The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-11-09
The River of Lost Souls.
Fronl the Kansas Citu Star.

~tsS
Over three centuries backward and be-
fore the inquistIve De Soto had lighted his
camp fires on the banks of the Mississippi,
the Spaniards had achieved two settlements
in this land of the Occident--Santa Fe and
st. Augustine. They had no knowledge of
the country which lay between these points
or its inhabitants. AS to what might be the
dangers and deadfalls of a journey from
one place TO another, they were as blandly
ignorant Of the history OF the moon. But
| this ignorance affected them not, and full
OF the uneasy spirit of the hour a military
party in Santa Be resolved on an overland
expedition to st. Augustine. They knew
the distance, for they could figure the lati-
tude and longitude, and they could get the
direction by the compass; but this was the
sum OF their knowledge.
The expedition, numbering some hun
dreds of men, left Santa Fe late In the
summer and, crossing the mountains at the
Ration Pass, 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. Those 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 eye could
sweep, spread the desert unconfned. 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 in the
spring sunshine their women and camp
followers returned to Santa Fe. The last
hand was waved goodbye, the last odtos
was uttered, and the explorers turned their
reSoluto 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 return to Santa Fe watched
them for miles, assisted by the CLINT of the
sun on steel cap and harness. At last they
were hidden in willows far down 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 COM
plete 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 recalled it. With that
effort at COMMUNICATION which was the
spirit of that time, the little muddy torrent
III WiiOoo FhiAeJ buo lCob e4plOI6Eo AfisS Wcfo
seen was called Ell Rio de Los Animas--
"The River of Lost Souls" This was the
Spanish name when Sublette, Chouteau,
Dent, Carson, St. Vrain and other repre-
sentatives of the French Fur Company of
81. Louis first saw 1t. Knowing nothing of
the story, and assisted only by their infer
ences drawn from the name, these trans
lated the appellation into the Purgatoire
When the iocund bull-whacker of the over
land trail got to it, in his free and easy
French be called 1t "the Picketwire." Every
brand it ever had still sticks. and to-day
you will find the little vagrant of a stream
pursuing its glistening mission to the sea
with as many name as member Of the
British House of Lords.