6. Once inside the port, the bottom was mud and occasionally so shallow that the large ships again scraped.
7. The channel inside the port was hard to follow, requiring five days of "constantly sounding the lead."
8. Shoals in front of the destination village forced large "ships" to anchor four leagues back and their men and horses put ashore there.
9. The place of disembarkation was "due north of the Island of Tortugas."
10. The land of Ocita was "ten leagues west of the Bay of Johan Ponce."
11. An advance party went to the chosen village by boat, while the main army marched "toward" it.
12. Some cavaliers led by Soto rode ahead of the shore party and travelled 12 leagues (31 miles) before coming out of streams and swamps opposite the village on the other side of the harbor, which they could not pass around.
13. Soto met Mococo who complained about the chiefs Orriygua, Neguarete, Capaloey (Pooy?) and Ecita -- all four "of this coast."
14. After arriving at "the" village, Soto sent his general to Ocita -- apparently the seacoast settlement -- to disperse Indians gathered there.
15. Anasco dispersed another gathering of Indians on an island, and reinforcements were sent to the mainland opposite the island.
16. The River of Mococo was one day's march away.

COMPULSION TO LAND AT OCITA

Ranjel's description of depths and the composition of sea bottoms is of particular interest. Such information was of great importance to sea captains in those days of limited navigational instruments. Careful notes were made of these matters, and it was natural that Secretary Ranjel would mention them.

There appears to be some contradiction between Soto and Ranjel about the location of Ocita. It was customary for Indians to have several village sites; moving between them as the necessities of hunting, fishing, farming and war required.

Old maps show Indian mounds on the sandy points of most outer islands. Natives customarily inhabited these sea-side villages when the spring mullet migrations churned the waters with a roar

and when summer mosquitoes made swampy mainland areas unpleasant. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that Chief Ocita had both a mainland and an island village.

We are struck with the emphasis by Ranjel of the shallows and shoals. There was some very compelling reason -- not explained by any chronicler -- to establish the operating base at inland Ocita.

Several days of hard labor were required to work the ships up to the village. Men, horses and provisions were put ashore several miles before the village was reached. Why was not the main camp set up where the heavy baggage was unloaded?

Soto was interested in establishing a settlement in Florida, and brought tons of supplies for that purpose. A location that could not be easily sup-plied by cargo ships was not a satisfactory, permanent port. In addition, Soto was either extremely confident or extremely foolhardy in working his ships into a roadstead that he could not easily sail out of in the event of overwhelming attack.

Did the scrap of gold found by the Narvaez expedition, perhaps at Ocita, inspire Soto to reach that place at all costs? Was Ocita "the" port that Anasco was sent out specifically to find? Or was it, simply, "a" port discovered by Soto in his hurried quest for any suitable landing site?

If we knew the motivation behind Soto's determination to land at the site he did, we would be a long way toward determining just where that place was!

The most specific clues of location have been the most controversial.

Where was the "northern" shore of Florida? The area near present-day Pensacola? The head of some west coast harbor? That eight-mile east-west stretch of Sanibel Island? Or was it, simply, all the coast north of Cuba?

Due north of Tortugas Island ought to be easy to plot. But is that island the present Dry Tortugas or the Marquesas?

Ten leagues west of Bay of Ponce might be an accurate direction if we knew where that bay was and how one can go west from a western port!

Clearly we need more clues.