For the Peruvian economist, see Hernando de Soto (economist).

Hernando de Soto (c. 1500–May 21, 1542) was a Spanish navigator and conquistador, born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. He participated in the conquest of Panama at the side of Pedro Arias de Ávila (Pedrarias), Nicaragua and took a very active role with Francisco Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru.

Later, de Soto led the largest expedition of both the 15th century and the 16th century through what would become the Southeastern United States and the Midwestern United States searching for gold and silver and other valuable goods. He is presumed to have died on the banks of the Mississippi River near present-day Lake Village, Arkansas.

{({Spanish colonization of the Americas}})

Early career

In 1514, de Soto accompanied Pedro Arias de Ávila to the Spanish colonies, landing in Panama. His only possessions then were a shield and his sword. In 1516, he became leader of a cavalry unit and went with Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba on his discovery and colonization voyage through Nicaragua and Honduras.

De Soto gained fame as an excellent horseman, fighter, and tactician, but was known for extreme brutality and ruthlessness when dealing with Indigenous peoples of the Americas. In a conflict for supremacy in Nicaragua, de Soto fought for Davila against Gil Dávida Gonzales; Gonzales, an ex-officer of Davila, had tried to break away from him. De Soto denounced the treason and defeated Gonzales's army.

First expedition – South America

In 1528 de Soto led his own expedition along the coast of Yucatan, hoping to find direct connection by sea between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. To that end, he accompanied Francisco Pizarro as a direct representative to him on his venture in Peru and explored the country. De Soto discovered the city of Cajas. With a group of fifty men, he discovered an Inca road to Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire, and became the first European to talk to the Sapa Inca Atahualpa when he preceded Pizarro to Cajamarca on their invasion march. After Atahualpa had been arrested during the Battle of Cajamarca in 1532, de Soto often visited him in confinement, and a friendship between the two men emerged. He broke with Pizarro when the Andes were to be redistributed among the conquistadors, and when Atahualpa was executed despite fulfilling his promise of filling a "Ransom Room" with gold and two with silver.

Return to Spain

He returned to Spain in 1536, taking with him approximately 100,000 golden pesos — his share of the conquest of the Inca Empire. At this time, De Soto was famous for being the hero of the battle of Cuzco. He settled in Seville, where he married, in 1537, Inés de Bobadilla, the daughter of Davila. She came from one of the most respectable families of Castile, with good connections to the Spanish court under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. This period was the apex of de Soto's reputation and wealth.

De Soto, having seen the legendary resources in Peru and read a report written by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, suspected a similar wealth in Florida. Cabeza de Vaca was one of four survivors of the disastrous attempt of Pánfilo de Narváez to conquer Florida. De Soto saw his chance to second the famous conquests of Pizarro and Cortés. He was declared the governor of Cuba y adelantado de La Florida (meaning: all lands north of Mexico) by Charles V. De Soto sold all of his goods and equipped an expedition into the unexplored lands. His mission was to conquer, settle, and "pacify" the unknown territories.

Expedition to Florida 1538-1542

Landing in Florida

In May 1539, he landed with approximately 600 to 700 men, twenty-four priests, nine ships, and 220 horses on the western coast of Florida, in what would become Bradenton, Florida, south of Tampa, Florida. He named the place Espíritu Santo after the Holy Spirit. De Soto's aim was to colonize the area, preferably from the center of a city like Cuzco or Mexico City. Therefore, he brought several tons of equipment, tools, arms, cannons, dogs, and pigs. The dogs, mostly Irish Wolfhounds, became notorious weapons and instruments of punishment for the army. In addition to the sailors, the ships brought priests, blacksmiths, craftsmen, engineers, farmers, and merchants. Few of them had ever traveled outside of Spain, or even their home villages.

Around the same time, the Mexican viceroy, Antonio de Méndez, sent an expedition under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado into the territories explored by De Vaca to search for what came to be known as the Seven Cities of Cíbola, a gold-rich land of legend. De Soto feared for his claims on La Florida. During the whole of his travels, de Soto felt pressure to be the first to discover the legendary treasures and appropriate settling grounds.

