bookie wookie

36 DECADES

PETER MARTYR D’ANGHIERA 37

Reading De Soto (1528-1605) Relaçom Verdadeira Fidalgo de Elvas (Gentleman of Elvas)

La Florida (Book 2:1, ch. 1-6) El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega

Account [of] De Soto, Rodrigo Ranjel,

“Relacíon de la Isla de Florida” Luys Hernández de Biedma,

THE GENTLEMAN OF ELVAS, AS HE IS SEMI-ANONYMOUSLY referred to, an account of the de Soto expedition titled True Relation [Relaçom Verdadeira] of the Hardships Suffered by Governor Hernando De Soto & Certain Portuguese Gentlemen During the Discovery of the Providence of Florida. Since its publication in 1557, this narrative has been looked upon with suspicious eyes because of the authorial anonymity. The account’s credibility is called into question because it is impossible to prove whether or not the author participated in the expedition or merely elaborated previously published accounts. The Relaçam “has never filled any given research bill all that well,” historian Patricia Galloway notes, “be it in area of itinerary reconstruction or in that of ethnohistory.” That does not, however, decrease its importance as one of the few written accounts covering the American Southeast in the sixteenth century. The selection below, excerpted from the beginning of the Relation, describes how Hernando de Soto prepared, departed and arrived in Florida and the discoveries that had occurred thus far.

Amelia Zimmerman, University of South Florida St. Petersburg

A RELAÇOM VERDADEIRA A FIDALGO DE ELVAS

a How Cabeza De Vaca came to court and gave account of the land of Florida; and of the men who were gathered together at Seville to go with Don Hernando De Soto

A

fter Don Hernando had obtained the government, a gentleman arrived at court from the Indies, Cabeza de Vaca by name, who had gone with Governor Narváez, who had perished in Florida. He told how Narváez had perished at sea with all his men; and how he and four others had escaped and reached New Spain. He brought also a written relation of what he had seen in Florida. This stated in certain places, “In such a place I saw this. Most of what I saw there I leave for discussion between myself and his Majesty.” He described in general the wretchedness of the land and the hardships he had suffered. To some of his kinsfolk, who were minded to go to the Indies and strongly urged him to tell them whether he had seen any rich land in Florida, he said that he could not tell this, because he and another (by name, Dorantes, who had remained in New Spain with the intention of returning to Florida — for which purpose he [Cabeza de Vaca] came to Spain to beg the govern-ment from the emperor) had sworn not to divulge certain things which they had seen, lest some person might beg for it before hand. He gave them to understand that it was the richest land in the world. Don Hernando de Soto wished to take him [i.e., Cabeza de Vaca] with him and made him an advantageous proposal; but after they had come to an agreement, they fell out because Soto would not give him the money which he [Cabeza de Vaca] asked of him to buy a ship. Baltasar de Gallegos and

Cristóbal de Espindola, his kinsmen, told him [Cabeza de Vaca] that since they had resolved to go to Florida with Soto because of what he had told them, he should advise them as to what they should do. Cabeza de Vaca told them that if he had given up going with Soto, it was because be expected to ask for another government and did not wish to go under the banner of another. Since Don Hernando de Soto al-ready had the conquest of Florida, which he [Cabeza de Vaca] came to beg, he could not tell them, on account of his oath, what they wished to know. Nevertheless, he advised them to sell their estates and go with him [i.e., Soto], for in so doing they would act wisely. As soon as he had an opportunity, he spoke with the emperor and related to him all he had suffered and seen and the other things he had succeeded in learning.

Of this relation, made orally to the emperor by Cabeza de Vaca, the marqués de Astorga was informed. He determined at once to send his brother, Don Antonio Osorio, with Don Hernando de Soto, and two of his kinsmen made ready to go with him, namely, Francisco Osorio and Garcia Osorio. Don Antonio disposed of an income of six hundred thousand reales which he received from the Church, and Francisco Osorio of a village of vassals he owned in the district of Campos. They joined the adelantado at Seville, as did also Nuño de Tobar, Luis de Moscoso, and Juan Rodriguez Lobillo, with the wealth, amounting to fourteen or fifteen thousand cruzados, which each one had brought from Peru. Luis de Moscoso took two brothers with him. Don Carlos, who had married the governor’s niece, went also and took his wife. From Badajóz went Pedro Calderón and three kinsmen of the adelantado, namely, Arias Tinoco, Alonso Romo, and Diego Tinoco. As Luis de Moscoso passed through Elvas, André de Vasconcelos spoke with him, and requested him to speak toDon Hernando de Soto in his behalf, and gave him patents issuedby the marqués de Vilareal, conferring on him the captaincy of Ceuta, so that he might exhibit them. The adelantado saw these and found out who he [Vasconcelos] was and wrote him promising that he would favor him in every way and would give him men to command in Florida. From Elvas went André de Vasconcelos, Fernan Pegado, Antonio Martinez Segurado, Mem Royz Pereyra, Joan Cordeiro, Estevan Pegado, Bento Fernandez, and Alvaro Fernandez; and from Salamanaca, Jaen, Valencia, Albuquerque, and other parts of Spain many

persons of noble family gathered in Seville; so much so that many men of good condition, who had sold their est-ates, remained behind in San Lúcar because there was no ship for them; although for other known and rich countries it was usual to lack men. The cause of this was what Cabeza de Vaca had told the emperor and given persons who conversed with him to understand respecting that land. Soto made him [i.e., Cabeza de Vaca] fine proposals but Cabeza de Vaca, having agreed to go with him as mentioned above, be-cause Soto would not give him money to pay fora ship which he had bought, they disagreed, and Cabeza de Vaca went as governor to Rio de la Plata ….

I How that Christian went to the land of Florida, who he was, and what took place with the governor

T

hat Christian was called Juan Ortiz and was a native of Seville, of a noble family. For twelve years he had been in the hands of the Indians. He had gone tothat land with Governor Narvaez and had returned in the ships to the island of Cuba, where the wife of Governor Pánfilo de Narvaez had remained. At herorder, with twenty or thirty others he returned to Florida ina brigantine. Arriving at the port, within sight of the town, they saw on land a cane sticking in the ground with its top split and holding a letter. They believed that the governor had left it in order to give news of himself when he resolved to go inland. They asked four or five Indians who were walking on the beach for it, but the latter told them by signs to come ashore for it, which Juan Ortiz and another did contrary to the wish of the others. As soon as they reachedland, many Indians came out of the houses of the town and surrounded them and seized them

46 RELAÇOM VERDADEIRA

so that they could not escape. The other man who tried to defend himself they killed immediately in that place, and Juan Ortiz they seized by the hands and led to their chief, Ucita. The men in the brigantine refused to land and made for the open sea and returned to the island of Cuba. Ucita ordered Juan Ortiz to be bound hand and foot on a grill laid on top of four stakes [barra]. He ordered a fire to be kindled under him in order to burn him there. The chief ’s daughter asked him not to kill him [Ortiz], saying that a single Christian could not do him any ill or good, and that it would be more to his [the cacique’s] honor to hold him captive. Ucita granted this and ordered him taken care of; and as soon as he was well, gave him charge of the guarding of the temple, for at night wolves would carry off the corpses from inside it. He commended himself to God and watched over their temple. One night the wolves carried off from him the corpse of a child, the son of one of the principal Indians. Going after it, he threw a club, which struck the wolf carrying the body, which, finding itself wounded, abandoned it and went off to die nearby. He [Ortiz], not knowing what he had done as it was night, returned to the temple. At daybreak, when he found the body of the child gone, he became very sad. As soon as Ucita learned of it, he determined to have him killed. He sent [men] alongthe trail where he [Ortiz] said the wolves had gone, and they found the boy’s corpse and farther on the dead wolf. Whereupon, Ucita was greatly pleased with the Christian and at the watch he had kept in the temple, and thenceforward showed him great honor. After being in captivity to him for three years, another chief named Mococo, who lived two days’ journey from the port, came and burned the town. Ucita went in flight to another town be had in another seaport. Juan Ortiz lost his post and the favor he enjoyed from him. And since they [the Indians] are servants of the devil, they are accustomed to offer him souls and blood of their Indians or of any other people they can get. They say that when he [the devil] desires that sacrifice be made to him, he talks with them and tells them he is thirsty and that they should offer a sacrifice to him. Juan Ortiz learned from the girl who had saved himfrom the fire that her father had determined to sacrifice him the next day; and she told him that he should go to Mococo, that she knew he would show him honor for she had heard him say

47 FIDALGO DE ELVAS

that he would ask for him; and she said he would be glad to see him. At night, since he did not know the way, the Indian woman went a half league from the town and put him on it, and in order that this might not be perceived, returned [to the town]. Juan Ortiz traveled that night and in the morning came to a river which was already within the boundary of Mococo and there he saw two Indians fishing. And since they were hostile to those of Ucita and their languages were different, and he did not know that of Mococo, he feared lest, inasmuch as he did not know how to say who he was and how he came nor how to give an explanation concerning himself, they would kill him thinking him to be an Indian of Ucita. Before they saw him, he came to where they had their weapons, and as soon as they saw him, they ran along the road to the town. And although he told them to wait, that he would do them no harm, they did not understand him and ran away as fast as they could. And when they reached the town, shouting, many Indians came out toward him and began to surround him in order to shoot him with arrows. Juan Ortiz, seeing himself in so great an emergency, hid behind some trees and began to call out very loudly and to cry out and to say that he was a Christian who was fleeing from Ucita and came to see and serve Mococo, their chief. It was God’s will that an Indian who knew the language came up at that time and understood him and made the other Indians keep still, telling them what he [Ortiz] said to him.

Three or four Indians were dispatched from there who went to report to their chief, who came out to welcome him a quarter league from the town and was very glad to see him. He immediately made him swear according to his custom as a Christian that he would not run off to any other chief, and promised him that he would show him much honor and that, if at any time, Christians should come to that land, he would release him freely and give him permission to go to them. And so he swore acc-ording to his custom as an Indian. Three years after that, some Indians who were fishing in the sea two leagues from the town came to inform Mococo that they had seen some ships. He called Juan Ortiz and gave him permission to go, who having bade him farewell reached the sea as soon as he could. But not finding the ships, he thought he had been deceived and thatthe cacique

48 RELAÇOM VERDADEIRA

had done that to ascertain his desire. So he remained with Mococo for nine years, now with little expectation of seeing Christians.

As soon as the governor reached Florida, it was known by Mococo.

He immediately told Juan Ortiz that Christians were lodging in the town of Ucita. It seemed to the latter that he [Mococo] was jesting with him as on the other occasion and told him that the Christians did not come to his mind noranything else than to serve him. He [Mococo] assured him of it and gave him permission to go to them, telling him that if he refused to do it, and the Christians returned, he must not hold him guilty, for he was accomplishing what he had promised him. So great was Juan Ortiz’s joy that he could not believe it to be true. However, he thanked [Mococo] and took his leave of him. Mococo gave him ten or twelve of the principal Indians to go in his company. On his way to the port where the gov-ernor was, he met Baltasar de Gallegos, as I have said above. As soon as he reached the camp, the governor ordered some clothes to be given him and some good arms and a beautiful horse. He asked him if he had heard of any land where there was gold or silver. He said no, he had never gone more than ten leagues roundabout from where he was, and that thirty leagues from there resided an Indian chief called Paracoxi, to whom Mococo and Ucita and all those of that coast paid tribute; that perhaps he might have some information of any good land; and that his land was indeed better than that of the coast and more fertile and abounding in maize. At this the gov-ernor was greatly pleased and said that he wished only to find provisions in order that he might go inland; that the land of Florida was so vast that there could not but be rich land at one end or the other. The cacique of Mococo came to the port to visit the governor and made him the following talk:

“Very lofty and very mighty lord: In my own estimation, to obey you, least of all those whom you hold under your command but greatest in my desire to perform greater services for you, I appear before your Lordship with as much confidence of receiving favor as if, in fact, this my good will were manifest to you by deeds (not for the small service which I did you of the Christian whom I hold in my possession, by giving him his liberty freely, for I was obliged to do that in order to keep my honor and what I had promised him), but because it belongs

49 FIDALGO DE ELVAS

to the great to exercise their office with great magnificence; and I hold that you precede all those of the land both in bodily perfections and in ruling good men, as well as in the perfections of the mind with which you can boast of the liberality of nature. The favor which I await from your Lordship is that you consider me as your own, and feel free to command me in whatever I may serve you.�

The governor answered him saying that, although in freeing and sending him the Christian, he had kept his honor and his promise, he thanked him and appreciated him so much that there was no comparison and that he would always consider him as a brother and that he would protect him in every way. He ordered a shirt and other clothing to be given him, with which the cacique very happy bade him farewell and went to his town.

