Sailing on the wide Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, with the very low lands inclosing the latter probably then submerged, Moscoso and his men would regard all that expanse of fresh water, reaching from the Bayou Manchac nearly a hundred miles east to the Mississippi Sound, as “a very large bay” of the sea. They would consequently be surprised at the very long distance to which the Mississippi sent its waters without their becoming salt; whereas even the greatest floods could not freshen the sea very far out from the mouths of the delta. The Portuguese Relation says that the Mississippi, before the departure from Aminoya, had risen, in such a high flood, to the ground at the town, where the brigantines were built, floating them; and we may infer, with good assurance, that the same flood continued, at nearly its full height, through the next two weeks, till July 16, when they came to Bayou Manchac and the vast fresh water expanse stretching thence far to the east. Fifty-two days were spent in slow coasting, with frequent landings, and long delays for storms and to provide shell-fish for food, between the Mississippi and the Panuco River, which was entered September 10, 1543; and there the Spanish town of Panuco welcomed the surviving three hundred and eleven of De Soto’s men. Looking back over the history of this expedition and its results, we see that little was gained for geographic knowledge, and nothing for the honor of Spain or the extension of her colonies. With the clearer light which now enables all civilized nations to recognize the great truth of the brotherhood of all mankind, we are pained to read, throughout this narrative, of the wanton cruelties, murderous warfare, dishonesty and shameless perfidy, with which the Indians were treated by De Soto and his men from the beginning to the end of their expedition. These men were the finished product of medieval chivalry; they had mostly an inordinate self-esteem; and they called themselves Christians, and De Soto died with Christian serenity, in penitence and faith; but in their conduct toward the savages every Christian or humane sentiment was sacrificed to the love of gold and self-advancement. The first white men to voyage far on the Mississippi, and to deal largely with its native people, deemed them outside the pale of human sympathy or mercy.