"History tells us that Cabeca de Vaca--one of the four survivors of
the ill-fated expedition of Narvaez--went back to Spain and for
purposes of his own spread abroad the story that Florida was the
richest country yet discovered. That raised a great furor for going
there. De Soto began preparations for an expedition and nobles and
gentlemen contended for the privilege of joining it.

"It was on the 18th of May, 1539, that De Soto left Cuba with
one thousand men-at-arms and three hundred and fifty horses. He
landed at Tampa Bay--on the west coast--on Whitsunday, 25th of May.
His force was larger and of more respectable quality than any that
had preceded it. And he was not so bad and cruel a man as his
predecessor--Narvaez."

"Did Narvaez do very bad things to the poor Indians, mamma?" asked
Elsie.

"Yes, indeed!" replied her mother; "in his treatment of them he showed
himself a most cruel, heartless wretch. Wilmer, in his 'Ferdinand De
Soto,' tells of a chief whom he calls Cacique Ucita, who, after
forming a treaty of peace and amity with Pamphilo de Narvaez, had been
most outrageously abused by him--his aged mother torn to pieces by
dogs, in his absence from home, and when he returned and showed his
grief and anger, himself seized and his nose cut off."

"Oh, mamma, how very, very cruel!" cried Elsie. "Had Ucita's mother
done anything to Narvaez to make him treat her so?"

"Nothing except that she complained to her son of a Spaniard who had
treated a young Indian girl very badly indeed.

"Narvaez had shown himself an atrociously cruel man. So that it was no
wonder the poor Indians hated him. How could anything else be expected
of poor Ucita when he learned of the dreadful, undeserved death his
poor mother had died, than that he would be, as he was, frantic with
grief and anger, and make, as he did, threats of terrible vengeance
against the Spaniards? But instead of acknowledging his cruelty and
trying to make some amends, as I have said, Narvaez ordered him to be
seized, scourged, and sadly mutilated.

"Then, as soon as Ucita's subjects heard of all this, they hastened
from every part of his dominions to avenge him upon the Spaniards.
Perceiving their danger the Spaniards then fled with all expedition,
and so barely escaped the vengeance they so richly deserved.

"But to go back to my story of De Soto--he had landed a few miles from
an Indian town which stood on the site of the present town of Tampa.
He had wit