Elvas says "anchor was cast a league from shore because of the shoals." Five days later the "army landed on the sea-side, nigh of the bay, two leagues from the town of an Indian chief named Ocita in order to unburthen the ships that they should draw the less water." The seamen remained on board to take the ships forward a little each of eight days with high tide.

Though only two leagues from the inland town of Ocita, the army required two days to march there "because of great creeks and mud flats that run up from the bay."

Biedma and Garcilaso do not mention sounding details but confirm that the army disembarked two leagues short of Ocita. They said the landing required eight or nine days. In analyzing Soto soundings we must keep in mind the precautions and assumptions mentioned earlier. The narrators might have used an old Spanish fathom six inches shorter than the standard six feet. Shallow water deposition and sea-level rise probably equaled out, thus making modern hydrology charts comparable to conditions four centuries ago. To depths customarily given at low tide can be added the average increase at high tide -1.16 feet for Charlotte Harbor, 1.36 feet for San Carlos Bay, and 1.40 feet for Tampa Bay.

The Soto narrators make it clear they dropped anchor in water unusually shallow for the great distance from shore.

Secretary Ranjel's depth of four fathoms or less (a range of perhaps 20 to 24 feet) two leagues (5.25 miles) from shore indicates a gentle sloping of the continental shelf. We find such conditions at three places; south of Carlos Bay between Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, immediately in front of Egmont channel into Tampa Bay, and near Anclote Key off Tarpon Springs where early coasters regularly cast anchor.

TAMPA BAY SOUNDINGS

The earliest, accurate soundings we have for Tampa Bay were made in 1757 by Don Francisco Maria Celi on a surveying expedition.

Despite two centuries of Florida occupation, Spanish officials apparently felt they did not possess good navigation information about that superb port. Indeed the cautious contacts with Indians, and lack of Spanish influence there, suggests that Tampa Bay was relatively untouched by civilization even at this late date.

A thorough translation and study of Celi's "Diario" of this expedition has been made by John D. Ware,

a former Tampa Bay pilot, and published in the Florida Historical Quarterly of July 1968.

Celi made his soundings and survey upon order of Rear Admiral Don Blas de Barreda, ranking naval officer at Havana. The expedition required exactly one month, and was carried out with a light, three-masted sailing ship called an "'xebec." We know it drew something less than two fathoms for the vessel passed safely over a bar of this depth as it entered the harbor. Ware's "fair assumption" is that the ship drew eight or nine feet and carried a crew of 34.

Celi wrote in his journal that he "had made many trips on this passage," probably to the Spanish fort at St. Marks. Apparently he had some knowledge of the way for he ordered the ship to anchor at 2 a.m. when they came to three fathoms with a white sand bottom opposite a blind pass "lest we go beyond the entrance to Tampa Bay." He remarked that the bar extended outward from the land because of current through the inlet.

Though Celi lists many landmarks enroute by name, he does not designate the warning inlet nor bestow a name on it as he did for most other features he observed. The description, however, corresponds closely to Long Boat Pass. At dawn Celi proceeded northwest along the coast a league and a half off, sounding depths of three and four fathoms with sand bottom.

"At 5:30 a.m. the islands of the entrance of Tampa Bay were sighted in the NNW, a distance of about three and one half leagues," wrote Celi. "When the xebec was about one league distant from the entrance, we came to a depth of two fathoms, which we saw was a bar which runs NE and SW extending from the entrance at the south of this bay.

"As soon as we crossed this bar we entered by way of the middle channel, which is between the island to the south and the middle island of the en-trance, this one being to the north of the former. This channel runs NE and SW, with a depth of three and one half, three, and even up to four fathoms.

"At 8:30 we entered and at 9:00 we anchored in four fathoms with white sand bottom."

These soundings match closely Ranjel's "four fathom or less, two leagues from shore." The two-fathoms sounding was obtained while the ship was sailing across the flying bar lining the deeper channel. This obstacle was carefully noted by Celi in his journal and on his later map, leading him to