnuts differ from those that grow more eastward; for they are soft, and like unto acorns; and those which grow from Rio Grande to Puerto del Spiritu Santo for the most part are hard; and the trees and walnuts in show like those of Spain. There is a fruit through all the country which groweth on a plant like Ligoacan, which the Indians do plant. The fruit is like unto Peares Riall; it has a very good smell, and an excellent taste. There groweth another plant in the open field, which beareth a fruit like unto strawberries, close to the ground, which has a very good taste. The plums are of two kinds, red and gray, of the making and bigness of nuts, and have three or four stones in them. These are better than all the plums of Spain, and they make far better prunes of them. In the grapes there is only want of dressing; for though they be big, they have a great kernel. All other fruits are very perfect, and less hurtful than those of Spain.

There are in Florida many bears and lions, wolves, deer, dogs, cats, martens, and conies. There be manywild hens as big as turkeys, partridges small, like those of Africa, cranes, ducks, pigeons, thrushes, and sparrows. There are certain black birds bigger than sparrows, and lesser than stares. There are goshawks, falcons, gerfalcons, and all fowls of prey that are in Spain.

The Indians are well proportioned. Those of the plain countries are taller of body, and better shaped, than those of the mountains. Those of the inland have greater store of maize, and commodities of the country, than those that dwell upon the sea-coast. The country along the sea-coast is barren and poor, and the pcople more warlike. The coast runneth from Puerto del Spiritu Santo to Apalache, east and west; and from Apalache to Rio de las Palmas from east to west; from Rio de las Palmas unto Nueva España from north to south. It is a gentle coast, but it hath many shoals, and great shelves of sand.

Deo gratias. Volume 2 Chapter 8 [Page 221]

A

DESCRlPTlON

OF THE

ENGLISH PROVINCE OF CAROLINA,

BY THE SPANIARDS CALLED FLORIDA,

AND BY THE FRENCH

LA LOUISIANE.

AS ALSO OF THE GREAT AND FAMOUS RIVER

MESCHACEBE OR MISSISSIPPI,

THE FIVE

VAST NAVIGABLE LAKES OF FRESH WATER,

AND THE PARTS ADJACENT.

TOGETHER WITH

AN ACCOUNT OF THE COMMODITIES OF THE GROWTH AND PRODUCTION

OF THE SAID PROVINCE.

BY DANIEL COXE [Page 222]

[Blank Page] [Page 223]

A DESCRIPTION

OF THE

ENGLISH PROVINCE OF CAROLANA,

BY THE SPANIARDS CALLED FLORIDA,

AND BY THE FRENCH

LA LOUISIANE.*

____________

CAROLANA and Carolina are two distinct though bordering provinces, the east of Carolana joining to the west of Carolina. The former was granted by patent unto Sir Robert Heath, in the beginning of the reign of King Charles I., which said Sir Robert was then Attorney-General, and by him conveyed unto the Earl of Arundel, from whom it came by mean conveyances unto the present proprietary.

This province of Carolana is extended north and south from the river St. Mattheo, lying according to the patent in thirty-one degrees (though by later and more accurate observations, it is found to lie exactly in thirty degrees and ten minutes) unto the river Passo Magno, which is in thirty-six degrees of northern latitude; and in longitude from the Western or Atlantic Ocean unto New Mexico, now in possession of the Spaniards, which is in a direct line above one thousand miles, and where not inhabited by them, unto the South Sea. It comprehends within its bounds, the greatest part of the province of Carolina, whose proprietors derive their claim and pretensions thereto, * This account of Louisiana has been very carefully drawn up from Memoirs and Journals kept by various persons sent into the Valley of the Mississippi, by D. Coxe. The expedition fitted out by him, consisting of two ships, commanded by Capt. Barr, were the first to sail up the Mississippi. (1598.) Page 224 by charters from King Charles II. about thirty years after the abovcmentioned grant to Sir Robert Heath.

The great River Meschacebe runs through the midst of this country, having a course almost directly north and south from its first fountains, in about fifty degress of north latitude, to its disemboguing into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. The rivers that make this, which the Spaniards called Rio Grande del Norte, proceed about one-half from the west, the other from the east, so that the whole country may be almost entirely visited by navigable rivers, without any falls or cataracts, which are usual in most of the northern rivers of America, and in all rivers of long course, even in Carolina (though to this country contiguous), and thence northward to the grcat river of St. Lawrence or Canada, and other rivers northward innumerable. The excellent and convenient situation of this country for inland trade and navigation, and for trade with the Spaniards in New Mexico, the whole Gulf of Mexico, and the South Sea (which I shall hereafter demonstrate), will be greatly for the advantage, and not in the least to the prejudice of our home plantation trade, as will appear more evident by the description of this great River Meschacebe, and those rivers that enter into it, together with the vast navigable lakes of fresh water adjoining thereunto.

We will for good reasons begin our description of it from its entrance into the sea, ascending up unto its source; and from very good journals both by sea and land, give an account of the chief rivers that run into it from the east and west, as we find them in our ascent, together with their course, length and bigness, the nature of the countries, and the names of the nations through which they pass.

The River Meschacebe is so called by the inhabitants of the north; cebe being the name for a river, even as far as Hudson's Bay; and mescha, great, which is the Great River; and by the French, who learned it from them, corruptly, Mississippi; which name of Meschacebe it doth retain among the savages during half its course. Afterwards some call it Chucagua, others Sassagoula, and Malabanchia, as it fares with the Danubius, which four hundred miles before it enters the Euxine Sea, is styled the Iser; and the like happens to all the rivers of long course in America, as Oronogue, the river of the Amazons, and Rio de la Plata. This river enters the Gulf of Mexico one hundred and forty leagues from the north-west part of the peninsula of Florida, keeping along the coast in thirty degrees north latitude, and one hundred and twenty leagues from the most westerly part of Page 225 the said gulf, in about twenty-nine degrees the same latitude; and thence the coast extends S. and by W. to the river Panuco, which is under the tropic of Cancer in twenty-three and a half degrees, the utmost part inhabited by the Spaniards towards the and N. E. on the Gulf of Mexico.

The province of Carolana, from the conjunction with the peninsula of Florida, for two hundred and fifty leagues, is situated about the thirtieth degree of north latitude, and seldom varies ten leagues north or south from the same; excepting the entrance of the river Meschacebe, which I am now about to describe from the mouth unto its first fountains.

The river Meschacebe empties itself into the Gulf of Mexico by seven channels, like the river Nile, of which Herodotus, the father of history, and who lived long in Egypt, affirms in his time three were always navigable, and the others only so during the inundations of the said river, which were made by art and labor, though our modern navigators allow only two; but our river hath seven navigable at all times; the three great ones by ships, the four smaller, two on each side (as appears by the chart), by boats and sloops, especially during the time of the waters rising, or the freshes, as they call them, which are always constant, and return in the spring, and sometimes happen in the summer upon the great rains, which is not frequent.

The three great branches always navigable by shipping are situated about six miles distant from each other, and unite all at one place with the main river, about twelve miles from their mouths.

There is not above fourteen feet on the bar at low-water in neeptides, excepting when the freshes come down in the spring or upon great rains; but when you are over the bar, which is not in many places above a ship's length broad, you enter immediately into deep water the least five fathom, which increases to ten fathom before you come to the main river. After that it deepens gradually to above thirty, and you have nowhere less than twenty fathoms for one hundred miles, and little less for one hundred leagues, and afterwards from ten to seventeen for one hundred leagues more: then from six to ten two hundred leagues further; thence to the great cataract or fall, which is sixteen hundred miles from its entrance into the sea, from three fathoms to six. Its breadth is generally during its great depth scarce a mile, but as it lessens in depth it increases in breadth, and is in most places of its course two miles broad, and where it makes islands (as it does very frequently), from the middle of its course two or three leagues. The banks in most places are no more than five or Page 226 six feet above the river, and ships may almost in all places lie by the side of the shore, there being generally from three to six fathoms, and deepens gradually as you approach the middle of the river, which has mostly a pretty strong current; but there are divers promontories, under which you may anchor, where there is good shelter from winds and curious eddy-tides.

When you are ascended the river four or five leagues, it is bordered on each side with high trees of divers sorts, from half a mile to two miles deep into the country; very little underwoods; no trouble in traveling, besides what proceeds from the vines ramping upon the ground. Divers others surround and mount up the trees, almost unto their tops, which are seldom less than one hundred feet from their roots, and often thirty or forty feet more. When you come out of the agreeable shade, you see a most beautiful level country, only about six or eight miles distance; there are collins or gentle ascents, for the most part round or oval, crowned with stately trees, which looks more like a work of laborious consummate art than of mere nature; and this on both sides the river, so far as the acutest sight can reach; in which meadows the wild bulls and kine, besides other beasts, graze, and in the heat of the day retire into these woods for shelter, where they chew the cud.

There is no considerable river empties itself into the Meschacebe from the mouths until you come about twelve miles above the Bayogola and Mougolaches, two nations who dwell together on the west side thereof, two hundred miles from the sea; then on the east side there falls out of the Meschacebe a branch which after a course of one hundred and sixty miles empties itself into the N. E. end of the great Bay of Spirito Santo. It is not above forty or fifty yards broad and two or three fathoms deep at its beginning, but soon enlarges in breadth and depth by the accession of divers rivers and rivulets, and is a most lovely river, making pleasant lakes, and passing, during its whole course, through a country exactly like that we have formerly described. It is navigable by the greatest boats, sloops, and small ships of English building; and by large ones if built after the Dutch manner with flat bottoms.

On the north side of one of the above-mentioned lakes, called by the French Lake Pontchartrain, they have erected a small fort, and storehouses, whither after unloading their large vessels at Isle aux Vaisseaux, or Ship's Island, they bring their goods in sloops or shallops, and from thence disperse them by their traders amongst their own settlements and the several nations of Indians inhabiting on and about Page 227 the Meschacebe, and the rivers which enter it, both from the east and west.

About fifty miles above the place where this river is dismissed from the Meschacebe, on the other side, viz., the west, enters the river of the Houmas (Red River), so named from a considerable nation who inhabit upon it in the country, six or eight miles from its mouth. This is a mighty river, deep and broad, and comes from the mountains of New Mexico; its course is mostly N. W., and is navigable by large vessels above three hundred miles, and thence by large boats and sloops, almost unto its fountains. By this river, you may have communication with above forty nations who live upon it or its branches; and also with the Spaniards of New Mexico, from whom its furthest heads are not above an easy day's journey. Upon this river and most of its branches are great herds of wild kine, which bear a fine wool, and abundance of horse, both wild and tame, of the Spanish breed, on which the Indians ride with almost as much skill as the Europeans, though their bridles, saddles and stirrups are somewhat different from ours, yet not the less commodious.

Twelve leagues higher upon the river Meschacebe is the river of the Naches (Washita), which ten or twelve leagues above its mouth divides itself into two branches, and forms an island (Sicily) about thirty miles in circumference, very pleasant and fertile. Thc south branch is inhabited by the Corroas, the north by the Naches, both considerable nations, abounding in all necessaries for human life. Some leagues above thc division is a pretty large lake (Tensas), where there is a great fishery for pearl, large and good, taken out of a shellfish of a middle nature between an oyster and a muscle.

About twelve or fourteen leagues higher on the same, that is, the west side, the Meschacebe makes a little gulf (Petit Gtilf) about twenty miles long and three or four broad, upon which inhabit in many towns the populous and civilized nation of the Tahensa (Taensas), who also abound in pearls, and enjoy an excellent country; are very hospitable to strangers, and though, as most Indian nations, at war with their neighbors, yet together with the three last mentioned, and those to be hereafter named, joyfully receive and kindly entertain all with whom they have not actual hostilities.

Fourteen or flfteen leagues higher on the east side of the Mcschacebe is the nation and river of Yasoue (Yazoo), which comes two or three hundred miles out of the country, on which dwell the nations in order mentioned after, the Yassouees, the Tounicas, Kourouas, Tihiou, Samboukia, and Epitoupa.

Ten or twelve leagues higher on the west side is the river Page 228 Natchitock (Arkansas), which has a course of many hundred miles; and after it is ascended about one hundred, there are many springs, pits, and lakes, which afford most excellent common salt in great plenty, wherewith they trade with neighboring nations for other commodities they want, and may be of great service to the European inhabitants of this country, to preserve flesh and fish for their own use, and exportation to natives, Spaniards, and our islands, to the great profit of them who have not stock to engage in greater and more beneficial undertakings. Upon this river inhabit not only the Natchitocks, Naguateeres, Natsohocks, but higher several other nations. Sixteen leagues further upon the west side, enter the Meschacebe two rivers, which unite about ten leagues above, and make an island called by the name of the Torimans, by whom it is inhabited.

The southerly of these two rivers is that of the Ousoutiwy, upon which dwell first the Arkansas, a great nation, higher upon the same river the Kansae, Mintou, Erabacha and others.

The river to the north is named Niska, upon which live part of the nation of the Ozages; their great body inhabiting a large river which bears their name, and empties itself into the Yellow River, as will be hereafter mentioned: and upon this river near the mouth is the nation Tonginga, who with the Torimas are part of the Arkansas.

Ten leagues bigher is a small river named Cappa, and upon it a people of the same name, and another called Ouesperies, who fled, to avoid the persecution of the Irocois, from a river which still bears their name, to be mentioned hereafter.

Ten miles higher on the same side of the Meschacebe, is a little river named Matchicebe upon which dwell the nations Mitchigamia and Epiminguia; over against whom is the great nation of the Chicazas (Chickasaws), whose country extends above forty leagues to the river of the Cheraquees (Tennessee), which we shall describe when we come to discourse of the great river Hohio.

Ten leagues higher, on the east side, is the river and nation of Chongue, with some others to the cast of them.

Fifteen leagues higher, on the west side, is the river and nation of Sypouria.

Thirty leagues higher on the east side is the opening of a river that proceeds out of a lake twenty miles long, which is about ten miles from the Meschacebe. Into this lake empty themselves four large rivers. The most northerly, which comes from the north-east, is called Ouabachicou or Ouabache, upon which dwelt the nations Page 229 Chachakingua, Pepepicokia, Pianguichia. The next south of this is the vast river Hohio (Ohio), which comes from the back of New York, Maryland, and Virginia, and is navigable 600 miles. Hohio in the Indian language signifies the fair river; and certainly it runs from its heads through the most beautiful fertile countries in the universe, and is formed by the confluence of ten or twelve rivers, and innumerable rivulets. A town settled upon this lake, or the entrance of the river Hohio thereinto, would have communication with a most lovely fruitful country 600 miles square. Formerly, divers nations dwelt on this river, as the Chawanoes (Shawanees), a mighty and very populous people, who had above fifty towns, and many other nations, who were totally destroyed or driven out of their country by the Irocois, this river being their usual road when they make war upon the nations who lie to the south or to the west.

South of the Hohio is another river, which about thirty leagues above the lake is divided into two branches; the northerly is called Ouespere, the southerly the Black River; there are very few people upon either, they having been destroyed or driven away by the aforementioned Irocois. The heads of this river proceed from the west side of the vast ridge of mountains, which run on the baek of Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland; on whose opposite or east side are the sources of the great river Potomack, which by a mouth of some leagues broad, disgorges itself into the middle of the Bay of Chesepeack, and separates tbe two last mentioned provinces from each other. The mountains afford a short passage or communication between those two rivers, which the Indians are well acquainted with, and by which, in conjunction with the French of the Meschacebe, they may in time insult and harass those colonies.

The most southerly of the above said four rivers, which enter into the lake, is a river some call Kasqui, so named from a nation inhabiting a little above its mouth; others call it the Cusates, or the river of the Cheraquees (Tennessee), a mighty nation, among whom it hath its chief fountains; it comes from the south-east, and its heads are among the mountains, which separate this country from Carolina, and is the great road of the traders from thence to the Meschacebe, and intermediate places. Above 200 miles up this river to the southeast is the great and powerful nation of the Chicazas, good friends to the English, whose dominions extend thence to the Meschacebe. Before you come at them is a small fall or cataract, the only one I have yet heard of in any of the rivers that enter the Meschacebe, either Page 230 from the east or from the west. Thirty or forty leagues above the Chicazas, this river forms four delicate islands, which have each a nation inhabiting them, viz., Tahogale, Kakigue, Cochali, and Tali. Sixty leagues above the island and nation of the Tali inhabits the aforementioned nation of the Cheraques (Cherokees), who have at least sixty towns, some of which are not above sixty miles from Carolina. They have great friendship with the English of that province, who from thence carry on a free trade with and are always very kindly entertained by them.

Fifteen leagues above the Hohio, or the river coming out of the lake aforementioned, to the west, is the river Honabanou, upon which dwells a nation of the same name, and another called Amicoa; and ten leagues above that is the great island of the Tamaroas, and over against it, on the east side, a nation which goes by its name, and another by that of Cahokia, who dwell on the banks of the rivcr Chepusso.

Fifteen leagues above which to the west is the Great Yellow (Missouri*) River, so named because it is yellowish, and so muddy that though the Meschacebe is very clear where they meet, and so many great rivers of crystaline water below mix with the Meschacebe, yet it discolors them all even unto the sea. When you are up this river sixty or seventy miles, you meet with two branches. The lesser, though large, proceeds from the south, and most of the rivers that compose it fall from the mountains, which separate this country from New Mexico; notwithstanding which, there is a very easy communication between them. This is called the river of the Ozages, from a numerous people, who have sixteen or eighteen towns seated thereupon, especially near its mixing with the Yellow River. The other, which is the main branch, comes from the north-west, most of whose branches descend likewise from the mountains of New Mexico, and divers' other large provinces which are to the north of New Mexico, wholly posesessed by Indians, who are said to be very numerous, and well policed. They are all at war with the Spaniards, from whom they have defended their countries above 150 years, and have rather recovered than lost ground. They are likewise at war, as generally the Indians are, amongst themselves. The most northerly branches of this river are interwoven with other branches, which have a contrary course, proceeding to the west, and empty themselves into a vast lake, whose waters by means of another great river (Columbia) disembogues into * The first explorer of this river and the St. Peter's was La Hontan. Page 231 the South Sea. The Indians affirm they see great ships sailing in that lake, twenty times bigger than their canoes. The Yellow is called the river of the Massorites, from a great nation inhabiting in many towns near its junction with the river of the Ozages. There are many other nations upon the same, little inferior to them in extent of territories or number of towns, as the Panimahas, Pancassas, Panas, Panelogas, Matotantes, few of them having less than twenty towns, scarce any of which count less than 200 cabins.

