historian Barcia, who edited the second edition of Herrera, records a stop at Chequiche on the way home. Chequiche is a well known variation of the Tequesta pronunciation.

Romans' map shows a channel of not les than 10 feet south of Key Biscayne into Biscayne Bay, and another of six feet north of the Key. We will examine the Santa Marta landmark in more detail at the end of this chapter.

The spacious bay behind a shoal and row of islands certainly is Florida Bay behind the Keys and Hawk Reef stretching to Marquesas. Pola could be either Key Largo or Matecumbe Key.

The two white islands described by Herrera probably include Cay Hueso (Bone Island) corrupted by the English to Key West. Later chronicles attribute the original name to an ac-cumulation of Indian skeletons -- supposedly remnants of Calusa who were victims of a Seminole invasion. However, Bone Island was so termed many years prior to the eighteenth century Seminole intrusion. The name could refer to its bone-white col-or to heaps of loggerhead bones left by Indians who killed great numbers of the sea turtles which once nested there.

The second white island is not so easily identified. It might have been Boca Chica or Marquesas or either side of Bone Island. Herrera says Ponce turned north here. Navigable channels, therefore, provide clues to likely spots.

Northwest Channel is the narrow entrance to Key West Naval Base where your author helped free a grounded ship. A wider passage is the Boca Grande Channel located nearer Marquesas and much used in later years as the direct route between Havana and the Spanish fisheries of Charlotte Harbor. However, both channels then provided little more than two fathoms over their bars.

Ponce's demonstrations of cautious sailing -- his turn in nine fathoms after landfall, for example, and anchorages in six to eight fathoms -- suggests he would have sought safer passage west of the Quicksands shoals.

GULF COAST LANDING

A north, northeast course after a turn beyond the Quicksands would bring the fleet to land near Englewood. A run south then took him along those unique islands from Gasparilla to Sanibel which "lay out to sea" up to 12 miles from the mainland. They enclose a huge body of water which includes Charlotte Harbor, Pine Island Sound and San Carlos Bay.

If Ponce made his west coast landfall north of Boca Grande Pass, he failed to spot the best en-trance into Charlotte Harbor. The pass is relatively small and always described by Spaniards as a "mouth." Later explorers also had difficulty finding the opening, as we shall see.

It is safe to assume that Ponce did not discover either Tampa Bay or Charlotte Harbor. Such finds would have been so important that the Adelantado, who carefully noted little inlets, would not have failed to trumpet a major port.

A significant clue is Ponce's entrance into a "way" between the islands and the coast. The word denotes a corridor, something narrow. The only passage way able to shelter three ocean-going ships is Pine Island Sound.

There are, today, three entrances from the Gulf of Mexico directly into Pine Island Sound. One of these, Red Fish Pass, was opened up by the hurricane of 1926 thereby splitting Captiva Island. The earliest harbor soundings, of 1863, show Captiva and North Captiva Islands joined by a thin strand. It is likely that Red Fish Pass opened and closed at intervals.

Blind Pass, called Dry Pass originally, is frequently clogged and opened by wave action. Even when water flows through, it is barely navigable by small boats.

Only Captiva Pass, between Cayo Costa and North Captiva Island, has a permanent channel deep enough to accommodate sea going ships of six or seven feet.

In the event Ponce missed any of the passes through the barrier islands, he would have had to make a 180-degree turn through San Carlos Bay to reach the "way" of Pine Island Sound. We can rule out this possibility on two counts: Herrera relates the finding of a way without a preliminary trip through a bay. Also, Ponce hardly would sail into a restricted passage had he already known of better anchorage in San Carlos Bay. An obvious assumption, therefore, is that Ponce entered Pine Island Sound through Captiva Pass.

Ponce anchored inside the way to take on wood and water. Mangrove wood abounded everywhere, but potable drinking water was harder to find. On the islands, only Sanibel and Pine are large enough to support surface streams or an underground acquifer.

Sanibel River, better described as a slough, runs through the southern third of the island. Both it and wells there carry a heavy load of sulphur.