to stake life and honor in pursuit of the most insane fantasies.

Such a man was the veteran cavalier Juan Ponce de Leon. He had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage and in the wars of Hispaniola had proved himself a gallant soldier. Ovando, the governor of Hispaniola, rewarded him with superintendence of the eastern provinces of that island. From the hills in his jurisdiction he could behold

Porto Rico. A visit to the island stimulated his cupidity, and in 1509 he obtained the appointment to its government. But this commission conflicted with the claims of the family of Columbus and it was revoked.

Greedy of honor and riches he embarked at Porto Rico with three brigantines, bent on schemes of discovery. that which gave the chief stimulus to his enterprise was a story current among the Indians of Cuba and Hispaniola,

But

that on the island of Rimini, said to be one of the Bahamas, there was a fountain of such virtue, that, bathing in its. waters, old men resumed their youth. It was said moreover, that on a neighboring shore might be found a river, gifted with the same beneficent property and believed by some to be no other than the river Jordan.

On the 3d of March, 1513, according to our present rule for beginning the year, Ponce embarked at Porto Rico with a squadron of three ships, fitted out at his own expense, for his voyage to the fabled land. He touched at Guanahini; he sailed among the Bahamas. On Easter Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pasca Florida, and which in that year fell on the 27th of March, land was seen. It was supposed to be an island, and received the name of Florida, from the day on which it was descried, and from the aspect of the forests, which at that season were very brilliant with bloom. After delay from bad weather the aged soldier was able to go on shore in the latitude of thirty degrees and eight minutes, and at a place called the Bay of the Cross took formal possession, and planted a stone cross in sign of the jurisdiction of Spain.

Ponce remained for many weeks to investigate the coast. He doubled Cape Florida, he sailed among the group of islands which he named the Tortugas, and despairing of entire success he returned to Porto Rico, leaving a trusty follower to continue the search, which was extended toward the bay of Apalacha.

The Indians had everywhere displayed determined hostility. Ponce de Leon remained an old man; he had not regained his youth, but his active spirit was unsubdued, and Spanish commerce acquired a new channel through the Gulf of Florida and New Spain, which imagination could esteem immensely rich, since its interior was unknown.

The claim of Spain comprehended all the country from the Atlantic on the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West; from the Gulf of Mexico and the river Palmas indefinitely northward towards the Polar Sea. This vast territory was claimed by Spain by right of the dis

coveries of her subjects and the celebrated grant of Pope Alexander VI.

This Pope was appealed to to settle the right of jurisdiction between the Crowns of Portugal and Spain over the countries to be discovered in the New World, and on May 4th, 1493, he issued his "Bula sotre la particion del oceano," the line of demarkation between the Spanish and Portuguese possessions at a distance of one hundred miles to the west of the Azores. The former to have all the land and seas east of that line and the latter those west thereof.

The government of this vast unknown region was the reward which Ponce received from the king of Spain. But the dignity was accompanied with the onerous condition, that he should colonize the country. He was to have exclusive right to the land, settle it at his own cost, and be called Adelantado of Rimini, but the king was to build and hold posts there and agents to divide the Indians among the settlers and receive first a tenth, afterwards a fifth, of the gold and all valuables obtained from the country.

For seven years he was delayed, and when in 1521 he proceeded with two ships to select a site for a colony, his company was attacked by the Indians with implacable fury. Many Spaniards were killed; the survivors were forced to hurry to their ships; Ponce de Leon himself, wounded by an arrow, returned to Cuba to die. So ended the first adventurer who laid claim to a country including the Black Hills. He had gone in quest of innumerable wealth and perpetual youth, but found neither.

CHAPTER II.

PAMPHILO DE NARVAEZ.

On March the 3d, 1520, the emissaries of Hernando Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, presented themselves at Fordesillas, before Charles V, Emperor of Germany and

Besides numerous other valuables the treasure contained: A basket full of gold and silver ornaments. A Spanish helmet filled to the brim with grains of gold. Two circular plates of gold and silver, as large as carriage wheels, one

representing the sun was richly carved with plants and animals; it was valued at twenty thousand pesos de oro, equal to $223,400; the silver wheel was of the same size. Two collars made of gold and precious stones. One hundred ounces of gold ore - that their majesties might see in what state the gold comes from the mine. Two birds made of green feathers, with feet, beak and eyes of gold, and in the same piece with them animals made of gold resembling snails. A large alligator head of gold. A bird of green feathers, with feet, beak and eyes of gold. Two birds made of thread and featherwork having the quills of their wings and tails, their feet and eyes and their beaks of gold standing upon two reeds covered with gold, which are raised on balls of featherwork and gold embroidery, one white, the other yellow, with seven tassels of featherwork hanging from each of them. A large silver wheel weighing forty-eight marks. Several bracelets and leaves of the same metal, together with five smaller shields, the whole weighing sixty-two marks of silver. A box of featherwork embroidered on leather, with a large plate of gold, weighing twenty-seven ounces, in the middle. A large wheel of gold with figures of strange animals on it and worked with tufts of leaves weighing three thousand and eight hundred ounces. A fan of variegated featherwork with thirty-seven rods plated with gold. Fine fans of variegated feathers — four of which had ten and the other thirteen rods embossed with gold. Sixteen shields covered with precious stones. Six shields each covered with a plate of gold. Large quantities of gold and silver plate.

In addition to these there were ornaments of jewelry and gold in the rough stated to amount to six millions three hundred thousand dollars.

The Receiver-General of the Mexican kings had a map of the empire and the countries who paid tribute. A copy of this map was exhibited to the king, queen and the courtiers. They gazed with astonishment at the large masses of the precious metal and the delicate manufacture of the various articles. And as they listened to the