The exact course of de Soto's expedition is subject to discussions and controversy among historians and local politicians. The primary historical sources are journals left by the Spaniards, including de Soto's own secretary. Aside from the usual precaution that has to be applied to such sources, particular problems have to be considered in regards to de Soto's expedition. The natives often had to pass through a chain of interpreters, so that names and toponyms may have been written down incorrectly. Additionally, many leaders and contacts had their own interests in leading the expedition in the wrong directions. Archeological reconstructions and the oral history of the natives have only lately been considered. However, this bears the handicap that most historical places have been overbuilt and more than 450 years of history have passed between the incidence and its narration.

The most widespread version, which is also taught in United States schools, recurs in a report of the Congress of the United States, under the lead management of anthropologist John R. Swanton, from the year 1939. While the first part of the expedition's course, until the battle at Mabila, is only disputed in details, the meandering route of the later voyage remains largely unclear. The Spaniards were disoriented and had almost no equipment left which could have served as indications for the archeologists. The commonly assumed De Soto Trail runs in a west-northwest direction across the US states Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma until Texas. Other opinions argue for a northern route across Kentucky and Indiana to the Great Lakes.

Exploration

Beginning at the Espíritu Santo, de Soto explored Florida and large parts of the Southern United States. Already in Florida, his misfortune began. Instead of being full of gold, the country was full of swamps and mosquitos, and was extremely hot and humid. Also, the indians he brought with him angered the native tribes.

The natives had had bad experiences with the earlier expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez. De Soto's troops were no less brutal. They captured Indians to use as workers and guides, raped women, and looted villages in their search for food for their men and horses. Most often, de Soto let the villages burn down and set up a Christian cross on the sacred places of the Indians. In addition to slaves and guides, the Spaniards often captured the tribes' chieftains in order to gain safe passage.

The most important helper of the troops was Juan Ortiz, who came to Florida in search of the Narvaez expedition and was captured by the Uzica, a Calusa tribe. The daughter of Chief Hirrihigua of the Uzica arguably served as a precursor to Pocahontas by begging for Ortiz's life, as her father had ordered Ortiz to be roasted alive. Ortiz survived captivity and torture, and joined, at the first opportunity, the new de Soto Spanish expedition.

Ortiz knew the countryside and also helped as an interpreter. As a lead guide for the de Soto expedition, Ortiz established a unique method for guiding the expedition and communicating with various tribal dialects. The "Paracoxi" guides were recruited from each tribe along the route. A chain of communication was established whereby a guide who had lived in close proximity to another tribal area was able to pass his information and language on to a guide from a neighboring area. Because Ortiz refused to dress and conduct himself as a hidalgo Spaniard, his motives and council to de Soto were held in suspicion by other officers. But Don Hernando remained loyal to Ortiz, thus allowing him freedom to dress and live among his tribal Paracoxi friends.

Another important guide was the seventeen-year-old boy Perico, or Pedro, from modern-day Georgia, who spoke several of the local tribes' languages and could communicate with Ortiz. Perico was engaged as a guide in 1540 and treated better than the rest of the slaves, due to his value to the Spaniards.

The first winter encampment of the expedition took place in Anhaica, the capital of the Apalachee, close to Lake Tallahas. The site is also near "Bahia de Caballos" where the members of the Narváez expedition were forced to eat valued horseflesh for survival. This is the only place on the entire route where the archeologists agree that de Soto's expedition effectively had been.

1540 – To the north, The Battle of Mauvila

The expedition ventured along the eastern Appalachian Mountains and left a trail of destruction. Sometimes the members of the expedition traded the pigs they brought along to obtain food, sometimes they tried to get what they needed by force. They crossed modern-day Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Having heard of the famous gold treasure of the Cofitachequi, and accompanied by their enemies, the Ocute, the expedition continued on to the Carolinas. During weeks of marches, through hunger and thirst, they realised that neither Perico nor the Ocute knew their way through the territories of the Cofitachequi. Nonetheless, in the middle of May, the expedition discovered the capital of the tribe, situated at the site of today's Columbia, South Carolina.

