ore, that the Indians, discovering the
greed of the Spaniards for gold, should have spread rumors that large
quantities of the yellow metal were to be found farther north.

Reports came to the Spaniards of a wonderful Indian queen who reigned
at a place called Yupaha, a settlement as large as a city. One day an
Indian boy, who had been brought to camp with other prisoners, told the
Spaniards a good deal about this great Indian queen. He said that she
ruled not only her own people, but all the neighboring chiefs, and as
far as the Indian settlements extended. The boy told the Spaniards that
all the Indians paid tribute to this great queen, and sent her fine
presents of clothing and gold. De Soto and his men cared nothing about
fine clothing. They were greedy only for gold and precious stones. They
asked the Indian boy many questions, and he answered them all. He
told how the gold was taken from the earth, and how it was melted and
refined. His description was so exact that the Spaniards no longer
had any doubt. Their spirits rose mightily, and, after robbing and
plundering the Indians who had fed and sheltered them during the winter
months, they broke up their camp and moved northward.

Four days after leaving Tallahassee, the Spaniards came to a deep river,
which Colonel C. C. Jones, jun., in his "History of Georgia," says was
the Ocklockonnee, very close to the southwest boundary of Georgia. Two
days later they came to an Indian village from which the inhabitants
fled, but a little later a squad of five soldiers was set upon by the
Indians hiding near the encampment. One of the Spaniards was killed,
while three others were badly wounded. De Soto left this Indian village
on the 11th of March, and presently came to a piece of country which the
Spanish historian describes as a desert. But it was not a desert then,
and it is not a desert now. It was really a pine barren, such as may
be seen to this day in what is called the wire-grass region of southern
Georgia. In these barrens the soil is sandy and the land level,
stretching away for miles. De Soto and his men saw the primeval pines;
but these have long since disappeared, and their places are taken by
pines of a smaller growth. On the 21st of March, the Spaniards came to
the Ocmulgee River, near which they found an Indian town called Toalli.

There will always be a dispute about the route followed by De Soto in
his march. This dispute is interesting, but not important.