through swamps, crossing deep rivers by swimming and by rafts,
fighting the lurking Indians who incessantly harassed their path,
and nearly perishing with hunger, they reached at last the Gulf of
Mexico. Hastily constructing some crazy boats, they put to sea.
After six weeks of peril and suffering, they were shipwrecked, and
De Narvaez was lost. Six years afterward, four--the only survivors
of this ill-fated expedition--reached the Spanish settlements on
the Pacific coast.

[Illustration: DE SOTO'S MARCH]

FERDINAND DE SOTO, undismayed by these failures, undertook anew the
conquest of Florida. He set out with 600 choice men, amid the
fluttering of banners, the flourish of trumpets, and the gleaming
of helmet and lance. For month after month this procession of
cavaliers, priests, soldiers, and Indian captives strolled through
the wilderness, wherever they thought gold might be found. They
traversed what is now Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In the
third year of their wanderings (1541) they emerged upon the bank of
the Mississippi. After another year of fruitless explorations, De
Soto died. (See Map, Epoch I). At the dead of night his followers
sank his body in the river, and the sullen waters buried his hopes
and his ambition. "He had crossed a large part of the continent,"
says Bancroft, "and found nothing so remarkable as his
burial-place." De Soto had been the soul of the company. When he
died, the other adventurers were anxious only to get home in
safety. They constructed boats and descended the river, little over
half of this gallant array finally reaching the settlements in
Mexico.