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De Soto was quite indignant, feeling that he had been betrayed and led into an ambush for his destruction. He summoned Patofa to his presence and said to him: "Why have you, under the guise of friendship, led us into this wilderness, whence we can discover no way of extricating ourselves?
He was highly gratified with the presents he had received, and still more gratified that he had been permitted to wreak vengeance on his hereditary foes. Two days after his departure, the Spanish army was again in motion, along the banks of the river. Every step they took revealed to them the awful ravages committed by the bands of Patofa.
The Gouernour answered him, that his offers and good wil declared by the effect, did highly please him, whereof he would alwaies be mindfull to honour and fauour him as his brother. This countrie, from the first peaceable Cacique, vnto the Prouince of Patofa, which were fiftie leagues, is a fat countrie, beautifull, and very fruitfull, and very well watered, and full of good Riuers.
The Gouernour dismissed the Indians of Patofa, because hee had no food to giue them; who desiring to accompanie and serue the Christians in their necessitie, making shew that it grieued them very much to returne, vntill they had left them in a peopled Countrie, returned to their owne home.
It will be remembered that Patofa, the commander-in-chief of the native army, had, with a large number of his warriors, accompanied Añasco. He had pledged his word to his chief that he would do everything in his power to harass, pillage and destroy their ancestral foes. Añasco encamped his band a little outside the village.
Which was an inconuenience to the Christians, in regard of the victuals which they found conueied away: and of the trouble which they had in seeking of Indians to bee their guides. Chap. XIIII. How the Gouernour departed from the Prouince of Patofa, and went through a desert, where he and all his men fell into great distresse, and extreme miserie.
The Indian general Patofa and his men, who accompanied Anasco, killed all the inhabitants of that town whom they could lay hands on, taking off their skulls , and plundering the temple or place of burial, where the best of the effects were secured.
Patofa, who was a man of very imposing appearance, stepped forward, and after going through several evolutions with a heavy broadsword carved from wood, exceedingly hard, said: "I pledge my word to fulfill your commands, so far as may be in my power. I promise, by aid of the strangers, to revenge the insults and deaths, our fathers have sustained from the natives of Cofachiqui.
And Soto, as he came through that country, picked up their War Leader Patofa, and the best of their fighting men, for they had persuaded him that only by force would he get anything from the Cacica of Cofachique. The truth was that it was only by trusting to the magic of the white men that Patofa could get to us.
De Soto could endure this no longer. He called Patofa before him, and told him in very emphatic terms that he must return to his own province. He thanked the chieftain very cordially for his friendly escort, made him a present of knives, clothing, and other valuables, and dismissed him and his followers. Patofa was not unwilling to return.
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