De Soto’s 1539-1542 expedition (click to enlarge)

Note: This article uses modern-day geographical names to reference locations in the United States where De Soto is thought to have traveled during his 1539-1542 expedition. Original native Indian names are also used.

Hernando De Soto was a 16^th century conquistador, a man of war, and though he explored he was not an explorer in the honorable sense of the word. From a modern point of view he is the equivalent of a thug who explores the fancy neighborhood on the other side of town in search of gold and jewels, kidnapping and killing all those who stand in his way. Though he was the first European to venture into what is today the southeastern United States, humanity gained nothing from his journey, other than an understanding of the area’s geography and a confirmation of the European view that the native Indians were uncivilized. No science was gained, no new plant or animal species were collected. De Soto himself found no gold nor colonized any lands. His expedition was a complete failure, even to those at the time. However, by 16^th century standards, he was a hero.

Little is known of De Soto’s early years. Even his birth date is speculation, but most historians put it some time in the late 1490s, possibly 1500 at the latest. He was born in western Spain in a poor region known as Extremadura to a family of minor nobility that managed to get by financially, but nothing more. As a second son he did not stand to inherit his father’s property, so like many Spanish men of the time, he sought to make his fortune through the exploits of foreign lands. He left on an expedition to the “New World” at the age of fourteen, landing in present day Panama, a Spanish colony founded by Alviar Nunez de Balboa and governed by Pedrarias Dávila. In the ensuing years he fought in a number of campaigns to conquer Central America, including a brutal takeover of present day Nicaragua. Because of his horsemanship, combat, and leadership skills, he rose up through the colonial government and became rich through ranching and the selling of Indian slaves.

De Soto’s first government position was that of regidor (city council member) of Leon, Nicaragua, in 1530. Wanting to expand his fortune, he financed an expedition to find a passageway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and set off for the Yucatan Peninsula. The expedition was a failure, and De Soto lost the means to finance any future expeditions. For that reason he jumped at an opportunity to join a proposed expedition organized by Francisco Pizarro. He abandoned his property in Nicaragua and headed to Pizarro’s base in present day Peru.

Pizarro had been involved earlier in a failed expedition to South America, though he did learn of a wealthy civilization called the Incas. He now hoped to lead a new expedition into the interior of Peru for the purpose of plundering the Inca’s reported hordes of gold and silver. To do so, he first needed permission from the new governor of Panama, Pedro de los Rios, who had succeeded Dávila (now governor of Nicaragua).

The way expeditions worked was that the person who wanted to lead the journey had to obtain a “petition” from the local government, or if back in Spain, the king himself. In return for the petition, the government would get a large share of any profits despite putting up no money for the expedition; the person wanting to do the exploring had to foot the bill. Being in Panama, Pizarro had to petition de los Rios, who refused him. He then recruited Hernan Ponce de Leon to provide the expedition with ships, horses, and other financial resources, and De Soto was counted on to use his influence with Dávila to get de los Rios to change his mind. When this could not be done, De Soto attempted an unsuccessful coup, which landed him in jail and in line for a possible execution. However, Dávila ended up dying in March 1531, and De Soto was set free.

During this time Pizarro had returned to Spain to petition King Charles V (aka Charles I of Spain) directly and was granted not only the rights to any riches he might find, but also considerable control over any land he conquered. However, there were stipulations, one being that he must obtain a minimum number of sufficiently equipped men before the expedition could depart. He recruited many family members, but fell short of the requirement. It was the men and horses that had been organized by De Soto that allowed him to proceed, and in exchange, he made De Soto second in command and granted him a considerable share of any profits. In 1532, the expedition departed with an army of 300 men, and the hunt for the Inca capital city in Peru began.

At the time of departure, the Incas were in the middle of a civil war, with factions led by two brothers, Atahualpa and Huascar. By the time Pizarro and his men located the Incas in November 1532, Atahualpa had come out the victor and was resting near the city of Cajamarca in northern Peru. Pizarro and a detachment of around 200 men arrived in Cajamarca on the 15th. This was a fortified city protected by a well-built palisade wall. The roughly 2,000 inhabitants fled upon seeing the Spanish soldiers. De Soto was then sent to meet with Atahualpa, and a meeting with Pizarro back at Cajamarca was arranged for the next day.

