Researcher Mark F. Boyd, assuming Soto landed in Tampa Bay, attempted to pinpoint one of these mounds as the landing site. He noted that the only ones meeting the requirement of being near a beach are Shaw's Point, Indian Hill, Bullfrog Creek and Phillippi Point. Beaches are found at Piney Point on the east shore, at Tampa City, along the east shore of Interbay Peninsula, at Phillippi's Point, and around the southern tip of Pinellas Peninsula.

Boyd eliminated Shaw's Point as a possible landing site because it would not necessitate the recorded 12-hour march to reach the mound from the beach to the west. Neither does it appear that five days of cautious pilotage would have been necessary to reach an anchorage in this vicinity. In addition, the Manatee River estuary would be a major obstacle to a march northward.

Indian Hill is too close to the eastern shore beaches, with no intervening obstacles likely to require 12 hours of difficult marching to reach. Bullfrog Creek is bracketed by the Little Manatee and Alafia Rivers which would have required ferriage or bridging.

Boyd believed the mound at Phillippi Point best fits the description of topography leading up to Soto's main camp. Until recently the site was known as Phillippi's Hammock, the latter word being a colloquial term for a small hill. A landing along the beach on the bay side of the Pinellas Peninsula would require extensive detours to head streams and bayous. After one such circling, Soto and his advance party may have continued out on Cooper's Point where they saw the camp fires of Porcallo's men at the village on Phillippi Point.

This theory incurs several difficulties. Boyd recognized that there is no nearby island where Anasco could have gone to disperse a congregation of Indians. He supposes that the peninsula of Booth Point was meant instead of an island.

Another problem with a landing at Phillippi Point is the extreme shallowness of water. Two fathoms of depth run to the throat of Old Tampa Bay, but thereafter the bottom shelves rapidly to three feet. This might be enough for the brigantines but certainly not enough for even an empty ship. Navigation in these shoals was conceded by Boyd to be "just tenable."

Finally a Pinellas landing ignores Biedma's statement that the Soto expedition marched a day or more "toward the setting sun" and paused at Chief Mococo's river before turning northeast.

The route chosen by Boyd would allow no more than an hour or so of walking before a turn would be required and would encounter only a small creek well after the change of direction.

CHARLOTTE HARBOR MOUNDS

Valuable surveys of mounds south of Charlotte Harbor were made by Cushing and by the hydrological chart of 1863-83, as discussed earlier in chapters regarding Ponce de Leon. Records for mounds in the northern reaches of Charlotte Harbor have not been compiled so concisely. Yet, it is clear from pioneer reports that mounds were as numerous there as at Tampa Bay.

Of particular interest is a huge dwelling mound which once existed on the north shore of Charlotte Harbor just east of Live Oak Point. It was "a bit larger" than a football field until leveled in 1950 for a street (Northshore Drive), according to Vernon Peeples, a lifelong resident of the area and a knowledgeable local historian. The mound certainly was large enough to accommodate the seven or eight native lodges described by Elvas.

A large burial mound well inland on the north fork of Alligator Creek is still noticeable. It was thoroughly excavated in 1962 by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Max Jones under direction of Ripley Bullen. The mound was found to contain pottery of early Timucua design. Apparently it was associated with dwelling mounds on the south fork and at the mouth of Alligator Creek.

Two mounds, on the shores of Bull Bay, at Cape Haze, have been studied by archeologists. William Marquardt is preparing to excavate others as we go to press. The hydrological chart previously mentioned shows mounds on each side of Boca Grande Pass. Mounds were built on nearly every island and point in the area.

Of all these, the mound near Live Oak Point best fits the statement of Soto narrators that their base camp was about four leagues from a beach "nigh the sea." There was, and still is, a harbor beach south of Burnt Store where the army could go ashore to march toward Ocita.

The Live Oak mound was far enough from the Gulf to require a day's march to the River Mococo, perhaps today's Myakka River draining two lakes corresponding to Rabbit and St. John's lakes.

Though mounds were so numerous that positive identification with Soto's camp is impossible, the final answer may very well be locked within a mound -- to be discovered at some future time by careful excavation.