_Mavila_. may possibly be what has since been called _Mobile_, and the
_Rio Grande_ or great river was most probably the Mississippi. All the
other points are involved in impenetrable obscurity, or would require an
extended discussion inadmissible on the present occasion. In the course
of the chapter some conjectures will be attempted respecting the
geography of the wanderings of Soto, and his adventurous followers,
whose sole object appears to have been to search for mines of the
precious metals, in which they were altogether unsuccessful.

One circumstance, to be gathered from the peregrinations of Soto seems
worthy of remark; that the scattered tribes then occupying the southern
portion of North America which he visited, were more agricultural than
when the country came afterwards to be colonized by the English, and not
addicted to the horrible practices of the North American savages of
torturing their prisoners taken in war. Perhaps they were afterwards
extirpated by a more savage race from the northwest, who have no
hereditary chiefs, as were found by Soto. From these differences, and
their worship of the sun and moon, the tribes met with by Soto were
probably branches of the Natches, a nation which will be described in
the sequel of this work, and which does not now exist.

SECTION I.

_Discovery of Florida, by Juan Ponce de Leon_.

After the settlement of Hispaniola in peace by Obando, Juan Ponce de
Leon was appointed lieutenant of the town and territory of Salveleon in
that island. Learning from the Indians of that district that there was
much gold in the island of Borriquen, now called San Juan de Puerto
Rico, or Porto Rico, he procured authority from Obando to go over to
that island, which he reduced[122]. He was afterwards appointed by the
king of Spain to the government of that island, independent of the
admiral Don James Columbus. In a war between De Leon and the natives,
wonderful havoc was made among these poor people by a dog belonging to
the governor, called Bezerillo, insomuch that the Indians were more
afraid of ten Spaniards with this dog than of a hundred without him, on
which account the dog was allowed a share and a half of all the plunder,
as if he had been a cross-bow-man, both in gold, slaves, and other
things, all of which was received by his master[123].

[Footnote 122: Herrera, I. 327.]

[Footnote 123: Herrera, I. 339.]

Having acquired much wealth, and being deprived of the gov