242 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 
wood tree, he caused its majestic trunk to be shorn of 
its limbs; and on this tall shaft placed the beam which 
formed the cross. 
This completed, the emblazoned banners of Spain 
and Arragon were unfurled to the breeze, and, amid the 
strains of martial music and the firing of cannon, the 
steel-clad De Soto, assisted by the priests in his train, 
raised the host to heaven, and declared the reign of 
Christianity commenced in the valley of the Mississippi. 
The erection of this touching symbol in the great 
temple of nature was full of poetry. The forests, like 
the stars, declare the wonderful works of the Creator. 
In the silent grandeur of our primeval woods, in their 
avenues of columns, their canopies of leaves, their fes- 
toons of vines, the cross touched the heart, and spoke 
more fully its office than ever it will glistening among 
the human greatness of a Milan cathedral, or the solemn 
grandeur of a St. Peter's. 
Two hundred years after Ponce de Leon had min- 
gled his dust with the sands of the peninsula of Florida, 
and De Soto reposed beneath the current of the Missis- 
sippi, the same spirit of religious and military enthusi- 
asm pervaded the settlements made by both French and 
Spanish in this “land of flowers.” 
Among the adventurers of that day were many who 
mingled the romantic ambition of the crusaders with 
the ascetic spirit of the monk, and who looked upon 
themselves as ambassadors of religion to new nations in 

