NAPITUCA, COMING  AND  GOING

The Thirty Lancers would pass through Napituca Village on their way back down the trail, and report finding the bodies of many dead Indians, killed at DeSoto's direction, still strewn over Napituca's fields.^{I 207-8} The Lancers would proceed eight leagues beyond Napituca Village to camp late that night, then ride eighteen leagues the next night (under the Harvest Moon) and camp five leagues short of a giant river;^{I 209} for a total distance of thirty-one leagues from Napituca Village to the river (81 miles). They would struggle to ford that river the next day, but in doing so would leave a perfect description of today's Lower Clay Landing on the Suwannee River, their most precise description of any place in Florida;^{I 209-211, 216-218}that crossing place is exactly the same today, trails, banks and all!

Finally, they crossed the natural bridges of the Aucilla River and forded Cow Creek Swamp and entered Napituca Village, four leagues from the Econfina River and thirty-one leagues from the Suwannee River on September 15th, 1539. That course, "ten to twelve leagues from the coast and always toward New Spain", as Biedma reported,^{B 226} departs today's north-south railroad and Highway 19 just south of Perry and effectively straightens the paths of today's roads (although through very swampy terrain). The trail led through Hampton Springs instead of Perry, then across Napituca's Plain and then into Tallahassee. The Thirty Lancers would pass back down that same trail and camp eight leagues below Napituca Village at today's Hampton Springs, then at Cross City eighteen leagues from there, then cross the Suwannee River at Lower Clay Landing five leagues from Cross City, as they reported those distances.

Napituca Village lies just above today's Nutall Rise, near a plain between the Wacissa and Aucilla Rivers, eight leagues from Hampton Springs. Miles of abandoned railroad weave through the fields just east of that plain, attesting to the magnificence of the once great stand which the Chroniclers described there. Those tracks were built through those swamps to "harvest" those gigantic pines after they were drained of sap for distilling turpentine.

The "lakes" are parts of the Wacissa River; the first lies south-west of Napituca's plain and measures one league in circumference, as reported. The second "lake" is much wider and extends for miles to the north from the northwest side of the plain. It disappears in the surrounding swamps and looks exactly the way Inca described it. Both "lakes" are very deep near their banks because the river flows through them and underground between them. Andrew Jackson would fight the First Seminole War at that precise location.

Napituca's plain lies one league west of the Aucilla River's natural bridges, another partially underground river near Nutall Rise, which explains why the army and the Lancers did not report a river crossing there. A large swamp, today's Cow Creek Swamp at the south-east edge of the plain, was reported by Rangel when the army entered the village.^{R 264} Napituca Village is completely surrounded by massive swamps and is almost impenetrable even today. It provided Napituca's people shelter in a very hostile environment. Rangel says their Apalachen neighbors were "most valiant... great spirit and boldness", the fiercest in Florida.^{R 264-7} DeSoto fought Napituca's people near the "lakes" when they attacked the army.^{R 264-7} Most of the natives fled to the small lake, shooting back for most of that day and night, but were surrounded and captured by DeSoto's army.^{R 264-7} Several days later they were all executed.^{E 69, B 226}

Elvas^{E 67} and Rangel^{R 264} with DeSoto, and Vaca^V with Narvaez all reported "flute players" near a West Central Florida road which Vaca says "was difficult to travel but wonderful to look upon.... In it were vast forests, the trees being astonishingly high." ^V I believe they were all in the flat woods when they made similar reports, and both Narvaez and DeSoto used the same trail leading to Napituca, a village which Narvaez found and called "Apalachen."^V Napituca Village might have been in Apalache Province at that time, given the warring nature of that province and the European diseases (population movers) most likely delivered by Narvaez. "The Lakes", says Vaca,^V "are much larger here.. as we sallied they fled to the lakes nearby... shooting from the lakes which was safety to themselves that we could not retaliate", all similar to the incident observed by DeSoto's army.

