THE ANNALS OF KANSAS.

EARLY DISCOVERIES.

1542.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a Spaniard, commanded an expedition which marched from Mexico to the northern boundary of Kansas. Albert Gallatin says, in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. II, p. 64: "Coronado appears to have proceeded as far north as the 40° of latitude.". Gen. J. H. Simpson, U. S. A., in the Smithsonian Report for 1869, p. 337, says: "Coronado continued his explorations northwardly to the 40° of latitude, where he reached a province which the Indians called Quivira." He was in search of gold and silver. Coronado said: "The province of Quivira is 950 leagues (3,230 miles) from Mexico. The place I have reached is the 40° of latitude. The earth is the best possible for all kinds of productions of Spain; for while it is very strong and black, it is very well watered by brooks, springs, and rivers. I found prunes (wild plums) like those of Spain, some of which were black; also, some excellent grapes and mulberries." He traversed "mighty plains and sandy heaths, smooth and wearisome, and bare of wood." "All that way the plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as the mountain Serena in Spain is of sheep." This is the first authentic account of the buffalo. The route of Coronado was through that part of Kansas now embraced in the counties of Barbour, Kingman, Reno, Harvey, McPherson, Marion, Dickinson, Davis, Riley, Pottawatomie, and Nemaha. Coronado left Quivira, or Kansas, in April, 1542.

The following statement is copied from Brantz Mayer's History of Mexico, vol. I, p. 145: Between the years 1540 and 1542, an expedition was undertaken for the subjugation of an important nation which, it was alleged, existed far to the north of Mexico. A Franciscan missionary, Marcos de Naza, reported that he had discovered, north of Sonora, a rich and powerful people inhabiting a realm known as Quivara, or the Seven Cities, whose capital, Cibola, was quite as civilized as an European city. After the report had reached and been considered in Spain, it was determined to send an armed force to this region in order to explore, and if possible to reduce the

Quivarans to the Spanish yoke. Mendoza had designed to entrust this expedition to Pedro de Alvarado, after having refused Cortez permission to lead the adventurers -a task which he had demanded as his right. But when all the troops were enlisted, Alvarado had not yet reached Mexico from Guatemala, and, accordingly, the Viceroy despatched Vasquez de Coronado at the head of the enterprise. At the same time he fitted out another expedition, with two ships, under the orders of Francisco Alarcon, who was to make a reconnoissance of the coast as far as the thirty-sixth degree, and, after having frequently visited the shores, he was, in that latitude, to meet the forces sent by land. Coronado set forth from Culiacan, with three hundred and fifty Spaniards and eight hundred Indians, and, after reaching the source of the Gila, passed the mountains to the Rio del Norte. He wintered twice in the region now called New Mexico, explored it thoroughly from north to south, and then, striking off to the northeast, crossed the mountains, and wandering eastwardly as far north as the fortieth degree of latitude, he unfortunately found neither Quivara nor gold. A few wretched ruins of Indian villages were all the discoveries made by these hardy pioneers, and thus the enchanted kingdom eluded the grasp of Spain forever. The troop of strangers and Indians soon became disorganized, and disbanded; nor was Alarcon more successful by sea than Coronado by land. His vessels explored the shores of the Pacific carefully, but they found no wealthy cities to plunder, nor could the sailors hear of any from the Indians with whom they held intercourse.

Hildreth says (vol. I, p. 48): While De Soto was engaged in this exploration, a not less adventurous expedition was undertaken to regions still more interior and remote. By the orders of Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, Vasquez Coronada, with a force of three hundred and fifty Spaniards and eight hundred Indians, set out from Culiacan, on the southeastern shore of the Gulf of California, then the northwestern limit of Spanish-Mexican conquest, whence he penetrated north along the shores of the Gulf to the river Gila, now the southwestern boundary of the United States. That river he followed to its head, and, crossing the mountains, reached the upper waters of the Rio del Norte, which he followed also to their sources, and then struck off northeasterly into the great interior desert as far as the 40th degree of north latitude.

