The De Soto Chronicles Vol 1 & 2: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539-1543

SEVEN

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 with 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, how 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 got of them in what follows. SEVEN IN WHICH IS RELATED WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ADELANTADO HERNANDO DE SOTO WITH THE CACIQUE OF TASCALU<;:A, 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 FARTHER ON IN CHICA<;:A. AND OTHER EVENTS SUITABLE AND NOTABLE FOR THE HISTORY ARE RELATED IN THIS CHAPTER. On Sunday, the tenth of October, the Governor entered in the town of Tascaluc;a, 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,51 worn like a Moor, which gave him an appearance of authority, and a pelote or blanket of feathers down to his feet, very authoritative, seated upon some high cushions, and many principals of 51 A type of turban. 290 ~ THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES 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, he 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 ride on horseback, 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 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 river,52 and its cacique was malicious, and he took a posi52 Un pueblo alto, sobre un barranco de un rio, enriscado. The term enriscado, or craggy, may refer more to the bluff than to the river itself. ACCOUNT BY RODRIGO RANGEL ~ 291 tion 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.53 In that town Piachi it was found out that they had killed Don Teodoro, and a black man, who came forth from the boats of Panfilo de Narvaez. 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, a~d 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 horseback 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 Espindola, Captain of the guard, and seven or eight ~oldiers remained with the Governor. And the cacique plunged into a hut a~d 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 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: "Senor Baltasar de Gallegos, come forth, or I will have to leave you, for I cannot wait for you any longer. " During this time Solis, a resident of Triana of Seville, and Rodrigo 53Bourne translated that these Indians were slain, but in actuality the text suggests that they escaped the Spaniards or may have been sent ahead by the cacique to warn the town of Mabila, as suggested by the Elvas account. 292 ~ THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES Rangel, had mounted. They were the first, and for his sins Solis was then shot down dead. Rodrigo Rangel arrived near the gate of the town54 at 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 gpatd 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] Solis 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 horseback 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 pal-, isade; and in order to draw them out, they pretended that those on horseback were fleeing at a gallop, withdrawing far from the ramparts, 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 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 cut54This is the only Indian town in Florida that is denoted by the term villa, which was used earlier for Havana. ACCOUNT BY RODRIGO RANGEL ~ 293 ting through the palisade with axes; and the fire traveled so that the nine arrobas of pearls that 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 eightyeight 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 Nuno 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 [Tascalu<;a], either dead or alive; the son was found lanced. The battle having taken place in the manner stated above, they rested 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,55 they went across bad crossings and 55Should read November 18. 294 ~ THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES A Spanish Man-at-Arms. This type of armor was widely used by infantry during the sixteenth century. A victorious soldier was not above taking the armor ofa defeated enemy ifhe thought it superior to his own. The illustrated helmet is probably of Italian manufacture. (From Albert F. Calvert, Spanish Arms and Armour, London: John Lane, 1907) ACCOUNT BY RODRIGO RANGEL ~ 295 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 twentyfirst of November, Vasco Gonzalez found a town, a half-league from this one, which is called Mo~ulixa, from which they had 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 Mo~ulixa, 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 found plenty 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 canoes 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 [poblacion] the Governor and his people left in search of Chica~a on Thursday , the ninth of December, and they arrived the following Tuesday at the river of Chica~a, having passed many bad crossings and swamps and rivers and cold weather. And so that you know, reader, what life those Spaniards led, Rodrigo Rangel, as an eyewitness, says that among many other needs of men that were experienced in this enterprise, he saw a nobleman named Don Antonio Osorio, brother of the Lord Marquis of Astorga, with a doublet of blankets of that land, torn on the sides, his flesh exposed, without a hat, bare-headed, bare-footed, without hose or shoes, a shield at his back, a sword without a scabbard, the snows and cold very great; and being such a man, and of such illustrious lineage, made him suffer his hardship and not lament, like many others, since there was no one who might aid him, being who he was, and having had in Spain two thousand ducats of income through the Church; and the day that this gentleman saw him thus, he believed that he had not eaten a mouthful and had to look for his supper with his fingernails. I could not help laughing when I heard him say that