CRUEL TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. De Soto was cruel in his treatment of the conquered natives along his route. Many of his officers came with him really for the purpose of obtaining Indian slaves for their plantations in Cuba. Indian women were made to do the work of the camp. Indian men were chained together and forced to carry the baggage. The chiefs were held as hostages for the good behavior of the whole tribe. The Indians who tried to shirk work or offered resistance were killed without mercy. [Illustration: MAP OF DE SOTO'S ROUTE--1539-1542] De Soto's cruelties made the Indian of the South hate the white men, and left him the enemy of any who should come to those regions in after-years. More than once De Soto narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of the enraged savages. They attacked the Spaniards with all their strength at Mauvilla, and again while they were in camp in northern Mississippi for the winter of 1540-1541. These two battles with the Indians cost the Spaniards their baggage, which was destroyed in the burning villages. New clothing, however, was soon made from the skins of wild animals. Deerskins and bearskins served for cloaks, jackets, shirts, stockings, and even for shoes. The great army must have looked much like a band of Robinson Crusoes. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. De Soto marched on northwesterly until May 8, 1541, when he was somewhere near the site of the present city of Memphis. There he came upon a great river. One of his officers tells us that the river was so wide at this point that if a man on the other side stood still, it could not be known whether he were a man or not; that the river was of great depth, and of a strong current; and that the water was always muddy. De Soto called it, in his own language, the Rio Grande or Great River, but the Indians called it the Mississippi. Americans have adopted the Indian name. Other Spanish explorers had probably passed the mouth of the Mississippi River before De Soto, and wondered at its mighty size, but De Soto was the first white man to approach it from the land and to appreciate the importance of his discovery. WANDERINGS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. The Spaniards cut down trees, made them into planks and built barges on which they crossed the Mississippi. Then they wandered for another year through the endless woods and marshes of the low-lying lands now within the state of Arkansas. They probably went as far west as the open plains of Oklahoma or Texas. In these border regions between the forests and the prairies they met Indians who used the skins of the buffalo for clothing. [Illustration: BURIAL OF DE SOTO IN THE MISSISSIPPI]