A Narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto into Florida published at Evora in 1557

by Knight of Elvas

The Portuguese departed from Elvas the 15th of January, and came to Seville the 19th of the same month, and went to the lodging of the Governor, and entered into a court, over the which were certain galleries where he was, who came down and received them at the stairs, whereby they went up into the galleries. When he was come up, he commanded chairs to be given them to sit on. And Andrew de Vasconcelos told him who he and the other Portuguese were, and how they all were come to accompany him, and serve him in his voyage. He gave him thanks, and made show of great contentment for his coming and offer. And the table being already laid, he invited them to dinner. And being at dinner, he commanded his steward to seek a lodging for them near unto his own, where they might be lodged. The Adelantado departed from Seville to Saint Lucar with all the people which were to go with him. And he commanded a muster to be made, at the which the Portuguese showed themselves armed in very bright armor, and the Castellans very gallant with silk upon silk, with many pinkings and cuts. The Governor, because these braveries in such an action did not like him, commanded that they should muster another day, and every one should come forth with his armor; at the which the Portuguese came as at the first armed with very good armor. The Governor placed them in order near unto the standard, which the ensign bearer carried. The Castellans, for the most part, did wear very bad and rusty shirts of mail, and all of them head-pieces and steel caps, and very bad lances. Some of them sought to come among the Portuguese. So those passed and were counted and enrolled which Soto liked and accepted of, and did accompany him into Florida; which were in all six hundred men. He had already bought seven ships, and had all necessary provision aboard them. He appointed captains, and delivered to every one his ship, and gave them in a roll what people every one should carry with them.

In the year of our Lord 1538, in the month of April, the Adelantado delivered his ships to the captains which were to go in them; and took for himself a new ship, and good of sail, and gave another to Andrew de Vasconcelos, in which the Portuguese went; he went over the bar of St. Lucar on Sunday, being St. Lazarus day, in the morning of the month and year aforesaid, with great joy, commanding his trumpets to be sounded, and many shots of the ordnance to be discharged. He sailed four days with a prosperous wind, and suddenly it calmed; the calms continued eight days with swelling seas, in such wise that we made no way. The fifteenth day after his departure from St. Lucar, he came to Gomera, one of the Canaries, on Easter day in the morning. The Earl of that island was appareled all in white, cloak, jerkin, hose, shoes and cap, so that he seemed a Lord of the Gipsies. He received the Governor with much joy; he was well lodged, and all the rest had their lodgings gratis, and got great store of victuals for their money, as bread, wine, and flesh; and they took what was needful for their ships, and the Sunday following, eight days after their arrival, they departed from the Isle of Gomera. The Earl gave to Donna Isabella, the Adelantado's wife, a bastard daughter that he had, to be her waiting-maid. They arrived at the Antilles, in the Isle of Cuba, at the port of the city of St. Jago, upon Whit-sunday. As soon as they came thither, a gentleman of the city sent to the sea-side a very fair roan horse, and well furnished, for the Governor, and a mule for Donna Isabella, and all the horsemen and footmen that were in the town came to receive him at the sea-side. The Governor was well lodged, visited, and served of all the inhabitants of the city, and all his company had their lodgings freely: those which desired to go into the country, were divided by four and four, and six and six, in the farms or granges, according to the ability of the owners of the farms, and were furnished by them with all things necessary.

