Written by Donald E. Sheppard
Drawings: Cheryl Lucente

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An Officer with Hernando de Soto's army wrote "Having got across the Great River (into today's Indiana just above the Ohio River bridge point near Evansville on June 8th, 1541, under the Full Moon), the govorner (DeSoto) marched a league and a half (four miles, eastward) and reached a large town of Aquixo (today's Angel Mounds State Park), which was abandoned before his arrival."

"Over a plain they saw thirty Indians coming whom the Chief had sent to learn what the Christians were intending to do, but as soon as the latter had sight of them (and their horses) they fled. Those of horse pursued them killing ten and capturing fifteen. And since the town whither the governor was marching was near the river, he sent a captain with the men he deemed sufficient to take the rafts up stream (to the town). And because by land they frequently turned away from the river in order to get around inlets which thrust out of the river, the Indians had opportunity to attack those in the rafts and put them in great danger. For because of the strong current of the river, we did not dare to go any distance from land and the Indians shot arrows at us from the bluff. As soon as the governor reached the town, he immediately sent some crossbowmen down stream (probably in abandoned Indian canoes) who were to come as rear guard (for the men on the rafts)." © 1993, University of Alabama Press

"When the rafts reached the town the governor ordered them taken apart and the nails kept for other rafts when they might be needed. He slept there one night and the next day marched in search of a province called Pacaha, which, he was informed, lay near Chisca where the Indians said there was gold." The army first heard about Chisca in North Carolina the year before, which was reported to lay somewhere north of the Great Smoky Mountains where they were at the time; they had seen a great river, the Tennessee River, flowing north from those mountains and believed that Chisca was somewhere along the river they had just crossed. "We marched through large towns in Aquixo (today's Evansville) which had been abandoned for fear of the Christians. From some captured Indians we learned that a great chief lived three days journey thence, called Casqui (at Vincennes)."

"On Tuesday, the twenty-first of June (having spent some time plundering the Evansville area), they left from there ("We went up the river, because in order to go to that province of Pacaha we had to TURN upriver..." they turned northwest, up the Wabash River, instead of following the Ohio River eastward, as they had done in getting from Henderson, Kentucky, to Angel Mounds State Park, Indiana) and passed through the province of Aquixo, which is very beautiful and nicely situated..." all the way to Fort Branch.

The next day, Wednesday, they passed through the worst road of swamps and water that they had seen in all Florida, and in this day's journey the people suffered much hardship." ...at the White River's flats near its junction with the Wabash River during Annual Spring flood; Indian trails led to that very fertile and populated place. The army slogged over Patoka River, through Gordon Hills and headed for Orrville on the north bank of White River. There are no bridges there, even today, just one giant, shallow lake at Springtime. Telephone poles there have high water marks on them about waist high and houses are built on earthen mounds. To go around this flooded plain the Spaniards would have had to build bridges upstream on the White River (where the highway and railroad bridges are today). Forward scouts had told Desoto when the plain was fordable; he had waited around Evansville for the waters to recede enough to cross that enormous flooded plain.

"On that day they walked continually through water until sunset, which in places reached to the waist and in places to the knee. When they came to dry land they were very glad for it seemed to them that they would be walking about lost through the water all night (it looks the same every Spring; there are no dams on either the Wabash or White Rivers to prevent that plain from flooding). At noon they arrived at the first town of Casqui (Gordon Hills, a large "island" on that plain). They found the Indians off guard for they had not heard of them. Many Indians, both men and women, were seized, besides a quantity of clothing, blankets and skins - both in the first town and in another which was within sight of it in an open field a half league (just over a mile) from it, whither the horsemen had galloped (on Orriville's south bank; they also saw Mount Carmel, Illinois, across the Wabash River from there, as they would later report).

That land is higher (fifty feet or more), dryer and more level than the land of the river behind. In the open field were many walnut trees with soft nuts shaped like acorns (pecans); and in the houses were found many which the Indians had stored away... For two days the governor marched (up the east bank of the Wabash River) through the land of Casqui before arriving at the town where the chief was (Vincennes), and most of the way continually through land of open field, very well peopled with large towns, two or three of which were to be seen from one town." That's why the Indian trails from Evansville crossed the mouth of the White River; they headed straight toward those fields, trees, villages and Illinois from Aquixo.

