Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/77

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 17 new-found friends, the Spaniards, the eaciiine saw a means by which he and his people might be liberated from the power of the Capahas. Accordingly when De Soto was ready to depart toward the north the ca- cique begged leave to accompany him with two bodies of his people. ' ' For, ' ' he said, ' ' the way is long and arduous. Roads are to be cut. the swamps are to be crossed, and the baggage of the army to be carried through the rough woods of the way." Accordingly, De Soto was accompanied by three thousand In- dians, w'ho carried the luggage of the expe- dition, and by a body of five thousand war- riors, gay with plumes and war-paint and armed with all the weapons of savage war- fare. Of course we are to understand that these numbers have been greatly exaggerated in the telling by the chroniclers of the expe- dition. No such numbers of savages could have been gathered together in that region. Still we are to suppose that many accom- panied the expedition, perhaps the whole force which the cacique could muster, for he meant, now to avenge himself on his hated enemies, the Capahas. On taking up the march, the cacique took the lead with his men, dividing them into squadrons and marching in what the Spanish called good military array. The reason given for the arrangement of men was that the Indians were to clear the roads and prepare the camps in advance of the expedition. On the third day of the march they came to a miry swamp which contained within its cen- ter a lake or gulf which was probably a part of the old channel of the Mississippi. This swamp discharged itself into the river and was about half a bowshot across and was deep and .sluggish. Over this the Indians con- structed a bridge of logs, over which the men passed while the horses of the expedition swam. This lake with a miry swamp about its edge was ciuite probably one of the slug- gish streams which break the sandy ridge up which De Soto was pursuing his march. This ridge extends through the counties of New Madrid, Mississippi, and Scott. It is broken at a number of places by streams which carry part of the drainage from the basin of Little river to the IMississippi. It is impossible to know which one of these is meant from the early accounts, but it is evident that one of them is referred to, if we accept the general course of his march as here outlined. That march must have carried him from near the site of New Madrid across lakes, bayous, swamps, along the sandy ridge through the edge of ]Iississippi county, east of tlie hills in Scott county, to the swamp lying south- west of Cape Girardeau. Having crossed on the improvised bridge of of logs, De Soto and his men found them- selves on what is described as meadows. Here they encamped, charmed by the beauty of the landscape, the luxuriance of the foli- age and the abundance of the flowers. From. this place he continued his .journey north foi' two days. On the third day he came to some elevated ridges from which he saw the forti- fied camp of the chief of the Capahas. This town was itself on a high hill or mound. "It was nearly encircled b.v a deep moat fifty paces in breadth ; and where the moat did not extend, was defended by a strong wall of plaster and timber such as has already been described. The moat was filled with water by a canal cut from the Mississippi river, which was three leagues distant. The canal was deep and sufficiently wide for two canoes to pass abreast without touching one another's paddles. The canal and moat were filled with fish, so as to supply all the wants of the army