On August 11, 1539, Hernando de Soto took a small force of 60 cavalry and 100 foot soldiers north through Timucuan territory toward the land of the Apalachee while Captain Moscoso led the main army north. While de Soto's advance party rested at the village of Itaraholata, Captain Maldonado was ambushed, and de Soto arrived in time to subdue the attacker after Maldonado's horse had been badly wounded and the attacker nearly pulled the lance from his hands. In this campaign, the Spanish found that chain mail armor was not effective against Indian arrows, whose river cane shafts splintered on impact and penetrated the armor's links, and arrows tipped with mud or dung increased the risk of infection. According to The De Soto Chronicles, some conquistadors abandoned their heavy chain mail along the way. Timucuan chiefdoms covered most of Central and North Florida, and their warriors were described as strong and fierce, with long sharpened fingernails used as weapons and bodies decorated with tattoos and piercings that denoted rank in the village.