The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1846-07-25
Discovery Of Mississippi.


main land of America, Ponce dc Leon
discovered Florida, in his romantic
search for the fountain of youth. This
was spring, which was extensively
believed at that day to possess the vir-
tue OF renewing the wasted powers of
life. Notwithstanding this charmed
power in the waters Of Florida, the
dlscoverer died mortal!y wounded in a
contest with the warIIke natives. He
was soon followed by various adven-
turers, British and Spanish. But Pam
philo de Narvaez and Hernando De
Soto, were the most Distinguished
The former is supposed to have landed,
on the 18th Of April, 1929, near the
bay now called Apalachee. After pas
sing six months in exploring Florida,
he coasted the southern margin of Mis-
slssipp, and the whole party except
four were shipwrecked near the mouth
Of the Mississippi. The survivors, af-
ter years of captivity and hardship
among the Indians, reached the city of
Mexico. De Soto, whose fame is so
well commemorated, in one of the
northern counties of the State, possibly
in the path of the ancient exploration,
next followed. THIS most remarkable
advenlurer, even at time and in ma
nation of unsurpassed enterprise, as if
destined to realize the widest visions
OF romance, had pal ticipated with Pizar-
ro in the conquest Of Peru. He had
realized in that fairy work, every thing,
it might be supposed, that love of fame
and wealth could desire. Still this
favorite of fortune, the pride Of the
Knights of Old CASTLE. painted to enter
twine his heroic and wayward fate
with the stately forests OF Mississippi.
His keen passion for adventure kin
died at the news brought to Spain, by
the surviving associates of Narvaez-
and he easily obtained from the partial
ity and confidence of Charles V. then
Emperor of Germany, and King of
Spain and the Indians, the government
Of Cuba and Of Florida.
In May, 1889, better than 800 years
ago, the Adelantado of Florida landed
at the Bay Of Espiritu Santo, the Tam
pa Bay of our modern topography
Hence, after establishing a depot at
the bay of Achusl, the modern Pensa-
cola. and concerting communications
with his noble wife, whom he had left
in charge of his government, at Ha-
vana, he proceeded into the interior.
Without expatiating on the desperate
and gallant contests between the ma
tive sons of the forest, (most probably
the ancestors OF the Seminoles) and |
their warlike invaders, | will barely |
select a few of the most prominent and !
interesting points, which have been
identified in this, the boldest of the |
European explorations of Alabama,
Miss. and Arkansas. Tuscaluza. or
Tuscaloosa, as it is now written, is first
presented. He was, says the Peruvian
historian, "one of the most polite,
proud, and warlike of the native chief
tains of the south" He has left his
name indelibly stamped in a river, and |
the capitol Of the neighboring State of
Alabama. His territories must have
a great part of what are now
the States of Alabama and Mississippi.
The Spanards entered his town of
Manvila, evidently the origin of Mo-
bile,) which is supposed to have stood
about the junction of the Tombigbee
and the Alabama rivers. Here was
The scene OF one of the boodiest battles
between the natives and their invaders.
The ruins of this town, sacked and
burned by the Spaniards, became the
tomb of the heroic chief of Tuscaloosa,
and several thousand of his subjects
The plain around the town was strewn
with more than $500 bodies. Within
The walls, the streets were blocked in
Dy the dead. In one building, 1000
persons perIshed in the flames, great
sr part of them females. 1t is some
for this demoniac havoc,
that its authors did not entirely escape
rom the calamities they had brought
lpon these distant shores. Eighty {
wo Spaniards, cased as they were in
lrmor of steel !, persisted, and 42horses
we're killed by the Indians, and mourn {
d, says the same historian, as if they
lad been so many fellow-soldiers. The ;
'aggage and stores of the Spaniards {
we're consumed in the flames of the {
own. The next point reached by the
Expedition, of immediate interest to US, q
5 the province and town Of Chichicaza t
+ Chickasaw. This is supposed to +
ave been in the upper part of this r
tate, on the west bank Of the Yazoo, a
bout 24o miles northwest of Mobile. d
Iere the Spaniards experienced des- i
crate night attack from the Indians, i
,sing many Of their men, and more OF c
,oir horcoc than ,,nL no,xo IN A roar, ! e.