De Soto and illfoscoso Beyond the Mississippi, 1537-1543
131
by three years of incredible privations, during which time they had seldom ·had a full meal; that there were about three hundred left at this time, besides numerous Indian captives; and that they were traveling through a country where food was extremely scarce. It was, furthermore, in the middle of summer, being now almost the end of August, 1542, and the heat in the area between Sherman and Wichita Falls, along the northeastern edge of the great plains where they were traveling is almost unbearable at this season of the year. How tired they were and how they had to hunt laboriously for the buried corn along the edge of the plains is briefly but vividly told in the simple words of the narrator. "Well wearied," he says, "they went trailing to seek for what they needed to eat at the close of the day's march." Men under such conditions, exhausted, fatigued, ill-fed, obliged to forage for their scanty supply of corn every clay, and exposed to the tropical heat of summer in northern Texas, could not have covered a great distance in their twenty clays' march. If they traveled an average of eight to ten miles a day, they did well. But it seems more likely that the average distance was about six miles a day. The physical obstacles that had to be overcome and the weakened con- dition of the band would not allow a greater distance to be covered. They may, and very likely did, go farther some days, but after such an exertion they likewise slowed down or stopped altogether on the fol- lowing day to recuperate or rest. 35 In view of the various considerations presented, it is safe to assume that the general direction of the march was rather to the southwest than to the south or southeast, and that the distance traveled from Soacatino, in the neighborhood of present day Sherman to Guasco could hardly have been more than one hundred and fifty miles. Where, then, was Guasco? It has been held that it was at the site of present Waco, basing this deduction chiefly on the similarity of the names. If this is correct, Moscoso and his men would have had to travel either due south or slightly southeast from Soacatino, for a distance of more than two hundred miles, crossing at least one large river, the Trinity, and a goodly number of large creeks. The crossing of rivers and streams of any size are con- sistently noted in all the Spanish narratives of exploration, because of the difficulty they always offered to the explorers. A group worn out by fatigue and privation such as Moscoso was leading, could not have failed to note the streams crossed . Regardless of how brief the summary, the
35 Compare the accounts of Biedma and the Gentleman of Elvas in Bourne, op. cit., I, 177-180.
Powered by FlippingBook