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Expedition of Hernando de Soto. Those who have had occasion to consult the relations of the early adventurers who attempted the conquest or colonization of Florida, cannot fail to have been struck with the fact that the country is eulogized by them all as a very rich and fertile country. Thus, in the English translation of the relation of the Portuguese Gentleman, by Hakluyt, it is said, '' Wherein are truly observed the riches and fertilities of these parts, abounding with things necessary, pleasant, and profitable for the life of man." And in the same work it is said that Cabeca de Vaca reported, upon his return to Spain, " that it was the richest country of the world." Doubtless to most persons this will seem so absurd and exaggerated, as to cast discredit upon the veracity of the narrator. But this flattering estimate of the country by the early explorers and voyagers may be explained upon grounds perfectly consistent with the idea of sincerity on their part. It must be recollected, in the first place, that the name of Florida then designated a vast extent of country, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico, north-westwardly, towards unknown regions. The divisions of the country, as marked upon the maps, were Florida at the south, extending to the north of the Chesapeake, and meeting New France. In speaking of Florida, therefore, in those days, reference was had to a much larger scope of country than is now designated by the name. The main object of all expeditions at that day was the discovery of precious metals, and, coming from the Old World, men had no standard of comparison by which to measure the agricultural value of the New. The shores of Florida presented to their eyes a more grateful and pleasing prospect than the sands of the Tierra Caliente of Mexico, or the swampy, impassable mesquite groves of South America. Let us suppose for a moment a vessel, long tempest-tossed upon the wild waste of waters, entering one of the harbors of Florida. As the shores are approached, there opens a gentle and placid bay, land-locked, and reflecting with glassy stillness the shadows of the evergreen and towering trees of the forest. The fleeting clouds of heaven pass over its polished surface, and changing points of beauty are being constantly developed. The white- winged water-fowl skim quietly along its surface; the waving moss droops from the hanging boughs; pleasant coves and sylvan retreats border its banks. The appearances upon the land are equally flattering: the green grass, even in midwinter, gives a vernal beauty to the landscape. The evergreen forests,filled with birds of song and beauty, the magnolia grandiflora, with its glistening leaves and splendid flowers, the tall palm trees, with their leafy canopies, the stalwart live-oak, the mournful cypress, the brilliant dogwood and honeysuckle, all give an air of enchantment and beauty to the scene. The antlers of the noble buck, and the glossy plumage of the wild turkey of the forest, signal both food and noble pastime. An oriental and tropical richness and profusion of vegetable life seem to invite to enjoyment and ease. The voyagers ascend the gentle current of the placid rivers, and new beauties are met at every turn. They seem to float amid flowers and perfume; the drooping vines, trailing in the water, mingle with water-plants of various tints; everything is tinged with richness and beauty; and from some captured savage they hear always of the gold of some distant province, which animates their hopes and expectations. Is it strange that such a country should, where everything was new and marvelous and exaggerated, impart, without much license of the imagination, a pleasant glow of beauty and richness to the narrations of those who for the first time landed on its coasts? The progress of discovery and of conquest had gone on in the south with almost uninterrupted success; a great and unexplored region was known to exist at the north, and the imagination had full scope to create for itself new fields for the acquisition of glory and of wealth. Panfilo de Narvaez had miserably perished, with all his noble men-at-arms and splendid equipment, and Cabeca de Vaca had returned to Spain, himself and three others the only survivors of this unfortunate expedition. Hernando de Soto, it would seem, had already projected an expedition for the conquest of Florida. There was at that period no cavalier who occupied a more exalted position at the Spanish court than Hernando de Soto. He was a native of the town of Villa Nueva de Baccarota, in the southern part of Spain, near Xerez, and was of a good family. At an early age, living near one of the ports, San Lucar, whence sailed the expeditions for discovery and conquest of the New World, he went out under Don Pedro Arias D'Avilas, then Governor of the West Indies, by whom he was shortly promoted to the command of a troop of horse, and in 1531 was dispatched with one hundred men and a supply of horses by Arias to join Pizarro, then on his way to undertake the conquest of Peru. He proved a most welcome and valuable auxiliary, and soon rose to be second in command to Pizarro himself. He shared the varying fortunes of the invaders, and acquired a large experience and great reputation as an accomplished and