fles; they were ready with their simple medicines to heal his diseases and his wounds; they would wade through rivers, and climb rocks and mountains to guide him in his way, and they would remember and requite his kindness more than it deserved.

Unhappily for them, they set too high a value on their new guest. Imagining him to be of a heavenly origin, they were extravagant and unguarded in their first attachment, and, from some specimens of his superiority, obvious to their senses, they expected more than ought ever to be expected from beings of the same species. But when the mistake was discovered, and the stranger whom they had adored proved to be no more than human, having the same inferior desires and passions with themselves-especially when they found their confidence misplaced and their generous friendship ill requited-then the rage of jealousy extinguished the virtue of benevolence, and they struggled to rid themselves of him as an enemy whom they had received into their bosom as a friend.

On the other hand, it was too common for the European adventurer to regard the man of nature as an inferior being; and, while he availed himself of his strength and experience,

to abuse his confidence, and repay his kindness with insult and injury, to stigmatize him as a heathen and a savage, and to bestow on him the epithets of deceitful, treacherous, and cruel, though he himself had first set the example of these detestable vices.

VI. FERDINANDO DE SOTO.*

THE travels and transactions of this adventurer are of so little importance in the history of America, that I should not have thought them worthy of much notice had it not been that some gentlemen of ingenuity and learning have had recourse to the expedition of this Spaniard as a means of solving the question respecting the mounds and fortifications of a regular construction which, within a few years past, have been discovered in the thickest shades of the American forest.† Though the opinion seems to have been candidly given up by one of the writers who attempted to defend it, yet, as what was published on the subject may have impressed some persons with an idea that these works were of Euro

* [A minute and circumstantial narrative of De Soto's expedition was written by a "Portugese gentleman of Elvas," who accompanied him. It was translated about 1562, and is cited in these notes as the Relation.--H.]

+ If the reader wishes to see a particular investigation of this hypothesis, he may consult the American Magazine, printed at New-York, for December, 1787, January and February, 1788, and some subsequent numbers, compared with the Columbian Magazine, printed at Philadelphia, for September and November, 1788.

pean fabric, I shall briefly relate the history of Soto's march, and the difficulties which attend the supposition that he was the builder of any of these fortifications.

After the conquest of Mexico and Peru in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the inextinguishable thirst for gold which had seized the Spanish adventurers prompted them to search for that bewitching metal wherever there could be any prospect of finding it. Three unsuccessful attempts had been made in Florida by Ponce, Gomez, and Narvaez; but, because these adventurers did not penetrate the interior parts of the Continent, FERDINANDO DE SOTO,† governor of

*

* [See Chronological Detail, &c.-H.]

+ [De Soto was born at Xeres de Bajados (but, according to Garcilaso, at Villa Nuova de Barcarota, in Estremadura: see also Biog. Univ.), of a respectable family, but not distinguished for rank or wealth. By virtue of his natural energy and enthusiasm he became interested in the then popular adventures in America, where he served under Pedrarias Davila, governor of Darien, having "no more estate than a sword and buckler." With Pizarro in the conquest of Peru he commanded a troop of horse, and gained much reputation as well as wealth. His share of the spoils in that expedition is said to have been 180,000 crowns of gold. On his return to Spain he appeared at court with a magnificent retinue and equipage, "resolved to make himself be taken notice of by a sumptuous expense, though otherwise he had no inclination to liberality." Here he married the daughter of Pedrarias, and received the favourable notice of the emperor, who now made him governor of Cuba, and added

Cuba, who had been a companion of the P1zarros in their Peruvian expedition, and had there amassed much wealth, projected a march into Florida, of which country he had the title of adelantado, or president. He sailed from the port of Havanna May 18, 1539, with nine vessels, six hundred men,* two hundred and thirteen horses, and a herd of swine, and arrived on the 30th of the same month in the Bay of Espiritu Santo, on the western coast of the peninsula of Florida.

Being a soldier of fortune and determined on conquest, he immediately pitched his camp and secured it. A foraging party met with a few Indians, who resisted them; two were killed; the others escaped, and reported to

the title of "marquis of the lands which he might conquer." His inclination to invade Florida was strengthened, if not originated, by the narrative of Cabeça de Vaca, one of the survivers of the unfortunate expedition of Narvaez, who represented it as one of the richest countries in the world. Soto quickly assembled a company for this purpose, among whom were many cavaliers of quality from Spain and Portugal. He equipped seven ships, and sailed from St. Lucar in the month of April, 1538. In the year which elapsed before he left Cuba for Florida, he sent two expeditions to explore the coast and select a suitable place for landing. The fleet with which he sailed from Havanna consisted of five ships, two caravels, and two brigantines, with six hundred men.-H.]

* In Prince's Chronology it is said that Soto had 900 men but he quotes Purchas for his authority, in whose book the number is "sir hundred."