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

by Knight of Elvas

From the Port de Spirito Santo where the Governor lay, he sent the Alcalde Mayor Baltasar de Gallegos with fifty horsemen, and thirty or forty footmen to the province of Paracossi, to view the disposition of the country, and inform himself of the land farther inward, and to send him word of such things as he found. Likewise he sent his ships back to the Island of Cuba, that they might return within a certain time with victuals. Vasquez Porcallo de Figueroa, which went with the Governor as Captain-general, (whose principal intent was to send slaves from Florida to the Island of Cuba, where he had his goods and mines,) having made some inroads, and seeing no Indians were to be got, because of the great bogs and woods that were in the country, considering the disposition of the same, determined to return to Cuba. And though there was some difference between him and the Governor, whereupon they neither dealt nor conversed together with good countenance, yet notwithstanding with loving words he asked him leave and departed from him. Baltasar de Gallegos came to the Paracossi. There came to him thirty Indians from the cacique, which was absent from his town, and one of them made this speech:

"Paracossi, the lord of this province, whose vassals we are, sendeth us unto your worship, to know what it is that you seek in this his country, and wherein he may do you service."

Baltasar de Gallegos said unto him that he thanked them very much for their offer, willing them to warn their lord to come to his town, and that there they would talk and confirm their peace and friendship, which he much desired. The Indians went their way and returned next day, and said that their lord was ill at ease, and therefore could not come; but that they came on his behalf to see what he demanded. He asked them if they knew or had notice of any rich country where there was gold or silver. They told him they did, and that towards the west there was a province which was called Cale; and that others that inhabited other countries had war with the people of that country, where the most part of the year was summer, and that there was much gold; and that when those their enemies came to make war with them of Cale, these inhabitants of Cale did wear hats of gold, in manner of head-pieces. Baltasar de Gallegos seeing that the cacique came not, thinking all that they said was feigned, with intent that in the meantime they might set themselves in safety, fearing that if he did let them go, they would return no more, commanded the thirty Indians to be chained, and sent word to the Governor by eight horsemen what had passed; whereof the Governor with all that were with him at the Port de Spirito Santo received great comfort, supposing that that which the Indians reported might be true. He left Captain Calderan at the port, with thirty horsemen and seventy footmen, with provision for two years, and himself with all the rest marched into the main land, and came to the Paracossi, at whose town Baltasar de Gallegos was; and from thence with all his men took the way to Cale. He passed by a little town called Acela, and came to another called Tocaste; and from thence he went before with thirty horsemen and fifty footmen towards Cale. And passing by a town whence the people were fled, they saw Indians a little distance from thence in a lake, to whom the interpreter spoke. They came unto them and gave them an Indian for a guide; and he came to a river with a great current, and upon a tree which was in the midst of it, was made a bridge, whereon the men passed; the horses swam over by a hawser, that they were pulled by from the other side; for one, which they drove in at the first without it, was drowned. From thence the Governor sent two horsemen to his people that were behind, to make haste after him; because the way grew long, and their victuals short. He came to Cale, and found the town without people. He took three Indians which were spies, and tarried there for his people that came after, which were sore vexed with hunger and evil ways, because the country was very barren of maize, low, and full of water, bogs, and thick woods; and the victuals which they brought with them from the Port de Spirito Santo, were spent. Wheresoever any town was found, there were some beets, and he that came first gathered them, and sodden with water and salt, did eat them without any other thing; and such as could not get them, gathered the stalks of maize and eat them, which because they were young had no maize in them. When they came to the river which the Governor had passed, they found palmîtos upon low palm trees like those of Andalusia. There they met with the two horsemen which the Governor sent unto them, and they brought news that in Cale there was plenty of maize, at which news they all rejoiced. As soon as they came to Cale, the Governor commanded them to gather all the maize that was ripe in the field, which was sufficient for three months. At the gathering of it the Indians killed three Christians, and one of them which were taken told the Governor, that within seven days' journey there was a very great province, and plentiful of maize, which was called Apalache. And presently he departed from Cale with fifty horsemen, and sixty footmen. He left the master of the camp, Luys de Moscoso, with all the rest of the people there, with charge that he should not depart thence until he had word from him. And because hitherto none had gotten any slaves, the bread that every one was to eat he was fain himself to beat in a mortar made in a piece of timber, with a pestle, and some of them did sift the flour through their shirts of mail. They baked their bread upon certain tileshares which they set over the fire, in such sort as heretofore I have said they used to do in Cuba. It is so troublesome to grind their maize, that there were many that would rather not eat it than grind it; and did eat the maize parched and sodden.

