Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/64

53 ODK HERO'S EQUIPMENT. 53 i afe that Alonso delighted to converse upon and, with- out donht, is one upon which much could be written. But what about our hero's other equipment? His armor was in those days even before his good horse and by reason of his father's influence, being close , friends of many military men who had been to New Spain, and from information obtained, Alonso con- , eluded to have his armor made especially for service in the New World, and aU through the adventures in which he took part it will be seen what a great advantage it gave him over his comrades. The men who had seen service in New Spain Iniew that the natives of the newly found country had no knowledge of fire-arms, they being confined to the use of spears, darts, their most powerful implement of warfare being the bow and arrow, but their arrows were pointed with flint and vv'henevor they struck iron they invariahly broke; so Alonso had his suit of armor made to order and very light so that he could handle himself more casiljr thfin the average knight could- with the usual woiglit of harness upon his body. Again, the good rcasoniiipj powers of our young hero caused him to have an harquebus made lijjhter than the averapc, conclu Jiug thai; he Avould be able to get nearer tlic enemy; hence it would be unnecessary for him to have so cumbersome a gun to carry as oth- ers used. This, with the reduction in weight of his ai-moi", gave him a tremendous advantage over the whole of the army, either on the march or in battle. But be is all ready to start, and now he is on board of a vessel, considered a large one in those da^^g^It had one hundred people, with ten horses,