THE AMERICAN HORSE. 3l 



for the vast numerical increase, and the great hordes of these 

 animals now existing in a state of nature ; and they are in- 

 clined to ascribe their origin to animals escaped, or voluntarily 

 set at liberty, in the earlier expeditions and wars of the Span- 

 ish invaders, the cavalry of that nation consisting entirely of 

 perfect horses or mares. 



An opportunity for such an origin must undoubtedly have 

 been furnished in the bloody wars of Mexico and Peru ; since 

 upon the issue of many battles, which were disastrous to the 

 Spaniards, the war-horses, their riders being slain, could have 

 recovered their freedom and propagated their species rapidly 

 in the wide, luxuriant, and well-watered plains, where the 

 abundance of food, the genial climate, and the absence of 

 beasts of prey capable of successfully contending with so 

 powerful an animal as the horse, would favor their rapid in- 

 crease. 



We know, moreover, that De Soto had a large force of cav- 

 alry in that expedition in which he discovered the Mississippi, 

 and found a grave in its bosom ; and when his warriors re- 

 turned home in barques which they built on the banks of the 

 "Father of waters," there can be little doubt that their 

 chargers must have been abandoned, since their slender vessels, 

 built by inexperienced hands for the sole purpose of saving 

 their own lives, must have been incapable of containing their 

 steeds. 



The first horses imported to America for the purpose of 

 creating a stock, were brought by Columbus, in 1493, in his 

 second voyage to the islands. The first landed in the United 

 States, were introduced into Florida in 152T, by Cabeca de 

 Vaca, forty-two in number; but these all perished or were 



