of De Soto. This explorer, who set out with the
spirit of a Cortez, and who had the brilliant success
of the latter to stimulate him to ddedsof
heroism, examined both banks of the Mississippi,
for some leagues, and penetrated as %r north as
latitude 36°, It has been related by: some that
he with his party rambled over U considerable
part of Florida, which then embraced-nearly all
the country now known as the southern states.
During their travels, it is said; they fell in with a
party of northern Indians, having with them a
Spaniard taken from the party of Narvaez, who
had proceeded over much of Florida ten years
before; and that by their guidance, the captive
Spaniard was led to this spot. It is farther suggested
by Sandford, in his Aborigines, in which
he is followed by Stone, in his Life of Brant, that
De Soto had probably gone Us far north as the
Susquehanna, from the analogies to this name
found in the word “ Saquechamafb which is
employed by the v historian of the expedition.
But it is quite overlooked, that Pe Soto did not
set out on his expedition till 1538, eighteen years
after the date of the Onondaga inscription. Florida
had, however, then been known to the
Spaniards for many years, having been discovered
by De Leon in 1512; the very year that Leo
X. assumed the papal chair. Its coasts and bays
were known, as far west, at least, as the mouth
of the Mississippi, which was evidently discovered
by the Spaniards from Cuba in 1027* i*
was De Leon, however, who first visited the
infeiur, and hiA Visionary search for the spring
endowed with the property of : restoring perpetual
youth, Would hardly be credited, did it not rest
on the best historical testimony. It is far more
likely that sortie Strangling party had reached
the Iroquois Country, from this Quixotic era Of
exploration, than from the mouth of the St.
Lawrence, whéfe the’’ Cotereals were in 1501.
And 'with this idea in view, it may be thought
that thename De Leon is' intended, by the words
De Lob; The date, YI; woùid tally exactly
with the sixth yéâr after his landing in, and
discovbry of Florida, in 1512/ the Oiiondaga
country being then, as much â part o f Florida as
aky other fart of the Atlantic and interior coasts. If
by the prefix of Leo, or Lion, acbmplimCnt to a
bravë arid hardy bxjJiprer was designed to have
been expressed; it would have Well corresponded
with thé/chivalric character of-that age. As a
mere historical question, a claim to the discovery
of the-interior of New York, by ;the Spanish
crown, might, in thll vie Wj find something to base
itself on.
ORIGINAL DISCOVERY OF THE ONONDAGA COÜN*
. TRY BY THE. FRENCH.
If itris some abatement tö the high conceptions
Which have been formed of a certain prominent
class of antiquarian remains, existing in the general
area of the Onondaga country, to find that
they correspond with the Trans-Alleghany epoch
of early occupancy,, it is at the same time satis-
43