42 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



Having determined to give up his base at Tampa Bay and march 

 inland, De Soto now sent back 30 horsemen almost immediately with 

 orders to Calderon to rejoin his army. These men were placed under 

 the command of Juan de Ailasco, who returned himself in the smaller 

 boats to the Apalachee port near Shell Bay, the larger vessels having 

 already been returned to Havana. Anasco arrived November 29 and 

 Calderon at about the same time. Almost immediately De Soto 

 sent another of his captains, Francisco Maldonado, westward in the 

 pinnaces to locate a second port at which provisions and reinforce- 

 ments could be delivered to his army at the end of another summer's 

 exploration. Maldonado spent 2 months on this expedition and re- 

 turned to the Apalachee port in February to announce that he had 

 found a suitable inlet in a province called Achuse. Undoubtedly 

 the Spaniards applied this name in later years to both Mobile Bay 

 and Pensacola Bay, but I am inclined to favor Pensacola Bay in this 

 instance, and it was Pensacola to which the name became ultimately 

 affixed. 



Almost immediately after his return from this mission, on Febru- 

 ary 26, 1540, to be exact, Maldonado was sent back to Havana with 

 the pinnaces and with instructions to meet the army with supplies 

 that fall at the port he had located. 



During his jBght at the Two Lakes, De Soto had captured an 

 Indian belonging to a province in the interior of the Gulf region, 

 probably occupied by Muskogee Indians. He is called by the chroni- 

 clers Pedro from the baptismal name afterward bestowed upon him, 

 or by the diminutive form of it, Perico. This Indian had been telling 

 his captors that he belonged to a great and rich province toward the 

 northeast called Yupaha, and the Spaniards understood from him that 

 gold was mined in that country. "He showed how the metal was taken 

 from the earth, melted, and refined, exactly as though he had 

 seen it all done, or else the Devil had taught him how it was," 

 and it did not require the efforts of an expert at deception to fire the 

 enthusiasm of the entire army to advance forthwith upon that won- 

 derful land. On March 3, therefore, De Soto broke up his camp 

 in the midst of the brave and persistently hostile Apalachee and set 

 out toward the north. 



Instead of moving directly northeast, however, De Soto directed 

 his course slightly west of north to the nearest occupied territory, 

 a province called Capachequi lying a short distance west of Flint 

 Kiver. During this entire expedition, but particularly after leaving 

 Iniahica, the Spaniards were dependent upon the granaries of the 

 unfortunate natives and consistently directed their march through 

 the more thickly settled parts of the country. Crossing the Guacuca 

 (Ochlockonee) River, in 3 days they came to the Eiver of Capachequi 



