The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-29
March Into Oblivion That Gave the Nam'

March Into Oblivion That Gave the Name
to Mexican Stream.
Over three centuries backward, and be-
fore the inquisitive De Soto had lighted his
camp fire on the banks of the Mississippi,
the Spaniards had achieved two settle
mats in this land of the Occident-Santa
Fe and st. Augustine. They had no
knowledge of che country which lay be-
tween these points or its inhabitants. As
TO what might be the dangers and dead
falls of a journey from one place to an
other they were as blindly ignorant az of
the history of The moon. But this igno-
rance affected them not, and full of the un-
easy spirit of the hour a military party in
Santa Fe resolved on an overland expedi-
tion to st. Augustine. They knew the dis
tance, for they could figure the latitude
and longitude, and they could get the di-
rection Of 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, the present route of the
Santa Fe railroad, they camped that win
ter 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 gentle
men of the sword got in as CAV season as
they ever have since Those old dons were
lads of spirit, and possessed high hearts az
well as taste for travel Before them to
the eastward as far as the eye could sweep
spread the desert unconfined What was
L., IL L L. IL =
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 goodby, the last adios
were uttered and the explorers turned their
resolute 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 light of the
sun on steel cap and harness. At last
they were hidden in the 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 II they had marched ont of exist
ence, and whether they sunk in rivers. per-
ished in the drifting SHOWS, OF were done
10 death by Indians was never told. No
sign or trace of this expedition or its peo-
pie was ever found. There was something
80 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 recalled il. With
that effort st commemoration which was
the spirit of that time the little muddy
torrent in whose valley the lost explorers
last were seen was called FL Rio de Los
Animas-"The River of Lost Souls"
This was the Spanish name when Soub-
tette, Chouteau. Bent, Carson, St Vrain
and other representatives OF the French
Fur company, OF St Louis, first saw it.
Knowing nothing Of the story and assisted
only by their inferences drawn from the
name, these translated the appellation
into Purgsteire. When the jocund bull
whacker OF the overland trail got to IL in
his free and easy French be called it the
Picketwire.' Every brand IL ever had
still sticks, and today you viii find the
little vagrant of q stream pursuing its
glistening mission TO the sea.-Kansss CITY
Star.