Narvaez, apparently, did not have a sufficient army to surround the Indians. Then, Vaca says, the natives told them that the land and villages inland were very poor, but that by "journeying south nine days was a town called Aute...(with) much maize, beans and pumpkins and being near the sea they had fish."^V Biedma says^{B 226} these Indians told many great lies about the country further inland, and, I think, Narvaez had believed them; Narvaez had no Juan Ortiz to sort them out. If Narvaez had been at Napituca, and departed to the south, as Vaca indicates, he would have encountered country exactly as he described.

"The first day we got through those lakes and passages without seeing anyone, on the second day we came to a lake difficult of crossing... (but got through)... at the end of a league we arrived at another of the same character, but worse, as it was half a league in extent."^V

Maybe Narvaez did march south out of Napituca in search of Aute. If so, then a clear picture will come into focus when we examine his trail to Aute later in this paper. I believe DeSoto massacred Napituca's people, and enslaved their women and children for what they had done to Narvaez. The chroniclers never mention this reasoning, perhaps for the shame of it, or maybe because it was so obvious to them. The mass slaying of natives would be repeated only once on DeSoto's 3 year campaign: when Chief Tuscalusa would betray him.

PANHANDLE MONSTERS    DeSoto's Tallahassee Chronicled by Rangel, Inca

In late September, with a well-fed army supported by captives from three provinces (Paracoxi, Ocale and Napituca), DeSoto set out once more toward his planned winter encampment at Apalache. The trip would take two weeks but the men would rest several days along the way. From Napituca, it is only ten leagues to Tallahassee, across the St. Marks River. The army stopped to bridge that river near today's Cody on their first night out,^{R 266} four leagues from Napituca.^{I 183} The chief of a nearby village, Uzachil, who had sent flute players to amuse the men further back on the trail,^{E 67, R 264} sent dressed deer for the army's fare while they built a bridge of logs the next day. The army, therefore, named the St. Marks River "The River of the Deer."^{E 69, R 264}

After completing the bridge the following day, "The army crossed the river, (and) marched two leagues leagues through a country without timber,"^{I 184} probably up the St. Marks River's west bank, arriving at a place where they "found large fields of maize, beans and calabashes."^{I 184} They called that large town Hapallayga;^{E 70} today it is called Chaires Crossings. It lies at the east end of Lafayette Valley; the railroad runs through the valley today.

The next day, when the army was ordered to advance, some crossed a mountain^{R 266} (the Spanish word "monte," used here by Rangel, can be translated as "mountain" or "forest" in English; Inca describes "a high point" of earth^{I 185-6} "three pikes high" [54 feet] here). Topography would indicate that both were describing the "mountain" under the Florida State Capitol Building, or one within a mile or so of it, as there are no others in that section of Florida. The village of Uzachil was headquartered there, but the good chief was not to be found.

The army spent that night at a pine wood,^{R 266} almost five leagues west of today's Capitol Building by following the course of today's railroad and the Old Spanish Trail to Midway, where they camped. The next night they camped at "Agile"^{R 266, E 70} four-and-a-half leagues up the road, at today's Quincy. That proximity was called Tiphulga Indian Reservation as late as 1827 on a Map of the Western Part of Florida by John L. Williams. One of DeSoto's troops was grabbed in his genitals by an unhappy female captive there; he survived, but just barely.^{R 267}

The next day, DeSoto, in the vanguard, came to the Apalache Swamp,^{E 70, B 227, R 267, I 189} the Apalachicola River, twelve leagues beyond Uzachil's boundary;^{I 189} the Ochlockonee River. Most of the army would camp two leagues from the Apalache Swamp, then catch up and struggle to cross it for the next several days while camping near it.^{I 189-196, 206-7}

Old Florida trails converged at this crossing place on Florida's original Township Survey and the railroad crosses it there today. Perhaps DeSoto's narrow foot path through the forest in the river's gorge led to that place.^{I 189} The east bank where DeSoto camped on a plain, and the west bank where he built a stockade, are exactly the same now as they were described then.^{I 189, E 70} It took the army several days to bridge and cross this river. Indian resistance was intense. This mammoth river was the provincial boundary of Apalache;^{B 227} the fourth Indian province DeSoto would "invade" in Florida.

