plains, added both to the beauty and the sublimity of the scene.

The Spaniards conducted their march as in an enemy's country, and
according to the established usages of war. They formed in squadrons
with a van and rear guard. The natives followed, also in martial
array; for they were anxious to show the Spaniards that they were
acquainted with military discipline and tactics. Thus in long
procession, but without artillery trains or baggage wagons, they moved
over the extended plains and threaded the defiles of the forest. At
night they invariably encamped at a little distance from each other.
Both parties posted their sentinels, and adopted every caution to
guard against surprise.

Indeed, it appears that De Soto still had some distrust of his allies,
whose presence was uninvited, and with whose company he would gladly
have dispensed. The more he reflected upon his situation, the more
embarrassing it seemed to him. He was entering a distant and unknown
province, ostensibly on a friendly mission, and it was his most
earnest desire to secure the good-will and cooperation of the natives.
And yet he was accompanied by an army whose openly avowed object was
to ravage the country and to butcher the people.

The region upon which they first entered, being a border land between
the two hostile nations, was almost uninhabited, and was much of the
way quite pathless. It consisted, however, of a pleasant diversity of
hills, forests and rivers. The considerable band of hunters which
accompanied the native army, succeeded in capturing quite an amount of
game for the use of the troops. For seven days the two armies moved
slowly over these widely extended plains, when they found themselves
utterly bewildered and lost in the intricacies of a vast, dense,
tangled forest, through which they could not find even an Indian's
trail. The guides professed to be entirely at fault, and all seemed to
be alike bewildered.

De Soto was quite indignant, feeling that he had been betrayed and led
into an ambush for his destruction. He summoned Patofa to his presence
and said to him:

"Why have you, under the guise of friendship, led us into this
wilderness, whence we can discover no way of extricating ourselves? I
will never believe that among eight thousand Indians there is not one
to be found capable of showing us the way to Cofachiqui. It is not at
all likely that you who have maintained perpetual war with that tribe,
should know nothing of