of the expedition,
'smooth and wearisome and bare of wood. All that way the plains
are as full of crookback oxen (buffaloes) as the mountain Serena
in Spain is of sheep. They were a great succor for the hunger
and want of bread which our people stood in. One day it rained
in that plain a great shower of hail as big as oranges, which
caused many tears, weaknesses, and vows.' The wanderer ventured
as far as the Missouri, and would have gone still farther
eastward but for his inability to cross the swollen river.
Cooperating parties explored the upper valleys of the Rio Grande
and Gila, ascended the Colorado for two hundred and forty miles
above its mouth, and visited the Grand Canon of the same river.
Coronado at last returned, satisfied that he had been victimized
by the idle tales of travelers. He was rewarded with contumely
and lost his place as governor of New Galicia; but his romantic
march stands in history as one of the most remarkable exploring
expeditions of modern times."

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was born at Salamanca, in Spain,
about 1500, and died in Mexico some time after 1542. He is believed
to have gone to Mexico in 1535 with Mendoza, the viceroy, who, in
1539, made him governor of a province.

[2] Marcos is here referred to.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI BY DE SOTO

(1541)

PARKMAN'S ACCOUNT[1]

Hernando de Soto was the companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru.
He had come to America a needy adventurer, with no other fortune than
his sword and target. But his exploits had given him fame and fortune,
and he appeared at court with the retinue of a nobleman. Still, his
active energies could not endure repose, and his avarice and ambition
goaded him to fresh enterprises. He asked and obtained permission to
conquer Florida. While this design was in agitation, Cabeca de Vaca,
one of those who had survived the expedition of Narvaez, appeared in
Spain, and for purposes of his own, spread abroad the mischievous
falsehood that Florida was the richest country yet discovered. De
Soto's plans were embraced with enthusiasm. Nobles and gentlemen
contended for the privilege of joining his standard; and, setting sail
with an ample armament, he landed at the Bay of Espiritu Santo, now
Tampa Bay, in Florida, with six hundred and twenty chosen men, a band
as gallant and well appoint