FLORIDA AND APALACHE map was drawn by Cornelius Wytfliet in 1597 and includes many Indian towns reported by the Soto expedition. Florida's lower east coast is called Costa de Fuego (Hot Sun). --- Ptolemaicae Augmentum, Louvain

a "port." The words are used interchangeably by most translators. Yet, there are subtle differences. A bay is considered circular with a well-protected entrance. An ensenada is an indention of the coast suitable for temporary anchorage, and an ancon is a smaller indentation. The word "ancon" is related to "ancla," the root word for anchor.

It is not likely that Soto would call a body of water 31 miles long an ancon. Most likely he was referring to an indentation within a larger bay. He was, of course, writing his letter ashore several weeks after his arrival. From his point of view at that moment -- looking through the doorway of a palm-thatched hut past his ships anchored in a good lee -- his location was an ancon, and it was the adjacent roadstead that stretched to the sea 12 leagues away.

Soto gives us a valuable clue about his camp site with his statement that it was on a "cape," or extremity of land. Some early translators placed Soto's camp at the extremity (end) of a bay. Yet, it is clear that cape is a land feature.

In Tampa Bay, a prominent cape would be Gadsden Point at the end of the Interbay Peninsula, with a half dozen other points suitable for camps.

In Charlotte Harbor, good camping places well in would be Live Oak Point (now the north approach to the Collier-Gilchrist Bridges), Punta Gorda and Cape Haze.

In Carlos Bay, Punta Rassa provides good landing though it is overly close to the Gulf. If Soto's ships could have negotiated the shallow and twisting channel into the Caloosahatchee River