Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/65

54 54 OFF FOR NEW SPAIN. ■with feed and water enough for the voyage. There- ■was only an upper deck, partly covered. Just com- pare this ship with one now plying between New York and Spain. These modern vessels think nothing of carrying 800 head of hve cattle, 300 horses and 1200 dressed beeves in refrigetatoriS, 'with: fresh -water, and feed for the voyage across the Atlantic, as well as hundreds of people as passengers. It is a very easy task to transport our hero and his company across the water on paper, but in those days it took patiekce, endurance, and pluck, but as usual the last named landed Alonso at Vera Cruz on the coast of I few Spain in the Gulf of Mexico. An examination of the map discloses the fact that this port is about 180 miles- from Mexico, the then capital of New Spain. It must further be remembered that this port of Vera Cruz in those days had no wall for the shipto come along side, that its cargo and live stock could be unloaded, but the horses and men were com- pelled to struggle through the surf as best they could, and here our hero first was able to show his superiority over his fellows, for was not his armor and fire-arms lighter? and did he not have a horse which he had trained from a colt to swim and do many" useful things unusual in the average horse? Here Alonso showed the stuff that was in him, and, although lie had enlisted as a subaltern, yet the offi- cer's soon marked him as a man of promise. You naturally ask, what did he do to attract this attention? Just fancy yourself on a vessel of the kind then anchored off shore in the year 1539, nearly a mile from land. Then contemplate the scene -when it