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THE BATTLE AT MAUVILA.

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with him, and accompanied by two hundred men, he advanced ahead of the main body to the principal town of the chief, a place called Mauvila (Mavila, Mauila, Maubila). Mauvila was a fortified place of considerable size. It was probably situated at Choctaw Bluff, now in the county of Clarke, about twenty-five miles above the confluence of the Alabama and the Tombigbee.

Here the chief asked that he might no longer be required to follow the army. De Soto, who had few men with him, hesitated, and Tuscaloosa walked proudly away and disappeared in one of the houses. He was invited to the governor's table, but he declined, and warned the messenger that the Spaniards had better leave. A spy had meantime informed the governor that the houses were filled with warriors who were meditating an attack. Secretly sending word to his men outside the town to make ready for a fight, De Soto tried to conciliate the chief with kindness, but was received with scorn. One of the savages becoming insolent, a Spaniard cut him down with his sword.

A terrible conflict ensued. De Soto, at the head of his men, fought his way slowly out of the town into the plain, where most of the horses were tied. The enslaved Indians accompanying the expedition were freed by the enemy and took part in the fight against the Spaniards. The baggage was taken. The governor led his men against the savage masses, but was forced to retire, leaving a few Spaniards in one of the houses, and the Indians sallied forth on the plain. Occasionally strengthened by reinforcements. from the main body of his troops, De Soto kept up the fight with indomitable heroism. The Indians were driven within the walls, and at length the hindmost of the troops came up. The Spanish leader, wounded in the thigh, fought standing in his stirrups. At nightfall, when the battle had lasted nine. hours, the town was in ruins and the Spaniards had won a victory which was almost ruinous to themselves.

Protected though they were with bucklers and coats of mail, they had lost twenty killed. One hundred and fifty were seriously wounded, and a number died. Some of the horses were killed, and nearly all the camp baggage was burned. The loss of the savages is variously stated; probably several thousands were slain. The fate of Tuscaloosa himself is unknown.

The wounded De Soto remained for some days on the site

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bent on quitting him and sailing back to Spain, or to Peru.' He therefore determined to avoid the ships. Gloomy and morose, but still nourishing the hope of finding gold, he resolved to continue his wanderings. In the middle of November he turned to the north, and the soldiers unwillingly followed. Traversing the region now covered by the counties of Clarke, Marengo, and Greene, he reached a town. called Cabusto, near the place where the town of Erie once stood, on the Black Warrior River. Here a battle was fought with the savages, and the passage of the river was

FATE OF DE SOTO.

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attended with another conflict. Five days after leaving the Black Warrior the expedition reached the Tombigbee, somewhere within the limits of the county of Lowndes, in Mississippi.

With De Soto's later wanderings we have little to do. His expedition was a striking and curious historical incident, but its results were not of practical importance. He traversed regions destined to remain a wilderness for centuries after his death. Brave fighter as he was, he made no lasting conquests. Indefatigable in his pursuit of riches, he left his followers stripped of their very clothing. The mouth of the mighty river which he is supposed to have discovered was probably already known to Spanish adventurers in the Gulf. He himself won only a grave beneath its waters.

QUESTIONS.

Who was De Soto? What was the object of his expedition? What knowledge had the Spaniards at this time of the mainland above the Gulf? What idea had the Spaniards as to the extent of Florida? Describe De Soto's party. How did he treat the Indians? What results of Narvaez's expedition are mentioned? Tell what you know of De Soto's journey through Georgia. Trace on the map his route through Alabama. What occurred at Coosa? Tell what you know of the meeting with Tuscaloosa. Describe the battle of Mauvila. What were the consequences to the Spaniards? What other incidents of the expedition are mentioned? What was the result of the expedition?

CHAPTER II.

THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE FRENCH.

IT was, as we have seen, the Spaniards who first explored the region now called Alabama; but it was the French who made the first permanent settlement on its soil. Between the two events there was an interval of more than a century and a half. During these years many changes had occurred in Europe and in America.

The power of Spain, which

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was

D'lberuille near its height at the time of De

Soto's expedition, had vastly declined. France and England were better equipped for conquests in the new world; and both had been actively pursuing their interests in America. The French had established themselves in the present Canada; the English had gained possession of the fairer portions of the Atlantic coast, between the French on the north and the Spanish in Florida.

For more than fifty years French fur traders had been advancing westward and southwestward along the great lakes; French priests had kept pace with the traders. In 1673 Father Marquette, a Jesuit priest, and Joliet, a trader, led a party to the Mississippi, which they descended for some distance. The young and gifted La Salle took up the work, and in 1682 he reached the Mississippi by way of the Illinois River, and descended the great stream to its mouth. Here he took possession in the name of the king of France,

FIRST LANDING OF COLONISTS.

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Louis XIV., in whose honor the region was called Louisiana. Leaving his companion and lieutenant, Henri de Tonty (Tonti), in command of a fort in the Illinois country, La Salle returned to France to report his discoveries and get men and stores for a colony on the Gulf.

Louis XIV., called the Great, a stately and proud monarch, approved his plans.

Ships and men were provided, Gulf. But he failed to find the Instead, he landed on what is Misfortune overtook him. His

and La Salle sailed for the mouth of the Mississippi. now the coast of Texas. men proved treacherous, and finally he was assassinated by one of them. War between England and France prevented any further attempt to establish a colony on the Mississippi until after the Treaty of Ryswick (signed in 1697).

At that time a naval officer named Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, who had acquired some reputation in America, was in France. He was a member of a Canadian family highly distinguished in the king's service. To him was given the task of settling Louisiana, and he sailed with two frigates and two smaller vessels in the autumn of 1698. His younger brother, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, accompanied him, and there were two hundred colonists in the expedition. Stopping for a while at St. Domingo, where he was joined by a warship, Iberville entered the Gulf in January, 1699. In the harbor of Pensacola he found two Spanish men-of-war, and learned that, a month before, Spaniards had established themselves on the site of Pensacola. Passing to the westward, the French cast anchor off an island now known as Dauphine Island. The date was January 31, 1699. The island and neighboring points were explored with care.

Landing the colonists on Ship Island, Iberville, accompanied by his brother Bienville, who was but eighteen years of age, set out with thirty men in a boat to find the Mississippi. On the third day (March 2, 1699) he entered

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