Forty miles above the Yellow River, on the east side, is the river Chicagou, or the river of the Alinouecks, corruptly by the French called Illinois, which nation lived upon and about this river, having above sixty towns, and formerly consisted of 20,000 fighting men, but are now almost totally destroyed by the Irocois, or driven beyond the Meschacebe westward. This is a large pleasant river; and about 250 miles above its entrance into the Meschacebe, it is divided into two branches; the lesser comes from north and by east, and its head is within four or five miles of the great lake of the Alinouecks (Michigan) on its west side; the other comes almost directly from the east, and proceeds from a morass within two miles of the river Miamiha, which empties itself into the same lake. On the south-east side, there is an easy communication between these two rivers, by a land carriage of two leagues, about fifty miles to the south-east of the forementioned lake. The course of this river from its head exceeds 400 miles, navigable above half way by ships, and most of the rest by sloops and large boats or barges. Many small rivers run into it, and it forms two or three lakes; but one mightily extolled, called Pimiteouiii (Peoria), which is twenty miles long and three miles broad; it affords great quantities of good fish, and the country round about it abounds with game, both fowls and beasts. Besides the Illinoueck are the nations Peronaria (Peoria), the great nation Cascasquia and Caracantanon; and on the northern branch inhabit part of the nation of the Mascontens.

On the south-east bank of this river, Monsieur de la Sale erected a fort in the year 1680, which he named Creve-coeur, from the grief which seized him on the loss of one of his chief trading barks richly laden, and the mutiny and villainous intrigues of some of his company, who first attempted to poison and afterwards desert hiin. This fort stands about half way between the bay of Mexico and Canada, and was formerly the usual route of the French in going to or returning from either of those places; but since, they have discovered a nearer and easier passage by the Ouabache and Ohio, the sources of both Page 232 which rivers are at a shall distance from the Lake Erie, or some rivers which empty into it.

Forty leagues higher on the west side is a fair river, which our people were at the mouth of, but could not learn its name. I suppose it's the same the French call Moingona. Some make it to proceed from the Mitchayowa or long river, as may be discerned in the annexed map; but as all our journals are silent in that matter, so shall I, till some more perfect discoveries thereof afford us further light and certainty therein.

When you are ascended about forty leagues more, then on the east side falls into the Meschacebe the river Misconsing. This is much of the same nature with that of the Alinouecks, whether you consider its breadth, depth and course, as also the pleasantness, and fertility of the country adjacent unto all its branches. After you have rowed or sailed up it sixty miles, joins with it the river of the Kikapouz, which is also navigable, and comes a great way from the north-east. Eighty miles further, almost directly east, there is a ready communication, by a carriage of two leagues, with the river of Misaouaqui, which bath a quite contrary course, running to the northeast, and empties itself, after a passage of 150 miles from the land carriage, into the great bay of the Pouteouotamis, or the Puans, which joins, on the north-west, with the great lake of the Alinouecks. This river and bay I shall have occasion to mention when I come to describe the vast lakes or seas of fresh water which are to the east of the Meschacebe.

Forty leagues higher, on the same side, is the fair large river Mitchaoywa, which is the same the Baron le Hontan calls the long river, and gives a very particular description thereof, having navigated it almost to its heads. It has a course of above five hundred miles, and the southern rivers, of which it is composed, are near the northern heads of the river of the Messourites, both taking their original from the mountains which divide this country from that which leads to the South Sea. Several rivers proceed from the other side of the mountains, which are easily passed in less than one day, and fall into the same lake above mentioned, which discharges itself by a great river into the aforesaid sea. As you ascend this river from the Meschacebe, you meet with the nations Eokoros, Essanape, Gnasitaries, who have each many towns, and very populous. And the said Baron acquaints us, from very good information, that beyond these hills are two or three mighty nations, under potent kings, abundantly more civilized, numerous, and warlike than their neighbors; Page 233 differing greatly in customs, buildings, and government from all the other natives of this northern continent; that they are clothed, and build houses and ships like Europeans, having many of great bigness, in length 120 or 130 feet, and carry from 200 to 300 men, which navigate the great lake, and it is thought the adjacent parts of the ocean. And Herrera, Gomora, and some other Spanish historiographers assert that the Spaniards saw upon that coast such ships, which they apprehended came from Japan or China.

A little higher up is the river Chabadeda, above which the Meschacebe makes a fine lake, twenty miles long and eight or ten broad.

Nine or ten miles above that lake, on the east side, is a large fair river, called the river of Tortoises, after you have entered a little way, which leads far into the country to the north-east, and is navigable by the greatest boats forty miles. About the same distance further up, the Meschacebe is precipitated from the rocks about fifty feet, but is so far navigable by considerable ships, as also beyond, excepting another fall, eighty or ninety miles higher, by large vessels, unto its sources, which are in the country of the Sieux, not at a very great distance from Hudson's Bay. There are many other smaller rivers which fall into the Meschacebe, on both sides of it, but being of little note, and the description of them of small consequence, I have passed over them in silence.

I now proceed to describe that part of this province which is to the east of the Meschacebe; the rivers which pass throngh it having no communication therewith. From the Peninsula of Florida, where this country begins, to the south-east, there are only two large rivers: the first, that of Palache, the true Indian name, by the Spaniards called the river of Spirito Santo, or of Apalache, adding an A, after the Arabian manner, from which a great part of their language is derived; as in the provinces of Nilco, Minoia, they pronounce Anilco, Aminoia, and so in divers others. This river enters the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles from the Cod of the Bay of Palache, at the north-west end of the Peninsula of Florida, in thirty degrees of north latitude, and some few minutes. It is somewhat bard to find, by reason of the isles and lagunes before it; and though a stately river, and comes far out of the country, hath not above two fathoms and a half or three fathoms water at most on the bar, as the people sent on discovery found; but that being passed, it is very deep and large; and the tide flows higher than into any river upon all the coast, some affirm fifty miles, which is no wonder, the country being a perfect level, and the river having a double current; one from the south, all Page 234 along the peninsula, from twenty-five degrees to thirty. The other from the west. Near it, on both sides towards the sea- coast, dwell divers nations, Palachees, Chattoes, Sulluggoes, Tommakees, &c.; who are generally called by one name of Apalatchy Indians. This river proceeds chiefly from rivers which have their origin on the south or south-west side of the great ridge of hills that divides this country from Carolina, and is supposed to have a course of about 400 miles. Upon or near the middle of it live the great nations of the Cusshetaes, Tallibousies and Adgebaches.

To the west of this is the famous Coza (a branch of the Mobile), or, as ours call it, the Coussa River, and the French Mobile, the biggest, next unto Meschacebe and Hohio, of any in this or the neighboring provinces. Its first heads are likewise from the aforesaid Palachean Mountains--the most northerly being at Guaxula town and province, near the foot of the mountain. Many rivulets uniting, after a course of eighty miles, form a river bigger than the Thames at Kingston, making several delicous isles, some three or four miles long, and half a mile broad; the country is wonderfully pleasant and fertile. The first considerable town or province is Chicha, famous for its pearl fishing, there being thereabouts, in the river and little lakes it makes, a sort of shell-fish, the ancients named pinna, between a muscle and oyster; concerning which I have diseoursed in the account of the produces or commodities of this country. From thence the river grows larger and deeper, by accession of others from the mountains, and from the West, until it enters the province of Coza, or Coussa, which is reckoned one of the most pleasant and fruitful parts of this country, and very populous. Through this, Ferdinando Soto passed, and resided therein a considerable time; and all the Spanish writers of this famous expedition extol them above any other nation for extent of territory, the pleasantness, healthfulness, fruitfulness thereof, and the good disposition of the inhabitants. The faithful and judicious Portuguese unknown author of that expedition, in a few words thus describes this province:--

"It consists of hills and valleys between. Their granaries were full of Indian corn, and other edibles; so populous that their towns and fields, sowed with corn, touched each other; the country is very agreeable, by reason of many rivulets, which make lovely meadows. There grow, naturally in the fields, prunes, better than we can in Spain produce by culture, even in our gardens. Vines mount, in almost all places near the rivers, to the tops of the trees. There are Page 235 divers other sorts of vines which are low, and some run upon the ground, and by cultivating might be wonderfully improved, though very good and pleasant as they are in their natural state."

Below these, on the same river, are the Ullibalies, or as some, the Olibahalies, and according to the French the Allibamons. And below them the Tallises, who dwell upon a fair river which enters that of Coza from the cast, thence to the once great province of Tasculuza (Tuscltloosa), almost destroyed by Ferdinando Soto; but the chief city Mauvilla, which the English call Maubela, and the French Mobile, is yet in being, though far short of its former grandeur. About one hundred miles from hence, it enters the Gulf of Mexico, being first increased, as by many small rivers and rivulets, so by the fair river of the Chattas, which is made by a collection of several other little streams and rivers, and which at length form a fine river, that would seem considerable, if it were not obscured by the great river in which it is lost. This mighty nation of the Chattas (Choctaws), consisting of near three thousand fighting men, live chiefly about the middle of the river, and is not far from the Chicazas, whom I mentioned to inhabit thirty or forty towns, in the description of the Casqui or Cusntes river, and speak the same language. And to the east, between them and the Cozas, are the Becaes or Abecaes, who have thirteen towns, and dwell upon divers smail rivers, which run into the Coussa. It is a very pleasant country, like that of the Coza, full of hills and valleys; their ground is generally more marly, or fatter than many other provinces, which are mostly of a lighter mould. And a little more to the south-west, between the Becaes and Chattas, dwell in divers towns, being five hundred fighting men, the Ewemales, upon a fair river of their name, which coming from the east, mixes with the Coussa. This mighty river enters the Gulf of Mexico, about fifteen leagues to the west of the great Bay of Nassau or Spirito Santo, or from the N. E. cape of Mirtle Isle, which is the South Land, between which and the continent to the north is the entrance of that vast inlet. The river runs into a kind of a lagune or bay, which is barred four miles from the mouth of the river, supposed to be occasioned, as the Meschacebe, in long process of time, by the silt or sediment of the water, this being almost as muddy, coming, for the most part, through a rich clay or marl; so that at the bar, when it is low water (and it flows little there excepting the south wind drive in a great sea), there is not above fourteen or fifteen feet; but the mouth being some miles broad, and our people not having leisure to Page 236 examine nicely, perhaps there may be found deeper places upon other parts of the bar; but so soon as you are over it, there is a most noble harbor, very large, from four to six fathoms deep. Near the mouth of this river the French have lately made a new settlement, called Fort Louis, which is the usual residence of the Chief Governor of Louisiana, who is nevertheless subordinate to him of Canada. Th this fort are some companies of soldiers, and from thence detachments are sent to secure the several stations they have amongst the Indians in the inland parts.

As the Ullibalys or Allibamons, Chicazas, and Chattas (Choctaws), are the most populous and potent nations upon and between this river and the Meschacebe, the English for several years resided peaceably amongst, carried on a considerable trade with, and were as friends kindly entertained by them, till about the year 1715, by the intrigues and practices of the French, they were either murdered, or obliged to retire and make room for those new intruders, who have since unjustly possessed and fortified the very same stations, in order to keep the natives in awe and subjection, and to cut off the communication of the English traders with the Indians thereabouts, and as far as and beyond the Meschacebe; whereby they have secured to themselves an extensive and profitable trade of above 500 miles, which the subjects of Great Britain were a few years ago the sole masters of.

Besides the French settlement above mentioned on the continent, they have another small town and fort in the isle Dauphine, formerly called Slaughter Island, from a great number of men's bones found there on its first discovery, the remains, as is said, of a bloody battle fought between two nations of Indians. This island lies about nine leagues south of Fort Louis, and fourteen leagues west of Pensacola. It is inhabited and fortified only on account of its harbor, it being the first place the French shipping usually touch at in their voyage from France. The distance between this river and that of Palache or Spirito Santo to the east is about 190 miles. The coast between them is very.deep and bold, contrary to all former maps; for those sent upon discovery sounded several times every day, and found it so, as by the journals will appear.

Between those two great rivers are divers harbors; the chief, and indeed the best, upon all the coast of the Gulf of Mexico is Pensicola, a large harbor, and very safe from all winds; has four fathoms at the entrance, and deepens gradually to seven or eight. To the east of the harbor enters a fine river, which comes about 100 miles out of the country, and is made of two rivers, which unite some miles above. Page 237 This harbor or bay lies ninety lcagues west from the upper part of the peninsula of Florida. On the larboard or west side of the harbor stands a poor town, containing about forty Palmetto houses, with a small stockadoed fort of twelve or fourteen guns, but of little moment; because all their soldiers, and the majority of the inhabitants, are forc'adoes, or forced people, having been malefactors in some parts of Mexico, thereforc are confined in that place for a number of years, according to the nature of their crimes. In short, they are not unlike our felons, whfch are transported from the jails in England to the plantations. The French, in the year 1719, took this fort with small loss from the Spaniard, who, in a few months, retook it again. The first of these made themselves masters thereof a second time, but whether they have deserted it, or keep it still in their possession, I know not.

If the French secure this port and harbor, which is not above fourteen leagues cast of their chief settlement at Mobile, they may with ease, at all seasons, infest, with large men of war and privateers, the navigation of the English and Spaniards in the Bay of Mexico, by lying in wait for and intercepting their fleets and private ships, trading to and from Panuco, Vera Cruz, Campeche, Porto Bello, Jamaica, and the Havana.

Thirty leagues to the east is Apalatchy-Cola, which is also a good harbor, and west of Apalatchy River thirty leagues.

The Bay of Nassau or Spirito Santo is made by four islands, which run almost due south, a little inclining to the west. The most northerly, between which and the main is the entrance of the bay, being eight leagues long, our people called Mirtle Island, from the great quantity of that tree or shrub which grows there, where digging they found excellent good water very plentifully. This island in some places is very narrow. Whether it be the same the French call Isle aux Vaisseaux, or Ship's Island, I can't tell; but its situation, distance from isle Dauphine, or Slaughter Island, and its commodiousness for sheltering ships from the wind, creates a probability of its being so. The bay is fifteen miles broad, from Mirtle Island to a row of islands which run parallel with the main, and another bay or lagune between them, within which they did not go. These islands stretch southward fifty or sixty miles, as far as one of the smaller mouths of the Meschacebe; and doubtless there must be very good harbors, being defended from the sea and winds by a double row of islands, and having probably good depths. Our people visited only the most northerly, which they named Rose Island, a most fragrant smell coming from it three leagues off, which exceeded all perfumes; it is about sixteen Page 238 miles long, and two leagues or more from the northern or western main. Between this and Mirtle Island, the depths of water were four, five, six, five, four fathoms. Rose Island is a brave island, and full of wood. They found it somewhat difficult to go down the bay between the islands, meeting with some shoals, where they had not much above two fathoms water. They turned round Mirtle Island into the main sea, and coasted the east side, which is very bold. Over against Mirtle Island to the north, about five leagues distance, on the main land, is a high point of woods, where is the entrance of Little Meschacebe, or the East Branch, which I mentioned in my description of the great river. And about fifteen leagues to the north-east of this branch of the Meschacebe is the Bay of Bilocohy (Biloxi), which is, within, a fair harbor, with a small river falling into or near it, called Passagoula, bordering on which and the aforesaid bay is a fine country, but on the bar there is not above seven or eight feet water. It was on the continent, lying, I think, on the easterly part of this bay, that Monsieur d'Iberville, in the beginning of the year 1700, built a small sconce, and left therein about forty men, well provided with necessaries. He afterwards returned twice to France for further reinforcements, but on his third voyage back to Bilocohi (Biloxi) he died. The French being about that time hotly enguged in a war with the English and their confederates in Europe, this and another small settlement they had thereabouts were deserted, for want of timely and necessary supplies.

Our ship passed on the east side of Mirtle Island, which is twenty-four miles long, and three other islands, there being openings between, a mile or two over. The fourth and last island is the broadest and highest, and a good mark to find the Meschacebe. These islands lie altogether in a direct line south and by west, east and by north, at least fifty miles, and have all along, two leagues off, from five to nine fathom water. When you come to the Fourth Isle you must be cautious, the sounding being uncertain; for some points of sand stretch out into the sea three leagues, and varies the depths from nine fathoms to four, then eight, nine, all at once. Between this island and the main is a passage two leagues broad, which leads into the great bay from which they came. The length of the bay from north to south is one entire degree. They went divers leagues up it, and found deep water; but afterwards it shoaling, they came down south, and doubled the cape, where the most easterly of the three great branches of the Meschacebe entered the sea, which, with the two others to the west, I described before, when I gave an account of the mouths of that river. Page 239

Although the latitude and longitude of the mouth of the Meschacebe were perfectly known, yet it is almost impossible, in the common way of sailing, to come at them; for if you go never so little to the south, you will be driven by a very strong current to the south-west, two miles an hour, till you come to the bottom or west end of the Gulf of Mexico; to prevent which you must make the main of Florida in about thirty degrees of latitude. The land is so very low you can scarcely see it, at four leagues distance, where there is forty-five and fifty fathom, but ten leagues off, there is no ground at one hundred fathom. Pensacola is the most convenient place to fall in withal; and to be sure of that, your best way is to make the Tortuga Islands, which are seven, and but few leagues distance to the north-west from the Cape of Florida, and the little islands which lie before it, called Los Martyres. The Tortuga Islands lie between the latitude of twenty-four degrees and from thirty- five to fifty minutes. They are not in a round, as commonly represented by the charts, but bear almost north and south. If you come there in the month of April, May, or the beginning of June, you will find great numbers of turtle, which are then in good plight, extraordinary good food, both fresh and salted, and a wholesome change of diet for seamen; afterwards they will not well take salt, decaying and running into a jelly or water, and before July is expired quite leave the islands until the next year. The course from the Tortuga Islands to Pensacola is N. 44 W. distance one hundred and fifty-eight leagues, the shore bold, bearing east and west. Nine leagues from the land you will have thirty-three fathoms water, but if you make the river of the Cozas or Coussas, which is one hundred and sixty-seven leagues, and a very remarkable place, being a spacious large opening, having a sin all sandy isle in the middle, you will find the land stretch east and west, and within about eighteen leagues you will fall in with Mirtle Island, which, with the Main, makes the entrance into the great Bay of Spirito Santo; in which isle, as I said before, is very good fresh water. This with five or six other low isles, run a range fourteen leagues, and S. W. from them, about five leagues, are high woods: stand over for the south part of these woods, until you come to four fathoms, there cast your anchor, and send your boat to a low point along the shore to the southward. In five foot water you will find a small branch of the river; row up it; the current will carry you to the bar, where you may take your marks for the entrance into it. Perhaps sometimes the waters may be so low that you cannot pass this channel. In case this should happen Page 240 (which I suppose it seldom or never does), then run by the soundings of the shore, in five or six feet water, and keep that depth till you come to the pitch of the East Cape, where you will find the easterly branch in fourteen or fifteen feet water: then row up, take your marks, return, and place two buoys, and you may carry your ship into the river very safely, as you may perceive by the draught. The same or like caution must be used for entering into either of the other mouths, to keep near the shore, and by anchoring stop the tide of ebb. There is a bay, which our men in the ship called Salt-Water Bay; they who went to the head of it, Fresh-Water Bay; a seeming contradiction, but thus easily reconciled. This bay lies between the east and middle great branch of the river: the great branches bring down so considerable a quantity of water, at the ebb, with a strong current, that then the fresh water enters the sea two or three leagues, and between them the sea enters this bay, not mixing with the waters of the rivers, which are ten miles distant; so that ships who anchor at the lower end of the bay find the water salt. But there is a creek, at the N. W. end of the bay, which comes out of the middle branch, and a little before it enters the bay is divided. This creek bath from eight feet at the shallowest to nine, ten and eleven feet water, by which they entered, out of Salt-Water Bay, into the river.

