There is no part of Hernando de Soto's route of explo-
ration in the southeastern United States that has not
been controversial. And this holds for the very first seg-
ment of the route: where he made his landfall, where he estab-
lished his base camp, and the route he followed northward to
Apalachee, the place where he spent his first winter, that of
1539 -1540 .

While de Soto was in Cuba making preparations for his expe-
dition, he sent Juan de Añasco with fifty men in a caravel with two
pinnaces to explore the harbor in La Florida where the army
expected to make its landing ( Elvas 1922 :20). Unfortunately,
little is known about what Añasco discovered. He did bring back
some Indians captured during his exploration who were to be
used as guides and interpreters. From signs that these Indians
made, de Soto and his men expected to find much gold and a
very rich land.

Even before Añasco carried out this exploration, it is very
likely that de Soto knew that there were at least two good harbors
on the west coast of Florida. De Soto, or his chief pilot, Alonso
Martín, must surely have had access to the information in Alonso de Chaves's
Espejo de Navigantes, a guide for navigators, compiled
by 1537 . In this guide two good harbors are located on the Gulf
coast of the Florida peninsula: the Bahía de Juan Ponce to the
south and the Bahí Honda to the north ( Ranjel 1922 :54;

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