Hernando De Soto in Florida

http://www.jacksbromeliads.com/desotoinflorida.htm

Hernando de Soto was born in 1500 of a respectable family

in Spain. As a young man, DeSoto sailed to and learned
slaving skills in Panama. Vicious dogs, fast horses and
extortion became his hallmark. He earned the title "Child
of the Sun" for conducting dawn raids on unsuspecting
villages. DeSoto captured village chiefs then extorted their
citizens for their re-turn. He was influenced by three New
World Explorers: Ponce de Leon, who discovered North
America (La Florida), Balboa,who discovered the Pacific
Ocean (the South Sea) below Panama, and Magellan, who sailed that ocean to the
Orient, the greatest market on earth.

While DeSoto was in Panama, Balboa was put to death by its dictator for over-
stepping his bounds without the strength of a personal army to hold his ground.
Learning from that, and with an army of his own, DeSoto signed on with Francisco
Pizarro to conquer South America in 1532. Spectacular brutality earned DeSoto huge
Incan ransoms.

He became one of the richest men in the

world before leaving Peru in 1536. DeSoto
returned to Spain to seek recognition at
Court, but was not accepted there as a
peer. Narvaez and an-other Conquistador
had recently disappeared while attempting
to colonize North America at two different
places, thus tarnishing the reput-ation of
New World Conquestadors in general but
setting the stage for DeSoto's attempt to
establish his own.
He married Isabel de Bobadilla, whose family
held power at court. At that time, Cabeza de
Vaca, a nine year surivor of the Narvaez
Expedition and first to explore today's
America, stirred Europeans with stories of
great riches to be found there.

The King, despite DeSoto's petition to "make

the discovery of the South Sea" (the Pacific Ocean), granted his trusted soldier a four
year commission to colonize and hold La Florida instead. DeSoto was assigned the
governorship of Cuba from which to stage his invasion of today's United States, land
once "Owned" by Ponce de Leon and Narvaez. Vazquez de Coronado was dispatched
from Mexico to explore and conquer the western part of North America at the same
time. DeSoto selected volunteers from Spain, Portugal and Cuba, many from African
descent. Some were far-mers, soldiers, traders, accountants, ship builders,
carpenters, tailors and clergymen. They averaged 24 years of age and some had been
in the New World before... some with DeSoto. DeSoto's soldiers provided their own
weapons, horses, hounds, servents and other equipment. Some even brought their own
wives. They sailed to Cuba with stores of trade goods, shields, armor, cross-bows,
guns, black-powder, nails, tools, seed and plows for the conquest and settlement of
our mainland. More animals... horses, hardtack, long-legged pigs and mules, were
bartered from Cuban plantion owners. DeSoto's livestock count came to at least five
hundred, inculding two hundred and thirty-seven horses.

DeSoto landed in Charlotte Harbor,

Florida, on June the 1st, 1539. One month
later, he marched his army inland then
spent that winter in North Florida. With
news of gold toward the sun's rising, he
headed northeast during the spring of
1540, traveling through Alabama, Georgia
and the Carolinas. Find-ing no gold, he
headed west through most of Tennessee,
then south back through Georgia and
Alabama. His object was to meet his ships
at Mobile Bay. In October 1540,
ChiefTuscaloosa's Tribe ambushed
DeSoto's army 100 miles above that port.
Despite emerging victorious, DeSoto
retreated his army to the north beyond the
Tennessee River, to isolate them from
escape and thereby, to preclude bad news
from reaching prospective settlers in Spain.

In the spring of 1541, DeSoto proceeded

due north through Kentucky and Indiana;
his scouts as far as Chicago. Finding no
ocean to cross to China for Spanish trade,
but Lake Michigan instead, DeSoto retreated south-west through Illinois and Missouri
 searching for Cabeza de Vaca's fabled native cities of gold. DeSota wintered in
Arkansas and on May 21, 1542, died of anguish at Lake Village. His weighted body
was placed in the Mississippi River and his army fled to Mexico. Hernando de Soto
led the first Europeans deep into America in 1540. At the age of 39, DeSoto was rich
from Incan gold and wanted to colonize North America. To do so he planned to open
a passage to trade Spain's New World fortunes with China. Cabeza de Vaca had
reported a northern sea to DeSoto, who thought it was the Pacific Ocean. DeSoto's
three year search for that sea, and enough gold to lure settlers to his planned
American colony, was well recorded by his volunteers between Florida and Lake
Michigan (the northern sea), then on to Texas for escape into Maxico... Spain's
nearest outpost on the North American Continent.

The DeSoto Chronicles

The DeSoto Chronicles were published by three Expedition Officers. Direct
observations by the King's agents: Fernandez de Biedma; DeSoto's personal
secretary Rodrigo Rangel,
and those of a central Portuguse Officer, who called himself "A Gentleman of Elvas".

DeSoto's Florida Trails

On orders from the King, seven deep draft
vessels, bound ultimately for Vera Cruz,
were used to transport DeSoto's stores
from Cuba to Florida. Those ships would
then be on their way to Mexico. Two
shallow-draft vessels owned by DeSoto,
carried a number of the force. All set sail
from Havana on May 18, 1539. His object
was to land his horses and cargo as soon
as possible; long sea trips were know to
cause broken legs among the horses. Juan
Ponce de Leon had explored Florida's
coast and discovered Charlotte Harbor in
1513 but died from wounds received
between it and the Bay of Juan Ponce on
his return to colonize in 1521. The Bay of Juan Ponce is located 60 miles north-east
of Key West between Cape Sable and Marco Island.

