chanted their
Christian hymns, and offered fervent prayers. The Mississippi at this
point is not very broad, and it is said that upon the opposite bank
twenty thousand natives were assembled, watching with intensest
interest the imposing ceremony, and apparently, at times, taking part
in the exercises. When the priests raised their hands in prayer, they,
too, extended their arms and raised their eyes, as if imploring the
aid of the God of heaven and of earth.

Occasionally a low moan was heard wafted across the river--a wailing
cry, as if woe-stricken children were imploring the aid of an Almighty
Father. The spirit of De Soto was deeply moved to tenderness and
sympathy as he witnessed this benighted people paying such homage to
the emblem of man's redemption. After several prayers were offered,
the whole procession, slowly advancing two by two, knelt before the
cross, as in brief ejaculatory prayer, and kissed it. All then
returned with the same solemnity to the village, the priests chanting
the grand anthem, "Te Deum Laudamus."

Thus more than three hundred years ago the cross, significant of the
religion of Jesus, was planted upon the banks of the Mississippi, and
the melody of Christian hymns was wafted across the silent waters, and
was blended with the sighing of the breeze through the tree-tops. It
is sad to reflect how little of the spirit of that religion has since
been manifested in those realms in man's treatment of his brother man.

It is worthy of especial notice that upon the night succeeding this
eventful day clouds gathered, and the long-looked-for rain fell
abundantly. The devout Las Casas writes:

"God, in his mercy, willing to show these heathen that he
listeneth to those who call upon him in truth, sent down, in
the middle of the ensuing night, a plenteous rain, to the
great joy of the Indians."

CHAPTER XVIII.

_Vagrant Wanderings._

Trickery of Casquin.--The March to Capaha.--The Battle and
its Results.--Friendly Relations with Capaha.--The Return
Journey.--The Marsh Southward.--Salt Springs.--The Savages
of Tula.--Their Ferocity.--Anecdote.--Despondency of De
Soto.

It is painful to recall the mind from these peaceful, joy-giving,
humanizing scenes of religion, to barbaric war--its crime, carnage,
and misery. It is an affecting comment upon the fall of man, that far
away in this wilderness, among these tribes that might so have blessed
an