Gen. Simpson gives a map showing Coronado's line of march. He places the Province of Quivira, (Quivira and Coronado are slightly changed in spelling by different writers,) between the Platte and Kansas rivers, and between the 95th and 98th degrees of longitude. As yet no county in our State bears the crowning name of its discoverer.

De Soto discovered the Mississippi in 1541, and was buried in it in 1542.

Some writers say De Soto entered Missouri, and also went into the Indian Territory, to the place where Fort Gibson now stands. Bancroft says (vol. I, p. 51): "The highlands of White River, more than two hundred miles from the Mississippi, were probably the limit of his ramble in this direction. The mountains offered neither gems nor gold; and the disappointed adventurers marched to the south." The American Cyclopædia places

"the highlands of the White River" in the "eastern portion of what is now the Indian Territory." It was in the month of August, 1541, that De Soto reached the most northern point of his journey.

Consult the following:

A Relation of the Rev. Father Friar Marco de Nica, touching his Discovery of the Kingdom of Cevola or Cibola. 1539. (Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages, vol. III. London. 1600.)

The Relation of Francis Vasquez de Coronado, Captain General of the People which were sent in the Name of the Emperor's Majesty to the Country of Cibola. 1540. (Hakluyt, vol. III.)

The Rest of this Voyage to Acuco, Tiguex, Cicuic, and Quivira, etc. By Francis Lopez de Gomara. (Hakluyt, vol. III.)

A Brief Relation of Two Notable. Voyages: the first made by Friar Augustin Ruyz, a Franciscan, in the Year 1581; the second by Antonio de Espejo, in the Year 1583, who together with his Company discovered a Land, etc., which they named New Mexico. (Hakluyt, vol. III.)

Relation du Voyage de Cibola entrepris en 1540. Par Pedro de Castaneda de Nagera. (Coll. H. Ternaux-Compans. Vol. IX. Paris. 1838.) Relation du Voyage fait a la Nouvelle-Terre sous les Ordres du General Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Commandant de l' Expedition. Redigee par le Capitaine Juan Jaramillo. (Coll. H. Ternaux-Compans. Vol. IX.)

1609.

MAY 23.—The second charter of Virginia (7th James I.) granted "all those lands, countries, and territories, situate, lying, and being in that part of America, called Virginia," from Cape or Point Comfort, to the northward, two hundred miles, and to the southward, two hundred miles, and "up into the land throughout from sea to sea." This grant made Kansas English, Point Comfort being on the 37th degree of latitude.

1670.

In writing to the Superior of Missions, in 1670, Father Marquette spoke of the Missouri river, from the report he had of it from the Indians. “Six or seven days below the Ilois" (Illinois river), he says, "is another great river, on which are prodigious nations, who use wooden canoes; we cannot write more till next year, if God does us the grace to lead us there." Among these "prodigious nations" was the Kanzas. (Hale's Kanzas and Nebraska, p. 9.)

1673.

JUNE 10.—Marquette, accompanied by Joliet, a trader of Quebec, and five other Frenchmen, descending the Wisconsin in canoes, entered the Mississippi. They floated down as far as the Arkansas. In returning they ascended the Illinois river. Father Dablon published his narrative of this expedition in 1678-with a map on which appears the name of the Kansa tribe of Indians. Marquette's manuscript map is still preserved at St. Mary's College, Montreal. John Gilmary Shea has translated and published the narrative, and with it a fac simile of the map.

1677.

La Salle obtains from the King of France a commission for perfecting the discovery of the Mississippi, and, at the same time, a monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins.

JANUARY 13.-La Salle, who had been detained by ice and winter at the mouth of the Illinois, begins his descent of the Mississippi.

APRIL 9.-La Salle reaches the Gulf of Mexico.

Hildreth says: “Formal possession of the mouth of the river was ceremoniously taken for the King of France. The country on the banks of the Mississippi received the name of Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV., then at the height of his power and reputation; but the attempt to fix upon the river itself the name of Colbert did not succeed." Colbert was the French Minister of Finance.

Father Membre wrote a narrative of this expedition, which is published in Shea's History of the Mississippi. He says: "We found the Ozage (Missouri) river coming from the west. It is full as large as the river Colbert, into which it empties, troubling it so that from the mouth of the Ozage the water is hardly drinkable.”

