Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-09-27

identification of His Burial
Place.

zeal, even in the South. Poverty, just
after the war between the States, inter-
dicted the indulgence of tastes pecu-
niarily proftless, and until broken
fortunes we're somewhat repaired there
were none devoted to curious inquiries
to the direction Of which The Ameri-
can Antiquarian addresses itself.
Southern newspapers are accustomed
to descant upon every remarkable
physical fact that marks the country's
surface, and now each uplifted earth
work or old burial place or wrecked,
nameless and forgotten city or stone
fort is described with painstaking
care, even by rustic editors. Two con
current incidents referred to by Flor
ida publication impel me to advert to
this subject, and tell what | have seen
Of traces Of DeSOto's wanderings in
the Gulf States.
1t is stated in this Florida newspa-
per that artists, employed by the gov
eminent to finish tasks begun by Bru-
mide, would adorn the interior of the
dome of the capitol at Washington
with a picture Of the burial ofDeSoto.
The painstaking care with which De
Soto's remains were deposited in the
body Of a green tree followed out like
an Indian canoe, the typographical
peculiarities Of the vicinage, the
sinking Of the heavily weighted coffin,
the depth of the Mississippi and dis
lance from the shore, the confluence
near this spot of a smaller river from
the west, are given with much aecu-
racy of details by chronicles accompa-
nying DeSoto's expedition. Artists
pencils Of every land, through more
than three centuries have exhausted
genius in portraying the supposed
burial scene o fthe heroic adventurer,
but the exact spot is not known.
Moscoso tells that DeSoto's burial
place wa at the base of precipitous
hills, perhaps two hundred feet high.
Here, at the waters edge, FORCES were
provided, vessels built, arms repaired
and horses shed, and here DeSoto was
entombed. The Mississippi flows per-
haps thirty miles east of this spot. Its
fermer channel, of DeSoto's time, is
occupied by "0ld Town Lake" and it
is in this lake that the body Of the
Spaniard reposes. The name given
the lake by Indians and then by white
people is significant of facts to which
advert. The Spaniards built the
"Old Town left on the lakes western
margin atthe base of CroWley's Ridge,
nine miles below Helena. Then the
FESTIVE river, always moving east,
changed its course and chose to run
6 along the front of Governor Aleorn S
estates in Coahoma county, Mississip-
pi. The depth Of the lake is that Of
} the river, less the thickness OF soft
, sediment, and DeSoto's body, encof.
r fined in a green tree, aud weighted as
it was and sunken in the bottom of
the river, is to day in the mud be-
meath the lake, and with proper appli-
ences of wreckers' art might possibly
be recovered and given a proper burial
in the Congressional graveyard at
Washington or among dead kings at
Madrid.
Twenty-three years ago | visited
Old Town Lake with the late Gen.
Pillow, who owned there, before the
war, a magnificent plantation. Read
ing in the descriptions Of DeSoto's
burial place, and the spot at which
the Spaniards were eneamped while
building boats in which to reach Mex
leo, | was thoroughly satisfied that
the lake had been the river, and that
the spot described by those who
accompanied DeSoto would have been
necessarily identified by modern
writers if the Mississippi had not
been detected, perhaps three hundred
years ago, from its original channel.
In view of these facts | am impelled
to inquire whether it would not be
well for artists, about to expend skill
and toll upon a great picture to endure
for centuries, to visit "0ld Town
Lake" where hammer handles and
g~unstocks have been unearthed, aud
where burnt earth and charcoal
heaped up by blacksmiths were then
to be seen.
Captain John Cowdon, President Of
the New Orleans and Barrataria Ship
Channel Company, though forty years
a navigator of the Mississippi, has
visited the spot of which | tell as tho
burial place Of DeSoto. He had read
Theodore Irving's TRANSACTIONS Of
r%ecitals Of facts and incidents made
by those who accompanied DeSoto,
and after lifelong experience in
wrecking sunken steamers on the Mis-
slssippi and its tributaries, asserted
the opinion that DeSoto's unique cof-
fin, with its contents u~ndisturbed, still
rests at the bottom ofOld Town Lake.
Why may not the task of Its recov-
cry be assigned him, and when it is
achieved let him become sailing mss
ter Of an expedition to explore that
terrain incognitam fifty miles wide
and extending from Cairo twelve
hundred miles to the sea. OF this
vast tract Of country, Of the wonders
it contains, of its priceless value oil
the worlds civilization, because it
might clothe the world, Of its mounds.
canals and aguadas, less is known than
Of the valley Of the Niger. 1t is ira
versed by four railways, three and
five hundred miles apart, and here
and there, at remote distances from
one another, common roadways, seek
ing the highest points, cross the
swamp, and only illiterate hunters and
fishermen have invaded the dense
canebrakes or told of the wonders Of
the lowlands, or Of physical changes
wrought by the terrible earthquakes
of l8ll-12.
When | first published the fact, lust
after the cessation Of interstate hos.
t~ilities, that primeval dwellers in the
lowlands Of the Mississippi drained
the swamps and actually prevented
overhows by digging canals connect.
ing the Mississippi with its lateral
tributaries, the story was pronounced
incredible. In the summer of 1861 II
was with Bankhead's light battery. at
Watkins farm, not very far southwest
Cape Girardeau. Idle, and seek.
ing excitement, | accompanied a
scouting expedition to Cape Girardeau.
Three reckless cavalrymen entered the
place selling melons to unsuspectine
German soldiery then occupying the
pretty little Gallo city. We had not
gone far south from Cape Girardeau. |
following road near the hanks of tbo