Rio Grande, as they called it; but, when they had reached the opposite shore, the complete desertion of Aquixo's town convinced them, that their violence was as impolitic as it was inhuman. The villages along the river were so frequent, that, from one, you might see two or three; and, as far as the sway of this king extended, the inhabitants fled before their 'pious? conquerors. The people of Casqui had no tidings of these Christian deliverers; and not only were they taken, and their towns sacked, without resistance,— but, to pay for their illumination, they were compelled to build a bridge over the stream, which divided their own territory from that of the people of Pacaha. The king of the latter was invited to an interview with the governor; but he, too, was, at first, insensible to the charms of a religion, propagated by the shaft and the cutlass. His towns were all abandoned to the meek followers of the cross; who found great numbers of mantles, besides deer, lion, bear, and cats' skins: and, having worn out their old garments, they made themselves new.

It was upon the 19th of June, that the governor entered the chief city of Pacaha. 'It was,' says the historian, 'very great; walled, and beset with towers, and many loopeholes were in the towers and wall. And in the towne was great store of old maiz, and great quantitie of new in the fields. Within a league

and half a league were great townes, all walled. Where the governor was lodged, was a great lake, that came neere unto the wall: and it entered into a ditch that went round about the towne, wanting but little to enuiron it round. From the lake to the Great River was mad a weare, by which the fish came into it; which the cacique kept for his recreation and sport: with nets, that were found in the towne, they took as much as they would.'

The Pacahans appear to have been sufficiently civilized to erect those mounds, along the Mississippi, which have occasioned so much wonder; and the passage, just extracted, forms a strange contrast to the description of a people, who were found in the same neighbourhood, about one hundred and forty years after the expedition of De Soto. In the place of splendid towns, with walls and battlements, there was here and there a cluster of hovels, composed of rough poles, set in a circle, or in parallel lines; united at the top; and covered with bark or skins: not intended for a permanent habitation,-but as a mere temporary shelter.* Such a thing as a tower seems never to

* JOVTEL'S Journal Historique du dernier Voyage que feu M. DE LA SALE fit, &c. A Paris. MDCCXIII. Accounts of this expedition have also been given by LE CLERC, TONTY, and HENNEPIN. Jovtel appears to be the most worthy of credit. His narrative is related with great simplicity; and he does not seem to have been predisposed to find monsters. The account of La Salle's death bespeaks its own fidelity; and, in

have entered their imaginations; and, instead of 'great gallies,' they had 'petits canots.' The manners of the inhabitants were on a level with the style of their architecture. Their utmost ideas of pomp did not extend beyond a tumultuous concourse of warriors, bedecked with painted feathers, deer skin, and bits of cloth; shaking gourds filled with pebble stones; and, when at a short distance from their guests, tossing up their right hands, and whooping with all their might.*

the quarrel, which began the tragedy, the reader may discover a trait of national character. It arose upon a difference of opinion respecting the mode of cooking some buffaloe's meat. "En arrivant,' says M. JOVTEL, le Sieur Moranget, (La Salle's nephew,) trouva qu'on avoit fait boucanner les deux bœufs, quoiqu'ils ne fussent pas assez secs. Et comme les dits Liotot, Hiens, Duhaut, et les autres avoient mis les os à moüelle, et autres à part, pour rôtir, et manger la viande qui y reste comme c'estoit la coutume, le Sieur Moranget le trouva mauvais; il se saisit en colère non seulement de toute la viande boucannée; mais encore de tous ces os, sans leur en rien donner; au contraire en les menaçant qu'ils ne mangeroient pas tant comme ils pensoient, et qu'il pretendoit bien ménager autrement cette viande.' p. 196. Such an affront could only be revenged by the death both of Moranget and La Salle. Liotot and his others watched their opportunity; dispatched the former with a hatchet; shot the latter through the heart, and stript and insulted his body. Litot luy dit bien souvent par dérison, Te voilà grand Bacha, te voilà.' pp. 197, 203.

*Jov. p. 213. In one place the ceremony was still more ludicrous. 'Les officiers (de le chef,) estoient au nombre de sept ou huit, toujours autour de luy, tout nuds, et barboüillez, les uns d'une façon, et les autres de l'autre ; chacun d'eux avoit trois ou quatre callebasses ou gourdes attachées à une ceinture de cuir autour d'eux, dans lesquelles il y avoit

At the time of De Soto's expedition the kings of Pacaha and Casqui were at war; and, it ought to be mentioned for the singularity of the example, that the governor restored their friendship, and invited them to his table. They fell at variance,' however, 'about the seates, which of them should sit on his right hand; and he was obliged to renew his, negotiation to keep them quiet. They diverted him with stories of gold and copper mines in a northern province; and, having tarried forty days, to refresh his troops, he again set off in pursuit of the darling object. On the 5th of August, he arrived at Quigaute, the largest town in Florida. He now began to be told, that he should go south, if he wanted to find wealthy countries; but, as he had heard of Coligoa, a mountainous kingdom to the north, he supposed himself in the right track for mineral regions; and, travelling forty leagues, through thickets and morasses, he came, at length, in sight of the golden hills. Coligoa was very fruitful; and the inhabitants had laid up such stores of maize, 'that they cast out the old to bring in the new.' All this, however, was not gold. To the south, the king assured the governor, there was a rich province called Cayas: to the south, therefore,

de petits cailloux, et sur le derriere pendoit aussi une queue de cheval, en sorte que quand ils couroient, les gourdes fasoient un cliquetis, et la queue portée au gré du vent avoit toute son étendue, &c. p. 312.

he now bent his course; and, in five days, arrived at Palisema. The king vacated his own house for his reception; and the floor was found covered, 'in manner of carpets,' with deer skins painted in various colours and devices. He stopped at another town, named Tatalicoya; and, in four days, reached Tanico, in Cayas.

Here he remained a month. Vntill that time,' says our author, 'the Christians wanted salt; and there they made good store, which they carried along with them. The Indians doe carrie it to other places to exchange for skinnes and mantles. They make it along the riuer, which, where it ebbeth, leaveth it vpon the vpper part of the sand. And because they cannot make it without much sand mingled with it, they throw it into certain baskets, which they have for that purpose, broad at the mouth, and narrow at the bottom, and set it in the aire vpon a barre, and throw water into it, set a small vessel under it, wherein it falleth: Being strained and set to boile vpon the fire, when the sodden away, the salt remaineth in the bottome of the pan.' In other places the Indians manufactured great stores of salt by evaporating the brackish water,' which sprang from fountains; and, as it was exchanged for skins and mantles, the tribes, for a great extent of territory, must have been in the habit of using it. Our present