FIRST IMPORTATIONS. 109 



expedition, in wliicli he discovered tlie Mississippi and found a 

 grave in its waters ; and, when the warriors of his party re- 

 turned home by water in barques, which they built on the 

 banks of tlie great river, it is nearly certain that they must have 

 abandoned their chargers ; as it is little probable that the frail 

 vessels, built by inexperienced hands merely for the purpose of 

 escaping with life, should have been capable of containing the 

 horses of tlie fugitives. 



The first horses imported to America for the purpose of cre- 

 ating 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 1527, by Cabeca de Yaca, forty- 

 two in number, but these all perished or were killed. The next 

 importation was that of De Soto, alluded to above, of which 

 many doubtless survived, and to which I attribute the origin of 

 the wild horses of Texas and the prairies, strongly marked to 

 this day by the characteristics of Spanish blood. 



In 1601, M. L'Escarbot, a French lawyer, brought horses 

 with other domestic animals, into Acadia, and, in 1608, the 

 French, extending their colonization into Canada, introduced 

 horses into that country, where the present race, though it has 

 somewhat degenerated in size, owing probably to the inclemency 

 of the climate, still shows the blood, sufficiently distinct, of the 

 ITorman and Breton breeds. 



In 1609, the English ships, landing at Jamestown, brought, 

 beside swine, sheep and cattle, six mares and a horse, and in 1657 

 the importance of increasing the stock of this valuable animal 

 was so largely recognized, that an act was passed prohibiting its 

 exportation from the province. 



In 1629, horses and mares were brought into the plantations 

 of Massachusetts Bay by Francis Higginson, formerly of Leices- 

 tershire, from which county many of the animals were imported. 

 New York received its first horses in 1625, imported from Hol- 

 land by the Dutch "VYest India Company, probably of the 

 Flanders breed, of which, however, few traces seem to exist, 

 unless it be in the Conestoga horse of Pennsylvania, which, I 

 think, shows some affinity to that breed, either directly or 

 through the English dray-horse, which is understood to be 

 originally of Flemish origin. 



