“When near the sea, it becomes divided into two arms, each of which may be a league and a half broad.... Half a league before coming to the sea, the Christians cast anchor, in order to take rest for a time, as they were weary from rowing.... [Here Indians came, in several canoes, for an attack.]... There also came some by land, through thicket and bog, with staves, having very sharp heads of fish-bone, who fought valiantly those of us who went out to meet them.... After remaining two days, the Christians went to where that branch of the river enters the sea; and having sounded there, they found forty fathoms depth of water. Pausing then, the Governor required that each should give his opinion respecting the voyage, whether they should sail to New Spain direct, by the high sea, or go thither keeping along from shore to shore.... It was decided to go along from one to another shore.... “On the eighteenth day of July the vessels got under weigh, with fair weather, and wind favorable for the voyage.... With a favorable wind they sailed all that day in fresh water, the next night, and the day following until vespers, at which they were greatly amazed; for they were very distant from the shore, and so great was the strength of the current of the river, the coast so shallow and gentle, that the fresh water entered far into the sea.” Luis Hernandez de Biedma, a factor or agent for King Charles V, was a member of De Soto’s expedition, of which, after returning to Spain, he submitted a report in 1544. From the translation of that report, given by Buckingham Smith in the same volume with this narrative of “The Gentleman of Elvas,” we have the following considerably different description of what was thought to be the junction of the Mississippi with the gulf: “We came out by the mouth of the river, and entering into a very large bay made by it, which was so extensive that we passed along it three days and three nights, with fair weather, in all the time not seeing land, so that it appeared to us we were at sea, although we found the water still so fresh that it could well be drunk, like that of the river. Some small islets were seen westward, to which we went: thenceforward we kept close along the coast, where we took shell-fish, and looked for other things to eat, until we entered the River of Panuco, where we came and were well received by the Christians.”