The second day of August, 1539, the Governor departed from Cale; he lodged in a little town called Ytara, and the next day in another called Potano, and the third day at Utinama, and came to another town which they named the town of Evil peace; because an Indian came in peace, saying, that he was the cacique, and that he with his people would serve the Governor, and that if he would set free twenty-eight persons, men and women, which his men had taken the night before, he would command provision to be brought him, and would give him a guide to instruct him in his way. The Governor commanded them to be set at liberty, and to keep him in safeguard. The next day in the morning there came many Indians, and set themselves round about the town near to a wood. The Indian wished them to carry him near them, and that he would speak unto them, and assure them, and that they would do whatsoever he commanded them. And when he saw himself near unto them he broke from them, and ran away so swiftly from the Christians that there was none that could overtake him, and all of them fled into the woods. The Governor commanded to loose a greyhound, which was already fleshed on them, which passing by many other Indians, caught the counterfeit cacique which had escaped from the Christians, and held him till they came to take him. From thence the Governor lodged at a town called Cholupaha, and because it had store of maize in it, they named it Villa farta. Beyond the same there was a river, on which he made a bridge of timber, and traveled two days through a desert. The 17th of August he came to Caliquen, where he was informed of the province of Apalache. They told him that Pamphilo de Narvaez had been there, and that there he took shipping, because he could find no way to go forward. That there was none other town at all; but that on both sides was all water. The whole company were very sad for this news, and counseled the Governor to go back to the Port de Spirito Santo, and to abandon the country of Florida, lest he should perish as Narvaez had done; declaring that if he went forward, he could not return back when he would, and that the Indians would gather up that small quantity of maize which was left. Whereunto the Governor answered that he would not go back, till he had seen with his eyes that which they reported; saying that he could not believe it, and that we should be put out of doubt before it were long. And he sent to Luys de Moscoso to come presently from Cale, and that he tarried for him there. Luys de Moscoso and many others thought that from Apalache they should return back; and in Cale they buried their iron tools, and divers other things. They came to Caliquen with great trouble; because the country which the Governor had passed by, was spoiled and destitute of maize. After all the people were come together, he commanded a bridge to be made over a river that passed near the town. He departed from Caliquen the 10th of September, and carried the cacique with him. After he had traveled three days, there came Indians peaceably to visit their lord, and every day met us on the way playing upon flutes; which is a token that they use, that men may know that they come in peace. They said that in our way before there was a cacique whose name was Uzachil, a kinsman of the cacique of Caliquen their lord, waiting for him with many presents, and they desired the Governor that he would loose the cacique. But he would not, fearing that they would rise, and would not give him any guides, and sent them away from day to day with good words. He traveled five days; he passed by some small towns; he came to a town called Napetuca, the 15th day of September. Thither came fourteen or fifteen Indians, and besought the Governor to let loose the cacique of Caliquen, their lord. He answered them that he held him not in prison, but that he would have him to accompany him to Uzachil. The Governor had notice by John Ortiz, that an Indian told him how they determined to gather themselves together, and come upon him, and give him battle, and take away the cacique from him. The day that it was agreed upon, the Governor commanded his men to be in readiness, and that the horsemen should be ready armed and on horseback every one in his lodging, because the Indians might not see them, and so more confidently come to the town. There came four hundred Indians in sight of the camp with their bows and arrows, and placed themselves in a wood, and sent two Indians to bid the Governor to deliver them the cacique. The Governor with six footmen leading the cacique by the hand, and talking with him, to secure the Indians, went toward the place where they were. And seeing a fit time, commanded to sound a trumpet; and presently those that were in the town in the houses, both horse and foot, set upon the Indians, which were so suddenly assaulted, that the greatest care they had was which way they should flee. They killed two horses; one was the Governor's, and he was presently horsed again upon another. There were thirty or forty Indians slain. The rest fled to two very great lakes, that were somewhat distant the one from the other. There they were swimming, and the Christians round about them. The calivermen and crossbow-men shot at them from the bank; but the distance being great, and shooting afar off, they did them no hurt. The Governor commanded that the same night they should compass one of the lakes, because they were so great, that there were not men enough to compass them both; being beset, as soon as night shut in, the Indians, with determination to run away, came swimming very softly to the bank; and to hide themselves they put a water lily leaf on their heads. The horsemen, as soon as they perceived it to stir, ran into the water to the horses' breasts, and the Indians fled again into the lake. So this night passed without any rest on both sides. John Ortiz persuaded them that seeing they could not escape, they should yield themselves to the Governor; which they did, enforced thereunto by the coldness of the water; and one by one, he first whom the cold did first overcome, cried to John Ortiz, desiring that they would not kill him, for he came to put himself into the hands of the Governor. By the morning watch they made an end of yielding themselves; only twelve principal men, being more honorable and valorous than the rest, resolved rather to die than to come into his hands. And the Indians of Paracossi, which were now loosed out of chains, went swimming to them, and pulled them out by the hair of their heads, and they were all put in chains, and the next day were divided among the Christians for their service. Being thus in captivity, they determined to rebel; and gave in charge to an Indian which was interpreter, and held to be valiant, that as soon as the Governor did come to speak with him, he should cast his hands about his neck, and choke him: who, when he saw opportunity, laid hands on the Governor, and before he cast his hands about his neck, he gave him such a blow on the nostrils, that he made them gush out with blood, and presently all the rest did rise. He that could get any weapons at hand, or the handle wherewith he did grind the maize, sought to kill his master, or the first he met before him; and he that could get a lance or sword at hand, bestirred himself in such sort with it, as though he had used it all his lifetime. One Indian in the market-place enclosed between fifteen or twenty footmen, made a way like a bull, with a sword in his hand, till certain halbardiers of the Governor came, which killed him. Another got up with a lance to a loft made of canes, which they build to keep their maize in, which they call a barbacoa, and there he made such a noise as though ten men had been there defending the door; they slew him with a partizan. The Indians were in all about two hundred men. They were all subdued. And some of the youngest the Governor gave to them which had good chains, and were careful to look to them that they got not away. All the rest he commanded to be put to death, being tied to a stake in the midst of the market-place; and the Indians of the Paracossi did shoot them to death.

