onate farewell. He also had his soldiers introduced by
twenties, endeavored to cheer their drooping spirits, (who were now
inconsolable at the loss of their great leader,) exhorted them to keep
together, share each other's burthens, and endeavor to reach their
native country, which he was never to see. To conceal his body from
the brutalities of the natives, it was encased in an oaken trough, and
silently plunged in the middle of the channel, at the dark and gloomy
hour of midnight, and the muddy waters washed the bones of one of the
noblest sons of Spain![A] Thus was the Adelantado of Florida the first
to behold the Mississippi river; the first to close his eyes in death
upon it, and the first to find a grave in its deep and turbid channel.

[Footnote A: See "Monette's History of the Mississippi Valley," vol.
I., from pp. 16, to 64. This learned man and eloquent writer has
given a most interesting account of De Soto's expedition. His work is
recently published, and should be extensively read by the people of
the south-west particularly.]

Muscoso and his remaining troops, now annoyed by the natives, by
hunger and disease, built some vessels, and dropped down the river,
in the hopes of reaching Cuba. And three hundred and thirty years ago
these adventurers silently floated by the spot where New Orleans now
stands! No hand had ever felled a tree,--no civilized voice had ever
echoed among the forests of that place. But nature, eternal nature,
ruled supreme. The poor fellows went out at one of the mouths of the
river, and a tremendous tornado encountered and dispersed them. But
few lived to reach home.

The several journalists of that expedition describe the Mississippi
river of that day exactly as it is at present, in respect to several
things, "a river so broad that if a man stood still on the other side,
it could not be discerned whether he was a man or not. The channel
was very deep, the current strong, the water muddy and filled with
floating trees."

A long century was added to the age of the world before the
Mississippi river was beheld again by civilized man. Col. Woods, of
the Virginia colony next saw it, and crossed it. Marquette, in 1673,
started at its source, and came down as far as the Arkansas. The
Chevalier de la Salle, some years after this, commenced near its head
and descended to the gulf, with seventeen men. Having returned to
France, he fitted out an expedition, but his vessels were unable to
find