Having made a faithful narrative, from good journals and itineraries by sea and land, of the great river Meschacebe, the rivers increasing it, the countries adjacent, and inhabitants thereof, as also of the countries, people, rivers and harbors towards the cast belonging unto this province, which do not communicate with it, I shall give a brief relation of what I have learncd concerning the sea and coast thereof beyond the Meschacebe, to the west, the rivers belonging to this province, their heads and courses, which enter not thee Meschacebe.

When you are passed the third or westerly branch of the Meschacebe, there presents itself a fair bay going to the north, into which empty themselves two of the smaller branches of the great river, as may be discerned in the chart. This bay is between twenty and thirty miles deep, and very bold to the east, having from the entrance unto the bottom, from twenty-five to six fathom; but is not in those depths above seven or eight miles broad, a sand running from the main thirty miles south into the sea, upon which there is not above three fathoms, which yet our ship passed, going and returning. At the north-east end of the bay, the great river runs parallel with it for some miles, from a mile to a mile and a half distance from it, and two fair, large deep creeks enter it, almost in the middle, out of the westerly great Page 241 branch of the river. Having passed this shoal to the main, the land runs almost due east and west, having a bold coast, for a hundred miles until you come to a great shoal, where there is not above two or three fathoms water, with several breakers. Our people sailed on the south side of this great shoal, always out of the sight of land, therefore knew not the breadth. They kept near the latitude of 29 degrees, the depth generally as follows, seven, eight, nine, eight, seven, six fathoms. At length they came to the bottom of the bay or gulf, from whence they returned unto the westerly branch of the Meschacebe.

From the river Meschacebe unto the bottom of the bay, are innumerable fine small rivers, vcry pleasant. Great store of buffaloes or wild kine frequent them to the very sea-side, as also deer of divers sorts, wild turkeys, and many other large water and sea-fowl; the coast abounds with good fish; but I cannot learn there are above four very large rivers, and of long course.

The first and greatest is that of the Quonoatinnos, or of the Coenis, a great and populous nation, who dwell in forty or fifty villages upon the middle of this river, and others which run into it. They are about five days' journey distant from the habitations of the Spaniards, and near 200 miles from the sea, into which the river empties itself, about eighty leagues to the west of the Meschacebe; it is broad, deep, and navigable almost to its heads, which chiefly proceed from the ridge of hills that separate this province from New Mexico. And its north-west branches approach near the south-west branches of the river of the Houmas. There dwell upon it, more towards its mouth, divers others nations, whose names are unknown, excepting the Tarahas, Tycappans, Paloguessens and Palonnas. All these nations have good horses.

About thirty leagues further-to the south of the west is the river of the Kirononas, who with divers other nations dwelt thereupon. It is little less than that of the Konoatinnos, and as that hath its sources in the mountains of New Mexico, the course of this is likewise from the north-west, until it enters the sea.

Between this and the aforesaid river of Quonoatinnos or Coenis lies the Bay of St. Bernard, called by Monsieur de la Salle the Bay of St. Louis, and a river that falls into it he named the River of Vaches. The the year 1685 he built there a fort (after he had purposely, as it is said, overshot the mouth of the river Meschacebe), having formed a design from thence to visit the mines of St. Barbe in New Biscay, which were not much above 300 miles distant. But

Page 242 one of his vessels returning to France, and the other three being lost with great part of his stores, ammunition and provisions, withal failing in his attempt to engage the Indians in his party and interest, who, instead of friends, proved his mortal enemies, continually skulking about his infant settlement and destroying many of his people, he was obliged to desist from that enterprise. He afterwards with twenty chosen men went by land in search of the river Meschacebe, in which attempt he lost his life, being barbarously murdered by some of his own followers. This fort was soon after taken and destroyed by the Spaniards and Indians, all the French remaining therein being either killed or made prisoners.

About the same distance further S. W. is the river of the Biscaterongs, which is of the same magnitude with the former, hath the same course from the north-west to the sea, and its heads from the same mountains.

The last river of note is a river of much the same bigness with the two preceding, and enters the Bay of Mexico at the north-west end, between the degrees of 27 and 28; it is named Abotas.

It may not be amiss to mention another river, which, although it may not be within the bounds of this colony, may be of great use, when it is well established, by reason of the conveniency of traffic with the Spaniards, it being near the aforesaid famous mines of New Biscay, a large province lying between Mexico and New Mexico. This stately river hath its fountains in the most northerly parts of New Mexico, in the latitude of 38 degrees, and being gradually increased by the conflux of many small waters, becomes large and navigable, till it approaches the 30th degree; then it turns to the S. E. and enters a parcel of high mountains; from whence it is no fnrther navigable; it is called by the Spaniards Rio Bravo. They differ in their accounts hereof; some affirming it is here swallowed up in a hideous gulf, aad passes three days' journey under the earth, like their great river Guadiana in Spain, of which their famous ambassador Gundamore said, when asked whether his master could show such a bridge as that over the Thames at London, that he had a bridge upon which many hundred thousand sheep daily fed. Others write that the river doth not dive underground, but passes among rocks full of straight passages, with many cataracts; that after it has broke its way through, it glides very placidly cross a level country for a hundred and fifty miles, being both large and deep, and at length empties itself into a broad and long lagune, which is navigable, with two or three passges into it, between the islands that form it, and whose Page 243 entrances are at least between three and four fathom deep. I have a journal of Capt. Parker, who in the year 1688 was there with two ships: one very large, in search of a Spanish wreck, but will not trouble my reader with the relation of what there happened to them. All accounts agree this country is well watered, that it abounds with vast quantities of wild kine, the Spaniards call Cibolas, and is fruitful, pleasant and populous.

I think it not inexpedient to give an account of the great seas or lakes of fresh water which are to the north of this country, on the east side of the Meschacebe, which though not in the bounds of this province, may prove very beneficial, both to the inhabitants of this and our colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, who are not very remote from some of them, and may have an easy access thereunto, and consequently by navigation with those that are more remote, they having all communications with each other, as may be presently discerned by the map.

The seas or lakes are five. First, the superior lake before mentioned, it being of all most northerly, and is called by most of the savages the Lake of the Nadouessons (Superior), the greatest and most valiant nation of the north, divided into several tribes, who go by divers names. This lake is esteemed at least 150 leagues in length, sixty leagues in breadth, and 500 in circumference. The south side, which we reckon its length, is all along situated in very near forty-eight degrees of latitude from the east end to the west. The north side where it is broadest, is in about fifty-one degrees. It is all over navigable, hath some isles; but one especially called Minong, above sixty miles in compass, wherein, both Indians and French affirm, is a great mine of very pure copper, which from the ore affords, without any preparation besides melting, above three- fifths fine metal. It is very remarkable of this sea, that on all the south side upon the shore, it is not above four or five fathoms deep, and gradually increasing as you pass over to the north, until you cannot find bottom with 150 fathoms of line. It is most wonderfully stored with admirable fish, and the land about it with deer and elk, or moose, especially the north side. With this latter and some islands, the French drive a considerable trade among the natives, for skins and furs; and of late years have intercepted a great part of the more remote Indians, who used formerly to traffick with the English in Hudson's Bay, at Port Nelson and New Severn. This lake or sea is made up of innumerable small rivers and rivulets, and three large rivers, all on the north side of the lake, entering at the N. E. end thereof, whose names are Lemipissaki Page 244 Michipiketon and Nemipigon, which last proceeds out of a lake of the same name, full of islands; at the upper end whereof enters a river, which comes from the north, and bath its origin from divers small lakes and marshes. The lake of Nemipigon is above 200 miles in compass. The Baron le Hontan is certainly mistaken about the original of this river, and makes it vastly bigger than it is; he accounts it the head of the great river of Canada or St. Lawrence, and to come out of the lake of the Assenipouvals; but I have been informed by a person who lived two years in those parts, and had often been upon these two lakes, that the lake of the Assinepoualaos (for that is the true name), which is considerable to the N. W., and, as the Indians often assured, was the biggest lake in all this northern continent, had no communication with that of Nemipigon. The N. W. of this Lake Superior or of the Nadeuessons, is not above thirty leagues in a straight line from the Lake of Nemipigon; but the communication by land is difficult, by reason the earth abounds with bogs and marshes.

The great or superior lake empties itself into that of Karegnondi or the deep lake, it being in most parts more profound than the three we shall hereafter mention. Formerly it was called the lake Hounondate, from a great nation who inhabited on its cast side, named from their bristly hair on their head, Hourons, since totally destroyed or dispersed into very remote parts by the Irocois.

This lake is much of the figure of an equilateral triangle, whose basis is to the north. It abounds with divers sorts of excellent fish, great and small, especially a large fish named Assihendo, of the bigness of Newfoundland cod. This fish is the manna of most of the nations which inhabit about the lake, being half their subsistence. And Europeans of all nations, who have eaten thereof, agree that there is not in seas or rivers a better tasted, more wholesome fish, and the numbers are such as of codon the Bank of New Foundland, and never to be lessened. Besides these, there is abundance of good sturgeons, salmon or salmon trout, weighing from twenty to fifty pounds, large carps, and many other kinds of fish, small and great, not inferior to any in Europe. The inhabitants almost round this lake are mostly destroyed by the Irocois (Iroquois), except a small remnant of two or three nations, who have, with the help of the French, erected a strong fort near another built by that nation for a refuge to their allies and traders, when the Irocois happen to invade this or the adjacent parts. This lake hath many islands, especially on the north side, where the greatest fishery is for the Assihendo, but Page 245 none at Maintoualin, which is twenty leagues long and ten broad, lying directly over against the continent, from which it is only six or seven leagues distant.

The north side of the country bordering upon this lake, is not so pleasant in most places as the south, east, and west; but to make amends, it abounds with all sorts of skins and furs, and hath these great conveniences, that by the river of the Nepiserini, there is a communication with all the French of Canada, and many nations bordering thereupon; for ascending this river, you enter into a large lake of the same name, which is made by divers small, and one large river coming far from the north-west. Near this lake passes the great river of the Outouacks (Ottocs), once a great nation, but now almost extirpated by the aforesaid Irocois, which, after a course of one hundred leagues, brings you to the Island and city of Montreal, the next for bigness and strength to Quebec, the capital of Canada, and there joins with the great river of St. Lawrence; from the juncture of these two rivers to Quebec is sixty leagues. Both sides of the river are inhabited all the way in plantations very little remote from each other; besides two or three small towns and fortifications. Such another communication there is, though much more easy, of which I shall discourse at large when I come to describe the lovely peninsula of Erie.

Towards the lower end of the south-west continent is the large and fair bay of Sakinam, which is about fifty miles deep and eighteen wide, and in the middle of the opening are two isles, very advantageously situated for sheltering boats or other vessels that happen to be surprised with a storm, there being no other harbor within divers leagues. Into the bottom of this bay empties itself, after a course of sixty leagues, a very still, quiet stream, excepting three small falls, passed easily and without the least danger. On this river, and the branches thereof, is one of the greatest beaver-huntings in America. Twenty leagues from this bay to the south-east, this lake, which is above four hundred leagues in circumference, empties itself into the Lake Erie, by a channel which I shall describe, when I have given an account of the lake of the Illinouecks, which is to the west of Karegnondi, and communicates therewith, towards the N. W. end, by a strait, nine or ten miles long and three or four broad. The breadth of it on the north coast is forty leagues, but it increases gradually in breadth till you come to the bottom of the bay. The north side is in the latitude of forty-six and thirty minutes; the south in almost forty-three degrees. Forty leagues from the entrance due west, it Page 246 makes the great bay Of the Poutouatamis, a nation who inhabit a large country upon and to the south of this bay, which is eight leagues broad, and thirty leagues deep, south and by west, the entrance being full of islands. And into the bottom comes the fair River Miscouaqui, after a course of two hundred miles. This river is remarkable upon diverse accounts: first, when you are ascended it fifty leagues, there is a carriage of a little above a league and a half; afterwards you meet with the lovely River Mesconsing, which carries you down into the Meschacebe, as I before declared. Next upon this river, especially near the carriage, is a country famous for beaver-hunting like that of Sakinam. You must know that most parts of North America have beavers; you shall scarce meet with a lake where there are not some of their dams and huts. But these two places I have mentioned, and others I shall speak of hereafter, are countries forty or fifty miles long, abounding with small rivers and rivulets, wherewith they make their dams or causeways; and consequently small lakes, seated opportunely for wood to build, and produces plentifully such plants and young trees, upon which they mostly subsist. This is chiefly possessed by the industrious and valiant nation of the Outogamis. Thirdly, this river and others entering thereinto abound in that corn called malomin, which grows in the water and marshy wet places, as rice in the Indies, Turkey, and Carolina, &c. But much more like our oats, only longer, bigger and better, than either that, or Indian corn, and is the chief food of many nations hereabouts and elsewhere. The nations who dwell on this river are Outogamis, Malominis, Nikic, Oualeanicou, Sacky, and the Poutouatamis before mentioned.

On the east side of this lake, about twenty leagues from the strait by which it enters Karegnondi, is a bay called Bear Bay, and a river of the same name, because of great numbers of those animals who haunt those parts. This river comes out of a ridge of hills near a hundred leagues long, beginning almost at the north end of this peninsula, out of which flow abundance of small rivers; those whose course is to the east empty themselves into the lake Karegnondi (Huron), those to the west into that of the Alinouecks. The top of this ridge of hills is flat, from whence there is a delicious prospect into both lakes, and level as a tarasse walk. There is a great beaver-hunting, like those I formerly mentioned, upon Bear River, which hath a course of forty or fifty leagues. On the west side of the lake, before you come to the bottom, is a harbor capable of small ships; and there enters into it a small river, which at two leagues Page 247 distance approaches the River Chicagou, the north branch of the river of the Allinouecks, which is from the main branch of the said river fifty miles. Near the bottom of the bay, on the east side, is the fair river of the Miamihas (so called because upon it lives part of a nation bearing the same name), which in its passage comes within two leagues of the great easterly branch of the river of the Allinouecks, and its springs are very near the heads of some rivers which enter the Ouabachi. Monsieur de la Salle on his first arrival in this river, which was about the year 1679, finding it admirably well situated for trade, and the country surrounding it extremely pleasant and fertile, artfully gained the perniission of the natives to build a fort therein, under the specious pretence of protecting them from the insults of the English and Irocois, whom he represented as cruel and treacherous enemies, continually plotting the destruction of them and all the Indians round about. In this fort was formerly a great magazine and storehouse for all sorts of European goods, and hither the traders and savages continually resorted to purchase them. It commanded the entrance into the lake, and kept all the neighboring Indians in awe and subjection. Nations to the west of this lake, besides the before mentioned, are part of the Outogamis, Mascoutens and Kikpouz; then the Ainoves, the Cascaschia, and a little to the south-west of the bottom of this lake, and more to the north, the Anthontans, and part of the Mascoutens, near the river Misconsing (Wisconsin). The countries surrounding this lake, especially towards the south, are very charming to the eye, the meadows, fruit trees and forests, together with the fowls, wild beasts, &c., affording most things necessary for the support and comfort of life, besides Indian corn, with which the natives abound; and European fruits, grains, and all other useful vegetables, by reason of the goodness of the soil, and mildness of the climate, would certainly thrive there, as well as in their native countries. But, above all, the south parts of the countries bordering on this lake seem naturally disposed to produce admirable vines, which being duly cultivated, excellent wines might be made of the fruits thereof, they growing naturally in vast numbers of divers sorts, some ramping up to the tops of the highest trees; others running upon the ground. The grapes are some very small, others wonderfully large, big as damsons, and many of a middle size, of divers colors and tastes. They are all good to eat, only some, which otherwise promise very well, have great stones or kernels and tough skins, which certainly would be remedied by due culture. But of the worst, doubtless, Page 248 good brandy might be made, were there artists and convenient vessels for pressing, fermenting and distilling.

There ramble about in great herds, especially about the bottom of this lake, infinite quantities of wild kine, some hundreds usually together, which is a great part of the subsistence of the savages, who live upon them while the season of hunting lasts; for at those times they leave their towns quite empty. They have a way of preserving their flesh without salt six or eight months, which both looks and eats so fresh, strangers apprehend the cattle had not been killed one week. Besides, they use the hair, or rather wool, cut off their hides, for garments and beds, and spin it into yarn, of which they make great bags, wherein they put the flesh they kill, after they have cured it, to bring it home to their houses; for their huntings are from the latter end of autumn, when the cattle are fat, to the beginning of the spring; and of the hides dressed they make shoes à la savage.

But it's time we should return to the Lake Karegnondi (Huron), which emptics itself into the Lake Erie, by a channel thirty leagues long, and where narrowest a league broad; in the middle whereof is a small lake, called by the Indians Otseka, ten leagues long, and seven or eight over, being of an oval figure. In this lake and channel are divers small islands, exceedingly pleasant and fruitful, in which, and all the country, on both sides of them, are great quantities of beasts and fowl, as deer of several kinds, wild turkeys, pheasants, and a large excellent fowl, which they call dindo's. The Lake Erie is about a hundred leagues long, and almost equally forty broad. Eight leagues from its mouth are eight or ten islands, most of them small; one in the middle is five or six miles in circumference, and all very agreeable. Near the mouth on the west side is a large harbor for ships, defended from most winds, made like our downs by a great bank of sand; though winds seldom infest this lake, in respect of the others, where sometimes they rage as in the main ocean, so that it may be deservedly called the Pacific Lake. And if we may give credit to the relation of the English who have long frequented it, and unanimously agree herein, there is not a more pleasant lake or country surrounding it in the universe. It is not indeed so deep as the others, yet is in all places navigable by the greatest ships, there being seldom less than ten or twelve fathom water. The land round about it is perfectly level, abounding with trees, both for timber and fruit; so happily placed that one would be apt to apprehend it to be a work of great art, and contrived to declare the grandeur and magnificence of some mighty emperor, and not of nature. Abundance of small Page 249 petty rivers discharge themselves thereinto, amongst which are four very considerable and remarkable. One about ten leagues from the entrance of the canal, in the bottom of the west end of the lake, that hath a course of sixty leagues, and its head very near the river of the Miamihas, which runs into the S. E. side of the Lake of the Illinouecks, by means whereof there is a short and easy communication therewith, which by water is above six hundred miles.