"Friday, the day of St. John (June 24th, 1541, using the darkness of New Moon to secure what would prove to be a giant Indian village complex), they went to the town of the lord of Casqui (Vincennes), and he gave food and cloths to this army, and on Saturday they entered in his town; and he had very good huts (probably as good as the ones used by Lewis and Clark, who followed Indian trails to and from that place three centuries later), and on the biggest hut, over the door, were many heads of very fierce bulls (buffalo)... There the Christians placed the cross on a mound."

"... we found that the chiefs there were accustomed to have, next to the houses where they lived, some very high mounds, made by hand, and that others have their houses on the mounds themselves. On the summit of that mound we drove in the cross, and we went with much devotion, kneeling to kiss the foot of the cross. The Indians did as they saw us do, neither more nor less..."

"On Sunday, the twenty-sixth of June, we left from there for Pacaha, enemy of Casqui ("upriver"), and we spent the night at one town (Oaktown) and passed others. And the following day (Monday) we crossed a swamp (Busseron Creek just west of Carlisle), in which the Indians had a well-made bridge, broad and of ingenious construction (spanning the trees which line that very deep creek precisely where the bridges, old and new, cross over "...a swamp that was very difficult to cross, having deep miry places at the entrance and exit and clear water in the middle, but so deep that for the space of twenty paces it was necessary to swim... The men crossed over some poor wooden bridges that were there, and the horses swam across with much trouble because of the mud on either side of the swamp") DeSoto's army crossed Busseron Creek Valley and camped at Merom, then spent the next night at Prairie Creek..." and on Wednesday they arrived at the town of Pacaha, a town and lord of great renown and very esteemed in those parts." Their accounts of Terre Haute are some of the best we have of any place in North America. Most of the army would spend 40 days there while few would march 168 miles to Chicago and back.

Chief Casqui and his people had escorted DeSoto from Vincennes to Terre Haute, improving the bridge at Busseron Creek along the way between cities on unfriendly terms. DeSoto sent word to Pacaha that he was coming with Chief Casqui and expected Pacaha to be there when they arrived. Pacaha fled, instead, "with all his people out the other side of town. The governor immediately entered and together with the men of horse charged ahead where the Indians were fleeing; and at another town situated a quarter of a league from that place (half a mile north, inside today's Terre Haute) captured many Indians. And as the horsemen captured them they delivered them over to the Indians of Casqui, who, being their enemies, carefully and with great pleasure took them to the town where the Christians were; and the greatest sorrow they had was in not having permission to kill them."

Another Chronicler says, "On Wednesday, June 19th (1541), the governor entered Pacaha ("...we saw the town on a plain, well palisaded and with a moat of water around it, dug by hand"). He lodged in the town where the chief lived, which was very large, enclosed, and furnished with towers; and in the towers and stockade many loopholes (to shoot arrows through; like a frontier fort). An abundance of old and new corn was found in the town and fields... large towns (spaced) at a league and half a league (2.6 to 1.3 miles apart) were found (scattered across that plain), all enclosed. Where the governor lodged there was a large marsh (possibly the pond at the head of Thompson Ditch; more below) which came near to the enclosure and entered through a ditch round about the town so that but little of the town remained to enclose. A channel had been made from the marsh to the large (Wabash) river through which fish entered..."

Another of DeSoto's Chroniclers says, "The chief of Casqui caught up with the Christians at the time that they entered the town, and they looted it ferociously. In Aquixo, Casqui and this Pacaha we saw the best towns that we had seen up to then, and better palisaded and fortified, and the people of more beauty, except for those of Cofitachequi." Another says, "Many pelts of deer, cat, and bear were found in the town..." which were used to make clothing and shoes for the army. Heavy buffalo skins were likewise used to make saddles and armor for the horses.

Another eyewitness says, "The town was very good and very esteemed in those parts... well palisaded with towers on the walls and with a ditch around most if it, filled with water which enters through an irrigation ditch that flows from the river."

Likewise, other survivors told an historian, "... from Mabila (in today's Alabama) to that point they had always marched toward the north... The village had 500 large and good houses and was on a site somewhat higher and more elevated than its surroundings (the French name "Terre Haute" means "high ground"). The Indians had made almost an island of it with a ditch... 50 paces wide, all made by hand. It was full of water from the river... which flowed 3 leagues (7 miles) above the village... The moat surrounded three sides of the village, the work not yet being complete. The fourth side was enclosed by a very strong wall made of thick logs set in the ground... This great moat and canal were filled with fish from the river..."

