The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1895-09-25

We're Bound For st. Augustine.
"Some queer kinks i'll nomenclature
arc discoverablo in this country of
ours, said Colonel William Staplcton
of Trinidad, Colo. Running right
through the town of Trinidad, in which
live, is IL little river, which familiarly
and indiscriminately does its muddy,
flowing business under three names. 1t
is called yariously the Las Animas, the
Purgatorio and the Picket Wire. The
names came about i'll this way:
"Santa Fe claims to DO and is about
the same ago as st. Augustine, Fla
Both towns arc considerably over 800
years old, although 1 forget the exact
date of their settlement.
"Bacl1 III the middle Of the sixteenth
century the Spaniards at Santa Fo made
up a military detachment to go overland
to st. Augustine. The old dons didn't
know anything Of tho country which
lay between All they wero posted on
was tho distance and the general direc-
ton, as they knew tho latitude and
longitude Of both places. Rather late in
the fall somo 700 of them, steel clad
soldiers, camp followers, baggage train
and women, pushed i'll through tho
Ration pass over tho trail now followed
by the Santa Fo railroad, and at tho be-
ginning of winter made Il camp ut what
is now tho site of Trinidad, which sits
fairly i'll the mouth of tho Ration can
yon, looking out OH the plains.
"Thcre they were on tho very th1esh-
old of tho Rockies. To tho cast Of
aI.
trend, lay an utter waste of plains, APP
parently without limit All that Win
ter the Spaniards camped i'll the mouth
of the Ration canyon. With wine, wom-
an and song, they put in a hilarious
time, and probably had as much fun as
they ever had before or since Winters
are not rigorous and spring comes early
i'll the vicinity Of Trinidad.
with the first coming of the early
grass tho adventurers banished their ar
NOR, fitted up their houses and got ready
to move. The camp followers, tho wom-
Ell and the extra baggage they sent back
to Santa Fe When last seen, tie party
bound for ST. Augustine, numbering
several hundreds, wero marching down
the valley of tho little river by which
they had campcd
THAT was the last ever heard of them.
+, Not feather ever floated back to tell
the story of their fate With the last
flap of the last banner and tho latest
sun CLINT OH the Iearmost steel cap they
disappeared from tho earth To this
day no one is able to make suggestion
even us to what became of them, except
Ethat it is supposed they were butchered
by tho Indians.
Fifty years ago there was an old CO.
manche chief named Iron Shirt, because
of a rusty old shirt of chain mail which
no wore, but neither no nor any of the
other Comanchcs knew anything of the
origin of the garment nor where it came
from. 1t had been in the tribe further
back than the short Comancho memory
could reach. Many havo supposed that
it was /. relic Of this Spanish expedition
Of three centuries ago, which had ap-
parently marched off the earth that far
away spring day III the mouth of tie
Ration canyon.
but now for the kink i'll nomencla-
turo was thinking of. Tho disappear
ance Of these Spanish soldiers seemed so
ccrio and witchlikc that it mado IL pro
found impression on the superstitious
people they had left behind. They nam
cd tho little river Rio de Las Animas,
meaning tho River of the Lost Souls,
and it Is supposed to hold tho story of
thoieXpeditiOn' S dark fate and repeat it
to itself i'll the river language which
tho AleXicanS do not pretend to under
stand
When the French fur traders under
Subletto and st. Vrain came trapping
lnthoso waters from st. Louis, in a
ffench effort ut translation they made
Out that the River of tho Lost Souls
must mean the Purgatory river, and so
l{gavo the river its translated name Of
PurGatorio.
Later, when tho American bull.
whacker marched through on his way
to Santa F'c, he accepted the French
name, but called it the Picket Wire
To this day the river wears all three
titles, as the reader would soon learn
by turning to the Trinidad newspapers,
where he would find cattle brands ad
Vertlscd as having their ranges variously
on the Las AninaS, the pnrgatorio and
tho Picket Wire
Every man picks oat his name for
himself, bu; they AL mean tho same
river 1t isn't much OF Il river either,
only about 20 feet wide at Trinidad.
The McXicans, however Loyalty stick
to the name of Rio de Las Animas,
and Mexican mothers tell their children
of the soldiers who, hundreds of years
ago, marched from there and were
never heard of again. Washington
Star.
Just Like ~ Woman