In 1528, Panfilo de Narvaez, along with Cabeza de Vaca on a much smaller scale
than DeSoto, aimed to colonize Charlotte Harbor but a storm kept him from first
stopping at Havana to procure needed provisions. Narvaez' fleet was blown into the
Gulf of Mexico, leaving one ship behind and he found Florida several days later. With
a critical food shortage, Narvaez was forced to disembark his army between breaker
islands. He sent his ships to Havana for supplies with orders to meet him futher up the
coast where they all thought Juan Ponce's good harbor to be located. They had been
blown futher north than they had realized and the captains of the vessels reported
finding the harbor just five leagues south of his disembarkation point. Stump Pass, at
today's Englewood on Lemon Bay, was exactly that distance from the mouth of
Charlotte Harbor on the Florida Town-ship survey of 1896; Narvaez had
disembarked from there.

Since on their return, Narvaez and

his army could not be found, the
captains of the vessels searched
the shoreline for him, but to no
avail. The next year, rescuers sent
to find Narvaez also found
Charlotte Harbor, thinking he
would have settled there by that
time. He had been there but had a skirmish with that herbor's chief,Hirrihigua,and led
his army away. The rescuers noticed a sheet of paper on a stick at the head of the
harbor, which they thought Narvaez had left for them. When some of the men went to
read the note they were captured by Chief Hirrihigua, whose nose had been cut off by
Narvaez.
One of the rescuers, a boy named Juan
Ortiz, spent several years of captivity and
torture by Chief Hirrihigua, who had
much enmity of Spaniards. Ortiz survived
and learned the chief's langu-age in the
process but the other captured men were
killed. Ortiz would finally escape with the
help of Hirrihigua's daughter to her
fiancees near-by village where he was
given safe refuge by Chief Mococo, and
learned that chief's lan-guage during
years of hostile captivity.

DeSoto's scouts, in the luckiest stroke of their entire campaign, would find Ortiz
shortly after their landing. He would serve DeSoto's army as guide and chief
interpreter for the rest of his life. DeSoto's people would reward the good Chief
Mococo with excess Spanish armor when the port was finally abandoned. Florida's
 early pioneers would find that armor and call Chief Mococo's abandoned village site
"Old Spanish Fields."

Landfall and Landing

The King's Comptroller, Juan de
Anasco,
was dispatched from Havana. Anasco
found Ponce de Leon's Charlotte
Harbor and took four Indians from
among Chief Hirrihigua's people.
Anasco was licensed by the King to
barter with them. Anasco envisioned
developing that trade with Havana, a
port Cabeza de Vaca reported to lie 100

leagues due south of there. The

captives knew the shoreline and could locate their home port, Charlotte Harbor, on
their return with DeSoto's fleet. Their village, Ucita, at the head of that harbor, would
ultimately become DeSoto's base of operations. Narvaez, with Cabeza de Vaca, had
been through that village and had cut off Chief Hirrihigua's nose, then proceeded in-
land. Juan Ortiz had been there and had fled for his life.

Before his return to Cuba, Anasco carefully sounded the harbor, noted the tide's effect
on it, and then measured the distance back to Havana via Dry Tortuga; 75 or 80
leagues, as reported to his officers in Havana. He advised DeSoto to sail on May 25th
to catch the Full Moon and Spring Tides at arr-ival, but DeSoto chose to sail on
favor-able winds instead, one week early. The men sighted Florida due north on May
25th, ten leagues west of the Bay of Juan Ponce, but the transport cap-tains would go
no closer than one or two leagues from land until sighting the harbor entrance. They
reported the coast in four brazas of water (22 feet) on a northern landfall and
dropped anchor 4 or 5 leagues below the port, occurs at only one place in Florida,
atSanibel Island.
DeSoto, his guard, Anasco and the captives were transferred into DeSoto's smaller
brigs to find the harbor that evening, leaving the cumbersome transport ships at
anchor. If the fleet over-shot the harbor, the large ships could not tack back to it
against the high south-erly winds, which were reported to enter the harbor's pass. To
preclude that, DeSoto went downwind, northward in his small maneuverable brigs,
advancing to where he thought the harbor's entrance was located. He sailed out of
sight of the fleet which had moved out into deeper water for safe overnight
anchorage. That evening DeSoto found Charlotte Harbor's entrance at Boca Grande
Pass, but was kept from returning by darkness and wind. DeSoto spent the night at a
deserted Indian Village, possibly on Useppa Island, much to the chagrin of his people.

The next morning, DeSoto sailed back out of the pass

to explore the enormous sand bar at the haror's
entrance and to summon the fleet. He was spotted four
leagues downwind of the fleet's anchorage as he
tacked across the high winds. The fleet advanced
downwind between vessels DeSoto stationed on either
side of the narrow channel to guide the fleet into the
harbor. Since they had left Havana a week earlier than Anasco had advised, DeSoto's
fleet could not cross the harbor's shallow channel just south ofCape Haze, despite
efforts to do so. They were forced to anchor two leagues inside the pass in deep water
to wait for the Spring Tides. Those tides were five days away on a Full Moon, so while
they waited, the men comforted the horses with fresh foliage and berries from the
islands and bays west of Cape Haze, just to the north of their anchorage. Twenty
horses perished before they landed however, and Anasco was publicy scolded for the
delay which may have contributed to their injuries. Anasco had warned DeSoto about
the harbor's shallows before leaving
Havana, however, thereby establishing
May 25th as the proposed departure date
to hit Spring Tides on their arrival; a date
formally acknowledged by DeSoto.

The horses were finally disembarked with

the other livestock onto Cape Haze. On the
night of May 30th, DeSoto's guards sailed
up to the head of the harbor and Ucita was
taken in a dawn raid. The Indians, having
been aware of the ships for a week, had
fled. His style of capturing the chief and
enslaving the citizens had been thwarted by delay. Hos-tages were not to be taken en
masse from Ucita, setting off a series of mishaps which would disrupt the campaign
 for months. Without forced labor, the men would have to perform all the menial tasks
of landing and carrying supplies overland on their drparture, and the transport
captains would get but a few captives to take with them. The next day, on Spring
Tides, the fleet sailed up the harbor to within a mile of Locust Point, the closest
mainland to the channel at the head of the bay where the men disembarked. They
made their way through the marshes toward the village of Ucita, two leagues from
where they landed. In the mean-time, the horsemen driving the livestock made their
way toward Ucita, a twelve league trip, as it is today around the cape's swamps and
over the Myakka River at the head of the harbor. That moonlit trip would be the entire
cavalry's longest non-stop ride in Florida.