Z How the governor sent the ships to Cuba and left one hundred men in the port while he and the rest of the men marched inland

F

rom the port of Espiritu Santo, where the governor was, he sent the chief constable, Baltasar de Gallegos, with fifty horse and thirty or forty foot to the province of Paracoxi, in order to note the disposition of the land and gather information of the land that lay beyond and to send him word of what he found. He sent the shipstothe island of Cuba with orders to return with provisions at a certain time. Since the principal intent of Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, who came with the governoras captain general, was to send slaves from Florida to the island of Cuba where he had his lands and his mines, and since he had made some forays and found that he could not capture any Indians because of the dense thickets and vast swamps in that

50 RELAÇOM VERDADEIRA

land, upon seeing the character of the land, he determined toreturn to Cuba. And although there was some difference between him and the governor so that they did not willingly hold anycommunication or conversation with each other, he asked him [De Soto] courteously to leave and took his departure from him. Baltasar de Gallegos reached Paracoxi and thirty Indians came to him on the part of the cacique who was absent from his town, one of whom spoke as follows: “King Paracoxi, lord of this province, whose vassals we are, sent us to your grace to learn what you seek in this his land and in what he can serve you.� Baltasar de Gallegos answered them saying that he thanked him [the cacique] heartily for his offer and that they should tell their lord that he should cometo his townand that there they could converse and make peace and friendship which he very greatly desired. The Indians went and returned next day saying that their lord was ill and on that account could not come; and that they came before him [Gallegos] to see what he ordered. He asked them if they knew or had information of any rich land where there was gold or silver. They said yes, that there was a province toward the west called Cale, and that the people of that land were hostile to others living in other lands where it was summer most of the year. That land had gold in abundance and when those people came to make war on the people of Cale, they wore hats of gold resembling helmets. When Baltasar de Gallegos perceived that the cacique did not come, as it seemed to him that all these messages were pretense, in order that he [the cacique] might meanwhile getaway safely, and fearing lest if he allowed the thirty Indians to go, they would never return, he ordered them put in chains and had the governor informed by eight horse of what was happening. At this the governor and all those in the port with him received great joy, for they believed that what the Indians said might be true. The governor left Captain Calderon in the port with thirty horse and seventy foot with food for two years. He and all the rest of the men marched inland and reached Paracoxi where Baltasar de Gallegos was, and from there, with all the men of the latter, he took the road toward Cale. He passed through a small town, Acela by name, and reached another town called Tocaste. Thence, with thirty horse and fifty foot, he went on toward Cale. As they passed

51 FIDALGO DE ELVAS

through a town which had been depopulated, they saw some Indians of that town in a shallow lake, to whom the interpreter spoke. They came and gave an Indian to act as guide. He [the governor] came to a river with a swift current and on a tree in the middle of it, a foot bridge was made on which the men crossed. The horses crossed by swimming by meansof a tackle which was drawn by those on me other side, for the first horse they drove in without it was drowned. From there, thegovernor sent two horsemen to the men who had stayed behind,ordering them to hurry for the road was long and provisions werelacking. He reached Cale and found the town without people. He seized three Indians who were spies. There he awaited the men who were coming behind, who were experiencing great hardship from hunger and bad roads, as the land was very poor in maize, low, and very wet, swampy, and covered with dense forests, and the provisionsbrought from the port were finished. Wherever any village was found, there were some blites [bredos], and he who came first gathered them and, having stewed them with water and salt, ate them without anything else. Those who could not get any of them, gathered the stalks from the maize fields which being still young had no maize, and ate them. Having reached the river which the governor had crossed, they found palm cabbages in low palm trees like those of Andalusia. There came two horse-men whom the governor had sent, who told them that there was maize in abundance in Cale; at which all were rejoiced. As soon as they reached Cale, the governor ordered all the maize which was ripe in the fields to be taken, which was enough for three months. When they were gathering this, the Indians killed three Christians, and one of two Indians who were captured told the governor that seven days’ journey farther on was a very large province with maize in abundance, called Apalache. He immediately set out from Cale with fifty horse and sixty foot, leaving the maestre de campo, Luis de Moscoso, with all the rest of the men and ordering him not to move thence until getting word from him. Inasmuch as there was no one to serve them, the bread each one had to eat, be ground in a mortar cannon or mortar made of a log, with a pestle like a window bar. Some sifted the meal through their coats of mail. The bread wasbaked in some flat pieces of earthen vessels which they set on the fire, inthe same way as I

52 RELAÇOM VERDADEIRA

have already said was done in Cuba. It is so difficult togrind that many, who would not formerly eat it unless it was ground, ate the maize parched and sodden.

Q How the governor arrived at Apalache and was informed that gold existed in abundance in the interior of the land.

O

n September the 23rd, the governor left Napetaca [sic] and went to sleep at a river where two Indians brought him a stag on the part of the cacique of Uzachil. Next day he passed through a large town called Hapaluya and went to sleep at Uzachil. He found no people there, for because of the news which the Indians had of the massacre of Napetaca they dared not remain. In the town he found an abundance of maize, beans, and pumpkins, of which their food consists, and on which the Christians lived there. Maize is like coarse millet and the pumpkins are better and more savory than those of Spain. From there the governor sent two captains, each one in a different direction, in search of the Indians. They captured a hundred head, among Indian men and women. Of the latter, there, as well as in any other part where forays were made, the captain selected one or two for the governor and the others were divided among themselves and those who went with them. These Indians they took along in chains with collars about their necks and they were used for carrying thebaggage and grinding the maize and for other services which sofastened in this manner they could perform. Sometimes it happened that when they went with them for firewood or maize they would kill the Christian who was leading them and would escape with the chain. Others at night would file the chain off with a bit of stone which they have in place of iron tools, and

53 FIDALGO DE ELVAS

with which they cut it. Those who were caught at it paid for themselves and for those others, so that on another day they might not dare do likewise. As soon as the women and young children were a hundred leagues from their land, having become unmindful, they were taken along unbound, and served in that way, and in a very short time learned thelanguage of the Christians. Thegovernor left Uzachil for Apalache and, in a march of two days, reached a town called Axille. And because the Indians had not heard of the Christians, they were careless, [but] most of them escaped because the town wassurrounded by a forest. On the morning of the next day, October first, the governor left there and ordered a bridge to be built over a river where he had to cross. It was necessary to swim for a stone’s throw where the bridge was built, andbeyond that a crossbow-shot’s distance the water came up to the waist.

And there was a very high, thick wood through which theIndians would come to see if they could prevent the passage and those who were building the bridge. The crossbow-men came to their aid and made the Indians take to flight. Some timbers were put in over which some men passed which assured the crossing. The governor crossed over on Wednesday, the day of St. Francis. He went to sleep at a town called Vitachuco which was subject to Palache.

He found it burn-ing, for the Indians had set fire to it. Beyond that place, the land was very populous and maize abounded. He passed through many open districts like villages. On Sunday, October 25, he arrived at a town called Uzela, and on Monday, at Anhaica Apalache where the lord of all that land and province lived. In that town, the maestre de campo, whose office it is to allot and provide lodgings, lodged them all. Within a league and a half league about that town were other towns where there was abundance of maize, pumpkins, beans, and dried plums native to the land, which are better than those of Spain and grow wild in the fields without being planted. Food which seemed sufficient to last over the winter was gathered together from those towns on into Anhaica Apalache. The governor was informed that the sea was ten leagues from there. He immediately sent a captain and some horse and foot, and after going six leagues the captain found a town called Ochete. He reached the sea and found a large tree which had been cut down and made into troughs [couchos] fixed with

54 RELAÇOM VERDADEIRA

some posts which were used as mangers and saw skulls of horses.

With this message he came and what they said of Narvaez was considered true, namely, that he had there built the boats with which he left that land and in which he was lost at sea. The governor immediately sent Juan de Añasco with thirty horses to the port of Espiritu Santo, where Calderón was, ordering them to abandon that port and all to go to Apalache. He [Añasco] set out on Friday, November 17.

In Uzachil and at other towns on the way, he [Añasco] found many people already careless. He would not capture Indians in order not to be detained, for it did not suit him to give theIndians time to assemble. He passed through the towns at night and rested for three or four hours at a distance from habitation. In ten days he reached the port, brought twenty Indian wom-en whom he captured in Utara and Potano near Cale, sent them to Doña Isabel in two caravels which he sent from the port to Cuba, and brought all the men of foot in the brigantines, coasting along toward Palache.

Calderón with the men of horse and some foot crossbow-men went by land. In some places, the Indians attacked him and wounded some of his men. As soon as they reached Apalache, the governor immediately ordered planks hewn and spikes taken to the sea, with which was built a piragua large enough to hold thirty well-armed men who went by way of the bay to the sea and coasted about waiting for the brigantines. Several times they fought with Indians who were going along the keys in canoes. On Saturday, November 29, an Indian came through the sentinels without being seen and set fire to the town; and because of the high wind blowing, two-thirds of it were quickly burned. On Sunday, the 28th of December, Juan de Añasco arrived with the brigantines. The governor sent Francisco Maldonado, captain of the foot soldiers, with fifty men to coast along toward the west and look for a port, for he had decided to go by land in order to explore in thatdirection. On that day, eight horse, by order of the governor, went out into the open country for two leagues about the town to look for Indians; for now the latter had become so daring that they would come within two crossbow-shots of the camp to kill the men. They found two Indians and one Indian woman gathering beans. Although the men could have escaped, in order not to abandon the Indian woman who was the wife of one of them, they resolved to die fighting. Before being killed they

55 FIDALGO DE ELVAS

wounded three horses, one of which died a few days afterward.

Calderรณn with his men marched along the seacoast. From a wood close to the sea some Indians came out to attack him and forced him to leave the road, and many of those with him to abandon some necessary food they were carrying. Three or four days after the time limit set by the governor to Maldonado for going and coming (although he had planned and determined not to await him longer if he did not come within a week from that time), he [Maldonado] came and brought an Indian from a province called Ochus, sixty leagues from Apalache, where he had found a port of good depth and sheltered. And because he hoped to find farther on a good land, the governor was very happy and sent Maldonado to Havana for provisions with orders to wait at the port of Ochus which he [Maldonado] had discovered; and that he [the governor] would go overland in search of it; and that if he [the governor] were delayed and should not go [to that port] that summer he [Maldonado] should return to the Havana, and the next summer return to wait at the port, for he [the governor] would do nothing else than goin search of Ochus. Francisco Maldonado went and Juan de Guzmรกn remained in his stead as captain of the foot soldiers of his company. From among the Indians captured at Napetuca, the treasurer, Juan de Gaytรกn, brought along a youth who said that he was not of that land, but that he was from another very distant one lying in the direction of the sunrise, and that some time ago he had come in order to visit [other] lands; that his land was called Yupaha and a woman ruledit; that the town where she lived was of wonderful size; and that the chieftainess collected tribute from many of her neighboring chiefs, some of whom gave her clothing and others gold in abundance. He told how it was taken from the mines, melted, and refined, just as if he had seen it done, or else the devil taught him; so that all who knew anything of this said it was impossible to give so good an account of it unless one had seen it; and all when they saw the signs he made believed whatever he said to be true.

56 RELAร OM VERDADEIRA

Read “Gentleman from Elvas.”

True Relation of the Hardships Suffered by Governor Hernando de Soto & Certain Portugues Gentlemen during the Discovery of the Province of Florida [Relaçam Verdadeira, 1557].

Transl. by James Alexander Robertson.

From The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539-1543.

Further Reading Galloway, Patricia (ed.). The Hernando De Soto Expedition.

U Nebraska P, 1997. Print Clayton, Lawrence A., Vernon James Knight, Jr., and Edward C. Moore (eds.)

The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539-1543. Tuscaloosa: U Alabama P, 1993.

