bold troopers, Moscoso
dispatched supplies for the governor with an escort of thirty
horsemen. In the mean time the troops under De Soto were nearly
perishing with hunger. They were compelled to leave their encampment
in search of food. Fortunately, at no great distance, they found a
beautiful valley, waving luxuriantly with fields of corn or maize.
Here they encamped and here were soon joined by the escort and their
welcome supplies. In a few days Moscoso came also with the residue of
the army. They were about sixty miles north of Uribaracaxi. It is
supposed the place is now known by the old Indian name of Palaklikaha.

The chief, whose name was Acuera, and all his people had fled to the
woods. De Soto sent Indian interpreters to him with friendly messages
and the declaration that the Spaniards had no desire to do him any
injury; but that it was their power, if the Indians resisted, to
punish them with great severity. He also commissioned them to make the
declaration, which to him undoubtedly seemed perfectly just and
reasonable, but which, to our more enlightened minds, seems atrocious
in the extreme, that it was their only object to bring him and his
people into obedience to their lawful sovereign, the king of Spain.
With this end in view, he invited the chief to a friendly interview.
It can hardly be doubted that in that benighted age De Soto felt that
he was acting the part of a just and humane man, and of a Christian,
in extending the _Christian_ reign of Spain over the heathen realms of
Florida. Acuera returned the heroic reply:

"Others of your accursed race have, in years past, poisoned our
peaceful shores. They have taught me what you are. What is your
employment? To wander about like vagabonds from land to land; to rob
the poor; to betray the confiding; to murder in cold blood the
defenceless. With such a people I want no peace--no friendship. War,
never-ending, exterminating war, is all the boon I ask. You boast
yourself valiant; and so you may be, but my faithful warriors are not
less brave; and this, too, you shall one day prove, for I have sworn
to maintain an unsparing conflict while one white man remains in my
borders; not openly, in battle, though even thus we fear not to meet
you, but by stratagem, and ambush, and midnight surprisals. I am king
in my own land, and will never become the vassal of a mortal like
myself. As for me and my people, we choose death, yes a hundred
deaths, before the loss of