Very late that night, the

horsemen finally arrived near
Ucita. They had trudged
through the swamps and over
the mouth of the Myakka River,
although the Spring Tides were
shallow that night, they found
themselves on the opposite side
ofTippecanoe Bay from the men
and exhausted, slept where they
were on today's El Jobean. The men, having been misled for hours by Anasco's four
captives, watched the horse-men's campfires from the opposite bank of Tippecanoe
Bay, neither group realizing they were separated by only one league of hard ground.
The next day, the horsemen found the passage around the lagoon at the head of the
bay and reassembled with the men. On June third, with all the dignitaries and
necessary paraphernalia ashore, DeSoto took formal possession of North America.

The Grand Entrada at Charlotte Harbor

Ucita, DeSoto's landing site on June 1st,
1539, was a native village at the head of
Charlotte Harbor. It can be located using four
precise statements by DeSoto's Chroniclers:
the first comes from the liberated captive
Juan Ortiz; the second, a description of the
army's depart-ure from another eye witness;
the third, Inca's journal of the "Thirty
Lancers" return to port; and finally, by the
army's reported movements in that area
written by various chroniclers.
DeSoto's army left Ucita on July 15th, 1539 on a New Moon, headed for Ocale
Province, where they planned to spend the winter in its "abundance of gold, silver and
many pearls" as scouts reported captives had proclaimed. DeSoto marched west from
Ucita, but did not cross the Myakka River on the Indian Bridge or attempt to ford the
river there. His horsemen had learned why not to ford it six weeks earlier. DeSoto
marched up the firm east bank of the river instead, headed northwest. That trail would
cross the Myakka River's northeast bend seven leagues from Ucita and a little more
than a league below Mococo's west bank village. They camped on the river's bank
opposite Mococo's Village their first night out, having traveled about six leagues that
day. The trail they took is the only trail shown from Charlotte Harbor on the John Lee
Williams Map of Eastern Florida of 1827: it bypasses the massive swamp west of the
river's big bend where Ortiz first sighted Mococo's workers just below their village
years earlier.
The next morning, the army
crossed a bridge they built over
the Myakka River just below
Mococo's Village, then stopped
to visit the chief. The chief shed
tears at the army's dep-arture
knowing full well that the sur-
rounding villagers would
retaliate for his kindness to the
invaders. The army rounded
Lower Myakka Lake that
afternoon by turning northeast
near Mococo's Village, then
crossed Howard Creek and camped on the shore of
Myakka Lake a league be-yound the creek; making
about five leagues their second day. Howard Creek, just
below that camp, looks like a river with high banks so it
was also bridged by the army. On the army's next
morning at that camp, the horses were spooked by a
rabbit and ran back down the trail for more than a
league before terrified troops could get control over
them. The horses had run back to the tree line at
Howard Creek but not over the bridge, then stopped.
DeSoto's people christened Myakka Lake, accordingly,
the Lake of the Rabbit, and the army had crossed two
bridges upon leaving Ucita as Rangel reported.

With Paracoxi Village as their intermediate destination,

Hernando de Soto's army continued to the northeast for three more days. They
camped the first night at what they called the lake of St. John. It lies northeast of
Sarasota. The next day the army traveled over a desert plain where DeSoto's servant
"died" of thirst, located at the junction of four of Florida Counties: Hillsborough,
Polk, Manatee and Hardee. The horses drank what could be transported and, one can
observe even today, there are no lakes, springs, sink holes or creeks in that region, a
most unusual place. The third day they came to what they called the plain of
Guacoco, Florida's largest field of heavy sub-surface phosphate deposits, nature's
fertilizer. That plain covered at least 130,000 acres of phosphate fields, the only one
like it in all of Florida; the Indians called that entire province by the name of the
village quartered there; Paracoxi. The army gathered maize in quanity for the first
time, having traveled 14 leagues from Myakka Lake in three days. They camped just
south of the Paracoxi Village.

DeSoto's ambition to push his army rapidly

overland, at six leagues the first day and five
the second, proved more than the army could
handle. They averaged just over four-and-a-
half leagues their last three days on the trail.
That pace would hold for the next year, even
the captives acquired from Paracoxi's fields
to lighten their load. That march-ing
schedule, five days on the road and two at
rest for the entire army would hold, with few
exceptions, for the next three year's marches.

Inca says that the Paracoxi Village was

twenty-five leagues northeast of Ucita, which
is the distance and direction they had
traveled in Florida. Biedma says that
Paracoxi Village is twenty leagues from the
coast, measured from the coast near the
mouth of Tampa Bay. Upon DeSoto's arrival,
his scouts reported that a wide body of
water, just three leagues beyond, had such
deep mud on either side that it was
impassable for the army; referring to the
Peace River. But they also reported that they
had found a very good crossing of that
swamp, which the army could reach in just
two days.
The next day they turned east and hiked three leagues, crossed the wide and shallow
spillway with ease, then camped half-a-league beyond on a plain called Tocaste near
a large lake. At Tocaste, DeSoto was informed of the impassib-ility of the county
futher on; the Green Swamp northeast of there was too large to move an army over.
With one division, DeSoto re-crossed the spillway and explored the west side of Lake
Hancock for another passage to the north searching for Ocale. He rode through the
villages and found the lakes and swamps to its north impassable for the army and
livestock.