Fifty miles further to the south, at the same west end of this lake, is another river much of the same bigness and length; and about and between these two rivers, evcry year in the season, are multitudes of the wild kine called Cibolas.

At the S. E. end of the lake there is a third river, which has its rise very near the great Susquehanna river, which waters part of Pennsylvania, and afterwards empties itself into the north end of the Bay of Chesapeake in Maryland. And twenty leagues south- westerly is another fair river which comes near fifty leagues out of the country; from whose head, which issues from a lake, is but a short cut to the River Ohio, from whence to a branch of the aforesaid Susquehanna River is about one league.

By these two last-mentioned rivers, the English may have a ready and easy communication with this and consequently with all the other lakes. If the French should ever settle thereon, which for above twenty years they have endeavored, but have been, in great measure, wonderfully frustrated by the Irocois, our subjects or allies, they might greatly molest, by themselves and their Indians, the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia; which, I hope, by the wisdom and care of his majesty and ministry, will be speedily prevented.

At the north-east end of this lake is another canal forty miles long, and in most places a league broad, called by the natives Niagara, having a delicate, level, beautiful, fertile country on each side of it; but being passed about two-thirds of the way, it is straitened by mighty rocks, and precipitates itself several hundred fcct, being the greatest cataract that hath ever yet come to our knowledge, in the whole world. This lying within five or six days' journey of Albany and Schenecteda (two remarkable towns and fortifications of New York), and adjacent unto our confederates or subjects the Five Nations, (by the French called Irocois), especially the Sonnontovans (by some named Senecas), the most populous of the five, I have received an account from divers persons, who have with great attention and curiosity Page 250 viewed it, suiting very well with the description Hennepin gives thereof, who had been there several times. The noise of such a multitude of waters falling from so great a height is so extraordinary, that although the country is very pleasant, level, and fruitful below the fall, yet the Sonnontovans were not able to bear it, but were forced to remove, and settle two leagues lower. I have had it from very credible people that, when the wind sets due south, they have heard it distinctly above thirty miles. The river, as may be easily imagined, below this cataract, is very rapid for the space of three or four miles; then for six or eight is more placid and navigable, until it enters the Lake Ontario, which is eighty leagues long, and in the middle twenty-five or thirty broad, being of an oval figure. The name of this lake in the Irocois language, that nation bordering upon it to the south, siguifies the pleasant or beautiful lake, as it may be deservedly styled; the country round it being very champaign, fertile, and every two or three miles watered with fine rivulets. It has on the south side three fair rivers; that next the fall coming out of the country of the Sonnontovans, the middle one from the Onontages, and its origin from a lake within a league of their capital town, Onontague, made up with many little rivers and rivulets, being forty miles in circumference, abounding with fish of divers sorts with some salt springs entering into it. After the river hath passed a mile from the lake, it receives another coming from the west, out of the province of the Onioiens or Oiongouens, who are neighbors of the Sonnontovans, in whose country the head of this river springs. About ten miles lower it is increased by a fair deep river, which comes from the east, out of the country of the Oneiouks (Oneidas), one of the five nations, situated between the Onontages (Onondagas) and the Mohachs (Mohawks), who dwell in three towns on a fair river, which runs, after a course of one hundred miles, into Hudson's River near Albany. The river of the Onontagues enters the Lake Ontario fifty miles from the little lake whence it derives its origin.

Twenty leagues to the east is another river, somewhat less, but navigable by sloops and large boats a considerable way into the country.

About the same distance, likewise to the east, the lake forms a great river, which the French call the river of the Irocois, but the natives Kanadari, which for the space of sixty miles is very broad, full of fine islands, and runs quietly; then is interrupted in its course by divers falls successively, some very deep and long, for above a hundred miles, until it meets with the great river of the Outouacks Page 251 at the end of the island and city of Montreal, and together with that makes the river of Canada or St. Lawrence, so named by the French because discovered on the day dedicated to his memorial.

The north part of the Lake Ontario was formerly possessed by two tribes of the Irocois, who were, in time of perfect peace, without the least provocation, but only to get their country dcstroyed, enslaved, or sent to France, and put into the galleys; of which you may read at large in the journals of the Baron la Hontan, an impartial and judicious author, who saw and relates that tragedy with much indignation.

The nation of the Irocois, as they are called by the French, for what reason I could never learn, who inhabit the south part of the country, are styled by the English the Five Nations, being so many distinct in name and habitations from each other; but leagued by a most strict confederacy, like the Cantons of Switzerland, which they frequently in a very solemn manner renew, especially since the French grew powerful in their neighborhood. They have always been an excellent and useful barrier between us and them, being ready, on all occasions, upon the most slender invitations and the least assistnnce, to molest and invade them, unto whom they are the most irreconcilable enemies, and I think upon good grounds; although the French say the hardest things imaginable against them; but I believe unto any impartial judges, they will appear more blameable themselves. The original of this enmity proceeded from the French, who about one hundred years since settled at the place, now their capital, called Quebeck. The Irocois knowing of the little French habitation (where were not above forty men), came according to their usual manner, being about 200 of their prime youth, under an esteemed captain, to war against the Algonquins, then a very populous nation; and to show their contempt of them, made a fort on the south side of the river, before they who dwelt OR the north side could gather into a body, their habitations or villages being somewhat remote from each other. But having drawn their forces together in great numbers, they attacked the Irocois, who always valiantly repulsed them, with great losses to their enemies and little unto themselves. Whereupon the Algonquins had recourse unto the French, desiring they would assist them with their thunder and lightning-darting engines. They readily complied, and did such execution with their guns (which being altogether new and very surprising, or rather astonishing), that the Irocois were discomfited, not above two or three escaping to give an account thereof to their own countrymen, who by tradition have propagated Page 252 the story to posterity; which may, in some measure, excuse the irreconcilable enmity this nation hath conceived against the French, between whom there have been formerly almost constant wars, accompanied with various events--the French with their allies endeavoring to extirpate them, who have hitherto bravely defended themselves; the English for their furs supplying them with ammunition, and during time of war with the French powerfully assisting them. They have been a very usefull barrier, and without their help New York, and probably other neighboring provinces, had long since been possessed by the French, having been bery slenderly aided from England.

The French in all their writings concerning Canada make many tragical relations of and exclamations against the barbarous cruelties of this nation excercised upon them, and the Indians their allies; but seldom tell us that the very same things are practiced by themselves and their Indians against the Irocois, and often during time of peace. For when the Irocois or Five Nations, as we call them, were abandoned by order of King Charles II. towards the latter end of his reign of King James, and obnoxious unto the resentments of the French (the English being strictly forbidden any ways to assist them), they were under a necessity of making a very disadvantageous peace, which how perfidiously it was brokin bay be seen at large in that faithful and judicious history of the Baron la Hontan. And had it not been for the revolution in England, the Irocois had been totally destroyed or subjected unto the French, which, as I hinted before in the preface, would have been of dreadful consequence to divers of our Englich colonies on the continent. 'Tis true, the Irocois (Iroquois) have extirpated or subjected several nations of Indians round about them, but it hath been either because they were in confederacy with their enemies, destroyed their country, murdered their people, hindered them in their beaver-hunting (without which they could not subsist), or furnished their enemies with furs, which occasioned the increasing the numbers of the French from France, and consequently threateded them with utter ruin, when Canada shall be more populated from Europe; so that certainly the measures they take for their ouwn preservation and security are more innocent and excusable then those have been by the French, forty years last past, exercised in Europe, whose wars have, according to a modest calculation, occasioned the death of above two millions of their own country people, and other Europeans, and most unjustly invaded or grievokusly oppressed their neighbors; desire of increasing their wealth, enlarging their territories, or advancing the glory of their Page 253 great monarch being the chief causes, though some other slender and easily confuted pretences have sometimes been alleged.

But to return unto the Irocois, whom we call subjects of the crown of England, they only style themselves brethren, friends, allies, being a people highly tenacious of their liberty, and very impatient of the least encroachments thereon. These five cantons or nations have sold, given, and, in a very formal public manner, made over and conveyed to the English divers large countries conquered from the Indians, upon the south side of the great lakes, as far as the Meschacebe, and the noble, beautiful, fertile peninsula situated between the three middle lakes, that of Hurons to the west, Ontario to the east, and Erie to the south; a country almost as large as England, without Wales, admirably seated for traffick, pleasant, healthful and fertile as any part of North America; and the territory to the south is of the same nature, and confines with the borders of our province of Carolana, which extends to all the north side of the Gulf of Mexico.

It will be one great convenieney of this country, if ever it comes to be settled, that there is an easy communication therewith and the South Sea, which lies between America and China, and that two ways-by the north branch of the great Yellow River, by the natives called the River of the Massorites (Missouri), which hath a course of 500 miles, navigable to its heads or springs, and which proceeds from a ridge of hills somewhat north of New Mexico, passable by horse, foot, or wagon in less than half a day. On the other side are rivers which run into a great lake, that empties itself by another great navigable river into the South Sea.* The same may be said of the river Meschaouay, up which our people have been, but not so far as the Baron le Houtan, who passed on it above 300 miles almost due west, and declares it comes from the same ridge of hills above mentioned; and that divers rivers from the other side soon make a large river, which enters into a vast lake, on which inhabit two or three great nations, much more populous and civilized than other Indians; and out of that lake a great river disembogues into the South Sea, which is doubtless the same with that before mentioned, the heads of the two rivers being little distant from each other.

About twelve or fourteen years since, I had imparted unto me a journal from a gentleman admirably well skilled in geography, who *The Lewis and Yellow Stone Rivers head together within tome miles of each otber, a fact however not proven for more than a century after this account was written. Page 254 had made divers voyages from England to all our English plantations in America, and visited most parts of the Gulf of Mexico, where he became acquainted we Captain Coxton, a famous privateer, who was towards the latter end of he reign of King Charles II. entertained in his majesty's service. But whether he was disobliged, or that his genius prompted him to follow his old trade, having with his co-partners fitted up a ship of twenty-six guns, he sailed to the South Sea, with a design to take the ship which comes annually from the Manillias, or Philippine Islands, in the East Indies, to Acapulco, the chief port of Mexico; which ship, as he had been well informed, usually made that part of the continent that lies between Japan and America, at a famous port in forty-two degrees. But when he came to the head of the Islands or Peninsula of California (it being too soon by some months for the putting in execution his intended design), romaging the coast, he discovered a great river in about forty- four degrees north latitude, which entered a great lake, near the mouth whereof he found a very convenient island, where he staid two or three months to refit himself, happening to have a man on board who understood the language of the country. The natives finding he was engaged in an expedition against the Spaniards, treated him very kindly, supplied him very cheerfully with whatsoever he wanted, and he contracted great friendship with them. He calls them the nation of Thoya. The Spaniards, as I find in divers of their expeditions, call at Thoyago, sometimes Tejago. They are often at war with the Spaniards, who have been always repulsed by them. They bring thirty or forty thousand men in one body into the field. These and two other nations neighboring, and not much inferior unto them, are accounted the most sensible and civilized Indians in America.

When the season came fit for their expedition, they sailed west and by south, and happened to stop upon some occasion at an island called Earinda or Carinda; there were five in all near each other, like the Canary Islands, but lay rounder, and were one with another about fifty or sixty miles in compass. The inhabitants were not shy of them, but supplied them with provisions, and brought them gold to barter for such commodities of ours as they liked, and in three or four days they purchased eighty-six pounds weight of that metal. The natives told them they were sorry they had no more, they taking care to provide only against a certain time of the year, for persons who came from the sun-setting at a particular season, and bartered divers commodities with them for gold. These traders or merchants must certainly be inhabitants of Japan, which I gather from a large relation Page 255 in the history of that island, published by the Dutch, and translated into our tongue, and makes the sixth volume of Ogleby's Collections. They therein declare that they sent from Batavia two ships (as they pretended), to discover a passage from the north-east part of Japan, round Tartary to Europe; though it is very probable they had other views. These ships were separated a little east of Japan by a storm; the Castrilome proceeded, and found the strait entering into the Gulf of Tartary or Jesso, and searched the coast on the west side to forty-nine degrees; the other ship, the Blefkins, having suffered much by the storm, put into the port of Namboe, near the N. E. end of Japan, not doubting they should be kindly received, being in league, and having a free trade with that empire; but while they were refitting, they were unexpectedly surprised by the Japanese, sent to court, and very strictly examined, whither they had not been at, or went not to discover the Gold Islands (as they called them), to the east, of which traffick the emperor is so jealous that it is capital for any to go thither except by his permission, or to declare to others the distance and situation thereof; and had not the Dutch given uncontrollable evidence that they had not been, nor were they going thither, but only upon the forementioned discovery, they had been all executed.

There are upon the coast between America and Japan divers very large and safe harbors, and a very good climate, the coast stretching south-west, mostly from forty to degrees of north latitude. These seas abound with fish, and the land with fowl and venison. The inhabitants are sociable and hospitable. I have a draught and journals of all the coast from America, with those of divers harbors, until you are within about one hundred leagues of the Strait of Uries, which the Dutch discovered about sixty or seventy years since, and which is the entrance of the sea or gulf of Tartary, lying one hundred and twenty leagues north-east from Namboe, the most northerly haven and promontory of Japan. This strait, or rather these straits (there being two made by a long island), are the inlets into a great sea or bay, into which disembogues a vast river, on the west side of it, between forty-nine and fifty degrees of north latitude, navigable many hundred miles by the biggest ships, and is made by the conflux of divers great rivers, some of which come from the south-west, as Chingola, Hilum, 0la, Sungoro, and their fountains, near the great wall of China, and run through the dominions of the Eastern Tartars, who are now masters of China. Other rivers from the north-west, Page 256 proceed from the territories of the Czar of Muscovy, who hath built divers large and well fortified cities on the main river of Yamour, and several of its branches, as Negovim, Nepehou, Albazin, Argun, Nertzinskoy, &c.

This river of Yamour or Amura hath a course from its furthest fountains above twelve hundred miles, without any interruption by cataracts, so frequent in all the other great rivers in Muscovy, as the Oby, Jenisseg or Jenisca, &c. By this river you may trade with the inhabitants of Jedso for furs, who have great store, and those very rich. They inhabit all the coast on both sides of the mouth of the river, and a considerable way up it. You may likewise traffick with the Muscovites for the same commodities, who sell them there for a fourth part of what they yield in Muscow or Archangel; these parts being above four thousand miles almost due east from Muscow, their capital city, a most prodigious, tedious and difficult journey, as appears by divers large and accurate journals, which have been many years published in print. And by means of the rivers which come from the south- west, you may correspond with the Eastern Tartars, Chinese, and the great rich kingdom of Tanguth, all now unifed under one and the same emperor, being very civilized nations, and kind to strangers. To say nothing of the great and rich peninsula of Corea, which is contiguous to one or two branches of this river, was once a province of China, both the same manners and language, and is now tributary to the present emperor. This river and its branches are in a good climate never varying above two or three degrees from a due easterly course. Three or more ships may be sent every year, who may part at the straits of the Tartarian gulf or sea; one for Yedzo and the river; another for Japan; and a third for North China to the great city Tunxo, the port of Pekin, the capital of that kingdom, from which it is not above one day's journey by land or water. And there is not a better commodity, or of which more profit may he made, than of the furs, which are so easily procured, and so soon brought into that imperial city, where, in the court and amongst the grandees, there is a prodigious consumption of them, and most extravagant prices given for them, especially those of the better sort, though even the meanest come to an extraordinary good market.

Thus, after a thorough search and discovery both by sea and land, have I given the reader a topographical description of a country, the timely possession and due improvement whereof by the English may be more beneficial to them than all the other colonies they are at Page 257 present possessed of; besides that they will thereby secure forever all the rest of our plantations upon the continent of America, which if this country be by them neglected, and suffered to remain in the hands of any ambitious, politic and powerful prince or potentate, may be distressed, conquered, or utterly exterminated.

In a new colony, the first care is to provide food for their subsistence. The Great Duke of Rohan, famous for wisdom and valor, who hath written so many celebrated treatises, especially relating to military affairs and politics, advances it as a maxim, that he who will be a great warrior must, in the first place, make provision for the belly; and, in the late war with the French, our seasonable and plentiful supplies of the soldiers hath not a little contributed to our wonderful successes, and both strengthened and animated our troops to perform snch acts of valor as will be celebrated in future ages. The Spaniards tell a pretty, nnd I think instructive story; that upon the discovery of the immense riches contained in the mountain Potosi, in Peru, two Spaniards resorted thither. The one bought slaves, hired servants, overseers, and found a rich vein of silver ore. The other (land being then common in the neighborhood) fed sheep. The mine master wanting wool for the clothing of his servants (that place being much colder than others in the same latitude), and food for his overseers (who could not be satisfied, being Spaniards, with the poor fare of the Indians and negroes), bought flesh and wool of the shepherd; and, after some few years, the shepherd grew rich and the master-miner poor. If the Spaniards had further improved this notion, the English, Dutch, and French had not exchanged so many of their manufactures for gold and silver; so that they are the richest and poorest nation in the southern part of Europe.

And even our own nation hath not totally escaped this misfortune; for how many have I known that carried competent estates to North America, neglecting tillage and breeding cattle; in a few years their servants have been their equals, and sometimes superiors: such is the force of prudence and industry. But as for our country of Carolana, if persons who carry over effects and servants be not sottishly foolish, or supinely negligent, they cannot fail of improving their own fortunes, and, without injury to themselves, contribute to make others easy and comparatively happy.

I will not say that masters and superintendents of any sort or kind need take nothing with them, but that they will find all things necessary and convenient to their hands. Doubtless common sense will teach them, they ought to have at least half a year's provisions of Page 258 things necessary, until they are acquainted with the natives, and have established a friendship and correspondence with them. But abundance of trouble and expense will be saved in planting this country, which could not be well avoided in those the English have hitherto settled on the continent or in their islands. For bread in this country, we have a great advantage at first coming. They may have Indian corn of the inhabitants, who have almost everywhere two, and in some places three, crops in a year; and I have been very credibly informed that, when the new comes in, they cast away a great part of the old to make room in their little granaries. Besides, all along the coast, and two or three hundred miles up the country from the sea, they have the root Mandihoca-whereof Cassavi bread and flour is made- whereupon almost all America between the tropics doth subsist (excepting what is brought them at great expense from Europe, or our northern plantations), and which many esteem as good a nourishment as our manchet, and six times cheaper.

