o favorable report.
The other, sent in search of the ocean, was absent much longer, and De
Soto became very apprehensive that it had been destroyed by the
natives.

Through many perilous and wild adventures, being often betrayed and
led astray by their guides, they reached, after a fortnight's travel,
the head of the bay now called St. Mark's. Here they found vestiges of
the adventurers who had perished in the ill-fated Narvaez expedition.
There was a fine harbor to which reinforcements and fresh supplies of
ammunition might be sent to them by ships from Cuba, or from Tampa
Bay. With these tidings they hurried back to Anhayea.

They had now reached the month of November, 1539. The winter in these
regions, though short, had often days of such excessive cold that men
upon the open prairie, exposed to bleak winds called northers, often
perished from the severity of the weather. De Soto resolved to
establish himself in winter-quarters at Anhayea. With his suite he
occupied the palace of the chief. The other houses were appropriated
to the soldiers for their barracks. He threw up strong fortifications
and sent out foraging parties into the region around, for a supply of
provisions. As we have no intimation that any payment was made, this
was certainly robbery. Whatever may be said of the necessities of his
case, it was surely unjust to rob the Indians of their harvests.
Still, De Soto should not be condemned unheard; and while we have no
evidence that he paid the natives for the food he took from them,
still we have no proof that he did not do so.

In accordance with his invariable custom, he made strenuous efforts to
win the confidence of the natives. Through captive Indians he sent
valuable presents to the chief Capafi in his retreat, and also
assurances that he sought only friendly relations between them. The
chief, however, was in no mood to give any cordial response to these
advances. He had taken refuge in a dense forest, surrounded by dismal
morasses, which could only be traversed by a narrow pass known only to
the Indians, where his warriors in ambush might easily arrest the
march of the whole army of Spaniards. The brutal soldiery of Narvaez
had taught them to hate the Spaniards.

He kept up an incessant warfare, sending out from his retreat fierce
bands to assail the invaders by day and by night, never allowing them
one moment of repose. Many of the Spaniards were slain. But they
always sold their lives very d