St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-08
RIVER OF LOST SOULS.
A March That Gave Name to q
New Mexican Stream.
Kansas City Star.


Kansas City Star.
Over three centuries backward, and
before the inquisitive De Soto had
lighted his camp-tires ON the banks of
the Mississippi, the Spaniards had
achieved two settlements In this land of
the Occident-Santa Fe and st. Angus
tine. They had no knowledge of the
country which lay between these points
or its inhabitants. AS to what might
be the dangers and deadfalS of a
Journey from one place to another, they
were as blandly ignorant as of the his
tory of the moon. But this ignorance
affected them not, and full of the un-
easy spirit Of the hour military party in
Santa Fe resolved OH an overland expe-
ditiOn to st. Augustine. They knew the
distance, for they could figure the lati-
the direction by the compass; but this
was the sum of their knowledge.
The expedition, numbering some hum
dredS of men, left Santa Fe late in the
summer, and crossing the mountains at
the Ration pass, the present route of the
Santa Fe railroad, they camped that
winter on the present site Of Trinidad.
!, The grass was long in the valley, the
game was plenty on the hills, their own
stores were ample, and, sending back to
Santa Fe for minstrel and glee maiden,
these gentlemen of the sword, with
wine, women and song, got in as gay
a season as they ever have since.
These old dons were lads of spirit,
and possessed high hearts as well as
a taste for travel. Before them to the
eastward, as far as the eye could sweep,
spread the desert uncOnfined. What
was to be met there they knew not. but
their lack of knowledge was coincident
with an equal lack Of care. With the
melting Of the SHOWS i'll the spring sun
shine their women and camp followers
returned to Santa Fe. The last hand
was waved gOOd-by, the last adios was
uttered, and the explorers turned their
resoIute faces to the work in hand.
They marched down the valley of the
little muddy river which flows. as
you read this, through the town OF
Trinidad. The ones who were to re-
turn to Santa Fee watched them for
miles. assisted by the CLINT of the sun
OH steel cap and harness. at last they
were hidden in willows far down in the
valley, and this was the last that was
ever known of them. With the last flap
of the last banner it was as if they had
marched out Of existence, and whether
they sunk in rivers, persisted in the
drifting SHOWS, or were done to death
by Indians was never told. No sign or
trace of this expedition or its people
was ever found. There was something
so eerie and mysterious in the complete
disappearance of this band, something
so dark in the silence of their fate, that
the superstitious Spaniard made the
sign Of the holy cross when he re-
called it. With that effort at COM
memoratiOn which was the spirit of that
time. the little muddy torrent in whose
valley the lost explorers last were seen
was called Ell Rio de Los Animas-"The
River of Lost Souls" This was the
Spanish name when Sublette, Chouteau,
Bent, Carson, ST. Vrain, and other rep
resentatives of the French fur company
of St Louis first saw it. Knowing moth
ing of the story and assisted only by
their differences drawn from the name,
these translated the appelIation into the
PurgatoiIe. When the jocund bull
whacker of the overland trail got to it
In his free-and-easy French he called it
''the Picketwire. Every brand 1T ever
had still sticks. and to- day you will find
the little yagrant of a stream pursuing
its glistening mission to the sea with as
many names as mem Der of the British
house of lords.