_How we left Havana and came to Florida, and what other matters
took place._
Before our departure, the Governor deprived Nuño de Tobár of the
rank of captain-general, and conferred it on a resident of Cuba,
Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, which caused the vessels to be well
provisioned, he giving a great many hogs and loads of caçabe bread.
That was done because Nuño de Tobár had made love to Doña Ysabel's
waiting-maid, daughter of the Governor of Gomera; and though he had
lost his place, yet, to return to Soto's favor, for she was with
child by him, he took her to wife and went to Florida. Doña Ysabel
remained, and with her the wife of Don Carlos, of Baltasar de
Gallegos, and of Nuño de Tobár. The Governor left, as his lieutenant
over the island, Juan de Rojas, a fidalgo of Havana.
On Sunday, the 18th day of May, in the year 1539, the Adelantado
sailed from Havana with a fleet of nine vessels, five of them ships,
two caravels, two pinnaces; and he ran seven days with favorable
weather. On the 25th of the month, being the festival of Espiritu
Santo,[234] the land was seen, and anchor cast a league from shore,
because of the shoals. On Friday, the 30th, the army landed in
Florida, two leagues from the town[235] of an Indian chief named
Ucita. Two hundred and thirteen horses were set on shore, to unburden
the ships, that they should draw the less water; the seamen only
remained on board, who going up every day a little with the tide, the
end of eight days brought them near to the town.
[234] Whitsunday.
[235] Ucita or Oçita. This first town was on the point at the
mouth of Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
So soon as the people were come to land, the camp was pitched on the
sea-side, nigh the bay, which goes up close to the town. Presently
the captain-general, Vasco Porcallo, taking seven horsemen with him,
beat up the country half a league about, and discovered six Indians,
who tried to resist him with arrows, the weapons they are accustomed
to use. The horsemen killed two, and the four others escaped, the
country being obstructed by bushes and ponds, in which the horses
bogged and fell, with their riders, of weakness from the voyage. At
night the Governor, with a hundred men in the pinnaces, came upon
a deserted town; for, so soon as the Christians appeared in sight
of land, they were descried, and all along on the coast many smokes
were seen to rise, which the Indians make to warn one another. The
next day, Luis de Moscoso, master of the camp, set the men in order.
The horsemen he put in three squadrons--the vanguard, battalion, and
rearward; and thus they marched that day and the next, compassing
great creeks which run up from the bay; and on the first of June,
being Trinity Sunday, they arrived at the town of Ucita,[236] where
the Governor tarried.
[236] The name of this town was Hirriga, according to the Inca,
and it seems to have been located on the northeast arm of the
harbor.
The town was of seven or eight houses, built of timber, and covered
with palm-leaves. The chief's house stood near the beach, upon a very
high mount made by hand for defence; at the other end of the town
was a temple, on the top of which perched a wooden fowl with gilded
eyes, and within were found some pearls of small value, injured by
fire, such as the Indians pierce for beads, much esteeming them, and
string to wear about the neck and wrists. The Governor lodged in the
house of the chief, and with him Vasco Porcallo and Luis de Moscoso;
in other houses, midway in the town, was lodged the chief castellan,
Baltasar de Gallegos, where were set apart the provisions brought in
the vessels. The rest of the dwellings, with the temple, were thrown
down, and every mess of three or four soldiers made a cabin, wherein
they lodged. The ground about was very fenny, and encumbered with
dense thicket and high trees. The Governor ordered the woods to be
felled the distance of a crossbow-shot around the place, that the
horses might run, and the Christians have the advantage, should the
Indians make an attack at night. In the paths, and at proper points,
sentinels of foot-soldiers were set in couples, who watched by turns;
the horsemen, going the rounds, were ready to support them should
there be an alarm.
The Governor made four captains of horsemen and two of footmen: those
of the horse were André de Vasconcelos, Pedro Calderon of Badajóz,
and the two Cardeñosas his kinsmen (Arias Tinoco and Alfonso Romo),
also natives of Badajóz; those of the foot were Francisco Maldonado
of Salamanca, and Juan Rodriguez Lobillo. While we were in this town
of Ucita, the Indians which Juan de Añasco had taken on that coast,
and were with the Governor as guides and interpreters, through the
carelessness of two men who had charge of them, got away one night.
For this the Governor felt very sorry, as did every one else; for
some excursions had already been made, and no Indians could be
taken, the country being of very high and thick woods, and in many
places marshy.