The city of St. Jago hath fourscore houses, which are great and well contrived. The most part have their walls made of boards, and are covered with thatch; it hath some houses built with lime and stones, and covered with tiles. It hath great orchards and many trees in them, differing from those of Spain: there be fig trees which bear figs as big as one's fist, yellow within, and of small taste; and other trees which bear a fruit which they call Ananes, in making and bigness like to a small pineapple: it is a fruit very sweet in taste: the shell being taken away, the kernel is like a piece of fresh cheese. In the granges abroad in the country there are other great pineapples, which grow on low trees, and are like the Aloe tree: they are of a very good smell and exceeding good taste. Other trees do bear a fruit which they call Mameis, of the bigness of peaches. This the islanders do hold for the best fruit of the country. There is another fruit which they call Guayabas, like filberts, as big as figs. There are other trees as high as a javelin, having one only stock without any bough, and the leaves as long as a casting dart; and the fruit is of the bigness and fashion of a cucumber; one bunch beareth twenty or thirty, and as they ripen the tree bendeth downward with them: they are called in this country Plantanos, and are of a good taste, and ripen after they be gathered; but those are the better which ripen upon the tree itself; they bear fruit but once, and the tree being cut down, there spring up others out of the but, which bear fruit the next year. There is another fruit, whereby many people are sustained, and chiefly the slaves, which are called Batatas. These grow now in the Isle of Terçera, belonging to the kingdom of Portugal, and they grow within the earth, and are like a fruit called Iname; they have almost the taste of a chestnut. The bread of this country is also made of roots which are like the Batatas.[C] And the stock whereon those roots do grow is like an elder tree: they make their ground in little hillocks, and in each of them they thrust four or five stakes; and they gather the roots a year and a half after they set them. If any one, thinking it is a batata or potato root, chance to eat of it never so little, he is in great danger of death: which was seen by experience in a soldier, which as soon as he had eaten a very little of one of those roots, he died quickly. They pare these roots and stamp them, and squeeze them in a thing like a press: the juice that cometh from them is of an evil smell. The bread is of little taste and less substance. Of the fruits of Spain, there are figs and oranges, and they bear fruit all the year, because the soil is very rank and fruitful. In this country are many good horses, and there is green grass all the year. There be many wild oxen and hogs, whereby the people of the island are well furnished with flesh. Without the towns abroad in the country are many fruits. And it happeneth sometimes that a Christian goeth out of the way and is lost fifteen or twenty days, because of the many paths in the thick groves that cross to and fro made by the oxen; and being thus lost they sustain themselves with fruits and palmîtos—for there be many great groves of palm trees through all the island—they yield no other fruit that is of any profit. The Isle of Cuba is three hundred leagues long from the east to the west, and is in some places thirty, in others forty leagues from north to south. It hath six towns of Christians, to wit, St. Jago, Baracôa, Bayamo, Puerto de Principes, S. Espirito, and Havana. Every one hath between thirty and forty households, except St. Jago and Havana, which have about sixty or eighty houses. They have churches in each of them, and a chaplain which confesseth them and saith mass. In St. Jago is a monastery of Franciscan friars; it hath but few friars, and is well provided of alms, because the country is rich. The Church of St. Jago hath honest revenue, and there is a curate and prebends, and many priests, as the church of that city, which is the chief of all the island. There is in this country much gold and few slaves to get it; for many have made away themselves, because of the Christians' evil usage of them in the mines. A steward of Vasquez Porcallo, which was an inhabitor in that island, understanding that his slaves would make away themselves, stayed for them with a cudgel in his hand at the place where they were to meet, and told them that they could neither do nor think anything that he did not know before, and that he came thither to kill himself, with them, to the end, that if he had used them badly in this world, he might use them worse in the world to come: and this was a means that they changed their purpose, and turned home again to do that which he commanded them.