GARCILASO DE LA VEGA, THE “INCA,” WAS BORN APRIL 12TH, 1539 Gómez Suárez de Figueroa. His father was conquistador-captain Sebastian Garcilaso de la Vega y Vargas; his mother was Isabel Suarez Chimpu Ocllo, an Incan princess and concubine to the Spanish captain.

The mother’s status as Inca princess did not prevent Sebastian Garcilaso from marrying Isabel off to a commoner, and Garcilaso de la Vega was one of the first Peruvian mestizos. Both sides of the family took care to ensure that he was exposed to the traditions of their respective cultures.

At twenty-one years of age, with an inheritance from his father, the future author traveled to Spain. Later financial and political difficulties kept him from returning to the New World, and he would focus his energies for the remainder of his life on writing, eventually publishing several important historical chronicles. He translated Leon Hebreo’s philosophical treatise on Platonic love, Dialoghi d’amore, into Spanish as well as authoring The Comentarios Reales de los Incas, where he writes of indigenous culture through the eyes of a Spanish educated mestizo. He also published The Florida of the Inca in 1605 (excerpted below), Garcilaso’s account of the De Soto expedition contains quite a bit of elaboration. He often interjects with his own personal story trying to add depth or reason for Native or Spanish motives. Although, not held as the most reliable account of the expedition it is often considered the most detailed and dramatic.

Amelia Zimmerman, University of South Florida St. Petersburg

A LA FLORIDA A EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

M The Governor arrives in Florida and finds traces of Pamphilo de Narvaez

G

overnor Hernando De Soto, who, as we have said, was sailing in search of Florida, first sighted land in that kingdom on the last day of May. He had been nineteen days at sea because of unfavorable weather, but his ships now anchored in a good, deep bay which the Spaniards name`d the Bay of the Holy Spirit [Tampa Bay]. It being late afternoon when the armada arrived, no one disembarked, but on the following day, which was the first of June, some went ashore in small boats. They returned with their vessels loaded with grass for the horses and with many unripe grapes from vines found growing wild in the forests. The grape is not cul-tivated by the natives of this great kingdom of Florida, and they do not care as much for it as do people of other nations, but they will eat it when it is very ripe or has been dried.

Our men were extremely happy over these fine specimens of the fruit, for they were similar to those grown in Spain, the like of which they had not found in Mexico or in the whole of Peru.

On the second of June, the Governor ordered three hundred foot-soldiers ashore to perform the solemn act of taking possession of Florida in the name of the Emperor Charles V, King of Spain. This procedure completed, these men passed the rest of the day walking along the coast, and that night slept on land. As yet they had seen nothing of the natives, but at the third or dawn watch, the Indians burstup-on them with such audacity and force as to compel them to retreat to the edge of the water. Meanwhile, however, they sounded an alarm,

and both men and horses came from the ships to aid them as quickly as if they too had been on land.

Lieutenant General Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, who commanded the assistance, found these foot soldiers very much upset and confused, for like raw recruits, they had got in eachother’s way while fighting, and some already had been wounded by arrows. With the advent of help, however, all pursued the Indians for a good while and then returned to their quarters. But hardly had they arrived there when Vasco Porcallo’s horse fell dead from the effects of an arrow. Striking above the saddle, the missile had passed through the cloth, saddle tree, and pack saddle; and more than a third of it had penetrated the ribs of the animal to the very cavity of its body. Vasco Porcallo, however, was exceedingly pleased that the first horse to be used in the conquest and the first lance to be employed in the first skirmish should have been his.

On this and the following day, the Spaniards disembarked both animals and men. Then when they had rested for eight or nine days and had put everything in order pertaining to their ships, they marched inland a little more than two leagues to the town of a cacique known as Hirrihigua. When Pamphilo de Narvaez had gone to conquer that province, he had waged war with Hirrihigua and later he had converted the Indian to friendship; then for some unknown reason, he had committed certain abuses against the Cacique which are of too odious a nature to be told here. It suffices to say that because of those offenses, Hirrihigua was now so fearful of the Spaniards and so consumed with bitterness toward them that on learning of Hernando De Soto’s arrival in his land he left both his house and village unprotected and fled to the forest. And although the Governor sent him gifts, endearments and promises by means of certain of his vassals whom the Spaniards had captured, still he refused to come out and make peace or even listen to any messages. Instead his anger was aroused at those of his vassals serving as envoys, and he ordered them to refrain from doing so, since they were aware of the manner in which he had been hurt and offended by the Spanish nation. He would willingly receive the heads of these Castilians, he said, but he wanted to hear nothing more of their names and words.

All such things and more abuse can bring about, particularly if it is committed against someone who has given no offense. But in order to present a better picture of the rage Hirrihigua felt for

the Castilians, it will be well to show here some of the cruelties and martyrdoms he himsel had inflicted upon four of Pamphilo de Narvaez men whom he succeeded in capturing. To a certain extent we may be digressing; yet we will not be leaving the main purpose of the story, and the digression will contribute much to the value of our history.

Know then that some days after Pamphilo de Narvaez had done what we have mentioned and had departed from the land of Hirihigua, one of his ships, which had stopped elswhere, happened to call at this same bay in search of its captain. On ascertaining the identity and purpose of the vessel, the Cacique resolved to seize every man aboard and burn him alive. Therefore, with the idea of instilling confidence in them, he pretended to be a friend of their captain, sending them word that Pamphilo de Narvaez had indeed been in that place, and moreover had left a message with him as to what their ship should do if it too should call there. Then to persuade them to belief, he disclosed from land two or three sheets of white paper and some old letters which he had obtained from Spaniards in former times by friendly means, or however it may have been, and in the interim had guarded very carefully. But in spite of all of Hirrihigua’s manifestations, the men aboard ship were very cautious and refused to disembark. Then the Cacique sent out a canoe with four principal Indians, saying that he was offering these lords and cavaliers as hostages and security so that those Spaniards who wished to come ashore and learn of their captain, Pamphilo de Narvaez, might do so. (It seems inappropriate to employ the term cavalier, or caballero, in referring to Indians because they possessed no horses, or caballos, from which word the name is deduced; but since in Spain this term implies a nobleman and since there is a nobility among the Indians, it may be used likewise in speaking of them.) And he added that if they were not reassured thereby, he would send more pledges. On witnessing the apparent good faith of the chieftain, four Spaniards set out in the canoe with those Indians who had brought the hostages. The Cacique had hoped for all of them; still when he saw that only these few were coming, he resolved not to insist on more lest the four be offended and return to their ship. As soon as the Indian hostages saw the Christians on land and in the hands of their

62 LA FLORIDA

people, they plunged into the sea, and diving far below the surface, swam like fish to the shore, thus fulfilling the instructions of their chieftain. Meanwhile, the Spaniards on board ship, finding themselves “fooled,” sailed out of the bay before anything worse could befall them, very much grieved, however, at having lost their four companions so indiscreetly.

c The Totrtures which an Indian chief inflicted upon a Spaniard who was his slave

T

he Cacique Hirrihigua now ordered that the four Spaniards be guarded most cautiously so that with their death his Indians might solemnize a great feast which according to the rites of paganism they expected to celebrate within a few days.

Then with the arrival of that festival, he commanded that the captives be taken naked to the plaza and there made to run in turn from one side to the other while the Indians shot arrows at them as if they were wild beasts but to delay further the death and increase the agonies of their victims, and at the same time to prolong and enliven their own festivity and enjoyment, they were to discharge only a few arrows at a time. Three of the Spaniards were tortured in this manner and Hirrihigua received a great amount of pleasure and delight as he watched them flee in all directions, searching for a refuge which they found only in death. But when the Indians wanted to bring out the fourth, a native of Seville named Juan Ortiz, who was scarcely eighteen years of age, the Cacique’s wife came with her three daughters and, standing before her husband, begged that he becontent with the death of the three captives and pardon the fourth. Since he and his companions had not come to that land with Pamphilo de Narvaez and therefore were guiltless of the wickedness perpetrated by their

63 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

predecessors. This particular boy, she said, was deserving of forgiveness because of his tender age, which gave proof of his Innocence and pled for compassion; and since he had committed no crime; it was therefore enough that he remain with them as a slave and not be destroyed so cruelly. In an effort to make his wife and daughters happy, the Cacique for the time being spared the life of Juan Ortiz; but afterward he tortured him so grievously and bitterly that the boy frequently was moved to envy his three dead companions. The ceaseless labor of carrying firewood and water was so strenuous, the eating and sleeping were so infrequent, and the daily slaps, blows, and lashes as well as other torments given him on feast days were so cruel that he many times would have sought relief in suicide had he not been a Christian.

For in addition to daily tortures, Hirrihigua on numerous occasions of celebration, just as a diversion, ordered the boy to run continuously the entire day in the long plaza where his comrades had been slain. He himself went out to watch, taking his noblemen, who carried bows and arrows with which to kill the captive at any time he should pause. Thus Juan Ortiz began at sunrise and continued from one side or the plaza to the other until sunset, these being the time limits allotted by the Indians for him to run and even when Hirrihigua went away to eat, he left his cavaliers to watch the youth so that they might slay him in the event he should stop. Then when the day was over, this sad boy lay extended on the ground, more dead than alive, as one can imagine. But on such occasions as these, he received the compassion of the chieftain’s wife and daughters, who took him and clothed him and did other things which helped to sustain his life, although it would have been better had they deprived him of it and thereby freed him from his many tasks. Hirrihigua now realized that such numerous and continuous torments were not sufficient to destroy Juan Ortiz, and his hatred for him increased by the hour. So to finish with the youth he gave the order on a certain feast day to kindle a great fire in the center of the plaza, and when he saw many live coals made, he commanded that they be spread out and that over them there be placed a grill like wooden structure which stood a yard above the ground, and upon which they should put his captive in order to roast him alive. Thus it was done, and here the poor Spaniard,

64 LA FLORIDA

after being tied to the grill, lay stretched out on one side for a long time. But at the shrieks of the miserable youth, the wife and daughters of the Cacique rushed up, and, pleading with their lord and even scolding him for his cruelty, removed the boy from the fire, not, however, before he was half-baked and blisters that looked like halves of oranges had formed on one of his sides.

Some of these blisters burst and much blood ran from them, so that they were painful to behold. Hirrihigua overlooked what his wife and daughters were doing because they were women whom he loved deeply, and possibly also because he wanted someone on whom he later might vent his wrath and exercise his vengeance. And although Juan Ortiz provided less occasion for vengeance than the chieftain desired still he was amused with that little. Thus he many times expressed his regret that he had destroyed the other three Spaniards so precipitately. The women, on the contrary, had time and again repented of having saved Juan Ortiz from death on the first occasion since they had seen how long and cruel his daily torments had been. But being moved to great compassion on beholding him in his present state, they took him to their lodging and treated him with the juices of herbs (for having no doctors, both Indian men and women are great herbalists). Hence after many days, Juan Ortiz recovered, although the burns from the fire left great scars. Wishing to free himself from the sight of his captive as he now was and at the same time from the bother of the please of his wife and daughters, the Cacique ordered to be inflicted upon the youth another torment which, though not so grave as those in the past, would keep him from idleness. This was that day and night he should guard the remains of dead citizens placed in a designated section of a forest that lay at a distance from the town. These bodies had been put above the ground in some wooden chests which served as sepulchres. The chests had no hinges and could be closed only by covering them with boards and then placing rocks or beams of wood on top of the boards. Since the Indians were not cautious about guarding their dead, the lions; which are numerous in that country sometimes robbed the chests and carried away the bodies, thus creating a situation which grieved and angered these people exceedingly. So it was that the Cacique now ordered Juan Ortiz to guard the place carefully, and he threatened and swore that

65 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

should any corpse or any part of one be borne away, he would bake the Spaniard alive, this time without any remedy. Then as a means of protecting the sepulchres, he gave the youth four darts to throw at the lions or any other wild beasts that might come to desecrate the place. Thanking God for having delivered him from the continuous presence of his master, Juan Ortiz now went to guard the dead, hoping to find with them a better life than he had found with the living. And he did watch these bodies with the utmost care, especially at night, since it was then that the risk was greater. But it happened that on one of these nights when he was thus occupied, he found himself unable to resist sleep and consequently succumbed in the dawn watch, this being the hour at which sleep ordinarily shows its greatest force against those who keep vigil. At this time a lion came to the place of the dead, and knocking down the covers of one of the chests, seized and bore away the body of a child which had been laid there only two days previously.

