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- Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Patriotism or devotion to one's country is a sentiment. It is not due to self-interest nor other sordid motive, but is born of the story of her origin and of the achievements of the brave and enterprising ancestral stock, which, out of small beginnings, established and organized and wrought a nation. Every great city is in semblance a small nation, both in government and the loyal co-operation of its people for the common good. And the same patriotic devotion, born of the same sentiment does, or should prevail in every city as in every nation. As our civilization grows older our larger cities are taking more interest in the story of their own origin and development, and concerning some of them many historical volumes have been written, dealing with almost every incident of fact and legend that could be traced. And in many notable instances of cities the greater the knowledge of her history, the greater the pride and love and devotion of her people. The city of Memphis, though rated young among her Eastern sisters in America, is yet one of the most ancient, considering the discovery of her site, and the building of the first habitations of the white man here, on the whole American continent. When it is recalled that the adventurous Hernando De Soto built a cantonment for his troops here and established a little ship-yard, in which he constructed four pirogues or barges, large enough to transport across the Mississippi River in time of high water, five hundred Spanish soldiers, as many more Indian vessels and one hundred and fifty horses, with baggage and other military equipment, in a few hours, and that all this occurred seventy-nine years before the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock and twenty-four years before the building of the first hut and stockade at St. Augustine, Fla., it will be realized that our story dates far back in ancient American history. Following up this fact much space has been given to the wonderful march of De Soto from Tampa Bay, Fla., to the Chickasaw Bluffs, literally hewing his way as he came with sword and halberd through swarming nations of brave Indians; and to showing that he marched directly from the Chickasaw towns in northeast Mississippi to the Chickasaw Bluffs; and to presenting in fullest detail from the Spanish Chroniclers what De Soto and his people did while on the Bluffs where Memphis now stands. And it was deemed proper also to tell with equal detail of the voyages of Marquette and Joliet and La Salle, past the lonely Chickasaw Bluffs, and of the coming of Le Moyne Bienville with a large army and the construction of a great fortress here, heavily mounted with artillery, in the endeavor to overcome the heroic Chickasaws who resented the French invasions in the effort to conquer their country and to found a great French Empire in Western America, And the story also is told of the effort of Governor Don Manuel Gayoso to establish in like manner a Spanish Empire west of the Mississippi River before the Americans could take hold. Indeed few American cities possess so romantic a story and the archives, not only of the United States, but of France and Spain also are yet rich in historical material awaiting the historian with time and opportunity for investigation.
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Standard History of Memphis, Tennessee
J. P. YOUNG
Standard History of Memphis, Tennessee, J. P. Young
Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck
86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9
Deutschland
Printed by Bookwire, Voltastraße 1, 60486 Frankfurt/M.
ISBN: 9783849662417
www.jazzybee-verlag.de
CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION1
DEDICATION3
CHAPTER I3
CHAPTER II19
CHAPTER III35
CHAPTER IV48
CHAPTER V64
CHAPTER VI78
CHAPTER VII90
CHAPTER VIII115
CHAPTER IX133
CHAPTER X153
CHAPTER XI179
CHAPTER XII191
CHAPTER XIII202
CHAPTER XIV225
CHAPTER XV237
CHAPTER XVI247
CHAPTER XVII276
CHAPTER XVIII293
CHAPTER XIX328
CHAPTER XX342
CHAPTER XXI347
CHAPTER XXII369
CHAPTER XXIII385
CHAPTER XXIV399
CHAPTER XXV410
CHAPTER XXVI430
CHAPTER XXVII435
INTRODUCTION
Patriotism or devotion to one's country is a sentiment. It is not due to self-interest nor other sordid motive, but is born of the story of her origin and of the achievements of the brave and enterprising ancestral stock, which, out of small beginnings, established and organized and wrought a nation. Every great city is in semblance a small nation, both in government and the loyal co-operation of its people for the common good. And the same patriotic devotion, born of the same sentiment does, or should prevail in every city as in every nation.
As our civilization grows older our larger cities are taking more interest in the story of their own origin and development, and concerning some of them many historical volumes have been written, dealing with almost every incident of fact and legend that could be traced. And in many notable instances of cities the greater the knowledge of her history, the greater the pride and love and devotion of her people.
Our own City of Memphis, though rated young among her Eastern sisters in America, is yet one of the most ancient, considering the discovery of her site, and the building of the first habitations of the white man here, on the whole American continent. When it is recalled that the adventurous Hernando De Soto built a cantonment for his troops here and established a little ship-yard, in which he constructed four pirogues or barges, large enough to transport across the Mississippi River in time of high water, five hundred Spanish soldiers, as many more Indian vessels and one hundred and fifty horses, with baggage and other military equipment, in a few hours, and that all this occurred seventy-nine years before the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock and twenty-four years before the building of the first hut and stockade at St. Augustine, Fla., it will be realized that our story dates far back in ancient American history.
Following up this fact much space has been given to the wonderful march of De Soto from Tampa Bay, Fla., to the Chickasaw Bluffs, literally hewing his way as he came with sword and halberd through swarming nations of brave Indians; and to showing that he marched directly from the Chickasaw towns in northeast Mississippi to the Chickasaw Bluffs; and to presenting in fullest detail from the Spanish Chroniclers what De Soto and his people did while on the Bluffs where Memphis now stands. And it was deemed proper also to tell with equal detail of the voyages of Marquette and Joliet and La Salle, past the lonely Chickasaw Bluffs, and of the coming of Le Moyne Bienville with a large army and the construction of a great fortress here, heavily mounted with artillery, in the endeavor to overcome the heroic Chickasaws who resented the French invasions in the effort to conquer their country and to found a great French Empire in Western America, And the story also is told of the effort of Governor Don Manuel Gayoso to establish in like manner a Spanish Empire west of the Mississippi River before the Americans could take hold.
Indeed few American cities possess so romantic a story and the archives, not only of the United States, but of France and Spain also are yet rich in historical material awaiting the historian with time and opportunity for investigation.
When the American pioneer came to the Chickasaw Bluffs and began to plan a city and then to cut away the forests and build, the narrative became more complex. The records at a frontier post, where the printing press had not yet appeared, were few and tradition is unreliable. To weigh and compare the fantastic legends and stories from memory that have come down to us, with the official records and authentic documents that survive, required patient care and discrimination and much that has been heretofore published as history has been rejected when found to be doubtful at least, or actually untrue.
