THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: SEPTEMBER 30, 1S06.
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SEE THIS GREAT
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mnsnnnnnnamsnsnnnnnBE
Legends an d traditions
OF QUIVERA
How Ponce iz Leon Sought the Fountain of You' h
and Found'His Death; How Francisco Vasqusz Coro-
nadd Sought the Seven Gties of Cibolo and the Gold of
Quivera, and Found Them Not; and How Ak Sar Bm
and His Goodly Knights Have Found the Fountain
and the Treasure ior Which th; Adventurers Sought.
J
PONCE DE LEON, in the opinion of a
great many people, missed finding the
Fountain of Youth by, just about the
rj distance that stretches between the sun-s
kissed plains of Nebraska and the Everglades
Good Hope and sail up the east coast of Africa
as far as the Gulf of Aden was more than three
years going and coming. The same journey
' can be accomplished now in six weeks.
Taught for ages that a belt of fire circled
of Florida. If the old Spaniard had turned the globe below a certain parallel, and strength-
his footsteps to the north, instead of plung
ing into the subtropical jungle of the Laud
of Flowers, he might. not have secured eternal
youth but he would have discovered a
clime whose salubrity far surpasses any of
which he ever knew, and where his life would
b4ve been prolonged to such "length of years
as the many wintered crow that leads the clang
ing rookery home." In support of this nsser-
ened in this belief by the increased tempera
ture due to the approach to the equator, th?
intrepidity of the first sailors to' adventure in
direction of the boiling sea exceeds the cour
age of the putative heroes who vanquished
dragons and demolished Minotaurs. These
men were nd longer satisfied with the legendry
lore of the southern hemisphere, and deter
mined to discover the truth or to dje in the hiss
tion, the number of golden weddings that have ing waves of the sea whose waters steamed f.v
been celebrated in the Kingdom of Quiver
within the last five years is cited. It must bo
recalled in this connection that only about fifty
years have elapsed since the white people really
began to settle in Nebraska, and the. prooff
the beneficent effect of the brigbtjsunshine, the
blue' sky and the fresh air, the pure water and
the' bracing ozone that make Nebraska tho
healthiest spot on earth, is only beginning to
be afforded by these- witnesses.
Ponce de Leon was" .imbued with flie spirit
of his time. In years 6ince various writers have
assigned many reasons for the activity of the
nations' of western Europe, especially the mari
time nations of Portugal and Spain, in their
feverish activity in the way of discovery during
the fifteenth! .century. Partly on a scientific
basis, but mainly on the pursuit of some delu
sion, are these explanations founded, but each
is largely sjeoulative and no-writer of reputa
tion seeks to dispose of the topic in a dogmatic
way. It is only certain that the age was one of
wondrous activity, and adventures by land and
sea-were numerous and strange, and veracious
accounts of the doings of those early voyagers
exceed in interest the most entertaining of mod
ern fiction. Expeditions then" consumed years
in accomplishing what is now achieved in days,
or weeks at the most. 'For example, the first
aye. ;or were they alone in their hardihooa.
Other men made adventures equally as daring
and as sueessful, fill to the end of extending tha
limit of human knowledge. Man's dominion
over earth is due to these bold spirits, some of
whom have appeared in all times, but in no ago
in greater numbers than during the closing
years of the fif tenth century. They sailed on
unknoyvn 6eas, they plunged into untrodden
wilds, and they carried with them the light of
Christianity and civilization and made of the
world a fitting place for man to live. These
adventurous spirits were not always the most
cultured and thoughtful, of men. Some, like
Columbus, Vespucius, da (Jama and their as
sociates, were the thinkers of their time, aud
when they sailed it was with a definite object
in view. Columbus knew with a reasonable
certainty that he would make land if he pur
sued JJs westward course long enough. His
compeers sailed with similar exactitude, and
achieved their results with even more certainty
than did Columbus. But it was not only these
educated men, experienced in the ways of na
ture and 'capable of demonstrating by mathe
matics their proposals who contributed to the
sum of human knowledge.
Other men were lured on bv! tales of won
derful wealth, of delights that abounded in un.-
Portuguese expedition to round the Cape of discovered countries, of wonderful things to be
, seen,, plunged into the unknown. Some came
back with disapointment to their homes, some
did not come back at all, but all made way for
the future. From the time of Prester Johu,
Europe had. been filled with yarns about tho
wonderful country of the great Khan, where
gold and precious stones were more plentiful
than dirt; where eternal summer abode, and
where, most wonderful of all, a fountain, fed
by waters from Paradise, splashed in eternal
beauty, and nonewho quaffed thereof ever died
or decayed. This desire for a deathless youth
was not novel then, nor has it yet died out.