Juan Ortiz was awakened by the noise of the falling boards, and when on rushing to the chest he failed to find the body, he considered himself as good as dead. Nevertheless in his anxiety and anguish he did not waver in his duty and determined instead to go in search of the lion; for he vowed that on running across it, he would recover the remains of the child or die at the hands of the beast. At the same time, however, he commended himself to God, invoking His name and making his confessions, for he was confident that when the Indians came at dawn to visit the sepulchres and failed to find the body of the child, they would burn him alive. As he moved here and there through the forest, haunted by the fear of death, he came out upon a broad road and proceeded for a little while down the middle of it, for impossible as escape was, he had made up his mind to flee. Then in the woods not far from where he was walking, he heard a sound much like that of a dog gnawing bones. Listening carefully, he made certain of the sound and suspecting that it might be the lion devouring the stolen corpse, groped his way through the underbrush toward the spot from whence it was coming. Presently in the light of the moon, which was shining, although dimly, he saw the beast nearby, feeding at its pleasure upon the remains of the

66 LA FLORIDA

child. Calling upon God and mustering courage, Juan Ortiz hurled a dart. At the moment he did not see what kind of throw he had made because of the underbrush; still, he felt that his marksmanship had not been bad because his hand was salty, and there was a saying among hunters that one’s hands were thus when he had made a successful shot at wild beasts in the night. Encouraged now by this hope, slight as it was, and by the fact that he had not heard the lion flee from the spot to which he had directed his dart Juan Ortiz, now awaited the coming of dawn, trusting in Our Lord to succor him in his necessity.

p A continuation of the miserable life of the capture, How he fled from his master

W

ith the light of day, Juan Ortiz verified the good throw made blindly in the night, for he discovered the lion lying dead, pierced through the center of its heart and entrails (as was afterward seen when its carcass was opened). The sight was more that he could believe so with a joy that can be imagined more easily than described, he gathered up the uneaten remnants of the child’s body and returned them to the chest. Then seizing the dead beast by one foot, he dragged it to his master without removing the dart so that the Cacique could see the animal just as he himself had found it. Hirrihigua and his whole village were greatly amazed at what Juan Ortiz had accomplished, for in that land it is generally considered miraculous to kill a lion, and he who happens to do so is treated thereafter with great veneration and respect. Since this creature is so savage, people everywhere should be held in high esteem for destroying it, especially if, as in the case of Juan Ortiz, they do so without benefit of arquebus or crossbow. It is true that the

67 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

lions of Florida, Mexico and Peru are not so large or so wild as those of Africa, but after all they are lions and the name is enough. Even though there is a common saying to the effect that these animals are not so fierce as they are painted, nevertheless those who have found themselves in the proximity of them insist that live lions are much fiercer than painted ones, no matter how lifelike the painting may be. With the good fortune of Juan Ortiz, the Cacique’s wife and daughters became even more daring and courageous in their efforts to persuade their lord to exonerate the youth completely and give him tasks that would be both honorable and worthy of his strength and valor. And thenceforward for a few days, Hirrihigua did treat his slave better, being motivated as much by the admiration and esteem the people of his house and town had bestowed upon him as by the fact that he had performed a deed which was not only valiant but one that the Indians in their superstition had come to venerate as something sacred and even superhuman. Nevertheless outrage knows no forgiveness, and each time that Hirrihigua recalled that Spaniards had cast his mother to the dogs and permitted them to feed upon her body, and each time that he attempted to blow his nose and failed to find it, the Devil seized him with the thought of avenging himself on Juan Ortiz, as if that young man personally had deprived him of his nostrils. The very sight of this Spaniard always brought past offenses before his eyes, and such memories increased each day his anger and lust for retribution.

So although Hirrihigua for some time restrained these passions, he now was unable to resist them. Thus one day he informed his wife and daughters that he could no longer suffer the Christian to live. For, he said, he found the life of this man very odious and abominable and could not view him without experiencing a revival of past grievances and without feeling offended anew; and it was therefore his command that unless they were willing to share the same anger, they should in no manner intercede further for the Christian. Then he added that in order to end completely with his slave he had made up his mind that on such and such a feast day soon to be celebrated, the Indians should shoot the Spaniard with arrows and slay him just as they had slain his companions.

This, he said, was to be done in spite of Juan Ortiz’ bravery, for

68 LA FLORIDA

such bravery being that of an enemy should be abhorred rather than esteemed.

Perceiving the anger of the Cacique, the women realized that further intercession was useless, and moreover that it had been rude for them to importune and pain their lord so extensively in behalfof his slave. So they ventured no word in contradiction, instead hastening with female astuteness to agree that he should by all means proceed with his plan since such was his pleasure. But a few days before the approaching celebration, the eldest daughter, in order to carry out an idea of her own, secretly notified Juan Ortiz of her father’s decision against him, warning at the same time that neither she nor her mother and sisters would or could prevail upon Hirrihigua since he had imposed silence upon them in regard to his prisoner andhad threatened them should they violate his restriction. To this sad news, however, the maiden in her desire to encourage the Spaniard added some words of quite another character. “Lest you lose faith in me and despair of your life or doubt that I will do everything in my power to save you,” she said, “I will assist you to escape and find refuge if you are a man and have the courage to flee. For tonight, if you will come at a certain hour to a certain place, you will find an Indian in whom I shall entrust both your welfare and mine. This man will guide you to a bridge two leagues distant; but when you arrive there, you must command him to go no further and instead to return before dawn to this village lest he be missed and by revealing my rashness as well as his own cause both of us to suffer for having given you aid. Six leagues beyond the bridge there is another town, the lord of which is Mucozo, a man who loves me exceedingly and desires my hand in marriage. You will tell him that I am sending you in my name so that he may help you in your need.

I know that, being the person he is, he will do everything he can for you, as you shall see. And now commend yourself to your God, for there is no more that I can do in your behalf.”

Juan Ortiz threw himself at the feet of the maiden in gratitude for this favor and benefit as well as for all of her kindnesses both past and present. Then he made preparations to flee during the coming night. At the appointed hour, when everyone in the Cacique’s household was asleep, he sought out the promised guide and they departed from the town without being heard. When they reached the

69 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

bridge and the youth learned that there was no further possibility of his losing his way before coming to the town of Mucozo, he instructed his companion to return at once with the utmost caution to his home.

a The magnanimity of the Curaca or Cacique Mucozo to whom the captive was entrusted

F

ugitive now, Juan Ortiz arrived before dawn at the place he was seeking, but he dared not enter lest he create a disturbance. Then when it was day he saw two Indians coming out of the town by the same path he himself was pursuing.

These men wanted to shoot at him, for the people of Florida are always armed; but Juan Ortiz, being armed also, put an arrow to his bow to defend himself and even to take the offense. Oh, how much a small favor can do, especially if it be the favor of a lady; for we now see that he who only a short time previously feared death and knew not where to hide, now dared mete it out with his own hands simply because he had seen himself assisted by a beautiful, discreet, and generous young maid-en, But such a favor does exceed all other human kindness.

Mustering his courage and strength and even his arrogance Juan Ortiz disclosed that he was no enemy but merely a messenger sent by a lady to the lord of that land. On hearing him, the Indians withheld their arrows and then conducted him to the town where they informed their Cacique that Hirrihigua’s slave had come with a message for him. This news having been made known to Mucozo (or Mocozo, for it is the same name), he came to the plaza to receive the Christian’s words.Then Juan Ortiz, after having saluted the chieftain as best he knew how according to native customs, gave a brief account of the martyrdoms he had suffered at the hands of his master in testimony of which he revealed

70 LA FLORIDA

the scarsfrom the burns, blows, and other injuries he had received.

He told how Hirrihigua at last had determined to kill him for the purpose of enlivening a certain feast day that was approaching, and how that Cacique’s wife and daughters, who had saved him so many times prevously, dared not speak now in his behalf since they had been forbidden to do so under penalty of their lord’s wrath. “But the eldest daughter,” he continued, “not wanting to see me perish, commanded and gave me courage as a last resort to flee. She provided a guide to direct me to your town and your lodging, and told meto present myself before you in her name, saying that she begs Your Lordship, for the love that you bear her, to receive me under your protection and, being the person you are, to favor me as something she herself has entrusted to you.”

Mucozo received the Christian affably and listened with compassion to his account of the sufferings and torments he had experienced, evidences of which were clearly revealed by the scars on his body, for he was dressed as the Indians of that land in no more than some loin cloths. At this point in the story Alonso de Carmona adds that the Cacique embraced Juan Ortiz and kissed him on the face as a sign of peace. Moreover, he as-sured him of his welcome and urged him to make an effort to forget the fear of his former existence; for, he said, in his house and company he would find life very different from what he had known previously. “In order to serve the one who sent you as well as yourself who have come to me and my house for protection,” he continued, “I will do all that I can, as you shall see by my actions; and you may be certain that so long as I shall live, no one will take the occasion to molest you.”

All the promises this good Cacique made in favor of Juan Ortiz, he fulfilled; and he did much more, for immediately he appointed him his chamberlain and carried him in his company day and night. He bestowed many honors upon him and increased these honors exceedingly when he learned that Juan Ortiz had killed a lion with a single dart. In sum he treated him as his own brother, but as a very much beloved brother (for there are some brothers who love each other like fire and water).

Hirrihigua suspected that his slave had fled to his neighbor for protection, and he many times asked for his return; but on each occasion Mucozo excused himself, finally telling the Cacique among other things that the loss of a slave so odious to him was a small

71 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

loss indeed and that he should cease molesting that slave now that he had sought protection in his neighbor’s house. Then Hirrihigua asked the assistance of Urribarracuxi, a brother-in-law of Mucozo, but when that chieftain sent messages concerning the release of the captive, Mucozo gave the same reply. Furthermore, he did not vary in his decision when Urribarracuxi, after finding his messages futile, came to him in person. On the contrary, he angrily informed his brother-in-law that it was unjust for a kinsman to demand that, he do a thing so unbefitting to his honor and reputation. And he added that if performing his duty meant delivering up an afflicted person who had been entrusted to his care just so that person’s enemy might torture and kill him like a wild beast solely for entertainment and pleasure, then he would continue remiss in his obligation. Indeed this Cacique defended Juan Ortiz with such generosity against the two chief-tains who sought him so persistently and obstinately that rather than return the slave to be slaughtered by his former master, he chose to abandon all possibility of a marriage with Hirrihigua’s daughter, whom he ardently desired and subsequently lost, and at the same time to forfeit his friendship and kinship with Urribarracuxi. Moreover, he continued to hold the Christianin high esteem and to regale him until the coming of Governor Hernando de Soto to Florida.

Juan Ortiz was ten years among those Indians. For a year and a half he was in the power of Hirrihigua; but the remainder of the time he spent with the good Mucozo, who although a barbarian, behaved toward this Christian in a manner far different from that of the famous Triumvirate of Laino (a place near Bologna), which made a never-sufficiently abominated proscription and agrement to exchange relatives, friends and protectors for enemies and adversaries. And too, his behavior was much more admirable than that of other Christian princes who since then have made bargains equally odious, if not more so, when one considers the innocence of those delivered up, the rank of some of them, and the fidelity which their deliverers should have had and respected.

For the betrayed were infidels, whereas their betrayers took pride in the name and doctrines of Christianity. Violating the laws and statutes of pagan realms, disrespecting the very existence and rank of kings and great princes, and valuing even less their

72 LA FLORIDA

sworn and promised fidelity (a thing unworthy of such a name), these Christians, solely to avenge their anger, exchanged people who had not offended them for those who had, thus giving up the innocent for the guilty.

To this fact both ancient and modern histories testify, but we shall abandon this subject lest we offend powerful ears and grieve the pious. It suffices to represent the magnanimity of an infidel so that if possible surpass him not in infidelity as some do who are undeserving of the title of Christian, But in virtue and similar excellences; for being of a more lofty estate, they are under greater obligations. In fact, when one has considered well the circumstances of this Indian’s valiant deed, the people for whom and against whom it was performed, and the great amount he was willing to foregoand forfeit, even proceeding contrary to his own love and desire by denying the aid and the factor asked of and promised by him, it will be seen that he was born with a most ge-nerous and heroic spirit and did not deserve to have come into the world and lived in the barbarous paganism of Florida. But God and human nature many times produce such souls in sterile and uncultivated deserts to the greater confusion and shame of people who are born and reared in lands that are fertile and abundant in all good doct-rines and sciences, as well as the Christian religion.

