Many times they left it, and wandered into the desert trying to get home, but they were driven back famished. Finally, captured by a tribe of desert men, they were taken toward the sunset until they reached mountains that shone red at sundown like the Blood of Christ. Here there was water, and wood, and game and berries. How far did they go? Once Sebastian had fever, and once Lucas had sores on his body, and oh, how they all wanted to go home. But with the wild people, and the impassable mountains, where trails in the canyons ended abruptly, and the swift and ever swifter passing of seasons, it seemed like they never could reach their people.

"Nine years passed before they found the Indian village Piguex. The boys were bearded men. Few were there who knew them, but their hearts were glad to be once more among their own people. The mark of the desert is upon us. Here am I. still in the desert, attending goats ; and telling you this story, as it has come to me, from father to son, and father to son, since it was first told by Dacombo. the soldier, and his sons, fourteen men ago."

The Padres Padilla and Le Cruz were killed, probably near Columbus, and the river of castles is quite likelv the North Platte river, and the time about 1540-1550.

THE FLAG OF FRANCE IN THE WILDERNESS

'flic nexl old trail, the mxt white man's foot dial made iis mark upon the soil of Nebraska, was in 1739, when Mallei brothers made their journey into the wilderness, and research of historians regarding this enterprise is of a very meagre and indefinite order.