On the third day of DeSoto's search, he was led by a guide to a broad road leading
away from the swamp to a passage through another which was free of mud at its
entrance and exit. The Great Swamp would lead DeSoto to Ocale, a place reported by
Elvas to lie west of Paracoxi Province. All northbound trails from points below
Tampa Bay once converged at this ford-ing place. The nearest man-made bridge is a
league-and-a-half upstream at Fort Foster. That bridge was first constructed at the
request of the U.S. Army in 1828; the road over that bridge would lead north through
hostile Seminole Indian country. The Seminole War started there.

DeSoto dispatched riders on the

Full Moon with orders for the
army to advance and cross that
swamp and the riders had to
back-track un-seen for safety,
through an inhab-ited region.
They reported seeing a great
many Indians that night per-
forming pagan ceremonies
around giant fires. Once the
riders were re-inforced by the
army at the spillway to ward-off morning attackers, a few rode the full twelve leagues
to the Great Swamp to reinforce DeSoto.

In the next two days the rest of the army would march the remaining eight leagues to
the Great Swamp. The Indians fled when the army advanced. By the time the army
arrived at the Great Swamp, DeSoto had crossed it and rode and additional six
leagues into Ocale Province (Inca calls it Acuera Province). DeSoto had ridden a
trail from just above the Hillsborough River to Dade City which Florida pioneers
would call "The Fort King Road" Florida's Second Seminole War would erupt on that
road above Dade City. DeSoto's army spent five days struggling to cross the Great
Swamp and emerging from it into "Uqueten Village." They would hike up the same
road that DeSoto followed into Ocale. The men pil-laged the maize fields near Acura
Village, but they camped in Dade City.

Narvaez had crossed the Great Swamp at

the same place and for the same reason
eleven years before DeSoto. He had
encountered several hundred Indians while
crossing the swamp with "great difficulty"
but was led to their village half-a-league
away. Narvaez had found large quantities
of maize close by. When Vaca was
dispatched to find a harbor reported to be
nearby (Tampa Bay), he had encountered
wetlands filled with oysters and a river he
could not cross. The Hillsborough River
broadens just below its branches at the
Great Swamp. When scouts re-crossed the
swamp they proceeded down the river's
south bank tree line, they found a shallow bay the next morning. They had found
McKay Bay on May 20, 1528, at which Spring Low Tide occurs on the morning of the
new moon, they could wade across it. If they had seen the deep water of Tampa Bay
from McKay Bay, it would have looked like the Gulf of Mexico. They had returned
that day with news thet the "harbor" was too shallow for ships, and Narvaez had
proceeded north looking for his ships along the shallow Gulf shoreline.

Once DeSoto's men all crossed the

Great Swamp and encamped around
the small village of Ocale, DeSoto sent
scouting parties out in all directions;
they found villages and fields but no
treasure. The captives from Paraoxi
who had lied about Ocale were fed to
the dogs. Fresh captives who had
witnessed the feeding, were believed
when they said gold rich lands were
just one week to the north. With that
news, DeSoto advanced with one battalion toward Apalache. Biedma said that place
would be found by traveling ever toward New Spain, at a distance of ten to twelve
leagues from the coast. "The Coast" he was referring to was the four braza (24 feet)
deep sea lane, as illustrated by the transport captains at landfall. On average, the
coast is located about 17 miles (seven leagues) off-shore from Florida's western
shoreline, putting DeSoto's trail about three to five leagues inland of that shoreline.
Months later when DeSoto's Thirty Lancers returned down this trail from Apalache, it
took them exactly one week to get back to that point.

Like Narvaez before him, DeSoto would

proceed northward from Dade City, but
down the mighty Withlacoochee
River. Then his trail would go over
Florida's rock phosphate ridge and "as it
had maize in abundance, they gave it the
name Villafarta" meaning "fertile place"
in Spanish. Then his trail would cross a
river, enter another prov-ince and pass
through "many forests with streams that
flowed through it and very level." These were Florida's "flat-woods" as Florida's new
pioneers would call them, between the mighty Withlacoochee and St. Marks River. All
of these pine trees would be harvested in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
by the "Naval Stores," companies which would first drain them of sap, to distill for
turpentine and caulk residues, then build railroads through that sandy flat country to
remove the massive felled timbers.

Most of DeSoto's trail from Dade City was a railroad until recently. That trail went
through Rital, Istachatta, Fort Cooper (near Inverness), Hernando and South
Dunnellon
(southwest of Ocala). DeSoto's people would
call them, respectively, Ytara, Potano,
Utinama, Mala Paz (Bad Peace) and
Cholupaha. He camped at each of these
places at four league intervals. Inca said they
traveled 19 leagues in doing so. The rock
phosphate ridge that DeSoto came to 12
leagues north of Dade City became well
known to the U.S.Army. On it, they fought the
biggest battles of the Seminole Wars at:
"Cove of the Withlacoochee."

DeSoto's people called Hernando "Bad

Peace" for New Moon misbehavior by the
natives. Although Rangel only alluded to it,
DeSoto probably slaughtered a number of
these natives. Evidence of Spanish activity has
been excavated nearby at both Ruth Smith and
the Tatham Mounds. The Seminole Indians called that area Char-lo-pop-ka. DeSoto's
captives called that area Cho-lu-pa-ha; today its called Tsala A-pop-ka; probably the
same name. Only Inca called that place Ocale, the name the others gave to the entire
province. DeSoto's division built a wooden bridge nearCholupaha to cross the River
of Discords between "precipices on either side as high as the length of two pikes and
as perpendicular as two walls." That bridge was built on the Withlacoochee River
located at Dunnellon, with the only vertical banks that high on the river. DeSoto
called it the River of Discords because his favorite greyhound, Bruto, was killed
chasing Indians in it.