3 The Governor sends for Juan Ortiz

H

aving made certain that Juan Ortiz was indeed in the power of Mucozo, the Governor concluded that it would be wiseto send for him; first, to remove him from the hands of the Indians, and then to provide the army with a much needed interpreter whom he could trust. For the purpose, he selected Baltasar de Gallegos, a native of Seville, who served as

73 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

high constable of both the fleet and the army, but who because of his great virtue, strength and courage really deserved to command an even greater force than the present one. “Go now to Mucozo with a squadron of sixty lancers,” he said to this cavalier, “and tell him how grateful I and my whole company of Spaniards are for the honors and benefits he has conferred upon Juan Ortiz, and how much I desire to be offered an occasion to requite them.

Moreover say that since I have need of the Christian for some things of great import, I beseech that he be returned to me and that when the Cacique should find it convenient to come and visit me, I should be most pleased to know him and would regard him as a friend.” With his sixty lancers and an Indian guide, Baltasar de Gallegos thereupon left the camp to execute the Governor’s command.

The Cacique Mucozo, for his part, having learned that Governor Hernando de Soto had arrived with a great force of men and horses to seize land near that of his own and fearing now that these Spaniards would do him harm, resolved, with prudence and good advice, to fore-stall the evil that might be visited upon him. So summoning Juan Ortiz, he addressed him as follows: “You should know, my brother, that inthe town of your good friend Hirrihigua there is a Spanish captain who comes with a thousand warriors and many horses to seize this land. You are indeed aware of what I have done for you, how in order to save you from that person who held you in slavery and wanted to deprive you of life, I chose to incur the enmity of my relatives and neighbors rather than comply with what they asked me to do to your harm. A time and occasion has now arisen wherein you can repay me for my hospitality, largess and friendship; and although I have never once done anything for you with expectancy of reward, Fortune makes it prudent that I at this time take advantage of the opportunity offered me in your person. Go therefore to the Spanish general and request in my name as well as your own, that as a recompense for the favor I have rendered him and all of his nation through my kindness to you (since I would dothe same for each of them), he not deem it expedient to do meharm in this little land of mine, and that he deign to receive me into his fellowship and service. Say also that I henceforward offer him my person, house and state so that he may place my

74 LA FLORIDA

land under his protection and favor. And that you may be accompanied in a style befitting both your station and mine, take with you fifty gentlemen of my household and look out for them and for me as our friendship obligates you to do.�

Rejoicing over this fortunate news and inwardly thanking God for it, Juan Ortiz expressed great pleasure that a time and occasion should have arisen wherein he might render servicefor the mercy and benefits bestowed upon him-not only for life itself but in addition for the extensive favor, esteem and honor he had received as a result of Mucozo’s great virtue and courtesy. Then he promised to give a liberal account of all such things to the Spanish Captain and his men that they too might in turn express their gratitude and make recompense with what he at present was going to ask of them in the Cacique’s behalf and also with whatever might arise in the future. He was quite confident, he said, that that Captain would comply with his request since the Spanish nation prided itself on being a people who felt gratitude for anything that might be done in the service of their countrymen. Surely, therefore, the Cacique might hope to succeed in the petition he was sending. With that, the fifty Indians came whom Mucozo had ordered to be made ready, and together with Juan Ortiz set out on the highway joining the two towns.They departed on the same day that Baltasar de Gallegos left the camp to go in search of the captive. Now it happened that when the Spaniards had traveled more than three leagues along this broad, straight road leading to the town of Mucozo, their Indian guide decided that it was not very clever for him to exercise so much fidelity with men who had come to deprive his people of their lands and liberty, and who from far back had shown themselves to be declared enemies, although the present army up until this point had caused them no grievances of which they could complain. So he changed his mind about directing these men, and the first path which he saw crossing and leaving the highway he took; then after pursuing this path for a short distance, he lost it, for it was not continuous. Thus for a great part of the day, he misled these Spaniards, directing them always in an arc toward the sea, for it was his purpose to come by chance upon some marsh, creek or bay where, if possible, he would drown them. Being unacquainted with the land, the Castilians were not aware of the deception until one of their number on arriving at a clear

75 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

wood glanced through the trees and by chance saw the main topsails of the ships they had left behind in the bay. Realizing now that they were near the coast, this man hastened to inform the Captain of his discovery.

The perfidy of his guide having been disclosed, Baltasar de Gallegos threatened him with death and made a gesture as if to run him through with a lance. Fearing that the Spaniards might indeed kill him, the Indian, with whatever signs and words he could muster, indicated his willingness to take them once more to the main road, explaining, however, that it was necessary to go back over all of the places they had passed since leaving it. And this they did, returning through the same passages in search of the high.

# What happened between Juan Ortiz and the Spaniards who were seeking him

F

ollowing the highway, Juan Ortiz came to the path where Baltasar de Gallegos and his cavaliers had been led astray.

Then being suspicious of what had come to pass and fearful lest the Castilians had taken some other route and thus eventually would harm Mucozo’s town, he consulted his companions as to what should be done. All agreed that they must hasten as quickly as possible along the tracks left by the horses, and that lest they wander aimlessly they should never deviate from these tracks until such time as they had overtaken the Spaniards.

Now since the Indians were following the Spaniards and since the latter were returning over the same route they had taken, each caught sight of the other upon a great plain which was fringed along one side by a dense forest. On beholding the Castilians, the Indians told Juan Ortiz that it would be wise for them to secure

76 LA FLORIDA

their lives and persons by taking refuge among the trees until such time as the Christians should recognize them as friends, for since these people regarded them as enemies, they might lance them in the open field. But Juan Ortiz refused to heed their good counsel, being confident that since he was a Spaniard, his countrymen would recognize him the moment they be held him — as if he had been attired in Spanish clothes or something else that might differentiate him, instead of being equipped as he was like the natives with nothing but some loin cloths on his body, a bow and arrows in his hand, and for ornament, plumage half a fathom in height upon his head.

Inexperienced and anxious to fight, the Castilians, on catching sight of the Indians, assailed them in full force despite the shouts of their captain who sought vainly to hold them incheck. But who can do anything with raw recruits when they are disordered? Meanwhile the natives on perce1V1ng with what boldness and deliberateness the Spaniards came after them, plunged into the forest, none of their group remaining except Juan Ortiz and a lone Indian who had been a little less hasty than his comrades about seeking shelter.

This particular Indian was overtaken in the bushes skirting the edge of the forest and wounded with a lance blow in the loin by Francisco de Morales, a native of Seville who had seen service in Italy. Juan Ortiz, on the other hand, was attacked by Alvaro Nieto, a native of Alburquerque, who was one of the strongest and most robust men in the entire Spanish army. Closing with the captive, this Spaniard thrust vigorously at him with his lance, but Juan Ortiz possessed good fortune as well as skill; for beating down the weapon with his bow and at the same time leaping aside, he was able to avoid both the lance and an encounter with the horse of his assailant.

Then perceiving Alvaro Nieto turning again upon him, he cried in a loud voice, “Xivilla, Xivilla,” by which he intended to say, “Sevilla, Sevilla.” In describing the incident, Juan Coles adds that failing in his efforts to speak Castilian, Juan Ortiz made a sign of the cross with his hand and his bow so that his opponent might recognize him as a Christian.

Since there had been little or no opportunity for Juan Ortiz to speak Castilian among the Indians, he had forgotten even so much as how to pronounce the name of his native land. But I shall be able to say the same of myself, for having found no person

77 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

in Spain with whom I may speak my mother tongue, which is the one generally used in Peru (although the Incas have a special language that they employ in speaking among themselves), I have so forg-otten it that I cannot construe a sentence of as many as six or seven words which will convey my meaning, and I cannot remember many of the Indian terms necessary to name such and such an object. This language having been the idiom of the court, and the Incas having been the chief courtiers, they speak it most excellently and better than all others; and I, as the son of an Inca princess and the nephew of Inca princes, know how to speak it as well if not better and more eloquently than those Indians who are not Incas. But even though it is true that I would understand all that were said should I hear an Inca speak, since I would remember the meaning of forgotten words, still, try as I may, I cannot tell of my own accord what certain words are. Thus I have found through experience that one learns the words of a strange language by using them, but that he likewise forgets those of his own language by failing to use them.

But let us return to Juan Ortiz, whom we left in great danger of being destroyed by those who of all others desired to see him alive. When Alvaro Nieto heard the captive shout “Xivilla,� he inquired if he were Juan Ortiz, and on the latter’s answering in the affirmative, he seized him with one arm and threw him across the haunches of his horse as if he had been a child, for this good soldier was robust and strong. Over-joyed at having found the man he was seeking, he thanked God that he had not killed him, for he still had visions of having done so then he carried him to Captain Baltasar de Gallegos, who received him with much happiness. In their eagerness to destroy Indians, the other cavaliers were combing the woods for them as if they were deer, so that later all might meet and enjoy the good luck that had be-fallen them. But lest they unwittingly injure people who were their friends, the Captain ordered them to be recalled. Then Juan Ortiz entered the forest and shouted loudly for the Indians to come out and not be afraid.

Many, however, kept on running until they had reached their town and informed Mucozo of what had occurred, but others who had not gone far did return in groups of three and four just as they happened to find themselves.

78 LA FLORIDA

Each and every one of the Indians individually and angrily scolded Juan Ortiz for his rashness, and when they realized that their companion had been wounded because of the Christian, they were so angered that they could scarcely refrain from laying hands on him and would have done so but for the fact that the Spaniards were present. They did avenge their anger, however, with a thousand affronts, saying that he was a foolish, silly and nonsensical man who was neither Spaniard nor warrior, and that he had benefited little or nothing from his past afflictions, which had not been imposed upon him in vain since he had really de-served much worse. In sum, no Indian came from the forest without scolding him in almost identical words, allof which he, to his greater shame, interpreted for the rest of the Spaniards. Thus Juan Ortiz was tho-roughly rebuked for having been so trustful, but in exchange he was completely compensated by the sight of himself once again among Christians. They in turn treated the wounded Indian and putting him on a horse, set out with Juan Ortiz and all of his companions for the camp, for they were anxious to bring the Governor such a prompt and satisfactory response to his orders. Before they departed, however, Juan Ortiz dispatched a messenger to Mucozo with an account of all that had actually occurred so that the Cacique would not be upset by what he might have learned from those of his people who had fled.

Both Alonso de Carmona and Juan Coles relate all of the facts we have reported concerning Juan Ortiz, but the former adds that worms fell into the sores acquired while the Christian was being roasted, and the latter says that the Governor immediately gave the man a suit of black velvet, but that since he had gone naked for so long a time, he could not bear to wear it and in consequence wore only a shirt, some linen pants, a cap and some shoes for twenty days while gradually accustoming himself to being dressed. Likewise, both of these eyewitnesses declare that in addition to other favors conferred upon the Christian, Mucozo made him his Captain General on both land and sea.

79 EL INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

Read El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. From Part Two, Book Two of La Florida del Inca [The Florida of the Inca]. Transl. by John Grier Varner and Jeannette Johnson Varner. Austin: U Texas P, 1980.

Further Reading Chang-Rodriguez, Raquel.

Beyond Books and Borders Garcilaso De La Vega and La Florida Del Inca.

Lewisburg: Bucknell U P, 2006. Print.

José Anadón. “Garcilaso Inca De La Vega.” Garcilaso Biography.

University of Notre Dame, 01 Mar. 2001. Web. 03 Oct. 2011.

Steigman, Jonathan D. La Florida Del Inca and the Struggle for Social Equality in Colonial Spanish America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama, 2005. Print.

Varner, Jeannette Johnson.

The Florida of the Inca. Austin: University of Texas, 1951. Print.

FOLLOWING EL INCA GARCILASO’S ACCOUNT OF JUAN ORTIZ and the Narvaez expedition, here begins a selection from the account

by Rodrigo Ranjel, which takes place mostly in modern day Alabama.

