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 Castilians very gallant with silk upon silk, with many pinkings and cuts. The governor, because these braveries1 in such an action did not like2 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, with very good armor. The governor placed them in order near unto the standard which the ensign-bearer carried. The Castilians, 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; and 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

1 Fine clothes. 2 Please.

ship, and good of sail, and gave another to Andrew de Vasconcelos, in which the Portuguese went. He went over the bar of San Lucar on Sunday, being San 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.

II. DE SOTO ATTACKS THE INDIANS, AND FINDS A FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN.

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 swordmen and targetiers;2 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

1 Probably near the Hillsborough River in Florida. 2 Men who carried swords and targets.

guns (arquebuses) or cross-bows.

Others carried matchlock

backs, they are presently upon them; and the thing they most flee is the shot of an arrow. They never stand still, but are always running and traversing1 from one place to another, by reason whereof neither crossbow nor arquebuse can aim at them: and, before one crossbow-man 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

1 Crossing.

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,1 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 an 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.2

III. -THE STORY OF JOHN ORTIZ.

THIS Christian's name was John Ortiz; and he was born in Seville in worshipful parentage.1 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 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 riven2 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 seashore; 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 2 Split.

1 Of a good family.

3 Information.