DeSoto left Dunnellon, following the same Indian trails Narvaez and Vaca had used,
bound for theCaliquen Village, 16 leagues up the way as told by the captives.
DeSoto's men passed the first 8 leagues in two days but, half way through the 3rd day,
probably while they were struggling to ford the Waccasassa River and Otter
Creek, DeSoto and his guard proceeded to the Caliquen Village. That village was just
west of today's Chiefland, once the headquarters of the Peninsular Naval Stores
Company (west-south-west of Gainesville). It's a ghost town today just over a league
south of the Suwannee River. The "flat woods" are all gone and a small cemetery
markes the spot where the Caliquen village once stood and a long, crescent shaped
hill just south of it where Chief Caliquen lived. Biedma called this village Aqua-
caleyquen, Rangel called it Aqua-caleyquen. Cabeza de Vaca, with Narvaez, had
called it the chief Dul-chanchellin. Only Inca called it Ochile, which would confuse
him and many trail seekers for centuries to come.

DeSoto captured the chief in a dawn

raid, then returned back down the trail
to find his division three leagues back.
They had advanced in his day-long
absence, probably another 4 leagues
or so, making the distance between the
Withlacoochee River and Caliquen
Vill-age about 15 leagues Because
Caliquen Village was so large,
extending north-ward over a league to
the Suwannee River, and its chief held
captive, DeSoto sent for the remainder
of his army from Ocale before attempting to prodeed. He was reassured of Apalache's
abundance at Caliquen, but was warned about Chief Caliquen's warring
brother Napituca, whose village was on the road to Apalache. DeSoto was reminded
of the plight of Narvaez for the first time there, in detail by the captives from that
province. Over the next several weeks, the remainder of the army advanced from
 Ocale and DeSoto posted them around Caliquen as they arrived. The army had
burried its heavy implements before advancing believing in an imminent return to
winter in Ocale. Once the army was rested and more captives were taken, the army
crossed the Suwannee River, camped, then proce-eded for one week to Chief
Napituca's Village. That route segment would be the army's longest slog through the
swamplands.

Napituca and Paradise

The Thirty Lancers would pass
through the Napituca Village on
their way back down the trail and
report finding bodies of many dead
Indians, killed at DeSoto's
direction, still strewn over
Napituca's fields. The Lancers
would proceed 8 leagues beyond
the village to camp late that night,
then ride 18 leagues the next night
and camp 5 leagues short of a big
river. They would struggle to ford
that river the next day, but in doing
so would leave a perfect
description of today's Lower
Clay Landing on the Swannee
River, their most precise
description of any place in
Florida. To warm and dry
themselves, they would spend
the rest of the day and early
evening between bon-fires in
the Caliquen Village. Inca had
called that village Ochile
when the army went up the
trail. then confused it with the
similarly-titled Ocale, the
province on the south bank of the Withlacoochee River just below the Suwannee River,
when he reported the Lancers returned down the trail. Be that as it may, the Lancers
camped in Caliquen Village just below Lower Clay Landing, not where Inca refers.
DeSoto's army had left Caliquen Village and blazed the Indian trail which the Thirty
Lancers followed back. At their normal pace of four-and-a-half leagues per day, they
would have camped next at today's Cross City, which they called Uriutina, a "town of
pleasant view and with much food." Then they followed the route of today's railroad,
which was built over Indian trails, and camped at Hines, then between Tennille and
Salem, then at Athena, then at Hampton Springs, and then at the Econfina River ;
which they called Many Waters; camping at each of these places at just over four
league intervals. Finally, they crossed the natural bridges of the Aucilla River and
forded Cow Creek Swamp and entered the Napituca Village on September 15th, 1539.
That course, "ten to twelve leagues from the coast and always toward New Spain", as
Biedma reported, departs today's north-south railroad and Highway 19 just south
of Perry
and straightens the paths of today's roads, although through very swampy terrain.
The trail led through Hampton Springs instead of Perry, then across Napituca's Plain
and then intoTallahassee. The Trirty Lancers would pass back down that same trail
and camp eight leagues below Napituca Village at today's Hampton Springs, then at
Cross City 18 leagues from there, then cross the Suwannee River at Lower Clay
Landing 5 leagues from Cross City. Napituca Village lies just above today's Nutal
Rise, near a plain between the Wacissa and Aucilla Rivers, 8 leagues from Hampton
Springs. Miles of abandoned rail-road weave through the fields just east of that plain.
Those tracks were built through those swamps to "harvest" those gigantic pines after
they were drained of sap for distilling turpentine.

Inca said, "near the pueblo was a large

plain. On one side was a high and dense
forest that covered a large tract of land
and on the other side were two lakes. The
first was small, and would measure one
league in circumference; it was clear of
growth and mud but was so deep that three
or four steps from the shore one could not
touch bottom. The second, which was
futher away, was very large, its ex-tent
unknown." The Indians stationed their
forces between the forest and these two lakes. These lakes are part of the Wacissa
River and disappears in the surrounding swamps and looks exactly the way Inca
described it. Both are very deep near their banks because the river flows through
them and underground between them. Andrew Jackson would fight the First Seminole
War at that exact location.

Napituca's plain lies one league west of the Aucilla River's natural bridges, another
river underground near Nutall Rise, which explains why the Lancers did not report a
river-crossing there. A large swamp, today's Cow Creek Swamp at the southeast edge
of the plain, was reported by Rangel when the army entered the village. Napituca
Village is completely surrounded by massive swamps and is almost impenetrable even
today. It provided Napituca's people shelter in a very hostile environment. Rangel said
that their Apalachen neighbors were "most valiant... great spirit and boldness, the
fiercest in all of Florida." DeSoto fought Napituca's people near the "lakes" when
they attacked the army. Most of the natives fled to the small lake, shooting back for
most of that day and night, but were surrounded and captured by DeSoto's army. Days
later, they were all executed.

