22 ENDtJIlANCE OP THE SPANIARDS. a point about sixty miles from the mouth of the river.) (continuing the narration he went on to say; "When we got back the army was very much dis- couraged and it was decided to continue our march towards the west. We built rough rafts from the trees, transported our men, horses and baggage across and continued our way, plodding on and on until another large river blocked our progress towards the west." (This must have been the Alabama river, for it is interesting to examine the map of Alabama and see how near are the rivers, Alabama and Mobile, not to exceed ten miles apart, and they must have reached the first named. These two rive'rs flow for sixty miles towards the south and are not more than ten miles apart and both are navigable streams and each emp- ties into Mobile bay; it is about 175 miles west from the Apalachicola river to the Alabama river.) De Vaca, in his story, then told^ "Upon reach- ing this second stream, we concluded to skirt along its banks south until the sea was reached hoping to find our ships. We finally arrived at a fine bay at the mouth of the river on the last day of July. We were very much demoralized and weak, owing to the lack of food; in fact, when we reEiched the ocean, we had eaten our last horse and to commemorate this fact we named the place at the mouth of the river, Bahia de las Cavarros. Up to this time we had found no trace of gold and very little food and the country not inhab- itable for white men by reason of the swampy nature .of 'the soil, we were aU thoroughly disheartened es- pecially when nothing of onv >^ails could be seen."
