eyed peas growing along its banks. "It is about two miles wide at its mouth," noted Williams. "The country is a flat prairie slightly covered with grass and the land poor. At some distance from the banks a scattering of pine trees are seen that in-crease in size and number as you recede farther from the river. Many small streams cross the prairie and fall into the river at short distances apart. Many small keys clothed with palms and cedars diversify the first entrance of the river for some distance."

Fifteen miles from the mouth they came to some small live-oak trees with water from 6 to 12 feet deep. The channel was blocked with logs and brush approximately 34 miles from the mouth. This obstruction probably was the outer edge of a swampy area described as "the deadening" by early settlers.

Williams also gives us a few scraps of information about the islands in the area. He "examined" Costa Firma which, he says, was called Cayo Muspa on the old Spanish charts and lies south of the Boca Grande main entrance.

Pine Island had a passage (Matlacha Pass) on the east side four feet deep which separated it from the mainland. "A sandy shoal extends across the bay from Pine Island to Boca Seca on which there is not more than three feet of water at low tide."

Sanybel Island had streams of fresh water and "a fine harbor at the NE point two to four fathoms deep with 14 feet on the bar."

Toampa Island (Useppa) was five miles south of Boca Grande inside the bay. "It is one mile long from east to west and a half-mile wide, the seat of the Calde family. This island is a high shell bank (old Indian mound) covered with large timber."

Carlos Bay had two entrances. Williams wrote that "the deepest channel is from the Gulf between Moosa (Muspa) and Caloosa (Captiva) islands. Caloosa channel has 12 feet of water on the bar. Broad entrance east of Caloosa Islands is shoal."

The earliest, best soundings we have of the Charlotte Harbor, Pine Island Sound, Carlos Bay complex is the first edition of Chart 75 prepared in 1883 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey based on data obtained between 1863 and 1880. Though this information is a century old, it was compiled well before extensive settlement and dredging.

This comprehensive map shows Boca Grande Pass into Charlotte Harbor with a minimum of 3½ fathoms; a shoals in

the middle of the bay but with two 2-fathom passages through them, then wide water of two fathoms or more almost up to Live Oak Point.

The shallow water of Pine Island Sound permits a winding passage of 7 feet or more, but it would be a deep-sea mariner's nightmare. Blind Pass appears to give three feet of water into the sound, while Captiva Pass provides a good channel of 7 1/2 feet. Red Fish Pass had not yet opened up at the waist of Captiva Island.

San Carlos Bay, southern entrance to Pine Island Sound and outlet for the Caloosahatchee, shows fairly good channels of two fathoms or more up to the Sound and the mouth of the river. The Caloosa River delta has two narrow openings of 6½ feet but are approachable only by a sharp, right-angled turn.

SOTO'S SHIPS

Now that we have some idea of the depths, widths and configurations of the various channels Soto might have encountered, the question becomes: what were the capabilities of Soto's fleet?

Contemporary chroniclers do not agree on the exact number of vessels Soto finally took to Florida. However, most of the confusion revolves around unnamed caravels and brigantines, supportive boats to the main fleet.

There is general agreement on the larger ships which controlled the selection of a suitable port:

1. San Cristobal 800 tons, the flagship.
2. La Magdalena "no smaller"
3. Santa Ana carried 80 horses, more than the flagship
4. La Concepcion more than 500 tons
5. Buena Fortuna "equally as large"
6. San Juan "another large ship"
7. Santa Barbara "another large ship"
8. San Anton "a small galleon"
9. (not named) "a very fine caravel"
10. (not named) two bergantines

The Santa Ana arrived in Cuba just as Soto was preparing to leave. On board was his former partner in the conquest of Peru, Hernan Ponce (no relation to the discoverer of Florida). From records of a court case between Ponce and Soto's widow years later we learn that Soto purchased the Santa Ana to carry additional horses. The vessel was in such poor condition, however, that is was scuttled on the Florida coast.

What an archeological prize for some scuba diver to find some day!