ative" of
these events, that Porcallo and De Soto had already quarrelled so
decisively that they were no longer on speaking terms. Porcallo,
thoroughly destitute of moral principle, was a slave hunter; a
character whom De Soto thoroughly despised, and whose operations he
would not on any account allow to be carried on in his army. Porcallo
therefore found no difficulty in obtaining permission to retire from
the service. Probably both the governor and his lieutenant were
equally happy to be rid of each other.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER X.

_The March to Ochile._

The March Commenced.--The Swamps of Florida.--Passage of the
Morass.--Heroism of Sylvestre.--Message to Acuera.--His
Heroic Reply.--Fierce Hostility of the Indians.--Enter
the Town of Ocali.--Strange Incident.--Death of the
Bloodhound.--Historical Discrepancies.--Romantic Entrance
to Ochile.

The day after the departure of Porcallo, a courier from Captain
Gallegos, accompanied by a small guard, came to the Spanish camp at
Ucita. He informed De Soto that there was an ample supply of
provisions at Uribaracaxi to sustain the army for several days; and
that he had received information that at not a great distance from
that place large quantities of gold could be obtained. De Soto and his
companions were greatly elated by these tidings, trusting that they
were about to enter upon another Peru. A garrison of forty horsemen
and eighty foot soldiers, was left at Ucita, to protect the military
and commissariat stores collected there, and to guard the three
vessels still remaining in the bay. Captain Calderon, who was left in
command, was strictly enjoined to treat the Indians with the utmost
kindness, and not to make war upon them, even if provoked by taunts
and insults.

De Soto, then, with the main body of his army, set out on the march
for Uribaracaxi. It was soon very evident to him that he was not in
Peru. There was no smoothly-paved highway for his soldiers to
traverse. The country was pathless, rough, apparently uninhabited,
encumbered with tangled forests, and vast dismal swamps. It was a very
arduous enterprise for soldiers burdened with heavy armor to force
their way through such a wilderness, with the baggage essential to
such a body of men.

One of the great objects of the governor, and a humane one, was to
establish a colony in Florida. A herd of three hundred swine was kept
in the line of march, as these anima