The passage below was incorporated into Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés’ Historia general y natural de las Indias and entitled the “Narrative of De Soto’s Expedition Based on the Diary of Rodrigo Ranjel, His Private Secretary.” Little else is known of Ranjel’s life, death and history except for what he personally recorded during the expedition. This excerpt includes a retelling of how native and Spanish relations were organized, as well as what de Soto demanded from native “caciques,” or chiefs. Ranjel writes of the greed that consumes de Soto and how it will ultimately lead to the expedition’s downfall in Mabila.

Amelia Zimmerman, University of South Florida St. Petersburg

A ACCOUNT OF DE SOTO A RODRIGO RANJEL

x How the Governor Hernando De Soto went to the town of Jalameco, and how the Cacica, the ruler of that land, entertained them and placed on his neck a string of pearls that she wore on her neck, and how they found many others, and through the fault of the Governor he did not find all that he wished, and of the trees that they found like those of Spain, and others of that land of Cofitachequi; and how they went onward and how a Christian called Rodriguez and a black man and other slaves remained in these journeys, and how they arrived in Atchiha, where they found Palisaded towns and carried from these five hundred slaves, and how farther on they found pearls in rivers of fresh water, and many other particulars suitable to the discourse of these histories.

L

et the reader not marvel how this historian proceeds so precisely through the journeys and rivers and crossings that this adelantado and Governor Hernando de Soto and his army experienced in those northern provinces and places; it is because among those gentlemen who found themselves in all that, there was one, called Rodrigo Rangel, of whom mention has been made and in future will be made, who served in that army, who, wanting to understand what he saw and how his life passed, like a wise man, wrote at the end of the day’s journey, after his labors, all that which happened to them, and also for his recreation; and also because each Christian ought to do it in order to know how to confess and bring his sins to memory, in particular those who go to war; and also because those who have labored and passed through such excessive hardships, enjoy afterward, as eyewitnesses, communicating and sharing it with their friends, and in order to explain their own role, as they should, And so this Rodrigo Rangel came, after all these things already described and those that follow had happened, to this city of Sancto Domingo

of the island Espanola and gave a relation of all these things in this Audiencia Real to the very reverend senor licenciado Alonzo Lopez de Cerrato, who presides in it, and he commanded and charged that he should tell in writing and give an account of all to me, so that, as chronicler for Their Majesties of these histories of the Indies, this northern conquest and discovery might be compiled and made known, placed among their number, since so many novelties and unusual subjects come together for the delight of the prudent reader, and as a warning for many who in these Indies come to lose [their lives] following after a Governor who dispenses thus others’ lives, as is apparent through these my studies and writings.

Let us come back to the events and the continuation of what we have in hand and is treated here. Friday, the last day of April, the Governor took some on horseback, the most rested, and the Indian woman Baltasar de Gallegos brought as guide and went toward Cofitachequi and spent the night hard by a large and deep river, and he sent Juan de Añasco with some on horseback to try to have some interpreters and canoes ready in order to cross the river, and he [Añasco] got some. The next day the Governor arrived at the crossing in front of the town, and principal Indians came with gifts, and the cacica, ruler of that land, came, whom the principal [Indians] brought with much prestige on a litter covered in white (with thin linen) and on their shoulders, and they crossed in the canoes, and she spoke to the Governor with much grace and self-assurance. She was young and of fine appearance, and she removed a string of pearls that she wore about the neck and put it on the Governor’s neck in order to ingratiate herself and win his good will. And all we army crossed in canoes, and they gave many presents of very well tanned hides and blankets) all very good, and a large amount of jerked venison and dry wafers, and much and very good salt. All the Indians walked covered down to the feet with very excellent hides, very well tanned, and blankets of the land, and blankets of sable, and blankets of mountain lions,which smelled; the people are very clean and very polite and naturally well developed. Monday, on the third of May, all the rest of the army arrived, and all could not cross until the next day, Tuesday, and not without cost and loss of seven horses, which drowned. These were among the most fat and strong, which fought against the current, but the thin ones, which let themselves go with the current, crossed better.

On the seventh of May, Friday, Baltasar de Gallegos went with most of the people of the army to Ilapi to eat seven barbacoas of corn that they said were there, which were a deposit of the cacica. This same day the Governor and Rodrigo Rangel entered in the temple or oratory of these idolatrous people, and having unwrapped some interments, they found some bodies of men tied on a barbacoa, the breasts and openings and necks and arms and legs covered in pearls; and as they were bringing them out, Rangel saw a thing like a green and very good emerald, and he showed it to the Governor, and he was very delighted. And he commanded that he should look out of the wall and call Juan de Añasco, accountant of Their Majesties, and Rangel told him: “My Lord, do not call anyone: it could be that there might be some precious stone or jewel here.” And the Governor replied, somewhat angrily, and said: “Even if there were, do we have to steal it?” Juan de Añasco having come, they took out that emerald and it was made of glass, and after that one, more and more beads of glass and rosaries with their crosses. They also found Biscayan axes of iron, by which they recognized that they were in the district or land where the licenciado Lucas Vasquez de Ay1lón was lost. They brought out from there eight or nine arrobas [200-25 pounds] of pearls; and as the cacica saw that the Christians made much of them, she said: “Do you think this is a lot? …Go to Talimeco, my town, and you will find so many that you will be unable to carry them on your horses.” The governor said: “Leave them here, and to whom God gives them by good fortune, may St. Peter bless them,” and so they remained. It was believed that he intended to take that [place] for himself, because without doubt it is the best that they saw and the land of better disposition, although neither many people nor much corn appeared, nor did they tarry to look for them there.

Some things were made there as in Spain, which must have been taught by the Indians who went away to the licenciado Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, because they made breeches and buskins, and black gaiters [antiparras] with laces of white hide, and with fringes or edging of colored hide, as if they had been made in Spain. In the temple or Oratory of Talimeco, there were breastplates, as well as corselets and helmets, made from raw and hairless hides

86 ACCOUNT OF DE SOTO

of cows, and from the same [hides] very good shields. This Talimeco was a town of great importance, with its very authoritative oratory on a high mound; the Caney or house of the cacique very large and very tall and broad, all covered, high and low, with very excellent and beautiful mats, and placed with such fine skill, that it appeared that all the mats were only one mat. Only rarely was there a hut, which might not be covered with matting.

This town has very good savannahs and a fine river, and forests of walnuts and oak, pines, evergreen oaks and groves of sweet gum, and many cedars. In this river it was said that Alaminos, a native of Cuba (although Spanish), had found a bit of gold; and such a rumor became public in the army among the Spaniards, and for this it was believed that this is a land of gold, and that good mines would be found there.

Wednesday, the thirteenth of May, the Governor left from Cofitachequi, and in two days he arrived at the province [poblaci贸n] of Chalaque: but he could not find the town of the lord, nor was there an Indian who would disclose it, And they slept in a pine forest, where many Indian men and women began to come in peace with presents and gifts, and they were there on Whitsuntide. And from there the Governor wrote to Baltasar de Gallegos by some Indians, [sending them] to the barbacoas that they had gone to in order to eat the corn, as was stated above, that they should follow the Governor. And on Monday, the seventeenth of that month, they departed from there and spent the night in a forest; and on Tuesday they went to Guaquili, and the Indians came forth in peace and gave them corn, although little, and many hens roasted on barbacoa, and a few little dogs, which are good food.

These are little dogs that do not bark, and they rear them in the houses in order to eat them. They also gave them tamemes, which are Indians who carry burdens. And on the following Wednesday they went to a canebrake, and on Thursday to a small savannah where a horse died; and some foot soldiers of Baltasar de Gallegos arrived, making known to the Governor that he was approaching.

The next day, Friday, they went to Xuala, which is a town on a plain [llano] between some rivers; its cacique was so well provisioned, that he gave to the Christians however much they asked for: tamemes, corn, little dogs, petacas, and however much he

87 RODRIGO RANJEL

had. Petacas are baskets covered with leather (and also yet to be covered), with their lids, for carrying clothes and whatever they might wish. And on Saturday Baltasar de Gallegos arrived there with many sick and lame, and they needed them healthy particularly since they now had the mountains [sierras] before them. In that Xuala it seemed to them that there was better disposition to look for gold mines than in all that they had passed through and seen in that northern part.

Tuesday, on the twenty-fifth of May they left from Xuala and crossed that day a very high mountain range [sierra], and they spent the night in a small forest,and the next day, Wednesday, in a savannah where they endured great cold, although it was already the twenty-sixth of May; and there they crossed, in water up to their shins, the river by which they afterward left in the brigantines that they made. When that river comes forth to the sea, the navigation chart states and indicates that it is the river of Spiritu Sancto; which, according to the charts of the cosmographer Alonso de Chaves, enters in a great bay, and the mouth of this river, in the salt water, is at thirty-one degrees on this side of the equator.

Returning to the history from there where it is stated that they crossed the river in water up to their shins, the cacica of Cofitachequi, whom they took with them in payment of the good treatment that they had received from her, turned back, and that day Mendoza de Montanjes and Alaminos de Cuba stayed behind (it was said that it was done with deception); and because that day Alonso Romo led the rear guard and left them, the Governor made him return for them, and they awaited them one day; and when they arrived, the Governor wanted to hang them. In that [province] of Xala- que a comrade deserted who was named Rodríguez, a native of Peùtafiel, and also a shrewd young Indian slave from Cuba, who belonged to a gentleman On Friday, the twentieth of August, the Governor and his people left Coça and there remained behind a Christian who was named Feryada, a Levantine; and they spent that night beyond Talimuchusi. And the next day; in a heavy rain, they spent the night at Itaba, a large town alongside a good river, and there they bartered for some Indian women, whom they gave them in exchange for mirrors and knives. Monday, the thirtieth of

88 ACCOUNT OF DE SOTO

August, the Governor left from ltaba with his army and spent the night in an oak grove, and the following day they went to Ulibahali, avery good town, next to a large river. And many Indians of evil intent were waiting, intending to take the cacique of Coça away from the Christians, because they were subjects of his; and so that the land would not rise in revolt or deny them supplies, they took him with them, and they entered in the town very much on guard. The cacique of Coça commanded the Indians to lay down their weapons; and so they did, and they gave them tamemes and twenty Indian women, and they went in peace, although a gentleman from Salamanca, called Manzano, remained there, and it was not known if it was from his own will or from losing his bearings, going alone to pillage, inasmuch as he went on foot. He was unhappy and he had requested other soldiers to remain with him, before they missed him. This was not known for certain, but it was said in the army after he was missing. Also a very shrewd black man, who was called Joan Vizcaíno, deserted Captain Juan Ruiz Lobillo there.

The day that they left from this town, they ate many grapes, as good as those grown from vines in Spain. In Coça and farther back they had eaten very good ones, but these from Ulibahali were the best. From this town of Ulibahali the Spaniards and their Governor left one Thursday, the second of September, and they spent the night in a pretty town hard by the river; and the next day, Friday, they came to Piachi,which is alongside a river, and there they awaited Lobillo for one day, who, without permission, had gone to look for his black man, and on coming back the Governor reprimanded him severely. On Sunday they left there and spent the night in the open, and the next day, Monday, they went to Tuasi, where they gave them tamemes and thirty-two Indian women. On Monday, the thirteenth of September, the Governor left from there, and they spent the night in the open, and on Tuesday they made another day’s journey and halted likewise in the open, and on Wednesday they went to an old town that had double walls [cercas] and good towers. And those ramparts [muros] are built in this manner: they sink many thick poles, tall and straight, next to one another; they weave them with some long sticks and daub them within and without, and they make their loopholes at intervals,

89 RODRIGO RANJEL

and they make their towers and turrets [cubos] spread out along the curtain and parts of the rampart as suits them; and at a distance, they appear to be one very excellent wall [muralla], and such walls are very strong.

The next day, Thursday, they spent the night in a new town next to the river, where the Spaniards rested that day. And the next day, Saturday, they went to Talisi, and they found the cacique and people gone. This town is large and fertile with much corn, and next to a large river. A messenger came there from Tascaluรงa, a powerful lord and very feared in that land, and then came a son of his, and the Governor commanded the Spaniards to mount, and that those on horseback should gallop and sound the trumpets (more to impose fear, than to make ceremony with such a reception). Upon the return of those Indians, the adelantado sent with them two Christians instructed to observe and spy, in order that they might take counsel and be prepared.

