The Indians from up and down stream -- who were coming to the near bank to prevent the crossing -- were repulsed by four cavaliers while the others made a raft of poles on which to take across the Spaniards who could not swim. All but one who struck for the far bank emerged from the eddying waters by gaining a large crevasse in the opposite steep bank where the horses could get a footing and struggle out. Garcilaso described these river banks as of two pikes height -- around 12 to 13 feet at low water -- steep as a wall with somewhat flat land extending back from them.

This is indeed a distinctive item of topography in Florida. Even if one did not know from study of all the De Soto narrations that the riders were yet moving southeasterly it would not take much of a search to find this spot. It is such a rare bit of scenery in Florida that one could readily find it by continuing the line of the map which was started above and trying all rivers at a distance of 39 leagues from the last determined spot where the cavaliers slept the second day.

It happens that the line thus continued would cross the Oklawaha River near Moss Bluff. There is no doubt whatever that this is the one sought. The banks here, and all other topography, con-form entirely to the specifications given in the De Soto accounts. A present-day power dam hides some of the banks with water, but pioneer residents there confirm the facts -- even to the crevasses in the banks necessarily used as crossing places.

The sixth day of their ride covered 20 leagues. On the seventh day they added another 20 leagues, arriving that night at a river bounded on both shores by a vast marsh of nearly two miles total width. Because of muck and other difficulties this marsh was not easily crossed, although De Soto found two places where it was possible to cross.

This marsh which the cavaliers had reached was so thoroughly described by Garcilaso that it can be easily located. First, it should be determined in what direction the horsemen were headed. This is quite easy, for Garcilaso said that a small Indian town reached by the army six leagues after they had crossed the Great Marsh was almost due north of Urri's town by 20 leagues. Thus, the messengers had been coming south for that space.

Another chronicler said that out of this small Indian town the army's route was again north and veered toward "New Spain," which is Mexico on our maps. All evidence shows that De Soto's objective at that time was an Indian country known as

Apalache, or as we know it, the Tallahassee area. This gives us a clear picture of the army going north and finally northwest. Conversely, the cavaliers had come southeasterly and then south.

Following our former simple method, we use the distance of 40 leagues the cavaliers rode after leaving Moss Bluff on the Oklawaha to reach the Great Marsh. Then we extend our line along known Indian trails in the directions indicated. All that is needed is to find a river at that distance which has tremendously wide, marshy shores running in a north-south direction through a level plain, and at least 12 leagues or more in length.

Anyone familiar with Florida scarcely needs a map to fix upon the one and only possible fulfillment of these specifications, and that is the Kissimmee River. The chronicler who said that the country through which this section of the route went was "low, wet and pondy" described it well.

It is no mere coincidence that the crossings negotiated by De Soto's army are almost the same distance apart as the pioneer crossings at Fort Bassenger and near Rattlesnake Hammock. These two places were where the mail riders for years forded the Kissimmee River carrying the U.S. mail from the early railheads in central Florida to the outpost at Fort Myers. Indians, from long experience, knew the best trails and fords. White men adopted them for their own travel ways.

The line which has now been drawn down our map from Moss Bluff passes between what is now Orlando and Winter Park. It continues southeasterly until the north and south watershed of the northern prairie lands and flat woods of Osceola County is reached. Then it goes south to end its 40 leagues of distance just below Lake Kissimmee at the historic crossing place of the river close to where State Road 60 bridges it.

By simple computation it can been seen that in the above narrative the cavaliers had passed the scene of the army's first crossing and its re-track of the Great Marsh near Fort Bassenger. Garcilaso mentions that they made a cut-off. Naturally they would not lose time by exactly following the army's path down to this first crossing and out of it, but would take a short cut. It is interesting to note that Garcilaso allowed exactly for the difference between the army's march and this shorter route taken by the cavaliers when he gave the former at 150 leagues and for the cavaliers 146 leagues. Our map shows the riders were approaching the area of the present Brighton from the north.