A good part of Terre Haute is drained by Thompson Ditch today, which the State of Indiana cleaned and reopened in 1886. It drains Terre Haute's south and east sides into Honey Creek and the Wabash River, 7 miles from its head at a beautiful pond. "That pond had many very good fish of different kinds..." says one of the Chroniclers. Odds are, the State of Indiana simply reopened Pacaha's Canal.

Another Chronicler says "... Indians in canoes discovered where the Chief of Pacaha was - on an islet between two arms of the river (the Wabash)... there were 5,000 souls on that islet..." but when detected, they "...fled in great haste to the other side of the river (toward West Terre Haute)... swimming, where many people were drowned, principally women and children... we captured many Indians - men and women - and a quantity of clothing which the Indians had on wooden rafts... (several of those rafts) went floating downstream and the Indians of Casqui (Vincennes) filled their canoes (then headed for home without Desoto's consent)... On that account the governor was indignant at Casqui and immediately returned to Pacaha (village) two leagues (five miles) away (from the scene of disaster at the river's bends near Terre Haute's Federal Prison)..."

The island where Pacaha sought refuge in the Wabash River was drawn on the Illinois Township Survey of 1848; five miles west (on Hulman Road) of the man-made pond at the head of Thompson Ditch. Pacaha's Village fronted that pond from the bluff; well above the villages on the plain where Terre Haute is today. The north side of the village was walled and gated, allowing Pacaha's people's escape when the Spaniards came in from the south.

"Governor DeSoto and his people, being some days in Pacaha, made some excursions into the interior..."

"...they told him that in some mountains (Hoosier National Forest) forty leagues away (105 miles) there was a great deal of very good salt (at today's French Lick), and to the repeated questions they asked them, they replied that there was also in that country much of the yellow metal (gold) they asked for. The Castilians rejoiced greatly at this news, and two soldiers offered to go with the Indians to confirm it... they were directed to note the nature of the country through which they passed (so the army could go there later) and bring a report as to whether it were fertile and well populated (so the Spaniards could settle that land). To barter for the purchase of salt and the gold, they took pearls and deerskins and some vegetables... They also took Indians to accompany them and two of the merchants (from other tribes who knew the trails) to act as guides. Thus prepared, the Spaniards set out, and at the end of eleven days that they spent on their journey they returned (from French Lick, exactly 105 miles from Terre Haute) with six loads of rock-salt crystals, not made artificially, but found in this state. They also brought back a load of very fine and resplendent brass, and concerning the quality of the lands they had seen, they said that they were not good, for they were sterile and thinly populated (same today). Because they needed it so badly, the Spaniards consoled themselves with the salt for their disappointment and misunderstanding regarding the gold."

"Hence DeSoto sent thirty men of horse and fifty of foot to the province of Calusa (Kankakee, supposedly) to see whether they could bend back toward Chisca (a fictitious place, mentioned above) by that way where the Indians said there was a foundery for gold and copper." That was, at least, DeSoto's publicly stated reason for sending them.

The King's Agent with DeSoto reported, "We were in this town (Terre Haute) 27 or 28 days to see if we could find a road north in order to travel to the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean, the only way Spaniards could get to China's markets to spend their New World fortunes)... some expeditions were made to capture Indians who might inform us (of trails to a sea reported to lie in that direction). One expedition in particular was made to the northwest because they told us that there were Indian villages through which we could go..." He went with DeSoto's scouts (probably the Thirty Lancers with select foot-soldiers) into Illinois along the Indian trail which crossed the Wabash River just northwest of Terre Haute at the Old Fort Harrison Site. DeSoto usually dispatched his Lancers on a filling half moon (July 1st, 1541, in this case) because they needed moonlight for surprise raids on Indian villages for stored food. They could not carry enough for their horses. Indian merchants were sought to guide them to the next village on their way THROUGH ILLINOIS.