gallant leader. Daring, yet prudent, brilliant, yet cautious, he was always foremost and always successful. Under Pizarro, with a small force, he captured the Inca, and left two thousand slain upon the field. After the conquest was achieved, and foreseeing the rivalries and difficulties about to spring up between the leaders, he withdrew, with a splendid booty of 180,000 ducats, which had fallen to his share, and, with some valiant comrades, returned to Spain in 1536. In addition to the permission to undertake the conquest of Florida, he received the government of the island of Cuba, and the title of Adelantado of Florida, and marquis of the lands he might conquer. Florida was then a terra incognito. Expeditions had touched upon the shores, and Narvaez had gone inland a short distance, but of the great extent of country reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic seas, very little was known ; the general impression, however, was that Florida was an island, and that a passage was to be found to the northward, similar to that around Cape Horn. The prestige of De Soto's name and reputation, and the evidences of his preceding good fortune, shown in the immense treasures he had brought back with him, and which were lavished by him with a calculating and magnificent prodigality, attracted to his standard a splendid retinue of followers, burning for adventure, and still more anxious, it is presumable, to share in the ransom of any Incas or Emperors they might find in the ''richest country in the world," to the certain conquest and subjugation of which they confidently looked forward. "Possimt quia posse videntur" (they are successful who believe they will be so) was the practical motto upon which the Spanish adventurers acted, and, believing themselves invincible, they really achieved prodigies of valor and manly prowess. One of the most distinguished of the associates of De Soto in the expedition was Vasco de Porcallo, one of the proprietary lords of the island of Cuba, who, although somewhat advanced in years, felt the spirit of both honor and gain within him. It was of a steward of this cavalier that the somewhat whimsical story is related by Alonzo Fernandez, "that understanding that his slaves would destroy themselves, he went 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, it is said, that they changed their purpose, and turned home again, to do that which he commanded them. " De Soto first made a general rendezvous for his forces in Cuba, and recruited his command ; while staying here, he sent two brigantines, with fifty men, to discover the ports of Florida, and from thence they brought two Indians taken upon the coast, ''wherewith" (as well because they might be necessary as 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 this was the richest country that unto that day had been discovered." De Soto left Cuba on the 18th of May, 1539, and landed at Tampa Bay on Whitsunday, the 25th of May, and the name of Esph-itu Santo was given to the bay in honor of the day. The number disembarked was about one thousand men-at-arms with three hundred and fifty horses, a force far more respectable in numbers and quality, in equipment and appurtenances, than had ever gone forth in any previous expedition. The fleet entered the bay, on the west coast of Florida, now called Tampa Bay, and landed, probably at Gadsden's Point, a few miles from an Indian town belonging to a chief called Hirrihigua, and which stood on the site of the present town of Tampa. The house of the chief was upon an artificial eminence, which still remains, after more than three hundred years, to awaken the interest of the antiquary and certify the truth of ancient chronicles. While at this place, the two Indians whom they had been training for guides and interpreters escaped, to the great disappointment of De Soto. From some captured women, however, he learned that a Spaniard, left by Narvaez, was in the keeping of a neighboring chief. This man was Juan Ortiz, whose history would have been of itself a most interesting one had he possessed the skill to write it, or had he escaped with his life to Spain to relate it. After Narvaez landed, he had sent back to Cuba, to his wife, one of his smaller vessels, on board of which was this Juan Ortiz, to convey intelligence of his landing. She immediately sent additional supplies by the same vessel, and they arrived at the bay after Narvaez had entered upon his march. Observing a letter fixed in the cleft of a stick on shore, they asked some Indians whom they saw to bring it to them, which the savages refused, and made signs to come for it. Juan Ortiz, then a youth of eighteen, with a comrade, took the boat and went on shore, when they were immediately captured by the Indians, and taken to the chief, who was greatly enraged against the Spaniards on account of injuries he had received from Narvaez, and the companion of Ortiz was at once sacrificed upon his attempting resistance. The chief ordered Ortiz to be stretched out upon a staging of poles like a gridiron, and a fire to be built under him. He was of a young and interesting age, and when this cruel order was given, and the victim was about under going this torture, a scene ensued which deservedly arouses our sympathies and admiration, and recalls at once the better-known and more widely