by Donald E. Sheppard     Introduction     Tracking DeSoto     DeVaca Came First     References     Index

On orders from the King, seven deep draft vessels, bound ultimately for Vera Cruz, were used to transport DeSoto's stores, animals, six-hundred twenty men, their servants and women from Cuba to Florida.B, R Those ships would then be on their way to Mexico. Two shallow draft vessels, owned by DeSoto, carried a number of the force. All set sail from Havana on May 18, 1539. DeSoto's object was to land his horses, his precious cargo (Hoffman in Clayton 1993:I:442), as soon as possible; lengthy sea passages were known to cause broken legs and thereby attrition among the horses.

Juan Ponce de León had explored Florida's nearby coast and discovered Charlotte Harbor in 1513 but died from wounds received somewhere between it and the Bay of Juan Ponce on his return to colonize in 1521 (Davis 1935:41-43; Lawson 1946:55; Morison 1974:510; Wiecknieski 1962:39; Williams 1986:41-46). The Bay of Juan Ponce is located sixty miles northeast of Key West, between Cape Sable and Marco Island.

In 1528, Panfilo de Narvaez (with Cabeza de Vaca), on a much smaller scale than DeSoto, aimed to colonize Charlotte Harbor but a storm kept him from first stopping at Havana to procure needed provisions.^V Narvaez' fleet was blown into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving one ship behind. He found Florida several days later^V, but with a critical food shortage, Narvaez was forced to disembark his army between breaker islands.^V He dispatched his ships to Havana for supplies with orders to meet him further up the coast where they all surmised Juan Ponce's good harbor to be located.^V They had been blown further north than they realized, however, and the captains of the vessels reported finding the harbor just five leagues south of his disembarkation point.^V Stump Pass, at today's Englewood on Lemon Bay, was exactly that distance from the mouth of Charlotte Harbor on the Florida Township survey of 1896; Narvaez had disembarked there.

Since, on their return, Narvaez and his army could not be found, the captains of the vessels searched the shoreline for him, but to no avail. The next year, rescuers sent to find Narvaez also found Charlotte Harbor, thinking he would have settled there by that time. He had been there but had a skirmish with that harbor's chief, Hirrihigua, and led his army away.^{I 101} The rescuers noticed a sheet of paper on a stick at the head of the harbor, which they thought Narvaez had left for them.^{E 60-61} When some of the men disembarked to read the note they were captured by Chief Hirrihigua,^{I 101-2} whose nose had been cut off by Narvaez.

One of the rescuers, a boy named Juan Ortiz, spent several years of captivity and torture by Chief Hirrihigua, who understandably had much enmity of Spaniards.^{I 101-2, E 60-2} Ortiz survived, however, and learned the chief's language in the process; the other captured men were killed. Ortiz would finally escape, with help from Chief Hirrihigua's daughter, to her fiancée's nearby village .^Ibid He was given safe refuge by her fiancée's father, Chief Mococo, and learned that chief's language during years of hospitable captivity .^Ibid DeSoto's scouts, in the luckiest stroke of their entire campaign, would find Ortiz shortly after their landing (Ibid; DeSoto in Clayton 1993:I:376; ^R). He would serve DeSoto's army as guide and chief interpreter for the rest of his life. DeSoto's people would reward the good Chief Mococo with excess Spanish armor when the port was finally abandoned. Florida's early pioneers would find that armor and call Chief Mococo's abandoned village site "Old Spanish Fields", as we shall see.

LANDFALL AND LANDING

Hirrihigua's stone fishing enclosure ^{I 231} is still there, hooked southward into Muddy Cove at the head of Charlotte Harbor, and is clearly visible today (in aerial photo at right). It is, possibly, the oldest historic structure in the United States.

Before his return to Cuba, Anasco carefully sounded the harbor, noted the tide's effect on it, and then measured the distance back to Havana via Dry Tortuga; 75 or 80 leagues, as reported to his officers in Havana (and in a letter to the King - Clayton 1993:I:373). He advised DeSoto to sail on May 25th to catch the Full Moon and Spring Tides at arrival, but DeSoto chose to sail on favorable winds instead, one week early (DeSoto in Clayton 1993:I:375).

The men sighted Florida due north on May 25th, ten leagues west of the Bay of Juan Ponce, but the transport captains would go no closer than one or two leagues from land until sighting the harbor entrance.^{E 57, R 252-4} They reported the coast in four brazas water (twenty-two feet deep) on a northern landfall,^{Ibid 252} and dropped anchor 4 or 5 leagues below the port (DeSoto in Clayton 1993:I:375). That depth of water on Florida's coast, that close to land, 80 leagues north of Havana, ten leagues west of the Bay of Juan Ponce, on a northern landfall, 4 or 5 leagues below a port, occurs at only one place in Florida: Sanibel Island (Brain 1985:xvi, l note 2; Schell 1966:16; Wilkinson 1960; Williams 1986:74, 174).

