On the second day of his march, Calderon came to the town of Mucozo, and was hospitably entertained by that friendly chief.  Nothing remarkable happened during this march till they came to the great swamp, except that one horse was killed by an arrow which penetrated through his breast to his bowels.  These Indians are such powerful archers that they have been known to shoot through four folds of mail; for which reason the Spaniards laid aside their European armour, and used a kind which is stuffed with cotton, called escaupiles, to defend both themselves and their horses.  Calderon travelled with very little opposition or difficulty all the way to the swamp of Apalache, where the Indians attacked him desperately and killed one of his horses.  Next day he was again attacked, and disturbed all the ensuing night, the Indians constantly upbraiding the Spaniards as vagabonds and robbers, and threatening to quarter them.  On the following day Calderon and his men reached Apalache, where ten or twelve of his people died of their wounds.  Anasco arrived safe with the remainder of the Spaniards at the Bay of Aute[153], whence he marched by land to Apalache.  Having now collected his whole force at Apalache, Ferdinand de Soto sent Diego Maldonado with the brigantines to explore the coast to the westwards, ordering him to return in two months with a particular description of all the ports, creeks, and headlands he might fall in with.  Maldonado executed these orders; and on his return reported that he had discovered a very excellent harbour, called Achusi, sixty leagues to the westwards of Aute[154], whence he brought two Indian prisoners.  Soto then sent Maldonado with the brigantines to the Havannah, carrying letters to his lady, and directed him to inform the colonists of Cuba that he had found an excellent harbour in Florida, and that the country was pleasant and fertile, by way of encouraging settlers to come over.

[Footnote 153:  No bay is now known of this name, but it may possibly have been that now known by the name of Mobille.—­E.]

[Footnote 154:  This distance from Mobille Bay would lead us considerably to the west of the Missisippi, perhaps to Ascension Bay, or perhaps to the entrance of Ouachas Lake.—­E.]

It happened one day that seven Spanish horsemen riding out from the town of Apalache saw an Indian man and woman gathering old kidney-beans in the fields.  Immediately on seeing the horsemen the man took up the woman in his arms and carried her into the wood, whence he returned with his bow and arrows to attack the horsemen, who would have saved his life on account of his bravery, calling out to him to yield; but he was so desperate that he wounded them all, and when his arrows were expended he gave one of them so violent a blow with his bow on the head-piece that it stunned him, on which provocation he killed the Indian with his lance.  While Soto wintered in Apalache, he used every exertion to obtain intelligence respecting the country towards the west, in order to prepare for extending his discoveries in the spring; and among the Indians who were brought to him on this occasion, was one about seventeen years of age who had been a servant to some Indian travelling merchants.