Besides, this country naturally affords another sort of excellent corn, which is the most like oats of any European grain, but longer and larger; and I have been assured by many very credible persons, who often, out of curiosity, had divers ways prepared it, that it far exceeds our best oatmeal. This is not sown and cultivated by the Indians, but grows spontaneously in marshy places, in and by the sides of rivers, like reeds or rushes. The Indians, when it is ripe, take handfulls, and shake them into their canoes; what escapes them falling into the water, without any further trouble, produces the nest year's crop. Rice may be there raised in as great plenty as in Carolina. For fruits, they have not divers growing in Europe, which were once strangers to us, and by art and industry in some measure naturalized; but they have others little if at all inferior; such as most excellent limes or wild lemons, and prunes, growing in the open fields, without culture, which they eat plentifully, immediately from the trees, and keep dry for winter provision. Many who have tasted both, unanimously affirm, they never did meet with either sort in Europe comparable thereunto: and those dried will not prove a contemptible commodity, when we contract friendship with the natives, who being directed by us how to gather and order them, would supply us with great quantities, not only for own subsistence and delight, but even for exportation. Besides, the tunas a most delicious fruit, especially in hot weather, and also not only agreeable to the palate, but salubrious, and as our Europeans call it, when in maturity, their cordial julep. Page 259

I now come to that tree, I mean the vine, which a great part of the world almost idolizes. I know there have been great disputes amongst the learned (and positively determined by Mahomet and the Mahometans all over the world), whether it had not been better for mankind it had never existed, considering how much that noble juice hath been abused, and how often it has been the cause of numberless calamities. For my own particular, I must own it is my opinion, that, next to bread, which is the staff of life, it is one of the greatest, merely material comforts we in these northern climates enjoy; and having been long thereunto accustomed, when transplanted into a more southern country, we shall banker after it. And if we cannot have good of our own produce, we shall certainly have recourse to foreigners, and purchase it at any rate, and thereby impoverish our infant colony. But thanks to Almighty God, who hath not only so long, so wonderfully favored the English nation in their own island, but takes care even of them, who some account their outcasts, though they have the true English courage, love to their country, and contribute, perhaps as much to its wealth and welfare by their industry, as any equal number of their rank and quality they have left behind. But to put a period to this digression, vines of divers sorts and kinds, grow naturally in this country. We have already discovered and distinguished five or six sorts very different from each other; but in such great plenty, that in a thousand places, either upon the continent or in the islands, especially in or near the great river, they make your journeys shorter by entangling your legs, it being natural for them to run upon the ground, unless they meet with trees, up which they creep, loaded with clusters of grape, of some sorts, commonly half a yard, sometimes two foot long. It is true some of these grapes, for want of culture, though large as damsons, have great stones and a tough skin; yet they might be easily meliorated by European skill; though as they are, especially two or three sorts of the smaller kind, are as grateful to the palate as most we have in England; but the very worst duly managed, produces brandy hardly inferior to any in Europe; so that had we vessels to distil, and skillful operators, we might soon abate the price of that liquor in England, and our plantations, and keep a sufficient reserve for ourselves.

And further, when we have once obtained the skill of meliorating the grapes, we shall also produce not only as good wine, but also as good raisins, as in most countries of Europe; the climate being admirably adapted thereunto; and thereby not only supply ourselves and Page 260 neighboring colonies, but somewhat abate the expense of our mother, good Old England, from whom we proceed, and upon whom we and (I hope and believe) all our other colonies, will not only acknowledge their sole dependence, but ever desire, with the uttermost of their power, to manifest, upon all occasions, their love and gratitude.

But corn and drink are not sufficient for Englishmen, who are used to feed upon good beef, mutton, bacon, veal, and pork; therefore for the encouragement of such as shall hereafter inhabit this province, they will find good beef, and consequently veal, there being a sort of kine natural to this country, which, though they differ a little in shape from ours (having a bunch upon their shoulders, which is delicious food) yet otherways are not in the least inferior to our bulls and cows, and they may make them oxen when they please; and by dry fodder stall oxen like those in England; but as they are without art and care, they almost equal our grass cattle. There are also sheep of the Spanish breed in good numbers, whose flesh is as good as ours, and their wool better; as also hogs very plentiful, on the sea- coast especially, and some within land, though not so numerous, acorns, chestnuts, and other masts abounding in this country, render them more grateful food (as all who have fed upon them affirm) than ours in England; and fit for exportation for the islands.

Next to food we are to consider a very material circumstance, and that is, cattle for draught, and horses for riding, which are carried into the plantations, whether on the continent, or in the islands. These are already prepared into your hands, with no great trouble and expense. For horses, they are commonly used among the Indians on the west side of the Great River for riding and burdens, as amongst us, though they have not improved them for draughts, being totally ignorant of coaches, wains, carts, or ploughs, unto all which they may soon by care and skill be adapted. And the price of a good horse will not amount unto above five shillings of our European commodities at first cost, as I am well assured by traders, who have been offered a very good one for a very ordinary hatchet. And as for oxen for plough and cart when their young males are castrated, they will be as tame and as serviceable as our oxen; though amongst the Tartars, from whom these kine originally came, the great bulls of almost twice the strength and bigness of ours, are by them so far tamed that they employ them to draw their houses or huts put upon carts many hundred miles, as they have occasion to remove their habitations, which is only for convenient pasture, marching in the winter to the outh, in the summer to the north. This sort of cattle are not only Page 261 useful for food and labor, but also for their hair, or rather wool, which is very long, very thick, and very fine; and I think, as do many others who understand the use of it, for hats, clothing, and divers other necessaries, with some small suitable addition or mixtures, is preferable to common wool. Their skins may be partly imported to England, and partly employed in our own colony for harness, boots, shoes, and many other uses.

Besides, we are near New Mexico, all which country generally employ for carriage mighty great and strong mules, produced by Assinegos, or male asses, many of which there are of abundantly greater bigness, strength and mettle than in Europe, which, with the mares of that country would produce an excellent breed, if it be thought advantageous to raise them.

There are several tracts of land in this country that would suit very well with camels,* many of which are employed by the Spaniards, especially in Peru and Terra Firma, or the south part of the Gulf of Mexico. They have them mostly from the Canary Islands, and some from Africa. They stand well in America, are very usefull, and a very little trouble and charge will subsist them.

The wild animals of this country, besides the elk or buffalo above mentioned, are panthers, bears, wolves, and wild cats, none of which are hurtful to mankind; deer of divers sorts, beaver, otter, fox, raccoons squirrels, martens, and conies between ours and hares in great abundance; as likewise a rat with a bag under its throat, wherein it conveys its young when forced to fly. All these are useful for their furs or skins, and some for food; but I think it not material nor consistent with my designed brevity to enter into a particular description of them: No more than of the following bird or wild fowl found all over the country, sea shore and rivers, such as eagles, goshawks, falcons, gerfalcons, and most other birds of prey that are in Europe; great companies of turkeys, bustards, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, thrushes, blackbirds, snipes, cranes, swans, geese, ducks, teal, pelicans, parrots, and many other sorts of curious birds differing from ours.

For clothing, though we may reasonably suppose that by our correspondence with our native country we may be supplied therewith, as also with beds, carpets, coverlets, &c., yet it would not be amiss, if in the infancy of this colony, the poorer sort were encouraged to *A caravan of these animals has been lately imported (1850) to establish a communication (across the deserts) between the city of St. Louis and St. Francisco, California. Page 262 manufacture the wool of sheep and kine, as also cotton, to supply their urgent necessities. Hats may be made of the long soft hair of the kine mixed, if need be, with a little of the hair or wool of beaver, both which are in great plenty, and easily procured, and nothing wanting but a few artists to manufacture them as in England.

I have received information from divers persons who unanimously affirm, that some of the most civilized nations in this country, especially of the better sort, are clothed with a substance like good coarse serviceable linen, very white. Upon inquiry, they found it was made with the inward bark of trees, which grow plentifully there, and is as becoming as most of the ordinary linen of Europe; and by the relation of the natives no less durable. Of the same and other barks they make thread, cords and ropes, of divers lengths and magnitudes, which might be greatly improved by our English planters.

Olives would certainly grow here as well as in New Spain, where they thrive, especially in those parts contiguous to our country, and are not inferior, either for eating or making oil, to those of Spain and Portugal; as also almonds, several affirining, particularly, I remember, the famous Acosta writes concerning the productions of the West Indies, where he long resided, that they far exceed those of Spain or any other part of Europe. But, for political reasons, both they and vines are forbidden to be used for the production of oil or wine.

Currants also would probably prosper in this country, the climate being much of the same nature and latitude with the islands of Zante and Cephalonia, from whence we now do generally bring them; and the famous city of Corinth, from which they derive their name, and from whence they were transplanted to the fore-mentioned islands; the Latin name being Uvae Corinthiacae, or grapes of Corinth, which we corruptly call currants, instead of Corinths. These three commodities were thought so needful that King Charles II., with the advice of his council, gave great encouragement, in his patent for Carolina, to the proprietors, planters, or any others who should produce and import them to England; as also capers and some other commodities there mentioned.

Cotton grows wild in the pod and in great plenty; may be managed and improved as in our islands, arid turn to as great account; and in time perhaps manufactured either in the country or in Great Britain, which will render it a commodity still more valuable.* * The author here displays a wonderful sagacity as to the importance of this couniry for the cultivation of a plant which now makes Europe our debtor, and is the great regulator of our exchanges. Page 263

Pearls are to be found in great abundance in this country; the Indians put some value upon them, but not so much as on the colored beads we bring them. On the whole coast of this province, for two hundred leagues, there are many vast beds of oysters which breed pearls, as has been found in divers places. But, which is very remarkable, far from the sea, in fresh water rivers and lakes, there is a sort of a shell fish, between a muscle and a pearl oyster, wherein are found abundance of pearls, and in any of an unusual magnitude. The Indians, when they take the oysters, broil them over the fire till they are fit to eat, keeping the large pearls they find in them, which, by the heat, are tarnished and lose their native lustre; but, when we have taught them the right method, doubtless it would be a very profitable trade. There are two places we already know within land, in each of which there is a great pearl fishery. One about one hundred and twenty leagues up the River Meschacebe, on the west side, in a lake made by the river of the Naches, about forty miles from its mouth, where they are found in great plenty and many very large. The other on the River Chiaha, which runs into the Coza or Cussaw River (as our English calls it), and which comes from the north-east, and, after a course of some hundred miles, disembogues into the Gulf of Mexico, about one hundred miles to the east of the Maschacebe.

The judicious and faithful writer of the famous expedition of Ferdinando Soto, who was therein from the beginning unto the end, acquaints us that, when they came to Cutifachia, the chief of that country, finding they valued pearl, offered to load all their horses therewith, which were at least two hundred. And, to confirm them in the belief of what they advanced, carried them unto two of their chief temples, where they found vast quantities, but took only fourteen bushels for a show to the Havana, and other of the Spanish dominions, to encourage the peopling of this colony, not being willing to encumber their horses with more, their welfare and success depending much upon their horsemen-the Indians being abundantly more afraid of them than the foot, whose guns being useless after a short time, for want of powder, they only made use of cross-bows. And Garcilasso, who was not with Soto, but writ only upon memoirs he received from divers who were present, gives a more full account of the prodigious quantity of pearls in that country, affirming the Spaniards calculated them to amount unto a thousand bushels. And afterwards, when the Spaniards at Chiaha were gathering oysters for their food, they found many large pearls, and one particularly that was prized at four Page 264 hundred ducats, not having lost the least of its lustre, being taken out of a raw oyster. And that one Terron, a Spaniard, had above six pounds weight of pearl, very large, and mostly of a beautiful lustre, and were valued at six thousand ducats.

It need not seem incredible that pearl should be taken in fresh water lakes and rivers, there being many relations of unquestionable reputation, which declare, very good and large pearls are found in divers parts of China, and the countries to the west and south-west of their great wall (with which quotations I will not enlarge this discourse), as will appear by reading the China Atlas of Martinius, Marcus Paulus Venetus, and other credible writers on lakes and fresh water rivers.

Cochineal is a commodity of great value, very necessary as the world goes, and costs this nation annually great sums of money, which may be all saved, there being in this province sufficient to furnish both us and our neighbors, who are no less fond of it than ourselves. There have been great inquiries, and many disputes, about the original of this commodity, which is the famous ingredient for dyeing in grain, the purple and scarlet colors, generally esteemed by opulent and civilized nations.

This noble ingredient for dyeing, is produced by a tree or shrub called the Tunal or Tuna, of which there are divers sorts; some bearing an excellent fruit, very pleasant and wholesome. It is made of certain insects breeding in the fruit of this plant, when it is well husbanded, and are thereunto fastened, covered with a dainty fine web, which doth compass them about, and when come to maturity they eat through it, fall off the tree, and being carefully gathered, dried, and curiously put up, are sent to Spain, and thence distributed to most civilized parts of Europe and Asia. Acosta tells us, that in the fleet wherein he returned from Mexico, that province only, shipped 5677 arobes, each whereof is 25l. weight, and valued at 283,750 pieces of eight. The cochineal is of two sorts, one growing wild, which they call silvester. This, though it gives a good price, is far short of that which is duly cultivated in gardens and fields, much after the manner the English do tobacco in their plantations. This province, both on the east and west side of the Meschacebe, from the Gulf of Mexico some hundred miles up the country, abounds with all sorts of Tunals, or Tunas (as some style them), usually found in the province of Mexico, which borders upon it, and is only divided by an imaginary line, from the degrees of thirty to thirty-six. When this country is Page 265 settled, and we set upon this manufacture, the Indians may be very helpful unto us, it being easy labor, and wherein we need only employ their women and young people, if their men, who are generally very lazy, decline it.

The plant of which indigo is made, is very frequent in most of the southern parts of this country, and may possibly produce better than that made in our Islands of Jamaica, &c., this province being in the same latitude with Agra and Byana, territories in the great Mogul's country, whose indigo is accounted the best of its kind in the world, and is double the price of ours. It is easily made, and the Indians may be assisting to us herein, if we think fit to undertake it. Besides, if we believe that judicious natural historian Hernando, there is in Mexico, and consequently here (being much the same climate) a plant or little shrub, which produces an indigo abundantly more noble, and the color more lively, than that which is the common indigo. This the Spaniards call azul, as being like ultramarine.*

Ambergris or gray amber, is often found upon this coast, from the Cape of Florida to Mexico, which is of great value. The best (for there are divers sorts) is of equal worth to its weight in gold. This is agreed upon by the learned, to be a bitumen or naphtha, which comes from certain springs or fountains, that empty themselves into the sea, and is coagulated by the salt water, as succinum, commonly called amber, from another sort of bitumen or naphtha, and in storms cast upon the coast. The same ambergris is also found upon the east side of the Cape or Peninsula of Florida, the Bahama Islands, in the East Indies, and Brazil, and sometimes great lumps, even upon the coast of Cornwall and Ireland. And among others, I have read of a piece weighing eighty pounds, cast upon the coast of Cornwall, in the reign of King Charles I., which was bigger, till diminished by the countryman who found it, by greasing his cart-wheels, and boots, but discovered accidentally by an intelligent gentleman, who riding by one of his carts, and perceiving a very grateful smell, inquired of the man whence it proceeded; he told him he had found a nasty grease on the shore, which he hoped would have saved him the expense of kitchen stuff and tar for carts, harness, and boots, but it was of so poisonous a smell, that they were not able to endure it. The gentleman desiring to see the remainder, found it what he expected, purchased

*The cultivation of indigo was commenced in Louisiana in 1726. As a crop it was uncertain, but it was not abandoned untii 1794, when it was succeeded by the more general cultivation of sugar, cotton, and tobacco. Page 266 it at a very easy rate, presented it unto the queen, and was requited in places or employments far beyond the value of it.

There is found in great quantities upon the same coast, on the shore to the east and west of the Meschacebe, especially after high south winds, a sort of stone pitch, by the Spaniards called copec, which they likewise find in the South Sea, upon the coast of Peru. They mix it with grease to make it more liquid, and use it as pitch for their vessels, and affirm it to be better in hot countries, not being apt to melt with the heat of the sun or weather. And at Trinidad, a large island over against the great river of Oronoque, there is a mountain of the said substance, of which Sir Walter Raleigh gives an account in his expedition, so fatal unto him, of the discovery of the said river; and several navigators since have done the same. Acosta, the famous author of the natural history of the West Indies, affirms it to be generated of an oil, which empties itself, he knows not how, into several parts of the ocean, in so great quantities, that the sailors, when at a loss, know where they are by its floating on the sea, or the smell thereof, which, he says, they scented at a considerable distance. The English sent to discover the River Meschacebe, affirm the same, and that they found it in two places, which I have well marked. Moreover, that the sea was covered with an oil or slime, as they style it, which had a very strong smell for many leagues together. I suppose they had much the same conceptions with the countryman before mentioned, and therefore their curiosity did not prompt them to take it up and examine its qualities; though probably it might be of the same nature and use with that of divers wells in the province of Adierbigian in Persia, near the Caspian Sea, whence they fetch it many hundred miles on camels, being used to burn it in lamps instead of oil, it emitting a most grateful and wholesome odor. I might add spermaceti whales, out of which that substance is extracted, are sometimes killed by the natives, and sometimes by storms, as it were, shipwrecked on the shore; but either of these seldom happening, there can be no great dependence or expectation from them.

Salt is of great use, especially unto Europeans, without which they cannot well subsist, being accustomed thereunto from their infancy, and without which food has no relish. Besides, it is supposed that it prevents putrefaction and innumerable diseases; and in foreign couutries where it hath been wanting they have greatly suffered. It is moreover necessary to preserve fish and flesh, which without it cannot be long kept sweet. In this country it may be easily and abundantly Page 267 procured.* We know divers places, on both sides of the river, where there are many springs and lakes, producing plentifully excellent salt; and also one mine of rock-salt, almost clear as crystal, and probably there may be many more of the same. By these, we may not only supply ourselves with what is necessary for our ordinary daily food, during the winter or other seasons, but also furnish our (I may call then neighbor) plantations in the islands (we not being very remote from them) with fish, flesh, and salt; when by reason of war, or other sinister accidents, they cannot receive due and expected recruits from England or elsewhere.