With the founding of newspapers the story became more lucid. But to collect and edit the great mass of undigested material and weave it into a connected story, has been a herculean task that should not have been crowded into a year of time. There are necessarily imperfections and omissions in such a work which a generous public, we trust, will overlook. It has been the purpose of the editor to collect, in condensed form, as much of all this story as could be compressed into one volume, leaving to the future historian the enlargement of the concise outline into the several volumes that would be necessary to convey the narrative in fullest detail. Our present beautiful city, with its wonderful river and parks and driveways and libraries and public buildings is worthy of far greater efforts than we have been able to bestow upon it in the work.
If the people of Memphis shall be inspired by any part of the story, written in this book, to greater and more patriotic endeavors, not only to enlarge and adorn their already beautiful city, but to elevate her whole population to the highest plane of intellectual and moral progress and civic righteousness, the editor will feel richly paid for his humble but laborious work.
The editor desires to express the obligation he is under for the cheerfully rendered assistance of all the citizens of Memphis, and the city authorities to whom he applied, for use of documents and records. And especially does he desire to express his obligation to Miss A. R. James, Assistant „Writer and Compiler, to whose intelligence, aptitude and energy the public is indebted for much of the story of municipal progress since the founding of the city, as well as of the sanitary and educational development of Memphis and the growth of classical, musical and histrionic art among her people.
J. P. Young.
Memphis, Tenn., August 29, 1912.
DEDICATION
To the pioneers who founded and the brave sons who built and loyally stood by Memphis in her hours of adversity and pestilence as in her days of victory and triumph, this volume of her history is affectionately dedicated.
CHAPTER I
WHEN the light of history first began to illumine the story and traditions of the lower Chickasaw Bluff on the Mississippi River on the day that DeSoto arrived, May 8, 1541, the civilization of western Europe was yet young. Henry the Eighth was king of England and Queen Elizabeth still a young child. Shakespeare was yet to be born twenty-three years later, Galileo and Kepler, the fathers of modern astronomy, twenty-three and thirty years later respectively, Cromwell after fifty-eight years, Milton after sixty-seven years and Sir Francis Bacon, the proposer of inductive reasoning, the basis of all modern science, was not to open his eyes upon the world for yet twenty years to come. For centuries America had slept, a great, silent continent, undisturbed by the boom of guns or the crash of arms. There was no traffic along highways and rivers and her stillness was unbroken by any sound louder than the yell of the savage or the bark of the wolf. Her inhabitants were red nomads, of savage habits, but great mentality, and popularly known as Indians, as they were supposed at first to be connected in some way on the west with the East Indies. These were thinly scattered throughout the territory now occupied by the United States, living for protection mostly in groups of villages, constructed of upright logs or poles, the huts being covered with sections of bark taken from certain trees and sometimes defended by stockades of logs laboriously chopped down with the stone hatchets of the Indians and buried deeply at one end in the ground. These Indians possessed no iron out of which to forge tools or weapons, the tips to the latter, usually arrows only, being wrought as in the stone age, of flint and their hatchets in many instances being made of green porphyry brought from great distances, but more often of flint ground or rubbed smooth.
Their villages were commonly imbedded at some central point in the country occupied by the tribe and between the borders of their territory and that of the next tribe was usually a neutral strip of considerable and sometimes vast extent, claimed by one or both contiguous tribes as a hunting ground, but never permanently occupied. About their villages were extensive cleared fields in which they raised crops of maize, called by the Indians mahiz, which means Indian corn as now known. They likewise grew large quantities of beans, pumpkins and squash, which, together with nuts and dried meats prepared from the wild game of the forest, afforded them subsistence. The southeastern Indian tribes, and probably others also, prepared oils from the nuts of the woods, such as walnuts, pecans and hickory nuts, which were pronounced by the early Spaniards to be a very fine relish, and they made large quantities of oil from the fat of bears, which they used as lard. The family ties were very strong with most tribes of Indians and their tenderness and affection for their children was a striking trait of these people.
Confining our inquiry to those tribes which had relations with the Chickasaw bluffs, that part of the United States between the Savannah River and the Mississippi and south of the Tennessee River was, in 1541, covered by a distinctive racial population known as Appalachees. Between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and southeastward into North Alabama and Georgia and in East Tennessee the Cherokees were then located. The Appalachees were divided into a number of tribes which were bound by no political ties and were very exclusive. Among these were the Seminoles of Florida, the Uchees in Northern Georgia, the Mauvila or Mobilians in Southern Alabama, the Chickasaws in North Mississippi and West Tennessee, the Creeks or Muscogees in Georgia and Southeastern Alabama, the Choctaws in Central Mississippi and Alabama, and the Natchez in Southern Mississippi and Louisiana. The Akansas and Quapaws, of Siouan stock and of the same blood as the Omahas, occupied the west bank of the Mississippi opposite Memphis and at the date of DeSoto 's arrival the large tribe occupying, with its chief town and fortress known as Chisca, the site of modern Memphis, seemed to be subject to the tribes across the river under a great chief known as the lord or chief of Pacaha or, by other chroniclers called Capaha, probably the Spanish for Quapa, which was likewise the name of a town. This tribe at the lower Chickasaw bluffs was not related to the Chickasaws and was probably a colony of the trans-Mississippi settlers. The brave Chickasaws whose northern resident limit was in part the Tallahatchie River were then, as always afterwards, though few in numbers, the dominant race of Indians south and west of the Tennessee River and indeed, of the present Eastern Gulf States, though West Tennessee was in the time of DeSoto, as in the days of LaSalle and Bienville claimed, but used only as a hunting ground by them.
All these tribes kept up a pretty constant communication with each other, their embassies or delegations of chief men, passing over vast distances, undisturbed by the tribes through whose territory they traveled, always on foot, as they possessed neither horses nor cattle. But they would frequently, through some real or fancied slight or injury, go to war with each other and they always guarded their well-known boundaries, as well as their more vaguely defined hunting grounds, with jealous care and determination.
Choctaw legend gives to the site of Memphis a fantastic interest in its narrative of mythical events of great antiquity. The legend relates that many centuries ago the Choctaws and Chickasaws, led by two brothers, Chacta and Chicsa, came from the far west. On crossing the Mississippi River they found the country occupied by the Nahonla, giants who were very fair and had come from the East. There was also a race of giants here who were cannibals and who kept the mammoths, animals whose great bones are found everywhere in the clay and gravel deposits of the lower Mississippi Valley, herded, and used them to break down the forests, thus causing the prairies. At last all the cannibals and their gigantic mammoths, except one of the latter, which lived near the Tombigbee River, became extinct. The Great Spirit attempted to destroy him with lightning, but he foiled the bolts by receiving them on his head. Finally being hard pressed by the Great Spirit, he fled to the Socta-Thoufah, „steep bluffs,“ (now Memphis), cleared the river at a bound and hied him away to the Rocky Mountains.
