DE SOTO DISCOVERING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. glided across the river, and with kind words welcomed the Spaniards and offered them her services. Presents were exchanged. A magnificent string of pearls was hung upon her neck. This she drew over her head and hung it around the neck of De Soto as a token of her regard. Then she invited him and his followers to cross over to her village. In canoes and on log-rafts they passed the stream, and, encamping in the shadows of mulberry-trees, they soon received a bountiful supply of joyed the young queen's hospitality until May, and when they departed De Soto requited the kindness of the royal maiden with foul treachery. He carried her away a prisoner, and kept her near his person as a hostage for the good behavior of her people towards the Spaniards. She finally escaped, and returned home a bitter enemy of the perfidious white people. steel and riding 113 horses, with many venison and wild turkeys. There they enfootmen armed with arquebuses, crossbows, swords, shields, and lances, and a single cannon, and supplied with savage bloodhounds from Cuba, and handcuffs, iron neck-collars, and chains for the captives, De Soto began his march in June, 1539. He was accompanied by mechanics, priests, inferior clergy, and monks in sacerdotal robes bearing images of the Virgin, holy relics, and sacramental bread and wine, wherewith to make Christians of the captured pagans. At the very outset the expedition met with determined opposition from the dusky inhabitants, but De Soto pressed forward towards the interior of the fancied land of gold. He wintered east of the Flint River, near Tallahassee, on the borders of Georgia, and in March, 1540, broke up his encampment and marched northward, having been told that gold would be found in that direction. He reached the Savannah River, at Silver Bluff. On the opposite side of the stream, in (present) Barnwell county, lived an Indian queen, young, beautiful, and a maiden, who ruled over a large extent of country. In a richly wrought canoe, filled with shawls and skins and other things for presents, the dusky cacica De Soto crossed the beautiful country of the Cherokees (see CHEROKEE INDIANS), and penetrated the fertile Coosa region, where the Spaniards practised the most cruel treachery towards the friendly natives. De Soto was rewarded in kind not long afterwards, and in a terrible battle with the Mobilians, on the site of Mobile, the expedition was nearly ruined. Turning northward with the remnant of his forces, he fought his way through the Chickasaw country (see CHICKASAW INDIANS), and reached the upper waters of the Yazoo River late in December, where he wintered, in great distress. Moving westward in the spring, he discovered the Mississippi River, in all its grandeur, in May, 1541. It was near the Lower Chicasaw Bluff, in Tunica county, Miss. Crossing the mighty stream, De Soto went west ward in his yet fruitless search for gold, made their way to Mexico, where the ele and spent a year in the country towards the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Returning to the Mississippi in May, 1542, he died of a fever on its banks on the 21st. As he had declared to the Indians, who were sun-worshippers, that he was a son of the sun, and that Christians could not die, it was thought wise to conceal his death from the pagans. He was secretly buried in the gateway of the Spanish camp. The Indians knew he was sick. He was not to be seen, and they saw a new-made grave. They looked upon it and pondered. Moscoso ordered the body to be taken up at the dead of night. He was wrapped in mantles in which sand had been sewed up, taken in a boat to the middle of the great river, and there dropped to the bottom in 19 fathoms of water. Herrera says it was sunk in a hollow live-oak log. When the Indian chief asked Moscoso for De Soto, that leader replied, "He has ascended to heaven, but will return soon." gant Castilian ladies at the court of the viceroy were enraptured by the beauty of the dusky Mobilian girls. The news of De Soto's death cast a gloom over Havana, and poor Doña Isabella, wife of the great leader, who had so long waited for his return, died of a broken heart. Despard, JOHN, military officer; born in 1745; joined the British army in 1760; came to America in 1773; was present at the capture of Fort Montgomery and of Charleston; and was with Cornwallis in the campaign which culminated in the surrender at Yorktown. He was promoted colonel in 1795, and major-general in 1798. He died in Oswestry, England, Sept. 3, 1829. D'Estaing, COUNT. See ESTAING, CHARLES HECTOR, COUNT D'. Destroying Angels. See DANITES. De Trobriand, PHILIPPE RÉGIS, military officer; born in Château des Rochettes, France, June 4, 1816; came to the United States in 1841; joined the NationBefore his death De Soto had conferred al army as colonel of the 55th New York the leadership of the expedition upon Regiment in August, 1861; took part in Moscoso, his lieutenant, who, with the the engagements at Fredericksburg, Chanwretched remnant of the expedition, cellorsville, Gettysburg, etc.; was present wandered another year in the region west as the commander of a division at Lee's of the Mississippi; and returning to that surrender; received the brevet of majorriver in May, 1543, they built rude ves- general of volunteers in April, 1865. He sels, and, with a number of beautiful Ala- joined the regular army in 1866; received bama girls whom they had carried away the brevet of brigadier-general in 1867; captive after the battle at Maubila, they retired in 1879. He published Quatre ans de campagnes à l'armée du Potomac. died in Bayport, L. I., July 7, 1897. He Detroit was first settled by Antoine Cadillac, July 24, 1701, with fifty soldiers and fifty artisans and traders. Three years later the first white child, a daughter of Cadillac, was baptized in the place, which was called by the French "La Ville d'Etroit." The French surrendered Detroit to the English, under Maj. Robert Rodgers, Nov. 29, 1700. Detroit, a city, port of entry, metropolis of Michigan, and county seat of Wayne county; on the Detroit River, 7 miles from Lake St. Clair, and about 18 miles from Lake Erie. It is noted for the variety and extent of its manufactures and for its large traffic on the Great Lakes. For the defence of the harbor and The tragedy of Pontiac's War opened city the federal government is construct- in Detroit. Under pretext of holding a ing Fort Wayne, a short distance below friendly council with Major Gladwin, comthe city, which is designed to be the mander of the fort, the wily chief entered strongest American fortification on the it in May, 1763, with about 300 warriors, northern frontier. In 1900 the city had each carrying a knife, tomahawk, and an assessed property valuation of $244,- short gun under his blanket. When Pon371,550, owned unencumbered property tiac should rise and present the green side of a market value of $21,684,539, and of a belt, the massacre of the garrison had a net general debt of $3,810,568, was to begin. Gladwin was warned of and a water debt of $1,033,000. The the plot the day before by a friendly Indpopulation in 1890 was 205,876; in 1900, ian, and the calamity was averted by 285,704. the appointment of another day for the |