Close to Starvation

On July 26, 1539, an advance guard of Hernando de Soto’s army moved through a nearby area and crossed the present-day Withlacoochee River, taking two days, while the rest of the army, slowed by supplies and purposely misled by their Indian guides, needed four days to get through the swamp and across the river. By then the men were exhausted, vulnerable to attack, and so low on provisions that they boiled roots and leaves for food. Rodrigo Rangel wrote that the swamp of Ocale had a strong current and great breadth, and that where there was no bridge, the men crossed in water up to their chests and chins while carrying their clothes and saddles on their heads. Long before European contact, native people had lived in the Withlacoochee swamplands for thousands of years, relying on the river basin’s wildlife and on fish and other sea life from the nearby Gulf of Mexico. A survivor of the expedition, Ana Mendez began the journey at age 10 and, twenty years later, gave a personal account of the hardships in La Florida, including crossing the Withlacoochee swamp, marching to the point of starvation, witnessing the death of her master Don Carlos at the battle of Mabila, and being among the few survivors who returned to Spain.

Inverness, Florida · United States