- Historic Sites The Passion Of Hernando De Soto In Florida the
great conquistador hoped to find a Golconda. Instead, he found a
Golgotha. An American Heritage Book Selection April 1967 |
Volume 18, Issue 3 As the Spaniards pushed northward, de Soto
found himself more and more isolated. His line of communication
with Tampa became too tenuous and had to be abandoned; the
forests seemed interminable; and, to make matters worse, as they
drew farther away from Mucozo’s tribe, Juan Ortiz had to work
through a long chain of translators, each of whom spoke only one
dialect besides his own. By the time information had been passed
along the line to Ortiz, the result was scarcely intelligible.
De Soto was increasingly forced to rely on guesswork to
determine his route. Near the Suwannee River in northern
Florida, de Soto finally got the stand-up fight he had been
hoping for. A band of some four hundred Indian warriors tried to
rescue their chief, who was a hostage in the Spanish camp. After
asking for a parley on open