Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/104

CAMPED ON THE ARKAXSxlS. 93 vegetjitioii. Take the production of core, in (lie quality and quantity of which Kansas frequently exciels. "aH others, and compare the little puny corn fields in Italy, and particularly, the size of the ears. That grown in Italy is about seven inches long and the Kansas ear is a foot long and -wiD %veig-h twice as much. And so it is with wheat, in which she sur- passes aU other states or countries; her ilour now excels all others and is sought after by all European countries. Then, her cattle and hogs furnish rations for the armies ot the world and her horses wUl com- pare favorably with those of any other state or country. You have often read of the extraordinary, incom- parable, romantic blueness of the Italian sky. Poets and artists work themselves up to a pitch of ecstacy in their fervor and enthusiasm when describing the softness and beauty of Italy's canopy. Bah! the Sunflower State can go her one better. The forgoing digression was prompted so as to prove that Coronado was a proi-ihct, when he put on record that Quivira, (Kansas), had "fat black soil" and. that all the products of Spain would grow here." Of course, you are aware that quite a number of priests were with the army. They were aU good Catholics,, whose sole purpose was to convert the heathen natives to Christianity, and they must be accorded just credit for their rectitude in the interest of humanity. So when the camjj was made on the afternoon of June 29, 1541, after an opportunity was given the men to bathe in the river, religious services were held; after which the general held a