nsider of a proper place in which to pass the
winter, and as there had been much talk about the province or district
of Apalache, as producing gold, the army only halted two days at
Osachile, and recommenced their march in the direction of Apalache.
After marching twelve leagues through a desert wilderness, they came to
a swamp half a league over, where the pass was defended by a
considerable number of Indians. An engagement ensued in which several
were killed on both sides, and the Spaniards were foiled for that day.
But on the next, after a bloody encounter, the Spaniards drove the
Indians from the swamp and got possession of the pass, all of which was
fordable except about forty paces in the middle, over which there was a
bridge of trees made fast together.

Having crossed the swamp, a very thick wood was found on the other side,
above a league and half through, which the army had great difficulty to
penetrate, neither indeed was it able to pass through the wood in one
day. During this difficult march, an hundred horsemen armed with targets
led the van, and were followed by an hundred musqueteers and
cross-bow-men, all of whom carried axes to hew down trees and make a
clear space for the army to encamp, which it did in the middle of the
forest, and was all night long disturbed by the incessant war-hoops of
surrounding Indians. Next day they continued their march through the
wood, which now became more open, but they were constantly harassed by
the Indians, more especially as the cavalry could be of very little
service among the trees, and wherever there were any open spaces, the
Indians had cut down trees to obstruct the passage. After getting out of
this forest into the open country, they marched two leagues farther,
killing or making prisoners of all the Indians who attempted to make any
opposition; so that the natives became at length convinced that they
were unable to destroy the Spaniards or to expel them from the country.
The army now encamped at the commencement of the cultivated lands
belonging to the _Apalaches_, but the Indians still continued to annoy
them, by continually pouring flights of arrows into the camp.

Next day the army marched two leagues through a perpetual succession of
fields of Indian corn, interspersed with straggling houses, and were
frequently vexed by lurking Indians who shot off their arrows and then
ran away. At the farther side of this cultivated plain, they came to a
deep brook run