PLACE DE LA CEOIX. 



A ROMANCE OF THE WEST. 



There is much of beautiful romance in the whole his- 

 tory of the early settlements of Florida. De Soto and 

 Ponce de Leon have thrown around the records of their 

 searches for gold and the waters of life, a kind of dreamy 

 character which renders them more like traditions of a 

 spiritual than of a real world. They and their followers 

 were men of stern military discipline, who had won hon- 

 ors in their conquests over the Moors ; and they came 

 hither not as emigrants, seeking an asylum from oppres- 

 sion, but as proud nobles, anxious to add to their nu- 

 merous laurels, by conquests in a new world. The 

 startling discoveries, — the fruits, the gold, and the na- 

 tives that appeared with Columbus at the court of Isa- 

 bella, — gave to fancy an impetus, and to enthusiasm a 

 power, which called forth the pomp of the " Infallible 



