Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/451

Rh gallant, with silk upon silk,” along the shore between the sea and the unknown land which they believed to be full of gold and great cities.

Ferdinand de Soto, who wished to prevent all possibility, either for himself or his troop, of retreat, which might be desired by fickleness or by fear, sent back all his vessels to Cuba, and advanced with his warriors into the wildernesses of the New World. They took with them weapons of all kinds, work-tools, as well as chains and bloodhounds for the subjection of the natives.

It was in the month of May, 1539.

And ever, as they advanced onward through the wilderness, mass was punctually performed by priests with all the pomp of Catholic observance, and ever as they advanced onward they practised cruelty against the natives, whilst in their own camp they occupied themselves with the excitement of desperate gaming.

The wanderings of the first year westward, thence into Georgia, which was then, like all the rest of the undetermined south-eastern continent, called Florida. Their journeyings were difficult and often dangerous from the hostility of the Indians. They found abundance of maize, but no gold and no cities, only small Indian villages. Nor could the natives inform them of any land in which gold was to be found. Some of the adventurers now desired that their leader should turn back, but he replied—

“I will not turn back till I have seen the poverty of the country with my own eyes.”

And he ordered the Indians to be burned or mutilated, in the belief they had intentionally misled him. Other captive Indians, alarmed at this, assured him that gold might be found further towards the north-west. And De Soto and his men journeyed on still farther, plundering and desolating as they went.

The second year brought them into the highlands of