The Spaniards were received in a relatively friendly manner — especially considering that they looted and pillaged several villages of the Cofitachequi on their way. The Cofitachequi princess seemingly turned over her tribe's sacred burial sites, pearls, and anything the Spaniards valued to Don Hernando. However, the Spaniards demanded to see the city's gold at once. Upon closer examination, the "gold" emerged as simple copper. The Spaniards raided the city's burial temples, looting ancient treasures. They found some pearls and weapons in the city, took the young and charismatic female leader as a hostage, and ventured on in their search for wealth, across the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama.

On their further erratic travels, they were led by wrong promises of giant gold reserves in the east. In northern Alabama, they stumbled upon the city of Mauvila (or Mabila). The Choctaw tribe, under chieftain Tascalusa, ambushed them on the central place of the strongly-fortified city. The Spaniards managed to fight their way out, then attacked the city over and over again. In a battle of nine hours, twenty Spaniards died, almost all were wounded, and twenty more died during the next few days. All Choctaw warriors in the area — between 2,000 and 6,000 in number — died fighting, in the fires, by executions, or by suicide. Mauvila was burned down.

Even though the Spaniards won the battle, they lost most of their possessions and forty horses. They were wounded, sickened, and almost without equipment in an unknown territory, surrounded by enemies. With the battle of Mauvila, the natives' respect for the expedition also decreased. The Spaniards were attacked more and more often by guerrillas and in the open.

While his men had lost their hopes and now only wanted to reach the coast to meet ships that were expected to come from Cuba, de Soto still strived for new discoveries. The expedition wintered in Chicasa in modern-day Mississippi.

1541 – To the west, demoralised

The expedition returned upcountry to the north, where they met the Chickasaw tribe. De Soto demanded 200 men as porters from the Chickasaw. They denied his claim and attacked the Spanish camp during the night. The Spaniards lost about forty men and the remainder of their equipment. According to participating chroniclers, the expedition could have been destroyed. Luckily for the expedition, the Chickasaw let them go, intimidated by their own success.

On May 8, 1541, de Soto's troops reached the Mississippi River. It is unclear whether he, as it is claimed, was the first European to see the great river. However, he is the first to document this fact in official reports.

De Soto was less interested in this discovery though, recognizing it, first of all, as an obstacle to his mission. He and 400 men had to cross the broad river, which was constantly patrolled by hostile natives. After about one month, and the construction of several floats, they finally crossed the Mississippi and continued their travels westwards through modern-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They wintered in Autiamique, on the Arkansas River.

De Soto's death

After a harsh winter, the Spanish expedition decamped and moved on more and more erratically. By then, the last Spaniard who was remotely familiar with the area, Juan Ortiz, had died. The expedition went as far inward as the Caddo River, where it is recorded that they clashed with a Native American tribe called the Tula. This event allegedly happened in the area of the present Arkansas community of Caddo Gap, Arkansas (a monument to this battle event stands in that community). Eventually, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi River.

On the banks of this river, de Soto died on May 21, 1542 allegedly after contracting a fever. It is contested that possibly it was from an infected wound inflicted during the battle fought with the local Native Americans.

Either way, since he had propagated among the natives the myth that Christians were immortal, his men had to conceal his death. They hid his corpse in blankets weighted with sand and sank it in the river. (However, both Lake Providence, Louisiana and Lake Village, Arkansas claim that de Soto is buried in their respective lakes.) While Spain and Portugal could have been crossed by a trained wanderer in less than one month, de Soto's expedition roamed through La Florida for three years without finding the expected treasures or a place to begin with their colonisation. His men aborted the expedition.

After one more year of wandering, they finally reached Spanish territory in Mexico, via the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. On their return journey, they were heavily attacked by the Natchez and other tribes, who had united against the Spaniards. Out of the initial 700 participants, 311 found their way home.

NOTE: According to a national monument sign in Jonesville, LA., De Soto died there after a battle with the local natives.

Effects

References