DeSoto, his guard, Anasco and the captives were transferred into DeSoto's smaller brigs to find the harbor that evening, leaving the cumbersome transport ships at anchor (DeSoto in Clayton 1993:I:375). If the fleet over-shot the harbor the large ships could not tack back to it against the high southerly winds, which were reported, to enter the harbor's pass. To preclude that, DeSoto coasted downwind, northward, in his small, maneuverable brigs, advancing to where he thought the harbor's entrance was located.^{R 252} He sailed out of sight of the fleet, however, which had moved out into deeper water for safe overnight anchorage.^{Ibid 253} That evening DeSoto found Charlotte Harbor's entrance at Boca Grande Pass, but was kept from returning to the fleet by darkness and wind.^{Ibid 252} DeSoto spent the night at a deserted Indian village (possibly on Useppa Island), much to the chagrin of his people.^{Ibid 253}

The next morning, DeSoto sailed back out the pass to explore the enormous sand bar at the harbor's entrance (Boca Grande Pass) and to summon the fleet. He was spotted four leagues downwind of the fleet's anchorage as he tacked across the high winds .^Ibid The fleet advanced downwind between vessels DeSoto stationed on either side of the narrow channel to guide the fleet into the harbor.^{Ibid 253-4} Two of the fleet's ships scraped sandy bottom as they entered .^Ibid

Since they had left Havana a week earlier than Anasco had advised, DeSoto's fleet could not cross the harbor's shallow channel just south of Cape Haze, despite efforts to do so (^Ibid and Desoto in Clayton 1993:I:375). They were forced to anchor two leagues inside the pass, in deep water, ^{I 99} to wait for Spring Tides. Those tides were five days away, on Full Moon, so while they waited the men comforted the horses with fresh foliage and berries from the islands and bays west of Cape Haze, just to the north of their anchorage .^Ibid Twenty horses perished before they were landed, however, and Anasco was publicly scolded for the delay which may have contributed to their injuries.^{R 254} Anasco had warned DeSoto about the harbor's shallows before leaving Havana, however, thereby establishing May 25th as the proposed departure date to hit Spring Tides on their arrival; a date formally acknowledged by DeSoto (in Clayton 1993:I:375).

The horses were finally disembarked with the other livestock onto Cape Haze.^{E 57, R 254} On the night of May 30th (on the tides, as we now realize), DeSoto's guards sailed up to the head of the harbor and Ucita was taken in a dawn raid (^Ibid and DeSoto in Clayton 1993:I:375). The Indians, having been aware of the ships for nearly a week, had fled, much to DeSoto's disappointment. His style of capturing the chief and enslaving the citizens had been thwarted by delay. Hostages were not to be taken en masse from Ucita, setting off a series of mishaps which would disrupt the campaign for months. Without forced labor, the men would have to perform all the menial tasks associated with landing and carrying supplies overland on their departure, and the transport captains would get but few captives to take with them.^{R 258}

The next day, on Spring Tides, the fleet sailed up the harbor to within a mile of Locust Point, the closest mainland to the channel at the head of the bay, where the men were disembarked.^{Ibid 254} They made their way through the marshes toward the village of Ucita, two leagues from where they landed.^{E 58, I 102} In the meantime, the horsemen driving the livestock made their way toward Ucita, a twelve league trip ^{R 254}, as it is today around the cape's swamps and over the Myakka River at the head of the harbor. That moonlit trip would be the entire cavalry's longest non-stop "ride" in Florida.

Very late that night, the horsemen finally arrived near Ucita, exhausted from their journey.^{R 254} They had trudged through the swamps and over the mouth of the Myakka River, although Spring Tides dramatically shallow that fording place near midnight. They found themselves on the opposite side of Tippecanoe Bay from the men, however, and, exhausted, slept where they were,^Ibid on today's El Jobean. The men, having been misled for hours by Anasco's four captives,^Ibid watched the horsemen's campfires from the opposite bank of Tippecanoe Bay, neither group realizing they were separated by only one league of hard ground. The next day, the horsemen found the passage around the lagoon at the head of the bay and reassembled with the men.^{Ibid 255} On June third, with all the dignitaries and necessary paraphernalia ashore, DeSoto took formal possession of North America.

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