steps. They are worked on all four sides so as to provide a smoother ascent. The steps are 4, 6, or 8 feet apart. Their height depends more or less on the disposition and steepness of the hill. Because of the width of these steps, the horses went up and down them with ease.

All of the rest of the hill is cut like a wall so that it cannot be ascended except by the stairs. In this way they are better able to defend the houses of the lord.

It is strange that the Soto chroniclers did not say more about the Florida mounds inasmuch as they were a completely new type of construction to Europeans. Perhaps, after the first notice, mounds were found to be so common they no longer provided useful landmarks. Garcilaso said as much in explaining why he singled out Osachile for notice:

In order not to leave the subject of this province so soon, it is fitting that we describe the location and plan of the town of Osachile with the idea of giving some conception of the site and arrangement of the rest of the towns of this great kingdom called Florida. Since all of the land of this realm is practically identical in kind and quality and is flat with many rivers running through it, its inhabitants live, dress, eat and drink in somewhat the same manner. Even in their idols and their rites and ceremonies of paganism, of which there are but few, and in their weapons, their social distinctions and their ferocity, they differ little or nothing from each each other. Thus having seen one town we shall have seen practically all of them.

Mounds are most numerous around inlets, bays and lakes -- suggesting a close association with canoes and fishing. However, mounds are found everywhere in Florida and throughout the Mississippi Valley as far north as Ohio and Illinois. Indeed, Gulf sea shells and polished sharks' teeth are found in northern mounds, proving that the trade of goods and cultural ideas was extensive.

Researchers must be careful, therefore, not to assume that the existence of a mound demands extra consideration as a Soto landing place. Any place along the west coast suitable for a camp probably had a mound of some sort.

Ucita's mound must have been striking. Elvas describes it as a "very high mount" on which were "seven or eight houses of timber and thatch." These buildings, often described by the Spaniards as native palaces, were huge. Undoubtedly they were primarily ceremonial in purpose.

One was said by Elvas to be a "temple on which perched a wooden fowl with gilded eyes."

Soto took the "house of the chief," presumably the largest and best appointed; and Baltasar was assigned a structure large enough to serve as a warehouse for all the expedition's provisions. The rest of the buildings were taken apart and used to construct smaller cabins for "every mess of three or four soldiers." Some idea of the size of the original buildings is afforded by the number of cabins arranged on the mound -- with 570 men to shelter, not including sailors, at least 150 cabins were obtained from a half dozen lodges!

Students of the Soto puzzle should not be discouraged by the lack of a known mound at any other site otherwise fitting the Soto landing description. Domiciliary mounds eroded to ground level at a relatively fast rate, and early settlers frequently leveled ritual mounds for road ballast.

With these cautions in mind, we can attempt to relate mounds, or former mound sites, with Soto's main camp.

Williams noted the existence of mounds in his visit of 1824: "On the west side of Suwannee River, and near St. Pedro Lake, there are ruins nearly as extensive as described in the neighborhood of Tallahassee; but the country is yet unsettled, and the objects of antiquity have not been much examined. A ruined monastery is particularly spoken of, the broken bell of which has long been a subject of wonder to the Indians. Tumuli (mounds) are not so common here, as in the valley of the Mississippi. They, however, are occasionally seen, most usually on hammocks and always in situations where they command extensive views."

TAMPA BAY MOUNDS

Mounds in the vicinity of Tampa Bay were mapped by S.T. Walker at a time when the area was still in relatively primitive condition. His findings are recorded in the 1879 "Smithsonian Institute Annual Report." These were supplemented 20 years later by Clarence B. Moore.

Extensive shell mounds were located on the east side of Tampa Bay at Shaw's Point, Terraceil Island, Indian Hill on Big Cockroach Key, Little Manatee River, Bullfrog Creek, Alafia River and Hillsborough River. On the west side of the bay there were 16 mounds at the extremity of Pinellas Peninsula, and others at Papy's Bayou, Alligator Creek, and Phillippi Point.