make the oldest of our present records seem of comparatively recent
date.

Nine years after the event referred to above, or in 1530, another
Spanish explorer, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza, afterwards called Cabeza de
Vaca--or, in other words "Cattle Cabeza," the prototype of our own
distinguished "Buffalo Bill"--was wrecked on the Gulf coast, west of
the delta of the Mississippi, from whence he wandered westward through
what is now the State of Texas. In southeastern Texas he discovered the
American bison on his native heath. So far as can be ascertained, this
was the earliest discovery of the bison in a wild state, and the
description of the species as recorded by the explorer is of historical
interest. It is brief and superficial. The unfortunate explorer took
very little interest in animated nature, except as it contributed to the
sum of his daily food, which was then the all-important subject of his
thoughts. He almost starved. This is all he has to say:[1]

[Note 1: Davis' Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. 1869. P. 67.]

"Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times, and eaten of
their meat. I think they are about the size of those in Spain. They have
small horns like those of Morocco, and the hair long and flocky, like
that of the merino. Some are light brown (_pardillas_) and others black.
To my judgment the flesh is finer and sweeter than that of this country
[Spain]. The Indians make blankets of those that are not full grown, and
of the larger they make shoes and bucklers. They come as far as the
sea-coast of Florida [now Texas], and in a direction from the north, and
range over a district of more than 400 leagues. In the whole extent of
plain over which they roam, the people who live bordering upon it
descend and kill them for food, and thus a great many skins are