Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/81

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 21 lowlands oT Stoddard and Butler county, then reached the foothills of the Ozarks and fol- lowed them to near the headwaters of the St. Francois or the Black, in the granite hills of St. Francois county. This is the conclusion of most of the men who have made a study of the probable course of De Soto's wanderings, among them Nuttall, Schoolcraft, and Houck. Some others, however, conclude that he was farther west, perhaps in Southwest Missouri. From Caligoa the expedition turned to the south and west seeking now for the Cayas or Kansas Indians, and with this part of his journey he is carried from out the territory of Southeast Missouri. With his subsequent wanderings, the sufferings and hardships he encountered, and his tragic fate we are not directly concerned. Suffice it to say that after long wanderings he reached the Missis- sippi near the mouth of the Red river, sick, broken in mind and body. Here, to his con- sternation, he was told that the lower reaches of the river instead of being populated with towns and settlements where he coiild find for his men food and shelter, were practically uninhabited and impassable, that he might hope for little help or guidance there and less of food and other supplies. And, so, at last, after three years of wanderings, after untold hardships, after having surmounted countless obstacles, and traversed enormous reaches of the great continent where the foot of white men had never before trod, after hav- ing inflicted untold suffering and cruelty on the helpless Indians, his dreams of wealth and conquest all dissipated, having conquered no great cities and found no El Dorado, the spirit of the great Conquistador, the com- panion of Avila and Cortez was at last broken. In the midst of the savage forest, surrounded by hostile Indians, far from his home, dis- appointed, and despairing, he lay down to die. At night, by the dim light of torches, clad in full armor, his broken and wasted body was lowered into the great river which he discovered, and the long wanderings, the brilliant hopes, the troubled, cruel life of De Soto were at an end. It will always be a matter of regret to those who are interested in the history of their country, that the exact route of De Soto can- not be traced with certainty. Surely we should be glad if we might but know what his exact course through Southeast Missouri was. It would be interesting to retrace the route over which he wandered, to compare the places now, with the description given of them by the Spaniards who followed him. But such certainty is no longer possible. Time has swept away the last traces of his expedition. The very surface of the earth has changed in the nearly four hundred years that have elapsed. The great river has changed its course from side to side of the wide allu- vial bottom since then, sweeping away the very ground, a mighty earthquake has changed some of the topography of the coun- try through which he passed, mighty forests have sprung up, all the forces of nature have combined through the years to change the character of the surface of the earth. And so it is that we may never be sure of the way over which he passed. Time was wlien it might have been ascertained. Doubtless when the first Missouri settlements were formed at Ste. Genevieve, New Madrid, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, traces of that first historic march through Missouri might have been found. But our fathers w'ere too much occupied with the struggle for existence to give their time to hunting for traces of long vanished men.