Unfortunately no archeological proof of the landing places or routes of America's adelantados has yet been uncovered. Perhaps none will, inasmuch as they did not tarry long enough in one place to leave many traces.

Still, a careful and/or lucky excavator may find definitive artifacts if he knows what to look for, and where. The narratives give us some clues. The stone cross planted by Ponce would be a sensational discovery. He seemed also to be in the habit of scratching his name on rocks. An authentic pictograph, examined in place by a trained archeologist, might rewrite history. The site of Ponce's abortive settlement, abandoned in haste, still might yield rusty cross-bow darts discharged during his final battle with local Indians.

Narvaez, tempest tossed, was the least prepared of all the early explorers and the least likely to leave enduring signs. Yet, even his presence might be detected by a Spanish coin lost from a cavalier's pocket, a cloak clasp or a bit of saddle ornament. Certainly charcoal from his forges in north Florida would be recognizable.

In the case of Hernando De Soto, there is greater potential for confirmation.

All the chronicles mention "trading truck" with which Soto beguiled the natives: beads, hawk bells, rosaries with crosses, axes, knives, and mirrors. Several of these items -- such as glass beads found on Boca Grande Island -- were given away by all the first explorers and were so widely scattered by tribal trading and raiding that little significance attaches.

The most intriguing possibility is the cache of "iron implements and other things" Elvas says was buried at Cale. These items would be able to with-stand earthen burial and consisted of heavy articles too burdensome to carry. Included might be such things as anvils, sledge hammers, iron plates, iron bars, melting furnaces, ingot moulds, lead for

musket shot, gun barrels, cannon balls, kettles, body armor, stone mortars and large crockery.

It is possible, of course, that the burial of such valuable material was observed by an Indian peeking out from the forest and was dug up within hours of the army's departure. On the other hand, the remnants of the cache may yet be waiting for a well-directed spade or magnetometer.

Archaeologists are interested in the durable equipment Garcilaso says was left in quantity with Chief Mococo when the camp at the Bay of the Holy Spirit was abandoned. In addition to the perishable items of clothing, the Indians were given cuirasses, bucklers, pikes, lances, steel helmets, anchors and "quantities of iron and steel."

Some of this material would be buried eventually with the owner and someday may be recovered from a lonely grave. A single burial with Spanish artifacts of the Soto period would prove nothing since portable objects were traded and carried remarkable distances. The helmet found at Bartow and chain mail found at Tallahassee might fall in this category. However, several graves near a possible Soto landing place -- say the Lake Myakka mounds -- each containing goods of Spanish origin would be datable evidence.

Another archaeological possibility is the "great enclosures of dry rock" constructed by the Indians in the Bay of the Holy Spirit to capture fish. If left undisturbed, rock construction persists for thousands of years. On dry land, at certain seasons of the year when the moisture balance is just right, buried walls can be detected by aerial photography. The technique is not suitable for wet tidal flats, yet a method may be discovered in the future -- perhaps with infra-red film, sonar or neutron radiation -- that will detect rock masses in mud.

The cannon bombardment of Hog Island would have left metal or stone balls the size of oranges buried in the ground.