nobleman had left the Church and the aforementioned income in order to go to look for this life at the sound of the words of De Soto. Because I knew Soto very well, and although he was a man of worth, I did not hold that he would be able with such sweet 296 ~ THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES talk or cunning to delude such persons. What did such a man wish, from an unfamiliar and unknown land? Nor did the Captain who led him know more of it than that Juan Ponce de Leon and the licenciado Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon and Panfilo de Narvaez and others more skillful than Hernando de Soto had been lost in it. And those who follow such guides, go from some necessity, since they find places where they could settle or rest, and little by little penetrate and understand and find out all about the land. But let us go on; small is the hardship of this nobleman compared to those who die, if they do not win salvation. They found that the river of Chica<;a was flowing out of its bed, and the Indians on the other side were up in arms, with many white banners. Orders were given to make a piragua, and the Governor sent Baltasar de Gallegos with thirty swimmers on horseback to go to look upriver for a place where they could cross and attack suddenly upon the Indians; but he was detected, and so they [the Indians] abandoned the crossing, and they crossed very well in the piragua on Thursday, the sixteenth of the month. And the Governor advanced with some on horseback, and they arrived very late at night at the town of the lord, and all the people were gone. The next day Baltasar de Gallegos arrived with the thirty who went with him. They were there in Chica<;a that Christmas, and it snowed with as much wind as if they were in Burgos, and with as much or more cold. Monday, the third of January of fifteen forty-one, the cacique of Chica<;a came in peace and gave guides and interpreters to the Christians in order to go to Calu<;a, which had much renown among the Indians. Calu<;a is a province of more than ninety towns (not subject to anyone) of ferocious people, very bellicose and very feared, and the land is prosperous in those parts. In Chica<;a the Governor commanded that half of the people of his army should go to make war on Sacchuma, and on their return the cacique Miculasa made peace, and messengers came from Talapatica. And in the course of this war the time to travel arrived, and they asked the cacique for tamemes; and the Indians created such an uproar among themselves , that the Christians understood it, and the agreement was made that they would give them over on the fourth of March when they were to depart , and that day they would come with them. The previous evening, the Governor mounted his horse and found the Indians engaged in evil intrigue, and he recognized the treacherous intention that they had and returned to the camp and said publicly, "This night is a night of Indians; I will sleep armed and my horse saddled." And all said that they would do the same; and he called to the maestre de campo, who was Luis de Moscoso, and told him ACCOUNT BY RODRIGO RANGEL ~ 297 that he should take extra precautions with the sentinels that night, since it was the last. The Governor, upon leaving his soldiers, with whom he had made those arrangements, lay down undressed in his bed, and neither his horse nor any other was saddled, and all in the camp lay down to sleep without care and unarmed. The maestre de campo placed for the morning watch three on horseback, the worst of the worst, and on the worst horses in the whole army. And on the aforementioned day, the fourth of March, when the Indians had promised to give the tamemes, at break of day, fulfilling their word, they entered through the camp in many squadrons, beating drums as if it were in Italy, and setting fire to the camp, burning it and taking fifty-nine horses, among which, three of them they shot through both shoulders with their arrows. And the Christians behaved like careless people on this occasion, and few weapons, coats of mail, lances, and saddles survived the fire, and all the horses were driven away, fleeing from the fire and the clamor. Only the adelantado was able to mount, and he failed to cinch his horse, nor did he buckle his coat of armor, and Tapia de Valladolid along with him. The first Indian that he overtook, when he gave him a lance-blow, he [De Soto] fell upon him saddle and all. And if the Indians had known how to pursue their victory, this would have been the last day in the lives of all the Christians of that army and would have put an end to the demand for the tamemes. Next the Spaniards passed to a savannah one league from that town in which they were, and they had huts and supplies, and they established camp on a slope [ladera] and hill [cerro] and made haste to set up the forge, and they made a bellows from hides of bears; and they tempered their weapons and made new saddle frames and provided themselves with lances, since there were very good ash trees there; and within eight days they had it all repaired. They killed and burned alive up to twelve Christians in the aforementioned Chica~a. On Tuesday, the fifteenth of March, during the morning watch, the Indians attacked the Christians, determined to finish them, and they struck them on three sides; and as necessity had made them diligent, they were on guard and on watch. They fought with them valiantly and put the Indians to flight, and thanks to God the Christians did not suffer much damage, although a few Indians died. Some Spaniards showed themselves very valiant this day, and not one failed to do his duty, for a bad fate would have awaited anyone who in such a time did not defend his life well and who failed to show to his enemies the virtue and weapons of the Christians. 298 ~ THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES ...