Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-22
EXTRAORDINARY STORY.
Probable Discovery of DE Sot0,s
Body--A Curious History of John
COwdOn.
From the Nemphis Appeal.


Body--A Curious History of JOhl
COwdOn.
From the Memphis Appeal.
b There is no incident of the remote pas
more interesting to the people of this cit
than that which the mounds at Fort Picker
ing suggest with vague memories of DeSott
and his armed followers. Here they ar,
said to have executed treaty of peace witt
the Indians, and traces of DeSotos march
are alleged to be found north of the city,
in the vicinity of Fort Pillow. OF that ira
dition we will tell hereafter. Very certain
ly he was the 2rst white man who beheld
the Mississippi, and very certainly, if we
may accept as true the story written by a
priest who accompanied him, DeSotos
body was committed TO the keeping of the
great river, which has never ceased to
chant a sad requiem over his last resting
place. The recital that follows has direct
reference to these facts, and, therefore, is
well calculated to excite keen interest
among those who delight in recurring to
events Of the olden time.
WHAT LED TO THE DISCOVERY,
Some time ago we recited facts incident
70 the avocations of Captain John Cowdon,
who devotes himself to the task of dragging
up wrecked vessels from fathomIess abysses
along the Mississippi. He has studied the
peculiarities and wonders of the mighty
river as none have done before He tray
els up and down the inland sea, and as
cends its tributaries, and studies the shores
and beds of streams above and beneath
the water. His diving bell boat is one of
the curiosities of naval architecture, the
like of which was never known before. It
consists of two fiat boats, wholly unlike one
another, connected by heavy beams, from
which the diving bell is suspended With
this rude machinery Captain John Cowdon
makes his endless voyages, and with this
he dragged ~dp, not long ago, from the
bottom of the Arkansas, a locomotive and
strain of cars, now running from Little
Rock in the direction of Fort Smith.
We stated that Captain Cowdon was cog
infant of facts which might lead to the re-
covery Of vast wealth resting beneath
islands everywhere along the course of the
mighty river. When steamer sinks and
is anchored at the bottom of the river an
island is formed by dispositions of sand
made by the broken current. Higher and
higher, and broader AID broader, each
month and year becomes the cumulus tina,
constitutes the grave of the steamer, until |
II hits its summit above the rivers surface |
Then it is kissed by the sunbeams, and |
Iuxuriant vegetation, rich as blessings that |
nature lavishes on this matchlesS valley |
crowns 1t with garlands OF verdure. Time |
rolls by, noiseleSsly, unmurmuringly, IN |
like the heaying, boisterous pillows of the |
mighty river. Trees spring up and grow |
with a rapidity known not elsewhere in |
the world There are countless forest |
crowned islands which owe existence |
10 simple facts here recited. Beneath |
one Of these rests steamer 1--WE are not |
permitted to give its name) on which |
there are five hundred barrels of brandy |
and at least three hundred of whisky. |
Within fifteen years the chimneys of this |
boat, wrecked in 1874, still protruded |
above the surface of the island formed |
about them. Captain CoWdon has often |
marked the spot, and now that he has |
somewhat recovered from shocks given his |
fortune by war, he proposes TO invade the |
great rumhole of the dwellers at the bot |
tom of the Mississippi. Ii be enters this |
whisky chute In safety, he will come up |
one of the richest, as most come out of the |
other the poorest, gentlemen in Memphis. |
Another steamer, the Tennessee, was sunk |
about thirty years ago, having $4,000 in |
gold in al iron safe on board. She rests |
beneath another island which Cowdon has |
Captain Cowdon has been making survey |
Of localities which may contain uncounted |
wealth He has examined islands and the |
river shores about the mouth of the Arkan- |
ssas, where he knows that valuable wrecks
may be discovered
HOW IT HAPPENED.
While inspecting the water line along the
eastern shore last Wednesday week, he
discovered the bow of a small copper fast
ened vessel protruding into the river.
Having no tools and traversing the river
IN a narrow ''dugOut, he could do no more
than make a critical examination Of the
boat and of the place where IT was dis
covered. He OBJ served that trees from
Ave to seven feet in diameter grew immedi
stely above the buried boat, and tl.t the
roots of these gigantic expresses were
tvined about the ancient vessel. When
boats sink in some localities the current
lifts or drives them up an inclined plane,
and violent food sometimes leaves them
above the rivers surface on an island or
sandbar. 1t is, however, as above stated,
generally true that islands are created by
sunken vessels heavily freighted, and hsv-
ing iron machinery. The semi0rcular
shape of this boat found last Wednes-
day by Captain Cowdon, its high
bow, its Dimensions, twice as
great as those of modern
yawl; its copper fastening; the length of
time it has rested beneath the soil and |
water, as shown by the mighty trees that |
stand above it these are facts which have |
excited Capt Cowdou's wonder TO the last |
degree. Who had such vessels on the Mis- |
sissippi before those great trees sprang
into existence? Three hundred years ago
DeSoto's body, at midnight, was placed in
a vessel, Spanish-built vessel C?), and
su TX in the midst of the river His soldiers
feared that their Indian enemies would
assail them if it were known that their great
chieftain was no more. DeSoto, SO the
otd Spanish chronicler, whose story is re-
produced by Irving, tells US, died the near
the mouth of the Arkansas, and here Capt.
Cowdon discovered the boat which excited
ali these surmises. There is moro than
yerisimilitude in this recital. Capt. Cow
don is in the city, and proposes at an early
day TO return to the spot where the sup
posed Spanish vessel is buried. He has
agreed to bring it to this city, and if he
End within it the skeleton of a Hidalgo,
will not the name OF John Cowdon and that
of DeSoto be inseparably linked together
through all coming time? DeSoto discov-
cred the Mississippi, and became immor-
tai; John Cowdon achieves infinitely a
greater wonder in the discovery Of DeSoto.
Who doubts?