were through malice or ignorance, they were generally hung upon the first tree, if found in the wrong. Like the other kings, Naguatax was, at first, somewhat coy; but, after the governor had killed a few scores of his subjects, he came, with tears in his eyes, and implored forgiveness.* A month or two more were spent in these delightful conquests; but no intelligence could be obtained of New Spain; and it was thought best to return, and follow the Rio Grande. They had burned the towns and devastated the country, in their progress; and, when they came to retrace their steps, hunger often convinced them, that inhumanity is not always wisdom.

They found their way to Nilco; but it was destitute of food; and, in the beginning of December, they started for Minoya. A most wearisome journey was recompensed by six thousand bushels of maize: the soldiers were once more in comfortable lodgings; and it was now resolved to build seven brigantines, and sail down the river. The chains, in which the Indians had been led, were forged into spikes and nails. There were left, in the company, a sawyer, a ship builder, two caulkers, and a cooper. The mantles, procured from the natives, were unravelled for oakum, and bent for

* The earthen vessels, dug up in the Western country, have been supposed to indicate the former existence of a civilized people. At Naguatax, our historian informs us, there were 'vessels made of clay, which differ very little from those of Estremorz, or Montimor.'

sails. Anchors were made of bits of iron; and cables, of cords* obtained from the natives, or manufactured from bark, by the Spaniards. And, as if heaven had conspired to rid the country of their presence, 'it pleased God,' says their historian, that the flood (of the Mississippi, in March and April) came up to the towne to seeke the brigantines.'

On the 2d of July, 1543, they departed from Minoya. After sailing five or six days, they were met by the king of Quigalta; who had a 'fleete of one hundred faire and great canoes, furnished with tilts and ensignes,' and carrying each from sixty to seventy men. When within a crossbow-shot, he sent three Indians, in a small canoe,' to make his compliments to the governor; who, in return, detached a captain, with fifteeen men, in canoes, to break the line of the fleet, and compel the Indians to retire. They opened their array as he approached; closed it upon him, when he had advanced far enough; boarded some of the canoes; over-set others; and, if a Spaniard did not sink with the weight of his armour, they knocked him on the head. The brigantines were next assailed: the arrows soon came so thick as to drive the men below deck; and the Indians, availing themselves of the pro

A botanist not long since obtained a patent for making ropes of the American nettle. They are stronger, and more durable, than those of the common hemp.

jectile principle, shot into the air. As soon as night fell, the Spaniards supposed they might escape; but the Indians 'followed vs,' says the gentleman of Elvas, 'all that night, and the next day till noone; by which time we were come into the countrie of others, whom they desired to vse vs after the same manner; and so they did.' Our argonauts were obliged to row night and day; and, when, at last, they approached the sea, and expected to enjoy some rest, they had no sooner dropped anchor, than another swarm of Indians set upon them, with lances made of wood and fish bone.

They now proceeded to the mouth of the river; and, on the 18th of July, set sail for New Spain. They continued their course two days; and were still in fresh water. On the fourth day the wind drove the brigantines on shore. The fifth was more calm; but, on the sixth, they were obliged to take shelter in a creek; where they remained four days. No sooner had they put to sea, again, than a violent tempest arose; and, that nothing might be wanting to make the voyage a fit subject for poetry, they were, in the midst of their troubles, saluted by a race of harpies. While they were in this tempest in great feare of being cast away in that place, (says our author, who, like Thucydides, in his account of the plague, was enabled to describe with fidelity, because he had been one of the sufferers,) from midnight forward they endured an in

tolerable torment of an infinite swarme of musketoes, which fell vpon them, which, as soone as they had stung the flesh, it so infected it, as though they had beene venimous. In the morning the sea was asswaged, and the wind slaked, but not the musketoes: for the sailes, which were white, seemed black with them in the morning. Those which rowed, vnlesse others kept them away, were not able to row. Having passed the feare and danger of the storme, beholding the deformities of their faces, and the blowes which they gave themselves to drive them away, one of them laughed at another.'

It has been considered as the particular curse of America, that its low grounds are infested with this formidable insect: but, if it should be determined, that our Indians emigrated from Northern Asia, we shall contend, that the mosquito came along with them; and, though, as philosophers have said, the dog so degenerates in our climate as to become incapable of barking, we think, they will, at least, allow, that the mosquito is not so much affected as to be unable to bite. The Tungusians of Asia, we are told, 'both men and women, carry a pot on their left arms, continually furnished with old smoking wood; which preserves them from the biting of the mosquitos or gnats, with which the country along the river Tungusky and the woods are so abundantly pestered, that not only the

face, but the hands and legs are uncovered, their biting becomes insupportable. We are inclined to believe, that mosquitos, as well as wolves, may be found in all wild countries; and, however the English of the present day may congratulate themselves upon their exemption from such a torment, we suspect, that some of the best stanzas of one of their greatest poets, had no other inspiration than the bite of this insect.†

* HARRIS' Voy. vol. ii. p. 929.

† SPENCER'S pecuniary embarrassments obliged him to retire, for some time, to the north of England; and we have little doubt, that the 'cum-brous gnats' in the following lines, are the same with those mentioned by Harris:

A gentle shepherd, in sweete eventide,
When ruddy Phoebus gins to welk in west,
High on a hill, his flock to vewen wide,
Marks which doe byte the hasty supper best;
A cloude of cumbrous gnats doe him molest,
All striving to infixe their feeble stings,
That from their noyance he no where can rest;
But with his clownish hands their tender wings,
He brusheth oft, and oft doth mar their murmurings.

Another swarm :—

As when a swarm of gnats at eventide

Out of the fennes of Allan do arise,

Their murmuring small trompetts sounden wide,
Whiles in the air their clustering armie flies,
That as a cloude doth seeme to dim the skies;
No man nor beast may rest or take repast,
For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries,
Till the fierce northern wind, with blustring blast,
Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast.

Fairy Queen

Ibid.