Silk is a commodity of great use in England for many manufactures, it being imported to us from France, Italy, Sicily, Turkey, and the East Indies: and there is no foreign commodity which exhausts more of our treasure. I am not so vain as to promise this country can furnish Great Britain with so much silk as is therein manufactured, which would amount to above half a million or a million sterling annually; but if this province is ever settled (it abounding in most parts with forests of mulberry trees, both white and red), and we keep a good correspondence with the natives, which is both our duty and interest, certainly a considerable quantity of silk may be here produced.+ It hath been already experimented, in South Carolina, by Sir Nathaniel Johnston and others, which would have returned to great account, but that they wanted hands, laborers being not to be hired but at a vast charge. Yet if the natives or negroes were employed, who delight in such easy light labors, we could have that done for less than one shilling, which costs them more than six. Now I appeal to all good Englishmen, if we can raise only a tenth part of the silk expended in Great Britain, &e., and perhaps half an age hence the fifth, whether it would not be very beneficial to our native country, and a little check upon others, with whom we deal in that commodity, by letting them know, if they are unreasonable and exorbitant in their demands, that we may in a short time supply ourselves, in a great measure, from our own plantations? I am not ignorant there are several sorts of silks, proper for divers distinct uses, as of China, Bengal, and other parts of the East Indies, Persia, Turkey, Naples, and Sicily; for what manufactures ours is most proper, I * On the head waters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. + There is no climate in the world more favorable for the cultivation of silk than Louisiana. And the time is fast approaching when it will be one of the staples of the country. Page 268 know not; but it hath given a good price, and experience may teach us to raise for more uses than one. I would advise my countrymen when they set up this manufacture to imitate the Chinese, who sow the mulberry seeds as we do pot-herbs, and to mow those of one year's growth for the young silkworms, the leaves being short and tender, fit food for them when fresh hatched; and the second for them when in their infancy, as I may deservedly style it. When grown strong, they may be supplied with leaves from the trees; which method secures them from the diseases, whereunto they are obnoxious, when fed from the beginning with great rank leaves, saves much trouble, and lessens the number of hands to attend them, which is the greatest expense.

Hemp and flax are not only materials for divers manufactures in England, but exceedingly useful, and indeed almost necessary in a new colony, to supply them with coarse linens of divers kinds, whereof, if we made much and finer, it would be no injury to our mother England, who hath most from foreign parts; as also cordage, thread, twine for nets, and other uses. The plants which produce hemp and flax are very common in this country, and abundantly sufficient to supply not only the necessities thereof, but likewise of the whole British nation. Besides, we have a grass, as they call it, silk grass, which makes very pretty stuffs, such as come from the East Indies, which they call Herba stuffs, whereof a garment was made for Queen Elizabeth, whose ingredient came from Sir Walter Raleigh's colony, by him called Virginia, now North Carolina, a part of this province, which, to encourage colonies and plantations, she was pleased to wear for divers weeks.

This country affords excellent timber for building ships, as oak, fir, cedar, spruce, and divers other sorts; and, as I said before, flax and hemp for cordage and sails, as likewise iron for nails and anchors. But without tar, pitch, and rosin, a ship can never be well equipped; wherefore there are divers places in this country* near the sea and great rivers, which were otherwise useless, being the most sandy barren parts of the country, wherein that tree grows which produces all those materials for naval architecture; the same tree likewise produces turpentine, which is no contemptible commodity. This tree being pierced, and a vessel conveniently fastened unto or placed under the aperture, the turpentine distils plentifully into it. If cut, and a hole made under the tree in the sand (for in that soil it generally * Lower Louisiana is celebrated for iis forests of live oak and pine trees. Page 269 grows), the turpentine, by the influence of the air and sun, without any further trouble, becomes good rosin. Pitch and tar are made by cutting the dry trees into scantlings, and taking the knots of old trees fallen, and the rest of the wood rotted, burning, as you here make charcoal, covering with turf, and leaving orifices for as much air as will keep the fire from extinguishing. The moisture, partly aqueous, partly bituminous, runs by a gentle descent into a pit; what swims is tar, which, inflamed to a certain degree and extinguished, is pitch.

I suppose it will not seem a grievance for us to build ships in this country to bring home our native commodities, when it is allowed in other plantations, and supposed to save us a vast expense of boards, masts, yards, &c., which were formerly brought us from Norway and Sweden, where it is well known that three parts in four are payed for in ready money, and not a fourth in our own native commodities or manufactures. Besides the pitch, tar, rosin, and turpentine, the prodnce of the trees before mentioned, the ashes which remain, with a very small accession, and little trouble, will make potash, no contemptible commodity, and which costs England every year to foreign parts (as I have been informed by competent judges) above fifty thousand pounds. But I will not insist further here on, or manifest what great quantities hereof may easily be made, and how much stronger than most of that we import from Russia, Livonia, Courland, Prussia, Sweden, Norway, and other countries, we having so many other valuable commodities to employ our time and labor about.

The mention of potash, so much used by soap-boilers and dyers, brings to mind several materials for dyeing. This country affords logwood, otherwise called Campeachy wood, and many other dyeing woods, fustic, &c., which, divers who tried them, affirm are not inferior to those growing on the opposite side of the gulf, in the Spanish dominions, whence we have hitherto received them, with much charge, hazard, and trouble. There are besides the woods in this country, divers shrubs and plants, whose roots, even as used by the Indians, dye the finest and most durable colors, black, yellow, blue, and especially red; which if planted and cultivated, as mather wood and saffron amongst us, might probably be beneficial unto the undertakers.

Some persons are very inquisitive whether this country produces gems. I pretend not to the knowledge of diamonds, rubies and balasses, sapphires, emeralds or chrysolites; all that have come to my knowledge are amethysts, of which there are very fine and large, and to the west, turkoises, thought to be as large and good as any in the Page 270 known world; and possibly upon inquiry and diligent search, others may be found.

We have an account of lapis lazuli, which is an indication, as my masters generally affirm, that gold is not far off. I never did see or hear of any lapis lazuli extraordinarily good, but had visible streaks or veins of pure gold. But though it is not ordinarily reckoned amongst precious stones, yet, if good in its kind, it is sold for its weight in gold, to make that glorious azure called ultramarine, without which no marvelous and durable painting can be made. And Monsieur Turnefort, in his voyage to the Levant, observes that besides that lazuli is found in gold mines, there seems to be in this stone some threads of gold as it were still uncorrupted.

I had almost forgotten to communicate two commodities, one for the health, the other for the defence of our bodies. The former is a shrub called Cassine, much used and celebrated by the natives, the leaves where of dried will keep very long, of which several people have had many years' experience. The Indians drink plentifully thereof (as we do tea in Europe, and the Chinese, from whom it is exported), more especially when they undertake long and dangerous expeditions against their enemies, affirming it takes away hunger, thirst, weariness, and that tormenting passion, fear, for twenty-four hours. And none amongst them are allowed to drink it but those who have well deserved by their military achievements, or otherwise obtained the favor of their petty roytelets.

The latter is saltpetre, which may probably be here procured cheap and plentifully, there being at certain seasons of the year most prodigious flights of pigeons, I have been assured by some who have seen them, above a league long, and half as broad. These come, many flocks successively, much the same course, roost upon trees in such number that they often break the boughs and leave prodigious heaps of dung behind them; from which, with good management and very little expense, great quantities of the best saltpetre may be extracted.

Having given an account of the most valuable animals and vegetables this country produces, for food and other uses, as well as materials for trade and manufacture, some who have heard or read of the immense riches in gold and silver that are annually exported from Peru, Mexico, and other territories of the Spaniards in America to Spain, and of the incredible quantities of gold that have been imported from Brazil into Portugal for above thirty years past (the Page 271 benefit of which all the world knows we have shared in), will be ready to inquire whether the like mines exist in this country? Whereunto it may be answered, were there no such mines, yet where there is so good, rich, fertile land, so pure and healthful an air and climate, such an abundance of all things for food and raiment, valuable materials for domestic and foreign trade, these advantages alone, if industriously improved, and prudently managed, will in the event bring in gold and silver, by the balance of trade, as in the case of England and Holland; who, without mines of gold or silver, are perhaps the richest nations, for the quantity of land they possess, and number of inhabitants, in the whole commercial world. And it is well known, that we, and some other industrious Europeans receive, in exchange for our commodities, the greatest part of the wealth which comes in bullion from the West Indies, either to Spain or Portugal. But not to discourage any whose genius inclines them to the discovery and working of mines, I will add, who knows but we may have here as rich as any in the known world? Who both searched? as Tacitus said of Germany in the height of the Roman empire. I mean the reign of the great Trajan, sixteen hundred years since. Yet afterwards there were found gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, quicksilver, spelter, antimony, vitriol, the best in the world, blue, green, and white; besides many other mineral productions, which are now wrought to the great advantage of divers sovereign princes and their subjects.

But to make a more particular reply to such suggestions, they may be assured that copper is in abundance, and so fine that it is found in plates, bits, and pieces very pure without melting, of which considerable quantities have been gathered on the surface of the earth. And they who have tried some of the ore, affirm by common methods it gives above forty percent. The famous Alonzo Barba, who bath given an admirable account of the mines* the Spaniards have discovered in America, and the ways of working them, assures us that besides the mines abounding in that metal near the surface of the earth, they found, digging deeper, that they proved the richest silver mines they have hitherto discovered. And all agree, the gold extracted out of copper is finer, of a higher tincture, or more carats, than that extracted from silver or any other metal, and that without the tedious process of burning several times before melting, employed constantly, * Silver, copper, and lead mines abound in Texas, Louisiana., and Missouri; gold and quicksilver in California. Page 272 in order to the extracting copper, by Swedes and other European nations.

Lead is there in great quantities. What has already been discovered is more than sufficient for common use, and the ore affords sixty per cent.

I need not perhaps mention coal, the country so much abounding in wood. But because in some cases that may be more useful and proper than wood, I will add that in many places there are known to be mines of pit coal, like that we have from Scotland, Wales, and some of our inland countries in England.

Iron ore is in abundance of places near the surface of the earth; and some parts produce iron little inferior to steel in goodness, and useful in many cases wherein steel is commonly employed, as divers attest who have made trials thereof.

This country affords another profitable commodity or mineral, which is quicksilver. We have knowledge of two mines, one on the west, the other on the east of the Great River, and doubtless many more might be found if inquired after. The natives make no other use thereof than to paint their faces and bodies therewith in time of war, and great festivals. This we call quicksilver is the mother of quicksilver, or the mineral out of which it is extracted, and is a rock of a scarlet or purple color; which being broke and distilled into earthen pots, the necks whereof are put into others almost full of water, the latter for the greater part of each of them in the ground, then are placed in rows, almost contiguous, covered with spray wood, which burning drives the quicksilver by descent out of the mineral into the water. Three or four men will tend some thousands of these pots. The great trouble is in digging; all the expense not amounting unto a tenth part of the value of the produce.

And it is generally observed by all who write well on mines, metals, and minerals, that though silver be often found where there is no cinnabar of quicksilver in its neighborhood, yet cinnabar is rarely found but silver mines are near. This cinnabar or vermilion, though a good commodity in itself in Europe and among the savages, for some picked chosen pieces, is chiefly valuable for the quicksilver it produces, especially if we ever obtain a free trade with the Spaniards, and will be beyond all exception for our and their mutual benefit; for most of the silver ore in America, mixed with quicksilver, produces almost double the quantity of metal it would do only by melting; so that the Spaniards have annually six or eight thousand quintals or hundred Page 273 weight, brought unto them from the bottom of the Adriatic Gulf out of the territories of the Emperor, and the Venetians, viz: from Istria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Friuli, and Dalmatia. We can sell it them, and deliver it for half what that costs which comes from Europe, they being within six or eight days' sail of the place where it is produced. And for Mexico we can deliver it for the mines in New Biscay, &e., in the River of Palms or Rio Bravo, otherwise called the River of Escondido: as also by the River of the Houmas (Red River), which enters the Meschacebe, one hundred leagues from its mouth, on the west side, after a course of above five hundred miles It is a very large deep river, navigable at least three hundred miles by ships; afterwards unto its heads by barques and flat bottomed boats, having no falls. It proceeds from that narrow ridge of low mountains which divides this country and the Province of Mexico. The hills may be passed not only by men and horses but also by wagons, in less than half a day. On the other side are small navigable rivers, which after a short course of thirty or forty miles, empty themselves into the abovesaid Rio Bravo, which comes from the most northerly part of New Mexico, in thirty-eight degrees of latitude, and enters the sea at the N. W. end of the Gulf of Mexico, in twenty-seven degrees of latitude.

There is also another easy passage, to the northern part of New Mexico, by the Yellow River, which about sixty miles above its mouth, is divided into two great branches; or rather those two branches form that great river, which is no less than the Meschacebe, where they are united. The north branch proceeds from the north-west, and is called the River of the Massorites (Missouri), from a great nation who live thereon. The other, which comes from the west and by south, is named the River of the Ozages, a populous nation of that name inhabiting on its banks; and their heads proceed from the aforesaid hills, which part the Province of New Mexico from Carolana, and are easily passable; as are those forementioned of the River of the Houmas, which may be plainly discerned by the map or chart hereunto annexed.

But all this is insignificant to our Plutonists, whom nothing will satisfy besides gold and silver; I will therefore here declare all I know, or have received from credible persons, and will not add a title.* I am well informed of a place, from whence the Indians have * The early French explorers sent to Louisiana were among the first to write on the mineral regions of this province and Lake Superior. Page 274 brought a metal (not well indeed refined), and that divers times, which, purified, produced two parts silver. And I have an account from another, who was with the Indians, and had from them inform masses of such like silver, and very fine pale copper, though above two hundred miles from the country where the forementioned was found. I have by me letters from New Jersey, written many years since by a person very well skilled in the refining of metals, signifying, that divers years successively, a fellow who was there of little esteem, took a fancy to ramble with the Indians beyond the hills which separate that colony and New York from this cenutry; he always brought home with him a bag, as heavy as he could well carry, of dust, or rather small particles of divers sorts of metals, very ponderous. When melted, it appeared a mixture of metals, unto which they could assign no certain denomination; but perceived by many trials that it contained load, copper, and when refined, above a third part silver and gold; for though the gold was the least in quantity, yet it was considerable in value; which is easy discovered by any tolerable artist of a refiner, who knows how to separate gold and silver, and what proportion the mass contains of each. There were great pains taken to bring this fellow to discover where he had this, I may call, treasure, it serving him to drink and sot till he went on another expedition; but neither promises nor importunities would prevail. Some made him drunk, yet he still kept his secret. All they could ever fish out of him was, that about three hundred leagues south-west of Jersey, at a certain season of the year, there fell great torrents of water from some mountains--I suppose from rains--which being passed over, the Indians washed the sand or earth some distance below the falls, and in the bottom remained this medley of metals. Which brings to mind what happened lately in Brazil. Several Portuguese being guilty of heinous crimes, or afraid of the resentment of powerful enemies, retreated frorn their habitations to the mountains of St. Paul, as they called them, lying in between twenty and thirty degrees of south latitude, above two hundred miles from their nearest plantations, and yearly increasing, at length formed a government amongst themselves. Some inquisitive person perceiving, in divers places, somewhat glister, after the canals of the torrents produced by great rains, at a certain time of the year, were dry, upon trial found it (the sand and filth being washed away) very fine gold. They having, upon consultation, amassed a good quantity thereof, made their peace with the King of Portugal, and are a peculiar jurisdiction, paying Page 275 the King his quint or fifth, which is reserved in all grants of the Crown of Spain and Portugal; and are constantly supplied by the merchants for ready money with whatsoever commodities they want. And I am informed by divers credible persons, who have long lived in Portugal, that from this otherwise contemptible useless country, is brought by every Brazil fleet above twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, only in gold. Who knows but what happened to them, may one time or other, in like manner, happen to the future inhabitants of this country, not yet cultivated, fully discovered or ransacked by Europeans?

There are in divers parts of this province, orpiment, and sandaracha in great quantity; and all the writers on metals and minerals affirm, they not only contain gold, but where they are found they are generally the covering of mines of gold or silver.

But suppose all that preceded is conjecture, imposture, or visionary, what I now suggest deserves great attention, and when the country is settled, may invite the best heads and longest purses to combine, at least, to make a fair trial of what the Spaniards attempted upon naked conjectures.

The mines of New Biscay,* Gallicia and New Mexico, out of which such vast quantities of silver is yearly sent to Spain, besides what is detained for their domestic utensils, wherein they are very magnificent, lie contiguous to this country--to say nothing of gold, whereof they have considerable quantities, though not proportionable in bulk or value to the silver. But there is a ridge of hills which run almost due north and south between their country and ours, not thirty miles broad, and in divers places, for many miles, abounding with silver mines, more than they can work, for want of native Spaniards, and Negroes. And, which is very remarkable, they unanimously affirm, the further north, the richer the mines of silver are. Which brings to mind what Polybius, Livy, Pliny, and many other of the Greek and Roman historians, and writers of natural history unanimously report; that the rich mines in Spain, upon which the Cathaginians so much depended, and which greatly enriched them, were in the Asturias and Pyrenean mountains, the most northerly part of Spain, and in a much greater northern latitude than the furthest mines of New Mexico, near their capital city Santa Fee, situate in about thirty-six degrees. Not but that there are more and richer mines more * The silver mines of St. Barbé, in the Guadaloupe mountains, are said by travelers to be among the richest in the world. Page 276 northerly than Santa Fee, but they are hindered from working them by three or four populous and well policed nations, who have beat the Spaniards in many rencounters, not to say battles; and for a hundred years they have not been able, by their own confession, to gain from them one inch of ground.

Pliny in particular affirms, that every year twenty thousand pounds of gold were brought from their mines in Spain: and that one mine called Bebello, from the first discoverer, yielded to Hannibal every day three hundred pounds weight of silver, besides a very rich copious mine of minium, cinnabaris, or vermilion, the mother of quicksilver, out of which only it is extracted. He adds, that the Romans continued to work these mines unto his time, which was about three hundred years; but they were not then so profitable, by reason of subterraneal waters, which gave them much trouble, they having then digged fifteen hundred paces into the mountain. But what is very remarkable and to our present purpose, these mines were not in the most southerly or middle parts of Spain, but as above to the northward. Now I desire any intelligent person, skillful in mineral affairs, to assign a probable reason why we, who are on that side of the ridge of hills obverted to the rising sun, which was always (how justly I know not) reckoned to abound in metals and minerals, more than those exposed to the setting sun, may not hope for and expect as many and as rich mines, as any the Spaniards are masters of, on the other or west side of these mountains? Especially since several of the Spanish historians and naturalists observe, that the mines on the eastern side of the mountain of Potosi in Peru, are much more numerous and rich than those on the western. . Volume 2 Chapter 9 [Page 277]

AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY

OF

SOME NEW COUNTRIES AND NATIONS

IN

N0RTH AMERICA,

IN 1673,

BY PERE MARQUETTE AND SIEUR JOLIET.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. . [Page 278]

[Blank Page] [Page 279]

AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY

OF

SOME NEW COUNTRIES AND NATIONS

IN

NORTH AMERICA,

IN 1673,

BY PERE MARQUETTE* AND SIEUR JOLIET.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

I EMBARKED with M. Joliet, who had been chosen to conduct this enterprise, on the 13th May, 1673, with five other Frenchmen, in two

* Father Joseph Marquette, an illustrious French Missionary, of noble birth was born in Picardy, France. Previous to his discovery of the Mississippi he had resided in Canada, where he acquired a knowledge of the languages of the principal Indian tribes who lived in the regions about the lakes.

