The next day, the 1st of October, the Governor took his departure in the morning and ordered a bridge to be made over a river which he had to cross. Afterward the water came to the waist for the distance of a crossbow shot.

On the other side was a growth of tall and dense forest into which the Indians came to ascertain if they could assail the men at work and pre-vent a passage. Some timbers being thrown in, the men gained the opposite side and secured the way. On the 4th day of the week, Wednesday of St. Francis, the Governor crossed over and reached Uitachuco, a town subject to Apalache, where he slept. He found it burning, the Indians having set it on fire.

Thenceforward the country was well inhabited, producing much corn. The way led by many habitations like villages. Sunday, the 25th of October, he arrived at the town of Uzela and on Monday at Anhayca Apalache where the lord of all that country and province resided. The Camp Master, whose duty it is to divide and lodge the men, quartered them about the town at the distance of half a league to a league apart.

There were older towns which had much maize, pumpkins, beans and dried plums of the country. These were brought together at Anhayca Apalache in what appeared to be sufficient provision for the winter. These ameixas are better than those of Spain and come from trees that grow in the fields without being planted.

Informed that the sea was eight leagues distant, the Governor directly sent a captain thither with cavalry and infantry. They found a town called Ochete eight leagues on the way. Coming to the coast the Captain saw where a great tree had been felled, the trunk split up into stakes and with the limbs made into mangers. He found also the skulls of horses. With these discoveries he returned. What was said of Narvaez was believed to be certain -- that he had there made boats in which he left the country and was lost in them at sea.

Presently Juan de Anasco made ready to go to the port of Espiritu Santo. He took 30 cavalry with orders from the Governor to Calderon who had remained there, that he should abandon the town and bring all the people to Apalache.

In Uzachil, and other towns on the way, Anasco found many people who had already become careless. Still, to avoid detention, no captures were made as it was not well to give the Indians sufficient time to come together. He went through the towns at night, stopping at a distance from the population for three or

four hours to rest. At the end of ten days he arrived at the port.

He dispatched two caravels to Cuba in which he sent to Dona Ysabel 20 women brought by him from Ytara and Potano, near Cale. Taking the foot soldiers in the brigantines, from point to point along the coast, he went towards Palache.

Calderon with the cavalry and some crossbow men of foot went by land. The Indians at several places beset him and wounded some of the men.

On Calderon's arrival the Governor ordered planks and spikes to be taken to the coast for building a piragua. Into this boat 30 men entered well armed from the bay, going to and from the sea. They awaited the arrival of the brigantines, sometimes fighting with the natives who went up and down the estuary in canoes.

On Saturday, the 29th of November, in a high wind, an Indian passed through the sentries undiscovered. He set fire to the town in consequence of which two portions were instantly consumed. On Sunday, the 28th of December, Juan de Anasco arrived. The Governor directed Francisco Maldonado, Captain of Infantry, to run the coast to the westward with 50 men and look for an en-trance. Soto proposed to go himself in that direction by land on discoveries.

That same day, eight men rode two leagues about the town in pursuit of Indians who had become so bold they would venture up within two crossbow shots of the camp to kill our people. Two were discovered engaged in picking beans. They might have escaped but a woman being present, the wife of one of them, they stood to fight. Before they could be killed three horses were wounded, one of which died in a few days.

Calderon going along the coast near by, the Indians came out against him from a wood. They drove him from his course and captured from many of his company a part of their subsistence.

Three or four days having elapsed beyond the time set for the going and return of Maldonado, the Governor resolved that should he not appear at the end of eight days he would go thence and wait no longer. When the Captain arrived he brought with him an Indian from a province called Ochus, 60 leagues from Apalache, and the news of having found a sheltered port with a good depth of water.

The Governor was highly pleased, hoping to find a good country ahead. He sent Maldonado to Havana for provisions with which to meet him at