It was through tribes like these above described that DeSoto hewed his bloody way from Tampa Bay, Florida, to the Mississippi River, lured by that „auri sacra fames,“ the accursed thirst for gold, undergoing the most dreadful toil and suffering, but never finding the gold. El Dorado the Golden, or the riches embodied in the wild dream of Cabeza de Vaca. He was moreover unconscious of the fact as he journeyed and toiled that the soil of the lands beneath his feet has proven one of the world's greatest sources of wealth, and that a single cotton crop raised on these same lands now produces more gold than existed in all Europe during his era.
As the lower Chickasaw bluffs first came into prominence in the world's history on the arrival of DeSoto, a brief abstract of his journey and exploits will be here given, derived from the original narrative of „The Portuguese Gentleman,“ Ranjeld, DeSoto's private secretary, Biedma and Garcilaso de la Vega all, except the last named, companions of his march, and whose writings have come down to us and now exist in several splendid translations. But this will be preceded by a short sketch of his life.
Hernando DeSoto, frequently written Ferdinand DeSoto, was, according to the narrative of the Portuguese Gentleman, or the Gentleman of Elvas, the anonymous knight who was a companion on his great march through Florida, born at Xeres de Badajos in Spain, but the date of his birth is not by him given. Garcilaso de la Vega, commonly known as the Inca, gives his birthplace at Villa nueva de Barcarota, and Herrara assigns the same town as the birthplace and the date is fixed at about 1501. Buckingham Smith asserts that he was born at Xeres in the province of Estremadura, and the Encyclopedia Brittanica names Xeres de Caballeros in Estremadura as the place where he first saw the light and the year 1496 as the date. He was said to have been of gentle birth on both his father's and mother's side, but was without means, his whole possessions, according to the Knight of Elvas, being his sword and buckler. DeSoto was indebted to his patron Pedro Arias de Avila, generally written Pedrarias Davila, whose attention he had attracted, for the means of acquiring his education. With Davila he went when a mere youth, to the „Indies of the Ocean, „ or the West Indies, of which his patron had been appointed governor and was by the governor appointed to the command, as captain, of a company of cavalry. Soon after, by order of Davila, he took part with Pizarro in the Conquest of Peru. Here he greatly distinguished himself and attracted the attention of that shrewd but accomplished cut-throat who „soon singled him out from the hardy spirits around him and appointed him his lieutenant. Was there a service of special danger to be performed, DeSoto had it in charge; was there an enterprise requiring sound judgment and careless daring, DeSoto was sure to be called upon.“
DeSoto, narrates Garcilaso de la Vega, commanded one of the troops of horse which captured the Inca, Atahualpa and put to rout his army. He finally shared in the spoil wrung from this unfortunate prince and in the looting of Cuzco. He is alleged in the Spanish chronicles to have been the officer who indicated on the wall of the great room in the Inca's palace, by the reach of his arm and sword, the line to which the room was required to be filled with gold for his ransom, by the unfortunate monarch. He later returned to Spain laden with wealth, his share amounting to 180,000 cruzados or crowns of gold. Here he lived at the court of the emperor in almost imperial style and loaned of his money to the shrewd Charles V. Soon after he was married to Dona Ysabel, daughter of his former patron Davila and was appointed by the emperor, Charles V, Governor and Captain General of Cuba and Florida with the more exalted civic title of Adelantado or President of Florida.
DeSoto, after some delay, determined to attempt the conquest of Florida, chiefly by reason of the reports brought from there by Cabeza de Vaca, one of the four survivors of the ill-fated Narvaez expedition, which led him to believe that the land contained rich treasures of gold. DeSoto for this purpose organized at his own expense an expedition composed of six hundred hardy adventurers, including many knights and soldiers of distinction and a brilliant escort of Portuguese hidaljos or gentlemen under Andre de Vasconcelo, and with these he sailed in seven ships April 6, 1538, from San Lucar de Borrameda for Santiago de Cuba and after nearly a year's sojourn in that island sailed May 8, 1539, for Florida and landed May 25, at Tampa Bay.
DeSoto had, besides his foot soldiers, 224 horses, having lost 19 at sea. He also drove with his command a herd of hogs, partly for the support of his army, if meat should not be found, and partly with which to stock a colony if he should deem it expedient to found one. His march is one of the most remarkable for its toils and hardships and barrenness of results in all history, and strongly emphasized the imperious will as well as the greed of the adventurer. By some historians it is called DeSoto 's crazy march, but if he did not discover ''El Dorado, the Golden,“ which he is believed to have sought, he unquestionably found what is to us vastly more important, the site of our splendid city. He also gave accurate information to all Europe of the nature of the interior of the country now constituting the East Gulf States of the American Union, with its rich plains and forests and mighty water courses, as well as of its brave aboriginal inhabitants, for the mastery of which Spain, France and England struggled for more than two centuries, when it was finally wrested from all of them by the young American Republic.
DeSoto lost no time in getting off on his long march from the landing place at Tampa. The landing was made May 30, 1539 at a village called Ocita and the march was begun June 1. The Spaniards on June 4, recaptured a Spanish captive named Juan Ortiz, who became their guide and interpreter. The Indians were brave and resentful and attacked the detachments of Spanish soldiers wherever found and this in turn moved the Spanish soldiers to reprisals and they inflicted the greatest cruelty on the brave Indians. The Spaniards killed many wantonly, running them down with their horses and spearing them when overtaken and also chased them with their Irish greyhounds, a species of large fierce dog, and caused the dogs to tear numbers of them in pieces. The line of march was through a rough, swampy country and the midsummer sun was hot, causing great suffering to the troops. The route from Tampa was in a long sweeping curve to the eastward and northward through many Indian villages, among others Mocogo. Urri-Barra-Caxi and Ocali to Vitachuco, where the Spaniards had a fierce battle. Here DeSoto turned northwestwardly and probably crossing the Suwanee River above the old town of that name, reached, after a long march and many vicissitudes, the site of the modern city of Tallahassee. This was called Anhayca by the Gentleman of Elvas and Iviahica by Ranjel. Here DeSoto wintered in the Province of Apalachee.
