h the same fertile and well populated region,
they were admonished by the approach of night, again to seek an
encampment. The night was dark and gloomy. All were deeply depressed
in spirits. An incessant battle seemed their destiny. The golden
mountains of which they were in pursuit were ever vanishing away. They
were on the same path which had previously been traversed by the cruel
but energetic Narvaez, and where his whole company had been
annihilated, leaving but four or five to tell the tale of the awful
tragedy.

Dreadful as were the woes which these adventurers had brought upon the
Indians, still more terrible were the calamities in which they had
involved themselves. They were now three hundred miles from Tampa Bay.
Loud murmurs began to rise in the camp. Nearly all demanded to return.
But, for De Soto, the abandonment of the enterprise was disgrace, and
apparently irretrievable ruin. There was scarcely any condition of
life more to be deplored than that of an impoverished nobleman. De
Soto was therefore urged onward by the energies of despair.

Again through all the hours of the night, they were exposed to an
incessant assault from their unwearied foes. From their captives they
learned that they were but six miles from the village of Anhayea,
where their chief, Capafi, resided. This was the first instance in
which they heard of a chief who did not bear the same name as the town
in which he dwelt. Early in the morning, De Soto, with two hundred
mounted cavaliers and one hundred footmen, led the advance, and soon
entered the village, which consisted of two hundred and fifty houses,
well built and of large size.

At one end of the village stood the dwelling of the chief, which was
quite imposing in extent, though not in the grandeur of its
architecture. The chief and all his men had fled, and the Spaniards
entered deserted streets. The army remained here for several days,
finding abundance of food. Still they were harassed, day and night, by
the indomitable energy of the natives. Two well armed expeditions were
sent out to explore the country on the north and the west, for a
distance of forty or fifty miles, while a third was dispatched to the
south in search of the ocean.

Anhayea, where the main body of the army took up its quarters, is
supposed to have been near the present site of the city of
Tallahassee. The two first expeditions sent out, returned, one in
eight and the other in nine days, bringing back n