On the twenty-fifth of September the cacique of Talisi came and gave what they asked him for, such as tamemes, women, and supplies, and there they freed the cacique of Coรงa, so that he might return to his land; and he was very angry and tearful because the Governor refused to give up a sister of his that they took, and because they had brought him so far from his land.

Tuesday, the fifth of October, they left from Talisi and spent the night at Casiste, which is a pretty town alongside the river. And the next day, Wednesday they went to Caxa [Lacaxa?] so a wretched town on the bank of a river and at the boundary [raya] between Talisi and Tascaluรงa. And the next day, Thursday, they spent the night alongside the river, and a town that is called Humati was on the other side of the water. And the next day, Friday, they went to another new town [poblaciรณn], which is called Uxapita; and the next day, Saturday, they established their camp one league before arriving at the town of Tascaluรงa in the open, and from there the Governor sent a messenger, and he came with the reply that he would be welcome whenever he wished to come.

The historian asked a well-informed gentleman who found himself present with this Governor and who went with him all through that northern land, why, in each place that this Governor and his army arrived, they asked for those tamemes or burden-

90 ACCOUNT OF DE SOTO

bearing Indians, and why they took so many women, and these not old nor the most ugly; and after giving them what they had, why they detained the caciques and principal Indians, and why, where they went, they never halted or settled anywhere; saying that was neither to populate nor to conquer, but rather to disturb and devastate the land and take away the liberty of all the natives, and not to convert or make one Indian a Christian or a friend. He responded and said: that they took those burden bearing Indians or tamemes in order to have more slaves and servants, and to carry their supplies, and whatever they stole or what they gave them; and that some died and others fled or weakened, and thus they had need to renew and take more; and that they wanted the women also in order to make use of them and for their lewdness and lust, and that they baptized them more for their carnal intercourse than to instruct them in the faith; and that if they detained the caciques and principal Indians, this was advisable so that the others, their subjects, would be quiet and not obstruct their thefts and prevent what they might wish to do in their land.

As to where they were going, neither the Governor nor they knew, except that his intent was to find some land so rich that it might sate his greed,and to find out about the great secrets that the Governor said that he had heard about those places, according to many reports that had been given to him. And that as regards disturbing the land and not settling it, nothing else could be done until they came upon a site that would satisfy them. Oh, lost people; oh, diabolical greed; oh, bad conscience; oh, unfortunate soldiers; how you did not understand in how much danger you walked, and how wasted your lives and without tranquility your souls!

Why did you not remember that truth that the glorious St. Augustine, deploring of the present misery of this life, says: “This life is a life of misery, decrepit and uncertain, a toilsome and unclean life, a life, my Lord, of evils, queen of the proud, filled with miseries and with dread; this is not life, nor can it be called that, but rather death, since in a moment it is finished by various mutations and diverse kinds of death�? Listen well, Catholic reader, and do not lament any less the conquered Indians than their Christian conquerors, or killers of themselves and of those others, and attend to the incidents of this ill-governed Governor, instructed in

91 RODRIGO RANJEL

the school of Pedrarias de Avila, in the dissipation and devastation of the Indians of Castilla de Oro, graduate in the killing of the natives of Nicaragua and canonized in Peru, according to the Order of the Pizarros. And freed from all those hellish passages, and having gone to Spain loaded with gold, neither as a bachelor nor a married man could he rest, nor did he know how to, without returning to the Indies to spill human blood, not content with that already spilled, and to depart this life in the manner that farther on will be related; and giving cause for so many sinners, deceived by his vain words, to be lost width him. See how much more he wanted than what that queen or cacica of Cofitachequi, lady of Talimeco, offered him, where she told him that in that place of hers he would find so many pearls that all the horses of his army would not be able to carry them; and receiving him with such humanity, see how he treated her. Let us go on, and do not forget this truth that you have read, bow in proof of how many pearls she offered him this Governor and his people now carried eight or nine arrobas of pearls, and you will see what enjoyment they go, of them in what follows.

v In which is related what happened to the Adelantado Hernando De Soto with the Cacique of Tascaluca, named Actahachi, who was so tall a man that he seemed a giant; and of the surprise attacks and harsh battles and assault that they gave to the Christians in the town called Mabila and father on in Chicaca, and other events suitable and notable for the history are related in this chapter.

O

n Sunday, the tenth of October, the Governor entered in the town of Tascaluรงa, which was called Athahachi, a new town; and the cacique was on a balcony that was made on a mound to one side of the plaza, about his head a certain headdress like an almaizar [turban?], worn like a Moor, which gave him an appearance of authority, and a Pelote or blanket of

92 ACCOUNT OF DE SOTO

feathers down to his feet, very authoritative, seated upon some high cushions and many principals of his Indians with him. He was of as tall a stature as that Antonico of the guard of the Emperor our lord, and of very good proportions, a very well built and noble man; he had a young son as tall as he, but he was more slender. Always in front of this cacique was a very graceful Indian on foot, with a sunshade, on a pole, which was like a round and very large fly-flap, with a white cross similar to that which the knights of the Order of St. John of Rhodes wear, in the middle of a black field. And although the Governor entered in the plaza and dismounted and went up to him, be did not rise but rather was quiet and composed, as if he were a king, and with much gravity. The Governor sat with him a bit, and after a little while he rose and said that they should go to eat and took him with him, and Indians came to dance; and they danced very well in the way of the peasants of Spain, in such a manner that it was a pleasure to see.

At night he wished to go, but the adelantado told him that he had to sleep there; and he understood it and showed that he scoffed at such a decision, being lord, to give him so suddenly a restraint or impediment to his liberty; and concealing his intentions in the matter, he then dispatched his principal Indians, each one by himself, and he slept there to his sorrow. The next day the Governor asked for tamemes and one hundred Indian women, and the cacique gave them four hundred tamemes and said that he would give them the rest of the tamemes and the women in Mabila, the province of a principal vassal of his, and the Governor was content that the rest of that his unjust demand would be satisfied in Mabila. And he commanded that he be given a horse and some buskins and a cloak of scarlet cloth to keep him content. But as the cacique had already given him four hundred tamemes, or more accurately slaves, and was to give him one hundred women in Mabila, and those which they most desired, see what contentment could be given him by those buskins and mantle and the chance to tide on horse-back, since he thought that he was riding on a tiger or on a ferocious lion, because horses were held in great dread among those people.

Finally, Tuesday, the twelfth of October, they left from that town of Atahachi, taking the cacique, as has been said, and with him many principals and always the Indian with the sunshade in front of his

93 RODRIGO RANJEL

lord, and another with a cushion; and that day they spent the night in the open. And the next day, Wednesday, they arrived at Piachi, which is a high town, upon the bluff of a rocky riverand its cacique was malicious, and he took a position to resist the crossing; but in fact they crossed the river with difficulty, and two Christians were killed, and the principals who accompanied the cacique went away.In that town Piachi it was found out that they bad killed Don Teodoro, and a black man, who came forth from the boats of PĂĄnfilo de NarvĂĄez.

On Saturday, the sixteenth of October, they departed from there and went to a forest, where one of the two Christians that the Governor had sent to Mabila came; and he said that there was a great gathering of armed people in Mabila. The next day they went to a palisaded town, and messengers from Mabila came who brought to the cacique much chestnut bread, for there are many and good chestnuts in his land. On Monday, the eighteenth of October, the day of St. Luke, the Governor arrived at Mabila, having passed that day through some towns. But these towns detained the soldiers, pillaging and scattering themselves, for the land seemed populous; thus only forty on horse-back arrived in advance guard with the Governor, and since they were a little detained, in order for the Governor not to show weakness, he entered in the town with the cacique, and all entered with him. The Indians then did an areito, which is their kind of ball with dancing and singing.

While watching this, some soldiers saw them placing bundles of bows and arrows secretively in some palm leaves, and other Christians saw that the huts were filled high and low with concealed people. The Governor was warned, and he placed his helmet on his head and commanded that all should mount their horses and warn all the soldiers who had arrived; and scarcely had they left, when the Indians took command of the gates of the wall of the town. And Luis de Moscoso and Baltasar de Gallegos and EspĂ­ndola, Captain of the guard, and seven or eight soldiers remained with the Governor. And the cacique plunged into a hut and refused to come out from it; and then they began to shoot arrows at the Governor. Baltasar de Gallegos entered for the cacique, and he not wanting to leave, he [Gallegos] cut off the arm of a principal Indian with a slash. Luis de Moscoso, awaiting

94 ACCOUNT OF DE SOTO

him at the door in order not to leave him alone, was fighting like a knight, and he did everything possible, until he could suffer no more, and said: “Señor Baltasar de Gallegos, come forth, or I will have to leave you, for I cannot wait for you any longer.”

During this time Solís, a resident of Triana, of Seville, and Rodrigo Rangel, had mounted. They were the first, and for his sins Solís was then shot down dead. Rodrigo Rangel arrived near the gate of the townat the time that the Governor and two soldiers of his guard with him were leaving, and about him [the Governor] were more than seventy Indians, who halted out of fear of the horse of Rodrigo Rangel, and he [the Governor] wishing him to give it to him, a black man arrived with his own [horse]; and he commanded Rodrigo Rangel to aid the Captain of the guard who remained behind, who came out very fatigued, and with him a soldier of the guard, and he on horseback faced his enemies until he got out of danger. And Rodrigo Rangel returned to the Governor, and he drew out more than twenty arrows that he carried hanging from his armor, which was a quilted tunic of thick cotton; and he commanded Rangel to guard [the body of] Solís until he could bring him out from among their enemies, so that they might not carry him within, and so that the Governor might go to collect the soldiers. There was so much virtue and shame this day in all those who found themselves in this first attack and the beginning of this bad day. They fought admirably, and each Christian did his duty as a most valiant soldier. Luis de Moscoso and Baltasar de Gallegos left with the remaining soldiers through another gate.

In effect, the Indians ended up with the town and all the property of the Christians and with the horses that they left tied within, which they then killed. The Governor gathered all the forty on horse-back who were there, and they arrived at a large plaza in front of the principal gate of Mabila. And there the Indians came forth, without daring to venture far from the palisade; and in order to draw them out, they pretended that those on horseback were fleeing at a gallop, withdrawing far from the ra-mparts, and the Indians, believing it, ventured from the town and from the palisade in their pursuit, desirous of employing their arrows, and when it was time, those on horseback turned around on their enemies, and before they could take shelter, they lanced many. Don Carlos wished

95 RODRIGO RANJEL

to go with his horse up to the gate, and they gave his horse an arrow wound in the breast, and not being able to turn [his horse], he dismounted to draw out the arrow, and another came which struck him in the neck, above his shoulder from which, asking for confession, he fell dead. The Indians did not dare to venture again from the palisade. Then, the adelantado encircled them on many sides until all the army arrived, and they entered it through three sides setting fire, first cutting ring through the palisade with axes; and the fire traveled so that die nine arrobas of pearls chat they brought were burned, and all the clothes and ornaments and chalices and moulds for wafers, and the wine for saying mass, and they were left like Arabs, empty-handed and with great hardship.

The Christian women, who were slaves of the Governor, had remained in a hut, and some pages, a friar, a cleric, and a cook and some soldiers; they defended themselves very well from the Indians, who could not enter until the Christians arrived with the fire and brought them out. And all the Spaniards fought like men of great spirit, and twenty-two of them died, and they wounded another one hundred and forty-eight with six hundred and eighty-eight arrow wounds, and they killed Seven horses and wounded twenty-nine others. The women and even boys of four years struggled against the Christians, and many Indians hanged themselves in order not to fall into their hands, and others plunged into the fire willingly. See what spirit those tamemes had. There were many great arrow shots sent with such fine will and force, that: the lance of a gentleman, named NuĂąo de Tovar, which was of two pieces of ash and very good, was pierced by an arrow through the middle from side to side, like a drill, without splintering anything, and the arrow made a cross on the lance.

Don Carlos died this day, and also Francisco de Soto, nephew of the Governor, and Juan de Gamez, de Jaen, and Men Rodriguez, a good Portuguese gentleman, and Espinosa, a good gentleman, and another called Velez, and one Blasco de Barcarrota and other very honored soldiers; and the wounded were most of the people of worth and of honor. They killed three thousand Indians, in addition to which there were many others wounded, which they found afterward dead in the huts and by the roads.