Atahualpa arrived with a sizable army, but left most of the men camped a half mile outside the city walls. He entered the city carried on a litter with around 6,000 men, though all were unarmed as a show of trust. Pizarro and his men had hid in the buildings, and Atahualpa was surprised to see nobody there. Shortly thereafter, a friar and interpreter emerged from hiding and demanded that the Incas convert to Catholicism and pledge loyalty to Charles V, a request that Atahaulpa scoffed at due to having 6,000 men with him and thousands more camped just outside the city walls, while Pizarro had just 200 men.

At this point the Spanish rushed out of the buildings and began an attack. Men fired muzzle loading arquebuses, weapons the Incas had never seen. The immediate target was Atahaulpa, those carrying his litter, and his top commanders, many of whom threw themselves in front of the Spanish weapons and were killed. With Atahaulpa quickly captured, the thousands of Inca soldiers retreated in panic. Eyewitness reports claim that once Atahaulpa was captured, no Inca soldier made any attempt to counterattack. In fact, as they rushed out of the city the army outside was spooked and retreated as well. While it is hard to believe that over 6,000 men could be beaten by 200, the Incas and other South American Indians were well aware of the Spanish before this encounter and many believed that they were gods. Gunfire, armor, horses, and a swift ambush most likely reinforced this belief, causing the retreat.

Atahaulpa was held for ransom and would be released if one large room (some historians say three) was filled with gold, silver, and jewels. Such wealth was not in one place, and the ransom arrived piecemeal over the next half year. During this time De Soto became friends with Atahaulpa, and they often played chess together. The room was finally filled, but around this time Pizarro heard a rumor that the Inca army was marching on Cajamarca. De Soto was sent out to look for the army, which did not exist, and during this time Atahaulpa was executed so that he could not be rescued. Upon return, De Soto was angered to find out what had happened.

After the execution, Pizarro marched on Cuzco, the Inca capital, capturing it in November 1533. De Soto would eventually leave the expedition and return to Spain in 1536, disgruntled that he was not awarded the governorship of Cuzco, yet rich beyond his wildest dreams.

De Soto, to date second fiddle in a number of expeditions, now yearned to lead one of his own. He petitioned King Charles for an expedition and governorship of Guatemala, but was instead given Cuba and instructed to colonize North America, which to the Spanish meant La Florida and the lands to the north, today’s southeastern United States. He was given four years to complete the expedition, and if successful, would be given a sizable estate, plus his share of the gold, silver, and jewels that he hoped to find. The expedition, as was normal, was to be financed entirely by De Soto.

After putting together a group of nearly 700 Spanish and Portuguese men, along with armor, weapons, horses, livestock, slaves to be used as porters, and enough food for four years, De Soto departed for Havana in September 1537. He would claim his title of governor and continue organizing the expedition once in Cuba. It was not until May 18, 1539, that he departed for La Florida, eventually landing in the Tampa Bay area.

De Soto’s first order of business was to set up a base camp, which was done in an abandoned Uzita Indian village. Afterwards, De Soto set out with most of his men, leaving 100 to guard the supplies at the camp. He had heard rumor of a Spaniard who had been living as a captive with the local Indians for over a decade. The man had been a survivor of a previous, failed expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez. In late July, by luck they found the man, Juan Ortiz, living with the Mocoso Indians. He had originally been captured by the Uzita, but escaped only to be recaptured by the Mocoso—good thing for him, because the Uzita were cannibals. Ortiz had learned the language by then and now served as De Soto’s interpreter.

The main priority of De Soto was to find gold. However, he nor Pizarro nor any other Spanish conquistador who ever found gold were metallurgists or prospectors. To the Spanish, finding gold did not mean striking it rich in underground mines or discovering gold in riverbeds. It meant finding the people who had already found the gold and stealing it from them, killing entire civilizations if need be. (Contrast this to the English who sent metallurgists on their expeditions to America to ascertain whether or not there was gold or other useful metals in the ground). This would lead to the brutal killing of thousands of Indians during his journey, as well as many Indian attacks that would whittle down his men and horses to the point that he nearly had a rebellion on his hands.

By October 1539, De Soto had reached the village of Anhayca near modern day Tallahasee in the Florida panhandle and made it his winter camp. Word was sent to the men at Uzita to join him. While much of the expedition’s route has been speculated by historians and archaeologists, the stay at Anhayca is one of the few places were positive evidence of De Soto has been found.

