III.--ADVANCE MOVEMENTS. The story of the coming of white men into the valleys where our state now is, begins far back before the times which are usually associated with Plymouth Rock and Pocahontas. There is even more romance about the expeditions of the Spaniards from Mexico and the South into UITY the unexplored interior of the western country than there is about the landing ANTIQ OF OUR HIS- of the pilgrim fathers, or about the planting of a colony at Jamestown. The Spaniards lived in romance. It adds no real dignity to the history of the states that now occupy these. prairie lands, to know that it begins as far back as 1541, when Coronado, a Spanish cavalier, came up across the country from the southwest with a CORO large body of men; still there is a poetry NADO about such a beginning that makes it attractive. After the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, beginning about 1520, that country was ruled by governors. As fast as the natives were conquered, new districts were formed and governors appointed to rule them. In the western part of Mexico was a province called Nueva Galicia over which Coronado was appointed provincial governor in 1538. About that time a story was told the Spaniards of seven cities of Cibola to the north, in which there were immense treasures of silver and gold. Coronado was greatly charmed by the prospect of obtaining vast riches THE by conquest of these cities, and fitted out SEVEN OF THE CITIES an expedition. The place was found in the CIBOLA Summer of 1541, far north of Mexico. Most historians think that the present town of Zuni stands upon the spot. Although Coronado was disappointed in regard to the gold, he went further, to find the land of the Quivera, where also there was untold wealth to be had. It is LAND not certain just what the route of the Spaniards was after they left the seven cities. By the accounts it is certain that Coronado went east and northeast. It is said that he reached the fortieth degree of north latitude. If he did, he and his companions actually set foot on the soil of Nebraska. But he might REACH easily have been mistaken in supposing BRAS- that he came as far north as the southern KA OF THE DID HE NE boundary of Nebraska. It is sure, at any rate, that he visited the plains on which the two states of Kansas and Nebraska lie. Whether he really came within the limits of this State is not so important after all. The great fact is that this marks the beginning of the history of white men on these plains.' This was the same year that De Soto was wandering from Florida across the southern slopes to the Mississippi. Henry III. was then King of England; Francis I. held 1 At the end of this chapter are printed some extracts from the accounts of the men who came with Coronado. What they saw and reported about the Indians, the bison, the fruits, and the character of the country is more than interesting. It is quite certainly the first description written. the throne of France; Charles V. was plotting in the east, and Paul III. was Pope at Rome. WHAT WAS THE REST OF Europe as a whole was in the midst of before finished his work. The story of DOING the hills and valleys of Nebraska before the time of Coronado must be told by the rocks and revealed by the traditions of the Red Man. EXPLO TIONS:, ISH AND A Spanish expedition about 1601, of which there is a record, took the same general direction as that of Coronado. There is also an account of a third, made by the Count of Penalosa in 1662,' but reasons are given by some writers to show that this one was merely one of the stories that the Count told OTHER Over in Spain. In 1673 Father Marquette RA- floated down the Mississippi and learned SPAN- from the natives about the Missouri and FRENCH about the Platte. He recorded these rivers on a map just as they were told to him, and this drawing is still preserved. Probably this is the first map of the region. In 1719 Dustine came across the country from the southeast and met the tribes of Indians in the eastern part of Kansas. This is significant of the coming of the French into the plains west of the Missouri and Mississippi. Twenty years after Dustine, two brothers by the name of Mallet came into the country north of the Platte, and explored the river as far west as the Forks. The history of fur trading in the northwes A discussion of this expedition by Judge J. W. Savage may be found in the Neb. State Hist. Soc. Pub. II., 114-131. deals first with the French. In the great center of fur trade, Wisconsin, trading began as early as 1634. After England obtained possession TRADE: of Canada, the period of French trade French, was followed by many years of Brit FUR (a) 1634 (b) 1763 1763 ish traffic. This period may be said to British, begin in 1763 and end in 1816, when 1816 Congress passed a law prohibiting foreigners from trading within the limits of the United States. The Americans began to compete with the English very early, but the formation of the large companies of the United States ican, begins in 1809, when John Jacob Astor had the American Fur Company chartered. In 1810 two expeditions were started out, one by way of the Missouri River. This year (c) Amer 1816-34 saw a post established at Bellevue. Long before this, however, traders had kept their places of barter on the banks of the Missouri and received the deer and buffalo skins from the Indians. American explorers found traders on Nebraska soil soon after the opening of this century. The annual value of the fur business was very great. During the forty years up to 1847, the annual value to St. Louis is said to have been from two to three hundred thousand dollars. AMER- The expedition made for the government by Lewis and Clark, starting out in 1804, marks the time when the growing power of the great American Republic began to reach out to these plains. Following this were the well-known undertakings of Major Long in PATH- 1819 and General Fremont in 1842 and 1843. There were very many hunters who visited the prairie region in small parties, and several large expeditions. A very good idea of the experiences of those who came to Nebraska in the first part of the nineteenth century may be had by reading chapters 14, 16, 17, 18, 49, and 50 of Washington Irving's Astoria, and chapter 2 of his Adventures of Captain Bonneville. Among the travelers to Nebraska may be mentioned the following: Lewis and Clark, July 13 to Sept. 5, 1804; Aug. 31 to Sept. 11, 1806. Thomas Nutall and John Bradbury, 1808. Botanical trip. Major Long, 1819-1820. W. H. Ashley, 1822. Rev. Samuel Parker, 1835. By such means as these, information came to the cities and towns of the east, and there began to be an increasing tide of people westward. Traders continued to come to get furs from the Indians, the hunters came for buffalo robes, missionaries came to bring the Gospel to the Indians, and finally the adventurer came to make his fortune. The missionaries separated, some SION- going to one tribe and some to another. One of the very earliest within our borders was Moses Merrill, who lived and preached among the Otoes from 1833 to 1840. MIS ARIES |