Although the F ranch were the first to explore the Mississippi, to map out its course, and to establish per manent settlements upon its banks, they were not its discoverers neither were they the first to float upon its waters. That honor, if the term can be applied to What was but a lucky incident in a mad search after gold, be longs to the Spaniards, and is usually ascribed to Her nando de_ Soto, though upon what are believed to be insufficient grounds. Without stopping, however, to discuss the point, it is sufficient to say that almost a cen tury and a half before the French explorers launched their frail canoes upon the stream, he stood upon its banks; and whilst it is not possible to make out, with any degree of accuracy, the itinerary of his journey, there is but little hazard in asserting that the spot from which he first gazed upon its turbid waters must have been at or near the place where the city of Memphis now stands. Whether in the course of his wanderings he reached the confines of what is now known as the State of Mis souri is a question that cannot be definitively settled.