Rangel, with DeSoto, and Vaca with Narvaez, all

reported "flute players" near a West Central
Florida road which Vaca said..."was difficult to
travel but wonderful to look upon. In it were vast
forests, the trees being astonishingly high." It is
believed they were all in the flat-woods when they
made similar reports, and both Narvaez and
DeSoto used the same trail leading to Napituca, a
village which Narvaez found and called
"Apalachen." Napituca Village might have been in
Apalache Province at that time, given the warring
nature of that province and the European diseases
most likely delivered by Narvaez. "The Lakes"
says Vaca, "are much larger here, as we sailed
they fled to the lakes nearby, shooting from the
lakes which was safety to themselves that we could
not retaliate", all similar to the incident observed
by DeSoto's Army.
Narvaez, apparently did not have a sufficient army to surround the Indians. Then,
Vaca says, "The natives told them that the land and villages inland were very poor, but
that by journeying south nine days was a town called Aute, with much maize, beans
and pump-kins and being near the sea they had fish." Biedma said these Indians told
many great lies about the country futher inland and, I think, Narvaez had believed
them; Narvaez had no Juan Ortiz to sort them out. If Narvaez had been at Napituca,
and departed to the south as Vaca indicates, he would have encountered country
exactly as he described. "The first day we got through those lakes and passages
without seeing anyone, on the second day we came to a lake difficult of crossing but
got through. At the end of a league we arrived at another of the same character, but
worse as it was half a league in extent."

Vaca's trail below Napituca

Village, at DeSoto's marching rate
of four-and-a-half leagues per
day, would have passed on one
side of the large lake and then
gone over Gum Swamp the first
day, then over the East River Pool
and the St. Marks River near its
mouth the next. Narvaez crossed
these lakes instead of avioding
them because both the pool and
the river's flats look like lakes and
are almost impossible to hike
around even today. They are at the
distances from the village and of
the dimensions Vaca described.
Pioneer trails also crossed both of
them at exactly the same place. It
is believed DeSoto massacred Napituca's people and enslaved their women and child-
ren for what they had done to Narvaez. The chroniclers never mention this reasoning,
perhaps for the shame of it, or maybe because it was so obvious to them. The mass
slaying of natives would be re-peated only once on DeSoto's three year campaign...
when Chief Tuscalusa betrayed him.

In late September, with a well-fed army supported by captives from three provinces,
DeSoto set out once more toward his planned winter encampment at Apalache. The
trip would take two weeks but the men would rest several days along the way. From
Napituca, it is only ten leagues to Tallahassee, across the St. Marks River. The army
stopped to bridge that river near Cody on their first night out. The chief of a nearby
village,Uzachil, who had sent flute players to amuse the men futher back on the trail,
sent dressed deer for the army's fare while they built a bridge of logs the next day. The
army therefore named the St. Marks River "The River of the Deer." After completing
the bridge the next day, "The army crossed the river and marched two leagues
through a countryside without timber," probably up the St. Marks River's west bank
arriving at a place where they "found large fields of maize, beans and calabashes."
They called that large town Hapallayga, today its called Chaires Crossings, it lies at
the east end of Lafayette Valley.

That night under a full moon, DeSoto

rode four more leagues into Uzachil
and took today's Tallahassee. The
villagers had fled into the woods but
the army caught up and captured many
of them while pillaging the fields for
the next two days. More captives were
shackled around the neck and chained
to the others. They gathered and
carried food for the horses. The next
day, when the army was ordered to
advance, some crossed a mountain.
Topography would indicate that both were describing the "mountain" under the
Florida State Capitol Building, or one within a mile or so of it, as there are no others
in that section of Florida. The village of Uzachil was headquartered there, but the
good chief was not to be found.

The army spent that night at a pine wood, almost five leagues west of today's Capitol
Building by following the course of today's railroad and the Old Spanish Trail to
Midway, where they camped. The next night they camped at "Agile" four-and-a-half
leagues up the road, at today's Quincy.
That proximity was called the
Tiphulga Indian Reservation as late
as 1827 on a Map of the Western
Part of Florida by John L. Williams.
One of DeSoto's troops was
grabbed by his genitals by and
unhappy female captive there; he
survived, but just barely. The next
day, DeSoto in the vanguard, came
to theApalache
Swamp, the Apalachicola
River, twelve leagues beyound Uzachils boundary; the Ochlockonee River. Most of the
army would camp two leagues from the Apalache Swamp, then catch up and struggle
to cross it for the next several days while camping near it at the river's mammoth
hundred foot deep gorge at Chattachoochee. Inca says the banks were half-a-league
apart, just be-low the confluence; the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers. With extensive
swamps on either side, the river flows around an island where DeSoto crossed the
Apalachicola River Gorge, about two miles below today's dam. Elvas says that the
river was wider than a cross-bow shot there, as it is today.

Old Florida trails converged at this crossing place on Florida's original Township
Survey and the railroad crosses it there today. Perhaps DeSoto's narrow foot path
through the forest in the river's gorge led to that place. The east bank where DeSoto
camped on a plain, and the west bank where he built a stockade, are exactly the same
now as they were described then. Indian resistance was intense. This mammoth river
was the provincial boundary of Apalache; the fourth Indian province DeSoto would
"Invade" in Florida. Once all had crossed, DeSoto's army left the stockade and
proceeded two leagues up the west bank to camp at a village called Ivitachuco, which
had been set ablaze just prior to their arrival; today's Sneads. Then the army passed
through the rich fields to Calahuchi Village, camping just north of today's Cypress.
The next day, having lost their only good guide, they came to a deep ravine that was
difficult to pass two leagues down the road. They met heavy resistance from the
Apalachens at that ravine, the worst they saw.

