and there, the fellow killed his mate while he stooped to take up a root for his relief, and cutting out pieces of his body whom he had murdered, broiled the same on the coals and greedily devoured them.

"By this mean the company decreased, and the officers knew not what was become of them; and it fortuned that one of the company driven with hunger to seek abroad for relief found out in the fields the savor of broiled flesh, and fell out with one for that he would suffer him and his fellows to starve, enjoying plenty as he thought: and this matter growing to cruel speeches he that had the broiled meat, burst out into these words: If thou wouldst needs know, the broiled meat that I had was a piece of such a man's buttock. The report of this brought to the ship, the captain found what became of those that were missing, and was persuaded that some of them were neither devoured with wild beasts, nor yet destroyed with savages; and hereupon he stood up and made a notable oration, containing, how much these dealings offended the Almighty, and vouched the Scriptures from first to last, what God had in cases of distress done for them that called upon him, and told them that the power of the Almighty was then no less than in all former time it had been, and added, that if it had not pleased God to have helped them in that distress, that it had been better to have perished in body and to have lived everlastingly, than to have relieved for a poor time their mortal bodies and to be condemned everlastingly, both body and soul, to the unquenchable fire of Hell. And thus having ended to that effect, he began to exhort to repentance, and besought all the company to pray, that it might please God to look upon their miserable present state, and for his own mercy to relieve the same. The famine increasing, and the inconvenience of the men that were missing being found, they agreed amongst themselves rather than all should perish, to cast lots who should be killed:

And such was the mercy of God, that the same night there arrived a French ship in that port, well furnished with victual, and such was the policy of the English, that they became masters of the same, and changing ships and victualing them, they set sail to come into England.

"In their journey they were so far northwards, that they saw mighty islands of ice in the summer season, on which were hawks and other fowls to rest themselves, being weary of flying over far from the main. They saw also certain great white fowls with red bills and red legs, somewhat bigger than herons, which they supposed to be storks. They arrived at St. Ives in Cornwall about the end of October. From thence they departed unto a certain castle belonging to Sir John Luttrell, where Mr. Thomas Buts and Mr. Rastall and other gentlemen of the voyage were very friendly entertained: After that they came to the Earl of Bath at Bath, and thence to Bristol, so to London. Mr. Buts was so changed in the voyage with hunger and misery, that Sir William his father and my Lady his mother knew him not to be their son, until they found a secret mark which was a wart upon one of his knees, as he told me, Richard Hakluyt of Oxford, himself, to whom I rode two hundred miles only to learn the whole truth of this voyage from his own mouth, as being the only man now alive that was in this discovery.

"Certain months after, those Frenchmen came into England, and made complaint to King Henry the Eighth: The king causing the matter to be examined, and finding the great distress of his subjects, and the causes of the dealing so with the French, was so moved with pity, that he punished not his subjects, but of his own purse made full and royal recompence unto the French.

"In this distress of famine, the English did somewhat relieve their vital spirits, by drinking at the springs the fresh water out of certain wooden cups, out of which they had drunk their aqua composita before."

CHAPTER XII.

Of the expedition of Ferdinand de Soto to Florida in 1539, and his march thence to the Mississippi; his death in 1541; and the subsequent progress of his troops.

On Ferdinand de Soto, who had served with reputation under Pizarro in Peru, Charles the Fifth conferred the government of Cuba, with the rank of General of Florida, and the title of Marquis of the lands which he should conquer there. After making a short stay at Havana, he sailed thence on the 18th of May 1539. A letter of the 9th of July following, from De Soto to the municipal body of the City of Santiago of the Isle of Cuba, and a relation of Luis Hernandez de Biedma, who went as factor to the expedition, are in the volume of Pieces on Florida, published at Paris in 1841, in Ternaux's Collection of Voyages, Relations and Memoirs. From these sources, and from the account of the expedition found in the volume of Roberts, mentioned already on page 295, this chapter is derived.

De Soto is stated in one account to have sailed with nine vessels, having on board three hundred and fifty horse and nine hundred foot, together with a great number of mariners; in another he is stated to have disembarked six hundred and twenty men and two hundred and twenty-three horses. He reached the coast of Florida on the 25th, and anchored in

Baya Honda: the Bay of Spiritu Sancto. The Spaniards took possession of a village on this bay, which the Indians deserted on their arrival. On one side of the village was a sort of temple to an idol. The idol was placed over the entrance, and was in the shape of a bird, made of wood and gilded over.

De Soto sent Baltasar de Gallegos with forty cavaliers and as many foot soldiers, to seek a countryman who he learnt was with one of the caciques. On the way, they met nine Indians coming with the European. He had in his hand a bow and arrows, and was naked and painted like the Indians.

"This man, whose name was John Ortiz, was a native of Seville, and born of a noble family. He had served in the expedition under Narvaez about twelve years before, and had the good fortune to escape back again to Cuba. Hence he returned to Florida in a brigantine, by the desire of the lady of Narvaez, in quest of her husband. At his arrival upon this coast, meeting with some Indians, who pretended to have a letter for him from Narvaez, he and another were rash enough to land, at their invitation, in opposition to the advice of the people on board. The Indians immediately surrounded them, killed his companion, who offered to make resistance, and carried off Ortiz to their chief, called Ucita; none on board daring to land, to give him any assistance. The Indian sentenced him to be burnt alive, which had surely been his fate, but that a sudden emotion of pity touched the heart of Ucita's daughter, who prevailed upon her father to give him his life. Ortiz was then set to guard the temple above mentioned from the wolves, which often came to carry off the bodies that were laid there. It happened, that these animals seized the body of the son of an Indian of considerable rank: Ortiz pursued

them, and had the good fortune to kill one of the wolves, and recover the carcase. This action endeared him to Ucita, who began to treat him more kindly. Three years passed thus, when an Indian chief, called Mocoso, attacked Ucita, burnt his village, and forced him to fly to another place he had by the sea-shore. These wild people have a custom of sacrificing the lives of strangers that fall into their hands to evil spirits, whom they suppose to be pleased with such victims. This fate Ucita destined Ortiz to; but the same girl, who had saved him from the fire, counselled him to fly to Mocoso, who, she said, would treat him well, and wanted to see him. As he was unacquainted with the way, she put him into the road, and returned unperceived herself. Ortiz travelled till he came to a rivulet on the frontier of the dominions of Mocoso, where he found two Indians fishing. As these people were at war with those he came from, he was apprehensive they would treat him as an enemy, and the more so because he was unable to explain his design, and what brought him thither to them, neither understanding the language of the other; to prevent this, he ran to the place where their arms lay, and instantly seized them. The Indians, alarmed, flew immediately to the town, whence their cries presently brought numbers of Indians, who surrounded Ortiz, and were upon the point of killing him, in vain crying out that he was the Christian of Ucita; when, providentially, an Indian joined them who happened to understand his language, and appeased his companions by explaining the words of Ortiz to them. Upon this, four of the savages were sent off with the news to Mocoso, who received Ortiz very cordially, and promised, if any Christians should arrive in that country, he would give him leave to retire with them. Among these Indians Ortiz resided for the course of twelve years, and had long despaired of ever seeing another European, when Mocoso informed him that the Christians had made