In 1684, La Salle left France with four ships, to plant a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. The vessels missed the entrance of the Mississippi, passed to the westward, and landed their company on the coast of Texas, in February, 1685. In January, 1687, La Salle determined to reach Canada by land; but, after three months' wanderings, he was murdered by two mutinous companions.

1683.

Hennepin published in France an account of his exploration of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Illinois to the Falls of St. Anthony. Hildreth says the French missionaries and fur traders had explored the Mississippi, the Fox, the Wisconsin, and the Illinois from their sources to their mouths, while the upper sources of the Connecticut, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, and the James remained as yet unknown to the English colonists.

1699.

FEBRUARY 27.—Iberville, born at Quebec, with two brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville, and two hundred colonists, most of them Canadian soldiers, entered the Mississippi, never before entered from the sea.

MAY.-Iberville plants a colony on the Bay of Biloxi, within the limits of the present State of Mississippi. Sauvolle was the first Governor of the infant colony, but soon fell a victim to the climate. Bienville succeeded him as Governor.

Iberville died of yellow fever, in 1707, at St. Domingo.

1712.

SEPTEMBER 14.-The whole province of Louisiana, with a monopoly of trade, granted to Anthony Crozat, a wealthy French merchant. Crozat

agreed to send every year two ships from France with goods and emigrants. He was to be entitled, also, to import an annual cargo of slaves from Africa, notwithstanding the monopoly of that trade in the hands of a special company. The French Government agreed to pay annually 50,000 livres ($10,000) toward supporting the civil and military establishments.

In the grant, the river "heretofore called Mississippi" is called St. Louis, the "Missourys" is called St. Philip, and the "Ouabache" is called St. Jerome. Louisiana is made “dependent upon the General Government of New France" (Canada).

The following is copied from the grant:

"3. We permit him to search for, open, and dig, all sorts of mines, veins, and minerals, throughout the whole extent of the said country of Louisiana, and to transport the profits thereof into any part of France, during the said fifteen years; and we grant in perpetuity to him, his heirs, and others claiming under him or them, the property of, in and to the mines, veins and minerals which he shall bring to bear, paying us, in lieu of all claim, the fifth part of the gold and silver which the said Sieur Crozat shall cause to be transported to France, at his own charges, into what port he pleases, (of which fifth part we will run the risk of the sea and of war,) and the tenth part of what effects he shall draw from the other mines, veins, and minerals; which tenth he shall transfer and convey to our magazines in the said country of Louisiana. We likewise permit him to search for precious stones and pearls, paying us the fifth part in the same same manner as is mentioned for the gold and silver.

"7. Our edicts, ordinances, and customs, and the usages of the Mayoralty and Shrievalty of Paris, shall be observed for laws and customs in the said country of Louisiana. "Given at Fontainebleau, the 14th day of September, in the year of grace 1712, and of our reign the 70th. "LOUIS.

"By the King: PHELIPEAUX, &c.

"Registered at Paris, in the Parliament, the four-and-twentieth of September, 1712.” After five years Crozat resigned his patent.

1717.

The exclusive commerce of Louisiana for twenty-five years, with extensive powers of government and a monopoly of the Canadian fur trade, was bestowed on the Company of the West, otherwise called the Mississippi Company. The American Cyclopædia says: "On the death of Louis XIV., and the accession of the Duke of Orleans to the regency, John Law reentered Paris with a fortune of more than $500,000, made by gambling. The financial affairs of the French kingdom being at this time in the utmost embarrassment, he soon gained a hearing, and, having secured the patronage of the regent, in 1716 established a bank under royal authority. This institution was authorized to discount bills of exchange, and to issue notes redeemable in specie of fineness equal to that of the current money of the realm. As it accepted at par Government bills, on which there was a discount of nearly eighty per cent., and as there was a general want of private credit, its stock was soon taken, and a very lucrative business established. Law, however, aimed higher than this. He believed that while there was no standard of prices, or of money, credit was everything, and that a state might with safety treat even possible future profits as the basis of a paper currency. With this view he established the Mississippi or West India Company, based on the scheme of colonizing and drawing profit from the French possessions in North America. This company,