The Governor departed from Napetuca the 23d of September; he lodged by a river, where two Indians brought him a buck from the cacique of Uzachil. The next day he passed by a great town called Hapaluya, and lodged at Uzachil, and found no people in it, because they durst not tarry for the notice the Indians had of the slaughter of Napetuca. He found in that town great store of maize, French beans, and pompions, which is their food, and that wherewith the Christians there sustained themselves. The maize is like coarse millet, and the pompions are better and more savory than those of Spain. From thence the Governor sent two captains each a sundry way to seek the Indians. They took an hundred men and women; of which as well there as in other place where they made any inroads, the captain chose one or two for the Governor, and divided the rest to himself, and those that went with him. They led these Indians in chains with iron collars about their necks; and they served to carry their stuff, and to grind their maize, and for other services that such captives could do. Sometimes it happened that going for wood or maize with them, they killed the Christian that led them, and ran away with the chain; others filed their chains by night with a piece of stone, wherewith they cut them, and use it instead of iron. Those that were perceived paid for themselves, and for the rest, because they should not dare to do the like another time. The women and young boys, when they were once an hundred leagues from their country, and had forgotten things, they let go loose, and so they served; and in a very short space they understood the language of the Christians. From Uzachil the Governor departed toward Apalache, and in two days' journey he came to a town called Axille, and from thence forward the Indians were careless, because they had as yet no notice of the Christians. The next day in the morning, the first of October, he departed from thence, and commanded a bridge to be made over a river which he was to pass. The depth of the river where the bridge was made, was a stone's cast, and forward a crossbow shot the water came to the waist; and the wood whereby the Indians came to see if they could defend the passage, and disturb those which made the bridge, was very high and thick. The crossbow-men so bestirred themselves that they made them give back; and certain planks were cast into the river, whereon the men passed, which made good the passage. The Governor passed upon Wednesday, which was St. Francis' day, and lodged at a town which was called Vitachuco, subject to Apalache: he found it burning, for the Indians had set it on fire. From thence forward the country was much inhabited, and had great store of maize. He passed by many granges like hamlets. On Sunday, the 25th of October, he came to a town which is called Uzela, and upon Tuesday to Anaica Apalache, where the lord of all that country and province was resident; in which town the camp master, whose office is to quarter out, and lodge men, did lodge all the company round about within a league, and half a league of it. There were other towns, where was great store of maize, pompions, French beans, and plums of the country, which are better than those of Spain, and they grow in the fields without planting. The victuals that were thought necessary to pass the winter, were gathered from these towns to Anaica Apalache. The Governor was informed that the sea was ten leagues from thence. He presently sent a captain thither with horsemen and footmen. And six leagues on the way he found a town which was named Ochete, and so came to the sea; and found a great tree felled, and cut into pieces, with stakes set up like mangers, and saw the skulls of horses. He returned with this news. And that was held for certain, which was reported of Pamphilo de Narvaez, that there he had built the barks wherewith he went out of the land of Florida, and was cast away at sea. Presently the Governor sent John Danusco with thirty horsemen to the Port de Spirito Santo where Calderan was, with order that they should abandon the port, and all of them come to Apalache. He departed on Saturday the 17th of November. In Uzachil and other towns that