The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-01-10
STORY OF A RIVER.
"arch Into Oblivion That Gave Mama
to New Mexican Stream.

- march Into Oblivion That cave Nam.
to New Mexican Stream.
over three centuries backward. and
before the inquisitive De Soto had
hgnted his campfire on the banks
Oh the Mississippi, the Spaniards had
achieved two settlements in this land
OF the Occident--Santa Fe and St An
gustine. They had no knowledge of the
country which lay between these points
=. us inhabitants As to what might be
sne dangers and deadfalls Of Journey
rom one place to another they were as
onnoiy Ignorant as 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 Fe re-
solved on an overland expedition to st.
augustine. They knew the distance.
Tor they could figure the latitude and
longitude, and they could get the direc-
lion 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
sne Ration Pass. the present route of the
F.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 re for minstrel and glee maiden,
these gentlemen of the sword with wine,
women and song got in as gay sea-
son as Trey ever have had since. Those
oid Cons were lads of spirit and pos
seSsed high hearts as we'll as taste for
travel Before them to the eastward as
far as the eye could sweep spread the
desert gnconfned. 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 nows in the
spring sunshine, their women and camp
followers returned to Santa Fe. The
last hand was waved goodbye, the last
adieus was uttered and the explorers
turned their resolute faces to the work
In hana. They marched down the val
ley OF the little muddy river, which
lows as you read this through the town
Of Trinidad. The ones who were to re-
turn to Santa Fe watched them for
= miles. assisted by the glare of the sun
on steel cap and harness. At last they
were hidden in the willows far down tho
valley, and this was the last that was
ever known of them.
With the last flap of the last banner
it was as il they had marched out of ex-
istence 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 were 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 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-
''rhe River of Lost Souls" This was
the Spanish name when Sublette, 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 the story, and assisted
only by their differences drawn from the
name, these translated the appellation
into the Purgatoire. 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
it ever had still sticks, and to-day you
will find the little vagrant OF stream
pursuing its glistening mission to the
sea with as many names as a member Of
the British House of Lords. Kansas
City Star