Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/101

90 freedom! glorious FREEDOM! There is as much similarity as "Cansas" to (Kansas. This subject will be commented upon further. The great explorer and commander with Ms whole force has arrived at the south bank of the Arkansas river, and he can plainly see that the army is becoming discouraged, owing to the lack of proper and wholesome food. There was no dearth of meat, for as you have been Informed, the army was hardly out of the sight of the immense herds of buffalo, deer and antelope; but meat for breakfast and the same for dinner and ditto for supper would become somC' what monotonous. But the general was determined to test the truth of Turk's statements; hence he resolved to select thirty of his best horemen and six foot soldiers and make a dash for the goal — not the pole as is often done in arctic explorations. Is there any wonder that Coronado determined to see the end? Those who saw the prairies of Texas, Indian Territory, Oklahoma and Kansas only fifty years bafoce they commenced to be settled to any extent, KNOW w'.oat a fascination the country had for them. It mattered not to the early Kansas settler that the grasshopper ate up his corn, wheat, and in fact, all green vegetation, or that it was blasted by hot winds or dried up for the want of rain; yet he loved the country and even if he was compelled to leave his homestead for a few years because of the failure of crops, he would pine for "home" and would return. ITiere was something exhilarating in the sunshine; the air was pure and resembled that of the ocean; and last but not least, he felt a freedom which is inexplicable and incomprehensible to those who have not ez-