Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/61



given authority to wrest it from the Indian inhabitants and rule over it. He fitted out an expedition with five ships and four hundred soldiers, with implements to found a colony. On the 12th of April his fleet anchored in a bay on the coast of Florida, and he took formal possession of the country by proclamation in the name of the Spanish King. Leaving his fleet with instructions to the commander to find a good harbor and then to return to Havana for supplies for the colony, Narvaez, with three hundred selected officers, plunged into the wilderness to conquer the Indians and Seize their possessions. He began war upon them, burning their villages, killing the inhabitants and carrying off their provisions. The natives soon discovered that they should exterminate the invaders, or themselves, or themselves be exterminated. The tribes turned upon the Spanish army, lurked in ambush among the tangled underbrush by day and made fierce attacks  by night, giving their enemies no rest. For more than five months the Spanish army wandered through the forests and dismal swamps, subsisting upon fish and game, with such corn as they could find in the deserted fields. The Indians retreated before the invaders, burning their own villages and destroying their provisions.

Narvaez now realized the desperation of his situation, and followed a large river southward hoping to reach the sea and open communication with his fleet. The Spanish were on the verge of starvation, and in this extremity, some clumsy boats were built, by means of which they hoped to reach the Gulf of Mexico. From battle and dismal, one-third of the army had perished. Narvaez, in his desperation, took the best boat, and, deserting his army, lost his own life in a storm. The survivors were now reduced to five men, of whom Alvar Nunez was the leader. They returned to the main land, and for years wandered about subsisting upon fish, game and wild fruit. They searched in vain for a settlement. They passed the mouth of the Mississippi River, were captured by the