The expedition was commanded by Narvaez, who landed his men at Tampa Bay, two days before Easter, 1528. They immediately determined to leave the coast and go into the interior of the country in search of gold, although De Vaca tried very hard to persuade the captain to remain near the ships. But here the Indians were not friendly, and the country farther away was said to be rich in gold; and so a short time after landing, a part of them started off to find the gold region which the Indians said was up in the Appalachian Mountains. But they found travelling through this strange country very hard work. Soon after their arrival at Tampa Bay they had angered the Indians by burning the bodies of some chiefs that they had found in a little village, and the natives now tried in every way to show their hatred. They refused to act as guides, and the Spaniards had to toil through swamps and rivers and forests, often losing their way and always in danger of attack from the Indians. At length their food gave out, and then they had to depend upon the fruit that could be found, and so at last, when they reached the little Indian village of Apalachen, they were quite heart-sick, and glad to find shelter and rest. They found no one in the village excepting women and children; all the men had fled to the woods. The village was built in the midst of a great swamp, and although it held some maize and other provisions, they soon found there was no gold there, and that all their long journey had been in vain. And then, too, the Indians kept lurking around, and not only attacked them and burned the wigwams in which they were living, but made it very unsafe for the Spaniards to leave shelter at all. A man could not lead his horse to water without being in danger of death, and as this kept growing worse and worse, they decided to leave Apalachen and go back to the sea. But many days and nights passed, and the sea seemed as far off as ever. They were without food, and had to depend upon getting maize from the Indians, and as this could only be done by force, many battles were fought and many lives were lost, and besides this trouble many fell sick and died from starvation and hardship. But, hard as it was to go on, it would have been harder still to remain, for that would mean certain death at the hands of the Indians; so they toiled on, discouraged and hopeless, and at the end of fifteen days found themselves at last at the sea-coast. But it was not Tampa Bay, and no Spanish ships appeared in sight on which they might embark and sail back to Spain again. And the men, quite worn out, laid down on the sands in despair, and doubted if they should ever see their homes and friends again.