Once all had crossed, DeSoto's army left the stockade and proceeded two leagues up the west bank to camp at a village called Ivitachuco, which had been set ablaze just prior to their arrival;^{B 227, E 71, R 267} today's Sneads. Then the army passed through rich fields to Calahuchi Village,^{I 194} camping just north of today's Cypress. The next day, having lost their only good guide, they came to a deep ravine that was difficult to pass two leagues down the road.^{I 194} They met very heavy resistance from the Apalachens at that ravine, the worst they saw anywhere.^{I 194}

The next morning, when the army resumed its march, by fording the Chipola River's "natural bridge" on the Old Spanish Trail, DeSoto proceeded two leagues in advance with the horsemen and a hundred foot soldiers into the principal village of Apalache: Iviahica.^{I 196, E 71, R 267} All had fled into the woods. Iviahica Village was located just west of today's Marianna, eleven leagues from the Apalachicola River's swamp.^{I 206-7} DeSoto established his winter headquarters at Iviahica. DeSoto's "monsters" in Florida's "panhandle" would prove to be the Apalache Swamp and the Great Ravine; our "monster in the panhandle" would prove to be the enduring myth that Tallahassee was the location of Iviahica Apalache.

Tallahassee, it seems, was just another stop along DeSoto's way; which accounts for the very small quantity of archaeological evidence of his presence being found there.

PARADISE
Chronicled by Biedma, Rangel, Elvas, Inca

Iviahica Apalache's fields are deep, rich, red mineral sediments nestled between rolling, sandy hills and spring-fed streams. Vegetables grow in profusion there.^{I 197, 253-4, E 71-2, R 268} One look in the fields tells the story of a thousand year occupation. The fields are strewn with fragments of cultures which settled and farmed there from time to time. The black farmers who live on Union Road, which cuts through what used to be Iviahica, are a beautiful, hard working and proud people; most of whose ancestors were born there. The setting is rural Alabama; livestock are pastured on several southern-style plantations. Pigs, chickens, beans, squash, corn and insects are abundant. Churches and small cemeteries dot the forested landscape. A village named Webbville is depicted there on pioneer maps where the Old Spanish Trail bends north into Alabama and the Pensacola Road forks off to the southwest (John L. Williams Map of Florida of 1837).

Inca says that Juan de Anasco was dispatched from that place (during New Moon) to find the sea^{I 198} just before he was sent back down DeSoto's trail leading the Thirty Lancers.^{I 204, B 227} Anasco needed to mark the trees along that seashore in order to find Iviahica Apalache on his return from Ucita in DeSoto's ships . He first rode south to Aute, twelve leagues from Iviahica,^{I 199} today's Econfina.

He reported crossing only two small rivers along his way to the sea, easy to cross;^{I 199} they are called Econfina and Sweetwater Creeks today. He camped along the way at Compass Lake, the half way point. Just over two leagues beyond Aute, after crossing a creek up to his horse's pasterns, Anasco came to the head of a bay;^{I 203} today's North Bay, just above St. Andrew Bay. The creek Anasco forded is called Bear Creek today and it, too, is the same with shallow water and a hard bottom. By skirting the bay, Anasco found the place where Narvaez built his boats,^{I 199, B 227} on the north shore of today's Bayou George.