The journey was resumed March 3, 1540, in a northeastwardly direction, the line of march taking them almost in a straight line from Tallahassee, Florida, to the Savannah River some miles below Augusta, Georgia, crossing in their route the Ocmulgee and the Oconee, probably not far above the junction of these rivers, and the Ogeechee. The march was attended with much toil and sometimes almost with starvation. The principal Indian towns passed were Achise, Cofaqui and Cofachiqui, the latter thought to be about twenty-five miles below Augusta on the east side of the Savannah River.
On May 13, 1540, DeSoto left Cofachiqui and marching northwest he crossed the country of Achelaque or Cherokee, a very poor and unproductive district, and reached the province of Xualla or Choualla, skirting the Savannah River and its northern tributaries, and rested May 21, in a town of the same name, probably in the vicinity of Clarksville, Georgia. Thence turning westward they marched through a rich province and across a chain of low, uninhabited mountains. They now passed through Conasaqua to Chiaha where, June 5, 1540, they again rested. Leaving Chiaha June 28, they followed the course of the Coosa River southwestward through the village of Acoste July 2, and the present city of Rome in the extensive and fertile province of Cosa, or Coca, according to Ranjel, and reached Ulibahali September 2, 1540, and thence moved forward to Talise, reaching there September 18.
DeSoto 's march was now continually down the Coosa River and he finally reached the fortified town of Tuscaloosa or „Black Warrior,“ which Ranjel calls Athahachi, October 10, and still proceeding he arrived at the great Indian fortress of Mauvila, about twenty-five miles above the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. The Spaniards since leaving Cofachiqui on the Savannah River had been received in a friendly spirit by the Indians and had had little fighting. But under the inspiration of the great Indian Chief, Tuscaluza, the storm broke at Mauvila, into which town some of the Spaniards, including DeSoto, had been cunningly decoyed by Tuscaluza under pretense of showing them greater hospitality, and a terrible battle followed. This short sketch will not permit the details of this great conflict. After nine hours fighting DeSoto succeeded in burning the town, with its lightly built straw-thatched houses, and slew 2,500 or 3,000 of Tuscaluza 's warriors. DeSoto lost only twenty-two of his own protected and mail-clad knights and cross-bowmen, killed, but one hundred forty-eight others received six hundred eighty-eight arrow wounds, while seven horses were killed and twenty-nine others wounded. The Spaniards also lost all their baggage which they had carelessly carried into the town and deposited in a building.
Resting here a month to recuperate DeSota left Mauvila, determined in a dare-devil spirit to spy out the whole land and marching northwestward and conforming to the course of the Tombigbee River he again encountered the Indians, this time probably Choctaws, at the Black Warrior River a short distance above its mouth. He was delayed several days to build two rafts or piraguas, with which to cross. Finally effecting a crossing here December 9, he moved forward and entered the state of Mississippi a short distance east of the present city of Columbus. He reached the Tombigbee, called by the Spaniards the River of the Chicacas, probably between the present town of Waverly and the mouth of Tibbee Creek, a short distance above Columbus. The Indians here, still of the Choctaw tribe, again opposed the crossing and DeSoto was delayed until he could build another raft or flat with which he ferried his men over the wide, deep stream. Baltasar de Gallegos was sent with thirty horsemen up the stream to find a ford and turn the Indian position, which he did, but not before DeSoto had forced a passage with his footmen. Gallegos crossed almost certainly at the old Choctaw crossing or ford at or near Lincacums shoals. Claiborne says, „DeSoto probably entered the present state of Mississippi at Columbus, and followed an Indian trail or buffalo path some five miles up to Lincacums shoals, just about the mouth of the Tibbee and a little below the present town of Waverly. The Tombigbee here is bifurcated by an island, the first obstruction below Buttahatchie. The gravel discharged from this stream lodged against the island and rendered both channels fordable a great part of the year, and this is the only point where the Spaniards could have forded in December. It was the crossing used by the Choctaws when going to the villages and hunting grounds east of the Tombigbee. The trail struck here a stretch of prairie, between Tibbee and Hanging Kettle creeks, and crossed the present Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Lookhattan, thence a little west of the railroad by Mulden, Prairie Station and Egypt.
„The early settlers of this portion of Mississippi remember the well-worn, beaten trail, long disused but distinctly defined, and can to this day trace it from plantation to plantation.
„On leaving Egypt the trail tended northwest up the ridge known as Featherstone 's ridge, through a series of glades three or four miles west of Okolona, and up the second bottom on the east side of Sookatonchee Creek. There it struck Pontotoc ridge four miles east of the ancient Chicasa council house. Near this point stood the first Chicasa town, and in this vicinity the Spaniards went into winter quarters.
„At that period a portion of the Chickasaws still resided in the mountain region of East Tennessee, but a large body of them had taken possession of a territory where DeSoto found them, and their principal settlement or town, or series of villages, was on the ridge from the ancient council house (near Redland) north fifteen miles (near Pontotoc) and northwest on the 'mean prairie' eight or ten miles, within a few miles of Tallahatchie River. On the southern bluff was the Alabama fort or town, the stronghold of the tribe of that name, in alliance with the Chickasaws.
„Four miles east of the ancient council house on the Pontotoc ridge, near the source of Sookatonchee Creek are the vestiges of a fortified camp, evidently once strongly-entrenched, after the European style of that day, with bastions and towers. Leaden balls and fragments of metal have been often found in these ruins. The enclosure was square and the whole area, as evidenced by the remains, would have afforded shelter to the Spaniards and their livestock.
„The ancient chronicles described the Chicasa town near which DeSoto halted, as containing two hundred houses, shaded by oak and walnut trees and with rivulets on each side. These requisitions are filled in the locality referred to. Beautiful groves of oak and hickory (which the Spaniards called walnut) abound, and living streams running west to the Yazoo and east to the Tombigbee.“*
Professor Theodore Hayes Lewis, in his article on the route of DeSoto, in Volume 6, Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, furnishes this data: „Chicaca was a town of two hundred fires and was situated on a hill extending north and south, which was watered by many little brooks. It was located about one mile northwest of Redland on the S. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Section 21, and the N. 1/2 of the N.W. 1/4 of Section 28, town. 11, range 3, E., in Pontotoc County.“
The crossing was effected by DeSoto December 16, 1540 (Ranjel), in all likelihood at or in the immediate vicinity of Columbus. He immediately rode forward to find a suitable town for winter quarters, as the weather was becoming cold, and late at night entered a small, deserted village of twenty houses (Ranjel), where Baltasar De Gallegos joined him the next day. This was not the capital of Chicasa as some assume from the somewhat confused accounts of the narrators. Gareelaco says, (Richelet's translation, tome 2, p. 352) that after he crossed the river they marched four days and reached the capital of the Chicacas, a town of two hundred fires, and Ranjel says that they spent that Christmas at Chicaca. This was, as above stated, near Redland, Pontotoc County, Mississippi.