These Indians had given him from time to time accounts of a Great River of the West, which they called Meschacebe or the Great river, Namese-sipou, or the River of the Fishes. While others called it Chuca- gua, Sassa-goula, and Mala-banchi. It has been subsequently called by the Spaniards La Palissade, Rio Escondido; and by tbe French Colbert, and sometimes St. Louis. It soon became a matter of curious speculation what course this river pursued, and at what place it disembogued itself into the sea. In order, therefore, to establish this point, as well as to close his career with some brilliant discovery before be returned to France, M. Talon planned an expedition to explore it to its mouth. For this purpose be selected M. Joliet, a merchant of Quebec, to conduct the enterprise; a man of intelligence, of great experienoe in Indian affairs, and who possessed a bold and energetic spirit. He also associated with him Father Marquette, who had been long and favorably known to the Indians by his missionary labors. They accordingly set out on a voyage of discovery on the 13th May, 1673. On Page 280 . bark canoes.* We laid in some Indian corn and smoked beef for our voyage. We first took care, however, to draw from the Indians all the information we could, concerning the countries through which we designed to travel, and drew up a map, on which we marked down the rivers, nations, and points of the compass to guide us in our journey. The first nation we came to was called the Folles-Avoines,+ or the nation of wild oats. I entered their river to visit them, as I had preached among them some years before. The wild oats, from which they derive their name, grows spontaneously in their country. They grow in marshy ground, and are not unlike our European oats. The grain is not thicker than ours, but it is twice as long, and therefore it yields much more meal. It makes its appearance in June and does his return Father Marquette wrote an account of his voyage, which he sent to France, where it was published in 1651. In every point of view this narrative is one of the most authentic and interesting which can illustrate the early history of Louisiana. It is related of the Sieur Joliet that he also kept a journal of this expedition, which was afterwards lost by the upsetting of his canoe in the river St. Lawrence, as he was returning to Montreal. The French Government some years afterwards rewarded the Sieur Joliet for this service, by a grant of the island of Anticosti, in the St. Lawrence.

Nothing is known of Marquette exoept what is related of him by Charlevoix. After returning from this expedition, he took up his residence and pursued the vocation of a missionary among the Miamies, in the neighborhood of Chicago. While passing by water along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, towards Michilimackinac, be entered a small river on the 15th May, 1675. Having landed he constructed an altar performed mass, and then retired a short distance into the wood, requesting the two men who had charge of his canoe to leave him alone for half an hour. When the time had elapsed the men went to seek for him, and found him dead. They were greatly surprised at this event, but they remembered that when he was entering the river he expressed a presentiment that his life would end here. To this day the river retains the name of Marquette. His remains were removed, the year after his death, to the Catholic cemetery at Michilimackinac.

* Marquette and Joliet's point of departure to discover the Mississippi River was the French post at Michilimackinac, from whence they proceeded to Fox River, which falls into Green (Potawotamie) Bay. Fifteen years afterwards, the celebrated traveler, La Hontan, set out from the same post to explore the Missouri and St. Peters Rivers.

+ Folles-Avoines was the name given by the French to the "Menomonies," who lived to the north of the Bay of Puans or Green Bay. They were bounded on the north by the Chippeways; on the south by the Winnebagoes; on the west by the Sauks and Sioux Dahcota; and east by the Miamies and Illinois Indianas. Page 281 not ripen until September. In this month the Indians go to shake the grain off the ears in their canoes, which easily falls if it be ripe, and which afterwards serves them for food. They dry it over a fire, then pack it away in a kind of sack made of the skins of animals, and having made a hole in the ground they put the sacks therein, and tread upon it until the chaff is separated from the grain, and then winnow it. Afterwards they pound it in a mortar to reduce it into meal; they then boil it in water, and season it with grease, which makes it very palatable.

I acquainted them with my design of discovering other nations, to preach to them the mysteries of our holy religion, at which they were much surprised, and said all they could to dissuade me from it. They told me I would meet with Indians who spare no strangers, and whom they kill without any provocation or mercy; that the war they have one with the other would expose me to be taken by their warriors, as they are constantly on the look-out to surprise their enemies. That the Great River was exceedingly dangerous, and full of frightful monsters who devoured men and canoes together, and that the heat was so great that it would positively cause our death. I thanked them for their kind advice, but told them I would not follow it, as the salvation of a great many souls was concerned in our undertaking, for whom I should be glad to lose my life. I added that I defied their monsters, and their information would oblige us to keep more upon our guard to avoid a surprise. And having prayed with them, and given them some instructions, we set out for the Bay of Puan (Green Bay), where our missionaries had been successful in converting them. The name they give to this bay is preferable in the Indian language to ours; for, according to the word they make use of, it signifies Salt Bay. It is the name they give to the sea. This obliged us to inquire whether there were any salt springs in their country, as among the Iroquois, but they could not tell us of any.

This bay (Green Bay) is about thirty leagues long, and eight broad in the greatest breadth; for it grows narrower and forms a cone at the extremity. It has tides that flow and ebb as regular as the sea. We left this bay to go into a river (Fox River) that discharges itself therein, and found its mouth very broad and deep. It flows very gently, but after we had advanced some leagues into it we found it difficult to navigate, on account of the rocks and the currents; we fortunately overcame all these difficulties. It abounds in bustards, ducks, and other birds, which are attracted there by the wild oats, of which Page 282 they are very fond. We next came to a village of the Maskoutens,* or nation of fire. Here I had the curiosity to taste some mineral water which came from a spring on the banks of the river, and to examine a plant which the Indians had told Father Allouez was a specific for the bite of snakes. The root of this plant is very hot, and tastes like gunpowder; they chew it, and apply it to the part of the body that has been stung. This cures the wound. The snakes have such an antipathy to this plant, that they run away from a man who has his body rubbed with it. It has several stalks about a foot in length; the leaves are somewhat long; the flower is white, and the whole looks like our gilliflower. I put one into our canoe to examine it at my leisure.

The French have never before passed beyond the Bay of Puans (Green Bay). This Bourg consists of three several nations, viz., Miamies,+ Maskoutens, and Kickapoos. The first are more docile than the others, better formed, and more liberal. They wear long hair over their ears, which gives them a good appearance. They are esteemed good warriors, and so cunning that they never return from their warlike excursions without booty. They are quick to learn anything. Father Allouez++ told me that they were so desirous to be instructed that they would never give him any rest at night. The

* The word Maskoutens means a "prairie." Their country lies on the south side of Fox River.

+ The Miamies and the Illinois have been considered tbe same people, from the great affinity between their languages. The Illinois consisted of five tribes vix., Cahokias, Kakaskias, Tamaroas, Peorias, and Metchegamias.

++ Father Claude Allouez, a distinguished French missionary, came to Canada in 1665. In 1667 he oommenced his missionary labors among the Chippeways, and formed a treaty of commerce and mutual defence with the Chippeways, Potawatomies, Sacs, and Foxes, against the Iroquois. In 1669 he learned from the remote tribes of the West the existence of the Great River, Mississippi, and returned to Quebec to urge the establishment of permanent missions among them, as well as to send out a party to explore the Great River. As yet no Frenchman had advanced beyond Fox River of Green Bay. All beyond was a region of romance, unknown, or mystified by Indian tradition. The unwearied Jesuits of the Catholic church were always in advance of civilization. The history of their labors is connected with the origin of every celebrated town in the annals of French America; not a river was entered, not a cape was turned, but a Jesuit led the way. The rites and ceremonies of the Catholic church were extended to the remote West. The Franciscan, as a mendicant order being excluded from the newly-discovered world, the office of oonverting the natives of New France was entrusted to the Jesuits. They plunged into the affairs of men, to maintain the interests of the church. Page 283 Maskoutens and Kickapoos are more robust, and resemble our peasants more than the former. As the bark of the birch tree is scarce in this country, they are obliged to make their wigwams with rushes, which serve as well for covering them as for walls. It must be owned that they are convenient, for they take them down and carry them wherever they please, without any trouble.

When I arrived there I was very glad to see a great cross, set up in the middle of the village, adorned with several white skins, red girdles, bows and arrows, which the converted Indians had offered to the great Manitou, to return him their thanks for the care he had taken of them during the winter, and granting them a prosperous hunting. Manitou is the name they give in general to all spirits whom they think to be above the nature of man. I took pleasure in looking at this bourg. It is beautifully situated on an eminence, from whence we look over an extensive prairie, interspersed with groves of trees. The soil is very fertile, and produces large crops of corn. The Indians also gather large quantities of grapes and plums. As soon as we had arrived we assembled the chiefs together, and informed them that we had been sent by our governor to discover new countries, and teach them the knowledge of their Creator, who being absolute master of all his creatures will have all nations to know him, and that therefore to comply with his will we did not value our lives, and were willing to subject ourselves to every kind of danger, adding that we wished them to furnish us with two guides, and enforced our request with some presents, which were kindly accepted by them, in return for which they gave us mats, with which we made our beds during the voyage. They also furnished us with two guides to accompany us for some days.

The next day, being the 10th of June, the two guides (Miamies) embarked with us in sight of all the village, who were astonished at our attempting so dangerous an expedition. We were informed that at three leagues from the Maskoutens, we should find a river which runs into the Mississippi, and that we were to go to the west-southwest to find it, but there were so many marshes and lakes, that if it had not been for our guides we could not have found it. The river upon which we rowed and had to carry our canoes from one to the other, looked more like a cornfield than a river, insomuch that we could hardly find its channel. As our guides had been frequently at this portage, they knew the way, and helped us to carry our canoes overland into the other river, distant about two miles and a half; from whence they returned home, leaving us in an unknown country, Page 284 having nothing to rely upon but Divine Providence. We now left the waters which extend to Quebec, about five or six hundred leagues, to take those which would lead us hereafter into strange lands.

Before embarking we all offered up prayers to the Holy Virgin, which we continued to do every morning, placing ourselves and the events of the journey under her protection, and after having encouraged each other, we got into our canoes. The river upon which we embarked is called Mesconsin (Wisconsin); the river is very wide, but the sand bars make it very difficult to navigate, which is increased by numerous islands covered with grape vines. The country through which it flows is beautiful; the groves are so dispersed in the prairies that it makes a noble prospect; and the fruit of the trees shows a fertile soil. These groves are full of walnut, oak, and other trees unknown to us in Europe. We saw neither game nor fish, but roebuck and buffaloes in great numbers. After having navigated thirty leagues we discovered some iron mines, and one of our company who had seen such mines before, said these were very rich in ore. They are covered with about three feet of soil, and situate near a chain of rocks, whose base is covered with fine timber. After having rowed ten leagues further, making forty leagues from the place where we had embarked, we came into the Mississippi on the 17th June (1673).

The mouth of the Mesconsin (Wisconsin) is in about 42½ N. lat. Behold us, then, upon this celebrated river, whose singularities I have attentively studied. The Mississippi takes its rise in several lakes in the North. Its channel is very narrow at the mouth of the Mesconsin, and runs south until it is affected by very high hills. Its current is slow, because of its depth. In sounding we found nineteen fathoms of water. A little farther on it widens nearly three-quarters of a league, and the width continues to be more equal. We slowly followed its course to the south and south-east to the 42 N. lat. Here we perceived the country change its appearance. There were scarcely any more woods or mountains. The islands are covered with fine trees, but we could not see any more roebucks, buffaloes, bustards, and swans. We met from time to time monstrous fish, which struck so violently against our canoes, that at first we took them to be large trees, which threatened to upset us. We saw also a hideous monster; his head was like that of a tiger, his nose was sharp, and somewhat resembled a wildcat; his beard was long; his ears stood upright; the color of his head was gray; and his neck black. He looked upon us for some time, but as we came near him our oars frightened him away. Page 285 When we threw our nets into the water we caught an abundance of sturgeons, and another kind of fish like our trout, except that the eyes and nose are much smaller, and they have near the nose a bone like a woman's busk, three inches broad and a foot and a half long, the end of which is flat and broad, and when it leaps out of the water the weight of it throws it on its back.

Having descended the river as far as 41 28', we found that turkeys took the place of game, and the Pisikious that of other animals. We call the Pisikious wild buffaloes, because they very much resemble our domestic oxen; they are not so long, but twice as large. We shot one of them, and it was as much as thirteen men could do to drag him from the place where he fell. They have an enormous head, their forehead is broad and flat, and their horns, between which there is at least a foot and a half distance, are all black and much longer than our European oxen. They have a hump on the back, and their head, breast, and a part of the shoulders are covered with long hair. They have in the middle of their, forehead an ugly tuft of long hair, which, falling down over their eyes, blinds them in a manner, and makes them look hideous. The rest of the body is covered with curled hair, or rather wool like our sheep, but much thicker and stronger. They shed their hair in summer, and their skin is as soft as velvet, leaving nothing but a short down. The Indians use their skins for cloaks, which they paint with figures of several colors. Their flesh and fat is excellent, and the best dish of the Indians, who kill a great many of them. They are very fierce and dangerous, and if they can hook a man with their horns, they toss him up and then tread upon him. The Indians hide themselves when they shoot at them, otherwise they would be in great danger of losing their lives. They follow them at great distances till, by loss of blood, they are unable to hurt or defend themselves. They graze upon the banks of rivers, and I have seen four hundred in a herd together.

We continued to descend the river, not knowing where we were going, and having made an hundred leagues without seeing anything but wild beasts and birds, and being on our guard we landed at night to make our fire and prepare our repast, and then left the shore to anchor in the river, while one of us watched by turns to prevent a surprise. We went south and south-west until we found ourselves in about the latitude of 40 and some minutes, having rowed more than sixty leagues since we entered the river. On the 25th June we went ashore, and found some traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led into a Page 286 large prairie. We judged it led to an Indian village, and concluded to examine it. We therefore left our canoes in charge of our men, while M. Joliet and I went to explore it; a bold undertaking for two men in a savage country. We followed this little path in silence about two leagues, when we discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two others on a hill about half a league from the first. We now commended ourselves to God, and having implored his help, we came so near to the Indians that we could hear them talk. We now thought it time to make ourselves known to them by screaming aloud. At the sound of our voices, the Indians left their huts, and probably taking us for Frenchmen, one of is having a black robe on, and seeing but two of us, and being warned of our arrival, they sent four old men to speak to us, two of whom brought pipes, ornamented with different colored feathers. They marched slowly, without saying a word, but presenting their pipes to the sun, as if they wished it to smoke them.

They were a long time coming from their village, but as soon as they came near, they halted to take a view of us, and seeing the ceremonies they performed, and especially seeing them covered with cloth, we judged that they were our allies. I then spoke to them, and they said that they were Illinois, and as a sign of friendship they presented us their pipes to smoke. They invited us to their village, where all the people had impatiently waited for us. These pipes are called by the Indians calumets, and as this word is so common among them, I shall make use of it in future, when I want to speak of pipes. At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received, we found an old man in a very remarkable posture, which is the usual ceremony in receiving strangers. He was standing up, all naked, with his hands lifted up to Heaven, as if he wished to screen himself from the rays of the sun, which nevertheless passed through his fingers to his face. When we came near to him, he said, "What a fair day, Frenchmen, this is to come to visit us! All our people have waited for thee, and thou shalt enter our cabin in peace." He then took us into his, where there were a crowd of people who devoured us with their eyes, but who kept a profound silence. We only occasionally heard these words in a low voice, "These are our brothers who have come to see us."

As soon as we sat down, they presented us, according to custom, their calumet, which one must accept, or he would be looked upon as an enemy, and it is sufficient to place it only to your mouth, and pretend to smoke. While the old men smoked in our cabin to entertain us, the great chief of the Illinois sent us word to come to his village, Page 287 where he wished to hold a council with us. We went accordingly to him, and were followed by all the people of this village, for they had never seen any Frenchmen before. They never appeared tired of gazing at us. They went backwards and forwards to look at us, without making any noise, and this they esteemed as a mark of respect. Having arrived at the borough of the chief, we espied him at the door of his cabin, between two old men, who were likewise naked, and standing, holding the calumet towards the sun. He made us a short speech, to congratulate us on our arrival in his country, and presented us with his calumet, which we had to smoke before we could enter into his cabin. This ceremony being over, he conducted us and desired us to sit down upon a mat, and the old men of the nation being present, I thought fit to acquaint them with the subject of our voyage, and therefore I told them, 1st, that we designed to visit all nations that were on the river, down to the sea. 2d. That God, who had created them, took pity on them, and had sent me to bring them to a knowledge of Him, and to repent. 3d. That the great captain of the French had commanded me to tell them that he had conquered the Iroquois, and wished to live in peace with them. 4th. And lastly, that we desired them to tell us all about the sea and the nations we were to pass through before we arrived there.

After we sat down, the chief placed a slave near us, and made us a present of the mysterious calumet, which he thought more valuable to us than the slave. He showed to us by this present his respect for our great captain, and he begged us to remain among them, because of the dangers to which we were exposed in our voyage. I told him that we did not fear death, and that I would esteem it a happiness to lose my life in the service of God, at which he seemed to be much surprised. The council being over, we were invited to a feast, which consisted of four dishes. The first was a dish of sagamite, that is some Indian meal boiled in water, and seasoned with grease; the master of ceremonies holding a spoonful of it, which he put thrice into my mouth, and then did the like to M. Joliet. The second dish consisted of three fish, where of he took a piece, and having taken out the bones, and blown upon it to cool it, he put it into my mouth. The third dish was a large dog, which they had killed on purpose, but understanding that we did not eat this animal they sent it away. The fourth was a piece of buffalo meat, of which they put the fattest pieces into our mouths.

As soon as we had feasted, we were taken to a village of three hundred cabins, attended by an officer, who kept the people from crowding Page 288 upon us. They presented us with belts, garters, and other articles made of the hair of bears and buffaloes. We slept in the chief's hut, and, on the following morning, we took leave of him, promising to return to his village in four moons. He escorted us to our canoes with nearly six hundred persons, who saw us embark, evincing in every way the pleasure our visit gave them. It will not be improper for me to relate here, what I observed of the customs and manners of this people, which are very different from any I have ever before visited. The word llinois in their language signifies men; as if they looked upon all other Indians as beasts. And truly it must be confessed that they are more humane than any others I have ever seen. The short time I remained with them did not permit me to inform myself of their customs and manners as much as I desired. They are divided into several villages, some of which I have not seen. They live so remote from other nations, that their language is entirely different. They called themselves "Perouarca." Their language is a dialect of the Algonquin. They are very mild in their dispositions. They keep several wives, of whom they are very jealous, and watch them closely. If they behave unchastely, they cut off their ears or nose, of which I saw several who carried those marks of their infidelity.