Nothing was ever learned of the cacique [Tascaluça], either

96 ACCOUNT OF DE SOTO

dead or alive; the son was found lanced.The battle having taken place in the manner stated above, they rest-ed there until Sunday, the fourteenth of November, treating the wounded and the horses, and they burned a great part of the land. From the time that this Governor and his armies entered in the land of Florida up to the time that they left from there, all the dead were one hundred and two Christians, and not all, to my way of thinking, in true penitence.

On Sunday, the fourteenth of November of the aforesaid year, the Governor left Mabila, and the following Wednesday he arrived at a very good river, and on Thursday, the twenty-eighth [November 18?], they went across bad crossings and swamps and found a town with corn, which was called Talicpacana. The Christians had discovered on the other side of the river a town that seemed good to them from a distance, and well situated, and on Sunday, the twenty-first of November, Vasco Gonzalez found a town, a half-league from this one, which is called Moรงulixa, from which they bad transferred all the corn to the other side of the river, and they had it in heaps, covered with mats, and the Indians were on the other side of the water, making threats. A piragua was made, which was finished on the twenty-ninth of the month, and they made a large cart to carry it up to Moรงulixa, and having launched it in the water, sixty soldiers entered in it. The Indians shot innumerable darts, or more accurately arrows; but as this great canoe landed; they fled and did not wound but: three or four Christians. They took the land easily and foundplenty of corn.

The next day, Wednesday; all the army went to a town that is called Zabusta, and there they crossed the river in the piragua and with some can-oes that they took there; and they went to take lodging in another town on the other end, because upriver they found another good town and took its lord, who was named Apafalaya, and brought him as guide and interpreter, and that: bank was called the river of Apafalaya. From this river and province [poblaciรณn] the Governor and his people left in search of Chicaรงa on Thursday, the ninth of December, and they arriv-ed the following Tuesday at the river of Chicaรงa, having passed many bad crossings and swamps and rivers and cold weather.

97 RODRIGO RANJEL

Read Rodrigo Rangel.

“Account of the Northern Conquest and Discovery of Hernando De Soto.”

From Gonzalo Fernándz de Oviedo y Valdés, Historia general y natural de las Indias. Transl. John E. Worth.

In The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando De Soto to North America, 1539-1543.

Further Reading Clayton, Lawrence A., Vernon J. Knight, and Edward C. Moore (eds.).

The De Soto Chronicles: the Expedition of Hernando De Soto to North America in 1539-1543. Tuscaloosa: U Alabama P, 1995. Print Rodrigo Rangel. “Account of the Northern Conquest and Discovery of Hernando De Soto.” from Gonzalo Fernándz de Oviedo y Valdés, Historia general y natural de las Indias. Transl. John E. Worth.

In The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando De Soto to North America, 1539-1543.

THE FINAL ACCOUNT IS THAT OF HERNANDEZ DE BIEDMA, the factor of the De Soto expedition and follows the expedition from Arkansas to Texas and then back again. His account is the most brief as well as the only holograph manuscript written by an eyewitness.

The original report, twenty folios in length, was titled flatly “Account of the events of the journey of Captain Soto and the character of the land.” Biedma’s account was written relatively impartially, as he omits any direct opinion, unlike the previous excerpts, as hey simply tells the facts, describes the natives, conflicts, and travel time. Biedma’s focus was not to condemn the Natives or De Soto but rather to report back to the King what had occurred. This excerpt is taken from the end of the account and will wrap up the De Soto expedition by recounting how the troops escaped La Florida on the Mississippi River after De Soto’s death.

Amelia Zimmerman, University of South Florida St. Petersburg

A “RELACÍON DE LA ISLA DE FLORIDA” A LUYS HERNÁNDEZ DE BIEDMA

S

W

e turned again to where the Indians guided us and we went to some scattered villages that were called Tatilcoya. Here we found a large river, and afterward we saw that it flowed into the great river [the Mississippi]. We had information that on this river upstream was a great province called Cayas. We went to it and found that it was all scattered population, though heavy, and several excursions were made. The land is very rugged with mountains. An excursion was made in which the cacique and many people were apprehended. When we asked for news of the land, they told us that if we went upriver, we would come upon a well-provisioned province that was called Tula. The governor wished to go see if it was a place where the people could winter, and he went with twenty on horseback. He left all the rest in this province of Cayas.

Before arriving at the province of Tula, we crossed some rugged mountains and arrived at the town without their having heard anything of us. We began to apprehend some Indians, and they be-gan to call to arms and make war on us. They wounded that day nine or ten horses and seven or eight Spaniards, and such was their ferocity that they joined together, eight by eight and ten by ten, and came at us like wounded dogs. We killed about thirty or forty Indians. It seemed to the Governor that it was not good to halt there that night, because he led very few people, and he returned by the road on which we had come to a clearing in a lowland that the river made, having crossed a bad pass of the mountain range because there was fear that the Indians might take us at that pass.

The next day he arrived where his people were, and there were none of those Indians we had brought, nor did he find in

that province Indians who could understand the interpreter. He commanded that all should prepare to travel to that province [of Tula]. We then went there. The day after we arrived, three very large squadrons of Indians came upon us at dawn,on three sides. We came forth to them and routed them and did them some damage, as a result of which they attacked us no more.

After two or three days, they sent the messengers as if in peace.

Although we did not understand one thing for lack of the interpreter, through signs we told them that they should bringus interpreters for those [Indians] behind us, and they brought us five or six Indians who understood the interpreters that we brought. They asked us what people we were and what we were looking for. We asked them about some large provinces where there would be much food, because already the cold of the winter was greatly menacing us. They told us that the way that we were going, they knew of not one large village. They pointed out to us that if we wanted to turn east and southeast or northwest we would find large villages.

Having seen that we did not have any other choice, we turned again southeast and went to a province called Quipana, which is at the foot of some very rugged mountains, and here we went east and traversed these mountains and descended to some plains, where we found a village suited for our purpose, because there was a town nearby that had much food, and it was on a large river that ended at the great river by which we left. This province was called Viranque.

Here we spent the winter. There were such great snows and cold weather that we thought we were dead men. In this town died the Christian who had been one of Narvåez’s men, whom we had found in the land and taken along as interpreter. We left from here at the beginning of March, since it appeared to us that the fury of the cold weather had abated, and we traveled downstream along that river, where we found other well-populated provinces with a quantity of supplies, until we arrived at a province that seemed to us to be one of the best that we had come upon in all the land, which is called Anicoyanque. Here another cacique, who was named Guachoyanque, came to us in peace. He has his village on the large river and wages much war with this other [province] where we were. The Governor departed then for this other town of Guachoyanque and took the cacique with him. It was a good town, well palisaded and strong.

It had little food, because the Indians had hidden it all.

Here the Governor was already determined, if he were to find the sea, to make brigantines in order to send word to Cuba that we were alive, so that they might provide us with some horses and the things that we had need of. He sent the captain south to see if he could discover some road to go to look for the sea, because from the account of the Indians nothing could be found out about what there might be, and he returned saying that he did not find a road nor a way to cross the large swamps along the great river. The Governor, from seeing himself cut off and seeing that not one thing could be done according to his purpose, was afflicted with sickness and died.

The Governor dead, he left Luis de Moscoso appointed as Governor. We decided that since we could not find a road to the sea, we should head west, and that it could be that we might be able to get out by land to Mexico, if we did not find anything else in the land or any place to halt. We walked seventeen days’ journey until we arrived at a province of Chavete, where the Indians made much salt; we did not find out anything about the west.

From here we went to another province that is called Aguacay. We spent another three days’ journey getting there, still going straight west. From here the Indians told us that we could not find more villages, but rather that we should descend southwest and south, because there we would find villages and food, and that going the way that we asked about there were some great stretches of sand [arenales grandes], and neither villages nor any food.

We had to return where the Indians guided us, and we went to a province that is called Nisione, and another that is called Nandacao, and another that is called Lacame, and across land more and more sterile and with less food. We went along asking about a province that they told us was large, which was called Xuacatino.

This cacique of Nandacao gave us an Indian to guide us, with the intent of placing us where we could never get out, and so he guided us across rugged land and off road, until finally he told us that he no longer knew where he was leading us, and that his lord had commanded him to lead us where we would die of hunger.

We took another guide who led us to a province that is called Hais, where cows are in the habit of gathering at times, and as the Indians saw us enter through their land, they began to cry out that

104 “RELACÍON DE LA ISLA DE FLORIDA”

they should kill the cows that were coming; they came forth to shoot arrows at us and did us some damage. We departed from here and arrived at the province of Xacatin, which was among some dense forests and lacked food. From here the Indians guided us east to other towns, which were small and had little food, saying that they were leading us to where there were other Christians like us. It seemed afterward to be a lie and that they could not have news of any others but us; since we had made so many turns [legs?], in some of these they must have heard of our passing.

They brought three or four of these Indians, we found no one who could understand the interpreter. Having seen that we had lost the interpreter and that we found nothing to eat, that we were now lacking the corn that we had carried on our backs, and that it was [impossible] for so many people to traverse so miserable a land, we decided to return to the town where Governor Soto had died, because there it seemed to us that it was possible to fashion vessels to leave the land. We returned along that same road that we had followed until we arrived at the town where the Governor had died.

Having arrived here, we did not find as good provisions as we thought, because we did not find food in the town, since the Indians had hidden it. We had to look for another town in order to be able to winter and fashion the ships. Thank God we discovered two towns much to our purpose that were on the great river and had a great quantity of corn and were palisaded, and there we halted and built our ships with much labor. We made seven brigantines and spent six months in finishing them. We cast off the brigantines in the river, and it was a thing of mystery that even though they were caulked only with the bark of those mulberry trees and without any pitch, we found them watertight and very good. We towed some canoes down-river with us in which we carried twenty-six horses, so that if at the sea-coast we should find some village that could sustain us with food, from there we would send a pair of brigantines to give a message to the Viceroy of New Spain, so that he might provide us ships in which we could leave the land.

The second day that we were going downriver, there came forth to us about forty or fifty very large and swift canoes of Indians, among which there was a canoe that carried eighty Indian warriors, and they began to shoot arrows at us and pursue us, shooting more arrows

105 LUYS HERNĂ NDEZ DE BIEDMA

at us. It seemed to some of those in our ships that it was cowardly not to attack them, and they took four or five small canoes of those that we were towing and went toward the canoes of the Indians, who, as soon as they saw them, encircled them as best they could and would not let them leave from among them. They upset the canoes in the water, and thus they killed this day twelve very honorable men, because we could not aid them, since the current of the river was so great and we had few oars in our ships. With this victory, the Indians came following us downriver, until we arrived at the sea, which took nineteen days’ journey. They did us much damage and wounded many people, because since they saw that we did not have arms with which to do them damage from a distance, for we no longer had either arquebus or crossbow but only some swords and shields, they now had lost their fear and drew very near to shoot arrows at us.[1] We came forth to the sea through the mouth of the river and went across a bay that the river makes, so large that we navigated three days and three nights with reasonable weather, and in all that time we did not see land. It seemed to us that we were far out at sea, and at the end of these three days and three nights we gathered water as fresh as from the river, which was good to drink. We saw some little islets toward the southwest side, and we went to them, and from there we went along the coast, gathering shellfish and looking for things to eat, until we entered the river of Panuco, where we were very well received by the Christians.

[1] The final section of Biedma’s relation is written in a different hand than the bulk of the manuscript, and using different ink than both the text and the signature immediately below, suggesting that this final section was written by a different scribe (and may have been added after the signature, which is overlapped by this final section). It is possible that Biedma originally intended to terminate the relation here, for he mentioned their departure from the river into the sea in the previous sentence. [Worth’s note]

106 “RELACÍON DE LA ISLA DE FLORIDA”

Read Luys Hernández de Biedma. “Relacíon de la Isla de Florida.”

Transl. John E. Worth.

In The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernandeo de Soto to North America, 1539-1543. Tuscaloosa: U Alabama P, 1993

Further Reading Galloway, Patricia (ed.). The Hernando De Soto Expedition. U Nebraska P, 1997.

Clayton, Lawrence A., Vernon J. Knight, and Edward C. Moore (eds.).

The De Soto Chronicles: the Expedition of Hernando De Soto to North America in 1539-1543. Tuscaloosa: U Alabama P, 1995. Print.