Just recall the furore made a few years ago
over the Brown-Sequard elixir, and you will
understand how eager the old men of Europo
in the days of Columbus were to stave off the
inevitable. So when Juan Ponce de Leon,
serving in New Sjmin under the viceroy, heard
the Indians tell that, in a delightful land, far
to the north, the Fountain of Youth sparkled
forever under 'sunshine that never dimmed, his
old heart swelled with a great hope.
Sailing away from Cuba one morning in
May of 1513, Ponce began his search. It was
not long until he had raised Florida, then so
bright with its trbpical verdure and flowers,
that he gave it the name of "Flower Land."
It must be here that the fountain was to be
found. ' The external appearance of the coun
try was such as to make it a most appropriate
place for the location of the earthly paradise.
Experience soon disabused him of this opinion.
The natives were the most inhospitable
Spaniards he had yet encountered. Efforts by
Pence to land his men failed, and after a brief
struggle, he sailed away for Spain, where he
was given royal permission to explore and con
quer the new land.' In 1515 he landed a force
and began the" work, but the Indians fought
with such determination and skill that the
Spaniards were beaten back, and the gallant
old leader succumbed to wounds received in
battle with the red men of the land. Instead
of finding a paradise, and renewing his wasted
body by a plunge into the crystal waters of the
Fountain of Youth, Juan Ponce de Leon lost
his life in a gallant' adventure to prove or ex
plode a story that demanded investigation. He
gained immortality, but not in the way he
sought
Just as the longing to live always imbued
men of all countries and ages to search for the
source of life, so did the desire for wealth and
the comforts and luxuries it brings set them to
its pursuit. Get-rich-quick plans were as
numerous at one time as at another in history.
Columbus expected to discover untold wealth
when he reached Cathay; it was the same
dream of wealth that led the Portuguese around
the Cape of Good Hope; that took Magellan
around the. world, and. that led Cortez to Mex
ico and Pizarro to Peru. Cabot "and other
l 1 :v
JOHN tr!TO AS A PIRATE CHILT.
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songht it in the cold north,' 'nd in every 'direc
tion did "gentlemen adventurers" put out to
discover' the country where wealth abounded.
When Francisco Vasquez Coronado, then high
in favor at the vice regal court of Mexico, heard
the tales the Indians told of the "Seven Cities
of Cibola," whose inhabitants used gold for the
commonest purposes, he was eager to prove the
stories to he utmost limit. So he marched
away from Mexico 3(36 years ago, to follow the
mxx-i -luc-iriojj OLl unn iuo UCTCl 19 VL I lie SOUlll-
vest. From Mexico he crossed the mountains
and down onto the west lope, finding the gulf
at what is now Guaymaa. Here he learned the
cities lay off to the northeast, and he made his
way across the sandy wastes of Sonora, of
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas and into
Nebraska, Back he went through Kansas,
Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Texas and eastern
Mexico, without having sighted the castellated
walls of the fabulous cities, nor having handled
gold or precious stones, fine stuffs, dyes or
spices. It was a grievous disappointment to
Coronada, for he didn't even have the consola
tion that he was the old captain when he. re
turned to Nantucket after a four years' cruise,
empty holded and short of provisions. After,
confessing that he had no oil, no whalebone and
no marketable produce whatever as the result
of his trip, the captain said with a sigh: "Well,
we had a d d, fine sail." Coronado didn't1
even have' a fine march) for he was harrassed
by Indians, bedeviled by the climate and gen
erally suffered." ' ;.-'-'
-If Coronado could only have looked into the
future for three centuries, he : would have dis
covered a richer source of treasure than any of
the conquist adores dreamed of. -The region h
traversed in search of the mythical 'cities have
produced wealth and brought about' happiness
within half a century such as the dreamers of
the sixteenth century could not conceive. 1 Dur
ing, the century that elapsed between Ferdi
nand and Isabella and Philip II of Spain, the
accumulated treasure of the new world was
ravished from the barbarians and savages by
the cruel Spaniards and poured in what seemed
, a. never-ending 'stream into the royal coffers.
Millions of human lives were sacrificed by the
Spanish in their'pursuit of the gold and silver
the people of the new world had hoarded or in
efforts to develop mines and bring more light.
It 'is estimated that during this time, when
Spain reached the zenith of its ascendancy in
the affairs of man, treasure to the amount of
what would now be, five billions of dollars was
taken across the Atlantic, and there spent in a
fruitless effort to put an end to human liberty.
It was to add to this store that Coronado
sought the Seven Cities of Cibola. He was fired
by., the religious enthusiasm of a Columbus;
had none of the scieniifio zeal of Veapucius or