The Governor sent from St. Jago his nephew Don Carlos, with the ships in company of Donna Isabella to tarry for him at Havana, which is a haven in the west part toward the head of the island, one hundred and eighty leagues from the city of St. Jago. The Governor, and those which stayed with him, bought horses and proceeded on their journey. The first town they came unto was Bayamo: they were lodged four and four, and six and six, as they went in company, and where they lodged, they took nothing for their diet, for nothing cost them aught save the maize or corn for their horses, because the Governor went to visit them from town to town, and seized them in the tribute and service of the Indians. Bayamo is twenty-five leagues from the city of St. Jago. Near unto the town passeth a great river which is called Tanto; it is greater than Guadiana, and in it be very great crocodiles, which sometimes hurt the Indians, or the cattle which passeth the river. In all the country are neither wolf, fox, bear, lion, nor tiger. There are wild dogs which go from the houses into the woods and feed upon swine. There be certain snakes as big as a man's thigh or bigger; they are very slow, they do no kind of hurt. From Bayamo to Puerto de los Principes are fifty leagues. In all the island from town to town, the way is made by stubbing up the underwood; and if it be left but one year undone, the wood groweth so much that the way cannot be seen, and the paths of the oxen are so many, that none can travel without an Indian of the country for a guide: for all the rest is very high and thick woods. From Puerto de los Principes the Governor went to the house of Vasquez Porcallo by sea in a boat (for it was near the sea) to know there some news of Donna Isabella, which at that instant (as afterwards was known) was in great distress, insomuch that the ships lost one another, and two of them fell on the coast of Florida, and all of them endured great want of water and victuals. When the storm was over, they met together without knowing where they were: in the end they descried the Cape of St. Anton, a country not inhabited of the island of Cuba; there they watered, and at the end of forty days, which were passed since their departure from the city of St. Jago, they arrived at Havana. The Governor was presently informed thereof, and went to Donna Isabella. And those which went by land, which were one hundred and fifty horsemen, being divided into two parts, because they would not oppress the inhabitants, traveled by St. Espirito, which is sixty leagues from Puerto de los Principes. The food which they carried with them was Caçabe bread, which is that whereof I made mention before: and it is of such a quality that if it be wet it breaketh presently, whereby it happened to some to eat flesh without bread for many days. They carried dogs with them, and a man of the country, which did hunt; and by the way, or where they were to lodge that night, they killed as many hogs as they needed. In this journey they were well provided of beef and pork, and they were greatly troubled with musquitoes, especially in a lake, which is called the mere of Pia, which they had much ado to pass from noon till night. The water might be some half league over, and to be swam about a crossbow shot; the rest came to the waist, and they waded up to the knees in the mire, and in the bottom were cockle shells, which cut their feet very sore, in such sort that there was neither boot nor shoe sole that was whole at half way. Their clothes and saddles were passed in baskets of palm trees. Passing this lake, stripped out of their clothes, there came many mosquitoes, upon whose biting there arose a wheal that smarted very much; they struck them with their hands, and with the blow which they gave they killed so many that the blood did run down the arms and bodies of the men. That night they rested very little for them, and other nights also in the like places and times. They came to Santo Espirito, which is a town of thirty houses; there passeth by it a little river; it is very pleasant and fruitful, having great store of oranges and citrons, and fruits of the country. One-half of the company were lodged here, and the rest passed forward twenty-five leagues to another town called la Trinidad, of fifteen or twenty households. Here is an hospital for the poor, and there is none other in all the island. And they say that this town was the greatest in all the country, and that before the Christians came into this land, as a ship passed along the coast there came in it a very sick man, which desired the captain to set him on shore, and the captain did so, and the ship went her way. The sick man remained set on shore in that country, which until then had not been haunted by Christians; whereupon the Indians found him, carried him home, and looked unto him till he was whole; and the lord of that town married him unto a daughter of his, and had war with all the inhabitants round about, and by the industry and valor of the Christian, he subdued and brought under his command all the people of that island. A great while after, the Governor Diego Velasques went to conquer it, and from thence discovered New Spain. And this Christian which was with the Indians did pacify them, and brought them to the obedience and subjection of the governor. From this town de la Trinidad unto Havana are eighty leagues, without any habitation, which they traveled. They came to Havana in the end of March, where they found the Governor, and the rest of the people which came with him from Spain. The Governor sent from Havana John Dannusco with a caravele and two brigantines with fifty men to discover the haven of Florida, and from thence he brought two Indians which he took upon the coast, wherewith (as well because they might be necessary for guides and for interpreters, as because they said by signs that there was much gold in Florida) the Governor and all the company received much contentment, and longed for the hour of their departure, thinking in himself that this was the richest country that unto that day had been discovered.

Before our departure the Governor deprived Nuño de Touar of the office of Captain-general, and gave it to Porcallo de Figueroa, an inhabitant of Cuba, which was a mean that the ship was well furnished with victuals; for he gave a great many loads of Casabe bread and many hogs. The Governor took away this office from Nuño de Touar, because he had fallen in love with the daughter of the Earl of Gomera, Donna Isabella's waiting-maid, who, though his office were taken from him (to return again to the Governor's favor), though she were with child by him, yet took her to his wife, and went with Soto into Florida. The Governor left Donna Isabella in Havana, and with her remained the wife of Don Carlos, and the wives of Baltasar de Gallegos, and of Nuño de Touar. And he left for his lieutenant a gentleman of Havana, called John de Roias, for the government of the island.

