Ever seen something like this?

[PatrickD]

Desoto would have been about the only one. Although, he took ill and died near the mouth of the Missouri river. His second in command, Luis Moscoso, took over. They led though what is now the DFW area of Texas then almost all starved that winter somewhere on the Brazos river. There is some controversy as to where the expedition stayed on the Brazos between what is now Possum Kingdom lake and Austin. Regardless, it is said that Luis abandoned a small stone carved with serpents that was his good luck piece. Apparently, his good luck ran out. They sealed his expedition manuscript and a hand scribed bible into a cannon and this has not yet been publicly recovered. The expedition followed the Brazos river down and eventually made their way to what is now Mexico city before returning to Spain as a failure.

 

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[PatrickD]

Follow Up - Moscoso Expedition.

The history talks some about the serpent stone being presented to Luis Moscoso by some royalty in Spain although I was unable to verify this. It was apparently something he kept for good luck. On an interesting side note, here is a picture of something I found in a cave on the Brazos just outside of Palo Pinto Texas.

Patrick

 

[mcb66]

That's awesome. One of the coolest finds I've ever seen. That one took a while to carve. I'll hunt for my photos this evening.

 

[PatrickD]

Yeah, if you look close, the stone is carved away from the snakes instead of having the snakes carved into the stone.

My area of expertise is Spanish expeditions in the US. That, and digging up pull tabs.