[144] "In the year 1538, _Ferdinand de Soto_, with a commission from the Emperor _Charles V._, sailed with a considerable fleet for America. He was a Portuguese gentleman, and had been with _Pizarro_ in the conquest (as it is called) of Peru. His commission constituted him governor of Cuba and general of Florida. Although he sailed from St. Lucar in 1538, he did not land in Florida[A] until May 1539. With about 1000 men, 213 of whom were provided with horses, he undertook the conquest of Florida and countries adjacent. After cutting their way in various directions through numerous tribes of Indians, traversing nearly 1000 miles of country, losing a great part of their army, their general died upon the banks of the Mississippi, and the survivors were obliged to build vessels in which to descend the river; which, when they had done, they sailed for Mexico. This expedition was five years in coming to nothing, and bringing ruin upon its performers. A populous Indian town at this time stood at or near the mouth of the Mobile, of which _Soto's_ army had possessed themselves. Their intercourse with the Indians was at first friendly, but at length a chief was insulted, which brought on hostilities. A battle was fought, in which, it is said, 2000 Indians were killed and 83 Spaniards."--_Drake's Book of the Indians_, b. iv., c. 3.--FLAGG. _Comment by Ed._ Consult Edward G. Bourne (Ed.), _Career of Hernando de Soto_ (New York, 1904). [A] "So called because it was first discovered by the Spaniards on Palm Sunday, or, as the most interpret, Easter-day, which they called _Pasqua-Florida_, and not, as Thenet writeth, for the flourishing verdure thereof."--_Purchas_, p. 769. [145] "After a long and fatiguing journey through a mountainous wilderness, in a westward direction, I at last, from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the beautiful land of Kentucky. * * * It was in June; and at the close of day the gentle gales retired, and left the place to the disposal of a profound calm. Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking round with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts below. * * * Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully coloured, elegantly shaped, and charmingly flavoured; and I was diverted with innumerable animals presenting themselves continually before my view. * * * The buffaloes were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on these extensive plains, fearless because ignorant of man."--[Narrative of Colonel Daniel Boone, from his first arrival in Kentucky in 1769, to the year 1782.]--FLAGG.