ian towns were always built upon some gentle swell of land. Where
this could not be found, they often constructed artificial mounds of
earth, sufficient in extent to contain from ten to twenty houses. Upon
one of these the chief and his immediate attendants would rear their
dwellings, while the more humble abodes of the common people, were
clustered around. At Osachile De Soto found an ample supply of
provisions, and he remained there two days.

It is supposed that Osachile was at the point now called Old Town.
Here De Soto was informed by captive Indians that about thirty leagues
to the west there was a very rich and populous country called
Appalachee. The natives were warlike in the highest degree, spreading
the terror of their name through all the region around. Gold was said
to abound there. The country to be passed through, before reaching
that territory, was filled with gloomy swamps and impenetrable
thickets, where there was opportunity for ambuscades. De Soto was told
that the Appalachians would certainly destroy his whole army should he
attempt to pass through those barriers and enter their borders.

This peril was only an incentive to the adventurous spirit of the
Spanish commander. To abandon the enterprise and return without the
gold, would be not only humiliating, but would be his utter ruin. He
had already expended in the undertaking all that he possessed. He had
no scruples of conscience to retard his march, however sanguinary the
hostility of the natives might render it. It was the doctrine of the
so-called church at Rome, that Christians were entitled to the
possessions of the heathen; and though De Soto himself by no means
professed to be actuated by that motive, the principle unquestionably
influenced nearly his whole army.

But he did assume that he was a peaceful traveller, desiring to
cultivate only friendly relations with the natives, and that he had a
right to explore this wilderness of the new world in search of those
precious medals of which the natives knew not the value, but which
were of so much importance to the interest of all civilized nations.

For three days the Spaniards toiled painfully along over an arid,
desert plain, beneath a burning sun. About noon on the fourth day they
reached a vast swamp, probably near the Estauhatchee river. This swamp
was bordered by a gloomy forest, with gigantic trees, and a dense,
impervious underbrush, ever stimulated to wonderful luxuriance by an
a