That ravine, with banks over 80 feet above Spring

Creek looks exactly the way it was described then.
Pioneer maps show the trail from the crossing place
of the Apalachicola River passing north of Blue
Spring just seven leagues from the river, then the trail
continues westward to cross the natural bridge bridge of theChipola River. two
leagues from the spring. But DeSoto had lost his only good guide "carrying as guide
an old Indian woman who got them lost." Once the fighting was over and the army
had all crossed the ravine, they "marched two leagues more through a country
without cultivated fields or settlements" then camped. They had marched up and over
the high east bank "peninsula" of the Chipola River at Spring Creek then camped at
today's Florida Caverns State Park. The next morning, when the army resumed its
march by fording the Chipola River's "natural bridge" on the Old Spanish Trail,
DeSoto proceeded two leagues in advance with the horsemen and one hundred foot
soldiers into the principal village of Apalache. All had fled into the woods. Iviahica
Village was located just west of today's Marianna, eleven leagues from the river's
swamp. DeSoto established his winter headquarters at Iviahica. DeSoto's "monsters"
in Florida's "panhandle" would prove to be the Apalache Swamp and the Great
 Ravine; our "monster in the panhandle" would prove to be the enduring myth that
Tallahassee was the location of Iviahica Apalache.

Paradise:
Iviahica Apalache's fields are deep,
rich, red mineral sediments nestled
between rolling, hills and spring-fed
streams. All vegetables grow in
profusion there. One look in the fields
tells the story of a thous-and year
occupation. The fields are strewn with
fragments of cultures which settled and
farmed there from time to time. The
setting is rural Alabama; livestock are
pastured on several southern-style
plantat-ions. Churches and small
cemeteries dot the forested landscape.
A village named Webbvile is depicted there on pioneer maps where the Old Spanish
Trail bends north into Alabama and the Pensacola Road forks off to the southwest.

Inca says that Juan de Anasco was dispatched from that place to find the seal 198 just
before he was sent back down DeSoto's trail leading the Thirty Lancers. Anasco
needed to mark the trees along that seashore in order to find Iviahica Apalache on his
return from Ucita in DeSoto's ships. He first rode south to Aute, 12 leagues from
Iviahica, today's Econfina. He reported crossing only two small rivers along his way
to the sea, easy to cross; they are called Econfina and
Sweetwater Creeks today. He camped along the way at
Compass Lake, the half way point. Just over two leagues
beyond Aute, after crossing a creek, Anasco came to the
head of a bay; today's North Bay, just above St. Andrew
Bay. The creek Anasco forded is called Bear Creek today
and it too, is the same with shallow water and a hard
bottom. By skirting the bay, Anasco found the place
where Narvaez built his boats, on the north shore of
today's Bayou George.

Anasco found crosses carved in the trees, carcasses of

dead horses, and the forge Narvaez had built to smelt
nails from stirrups to build his boats. Then, in order to
mark the trees for his own return, Anasco followed along
the shore of the bay to the sea, which was three leagues away. The Gulf of Mexico is
one league to the south of the harbor's point, today's Panama City, then two leagues
out the strait formed by the breaker island where he marked the trees. Vaca says
Narvaez called the strait San Miguel when he sailed through it.

If Narvaez had been at Napituca and had departed to the south, he would have passed
over Gum Swamp, East River Pool, and the St. Marks River. Then, having been turned
west by the Gulf of Mexico, he would have passed a plain, more swamps (the
Sopchoppy, Ochlockonee, and New River swamps), and a big stream which he called
Magdalina; the Apalachicola River, all as Vaca reported. Just before enter-ing Aute,
Narvaez came onto planted fields where his army was fallen upon by the enemy.
Narvaez survived and camped at Aute, where the fields to its southeast are still
cultivated today. That nine-day trip from Apalache to Aute, at a marching rate of four-
and-a-half leagues a day, would have totaled just over forty leagues, but the distance
along the trails from what DeSoto called Napituca to today's Econfina is forty five
leagues. If Narvaez marched at a rate of five leagues a day, he could have traveled
that distance along the trails from Napituca to Econfina. Narvaez could march at that
faster rate because he had no livestock to drive.

Since the water in Bayou George is shallow, Narvaez had to time his departure on just
the right tides. According to modern lunar reports, that is exactly what he did.
Narvaez com-pleted his boats so they could be launched and maneuvered out of the
bay on the Spring Tides of the Harvest Moon, September 28th, 1528. That was his
first wise move in the con-quest, but no doubt his last. The timing of the Narvaez/De
Vaca Florida expedition is, the most neglected event in Florida's exploration history,
despite the fact that it was the first. Scholars have ignored critical activity dates from
the time of the Narvaez landing, in re-lation to Easter Sunday of that year, to his
departure in shallow draft vessels on Spring Tides. Narvaez would vanish, and his
defeat would bolster the credibility of the natives who sent him into the wilderness.
Their lies, recorded by missionaries near Napituca years later, would be given
credence by historians for centuries.

When Biedma, the King's agent, was

at Aute, he pronounced the sea to be
nine leagues distant. It is that
didtance, on a straight line, to the
sea from today's Econfina. A
navigable harbor, such asSt.
Andrews Bay, was by definition a
coast. They called that harbor the
Bay of Aute. When he was there,
Biedma said they walked one-hundred and ten leagues from Ucita. It is exactly that
distance on a straight line, from Ucita (Charlotte Harbor) to Aute, the way Anasco
was instructed to return in DeSoto's ships; Biedma knew that was the "paced and
charted" range they had displaced to the bay since leaving Ucita. DeSoto's
cartographers must have been much more talented that his trail seekers have
surmised.
Upon Anasco's return to Apalache, Captain Maldonado was dispatched westward
along the coast in DeSoto's brigs to find an entrance to the sea at which to meet him
the following year or, barring that, the next year. Maldonado found "Ochuse" sixty
leagues down the coast at Mobile Bay on the Alabama River. Captives taken from
there would lead DeSoto into an ambush along his way to that bay.

