The Relation of Fray Sabastian Canete of DeSoto's Expedition appeared in a journal of that era. This translation was made by Eugene Lyon and Published in the University of Alabama's DeSoto Chronicles.
In the province of Mococo [upon landing] they found a Spaniard who was 14 years among [the] Indians, and he had forgotten his [own] language. He had gone in search of Narvaez. The lord of the province of Tascaluca (Tuscaloosa or Tuscalusa) was as large as a Spaniard mounted on a horse. De Soto died at the River of the Holy Spirit in the province of Guachoya.
The clothing that the Indians ordinarily wear are blankets of mulberry roots and of marten, very fine, and this in most parts; and hides of bears, wolves, lions, tigers, and of cows [probably buffalo] near the plains. In all parts they found an abundance of food of the land, [such] as corn, beans and squash-infinite fruits of the land of those of Spain: there were four kinds of nuts - hazelnuts and chestnuts; in all the land a great quantity of grapes, and in some parts muscatel grapes, as sweet and flavorful as those of Spain. There are many acorns, and of this they make butter, and of nuts. [There is a] great quantity of woods and greater of plums, very good, and from them they make loaves like quince-sweet [carne de membrillo], and in most parts of all Florida they found much gold, which the Indian men and women have, and they offered it to the Spaniards.
There are a number of pearls, because [he found? word partly destroyed at page margin] in the house of an idol they called El Cu in Cofitachiqui, they found more than 12 horse-loads of pearls, and the caciques of that town who were embalmed in El Cu, they had great sacks of pearls at the necks. They found much worked copper like fine sheets [boja de million [sic] boja de Milan]. The people are very bright and well featured and of acute judgment in the places that they are accustomed [word off page edge].
They not only gave what was necessary to wear and eat for the men but to the horses they gave feather blankets, and in the houses there is a variety, according to the regions; in some parts toward the mountains there are houses with stoves [estufas; sweat-houses?], and in other parts they are of flat roofs as in Andalusia. There are elevated [alzados? the word is on a page edge and partly torn] places, and very great, and in Tanlo rado [? partly torn] one hundred; [in?] the province of Coza (Coosa) they traveled along the banks of a river four leagues through populated areas. [The] arms they ordinarily carry are [bows and] arrows, wooden clubs [macanas, here spelled macbanas], and they are so skilled and spirited that in a skirmish that De Soto had in Mabila, where they killed 25 soldiers of his, was an Indian who went looking for the most valiant and best-armed Spaniard in order to kill himself with him. In Chicasa they came by night upon the Spaniards and took from them whatever they had, with the pearls.
In Cofitachiqui (Cofitachequi) and in other places there were raisins from grapes and mulberries, of which there is a great quantity in all Florida. There are some plains in a certain part that extend more than 300 leagues, all filled with small cows [Vaca's pequenas: probably buffalo] of very good meat, and there is trade in the hides inland. In all parts there are many turkeys [gallinas de papada: literally chickens with dewlap], deer, hares, rabbits, an infinite number of partridge, turtledoves [passenger pigeons?], and many other kinds of very good birds. There are many squirrels, bears, lions, tigers [panther?]; in all the rivers many fish and shellfish mainly flounder [catfish?]. There are wild olive trees with fruit, liquidambar trees, chinilla [china? a species of sarsaparilla]; sumac to tan the hides [cortir [sic] cortir], even though they do not tan the deer hides with it, of which there are a great number in all the land.
They greatly abominate those who lie and steal and married women who are bad. When they marry, they go to the house of the maiden's parents-he who wishes to marry with her-and says that they shall gather together her relatives; that he wishes to talk to them. Being gathered together and the marriage being carried out, they all give her to him. If, afterward, she is an adulteress, they return her, the same relatives of the husband, and having gathered her relatives together, the husband says to them, "You gave me this woman as good, and she is bad, and all of you as well; therefore [word off page] beware, patience; you all have to pay," and beginning with the adulteress, they kill them all. There is in everything much justice and reason, as is in Spain...
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