Here snow fell heavily at Christmas and the weather became very cold and DeSoto constructed for his army a fortified camp, building his huts with material and straw obtained from the neighboring villages. (Richelet, tome 2, p. 353.)
Here he remained comfortably cantoned until March 4, 1541, when, designing to march to the Mississippi River, he demanded two hundred carriers or porters from the Chicasas. The proud tribe rebelled at this menial service and that night attacked his camp from four directions, set fire to the straw-thatched huts and burned the whole camp, destroying the baggage and clothing of the Spaniards, who were caught unawares, and rendering useless most of their weapons. DeSoto lost twelve men and fifty-nine horses in this combat.
DeSoto now removed to a small village three miles distant called Chicacilla or little Chicasa, near Pontotoc, where he improvised a forge of bear-skins and gun-barrels and retempered his burned weapons and made new saddles and lance-handles or staffs and again repulsed the Indians who attacked him March 15th. On Tuesday, April 26, DeSoto, having learned from captive Indians of the character of the country to the northwestward, left the vicinity of Pontotoc and began his march to the Mississippi River at the lower Chickasaw Bluffs, the site of Memphis. Following the beaten trail and bearing to the northwest, he reached the Tallahatchie River near Rocky Ford on April 28, and found the Indians of another tribe entrenched in a strong stockade on a bluff overhanging the narrow, deep river, the fortress being called Alibamo or, as spelled by Ranjel, Alimarau, and had here another severe conflict with the Indians, driving them from the stockade across the river on some fragile log bridges which they had improvised. Unable to cross there with his horsemen DeSoto, desirous to punish the brave Indians for defending their homes, rode up the river a short distance to Rocky Ford and crossing, pursued them with great slaughter for a league with a loss to himself in the battle of eight killed and twenty-six wounded. (Biedma). 1
Providing litters for his wounded, fifteen of whom died on the way, DeSoto set out April 30, 1541, for the lower Chickasaw Bluffs, called by the Portuguese Gentleman and Biedma Quizquiz, by Ranjel, Quisqui and by Garcilaso, Chisca. Of this march, which consumed eight days, and the arrival at Chisca, the site of the city of Memphis, May 8, 1541, the editor will use Richelet's version of Garcilaso de la Vega, 1731, translated by Mr. Robert B. Goodwin, of Memphis, as it differs in several important respects from the version of Theodore Irving, 1851. Richelet says:
„I return to where I was in my history. The Spaniards in leaving Alibamo, marched across a waste country bearing always towards the north in order to get further and further away from the sea, and at the end of three days they came in view of the capital of Chisca, which bears the name of its province and of its ruler. This town is situated near a river which the Indians called Chucagua, the largest of all those encountered by our people in Florida. The inhabitants of Chisca, unaware of the coming of the troops, by reason of the war which they were waging with their neighbors, were taken by surprise. The Spaniards plundered them and took several of them prisoners. The rest of them fled, some into a forest between the village and the river, and others to the house of the Cacique, which stood upon a high mound commanding a view of the whole place. The Cacique was old, and then sick upon his bed, in a condition of great weakness. He was of such small stature and of such meagre visage that in that country the like had never been seen. Nevertheless at the sound of the alarm and being surprised that his subjects were being plundered and being taken prisoners, he arose, walked out of his chamber with a battle axe in his hand and made the threat that he would slay all who might enter his lands without his leave. But as he was about to go forth from his house to confront the Spaniards, the women of his household, aided by some of his subjects who had made their escape from the Spaniards, restrained him. „With tears in their eyes they reminded him of the fact that he was feeble, without men at arms, his vassals in disorder, and not in condition for fighting and that those with whom he had to do were vigorous, well disciplined, great in number and, for the most part, mounted upon beasts of such speed that none could ever escape them. That it was necessary, then, to await a favorable occasion for their revenge and to deceive their enemies in the meantime by fair appearances of friendship, thus preventing the destruction of himself and his subjects.
„These considerations caused Chisca to pause, but he was so chagrined by the injury which the Spaniards had done him, that instead of being willing to listen to the envoys of the general in their demands for peace, he declared war upon them, adding that he hoped within a short while to cut the throat of their captain and all those with him.
„DeSoto, however, was not astonished at this, but sent others and they made excuses for the disorder created upon their arrival, and repeated the demand for peace.
„For it was clear to DeSoto that his men were discouraged on account of the constant skirmishing, and were encumbered with sick men and sick horses; that in less than six hours there had come to the side of the Cacique not less than four thousand men, quite well equipped; that in all probability he would get together a very much larger number; besides, that the lay of the land was very favorable to the Indians, and very unfavorable to the Spaniards, on account of the thicket surrounding the town, which would make it impossible to use his cavalry; that finally, instead of making progress by fighting, the Spaniards were working their own destruction from day to day. These were the considerations which induced the general to offer peace.
„But the larger part of the Indians who were assembled to deliberate upon the subject had quite contrary views. Some were for war, believing that to be the only means of recovering their goods and delivering their companions from the power of the Spaniards. They declared that there need be no fear of such people; that such earnest demands for peace as the Spaniards made afforded certain proof of their cowardice; finally, that it was fitting to apprise them of the courage of those whom they had just attacked by giving battle in turn, to the end that no stranger in future would have the temerity to enter their domain. But the other side contended that peace was their only means of getting back their property and their imprisoned countrymen; that if there should be a battle their misery would only be increased by reason of fire and the loss of their crops, (which were still unharvested), resulting in ruin to the entire province and the death of many of their people.
