12 INDIANOLA 
ing them draw logs about for a few days, when — 
they became docile, and could: be harnessed to the 
wagons with safety. While this was going on, the 
mechanics were employed in their various duties — 
The blacksmiths and carpenters in making many : 
small fixtures to the wagons; amongst other things, — 
all had to be provided with feed-troughs, not a single 
one of these necessary appendages being furnished — 
with them. All the harness and collars had to be re- — 
duced, to adapt them to our Mexican mules, which — 
were much smaller than the mules of Kentucky and — 
Missouri, used at the north, and for the transportation 4 
of merchandise for the Santa Fé and New Mexican trade. — 
La Salle, the place opposite which we came to an- — 
chor in entering Matagorda Bay, is so named in memo- 
ry of one of the most remarkable of the early explo- 
rers of the North American continent. This distin- 
guished Frenchman, with the ardent zeal which charac- 
terized his countrymen in their attempts to penetrate 
to the very heart of the continent, had passed the gr 
chain of the northern lakes, pushed his discoveries 
the head waters of the Mississippi, and traced its course 
to the gulf, before the first English colonist had es: 
tablished himself on the Atlantic coast. Coasting along 
the shores of the gulf in search of a spot whereon | 
might establish a colony, he landed, against his will, 
or near the spot which now bears his name, where he 
remained nearly a year with a little band of advent 
rers, facing all the dangers and undergoing all the h 
ships to which they could be exposed ina country: 
rounded by hostile Indians. In his attempt to extrica 
his party, he was murdered by one of them. 