On Sunday the 18th of May, in the year of our Lord 1539, the Adelantado or president departed from Havana in Cuba with his fleet, which were nine vessels, five great ships, two caravels, and two brigantines. They sailed seven days with a prosperous wind. The 25th day of May, the day de Pasca de Spirito Santo[D] (which we call Whitson Sunday), they saw the land of Florida, and because of the shoals, they came to an anchor a league from the shore. On Friday the 30th of May they landed in Florida, two leagues from a town of an Indian lord called Ucita. They set on land two hundred and thirteen horses, which they brought with them to unburden the ships, that they might draw the less water. He landed all his men, and only the seamen remained in the ships, which in eight days, going up with the tide every day a little, brought them up unto the town. As soon as the people were come on shore, he pitched his camp on the sea-side, hard upon the bay which went up unto the town. And presently the Captain-general, Vasquez Porcallo, with other seven horsemen foraged the country half a league round about, and found six Indians, which resisted him with their arrows, which are the weapons which they used to fight withal. The horsemen killed two of them, and the other four escaped; because the country is cumbersome with woods and bogs, where the horses stuck fast, and fell with their riders, because they were weak with traveling upon the sea. The same night following, the Governor with an hundred men in the brigantines lighted upon a town, which he found without people, because that as soon as the Christians had sight of land, they were descried, and saw along the coast many smokes, which the Indians had made to give advice the one to the other. The next day Luys de Moscoso, master of the camp, set the men in order, the horsemen in three squadrons, the vanguard, the battalion, and the rereward; and so they marched that day and the day following, compassing great creeks which came out of the bay. They came to the town of Ucita, where the Governor was on Sunday the first of June, being Trinity Sunday. The town was of seven or eight houses. The lord's house stood near the shore upon a very high mount, made by hand for strength. At another end of the town stood the church, and on the top of it stood a fowl made of wood with gilded eyes. Here were found some pearls of small value, spoiled with the fire, which the Indians do pierce and string them like beads, and wear them about their necks and handwrists, and they esteem them very much. The houses were made of timber, and covered with palm leaves. The Governor lodged himself in the lord's houses, and with him Vasquez Porcallo, and Luys de Moscoso; and in others that were in the midst of the town, was the chief Alcalde or justice, Baltasar de Gallegos lodged; and in the same houses was set in a place by itself all the provision that came in the ships; the other houses and the church were broken down, and every three or four soldiers made a little cabin wherein they lodged. The country round about was very fenny, and encumbered with great and high trees. The Governor commanded to fell the woods a crossbow shot round about the town, that the horses might run, and the Christians might have the advantage of the Indians, if by chance they should set upon them by night. In the ways and places convenient they had their sentinels of footmen by two and two in every stand, which did watch by turns, and the horsemen did visit them, and were ready to assist them if there were any alarm. The Governor made four captains of the horsemen and two of the footmen. The captains of the horsemen were one of them Andrew de Masconcelos, and another Pedro Calderan de Badajoz; and the other two were his kinsmen, to wit, Arias Tinoco, and Alfonso Romo, born likewise in Badajoz. The captains of the footmen, the one was Francisco Maldonado of Salamanca, and the other Juan Rodriguez Lobillo. While we were in this town of Ucita, the two Indians which John Danusco had taken on that coast, and the Governor carried along with him for guides and interpreters, through carelessness of two men which had the charge of them escaped away one night; for which the Governor and all the rest were very sorry, for they had already made some roads, and no Indians could be taken, because the country was full of marsh grounds, and in some places full of very high and thick woods.