The Illinois are well formed and very nimble. They are skillful with their bows and rifles, with which they are supplied by the Indians who trade with our Frenchmen. This makes them formidable to their enemies, who have no firearms. They make excursions to the west to capture slaves, which they barter with other nations for the commodities they want. Those nations are entirely ignorant of iron tools; their knives, axes, and other instruments, are made of flint and other sharp stones. When the Illinois go upon a war expedition, the whole village is notified by an outcry at the door of their huts the morning and evening before they set out. Their chiefs are distinguished from the soldiers, by red scarfs made of the hair of buffaloes, curiously wrought, which are taken only a few days' journey from their village. They live by hunting, and on Indian corn, of which they always have a plenty. They sow beans and melons, which are excellent, especially those whose seed is red. They dry them, and keep them till the winter and spring.

Their cabins are large; they are covered and carpeted with rushes. Their dishes are of wood, but their spoons are made with the bones of the buffalo, which they cut so as to make them very convenient to eat their sagamite with. They have physicians among them to whom, in ___________________________________________________________________ Page 289 cases of sickness, they are very liberal. Their clothing consists of the skins of wild animals, which serve to clothe their women, who dress very modestly, while the men go most of the year almost naked. Some of the Illinois and Nadonessians wear women's apparel, and when they put it on in their youth, they never leave it off. There must certainly be some mystery* in this. They never marry, but work in the cabins with the women, which the other men think it beneath them to do. They assist in all the juggleries and the solemn dance in honor of the calumet, but they are not permitted either to dance or sing. They are called to their councils, and nothing is determined without their advice; for because of their extraordinary manner of living, they are looked upon as manitous or persons of consequence.

It now only remains for me to speak of the calumet, the most mysterious thing in the world. The sceptres of our kings are not so much respected; for the Indians have such a deference for it, that one may call it "The God of Peace and War, and the arbiter of life and death." One with this calumet may venture amongst his enemies, and on the hottest battles they lay down their arms before this sacred pipe. The Illinois presented me with one of them, which was very useful to us in our voyage. Their Calumet of Peace is different from the Calumet of War; they make use of the former to seal their alliances and treaties, to travel with safety, and receive strangers; and the other is to proclaim war. It is made of a red stone, and smooth as marble. The head is like our common tobacco pipe, but larger, and fixed to a hollow reed, to hold it for smoking. They ornament it with the head and neck of different birds, to which they add large feathers of different colors, and call it The Calumet of the Sun, to whom they present it when they want fair weather, or rain, believing that this planet cannot have less respect for it than they themselves, and therefore they will obtain their wishes. They do not dare to wash themselves in the rivers in the beginning of summer, or eat new fruit, before they have danced the calumet.

This dance of the calumet is a solemn ceremony among the Indians, which they only perform on important occasions, such as to confirm an alliance, or make peace with their neighbors. They also use it to entertain any nation that comes to visit them; and in this case we may consider it as their grand entertainment. They perform it in winter time in their cabins, and in the open field in summer. They

* See Hennepin's account of this custom in his "Voyage en un pays plus grand gue L'Europe entre la mer glaciale and le nouveau Mexique." Page 290 choose for that purpose a place under the trees, to shelter themselves against the heat of the sun, and lay in the middle of it a large mat, to place the god of the chief of the company upon, who gives the entertainment. For every one has his peculiar god, whom they call manitoa. It is sometimes a stone, a bird, a serpent, or anything else that they dream of in their sleep. They believe that this manitoa will prosper their sports, of fishing, hunting, and other enterprises. To the right of their manitoa they place the calumet, their great deity, making round about it a kind of trophy with their arms, namely, their clubs, axes, bows, quivers, and arrows.* Things being thus arranged, and the hour for dancing having arrived, the men and women who are to sing take the most honorable seats under the trees or arbors. Every one, then, who comes in afterwards sits down, in a ring, as they arrive, having first saluted the manitoa, by puffing tobacco smoke upon it, which signifies as much as making it an offering of incense.

Then the Indians, one after the other, take the calumet, and, holding it with both hands, dances with it, following the cadence of the songs, by making different attitudes, turning from side to side, and showing it to the whole assembly. This being over, he who is to begin the dance appears in the middle of the assembly, and having taken the calumet, presents it to the Sun, as if he would invite him to smoke. Then he places it in an infinite number of positions, sometimes laying it near the ground, then stretehing its wings, as if he wanted it to fly, and afterwards presents it to the spectators, who smoke it, one after another, dancing all the time, as in the first scene of a ballet. The second scene is a combat, accompanied with vocal and instrumental music, for they have a large drum which agrees pretty well with their voices. The person who dances with the calumet gives a signal to one of their warriors, who takes a bow and arrows from the mat, already mentioned, and fights the other, who defends himself with the calumet alone, both of them dancing all the while. This spectacle is very amusing, especially when it is done in time, for the one attacks, and the other defends; the one thrusts, and the other parries; the one runs, and the other pursues; which is all done so well, with measured steps, and at the regular sound of voices and drums, that it would easily pass for a French ballet.

The fight being over, the third scene consists of a speech made by him who holds the calumet, relating the battles he has been in, the

* These weapons are still used in war by the Indians west of the Mississippi. Page 291 victories he has won, and the scalps he has taken; and to reward him, the chief presents him with a buffalo robe, and, having received it, he then goes and presents the calumet to another, and this one to a third, and so on until they all make speeches, when the head chief presents it to the nation that has been invited to the feast as a mark of their friendship, and a continuation of their alliance. There is a song they sing, to which they give a certain turn of expression which is extremely agreeable, and which begins thus:--

"Ninahani, Ninahani, Ninahani,

Nane ango." We took leave of our guides about the end of June, and embarked in presence of all the village, who admired our birch canoes, as they had never before seen anything like them. We descended the river, looking for another called Pekitanoni (the Missouri), which runs from the north-west into the Mississippi, of which I will speak more hereafter.

As we followed the banks, I observed on the rocks a medicinal plant which had a remarkable shape. Its root is like small turnips linked together by small fibres which had the taste of carrots. From the root springs a leaf as wide as the hand, about an inch thick, with spots in the middle, from whence shoot other leaves, each of them bearing five or six yellow flowers of a bell shape. We found a quantity of mulberries as large as those of France, and a small fruit which we took at first for olives, but it had the taste of an orange, and another as large as a hen's egg. We broke it in half, and found the inside was divided into two divisions, in each of which were eight or ten seeds shaped like an almond, and very good to eat when ripe; the tree nevertheless gives out a bad odor, and the leaves are shaped like that of the walnut tree. We saw also in the prairies a fruit like our filberts.

As we were descending the river we saw high rocks with hideous monsters painted on them, and upon which the bravest Indians dare not look. They are as large as a calf, with head and horns like a goat; their eyes red; beard like a tiger's; and a face like a man's. Their tails are so long that they pass over their heads and between their fore legs, under their belly, and ending like a fish's tail. They are painted red, green, and black. They are so well drawn that I cannot believe they were drawn by the Indians. And for what purpose they were made seems to me a great mystery. As we fell down the river, and while we were discoursing upon these monsters, we Page 292 heard a great rushing and bubbling of waters, and small islands of floating trees coming from the mouth of the Pekitanoni (the Missouri), with such rapidity that we could not trust ourselves to go near it. The water of this river is so muddy that we could not drink it. It so discolors the Mississippi as to make the navigation of it dangerous. This river comes from the north-west, and empties into the Mississippi, and on its banks are situated a number of Indian villages. We judged by the compass, that the Mississippi discharged itself into the Gulf of Mexico. It would, however, have been more agreeable if it had discharged itself into the South Sea or Gulf of California. The Indians told us that by ascending the Peketanoni, about six days' journey from its mouth, we would find a beautiful prairie twenty or thirty which is not difficult to navigate. This river runs towards the South-west for ten or fifteen leagues, after which it enters a small lake, which is the source of another deep river, running to the West, where it empties into the sea. I do not doubt that this is the Vermilion sea, and hope I shall have, one time or other, the oppurtunity of undertaking its discovery, and instructing the poor Indian who has been so long groping his way in heathen darkness. But leaving this digression, and now having escaped the dangers of being swamped by the current and floating timber of this rapid river, I return to the subject or our voyage. After having gone about tewnty leagues to the South, and alittle less to the South-east, we met another river called Ouabouskigou (the Ohio), which runs into the Mississippi in the latitude of 36 N. But before we arrived there, we passed through a most formidable passage to the Indians, who believe that a manitoa or demon resides there, to devour travelers, and which the Indians told us to make us abandon our voyage. This demon is only a bluff of rocks, twenty feet high, against which the river runs wiht great violence, and being thrown back by the rocks and island near it, the water makes a great noise and flows with great rapidity through a narrow channel, which is certainly dangerous to canoes. The Ouabouskigou (the Ohio) comes from the East. The Chouanous (the Shawanese) live on its banks, and are so numerous that I have been informed there are thirty-eight villages of that nation situated on this river: they are a very harmless people. The Iroquois are constantly making war upon them, without any provocation, because they have no firearms, and carrying them into captivity. At a little distance above the mouth of this river, our men discoverd some Page 293 banks of iron ore, of which they brought several specimens into our canoe. There is also here a kind of fat earth, of three different colors, purple, red, and yellow, which turns the water of the river into a deep-blood color. We also discovered a red sand which is very heavy. I put some of it upon my oar, which dyed it red. We had seen no reeds, or canes, but they now began to make their appearance, and grew so thick that cattle could not make their way through them. They are of an agreeable green color, and grow very high. Their tops are crowned with long and sharp leaves.

Up to the present time we had not seen any mosquitoes, but they now began to be very troublesome. The Indians who live in this part of the country, in order to protect themselves from the mosquitoes, are obliged to build their huts differently from other Indians. They drive into the ground long poles, very near one another, which support a large hurdle, upon which they lie, instead of a floor, and under which they make a fire. The smoke passes through it, and drives away the mosquitoes. The roof of the hurdle is covered with skins and bark, which protects them from rain, and the insupportable heat of their summers. For the same reason we were also obliged to make an awning over our canoes with our sails. As we were gliding along with the force of the current we perceived Indians on land armed with guns, waiting for us to come ashore. Our men prepared themselves to fight, and it was resolved to let them fire first. As we came near, I spoke to them in the language of the Hurons, and showed them my calumet of peace; but they would not answer me, which we took for a declaration of war.

We resolved, however, to pass them, and as we came nearer, they desired us, in a friendly manner, to come ashore. We therefore disembarked, and went to their village. They entertained us with buffalo and bear's meat, and white plums, which were excellent. We observed they had guns, knives, axes, shovels, glass beads, and bottles in which they put their powder. They wear their hair long as the Iroguois, and their women are dressed as the Hurons. They told us that they were only within ten days' journey of the sea; that they bought their goods from the Europeans, who live towards the east, that they had images and chaplets, and played upon musical instruments. That they were clothed as I was, and were very kind to them. However, I did not see anything about them that could persuade me that they had received any instructions about our holy religion. I endeavoured to give them a general idea of it, and presented them Page 294 with some medals to remind them of it. The account the Indians gave us of the sea was very encouraging, and therefore we applied our oars with great vigor, in hopes of seeing it very soon. The banks of the river began to be covered with high trees, which hindered us from observing the country as we had done all along. The elm, cotton, and cypress trees are beautiful on account of their size and height. We judged, from the bellowing of the buffaloes, that some prairies were near. We saw quails, and shot a parrot which had half of his head red, the neck yellow, and the rest of the body green. We soon descended to latitude 33 north, and found ourselves at a village on the river side called Mitchigamea.*

The Indians made a great noise, and appeared in arms, dividing themselves into three parties, one of which stood on the shore, while the others went into their canoes to intercept our retreat, and prevent our escape. They were armed with bows and arrows, clubs, axes, and bucklers, and commenced attacking us. Notwithstanding these preparations we invoked our patroness, the Holy Virgin, and rowed directly for the shore. As we came near, two young men threw themselves into the water to board my canoe, which they would have done had not the rapidity of the current prevented them; so they returned to the shore and threw their clubs at us, which passed over our heads. It was in vain I showed them the calumet, and made signs to them that we had not come to fight; they continued to surround us, and were about to pierce us on all sides with their arrows, when God suddenly touched their hearts, and the old men who stood upon the bank stopped the ardor of their young men, and made signs of peace, and came down to the shore, and throwing their bows and arrows into our canoes, made signs for us to come ashore, which we did, not, however, without some suspicions on our part.

I spoke to them in six different languages, but they did not understand any one of them. At last they brought to us an old man who spoke the Illinois, whom we told that we wished to go as far as the sea, and then made them some presents. They understood what I meant, but I am not sure they understood what I said to them of God, and things concerning their salvation. It was, however, seed thrown on ground which would in time become fruitful. They told us that at the next great village, called Arkansea, eight or ten leagues farther down the river, we could learn all about the sea. They feasted us

* An Indian village on the Mississippi, and supposed to be the site of the present town of Helena. Page 295 with sagamite and fish, and we passed the night with them, not, however, without some uneasiness. We embarked early next morning with our interpreters and ten Indians, who went before us in a canoe. Having arrived about half a league from Arkansea, we saw two canoes coming towards us. The captain of one was standing up holding the calumet in his hand, with which he made signs, according to the custom of the country. He afterwards joined us, inviting us to smoke, and singing pleasantly. He then gave us some sagamite and Indian bread to eat, and going before made signs for us to follow him, which we did, but at some distance. They had in the meantime prepared a kind of scaffold to receive us, adorned with fine mats, upon which we sat down with the old men and warriors. We fortunately found among them a young man who spoke Illinois much better than the interpreter whom we brought with us from Mitchigamea.* We made them some small presents, which they received with great civility, and seemed to admire what I told them about God, the creation of the world, and the mysteries of our holy faith, telling us, by the interpreter, that they wished us to remain with them for the purpose of instructing them.

We then asked them what they knew of the sea, and they said we were within ten days' journey of it, but we might perform it in five. That they were unacquainted with the nations below, because their enemies had prevented them from visiting them. That the hatchet, knives and beads had been sold to them by the nations of the East, and were in part brought by the Illinois, who live four days' journey to the West. That the Indians whom we had met with guns were their enemies, who hindered them from trading with the Europeans, and if we persisted in going any farther, we would expose ourselves to other nations who were their enemies. During this conversation they continued all day to feast us with sagamite, dog meat, and roasted corn out of large wooden dishes. These Indians are very courteous, and give freely of what they have, but their provisions are but indifferent, because they are afraid to go a hunting on account of their enemies. They make three crops of Indian corn a year. They roast and boil it in large earthen pots very curiously made. They have also large baked earth on plates, which they use for different purposes. The men go naked and wear their hair short. They pierce their noses and ears, and wear rings of glass beads in them.

* This name is still applied to a lake a little to the north of the river St. Francis. Page 296

The women cover themselves with skins, and divide their hair into two tresses, which they wear behind their back without any ornament. Their feasts are without any ceremony, they serve their meats in large dishes, and every one eats as much as he pleases. Their language is extremely difficult, and although I tried, I never could pronounce a word of it. Their cabins are made with the bark of trees, and are generally very wide and long. They lie at both ends on mats raised on a platform two feet higher than the floor. They keep their corn in panniers made of rushes. They have no beavers, and all their commodities are buffalo hides. It never snows in this country, and they have no other winter than continued heavy rains, which makes the difference between their summer and winter. They have no other fruit but watermelons, though their soil might produce any other, if they knew how to cultivate it. In the evening the chiefs held a secret council, wherein some proposed to kill us; but the great chief opposed this base design, and sent for us to dance the calumet, which he presented us with to seal our common friendship. M. Joliet and I held a council, to deliberate upon what we should do-whether to proceed further, or return to Canada, content with the discoveries we had made.

Having satisfied ourselves that the Gulf of Mexico was in latitude 31 40', and that we could reach it in three or four days' journey from the Akansea (Arkansas River), and that the Mississippi discharged itself into it, and not to the eastward of the Cape of Florida, nor into the California Sea, we resolved to return home. We considered that the advantage of our travels would be altogether lost to our nation if we fell into the hands of the Spaniards, from whom we could expect no other treatment than death or slavery; besides, we saw that we were not prepared to resist the Indians, the allies of the Europeans, who continually infested the lower part of this river; we therefore came to the conclusion to return, and make a report to those who had sent us. So that having rested another day, we left the village of the Akansea, on the seventeenth of July, 1673, having followed the Mississippi from the latitude of 42 to 34, and preached the Gospel to the utmost of my power, to the nations we visited. We then ascended the Mississippi with great difficulty against the current, and left it in the latitude of 38 north, to enter another river (Illinois), which took us to the lake of the Illinois (Michigan), which is a much shorter way than through the River Mesconsin (Wisconsin), by which we entered the Mississippi. Page 297

I never saw a more beautiful country than we found on this river. The prairies are covered with buffaloes, stags, goats, and the rivers and lakes with swans, ducks, geese, parrots, and beavers. The river upon which we sailed was wide, deep and placid for sixty-five leagues, and navigable most all the year round. There is a portage of only half a league into the lake of the Illinois (Michigan). We found on the banks of this river, a village called Kuilka, consisting of seventy-four cabins. They received us very kindly, and we promised to return to instruct them. The chief, with most of the youth of this village, accompanied us to the lake, from whence we returned to the Bay of Puans (Green Bay), about the end of September.* If my perilous journey had been attended with no other advantage than the salvation of one soul, I would think my perils sufficiently rewarded. I preached the Gospel to the Illinois of Perouacca for three days together. My instructions made such an impression upon this poor people, that as soon as we were about to depart they brought to me a dying child to baptize, which I did, about half an hour before he died, and which, by a special providence, God was pleased to save. * The following table of distances offer the best means of forming some idea of the whole distance passed over by Marquette and Joliet in this tour.

MILES From Green Bay (Puans) up Fox River to the portage,

175 From the portage down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi,

175 From the mouth of the Wisconsin to the mouth of the Arkansas, 1087 From the Arkansas to the Illinois River,

547 From the mouth of the Illinois to Chicago,

305 From Chicago to Green Bay by the lake shore,

260

____

2549

Notes

  1. Capuchin A Catholic friar.


Text prepared by:



Source

Cable, George Washington. "Posson Jone'" and P�re Rapha�l: With a New Word Setting Forth How and Why the Two Tales Are One. Illus. Stanley M. Arthurs. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909. Google Books. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://books. google.com/books?id=bzhLAAAAIAAJ>.

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