"(Since) the chief of Casqui (Vincennes) had stolen away (with the goods from Pacaha's Island Refuge on the Wabash River)... without asking for permission... Governor DeSoto tried to make peace with Pacaha (of Terre Haute), and he came in to retrieve a brother of his whom the Christians had captured... and DeSoto struck an agreement with Pacaha that he should go make war on Casqui (at Vincennes), which was very gratifying to Pacaha. But Casqui had warning of that intent, and he came with fifty of his Indians in very fine array; and he brought a jester in front of himself for grandeur, who, saying and doing witty things, gave occasion for much laughter to those who saw him. The Governor displayed anger and harshness in order to please Pacaha... Pacaha asked the Governor for permission to give a slash to Casqui's face with a knife which the Christians had given him, and the Governor said to Pacaha that he should not do such a thing... the Governor asked Casqui why he had gone without permission. Casqui replied, "You gave me the cross to defend myself from my enemies, and with that same cross you wish to destroy me (given that Pacaha's people now wore crosses high on their heads so the Spaniards could recognize them as allies). My Lord, now that God heard us, by means of the cross (which the Christians had placed on the Indian mound at Vincennes)... all those of my land knelt down to it to ask for rain from the God who you said suffered on it, and he heard us and gave it to us in great abundance and saved our cornfields and seed beds; now that we have more faith in it and in your friendship, you wish to destroy those children and women who love you and your God so much..."

"Casqui gave DeSoto one of his daughters, saying that his greatest desire was to unite his blood with that of so great a lord as he was..." The Governor replied... "Look Casqui, we did not come to destroy you, but rather to make you know and understand the cross and our God... But since you went away without my permission, I thought that you held little regard for the doctrine that we had given you; and for the contempt that you had for it, I wished to destroy you... Now that you come humbly, you may be certain that I wish you more good than you think; and if you are in need of something from me, tell me and you will see it... because you and your people are our brothers, and thus our God tells us."

"The Indians were as amazed at this as the Christians were at what Casqui had said..." ...given that DeSoto seldom changed his mind and had little patience with Indians. It's likely that he wanted to keep the peace in that neighborhood with two very strong allies. If he was to establish a port on America's northern sea to trade Spain's New World fortunes with China, he would need both Casqui and Pacaha to aid in his defense, being so deep inside this continent. He had done so in South America, with local allies, and had claimed a city of gold, but his Illinois scouts were about to return with news that sailing to China, across the northern sea anyway, was not going to happen.

On the morning of Full Moon, of July 8th, 1541, at Lake Michigan at Chicago, the King's Agent wrote... "Having seen that there was no road to traverse to the other sea..." (no seaway to the Pacific Ocean...) he turned south and returned... to where we had placed the cross (Vincennes)..."

Another Chronicler says, "The governor, seeing that in that (northward) direction the land was so poor in corn that they could not sustain themselves (and that Lake Michigan was NOT the Northern Sea he supposed it to be), asked the Indians where the most populous district lay. They said that they had heard of a large province of very well provided land called Quiguate toward the south..."

DeSoto then ordered his army to retreat for the first time in his life. The army was never told why, only that food was not to be found to the north. The foot soldiers were sent immediately back to Vincennes ("...we turned south and returned to where we had placed the cross, and from there we headed southwest to another province which is called Quiguate...") to gather what they could for a long westward journey in search of "The South Sea." DeSoto and his riders would join them within a week just below Vincennes.

"The governor rested in Pacaha for forty days. During that time the two chiefs gave him service of abundance of fish, blankets, and skins, and they tried to see which of them could perform the greater services. At the time of his departure, the chief of Pacaha gave two of his sisters to him saying that if he would remember him he should take them as wives as a testimonial of love. The name of one was Macanoche and the other Mochila. They were very well disposed, tall of body and plump of figure. Machanoche was of good appearance and in her address and face appeared to be a lady; the other was robust." DeSoto would give them to several officers "...commanding that the women should deal from one land to the other with other tribes' commodities and business, and so they agreed to do it..." One of them would see Spain in her lifetime. "The chief of Casqui ordered the bridge (over Busseron Creek) repaired and the governor (with the horsemen) gave a turn (a U-turn) through his land and lodged in the open field near his town, whither the chief came with a quantity of fish and two Indian women whom he exchanged with two Christians for two shirts. He gave a guide and couriers. The governor went to sleep at one of his towns (probably near Dicksburg Hill) and the next day (he joined the foot soldiers) at another near a river (at the junction of the White and Wabash Rivers), where chief Casqui ordered canoes brought for him in which to cross (the Wabash River into Mount Carmel, Illinois)."

"The governor took his way toward Quiguate..." (with the horsemen, well ahead of the army, while they were still crossing the river).

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