„For they said inasmuch as their enemies had come as far as their country, through so many trials and perils and through so many fierce tribes, their courage could not be fairly doubted. Thus they said that without any other proofs, peace ought to be made, and that if they were afterwards dissatisfied they could break the truce to a much better advantage than they could on that day make war. This opinion prevailed and the Cacique, dissembling his resentment, asked the envoys what they thought to gain by this peace, which they seemed to desire so much. They answered, their lodging in the town, together with supplies for passing on. Chisca agreed to all on condition that they should set at liberty those of his subjects whom the Spaniards held prisoners, return all the goods that they had seized, and not enter into his house; and he warned them that the only alternative would be war of extermination. The Spaniards accepted peace on these conditions and released the subjects of Chisca, for they had no lack of Indian servants, and returned all the booty — consisting only of some sorry deerskins and clothing of small value. Thereupon the inhabitants abandoned the town with the supplies which they had and the Spaniards remained six days, treating their sick. On the last day DeSoto got leave from Chisca to visit him in his house, and after he had thanked him for the favor done his troops he withdrew, proceeding the next day upon his journey of discovery.“
Besides Garcilaso, whose narrative has just been given, three companions of DeSoto also told the story of the approach to and occupation of the town of Chisca on the lower Chickasaw Bluff, now the site of Memphis. Inasmuch as some writers have endeavored to show from these narratives that DeSoto probably reached the Mississippi River at or about the thirty-fourth parallel of latitude and not at Memphis, the narratives will be given here in full in order that the reader may judge for himself of the correctness of the conclusion drawn by the editor in common with Ramsey and Claiborne, that the lower Chicasaw Bluff, with its big mound, was the place where DeSoto first saw the great inland river.
The first of these narratives to be quoted is that of the Gentleman of Elvas, usually referred to as the Portuguese Gentleman. This narrative is as follows:
„He accordingly set out for Quizquiz and marched seven days through a wilderness having many pondy places, with thick forests, all fordable however on horseback except some basins or lakes that were swum. He arrived at a town of Quizquiz without being descried and seized all the people before they could come out of their houses. Among them was the mother of the Cacique; and the Governor sent word to him by one of the captives to come and receive her with the rest he had taken. The answer he returned was that if his lordship would order them to be loosed and sent, he would come to visit and do him service.
„The Governor, since his men arrived weary and likewise weak for want of maize and his horses were also lean, determined to yield to the requirement and try to have peace; so the mother and the rest were ordered to be set free and with words of kindness were dismissed. The next day, while he was hoping to see the chief, many Indians came with bows and arrows set upon the Christians, when he commanded that all the armed horsemen should be mounted and in readiness. Finding them prepared, the Indians stopped at the distance of a cross-bow shot from where the Governor was, near a riverbank, where, after remaining quietly half an hour, six chiefs arrived at the camp, stating that they had come to find out what people it might be; for they had knowledge from their ancestors that they were to be subdued by a white race; they consequently desired to return to the Cacique to tell him that he should come presently to obey and serve the Governor. After presenting six or seven skins and shawls brought with them they took their leave and returned with the others who were waiting for them by the shore. The Cacique came not, nor sent another message.
„There was little maize in the place and the Governor moved to another town, half a league from the great river, where it was found in sufficiency. He went to look at the river and saw that near it there was much timber of Which piraguas might be made, and a good situation in which the camp might be placed. He directly moved, built houses, and settled on a plain a cross-bow shot from the water, bringing together all the maize of the towns behind, that at once they might go to work and cut down the trees for sawing out planks to build barges. The Indians soon came from up the stream, jumped on the shore and told the Governor that they were vassals of a great lord named Aquixo, who was the suzerain of many towns and people on the other shore; and they made known from him that he would come the day after, with all his people to hear what his lordship would command him.
„The next day the Cacique arrived with two hundred canoes filled with men having weapons. They were painted with ochre, wearing great bunches of white and other plumes of many colors, having feathered shields in their hands, with which they sheltered the oarsmen on either side, the warriors standing erect from bow to stern, holding bows and arrows. The barge in which the Cacique came had an awning at the poop in which he sat; and the like had the barges of the other chiefs; and there from under the canopy where the chief man was the course was directed and orders issued to the rest. All came down together and arrived within a stone's cast of the ravine, whence the Cacique said to the Governor, who was walking along the river bank with others who bore him company, that he had come to visit, serve and obey him; for he had heard that he was the greatest of lords, the most powerful of all the earth and that he must see what he would have him do. The Governor expressed his pleasure and besought him to land that they might the better confer; but the chief gave no reply, ordering three barges to draw near wherein was a great quantity of fish and loaves like bricks, made of the pulp of ameixas (persimmons), which, DeSoto receiving, gave him thanks and again entreated him to land.
„Making the gift had been a pretext to discover if any harm might be done; but finding the Governor and his people on their guard the Cacique began to draw off from the shore, when the crossbowmen, who were in readiness, with loud cries shot at the Indians and struck down five or six of them. They retired with great order, not one leaving the oar, even though the next one to him might have fallen and covering themselves they withdrew. Afterwards they came many times and landed; when approached they would go back to their barges. These were fine looking men, very large and well formed; and what with the awnings, the plumes and the shields, the pennons and the number of people in the fleet, it appeared like a famous armada of galleys.
„During the thirty days that were passed here four piraguas were built, into three of which one morning three hours before daybreak, the Governor ordered twelve cavalry to enter, four in each, men in whom he had confidence, that they would gain the land, notwithstanding the Indians, and secure the passage or die. He also sent some crossbowmen on foot with them, and in the other piragua oresmen to take them to the opposite shore. He ordered Juan de Guzman to cross with the infantry, of which he had remained captain in the place of Francisco Maldonado; and because the current was stiff they went up along the side of the river a quarter of a league and in passing over they were carried down so as to land opposite the camp; but before arriving there at twice the distance of a stone's cast, the horsemen rode out from the piraguas to an open area of hard and even ground, which they all reached without accident.
„So soon as they had come to the shore the piraguas returned, and when the sun was up two hours high the people had all got over. The distance was near half a league; a man standing on the shore could not be told whether he was a man or something else from the other side. The stream was swift and very deep; the water always flowing turbidly brought along from above many trees and much timber, driven onward by its force.“
The narrative of Biedma is much briefer than the other two and is thus given:
„We traveled eight days with great care in tenderness of the wounded and sick we carried. One midday we came upon a town called Quizquiz and so suddenly to the inhabitants that they were without any notice of us, the men being away at work in the maize fields. We took more than three hundred women and a few skins and shawls they had in their houses.
There we first found a little walnut of the country (pecans), which is much better than that here in Spain. The town was near the banks of the river Espiritu Santo (The River of the Holy Spirit.) They told us that it was, with many towns about there, tributary to the lord of Pacaha, famed throughout all the land. When the men heard that we had taken their women they came to us peacefully, requesting the Governor to restore them. lie did so and asked them for canoes in which to pass that great river. These they promised, but never gave; on the contrary they collected to give us battle, coming in sight of the town where we were; but in the end, not venturing to make an attack, they turned and retired.
