[Illustration: _By permission of the Bureau of Ethnology._ THE PUEBLO OF
ZUÑI (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).]

[Sidenote: Coronado finds the Great Plains.]

14. The Great Plains.--Soon, however, a new hope came to the Spaniards,
for an Indian told them that far away in the north there really was a
golden land. Onward rode Coronado and a body of picked men. They crossed
vast plains where there were no mountains to guide them. For more than a
thousand miles they rode on until they reached eastern Kansas.
Everywhere they found great herds of buffaloes, or wild cows, as they
called them. They also met the Indians of the Plains. Unlike the Indians
of the pueblos, these Indians lived in tents made of buffalo hides
stretched upon poles. Everywhere there were plains, buffaloes, and
Indians. Nowhere was there gold or silver. Broken hearted, Coronado and
his men rode southward to their old homes in Mexico.

[Sidenote: De Soto in Florida, 1539. _Explorers_, 119-138.]

[Sidenote: De Soto crosses the Mississippi.]

15. De Soto in the Southeast, 1539-43.--In 1539 a Spanish army
landed at Tampa Bay, on the western coast of Florida. The leader of this
army was De Soto, one of the conquerors of Peru. He "was very fond of
the sport of killing Indians" and was also greedy for gold and silver.
From Tampa he marched northward to South Carolina and then marched
southwestward to Mobile Bay. There he had a dreadful time; for the
Indians burned his camp and stores and killed many of his men. From
Mobile he wandered northwestward until he came to a great river. It was