SOTO EMBARKS FOR CUBA AND FLORIDA. . 49 II. 1538. The fleet sailed as gaily as if it had been but a CHAP. holiday excursion of a bridal party. In Cuba the precaution was used to send vessels to Florida to explore a harbor; and two Indians, brought as captives to Havana, invented such falsehoods, as they perceived would be acceptable. They conversed by signs; and the signs were interpreted as affirming, that Florida abounded in gold. The news spread great contentment; Soto and his troops were restless with longing for the hour of their departure to the conquest of "the richest country which had yet been discovered." The infection spread in Cuba; and Vasco Porcallo, an aged and a wealthy man, lavished his fortune in magnificent preparations.2 3 Soto had been welcomed in Cuba by long and 1539. brilliant festivals and rejoicings. May. At length, all preparations were completed; leaving his wife to govern the island, he and his company, full of unbounded expectations, embarked for Florida; and, in about a fortnight, his fleet anchored in the bay of Spiritu Santo. The soldiers went on shore; the horses, between two and three hundred in number, were disembarked; and the men of the expedition stood upon the soil which they had so eagerly desired to tread. Soto would listen to no augury but that of success; and, like Cortes, he refused to retain his ships, lest they should afford a temptation to retreat. Most of them were sent to Havana. 1 Portuguese Relation, c. i. 2 Vega, l. i. c. xii. 489; Vega, l. i. part i. c. i. p. 23. 3 Portuguese Relation, c. vii. p. 493. VOL. I. 7 II. CHAP. The aged Porcallo, a leading man in the enterprize, soon grew alarmed, and began to remember his 1539. establishments in Cuba. It had been a principal object with him to obtain slaves for his estates and mines; despairing of success, and terrified with the marshes and thick forests, he also sailed for the island, where he could enjoy his wealth in security. Soto was indignant at the desertion; but concealed his anger.1 And now began the nomadic march of the adventurers; a numerous body of horsemen, besides infantry, completely armed; a force, exceeding in numbers and equipments, the famous expeditions against the empires of Mexico and Peru. Every thing was provided, that experience in former invasions and the cruelty of avarice could suggest; chains2 for captives, and the instruments of a forge; arms of all kinds then in use, and bloodhounds as auxiliaries against the feeble natives;3 ample stores of food, and, as a last resort, a drove of hogs, which would soon swarm in the favoring climate, where the forests and the Indian maize furnished abundant sustenance. It was a roving expedition of gallant freebooters in quest of fortune. It was a romantic stroll of men, whom avarice rendered ferocious, through unexplored regions, over unknown paths; wherever rumor might point to the residence of some chieftain with more than Peruvian wealth, or the ill-interpreted signs of the ignorant natives might seem to promise 1 Portuguese Relation, c. x. p. 493; Vega, l. ii. part i. c. xi. and xii. p. 39, 40. 2 Port. Rel. c. xi. and xii. p. 496. 3 Portuguese Relation, c. xi. p. 494, 495, and elsewhere. SPANIARDS NEAR THE BAY OF APPALACHEE. 51 II. a harvest of gold. Religious zeal was also united CHAP. with avarice; there were not only cavalry and foot-~~ soldiers, with all that belongs to warlike array; 1539. twelve priests, besides other ecclesiastics, accompanied the expedition. Florida was to become catholic, during the scenes of robbery and carnage that were to follow. Ornaments, such as are used at the service of mass,' were carefully provided; every festival was to be kept; every religious practice to be observed. As the troop marched through the wilderness, each solemn procession, which the usages of the church enjoined, was scrupulously instituted. June to Oct. 27. The wanderings of the first season brought the 1539. company from the bay of Spiritu Santo to the country of the Appalachians, east of the Flint river, and not far from the head of the bay of Appalachee.3 The names of the intermediate places cannot be identified. The march was tedious and full of dangers. The Indians were always hostile; two captives of the former expedition escaped; a Spaniard, who had been kept in slavery from the time of Narvaez, could give no accounts of any country where there was silver or gold. The guides would purposely lead the Castilians astray, and involve them in morasses; even though death, under the fangs of the bloodhounds, was the certain punishment. The whole company grew dispirited, and desired the 1 Portuguese Relation, c. xix. p. 512. 2 Portuguese Relation, c. xx, p. 514, and in various places speaks of the Friars and Priests. Vega. 1. i. c. vi. p. 9; l. iv. c. vi. p. 179, 180, 4 and elsewhere. Herrera in many 3 Portuguese Relation, c. xii.; 4 Port. Relation, c. ix. p. 492. II. CHAP. governor to return, since the country opened no brilliant prospects. "I will not turn back," said 1539. Soto, "till I have seen the poverty of the country with my own eyes. "The hostile Indians, who were taken prisoners, were in part put to death, in part enslaved. These were led in chains, with iron collars about their necks; their service was, to grind the maize and to carry the baggage. An exploring party discovered Ochus, the harbor of Pensacola; and a message was sent to Cuba, desiring that in the ensuing year supplies for the expedition might be sent to that place.3 1540. Mar. 2 Early in the spring of the following year, the 3. Spaniards renewed their march, with an Indian guide, who promised to lead the way to a country, governed by a woman, and where gold so abounded, that the art of melting and refining it was understood. He seemed to describe the process so well, that the credulous Spaniards took heart, and exclaimed, "He must have seen it, or the devil has taught him." They, therefore, eagerly hastened to the northeast; they passed the Alatamaha; they admired the fertile valleys of Georgia, rich, productive, and full of good rivers. They passed a northern tributary of the Alatamaha, and a southern branch of the Ogechee; and, at length, came upon the Ogechee April itself, which, in April, flowed with a full channel and a strong current. Much of the time, the Spaniards were in wild solitudes; they suffered for want of 1 495. Portuguese Relation, c. xi. p. 2 Ibid, c. xii. p. 498. 3 Compare Portuguese Relation, c. vii-xii. and Vega, l. ii. part i. and ii. p. 23-106. SPANIARDS IN GEORGIA. 53 Their Indian guide would have CHAP. II. salt and of meat. been torn in pieces by the dogs, if he had not still been needed to assist the interpreter. Of four In- 1540. dian captives, whom they questioned, one bluntly answered, he knew no country such as they described; and the governor ordered him to be burnt, for what was esteemed his falsehood. The sight of the execution quickened the invention of his companions; and the Spaniards made their way to the small Indian settlement of Cutifa-Chiqui. A dagger and a rosary were found here; the story of the Indians traced them to the expedition of Vazquez de Ayllon; and a two days' journey would reach, it was believed, the harbor of St. Helena. The soldiers thought of home; and desired, either to make a settlement on the fruitful soil around them, or to The governor was "a stern man, and of few words." Willingly hearing the opinions of others, he was inflexible, when he had once declared his own mind; and all his followers, "condescending to his will," continued to indulge delusive hopes.1 return. 3. The direction of the march was now to the north; May to the comparatively sterile country of the Cherokees, and in part through a district, in which gold is now found. The inhabitants were poor but gentle; they liberally offered such presents, as their habits of life permitted, deer skins and wild hens. Soto could hardly have crossed the mountains, so as to 1 Portuguese Relation, c. xiii. and xiv. p. 498-504; Vega, l. iii. c. ii.-xvii. Compare Belknap's American Biography, v. i. p. 188. I cannot follow McCulloh, p. 2 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 124; |