HISTORIC AMERICAN HIGHWAYS ROSE 501 



genus EquuSj historians are agreed that the Spaniards introduced 

 the forefathers of the modern horse into the New World. The 

 Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto (pi. 1, fig. 1) probably 

 transported across the Atlantic Ocean the first horses which survived 

 to renew the species on the soil now occupied by the United States. 

 His fleet of caravels entered a sheltered body of water which De Soto 

 named "Espiritu Santo" (Holy Ghost) and which we call today Tampa 

 Bay. Probably on May 28, 1539, the landing of more than 200 

 horses was made at Gadsen's Point. Numbered among this group 

 of magnificent Arabian horses was De Soto's favorite mount 

 Aceituno, from a strain of great longevity, productiveness, and hardi- 

 hood and like the evergreen olive tree the symbol of wisdom, peace, 

 and majesty. 



Many years elapsed, however, before horses were used for travel 

 and transportation by the American Indians. When the English 

 established their first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Va., in the 

 year 1607, the Atlantic Ocean and its tributary streams supplied the 

 main highways to and into the newly discovered continent. In the 

 region where the birch tree grew to suitable proportions, and on 

 rough bodies of water, the birchbark canoe was the favorite vehicle. 

 In the locality where the surface of the streams and bays remained 

 relatively placid the southern Indians used dugout canoes made by 

 building a fire upon a sound log and scraping away the charred 

 remains with a clam shell or other rude instrument (pi. 1, fig. 2). 

 When Captain John Smith met the gi-eat chief Powhatan at his 

 principal Indian village 1 mile downstream from the present site of 

 Richmond, Va., on the James River, his daughter Pocahontas used 

 a log bridge to cross a stream. The dusky forest denizens roamed 

 the forests on foot, resorted to hand litters to move the sick, and 

 transported heavy burdens on their backs. 



When another 70 years had elapsed, the land of America remained 

 still an unknown wilderness in which distances were traversed only 

 with extreme hardship. At the risk of their lives Old World ex- 

 plorers continued to seek a direct route overland toward China and 

 eTapan by paddling their canoes up the rivers and portaging or carry- 

 ing their equipment and supplies across the land divides separating 

 the main water courses. On January 22, 1679, Robert Cavalier, 

 Sieur de La Salle, the celebrated French explorer (pi. 2, fig. 1), in 

 search of a short-cut to the Far East, stood on the portage path 

 around Niagara Falls in company with his bosom companion, the 

 Franciscan Father Zenobe Membre. La Salle's enthusiasm might 

 have been dampened had he the foreknowledge that the venture 

 would cost him his life. Undaunted by anticipated danger, however, 

 his forceful character won the confidence of his followers. At his 



