The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-11-01
O DE q RlNER.
a March Into ObGivi"" That Gave Name
to IL New Mexican stream.

a March Into ObGivi"" That Gave Name
to IL New Mexican stream.
Over throe centuries backward, and
before the inuuisitive DE Soto had
lighted his campfire on the banks
OF tho Mississippi, the Spauiards mad
achieved two settlements in this land
of the Occident-Santa Fo and st Au-
gustine. They had no knowledge of the
country which lay between these points
or its inhabitants. AS to what might be
the dangers and dcadfalis Of Il Journey
from one place to another they were a.
blindly ignorant AZ of the history of tho
moon. But this ignorance affected Thorn
not, and, full Of the uneasy spirit of the
hour, a military party in Santa Fee re-
solved on an overland expedition to st.
Augustine. They knew the distance,
for they could figure the latitude and
longitude, and thoy could get the diroc.
ton by the compass; but this WAS the
sum of their knowledge.
The expedition, numbering some hum
dreds of men, left Santa Fee late in tho
summer, and, crossing the mountains at
the Ration Pass, the present rout" of tho
Santa Fe railroad, they camped that
winter on the present site of Trinidad.
N grass was long in the valley, the
game was plenty o the hills, their own
stores were ample, and, sending back
to Santa Fe for minstrel and glce maidon,
these gentlemen of the sword with wine,
women and song got in rs a gay a sea
son as they ever rave had since. Those
old dons were lads of spirit and pos
sessed high hearts as well as a taste for
travel. Before them to the eastward az
far as the eye could sweep spread the
desert unconfincd. What was to be met
there they know not, but their lack of
knowledge was coincidcnt with an equal
lack of care.
With the melting of the nows in the
spring sunshine, their women and camp
followers returned to Santa Fc. The
last hand was waved goodbye, tho last
adieus was uttered and the explorers
turned their resolute faces TO the work
in hand. They marched down the val
ley of the little muddy river, which
flows rs you read this through the town
of Trinidad. The ones who were to re-
turn to SAINTS Fc watched them for
miles, assisted by the glare of the sun
on steel cap and harness. Al last they
"cTo luutH II III WILLOWS llf uOWn inc
valley, and this was the last tina was
ever known of them.
With the last flap of tho last banner
it was as If they had marched out of OK
istencea and whether tnoy sunk in rivers,
persisted in tho drifting SHOWS or were.
done to death by Indians was never
told. No sign or trace of this expedition
or its people were ever found. There
was something 80 eeric and mysterious
in the complete disappearance of this
band, something SO dark in tho silonco
of their fate, that The supcrStitious
Spaniard made tho sign of the holy cross
when he recalled it. With that effort
at 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-
1.-THE River of Lost Souls" This was
the Spanish name when Sublctte, Chou
teau, Bent, Carson, st. Vrain and other
representatives of the French Fur Com.
pany of st. Louis, first saw it. Know
ing nothing of he story, M assisted
only by their differences drawn from tho
name, these translated the appollation
into the Purgatoire. When the iucund
bull-whacker of the overland trail got
to 1t in his ~free-and-easy French he
called it ''the Pi~cketwire." 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 AZ many names az a member OF
the British House of Lords. Kansas
City Star.