our liberty and the subjugation of our
country."

This answer certainly indicates a degree of intelligence and mental
culture far above what we should expect to find in the chief of a
tribe of Florida Indians. The chivalric spirit of De Soto compelled
him to admire the heroism it displayed. He consequently redoubled his
efforts to gain the friendship of the chief, but all in vain. For
twenty days De Soto remained in this encampment, recruiting his troops
and making arrangements for a farther advance. The Indians made
constant warfare upon him, lurking in the thickets which densely
surrounded his camp. No Spaniard could wander one hundred steps
without danger of being shot down by an invisible foe, whose deadly
arrow was more noiseless in its flight than the sighing of the breeze
through the tree tops. In this way, during these twenty days, fourteen
Spaniards were killed and many more wounded. Fifty Indians also fell
struck by the bullets of the invaders. De Soto allowed himself only in
a war of self-defence. He strictly prohibited his followers from doing
any injury to the villages or the property of the natives, or of
engaging in the slightest act of violence towards any who were not in
active hostility against them.

After twenty days of such repose as could be found in this war
harassed camp, De Soto resumed his march. He directed the steps of his
army in a northeasterly direction towards a town called Ocali, about
sixty miles from their encampment. It seems that in most, if not all
of this region, the chief and his principal town bore the same name.

The path of the army led just over a dreary expanse of desert sands,
about thirty miles broad. There was no underbrush, and over the smooth
surface both men and horses could travel with the greatest ease. They
then entered upon a beautiful region of fertility and luxuriance.
Fields of corn waved their graceful leaves and bannered heads in the
breeze. Farm houses and pleasant villages were scattered around,
indicating that peace, with its nameless blessings, reigned there.
They reached the central town, Ocali, and found it to consist of six
hundred substantially built houses. This would give the place a
population of probably not less than three thousand.

But the chief, Ocali, and his principal inhabitants, with their
effects, had fled to the forests. The Spanish army immediately took up
its quarters in the dwellings of Ocali. They found here an ample
supply of pro