Soto was hoping to effect his objects in the course of the winter, when a disease, of which the foundation had probably been laid by disappointment, carried him off, after an illness of seven days. Soto seems to have merited a less dark close to his adventurous ca

reer.

The Portuguese narrator calls him valorous, virtuous, and valiant. He was imbued, indeed, with the same unjust and tyrannical principles which actuated the other conquerors of America, and which were sanctioned in their eyes by false principles, both of loyalty and religion; but he tempered these principles with singular humanity, and combined daring valour with a good deal of prudence and discretion. Had the plan of settling Florida not been frustrated by the fierce valour of the natives, it might have been effected under better auspices than the other and more splendid conquests and establishments of the Spanish nation.*

On the death of Soto, a deep and general despondency seized the expedition. After a short deliberation, it was resolved to follow out the design on which their hearts had long been fixed, of renouncing Florida for ever, and shaping their way by the most direct course to Mexico. Their first project was to follow in the footsteps of Nugnez, and proceed direct across the continent. This they hoped to effect by marching due west, turning neither to the right nor the left; and in this way they made a hundred leagues full speed, never inquiring what countries

they were going through, or holding any communication with the inhabitants. By this blind advance, however, they found themselves entangled in wild and dreary forests, and saw before them a chain of rugged and trackless mountains. These were probably a branch of the Apalachians, which they might have avoided by a slight detour; but they were discouraged, and determined to hasten back to the Chucagua, and there to construct a flotilla, which might convey them to Mexico. They suffered much, however, on the road, both by the scarcity of provisions, the severe cold, and the incessant hostility of the natives. On reaching the river, they seized on Aminoia, a considerable place, composed of two contiguous towns. The natives did not willingly admit them, but were driven out after a short resistance.

As soon as the troops were refreshed from their fatigues, and the rigour of the winter was over, Moscoso, who had succeeded to the command, caused the Spaniards to apply with the utmost vigour to the building of seven brigantines, which were judged sufficient to embark the remaining troops. They now learned that a general confederacy had been formed among the neighbouring tribes, having in view their final destruction. An envoy from one of the Caciques privately assured the Indian female captives, that they would soon be delivered from the odious yoke of the strangers, whose heads, stuck on lances, would adorn the porches of the temples, while their bodies, suspended from the tops of trees, would become the prey of the birds. These fair prisoners, moved either by pity or a tenderer sentiment, gave notice of the design. But a force which was estimated, though probably much too high, at thirty or forty thousand men, opposed to a number now less than five hundred, and with only a small remnant of the horses, which had chiefly inspired the natives with terror, could look forward only to a very doubtful issue of the contest. They thought themselves, therefore, fortunate in being delivered from it by a great inundation of the river, which converted all the surrounding plain into a sea, and made the streets of Aminoia itself passable only in canoes. They were thus enabled by the end of July to complete their brigantines; but the enemy. now determined to attack them in the passage down the river. For this purpose they had provided nearly a thousand war-canoes, formed, indeed, only of a single tree, but larger than those in the rest of Florida. They were variously adorned with brilliant colours, -blue, yellow, red, and green; but each canoe, with the oars, and even the arrows and plumes of the boatmen, was all of one colour. It was learned from the interpreter that they spoke with contempt of the cowards who were flying before them in vain, but who had escaped being the prey of the dogs on land only to become that of the river-monsters. Accordingly, the voyage down for ten days was one continued battle, in which the Spaniards were obliged to remain strictly on the defensive, being not only few in number, but their ammunition nearly exhausted. Every one of them, notwithstanding his armour, was more or less wounded, and all their horses were killed except eight. Having got the start of the enemy by about a league, they landed at a village for a neces

sary supply of provisions; but were so closely followed, that they were obliged to abandon their horses, and saw miserably perish this remnant of the three hundred and fifty noble steeds which they had landed in Florida, and which had been a main instrument of their victories. Soon after, the Indians, by a feigned relaxation in the pursuit, induced three barks, with fifty-two men, rashly to separate from the rest, when they were suddenly surprised and enveloped, and the whole killed or drowned, with the exception of four. They continued to follow the Spaniards during that day and the following night; but next morning, when they saw the sun rise, they raised loud shouts, and sounded all their instruments in thanksgiving to that great luminary for the victory he had granted ;-they then desisted from the pursuit, which had been continued without intermission for four hundred leagues. Moscoso, with all that remained of his troops, reached the ocean without farther difficulty.*

The Portuguese narrator has given an estimate of the Spanish marches, which makes them amount in all to two thousand leagues, or above five thousand miles. This is certainly extravagant; yet they were very extensive, including, in various directions, the whole of Florida and Georgia, and even touching Carolina. Nothing, however, can be more misplaced than the title of " Conquest of Florida," which Spanish pride has not scrupled to affix to the narrative. With the exception of the deep track of blood

with which their steps were almost every where marked, the Spaniards left Florida as they had found it, in full possession of the native tribes.

The expedition proceeded along the Gulf without any vicissitudes but those to which such a voyage is incident, and arrived at the port of Panuco. Here their miserable state excited deep sympathy. Meagre, black, overwhelmed with fatigue, covered with skins, looking more like beasts than men, they received every charitable aid, were lodged and fed; and the benevolent confraternity of Mexico sent down shirts, shoes, medicines, and delicacies for the sick. By these applications, in the course of ten days they were revived and recruited; and they then began to look round for those treasures which, in failure of Florida, they had never doubted that Mexico would furnish. Mexico had sounded in their ears as a magic name, -a region where gold and silver would lie scattered in heaps, and could be collected without effort. Instead of this, they saw a dreary and barren country, without a particle of the precious metals, every repository of which, they learned, had been already occupied, and nothing left to glean. The Panucans, accordingly, were in very humble circumstances, having nothing but a few horses, and what they could wring from the ungrateful soil. To themselves there evidently remained nothing but hopeless beggary or daily labour. They were seized hereupon with a paroxysm of rage and regret at the idea of having left Florida, a fertile region, where they would have had a kingdom of their own, and might each have had a province to govern. Their fury vented itself chiefly against