Standard History of Memphis, Tennessee

J. P. Young

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Patriotism or devotion to one's country is a sentiment. It is not due to self-interest nor other sordid motive, but is born of th...

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Patriotism or devotion to one's country is a sentiment. It is not due to self-interest nor other sordid motive, but is born of the story of her origin and of the achievements of the brave and enterprising ancestral stock, which, out of small beginnings, established and organized and wrought a nation. Every great city is in semblance a small nation, both in government and the loyal co-operation of its people for the common good. And the same patriotic devotion, born of the same sentiment does, or should prevail in every city as in every nation. As our civilization grows older our larger cities are taking more interest in the story of their own origin and development, and concerning some of them many historical volumes have been written, dealing with almost every incident of fact and legend that could be traced. And in many notable instances of cities the greater the knowledge of her history, the greater the pride and love and devotion of her people. The city of Memphis, though rated young among her Eastern sisters in America, is yet one of the most ancient, considering the discovery of her site, and the building of the first habitations of the white man here, on the whole American continent. When it is recalled that the adventurous Hernando De Soto built a cantonment for his troops here and established a little ship-yard, in which he constructed four pirogues or barges, large enough to transport across the Mississippi River in time of high water, five hundred Spanish soldiers, as many more Indian vessels and one hundred and fifty horses, with baggage and other military equipment, in a few hours, and that all this occurred seventy-nine years before the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock and twenty-four years before the building of the first hut and stockade at St. Augustine, Fla., it will be realized that our story dates far back in ancient American history. Following up this fact much space has been given to the wonderful march of De Soto from Tampa Bay, Fla., to the Chickasaw Bluffs, literally hewing his way as he came with sword and halberd through swarming nations of brave Indians; and to showing that he marched directly from the Chickasaw towns in northeast Mississippi to the Chickasaw Bluffs; and to presenting in fullest detail from the Spanish Chroniclers what De Soto and his people did while on the Bluffs where Memphis now stands. And it was deemed proper also to tell with equal detail of the voyages of Marquette and Joliet and La Salle, past the lonely Chickasaw Bluffs, and of the coming of Le Moyne Bienville with a large army and the construction of a great fortress here, heavily mounted with artillery, in the endeavor to overcome the heroic Chickasaws who resented the French invasions in the effort to conquer their country and to found a great French Empire in Western America, And the story also is told of the effort of Governor Don Manuel Gayoso to establish in like manner a Spanish Empire west of the Mississippi River before the Americans could take hold. Indeed few American cities possess so romantic a story and the archives, not only of the United States, but of France and Spain also are yet rich in historical material awaiting the historian with time and opportunity for investigation.