Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-05-21

and his cruel soldiers assaulted the hosts
of the Chickasaw camp. The superior
armor and military skill of the SpaHiards
soon told with terribly disastrous effects
on the surprised Indians. Soon the death
walls OF the war-stricken nation were
heard mourning for their lost warriors
and women, who had been ruthlessly
butchered by the merclless and brutal
soldiers.
The forsaken maiden heard the shouts
of the barbarous victors mingled with the
groans of her vanquished people. Farther
from her wigwam, the frightful sounds of
battle and carnage receded. Then all
the dreadful truth of her abandoned and
solitary condition came to overwhelm her.
The ierceness of despair seized on her
soul and froze the blood in her heart.
Her father and all her kindred were slain,
and she was more wofally alone than her
sad heart could possibly imagine. With
streaming eyes, she looked up to the
waning crescent moon, that walked
slowly and serenely up the blue field of
the Southern sky. She sighed to the
sweet eyed stars, which had often wit
messed her happiness then in her great
agony, she plsintively uttered her last
prayer to Msniton. Mournfully she sung
her own death wall, and then we're stlled
forever the pulses of her broken heart.
The historians of the period do not
mention any other name than that of
DeSoto as having done any notable deeds
of valor during the passage of the expe-
dition through the trackless wilds and
pathless forests of the South To his ge.
MUS alone and his undaunted spirit and
courage are attributed all the success
and thrilling incidents of the march.
Hence, we are led to thiak that it was
ruffian crew OF murderous and licentious
soldiers whom he led, and that not one
true Christian, knightly Paladin was
known in his adventurous band, else
their high daring and chivalrous deeds
would surely have been chronicled by
those writers who loved to recount the
beauties and excellence of honorable
and brave soldiers. War seldom has q
tendency to make men cultivate or prsc-
tice the soft amenities of life which make
gentleness and chivalry valued virtues,
nor will the highest civilization ever
make war aught but a school of practice
for brutality and wrongs.
The stored legends of those chron-
iclers come to US mellowed by the soft
ening mould of three centuries, and the |
harsh deeds are paliated in the name of
unavoidable ignorance and the barbarism
Of antiquity, but this appeal of the age
agone does not influence our hearts to
heir defense. When measured by the
standard of mems cruel passions and
wicked ambition, we see no difference in
he practices of the various ages since
he creation first dawned on Cain and
Abel, nor yet in those of the present.
Really, the iron age of DeSoto and its
leeds Of savagery record less Infamous
md despicable traditions of wrong than
,ur own boasted era of American civili-
,ation and chivalry recounts.
The Portuguese historians of that
period tell us that after the battle, De-
Soto had RATS and boats prepared, on
which he and his flushed and victorious
ollowers crossed the great river and gave
lsttle to the hosts of natives, which OPP
,osed him on the water and western
hore. The superior equipments and
appliances of war material used by the
roops proved ss effective in this san
.uinary and dreadful conflict as they
ad in all their preceding battles. Before
heir heavy blews, thousands of the
)hickasaws fellilike the frosted leaves in
utumn. The last vestige of desperate
pposition was destroyed, and henceforth
be march of the Invaders was compare.
vely free from danger. The hordes of
atives quietly retired before their ad-
ance, and though the incidents which
scord DeSoto's wanderings in the coun-
y west of the Mississippi river are few,
ct they recite continued corquests, and
re described in the annals and ro-
lsnces of that age with all the sffiuence
{ language and praise with which drs-
lstic incidents usually abound. Doubt
'ss many of the marvellous accounts ,
bound in fiction-few partisan accounts
heroic adventure are free from full
,me praise and errors-but the descrip-
ous of the main incidents, localities
ld'thrilliug episodes Of DeSoto's adven-
Irous asd romantic life in the South,
sar about them an air of truthfulness
hich We willingly accept as evidence.
Biedman's account abounds ia accu-
tie geographical and Typographical fea-
res, and by these landmarks, which
i'll exist as he described them in l543,
e are disposed to receive the traditions
ID history of the period as truthful and
liable to q very considerable extent.
The evidence concerning the disposi-
On Of DeSoto's body is that be died at
me point in the interior of what is now 7
e State of Arkansas. His command
ing without competent leader, then
sndered without aim or object until it
rived where Helena is now situated
1ring sll their long and wsarisome
ovements, the soldiers retained the
Idy Of their dead chief and guarded it
refully TO prevent it from falling into
e possession of the hostile aud savage /,
.tives
At Helena the few survivors piously
ID reverently said the funeral service
the church over the remains, and there n
the darkness Of a stormy night, while !,
e sky was murky and veiled with thick
buds, the lnria lightning flashing anon,
q the tempestuous wind ard rolling /
under attended the scene, these soldiers
rried the dead chief out on the water