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Porcallo however persisted, and coming to a deep morass which his men refused to enter, he spurred on his horse to set a good example; but his horse soon floundered in the morass and Porcallo fell off and was nearly stifled.
Porcallo was quite proud of his achievement, and boasted not a little that his arm had put the infidels, as he called the Indians, to flight, and that his horse was the first to fall in the encounter. During the day all the troops were disembarked and encamped upon the shore. It was reported that there was quite a populous Indian town at the distance of about six miles from the place of landing.
And presently the Captaine generall Vasques Porcallo with other 7. horsemen foraged the Countrie halfe a league round about, and found sixe Indians, which resisted him with their arrowes, which are the weapons which they vse to fight withall: The horsemen killed two of them, and the other foure escaped; because the countrie is cumbersome with woods and bogs, where the horses stacke fast, and fell with their riders, because they were weake with trauelling vpon the sea.
On the approach of Porcallo the Indians were obliged to retire in their turn; yet killed that commanders horse with an arrow, which pierced through the saddle lap and penetrated a span deep into the horses body.
The Gouernour lodged himselfe in the Lords houses, and with him Vasques Porcallo, and Luys de Moscoso: and in others that were in the middest of the towne, was the chiefe Alcalde or Iustice, Baltasar de Gallégos lodged; and in the same houses was set in a place by it selfe, al the prouision that came in the ships: the other houses and the Church were broken down, and euery three or foure souldiers made a little cabin wherein they lodged.
With a spirit of magnanimity which would have done honor to the best Christian in the Spanish ranks, he sent a courier to meet Porcallo, and to say to him, "You will only expose yourself to infinite peril from the rivers, morasses, and forests through which you will have to pass in your attempt to reach my retreat.
Velasquez was at last won over by these repeated importunities, and sent two confidential persons to his brother-in-law, Francisco Verdugo, who was alcalde major of Trinidad, directing him to deprive Cortes of the command of the fleet and army, as Vasco Porcallo was appointed in his place; and he sent orders to the same purpose to Diego de Ordas, Francisco de Morla, and his other relations and confidents.
Indeed, it is stated in what is called "The Portuguese Narrative" of these events, that Porcallo and De Soto had already quarrelled so decisively that they were no longer on speaking terms. Porcallo, thoroughly destitute of moral principle, was a slave hunter; a character whom De Soto thoroughly despised, and whose operations he would not on any account allow to be carried on in his army.
He therefore ordered the trumpets to sound the advance, his only fear being, that the chief might escape. Porcallo, a Quixotic knight, had no element of timidity in his character. He led his troops. He never said "Go," but "Follow." Pressing rapidly forward, the little band soon arrived upon the border of a vast and dismal morass, utterly pathless, stretching out many leagues in extent.
He joined the enterprise for the conquest of Florida, influenced by an instinctive love of adventure, and by the desire to kidnap Indians to work as slaves on his plantations. The valiant Porcallo headed the party sent to the rescue of those on shore. In such an adventure he was entirely in his element.
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