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Updated: May 14, 2025
Porcallo therefore found no difficulty in obtaining permission to retire from the service. Probably both the governor and his lieutenant were equally happy to be rid of each other. The March to Ochile. The March Commenced. The Swamps of Florida. Passage of the Morass. Heroism of Sylvestre. Message to Acuera. His Heroic Reply. Fierce Hostility of the Indians. Enter the Town of Ocali.
De Soto, accompanied by Ocali and several of his subjects, was walking on the banks of this stream to select a spot for crossing, by means of a bridge or raft, when a large number of Indians sprang up from the bushes on the opposite side, and assailing them with insulting and reproachful language, discharged a volley of arrows upon them, by which one of the Spaniards was wounded.
In the same time the Spaniards only killed fifty Indians, as they were always on their guard and kept among the woods and swamps. Leaving the town of Acuera, to which they did no harm, Soto continued his march inland for Ocali, keeping a direction a little to the east of north, through a fertile country free from morasses.
De Soto sent several Indian messengers daily to the retreat of the chief with proffers of peace and friendship. Though Ocali rejected all these overtures, it seems that they must have made an impression on the minds of some of his followers. One day, four young Floridian warriors, gorgeously dressed and with nodding plumes, came to the Spanish camp.
It soon became evident that Ocali had but slight influence over his tribe. De Soto, apprehensive that it might be thought that he detained him against his will, advised him to return to his people, assuring him that he would always be a welcome guest in the Spanish camp. He left, and they saw him no more.
He directed the steps of his army in a northeasterly direction towards a town called Ocali, about sixty miles from their encampment. It seems that in most, if not all of this region, the chief and his principal town bore the same name. The path of the army led just over a dreary expanse of desert sands, about thirty miles broad.
At the end of about twenty leagues they came to Ocali, a town of about six hundred houses, abounding in Indian corn, pulse, acorns, dried plums, and nuts. The cacique and all his people had withdrawn into the woods, and at the first message desiring them to come out sent a civil evasive answer, but complied at the second summons with some apprehension.
Upon De Soto's demanding of the chief the meaning of this hostile movement, Ocali replied, that they were a collection of his mutinous subjects, who had renounced their allegiance to him, in consequence of his friendship for the Spaniards.
Ocali, after resisting for six days all friendly advances, was at length induced to visit the Spanish camp. He was received by De Soto with the greatest kindness, and every effort was made to win his confidence. There was a deep and wide river near the village which it was necessary for the Spaniards to cross in their advance.
On coming to the ford of the river Ocali, Anasco was obliged to pass it by means of rafts, as the river was flooded; and though they used the utmost diligence, the Indians were up in arms on both sides of the river to oppose him, so that the Spaniards had to fight both to the front and rear while their baggage, horses, and selves were wafted over.
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