118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
loose the chains of the Indians whom they brought to carry back the cut wood and 
take the Spaniards' scalps, which was what they most prized, to hang upon the arm of 
their bows with which they fought; and at the sound of the voices and of arms we 
would immediately repair thither, and we found the consequences of a lack of precau- 
tion. In that way they killed for us more than twenty soldiers, and this happened 
frequently. And I remember that one day seven horsemen went out from the camp to 
forage for food and to kill a little dog to eat; which we were used to do in that land, and 
a dav that we got something we thought ourselves lucky; and not even pheasants ever 
tasted better to us. And going in search of these things they fell in with five Indians 
who were waiting for them with bows and arrows, and they drew a line on the ground 
and told them not to cross that or they would all die. And the Spaniards who would 
not take any fooling, attacked them, and the Indians shot off their bows and killed 
two horses and wounded two others, and also a Spaniard severely; and the Spaniards 
killed one of the Indians and the rest took to their heels and got away, for they are 
truly very nimble and are not impeded by the adornments of clothes, but rather are 
much helped by going bare.' 
After leaving Iviahica, De Soto came to the River Guacuca and 
later reached a province called Capachequi. It is uncertain what 
relation this and the subsequent places into which he came bore 
to the Apalachee. Probably most of them belonged to the people 
we now know as Hitchiti. 
Pareja, the well-known missionary to the Timucua Indians, and 
another friar, Alonso de Pefiaranda, state in letters, written in 1607, 
that the Apalachee had asked for missionaries that same year through 
the friars in Potano. Their statement that the Apalachee towns 
numbered 107 is, of course, a gross exaggeration. 2 We read that in 
1609 more than 28 Timucua and Apalachee chiefs were begging for 
baptism. 2 In 1622 an Englishman named Brigstock claims to have 
visited the " Apalachites" and to have discovered near them a colony 
of English refugees. He published his narrative in 1644. It has 
received some credence from as noted a student as D. G. Brinton, but 
may now be dismissed as essentially a fabrication.'' The need of mis- 
sionaries to begin converting the Apalachee is frequently dwelt upon in 
documents written between 1607 and 1633, but it was not until the 
latter date that work was actually begun. A letter dated November 
15, 1633, states that two monks had gone to the Province of Apa- 
lachee on October 16. It adds that these people had desired conver- 
sion for more than 20 years, that their country was 12 leagues in 
extent and contained 15,000 to 16,000 Indians, which last statement 
is of course another gross exaggeration, though indeed more moderate 
than one of 30,000 made in 1618 and another of 34,000 made in 1635. 2 
This last placed the number of Christian converts in the province at 
5,000, probably more than the total Apalachee population. By a 
letter of September 12, 1638, we learn that conversions of Apalachee 
» Trans, by Bourne, op. cit. , n, pp. 151-152. 3 John Davies, Hist. Carribbee Islands, pp. 228-249. 
» Lowery, MSS. 