appreciated incident of Pocahontas. The cruel Hirrihigua had a beautiful daughter, about the same age as Ortiz, who, when she saw the dreadful fate to which the young Spaniard was doomed, was moved to that pity and compassion which, to the credit of her sex be it spoken, are always aroused in woman's breast by misfortune and suffering. Narvaez had been guilty, it seems, of acts of atrocious cruelty towards the mother of the chief, and the wrong had sunk deep and ineffaceably into his heart. Overcoming her own natural feelings of resentment against the race, and braving the anger of her father, this noble Indian maid threw herself at her father's feet and implored him to spare the life of the captive youth, urging upon him that this smooth cheeked boy could do him no injury, and that it was more noble for a brave and lofty chief like himself to keep the youth a captive, than to sacrifice so mere a lad to his revenge. The intercession of the noble girl was successful, and the young Spaniard was loosed and his wounds cared for by the gentle hands of her who had saved his life. After some months his life was again in jeopardy, and he was about to be sacrificed to the supposed requirements of the Demon of Evil, when his fair deliverer again interposed, warned him of his peril, and advised him to flee to Mucoso, a neighboring chief; and at the dead hour of night she herself led him half a league upon his way, and, placing him in the path of safety, gave him her true woman's blessing and hopes for his welfare. He reached Mucoso, who received him well and protected him from that period until the arrival of De Soto, twelve years afterwards. It adds not a little to the romance of the story, to repeat, that the daughter of Hirrihigua was affianced to the chief Mucoso, and that, owing to the refusal of Mucoso to surrender Ortiz upon the repeated demands of Hirrihigua, the proposed alliance was refused by that chief, and his daughter sacrificed her love to her humanity, and Mucoso his bride to his sense of honor. Savages though they were, they gave an example of noble virtues seldom equaled in any society more polished or more refined. A party of horse sent by De Soto met Ortiz on his way to their camp, where he was received with great rejoicings, and the first question addressed to him from the very depths of their hearts was whether he knew of any neighboring country rich in the precious metals. Some of the cavaliers had participated in the ransom of the Inca of Peru, and had entered upon this expedition with similar expectations. The others, excited by the success of the followers of Pizarro, were greedy to search some land rich in gold. What they hoped from a country which they supposed to be the richest of any yet discovered, may be inferred from an examination of that chapter of the Conquest of Peru devoted to the recital of the almost fabulous amount of treasure obtained as the ransom of Atahualpa, which, it was said, filled with gold a room twenty two feet long, seventeen feet wide, and nine feet high; an amount of treasure which perhaps it would not be rash to say could not be obtained in gold, if Florida even now, at the end of three hundred years, were pillaged anew. A dim vision of some distant and ever-receding city, resplendent with magnificence, and like Cuzco, ''where the roofs of the temples were plated with gold, while the walls were hung with tapestry, and the floors inlaid with tiles of the same precious metal," was ever before their eyes, and, like an ignis-fatuus, led them for weeks and months and years, ever disappointed and ever credulous to the last, disbelieving everything else told them by the savage races, and believing every promise of this. (1) Juan Ortiz was of much less real value to them as a guide than they expected. He had been kept within the limits of a single tribe, and knew little or nothing of the country beyond. The excursions of the troops soon became discouraging. The vessels were sent back, and Porcallo, the lieutenant of De Soto, found the hardships too great, and, leaving the honor to the younger candidates for glory, he returned to Cuba. They then commenced their march to the northward, and, having no great supply of provisions, were soon reduced to the necessity of depending upon the Indian fields; but, it is said, " they were sore vexed with hunger and evil ways, because the countries were very barren of maiz, low, and full of water, bogs, and thick woods. Wheresoever any town was found, there were some beets, and they that came first, and sodden with water and salt, did eat them without any other thing, and such as could not get them gathered stalks of maiz, which, because they were young, had no maiz in them. When they came to the river (the Withlacoochee, it is supposed) they found palmettos upon low palm-trees like those of Andalusia." They went thence to Ocali, which is described as being a fertile region, and where they found abundance of corn, and other provisions, as well as plums, grapes, nuts, and acorns. After leaving Ocali, situated in the neighborhood, it is supposed, of the present town of that name, they entered the domain of a chief called Vitachuco, who gave them battle in every form, and exerted his utmost efforts to destroy them. Those who have read Irving' s Conquest of Florida will recall the bloody contest