1886.] NEW TOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 01 



1524 were after slaves, when that Spanish wretch seized and 

 carried to perish in the mines of Cuba two cargoes of Indians. 

 That of Paniphilo de Narvaez was in 1527. Over the last we 

 must pause for a moment to note the sad results of his incon- 

 ceivable brutality and its swift punishment. He found the most 

 peaceful, inoffensive, and civilized race of Indians since known 

 north of the Isthmus. They lived in towns; their dwellings 

 were comfortable, they cultivated the earth, wove, and dressed 

 their females in garments of cotton and other fibrous plants, and 

 were almost ignorant of the arts of war. The mother of one of 

 their chiefs complained of the brutal treatment of an Indian 

 girl, by a soldier. Narvaez caused her to be thrown to his dogs, 

 which tore her to pieces. Her son, the chief, remonstrated, and 

 Narvaez cut off his ears. The Indians collected in a body and 

 swept this Spanish brute and his army out of existence. They 

 slew two-thirds of them, burned their ships, and the remaining 

 two hundred embarking in a frail vessel, which they constructed, 

 were wrecked and drowned. Only five were known to have es- 

 caped. Cabe9a de Vaca, a priest, the chronicler of the expedi- 

 tion and three companions, and Ortiz, a soldier. De Vaca and 

 three companions, after probably eating a fourth, made a des- 

 perate fight for life, and actually crossed the continent to the 

 Yacqui river in the Mexican state of Sonora, on the Gulf of 

 California, whence they returned to Spain, ten years after the 

 expedition of Narvaez had sailed for Florida. 



De Soto was the first who made search in Florida for mines of 

 the precious metals. He had returned with riches from New 

 Spain; the only man in Pizarro's army that brought any reputa- 

 tion, save that of robber, from the conquest of Peru. He was fit- 

 ting out his five ships when De Vaca returned to Spain in 1537. 

 As the latter hoped himself to lead a similar expedition, he gave 

 De Soto no^information about the mines, and there was little in 

 his "Eela9am,^' afterwards published, except rumors relating to 

 the precious metals. 



At this time the region south and west of the Alleghanies was 

 inhabited by the great Natchez family of Indians. They had 

 reached a civilization higher than the Five Nations. The dwell- 

 ings of the common people were commodious, of several rooms 



