had lain, musty and begrimed with the dust of ages, an
unread and forgotten story of suffering that has no parallel in fiction.
The distinguished antiquarian unearthed the valuable manuscript from its
grave of oblivion, translated it into English, and gave it to the world
of letters; conferring honour upon whom honour was due, and tearing the
laurels from such grand voyageurs and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle,
and Coronado, upon whose heads history had erroneously placed them,
through no fault, or arrogance, however, of their own.

Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for many
miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, a little east
of Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on into New Mexico,
following the famous highway as far, at least, as Las Vegas. Cabeca's
march antedated that of Coronado by five years. To this intrepid Spanish
voyageur we are indebted for the first description of the American
bison, or buffalo as the animal is erroneously called. While not so
quaint in its language as that of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later,
the statement cannot be perverted into any other reference than to the
great shaggy monsters of the plains:--

Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times
and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size
of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows
of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that
of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my
judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this
country. The Indians make blankets of the hides of those
not full grown. They range over a district of more than
four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over
which they run the people that inhabit near there descend
and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout
the country.

It will be remembered by the student of the early history of our
country, that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the
unfortunate Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead,
landed in Spain, he gave such glowing accounts of Florida[1] and the
neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, and many a
heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits were perennial, and
where it was thought flowed the fabled fountain of youth.

Thr