stood in the way he found great store of people already careless. He would take none of the Indians, for not hindering himself, because it behooved him to give them no leisure to gather themselves together. He passed through the towns by night, and rested without the towns three or four hours. In ten days he came to the Port de Spirito Santo. He carried with him twenty Indian women, which he took in Ytara, and Potano, near unto Cale, and sent them to Donna Isabella in the two caravels, which he sent from the Port de Spirito Santo to Cuba. And he carried all the footmen in the brigantines, and coasting along the shore came to Apalache. And Calderan, with the horsemen, and some crossbow-men on foot, went by land; and in some places the Indians set upon him, and wounded some of his men. As soon as he came to Apalache, presently the Governor sent sawed planks and spikes to the sea-side, wherewith was made a piragua or bark, wherein were embarked thirty men well armed, which went out of the bay to the sea, looking for the brigantines. Sometimes they fought with the Indians, which passed along the harbor in their canoes. Upon Saturday, the 29th of November, there came an Indian through the watch undiscovered, and sat the town on fire, and with the great wind that blew two parts of it were consumed in a short time. On Sunday the 28th of December, came John Danusco with the brigantines. The Governor sent Francisco Maldonado, a captain of footmen, with fifty men to discover the coast westward, and to seek some port, because he had determined to go by land, and discover that part. That day there went out eight horsemen by commandment of the Governor into the field, two leagues about the town, to seek Indians; for they were now so emboldened, that within two crossbow shot of the camp, they came and slew men. They found two men and a woman gathering French beans; the men, though they might have fled, yet because they would not leave the woman, which was one of their wives, they resolved to die fighting; and before they were slain, they wounded three horses, whereof one died within a few days after. Calderan going with his men by the sea-coast, from a wood that was near the place, the Indians set upon him, and made him forsake his way, and many of them that went with him forsook some necessary victuals, which they carried with them. Three or four days after the limited time given by the Governor to Maldonado for his going and coming, being already determined and resolved, if within eight days he did not come, to tarry no longer for him, he came, and brought an Indian from a province which was called Ochus, sixty leagues westward from Apalache; where he had found a port of good depth, and defence against weather. And because the Governor hoped to find a good country forward, he was very well contented. And he sent Maldonado for victuals to Havana, with order that he should tarry for him at the port of Ochus, which he had discovered, for he would go seek it by land; and if he should chance to stay, and not come thither that summer, that then he should return to Havana, and should come again the next summer after, and tarry for him at that port; for he said he would do none other thing but go to seek Ochus. Francisco Maldonado departed, and in his place for captain of the footmen remained John de Guzman. Of those Indians which were taken in Napetuca, the Treasurer John Gaytan had a young man, which said that he was not of that country, but of another far off toward the sun rising, and that it was long since he had traveled to see countries; and that his country was called Yupaha, and that a woman did govern it; and that the town where she was resident was of a wonderful bigness, and that many lords round about were tributaries to her; and some gave her clothes, and others gold in abundance; and he told how it was taken out of the mines, and was molten and refined, as if he had seen it done, or the devil had taught it him. So that all those which knew anything concerning the same, said that it was impossible to give so good a relation, without having seen it; and all of them, as if they had seen it, by the signs that he gave, believed all that he said to be true.