„We left that place and went to encamp by the riverside to put ourselves in order for crossing. On the other shore we saw a number of people collected to oppose our landing, who had many canoes. We set about building four large piraguas, each capable of taking sixty or seventy men and five or six horses. We were engaged in the work twenty-seven or twenty-eight days. During this time the Indians every day at three o'clock in the afternoon would get into two hundred and fifty very large canoes they had, well shielded, and come near the shore on which we were; with loud cries they would exhaust their arrows upon us and then return to the other bank. After they saw that our boats were at the point of readiness for crossing they all went off leaving the passage free. We crossed the river in concert, it being nearly a league in width and nineteen or twenty fathoms deep.“
The last of these narratives is by Ranjel, the secretary of DeSoto, who thus narrates the occurrences at the Chickasaw bluffs:
„Saturday, the last of April, the army set out from the place of the barricade and marched nine days through a deserted country and by a rough way, mountainous and swampy, until May 8, when they came to the first village of Quizqui, which they took by assault and captured much people and clothes; but the Governor promptly restored them to liberty and had everything restored to them for fear of war, although that was not enough to make friends of these Indians. A league beyond this village they came to another with abundance of corn and soon again after another league upon another likewise amply provisioned. There they saw the great river. Saturday, May 21, the force went along to a plain between the river and a small village and set up quarters and began to build four barges to cross over to the other side. Many of these conquerers said that this river was larger than the Danube.
„On the other side of the river about seven thousand Indians had got together with about two hundred canoes to defend the passage. All of them had shields made of cane joined so strong and so closely interwoven with such thread that a cross-bow could hardly pierce them. The arrows came raining down so that the air was full of them and their yells were something fearful. But when they saw that the work on the barges did not relax on their account, they said that Pacaha, whose men they were, ordered them to withdraw and so they left the passage free. And on Saturday, June 8, (June 18), the whole force crossed this great river in the four barges and gave thanks to God because in His good pleasure nothing more difficult could confront them. Soon, on Sunday, they came to a village of Aquixo. Tuesday, June 21, they went from there and passed by the settlement of Aquixo, which is very beautiful and beautifully situated.
Comparing these four narratives, which are in peculiar agreement with each other, except the last, it can readily be seen that Ranjel, in speaking of the villages a league apart to which the Spaniards moved in turn for the purpose of obtaining provisions, was merely describing the usual group of villages which went to make up a settlement among these Indians such as the Spaniards found at the Chickasa towns in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, and in no way contradicts the other narratives. The fact seems to be that DeSoto came upon the town of Chisca where the great mound was and still remains, which was near the wide river with a forest between and then, without reaching the river, he moved from village to village on the bluff for more convenient access to corn or maize, by which his army was supported, and finally pitched his camp under the bluff at the foot of a ravine probably near the mouth of Wolf River and within cross-bow shot of the water, where he constructed and launched his boats. Again the Gentleman of Elvas narrates that: „The Rio Grande being crossed, the Governor marched a league and a half to a large town of Aquixo, which was abandoned before his arrival.“
And this statement again tends to locate the crossing at Memphis, as, from the opposite bank, it is four and a half miles or a league and a half to the high point at Mound City, Arkansas, where a great mound still stands and which was the site of another Indian village in ancient times. And from Mound City westward in a winding course a ridge extends which affords probably the only dry crossing through the swamps from the river west to the highlands, during high waters which usually prevail at that season of the year, between Cairo, Illinois and Helena, Arkansas.
Footnotes:
1 It seems certain that DeSoto found the Indian fortress Alibamo and made his crossing of the Tallahatchie River at Rocky Ford. No other point in the river suits the description given in the Spanish narratives. Garcelaso De Vega says of the fort, „In the last stockade were three gates or portals opening upon a narrow and very deep little river which flowed in the rear of the fort and over which was thrown some bad conditioned bridges. The banks of the stream were so high that they could not be climbed by horses.“ The fort is on a direct line from the Chickasaw town near Redlands, Mississippi, to the Chickasaw Bluff at Memphis, also on an ancient Indian trail. In confirmation of this conclusion the editor gives this letter from Mr. Chas. Lee Crum, an attorney of New Albany, Mississippi and an old resident of that vicinity:
„Your favor of 20th to hand asking for information as to the character of the country at Rocky Ford, in the west end of this. Union County. In reply I have to say that there is not probably a man in this country that is more familiar with every part of Tallahatchie River from New Albany west to the LaFayette and Marshall counties line than I am.
„Rocky Ford is now Etta, that is, the post office is called Etta, and you will find it on the maps of Mississippi this way. There is a hill at least 100 feet high that comes in from the southwest and abruptly stops at the river. There is a precipitation almost perpendicular probably 50 feet high and not more than 150 yards below the old ford from which the place took Its name. The hill is largely composed of very large lime rocks, and when I crossed this ford 35 years ago there was at least one large rock in the ford that probably would have weighed 60 tons or more, besides a number of smaller rocks. This ford has not been used for a public road for thirty years, I suppose, there having been a bridge made over the river half mile below.
„I have always been of the opinion that DeSoto crossed Tallahatchie one-half mile below New Albany, Miss., and that the Indian trail you mentioned also crossed here. This crossing has existed as far back as the white man can remember, and the bottom of the river here is a solid rock. I have always thought that this crossing gave the river its name which, I understand, means 'rock-river.' At this point there is a point of land above overflows that reaches to the river, and the bottom on the north or west side at this place is not more than 400 yards wide. However, at Rocky Ford, we have the only bluff that I know of on the river west of New Albany.“
CHAPTER II
DE SOTO was Adelantado of Florida and all interior America was Florida to him, so that he left no record of having claimed by virtue of discovery for his sovereign the vast wilderness which he traversed on his way from Tampa Bay to the Mississippi River, But by international right Spain was the owner and her king the sovereign of these great solitudes until dispossessed by later adventurers of other nations.