From the town of Ucita the Governor sent the Alcalde mayor, Baltasar de Gallegos, with forty horsemen and eighty footmen into the country to see if they could take any Indians; and the Captain John Rodriguez Lobillo another way with fifty footmen: the most of them were swordsmen and targeters, and the rest were shot and crossbow-men. They passed through a country full of bogs, where horses could not travel. Half a league from the camp they lighted upon, certain cabins of Indians near a river. The people that were in them leaped into the river, yet they took four Indian women. And twenty Indians charged us and so distressed us, that we were forced to retire to our camp, being, as they are, exceeding ready with their weapons. It is a people so warlike and so nimble, that they care not a whit for any footmen. For if their enemies charge them they run away, and if they turn their backs they are presently upon them. And the thing that they most flee is the shot of an arrow. They never stand still, but are always running and traversing from one place to another, by reason whereof neither crossbow nor arquebuss can aim at them; and before one crossbowman can make one shot an Indian will discharge three or four arrows, and he seldom misseth what he shooteth at. An arrow where it findeth no armor, pierceth as deeply as a crossbow. Their bows are very long, and their arrows are made of certain canes like reeds, very heavy, and so strong that a sharp cane passeth through a target. Some they arm in the point with a sharp bone of a fish like a chisel, and in others they fasten certain stones like points of diamonds. For the most part when they light upon an armor they break in the place where they are bound together. Those of cane do split and pierce a coat of mail, and are more hurtful than the other. John Rodriguez Lobillo returned to the camp with six men wounded, whereof one died; and brought the four Indian women which Baltasar Gallegos had taken in the cabins or cottages. Two leagues from the town, coming into the plain field, he espied ten or eleven Indians, among whom was a Christian, which was naked and scorched with the sun, and had his arms razed after the manner of the Indians, and differed nothing at all from them. And as soon as the horsemen saw them they ran toward them. The Indians fled, and some of them hid themselves in a wood, and they overtook two or three of them which were wounded; and the Christian seeing a horseman run upon him with his lance, began to cry out, "Sirs, I am a Christian, slay me not, nor these Indians, for they have saved my life." And straightway he called them and put them out of fear, and they came forth of the wood unto them. The horsemen took both the Christian and the Indians up behind them, and toward night came into the camp with much joy; which thing being known by the Governor, and them that remained in the camp, they were received with the like.

