Cáncer recruited fellow Dominicans Gregorio de Beteta, Diego de Tolosa, Juan García, and a certain Brother Fuentes. Leaving Vera Cruz, they reached Havana in 1549. There, they took on a converted Florida Indian, Magdalena, a "highly recommended" interpreter. The expedition then left for Florida on a caravel captained by Juan de Arena. Despite the warnings to avoid the Gulf Coast, Arena took them to an area south of Tampa Bay, only miles from where the previous expeditions had landed. There, they encountered a group of apparently peaceful and receptive Indians, who told them about the many populous villages of the Tocobaga chiefdom around Tampa Bay. Perceiving the possibility of goodwill, the expedition split, with Magdalena, Diego de Tolosa, Brother Fuentes, and an unknown sailor joining the Indians on the half-day's land route, and Cáncer returning to the caravel to meet them at the bay.