Page:California Digital Library (IA historyofkansas00hollrich).pdf/27



As the territory of the State of Kansas is a part of the Louisiana purchase, I will first give a succinct account of the discovery, exploration and settlement of that province; of the many changes in ownership which it underwent, and the final division and organization of its broad domain into territories and states to form integral parts in the American Union.

Forty-four years after the western shores of the Atlantic had been discovered and before any settlements had been effected thereon, the first Europeans traversed the valley of the Mississippi. Ferdinand De Soto, a man of valor, fame, and fortune, headed this expedition. An intimate associate of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, he shared in the immense ransom of the Inca. Returning to his native land, he enjoyed the admiration and honors of Spain. Charles V. appointed him governor of Cuba, and gave him a grant of Florida. His ambition inflamed by the adulations of the court, his avarice more craving by the taste of riches, he sought to surpass Cortes in glory and Pizarro in wealth by seeking a new field for fame and riches in America. With six hundred chosen men he disembarked in 1538 at Tampa Bay, in Florida, and began his memorable march through the savage wilds of the interior. After two years of wandering through swamps and brush, over ragged hills and