If Narvaez had been at Napituca and had departed to the south, as suggested earlier, he would have passed over Gum Swamp, East River Pool and the St. Marks River. Then, having been turned west by the Gulf of Mexico, he would have passed a plain (just north of today's Medart), more swamps (the Sopchoppy, Ochlockonee, and New River swamps), and a big stream which he called Magdalina; the Apalachicola River, all as Vaca reported.^V Just before entering Aute, Narvaez came onto planted fields where his army was fallen upon by the enemy.^V Narvaez survived and camped at Aute, today's Econfina, where the fields to its southeast are still cultivated today. That nine day trip from "Apalache" to Aute, at a marching rate of four-and-a-half leagues per day, would have totaled just over forty leagues, but the distance along the trails from what DeSoto called Napituca to today's Econfina is forty five leagues. If Narvaez marched at a rate of five leagues per day, however, he could have traveled that distance along the trails from Napituca to Econfina. Narvaez could march at that faster rate because he had no livestock to drive.

Vaca reports that during their 280 league trip through Florida, Narvaez never saw a mountain.^V Apparently he bypassed Florida's pride and joy, Tallahassee. DeSoto's people reported that they were the first whites ever seen near the Apalache Swamp,^{I 193} which confirms that Narvaez had taken a different route to the bay. Vaca's reported distance traveled through Florida to the bay, 280 leagues,^V would indicate its estimate along the trails and various diversions, not along paced and charted lines as was DeSoto's habit.

Narvaez camped for several days in Aute (today's Econfina), where Vaca was dispatched on horseback to find an escape route from that hostile country.^V He rode down the same trail Anasco would ride to Bayou George. There he found a place favorable for building boats, with cedar, pine, oak, palmetto, shell fish coves and a fresh water stream, but no rocks (see the Township survey of 1831, Bayou George is depicted and described in the Field Notes exactly as Vaca described it.^V That trail from Aute, about six leagues round trip to the bayou, was ridden many times by Narvaez' people to fetch sick men and food from Aute during the time it took them to build the boats.^V

Since the water in Bayou George is shallow, Narvaez had to time his departure on favorable tides. According to modern lunar reports, that is exactly what he did: Narvaez completed his boats so they could be launched and maneuvered out of the bay^V on the Spring Tides of Harvest Moon, September 28th, 1528. That, I believe, was his first wise move in conquest but, no doubt, his last. The timing of the Narvaez/DeVaca Florida expedition is, perhaps, the most neglected event in Florida's exploration history, despite the fact that his was the first. Scholars have ignored critical activity dates from the time of the Narvaez landing, in relation to Easter Sunday of that year, to his departure in shallow draft vessels on Spring Tides. Narvaez would vanish, and his defeat would bolster the credibility of the natives who sent him into wilderness. Their lies, recorded by missionaries near Napituca years later, would be given credence by historians for centuries.

When Biedma, the King's agent, was at Aute, he pronounced the sea to be nine leagues distant.^{B 227} It is that distance, on a straight line, to the sea from today's Econfina. Notice that Biedma did not say to the "coast" this time. A navigable harbor, such as St. Andrews Bay, was, by definition, a coast. They called that harbor the Bay of Aute.^{I 244} When he was there, Biedma says they had walked one-hundred and ten leagues from Ucita.^{B 227} It is exactly that distance, on a straight line, from Ucita (Charlotte Harbor) to Aute, the way Anasco was instructed to return in DeSoto's ships; Biedma knew that was the "paced and charted" range they had displaced to the bay since leaving Ucita! DeSoto's cartographers must have been much more talented than his trail seekers have surmised.

Upon Anasco's return to Apalache, Captain Maldonado was dispatched westward along the coast in DeSoto's brigs to find an entrance to the sea at which to meet him the following year or, barring that, the next year.^{E 73, B 228, R 268, I 244} Maldonado found "Ochuse" sixty leagues down the coast at Mobile Bay on the Alabama River. Captives taken from there would lead DeSoto into an ambush along his way to that bay.

From Iviahica, DeSoto would hike America for nearly a year and a thousand miles before that ambush took place above Mobile Bay. DeSoto's precise cartography accounts for his ability to have known that the Captives had led him toward Mobile: the place from which DeSoto had planned to settle and hold North America.

