place. By disembarking here they did, indeed, commit themselves to a long detour around the deep water in the lower course of Manatee River; but they did not necessarily know this.

We are faced with the fact that Elvas tells us the town was two leagues away and the pinnaces visited it on one evening. Yet, the army marched 12 leagues in order to get to it. Granted the location of Terra Ceia and the landing on Shaw Point, correspondence with the narratives is well nigh perfect. It may be added that Garcilaso speaks of the town as two leagues distant, though he seems to imply that the army had to march only that far. His use of the figure 2 is, however, significant.

Again, having marched around the lower part of Manatee River and swung westward directly toward the town, they would come out on the shore of Terra Ceia Bay, "opposite the village on the other side of the roadstead of the harbor, which they could not pass around." This last phrase probably has reference to the fact that it was very late and "that night, worn out, they slept scattered about." Elvas implies that they reached the town that night. In any case, the next we hear of them they are in the town -- whether by skirting the bay next morning or being ferried over in the pinnaces.

The location of De Soto's port on the south side of Tampa Bay and near the sea is confirmed by another fact which deserves special consideration. On the day when the Spanish flotilla sighted land, it will be remembered that De Soto accompanied Anasco and the pilot on a scouting expedition in one of the pinnaces and cast anchor overnight near the village of Ocita.

It is to be carefully noted that while Ocita was the name of the chief of the town later occupied by De Soto, the village which bears this name in Ranjel's account, evidently a second village under the same chief, was distinct. This is made clear by a later passage in Ranjel's narrative. He tells us that after the Spaniards had settled in the second village, De Soto "ordered General Vasco Porcallo to go to Ocita because it was reported that people had come together there."

From this account it seems evident that Porcallo went by land. This means that Ocita was evidently close to the outer coast. We may also infer that the port was not far inland because the expedition appears to have taken only one day.

Now Ocita cannot have been on one of the keys, even if Porcallo had started in boats.

Dogs would not have been needed to track down the Indians on such small areas. Pt. Pinellas is more than ten miles from the entrance of Tampa Bay where De Soto and his companions lay in their pinnace struggling to get back to the fleet. The only probable location of Ocita is near Palma Sola Point, or at the utmost distance, Snead Island.

Even if Porcallo had made his expedition by sea, it is not likely that the distance between the port from which he started and Ocita was very great. It is certainly not probable that the Spaniards would have concerned themselves with a gathering of Indians very many miles away. All of which leads almost inevitably to the conclusion that both Ocita and the port were on the south side of Tampa Bay not far from its entrance. This tends strongly to confirm our identification of Terra Ceia as the port of the Holy Spirit.

It might naturally be inquired why De Soto did not select a port as far up Tampa Bay as possible so as to save much arduous travel when his army set out for the interior. It must be remembered that at the beginning there was no inland objective, and for some months De Soto was uncertain as to the advisability of maintaining a permanent settlement in the Port of the Holy Spirit. He had been made Governor of the entire country, and it was not yet known which were the richest parts of it and which most suitable for settlement.

In any case, it was necessary to maintain communication with Cuba. Wherever he might ultimately decide to place his capital, a port of en-try for vessels from the Indies or Spain was essential. His largest vessels were in the nature of transports whose main function was to land men and materials upon the coast of the new government. They were not intended for exploration. A port accessible from Havana was desired, not one which happened to be far inland.

Finally our conclusion as to De Soto's point of debarkation is confirmed. It was in fact anticipated, by one of the best American students of the De Soto narratives, Buckingham Smith. In the map inserted in his translations of the "Letter of De Soto" and the "Memoir of Fontaneda" he indicates that landing place on Palma Sola peninsula exactly where we have placed it. He differs, however, in that he traces the route directly to the northeast as if he supposed the village to have been located at the point of landing. Otherwise, Buckingham Smith is in almost perfect agreement with the conclusions reached in the present "Final Report of the De Soto Expedition Commission."