On Wednesday, the third of March, of the year 1540, the Governor departed from Anaica Apalache to seek Yupaha. He commanded his men to go provided with maize for sixty leagues of desert. The horsemen carried their maize on their horses, and the footmen at their sides; because the Indians that were for service, with their miserable life that they led that winter, being naked and in chains, died for the most part. Within four days' journey they came to a great river; and they made a piragua or ferry boat, and because of the great current, they made a cable with chains, which they fastened on both sides of the river; and the ferry boat went along by it, and the horses swam over, being drawn with capstans. Having passed the river in a day and a half, they came to a town called Capachiqui. Upon Friday the 11th of March, they found Indians in arms. The next day five Christians went to seek mortars, which the Indians have to beat their maize, and they went to certain houses on the back side of the camp environed with a wood. And within the wood were many Indians which came to spy us; of the which came other five and set upon us. One of the Christians came running away, giving an alarm unto the camp. Those which were most ready answered the alarm. They found one Christian dead, and three sore wounded. The Indians fled unto a lake adjoining near a very thick wood, where the horses could not enter. The Governor departed from Capachiqui and passed through a desert. On Wednesday, the twenty-first of the month, he came to a town called Toalli; and from thence forward there was a difference in the houses. For those which were behind us were thatched with straw, and those of Toalli were covered with reeds, in manner of tiles. These houses are very cleanly. Some of them had walls daubed with clay, which showed like a mud-wall. In all the cold country the Indians have every one a house for the winter daubed with clay within and without, and the door is very little; they shut it by night, and make fire within; so that they are in it as warm as in a stove, and so it continueth all night that they need not clothes; and besides these they have others for summer; and their kitchens near them, where they make fire and bake their bread; and they have barbacoas wherein they keep their maize; which is a house set up in the air upon four stakes, boarded about like a chamber, and the floor of it is of cane hurdles. The difference which lords or principal men's houses have from the rest, besides they be greater, is, that they have great galleries in their fronts, and under them seats made of canes in manner of benches; and round about them they have many lofts, wherein they lay up that which the Indians do give them for tribute, which is maize, deers' skins, and mantles of the country, which are like blankets; they make them of the inner rind of the barks of trees, and some of a kind of grass like unto nettles, which being beaten, is like unto flax. The women cover themselves with these mantles; they put one about them from the waist downward, and another over their shoulder, with their right arm out, like unto the Egyptians. The men wear but one mantle upon their shoulders after the same manner; and have their secrets hid with a deer's skin, made like a linen breech, which was wont to be used in Spain. The skins are well curried, and they give them what color they list, so perfect, that if it be red, it seemeth a very fine cloth in grain, and the black is most fine, and of the same leather they make shoes; and they dye their mantles in the same colors. The Governor departed from Toalli the 24th of March; he came on Thursday at evening to a small river, where a bridge was made whereon the people passed, and Benit Fernandez, a Portuguese, fell off from it, and was drowned. As soon as the Governor had passed the river, a little distance thence he found a town called Achese. The Indians had no notice of the Christians: they leaped into a river: some men and women were taken, among which was one that understood the youth which guided the Governor to Yupaha; whereby that which he had reported was more confirmed. For they had passed through countries of divers languages, and some which he understood not. The Governor sent by one of the Indians that were taken to call the cacique, which was on the other side of the river. He came, and made this speech following:

