The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-02-26
FLASHLIGHTS OF HISTORY
FERNANDO DE O t
Perhaps with no other adventurer

of the new world did fortune play
more c%apriciously and, in the end,
fatally than with Fernando de Soto
He had been with Pizarro in the con-
quest of Peru. he had seen and law
ishly shared in the wealth of the In
cas-; he had pityingly beheld the cap
tive Inca, A~tahuallpa. in the dread
power OF Pizarro. had shared the al
most fabulous ransom paid by Alta
hnallpa for his promised freedom;
and. to De Soto's credit be it said,
ne had ~passionately. though in vain,
e~Npostulated with Pizarro against the
treachery OF his conduct and had
sired and SO lavishly paid for by his
captive Inca.
After the fall of Peru and while
the victors We're wrangling among
themselves over the booty obtained,
Or soto. quietly appropriating his
share of 100000 returned to Spain.
Then indeed did fortune smile on him,
the lady TO whom he had long been
attached. the daughter of Davilla, Il
noblcman in whose service De Soto
had once been engaged. became his
wife; he was a welcome guest at court
and in wealth. health. favor, love,
success. and bloom of life reigned for
a brief hour the Idol Of Spain.
FL Dorado.
De SOTO was appointed governor OF
Cuba. with full power of the immense
territory known 50 vaguely as Florida.
According TO Bancroft. no sooner was
the design of the new armament pub
hshed in Spain than the widest hopes
were INDUCED. How brilliant must
ne the prospect. since the conqueror
of Peru was willing TO hazard his for
tune and the greatness of his name.
AdTenturers assembled as volunteers,
many of them people of noble birth
and good estates. Houses and vine
olive trees in the Ajarrafe OF Seville.
We're sold, as in the times OF the CRU
sades. to obtain the mean of military
equipments. Tn port of San Lucar
OF Harrameda was crowded with those
who fastened to solicit permission to
share iii the undertaking. Even SOL
diers of Portugal desired to be en-
listed. y muster was held; the Por-
tugues" glitiered in FURNISHED armor,
and the Castilians were very gallant
with silk upon silk" From the num-
erous aspirants De Soto selected for
his companions 500 men in the bloom
Of life. the flower of the peninsula.
The feet sailed SO gaily as if on a
holiday excursion.
In April, 1885. De Soto set out j in
search of his own FL Dorado. Mexico
mad come to Cortes, Peru to Pizarro,
and somewhere in the vast tract of
land known as Florida there awaited
the glory of the Montezumas and the
| wealth of the Incas for Fernando de
soto. Never did a more hopeful COM
panN' set out from the old world for
the new. De Soto's Young wife ac-
companied the expedition. as did sew
eral other ladies. wives or sisters OF
the nob!emen. The fleet left the his
toric port of San Lucar with pennants
streaming and banners waving and
Rags flowing and the old world Justify
cheering the adventures as if the
Florida FL Dorado had already been
found II the rest of life for these
tortunates We're one long holiday.
Truly are the words of Pope, the
philosophic poet as applicable to NOR
tails as to the typical lamb:
Heaven from all creatures hides the
book OF fate;
Eaught but the page described, the
present state.
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-
day,
Had he any reason, would he skip
and play?
Pleased to the last he crops the aow.
cry food
Md ticks the hand just raised to shed
his blood.
o blindness to the future kindly g;ven,
could the a~nticipatively successful
600 have behold the gray gloom of
failure so fatefully awaiting them:
could De Soto have seer that night
burial on the lordly Mississippi: could
his happy bride have. foreseen the
long agony of suspense. the fatal GER
f21nfL rho hrrG4n A-1-S- z-x -
In hateful Havana: would these things
have been: Surely not: or if. in
deed. they were SO fixed in destiny
and unacceptable. then blindness to the
future was most kindly given.
Romance has not enshrined the
story of the daughter of Davila. wife
of DE Soto. She did not. as Evange.
line, wander in search of her lost love;
she waited: h did not. as Ariadne,
cry aloud in lonely woe so that gods
and mortals must shudderingly hear;
she died. Romance is a sorrow melted
maeicallH in the crucible of a genius
imagination and thence blown forth
in flame %splendors over the world; but
there are sorrows not SO transformed,
they be silent in the soul. they are
focused rather than diffused. they
gnaw at life and ultimately kill; and
whilst having in them all the elements
of possible romance they remain only
sorrows. Fol one woe sung into ro-
nance there are thousands unknown
n unsung.
Wanderinss.
The young world excursion crowd
landed happily in Havana. Cuba. II
was decided that the ladies of the eX-
petition should remain there until
suitable ARRANGEMENTS could be made
for them in the waiting FL Dorado.
In May, 1899. De Soto set sail from
Cuba and within a fortnight anchored
in the bay of Espiritu Santo tTampa
Bay.) Then began that long guide
less march in search Of treasure;
through Georgia, Alabama. Mississippi
n beyond the lordlv rives 200 miles
west to the highlands of the White
river. then southwark along the Wash
tia river and finally back to the Mis-
sissippi. the gulf. Cuba. Spain-"all
that was left of them. left Of six hun.
dred."
The country through which the ex.
plorers passed had been rendered bit
terly hostile to the Spaniards by the
unjust treatment of the Indians By
Earvaez on A previous expedition, SO
that there was little to be looked for
from the Indian but t%reachery where
they were weak and violence where
they were strong.