. Indian history for young folks . insult and menace. Restraininghis troops, De Soto, aided by a prominent Indian, who had followed him 62 INDIAN HISTORY FOR YOUNG FOLKS. for some time, at length succeeded in restoring peace and in averting whatseemed likely to prove a serious a if air. Upon one occasion De Soto tried to overawe the Natchez Indians, whoworshipped the sun, by claiming a supernatural hirth and demandingtribute. You say you are the child of the sun, replied the incredulous up the river, and I will believe you. If you wi^h to see me, cometo the town where I dwell. If you
. Indian history for young folks . insult and menace. Restraininghis troops, De Soto, aided by a prominent Indian, who had followed him 62 INDIAN HISTORY FOR YOUNG FOLKS. for some time, at length succeeded in restoring peace and in averting whatseemed likely to prove a serious a if air. Upon one occasion De Soto tried to overawe the Natchez Indians, whoworshipped the sun, by claiming a supernatural hirth and demandingtribute. You say you are the child of the sun, replied the incredulous up the river, and I will believe you. If you wi^h to see me, cometo the town where I dwell. If you come in peace I will receive you withspecial good-will; if in war, I will not shrink one foot back. The sole achievement of this costly and memorable expedition was the discovery of the Mississippi Iliver at the lowest Chickasaw Bluif. Boats were required to cross, and it took a month to build them. The Spaniards crossed, and extended their tedious journey as far as Kansas. They found the Indians an agricultural people, with hxed. BURIAL OF DE SOTO. places of abode, and subsisting chiefly on the product of the fields. Theywere neither turbulent nor quarrelsome. Their dress was in part mats;in cold weather they wore deerskins, and mantles woven of villages were generally small, but close together. The natives weretreated with the utmost cruelty by the Spaniards, who held their lives asof no account. They would cut off their hands on the slightest suspicion,and the guide who was unsuccessful, or who purposely misled them, wasthrown to the hounds or condemned to the flames. Disappointed and dispirited, De Sotos health rapidly declined, and he EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE WITH THE INDIANS. 63 was finally carried off by a malignant fever. His body was buried atnight in the great river he had discovered. He had crossed a large partof the continent in search of gold, savs the historian Bancroft, May >1 154° and found nothing so remarkable as his burial-place. His fol
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