which took place on a level plain between two lakes, and the somewhat marvelous fact stated, that some two hundred Indians plunged into the lake, and remained there swimming for twenty four hours without touching foot to the ground. This circumstance the chronicler La Vega thinks remarkable, and hardly credible, but for the fact that his informants were all honorable men. Hardships, and a fierce resistance to their farther progress, soon made their journey painful and disastrous; but De Soto was too determined a leader and too good a soldier to feel other than his martial ardor excited by opposition, and he with prudent sagacity overcame all the obstacles in his path. His line of march lay parallel to the shores of the gulf, and he probably at this time reached the neighborhood of Tallahassee. A party whom he dispatched to the coast were shown by the Indians the remains of De Narvaez's encampment at Aute, and the bleaching skeletons of his horses. De Soto's treatment of the Indians was probably better than that practiced by most of the discoverers, and in fact this was forced upon him as a matter of policy, for he found the natives of Florida far superior to the effeminate races of South and Central America, trained to combat, and filled with the most indomitable courage and perseverance. In some instances they may have been treated with cruelty by him as a measure of policy, to overawe and terrify them. In one of the illustrations to De Bry, is a large plate, showing the cutting off of the hands of a number of chiefs by De Soto; and many instances of his severity are scattered through the Portuguese narrative. It is said that "after the well-fought battle of Vitachuco, some of the youngest of the prisoners the governor gave to them which had good chaines and were careful to look to them that they got not away. All the rest he commanded to be put to death, and they being tied to a stake, in the midst of the market-place, the Indians of the Paracoussi did shoot them to death." In another place, it is said that "they took an hundred men and women, of which, as well there as in other places where they made any inroades, the captain chose one or two for the governor, and divided the others to himself and the rest that went with him. They led these Indians in chaines, with iron collars about their neckes, and they served to carry their stuffe, and to grind their maiz, and for other services that such captives could do. Sometimes it happened that, going for wood or maiz with them, they killed the Christian that led them, and ran away with the chain. Others filed their chaines by night with a piece of stone, wherewith they cut them, and use it instead of iron. The women and young boys, when they were once an hundred leagues from their countrie, and had forgotten things, were let go loose, and so they served, and in a very short space they understood the language of the Christians." A very creditable circumstance is mentioned, in the accounts of the expedition, of the attachment of the Indians to their wives. On one occasion the Spaniards found two men and a woman gathering beans: the men might have escaped, but one of them, being husband to the woman, would not leave her, and they fought most bravely until they were slain, having wounded three horses. Their style of dress is thus described: ''They have mantles like blankets, made of the inner rind of the barks of trees (probably the cabbage-palmetto), and some were made of a kind of grass like nettles, which on being beaten becomes like flax." The grass referred to is evidently the bear-grass, which has a strong and flexible fibre, suitable for cordage or cloth, and is very abundant in Florida. The women covered themselves with these mantles; one was fastened on the shoulders, and worn with the right arm out; they wore another fastened at the waist, and extending down towards the feet. The men wore a similar mantle over the shoulders, and deer-skins around the loins. The deer-skins were well dressed, and so well colored that they resembled very fine cloth. They made their moccasins of the same material. It would appear from this that the Indian costume of 1539 was the same as that of 1839.
(1) In vol. iii. of Hakluyt will be found the relations of Pedro Morales, whom Sir Francis Drake brought from St. Augustine, in Florida, in 1586, in which he says: "There is a great city sixteene or twentie dayes journey from St. Helena northwestward, which the Spaniards call L.a Grand Copal, which they thinke to bee very rich and exceeding great, and have been in sight of it some of them." (P, 361.) There is also a relation of Nicolas Burguignon, alias Haly, whom Sir Francis Drake brought from Florida. " He further affirmeth that there is a citie northwestward from St. Helena in the mountains, which the Spaniards call La Grand Copal, and is very great and rich, and that in these mountains there is great store of christal, gold, and rubies and diamonds; and that a Span- iard brought from thence a diamond which was worth 5000. He saith also that to make passage unto these mountains it is needful to have store of hatchets to give unto the Indians, and store of pickaxes to break the mountains, which shine so bright in the day in some places that they cannot behold them, and therefore they travel unto them by night." Ibid., p. 361. |