"Right high, right mighty, and excellent lord, those things which seldom happen do cause admiration. What then may the sight of your lordship and your people do to me and mine, whom we never saw? especially being mounted on such fierce beasts as your horses are, entering with such violence and fury into my country, without my knowledge of your coming. It was a thing so strange, and caused such fear and terror in our minds, that it was not in our power to stay and receive your lordship with the solemnity due to so high and renowned a prince as your lordship is. And trusting in your greatness and singular virtues, I do not only hope to be freed from blame, but also to receive favors; and the first which I demand of your lordship is, that you will use me, my country, and subjects as your own; and the second, that you will tell me who you are, and whence you come, and whither you go, and what you seek, that I the better may serve you therein."

The Governor answered him, that he thanked him as much for his offer and good-will as if he had received it, and as if he had offered him a great treasure; and told him that he was the son of the Sun, and came from those parts where he dwelt, and traveled through that country, and sought the greatest lord and richest province that was in it. The cacique told him that farther forward dwelt a great lord, and that his dominion was called Ocute. He gave him a guide and an interpreter for that province. The Governor commanded his Indians to be set free, and traveled through his country up a river very well inhabited. He departed from his town the first of April; and left a very high cross of wood set up in the midst of the market-place; and because the time gave no more leisure, he declared to him only that that cross was a memory of the same whereon Christ, which was God and man, and created the heavens and the earth, suffered for our salvation; therefore he exhorted them that they should reverence it, and they made show as though they would do so. The fourth of April the Governor passed by a town called Altamaca, and the tenth of the month he came to Ocute. The cacique sent him two thousand Indians with a present, to wit, many conies and partridges, bread of maize, two hens, and many dogs; which among the Christians were esteemed as if they had been fat wethers, because of the great want of flesh meat and salt, and hereof in many places, and many times was great need; and they were so scarce, that if a man fell sick, there was nothing to cherish him withal; and with a sickness, that in another place easily might have been remedied, he consumed away till nothing but skin and bones were left; and they died of pure weakness, some of them saying, "If I had a slice of meat or a few corns of salt, I should not die. The Indians want no flesh meat; for they kill with their arrows many deer, hens, conies, and other wild fowl, for they are very cunning at it, which skill the Christians had not; and though they had it, they had no leisure to use it; for the most of the time they spent in travel, and durst not presume to straggle aside. And because they were thus scanted of flesh, when six hundred men that went with Soto came to any town, and found thirty or forty dogs, he that could get one and kill it thought himself no small man; and he that killed it and gave not his captain one quarter, if he knew it he frowned on him, and made him feel it in the watches, or in any other matter of labor that was offered, wherein he might do him a displeasure. On Monday, the twelfth of April, 1540, the Governor departed from Ocute. The cacique gave him two hundred Tamenes, to wit, Indians to carry burdens; he passed through a town, the lord whereof was named Cofaqui, and came to a province of an Indian lord called Patofa, who because he was in peace with the lord of Ocute, and with the other bordering lords, had many days before notice of the Governor, and desired to see him. He came to visit him, and made this speech following.

"Mighty lord, now with good reason I will crave of fortune to requite this my so great prosperity with some small adversity; and I will count myself very rich, seeing that I have obtained that which in this world I most desired, which is to see and be able to do your lordship some service. And although the tongue be the image of that which is in the heart, and that the contentment which I feel in my heart I cannot dissemble, yet is it not sufficient wholly to manifest the same. Where did this your country, which I do govern, deserve to be visited of so sovereign and so excellent a prince, whom all the rest of the world ought to obey and serve? And those which inhabit it being so base, what shall be the issue of such happiness, if their memory do not represent unto them some adversity that may betide them, according to the order of fortune? If from this day forward we may be capable of this benefit, that your lordship will hold us for your own, we cannot fail to be favored and maintained in true justice and reason, and to have the name of men. For such as are void of reason and justice, may be compared to brute beasts. For mine own part, from my very heart with reverence due to such a prince, I offer myself unto your lordship, and beseech you, that in reward of this my true good will, you will vouchsafe to make use of mine own person, my country, and subjects."

The Governor answered him, that his offers and good-will declared by the effect, did highly please him, whereof he would always be mindful to honor and favor him as his brother. This country, from the first peaceable cacique, unto the province of Patofa, which were fifty leagues, is a fat country, beautiful, and very fruitful, and very well watered, and full of good rivers. And from thence to the Port de Spirito Santo, where we first arrived in the land of Florida (which may be three hundred and fifty leagues, little more or less), is a barren land, and the most of it groves of wild pine trees, low and full of lakes, and in some places very high and thick groves, whither the Indians that were in arms fled, so that no man could find them, neither could any horses enter into them, which was an inconvenience to the Christians, in regard of the victuals which they found conveyed away; and of the troubles which they had in seeking of Indians to be their guides.