io6 The American Geologist. August, 1902. 
commander, ]\Ioscoso, tried first to march west and southwest 
to reach Mexico; but, faiHng of this, and having returned to 
the Mississippi at Aminoya, near Guachoya, they built seven 
brigantines and descended this river in July, 1543. 
Among the volunteers forming this expedition was a Por- 
tuguese from Elvas, well educated and probably an offiter 
under De Soto, but whose name is unknown. After his re- 
turn to Europe, he wrote a narrative of the expedition, often 
cited as the Portuguese Relation, which is the most complete 
and reliable account of it that has been preserved. A transla- 
tion of it, by Buckingham Smith, from which the next quo- 
tation is taken, was published in New York by the Bradford 
Club in 1866. The debouchure of the Mississippi was de- 
scribed as follows : 
When near the sea it becomes divided into two arms, each of which 
may be a league and a half broad Half a league before coming to 
the sea, the Christians cast anchor, in order to take rest for a time, 
as they were weary from rowing. ... [Here Indians came, in several 
canoes, for an attack.] ... .There also came some by land, through 
thicket and bog, with staves, having very sharp heads of fish-bone, 
who fought valiantly those of us who went out to meet them. .. .After 
remaining two days, the Christians went to where that branch of the 
river enters the sea ; and having sounded there, they found forty 
fathoms depth of waten Pausing then, the Governor required that each 
should give his opinion respecting the voyage, whether they should sail 
to New Spain [the colonies in Mexico] direct, by the high sea, or 
go thither keeping along from shore to shore It was decided to go 
along from one to another shore 
On the eighteenth day of July the vessels got under weigh, with 
fair weather, and wind favorable for the voyage With a favorable 
wind they sailed all that day in fresh water, the next night, and the 
day following until vespers, at which they were greatly amazed ; for 
they were very distant from the shore, and so great was the strength 
of the current of the river, the coast so shallow and gentle, that the 
fresh water entered far into the sea. 
Luis Hernandez de Biedma, a factor or agent for the Span- 
ish king, was a member of De Soto's expedition, of which, 
after returning to Spain, he submitted a report in 1544. From 
the translation of that report, given by Buckingham Smith in 
the same volume with this narrative of ''the Gentleman of 
Elvas," we have the following considerably different descrip- 
tion of what was thought to be the junction of the Mississippi 
with the srulf. 
