On July 24, 1539, Hernando de Soto’s army camped at the nearby Indian village of Tocaste while he moved ahead with a small scouting party. Just north of the village, the party discovered a broad road that he believed might be the entrance to a large city. He sent Rodrigo Rangel back to Tocaste with orders for the army to break camp and join them, and Rangel continued onward despite encountering many Indians following the Governor’s trail. After reaching the main army, the maestro de campo gave him fourteen men on horseback, increasing the number of horses with the Governor to twenty-six. De Soto spent much of the expedition leading small scouting detachments as he searched quickly for evidence of an Indian empire in La Florida that could rival the splendor of the Inca in Peru. Influenced by accounts from survivors of earlier Spanish expeditions, he believed such a power existed there and intended to conquer it and establish himself as one of the greatest conquistadors. Indian warriors armed themselves with war clubs and bows, painted their bodies to represent their military prowess, and tied their hair into topknots, daring others to try to take their scalps in battle.