After the departure of DeSoto the Indians lived undisturbed on the lower Chickasaw Bluff and roamed the surrounding solitudes in quest of game or in warfare with their neighbors for one hundred thirty-two years. In the meantime the Atlantic coast line had been settled and the French were extending their dominions beyond the Great Lakes in the northwest, but no white man since DeSoto 's time had ventured down the great inland river. In May, 1673 Father Marquette, a noted Jesuit priest and missionary of restless energy and wandering proclivities, with a Quebec trader named Louis Joliet and five other Frenchmen began ascending the Fox River from Lake Michigan in two canoes and about the tenth of June made a portage to the Wisconsin River and, descending that stream, on June 17, 1673, entered the Mississippi. Rowing slowly down the stream past the mouth of the Pekitanoui or Missouri, and the Ouabouskigou, or the Ohio, which they noted, the voyagers passed the lower Chickasaw Bluff early in July, 1673, but made no stop. Soon after they passed the village of Mitchigameas, now Helena, Arkansas, below the mouth of the St. Francis River, and finally stopped about the site of the last of the villages of the Akansea below the mouth of the river of that name and about latitude 33° 40', but Father Marquette's map shows this village to be on the east side of the Mississippi River. Remaining here until July 17, the missionary and his party began their journey northward again and once more passed the lower Chickasaw Bluff but no record is made of a stop here. Ilis map, however, contains certain symbols indicating high lands on the east bank about this latitude.
Nine years later a more important personage, Sieur Robert Cavelier de la Salle, also attempted the exploration of the Mississippi River and carried out his enterprise with perfect success. He had with him twenty-three Frenchmen, including Sieur Henri de Tonti, and Father Piere Zenobe Membre, a recollet missionary, eighteen Indians, ten Indian women and three children, in all fifty-four persons. Reaching the Mississippi River by way of the Seignelay or Illinois River, on February 6, 1682, he left there in canoes on February 13, and rode slowly down to the mouth of the Ohio, stopping at intervals to hunt. Father Membre, in his narrative of the voyage, says: „From the mouth of this river you must advance forty-two leagues without stopping because the banks are low and marshy and full of thick foam, rushes and walnut trees.“
Forty-two French land leagues is equal to one hundred five miles, the exact distance from Cairo to the first Chickasaw Bluff, ten miles above Randolph, Tennessee, which stands on the second Chickasaw Bluff, and forty-two miles above Memphis by land courses.
Here LaSalle stopped to hunt on the first high ground below the Ohio River, and one of his men, Piere Prudhomme, got lost in the woods on February 24, according to Father Membre.
Finding some Chickasaw Indians in the vicinity LaSalle became alarmed and thinking they had captured his hunter and that they might attack his little escort he threw up a „fort and intrenchments,“ probably a stockade with a low parapet around it, and set out with a party to hunt for Prudhomme. Having at length found the lost hunter and some of the Indians, from whom he learned that their villages were four and a half days' journey of twenty-five or thirty miles each to the southeast, he finally left Fort Prudhomme about March 3, and proceeded on his journey down the river. 1 Proceeding forty French land leagues or one hundred miles further after leaving Fort Prudhomme, but making no stop at Memphis, or the lower Chickasaw Bluff, LaSalle reached the village of the Mitchigameas, now Helena, Arkansas, about March 12, and remaining there two days took possession of the country on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the name of his sovereign, the King of France, March 14, 1682, and erected a cross there. 2 Leaving on the seventeenth of the same month, LaSalle stopped as he passed down the river at the other villages of the Akansea, beginning fifteen miles below Mitchigamea, and occupying the adjacent country on the west bank of the river to latitude 33° 40', below the mouth of the Arkansas River. Having finally reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, or the passes, where the river divided itself into three channels, April 6, 1682, LaSalle erected a column on which was affixed the arms of France, with this inscription:
Louis le Grande,
ROI DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE, REIGNE;
Le Neuvieme Avril, 1682.
The notary Jacques de la Metaire has left this description of the ceremony which followed, by which LaSalle took formal possession of the great Valley of the Mississippi in the name of his sovereign:
„The whole party chanted the Te Deum, the Exaudiat, the Domine salvam fac Regem; and then after a salute of firearms and cries of Vive le Roy, the column was erected by M. de la Salle who, standing near it, said with a loud voice in French: 'In the name of the Most High, Mighty, Invincible and Victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre, fourteenth of that name, this ninth day of April, one thousand six hundred eighty-two; I, in virtue of the commission of his Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken and do now take, in the name of his Majesty, and of his successors to the crown, possession of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers, comprised in the extent of the said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, on the eastern side, otherwise called Ohio, Alighin, Sipore, or Chukagona, and this with the consent of the Chaouanons, Chikachas and other people dwelling therein, with whom we have made alliance; as also along the river Colbert or Mississippi and rivers which discharge themselves therein, from its source beyond the country of the Kious or Nadouessious and this, with their consent, and with the consent of the Motantees, Illinois, Mesigameas, Natches, Koreas, which are the most considerable nations dwelling therein, with whom also we have made alliance either by ourselves or by others in our behalf; as far as its mouth at the sea or Gulf of Mexico, about the 27th degree of the elevation of the North Pole, and also to the mouth of the River of Palms; upon the assurance which we have received from all these nations, that we are the first Europeans who have descended or ascended the said River Colbert; hereby protesting against all those who may in future undertake to invade any or all of these countries, people or lands, above described, to the prejudice of the right of his Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations herein named. Of which, and of all that can be needed, I hereby take to witness those who hear me, and demand an act of the notary, required by law. ' To which the whole assembly responded with shouts of Vive le Roy, and with salutes of firearms. Moreover the Sieur de la Salle caused to be buried at the foot of the tree to which the cross was attached, a leaden plate on one side of which was engraved the arms of France, and the following latin inscription:
LVDOVICVS MAGNUS REGNAT.
NONO APRILLIS CTO IDC LXXXII.
ROBERTVS CAVELIER, CVM DOMINO DE TONTY, LEGATO, RP. ZENOBIO MEMBRE, RECOLLECTO, ET VIGINTI GALLIS, PRIMVS HOC FLYMEN, INDE AB ILINEORUM PAGO, ENAVIGAVIT, EJVSQVE OSTIVM FECIT PERVIUM, NONO APRILIS, ANNI CIO IOC LXXXII.“
It was by this form of procedure that the country where Memphis stands became a province of France and so remained until the year 1762.
After thus solemnly declaring the rights of his sovereign Louis XIV, of France, to the whole of the Mississippi Valley lying between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, LaSalle returned to Canada, passing up the Mississippi River to the Illinois and thence to Lake Michigan, not stopping at the lower Chickasaw Bluff but at the first Chickasaw Bluff or Fort Prudhomme, where he was seriously ill for more than a month.
Other Frenchmen, after LaSalle 's return, made voyages down the Mississippi, notably De Tonti, who passed down in 1686 and again in 1700, in an endeavor to find his friend LaSalle, who had sailed from France with ships and a colony to enter the mouth of the Mississippi, but failed to find it and landed further west.
