On June 20, 1539, Juan Ortiz, a lost Spaniard from an earlier expedition with Pánfilo de Narváez, was found by De Soto’s men not far from here. He said that ten years earlier he had been captured by Chief Ucita, then later escaped to the village of Mocoso with the aid of Chief Ucita’s daughter, who had saved his life. Living among the people of Mocoso, he adopted their dress and traditional tattoos. Because he spoke several Indian languages, he helped De Soto communicate with tribes in the area. An account by Rodrigo Rangel records Ortiz coming out to the road and crying to the soldiers not to kill him, saying that he was a Christian, a native of Seville, and Juan Ortiz. In La Florida, chiefs commonly used war captives and shipwrecked Spaniards as slaves, either as labor for the village or as trade commodities. Ortiz had been captured by the Ucita while on a mission to find the lost Narváez expedition. Like other Spanish conquistadors of the period, De Soto commonly had a priest read aloud the Requerimiento on entering a village. This royal declaration, usually read without translation, offered native Floridians the chance to submit to Spanish rule and convert to Christianity or face severe treatment if they refused.