DeSoto's "seacoast" route from Ucita, as it was referred to then,^{E 73} shows only two shortcuts available to Anasco when he rode back down it with the Thirty Lancers; all 150 leagues of it from Iviahica, as Inca reported^{I 205, 227} (it measures 148 leagues on U.S. Department or Interior Geological Survey 7.5 Minute Series Topographic Maps ). Anasco's object was to avoid potentially hostile villages that Desoto had deliberately passed through for food and captives on his way up.^{E 72} Anasco's first bypass was just west of today's Dunnellon, where the Lancers took a more southerly course over the Withlacoochee River's flats to the Great Swamp, avoiding the villages on the phosphate ridge near the "Cove" of the Withlacoochee River; cutting off about one league.^{I 220} The Lancers took several females captive from the outlying fields along that way, and those women would end up in Havana.^{E 72} Anasco's second shortcut bypassed Paracoxi Village to the west.^{I 224} There are no swamps or rivers to preclude that cut-off. In that neighborhood DeSoto had been misled to Tocaste on his way up, adding at least eight leagues to his trip. Anasco proceeded southeast from the Great Swamp, then south from today's Mulberry, saving perhaps another league. To avoid Mococo's Village, not knowing if Spain still held favor there, Anasco forded the Myakka River between the Myakka Lakes northeast of Mococo Village.^{I 224-5} In the middle of Myakka Lake State Park, between the two Myakka Lakes, there is a bridge and causeway just south of Myakka Lake where the Lancers forded the river. They captured more Indians there who were engaged in a ceremony of fish baking in the woods, Mococo's people,^{I 224-5} at moonrise on harvest moon.

You cannot drive as short a course between Ucita and Aute on today's highways; they pass through the cities, the same ones DeSoto passed through. DeSoto had timed the Thirty Lancers departure from Iviahica to be lit by Harvest Moon at their worst obstacle, the Great Swamp, with bright moonlit nights on either side to enable long overnight passages through that neighborhood.^{E 72} Once at Ucita, where the "rescued" men shouted with joy almost in unison about the gold the army must have found by then,^{I 227} the troops had only one week to march and catch the next Full Moon at Caliquen, the most populated village on their pedestrian journey to northwest Florida. The men spent that week celebrating with and distributing hardware to Chief Mococo and his people.^{I 228-230} The army had been introduced to lighter and more effective Indian arrow-shielding: long, thick quilted jackets.^{I 236} Excess armor was, therefore, given to Mococo's people and would end up scattered around their village site and be found by Florida's pioneers, who called that place "Old Spanish Fields". On their trip up DeSoto's trail, the men would suffer the loss of several of their own and seven horses,^{E 72, R 268} some at the Apalache Swamp, others at the Ravine.^{I 237-242} All were jubilant to reunite with DeSoto's great army in search of gold and treasures.

At Ucita, Anasco had only one week to catch the next Spring Tide, on the New Moon, to pass over Charlotte Harbor's channel shallows. He used the time to careen and load the brigs. That timing was no accident, it was calculated;^{I 243} it would take Anasco just under two weeks to sail from there to Panama City^{R 268} to catch the favorable Spring Tides at that harbor. Only today can we realize DeSoto's genius.^{I 244} Desoto's trail from Ucita to the bay where Narvaez built his boats was only 173 leagues long (148 leagues traveled by the lancers from Iviahica to Ucita, plus two leagues cut off by Anasco's shortcuts, plus the eight leagues DeSoto marched back and forth below Lake Hancock, plus twelve leagues from Iviahica to Aute, then three more to the bay). Vaca's estimate of 280 leagues traveled by Narvaez to the bay^V probably included scouting for food, plus the distance from his landing site to Ucita, then the greater distance to the Great Swamp on his trail up the east side of the Peace River through Arcadia's rich but scattered phosphate fields. Narvaez never got to meet Chief Mococo or his fine people; Mococo's Village was six leagues north of the route Narvaez chose to take to Apalache.

Next Page: Part 4 - Conclusion         YOUR STATE