Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

24 G-EOKGIA AND GEORGIANS
Whether it be Rome or Columbus, De Soto remained at Chiaha for
nearly a month. At the expiration of this time, he parted from the king
with kind words, and left on July 1, 1540, for the far west, accompanied
by a retinue of slaves as the king's gift. In a short while he was
beyond the Territory of Georgia. To trace his wanderings through a
trackless forest, exposed without protection to the torrid heat of sum
mer and to the rigorous cold of winter, exhausted by hunger, enfeebled
by disease, is not within the purview of this sketch. It suffices to say
that the gold for which the Spaniards relinquished home and braved
the solitudes of an unknown wilderness proved an illusive phantom.
Most of them looked no more upon Spain. At last, on September 10,
1543, a pathetic remnant reached Panuca, in Mexico, after suffering
untold hardships; but not until they had lowered the body of De Soto
secretly at night into the bosom of the Great Father of Waters, where
at last bis splendid fabric of dreams literally crumbled into dust.