From Iviahica, DeSoto would hike

for a year and a thousand miles
before that ambush took place above
Mobile Bay. DeSoto's precise
cartography accounts for his ability
to have known that the captives had
led him toward Mobile, the place
from which DeSoto had planned to settle and hold North America.
DeSoto's "Seacoast" route from Ucita, as it was reffered to then, shows only two
shortcuts available to Anasco when he rode back down it with the Thirty Lancers; all
150 leagues of it from Iviahica, as Inca reported. Anasco's object was to avoid
potentially hostile villages that DeSoto had deliberately passed through for food and
captives on his way up. Anasco's first bypass was just west of
today's Dunnellon, where the Lancers took a southerly course over the Withlacoochee
River's flats to the Great Swamp, avoiding the villages on the phosphate ridge near
the "Cove" of the Withlacoochee River; cutting off about one league. The Lancers
took several female captive from the outlying fields along that way, and those women
would end up in Havana. Anasco's second shortcut bypassed Paracoxi Village to the
west. There are no swamps or rivers to preclude that cut-off. In that area, DeSoto had
been misled to Tocaste on his way up, adding at least eight leagues to his trip.

Anasco proceeded southeast from the

Great Swamp, then south from today's
Mullberry, saving another league. To
avoid Mococo's Village, not knowing if
Spain still held favor there, Anasco forded
the Myakka River between the Myakka
Lakes northeast of the Mococo Village. In
the middle of Myakka Lake State Park,
between the two Myakka Lakes, there is a
bridge and causeway just south of
Myakka Lake where the Lancers forded
the river. They captured more Indians
there who were engaged in a ceremony of
fish baking in the woods.

At Ucita, Anasco had only one week to

catch the next Spring Tide to pass over
Charlotte Harbor's channel shallows. He
used the time to careen and load the
brigs. That timing was no accident, it was
calculated; it would take Anasco just
under two weeks to sail from there to Panama City to catch the favorable Spring Tides
at that harbor. DeSoto's trail from Ucita to the bay where Narvaez built his boats was
only 173 leagues long. Vaca's estimate of 280 leagues traveled by Narvaez to the bay,
probably included scouting for food, plus the distance from his landing site to Ucita,
then the greater distance to the Great Swamp on his trail up the east side of the Peace
River through Arcadia's rich but scattered phosphate fields. Narvaez never got to
 meet Chief Mococo or his fine people; Mococo's Village was six leagues north of the
route Narvaez chose to take to Apalache.

Conclusion: The Great Unknown

The trail DeSoto used to leave Florida is still there today and is the most apparent
segment of his entire route. It starts at Aute (near Panama City), where a good
number of troops spent that winter. DeSoto's exit however, started at Iviahica
(Marianna) with Rangel, his personal secretary. His trail passed through large
vegetable fields along Union Road as it does today, where his army was ordered to
harvest and pack for the long journey ahead.

DeSoto's destination was a land rich in pearls, gold and silver, toward the sun's
rising. His intelligence of that place came from a young captive, taken at Napituca.
DeSoto had planned to raid that place and return to Maldonado's port (Mobile Bay)
the next winter and then settle with additional supplies and personel brought from
Havana. DeSoto had sent scouts out from Iviahica during the winter, but their
reconnaissance was limited by hostile Apalachens once out of range of reinforcement.
DeSoto would be the first white man into the next province, an unexplored territory.
Rangel tells that DeSoto departed on Wednesday, March 3, 1540, and spent that night
at the river Gaucuco, then arrived at a great river Capachequi early the following
Friday. It took him two days plus part of a third to get to the great river. Elvas says it
took his people four days to get there, while Biedma says he marched northward five
days to get to the great river. Inca, who does not even mention a starting date or a
great river as the others had, says his informant traveled three days to the north,
camped on a high peninsula for three days, then marched two days to the provincial
boundary. These four different statements deserve attention because they say so much
about an army that has been so misunderstood for so long.

Less than four leagues North of Iviahica is a peninsula pointing south at the
confluence of two creeks: Marshall and Cowart's Creeks, which merge to become
the Chipola River.
That peninsula's very high ground, with many fertile fields beyond its trees and
swamp on either side, is exactly as Inca described it today, with very deep mud
around the point of a high peninsula. Maybe DeSoto called that river Gaucuco
(today's Chipola River), the first river he would come to after leaving Iviahica. To the
northeast oh Sills is the river basin's northern "natural bridge" located on today's
Alabama-Florida border. That fording place and the trail to it are detailed on the
border survey map of 1853 and are still there today.

DeSoto marched from Iviahica to Sills the first day, crossing Marshall Creek. The next
day he forded the river's branches on Cowart's Creek and rode into Alabama, where
he camped just short of the Chattahoochee River. He arrived at the great river on the
morning of the third day out of Iviahica. Elvas left Iviahica with DeSoto, but spent an
extra day marching at a lesser rate while gathering food and herding pigs. He arrived
at the great river the fourth day. Biedma departed from Aute, marched northward for
three days to Sills (sixteen leagues), then into today's Alabama to camp, then to the
great river five days on the trail. This lends credence to Beidma's being at Aute when
he made the observations mentioned earlier. Inca's informant also departed from
Aute, but did so two days before Biedma, arriving at Sills the third day out and
gathered food there for the next three days. Then he departed for Alabama, camped,
and arrived at the provincial boundary on his eighth day out od Aute and six days
after the others started their march. If this scenario is correct, the troops arrived at
the great river, the provincial boundary, in this order: DeSoto group on the third day;
Elvas's the fourth day; Biedma's the fifth day; and the Inca's informant on the sixth.

The great river was the mighty Chattahoochee. It was so large and swift that DeSoto's
army had to cross it in turn, on one large wooden raft. It took fife days pulling chains
for the entire army to cross. The horses were pulled across by ropes, some of them
half-drowned during the effort. DeSoto had planned the army's arrival times at the
great river for good reason; not one man would be idle for as much as a day during
the process of moving his army into an unknown continent. That was DeSoto's genius.
The chroniclers alluded to it and to their admiration of him throughout their journey.
He has been America's "Great Unknown" for centuries.