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The Indians of Patofa said, that toward that part they knew no habitation; but that toward the Northwest, they knew a Prouince which was called Coça, a verie plentifull countrie, which had very great townes in it.
Incidents at Achise Arrival at Cofa. Friendly Reception by Cofaqui. The Armed Retinue. Commission of Patofa. Splendors of the March. Lost in the Wilderness. Peril of the Army. Friendly Relations. The Escape from the Wilderness. They Reach the Frontiers of Cofachiqui. Dismissal of Patofa. Wonderful Reception by the Princess of Cofachiqui.
De Soto then organized four bands of horse and two of foot to go up and down the river, and to penetrate the interior, and to make as wide an exploration as possible within the limit of five days. Each band was accompanied by a large number of natives. Patofa himself went with one of these detachments.
The Adelantado allowed him to pillage such towns as they found before he thought better of it and sent Patofa and his men back to Cofaque, but by that time the thing had happened which made the Cacica's second plan impossible. Our fighting men had seen what the Spaniards could do, and I had seen what they could be."
I will never believe that among eight thousand Indians there is not one to be found capable of showing us the way to Cofachiqui. It is not at all likely that you who have maintained perpetual war with that tribe, should know nothing of the public road and secret paths leading from one village to another." Patofa made the following frank and convincing reply.
At midnight Patofa and his warriors crept stealthily from the encampment, pillaged the temple which contained many treasures prized by the Indians, and killed and scalped every native whom they met, man, woman or child. When Añasco awoke in the morning and found what they had done, he was terrified. The outrage had been committed by troops under his own command.
Soto now advanced with the Spaniards through a pleasant and plentiful country, but which was abandoned by the natives on account of the ravages and slaughters that had been committed by Patofa and his people. Three days afterwards, to avoid going on at random, Soto sent on Juan Anasco with thirty horse to explore the country.
In the towne of Patofa the youth, which the Gouernour carried with him for an interpretour and a guide, began to fome at the mouth, and tumble on the ground, as one possessed with the diuell: They said a Gospell ouer him; and the fit left him. And he said, that foure daies iournie from thence toward the Sunne rising, was the Prouince that he spake of.
The manner of Patofa was in accordance with these feeling and manly words. De Soto no longer cherished a doubt of his sincerity, and became also convinced that their guides were utterly unable to extricate him. Under these circumstances nothing remained but blindly to press forward or to retrace his steps.
Soon, however, their fears in that direction were allayed, for the chief frankly avowed the object of the expedition. Summoning before him Patofa, the captain of the native army, he said to him, in presence of the leading Spanish officers in the public square: "You well know that a perpetual enmity has existed between our fathers and the Indians of Cofachiqui.
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