This Christian's name was John Ortiz, and he was born in Seville, of worshipful parentage. He was twelve years in the hands of the Indians. He came into this country with Pamphilo de Narvaez, and returned in the ships to the Island of Cuba, where the wife of the Governor Pamphilo de Narvaez was, and by his commandment with twenty or thirty others in a brigantine returned back again to Florida, and coming to the port in the sight of the town, on the shore they saw a cane sticking in the ground, and riven at the top, and a letter in it; and they believed that the governor had left it there to give advertisement of himself when he resolved to go up into the land, and they demanded it of four or five Indians which walked along the sea-shore, and they bade them by signs to come on shore for it, which against the will of the rest John Ortiz and another did. And as soon as they were on land, from the houses of the town issued a great number of Indians, which compassed them about and took them in a place where they could not flee; and the other, which sought to defend himself, they presently killed upon the place, and took John Ortiz alive, and carried him to Ucita their lord. And those of the brigantine sought not to land, but put themselves to sea, and returned to the Island of Cuba. Ucita commanded to bind John Ortiz hand and foot upon four stakes aloft upon a raft, and to make a fire under him, that there he might be burned. But a daughter of his desired him that he would not put him to death, alleging that one only Christian could do him neither hurt nor good, telling him that it was more for his honor to keep him as a captive. And Ucita granted her request, and commanded him to be cured of his wounds; and as soon as he was whole he gave him the charge of the keeping of the temple, because that by night the wolves did carry away the dead corpses out of the same—who commended himself to God and took upon him the charge of his temple. One night the wolves got from him the corpse of a little child, the son of a principal Indian, and going after them he threw a dart at one of the wolves, and struck him that carried away the corpse, who, feeling himself wounded left it, and fell down dead near the place; and he not woting what he had done, because it was night, went back again to the temple; the morning being come and finding not the body of the child, he was very sad. As soon as Ucita knew thereof he resolved to put him to death, and sent by the track which he said the wolves went, and found the body of the child, and the wolf dead a little beyond, whereat Ucita was much contented with the Christian, and with the watch which he kept in the temple, and from thenceforward esteemed him much. Three years after he fell into his hands there came another lord called Mocoço, who dwelleth two days' journey from the port, and burnt his town. Ucita fled to another town that he had in another sea-port. Thus John Ortiz lost his office and favor that he had with him. These people being worshipers of the devil, are wont to offer up unto him the lives and blood of their Indians, or of any other people they can come by; and they report that when he will have them do that sacrifice unto him, he speaketh with them, and telleth them that he is athirst, and willeth them to sacrifice unto him. John Ortiz had notice by the damsel that had delivered him from the fire, how her father was determined to sacrifice him the day following, who willed him to flee to Mocoço, for she knew that he would use him well; for she heard say that he had asked for him and said he would be glad to see him, and because he knew not the way she went with him half a league out of the town by night and set him in the way, and returned because she would not be discovered. John Ortiz traveled all that night, and by the morning came to a river which is the territory of Mocoço, and there he saw two Indians fishing; and because they were in war with the people of Ucita, and their languages were different, and he knew not the language of Mocoço, he was afraid, because he could not tell them who he was, nor how he came thither, nor was able to answer anything for himself, that they would kill him, taking him for one of the Indians of Ucita, and before they espied him he came to the place where they had laid their weapons; and as soon as they saw him they fled toward the town, and although he willed them to stay, because he meant to do them no hurt, yet they understood him not, and ran away as fast as ever they could. And as soon as they came to the town with great outcries, many Indians came forth against him, and began to compass him to shoot at him. John Ortiz seeing himself in so great danger, shielded himself with certain trees, and begun to shriek out and cry very loud, and to tell them that he was a Christian, and that he was fled from Ucita, and was come to see and serve Mocoço his lord. It pleased God that at that very instant there came thither an Indian that could speak the language and understood him, and pacified the rest, who told them what he said. Then ran from thence three or four Indians to bear the news to their lord, who came forth a quarter of a league from the town to receive him, and was very glad of him. He caused him presently to swear according to the custom of the Christians, that he would not run away from him to any other lord, and promised him to entreat him very well; and that if at any time there came any Christians into that country, he would freely let him go, and give him leave to go to them; and likewise took his oath to perform the same according to the Indian custom. About three years after certain Indians, which were fishing at sea two leagues from the town, brought news to Mocoço that they had seen ships, and he called John Ortiz and gave him leave to go his way, who taking his leave of him, with all the haste he could came to the sea, and finding no ships he thought it to be some deceit, and that the cacique had done the same to learn his mind. So he dwelt with Mocoço nine years, with small hope of seeing any Christians. As soon as our Governor arrived in Florida, it was known to Mocoço, and straightway he signified to John Ortiz that Christians were lodged in the town of Ucita; and he thought he had jested with him as he had done before, and told him that by this time he had forgotten the Christians, and thought of nothing else but to serve him. But he assured him that it was so, and gave him license to go unto them, saying unto him that if he would not do it, and if the Christians should go their way, he should not blame him, for he had fulfilled that which he had promised him. The joy of John Ortiz was so great, that he could not believe that it was true; notwithstanding he gave him thanks, and took his leave of him, and Mocoço gave him ten or eleven principal Indians to bear him company; and as they went to the port where the Governor was, they met with Baltasar de Gallegos, as I have declared before. As soon as he was come to the camp, the Governor commanded to give him a suit of apparel, and very good armor, and a fair horse; and inquired of him whether he had notice of any country where there was any gold or silver. He answered, No, because he never went ten leagues compass from the place where he dwelt; but that thirty leagues from thence[E] dwelt an Indian lord, which was called Paracossi, to whom Mocoço and Ucita, with all the rest of that coast paid tribute, and that he peradventure might have notice of some good country, and that his land was better than that of the sea-coast, and more fruitful and plentiful of maize. Whereof the Governor received great contentment, and said that he desired no more than to find victuals, that he might go into the main land, for the land of Florida was so large, that in one place or other there could not choose but be some rich country. The Cacique Mocoço came to the port to visit the Governor, and made this speech following.

"Right high and mighty lord, I being lesser in mine own conceit for to obey you, than any of those which you have under your command, and greater in desire to do you greater services, do appear before your lordship with so much confidence of receiving favor, as if in effect this my good will were manifested unto you in works; not for the small service I did unto you touching the Christian which I had in my power, in giving him freely his liberty (for I was bound to do it to preserve mine honor, and that which I had promised him), but because it is the part of great men to use great magnificences. And I am persuaded that as in bodily perfections, and commanding of good people, you do exceed all men in the world, so likewise you do in the parts of the mind, in which you may boast of the bounty of nature. The favor which I hope for of your lordship is, that you would hold me for yours, and bethink yourself to command me anything wherein I may do you service."

The Governor answered him, "That although in freeing and sending him the Christian, he had preserved his honor and promise, yet he thanked him, and held it in such esteem as it had no comparison; and that he would always hold him as his brother, and would favor all things to the utmost of his power." Then he commanded a shirt to be given him, and other things, wherewith the cacique being very well contented, took his leave of him, and departed to his own town.