Anhayca was the capitol city of the Apalachee Indians. Though the Spanish made their winter camp here, this did not mean that they were entirely welcomed. As was the case with any city the Spanish occupied, the Indians either accepted their presence and cooperated by providing food, shelter, women, and slaves, or the Spanish would take the city by force. De Soto’s favorite tactic, which he learned and used many times during his previous expeditions, was to capture the chief and use him as a bargaining tool for cooperation until reaching the next destination. Once at a new city, the chief would be released and the chief of the new city would be held hostage.

When spring came in 1540, De Soto began moving to the northeast after being told that this is where the gold was. He passed near present day Macon, Georgia, and the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds and continued on to South Carolina before turning northwest towards the Charlotte, North Carolina area. The route was not simply random wanderings, and two things played a part in determining which way to go. First off, the expedition most certainly followed established Indian trails. De Soto and his men weren’t bushwhacking their way across the country mounted on horses and wearing armor, all the while dragging cannon, food supplies, and livestock with them. Secondly, the Indians knew what the Spanish were after, and the easiest way to get rid of them was to say that the next village was the one that had all of the gold.

Word of their expedition had spread from village to village, and thus the Indians knew that potential trouble was on the way. In many cases the Indians tried to cooperate just enough to get rid of the Spanish, but this often was not sufficient. While conflicts with the Indians were an ongoing ordeal, no encounter had amounted to much of a problem until the summer of 1540 when De Soto came upon more warlike bands of Indians.

Once near Charlotte, the expedition turned west towards Knoxville, Tenneseee, then dipped south back into the northwest corner of Georgia, ironically passing through the area of the early 1800s gold rush in Dahlonega. It was in this area that they came upon the Coosa Indians and ended up taking Chief Coosa and his sister hostage, using them as insurance of safe passage through the area. The Chief was eventually released, but his sister was kept as a slave.

A tribe of Indians under Chief Tascaluza (aka Tuskaloosa) and located in the city of Atahachi (Montgomery, Alabama) heard about the kidnapping of the Coosa chief, and in late September 1540, sent a envoy of men to the city of Talisi where De Soto was stationed (northeast of Montgomery). Chief Talisi had obliged De Soto’s demands for food and supplies, and in return he released Chief Coosa. Chief Tascaluza’s envoy was there to size up the expedition party to prepare for a possible attack.

De Soto reached Chief Tascaluza’s city of Atahachi on October 10th and the two men met. When De Soto demanded porters and women, the Chief refused, and as a result, De Soto took him hostage. This promoted the Chief to agree to providing porters, but he insisted that they must travel to the city of Mabila (near Selma) to get the women.

The Spanish and their captive arrived at Mabila on November 18th. The city was fortified by a palisade wall, and the population oddly enough appeared to be exclusively male. The Mabila Chief came out and greeted De Soto in a friendly manner, even providing food and entertainment. While this was happening, Tascaluza told De Soto that he would no longer march with him, and the Spanish soon found that they were surrounded by a city full of armed warriors. De Soto agreed to leave if he was at least given the porters that he was promised. The Mabila Chief refused and a violent scuffle broke out, which soon escalated into a full fledged attack by the Indians. De Soto and his men were able to flee the city, but had to leave most of their supplies inside the city walls.

After regrouping, the Spanish retaliated by assaulting the city until they were able to reenter and burn the place to the ground. The battle lasted nine hours, and by the end nearly every Indian had been killed, an estimate of 2,500 men. Tascaluza had escaped, but his son died in the battle. Spanish casualties were 22 dead and around 150 injured. On top of that, most of their supplies had been lost, and the morale of the men was very low.

De Soto’s original plan before all of this happened was to head down to the Gulf of Mexico to Mobile Bay and meet with two supply ships. However, fearing that his men would leave him, he turned and marched north towards Columbus, Mississippi, pillaging village after village in an attempt to gather enough food for the upcoming winter. Camp was set up in the Indian village of Chicaza near mid-December, late into the winter as compared to the previous year. They would sustain many Indian attacks during this time, losing twelve more men, dozens of horses, and hundreds of the pigs.

Winter camp was broken in April 1541. De Soto demanded porters from the Chickasaw, but was refused. The Chickasaw attacked, killing roughly 40 more of De Soto’s men, and could have killed more, but they let the Spanish leave.

From Chicaza the expedition headed northwest and arrived at the Mississippi River on May 9th. It took over a month to build boats so that the entire group could be transported across the river, and during this entire time the Spanish were constantly being harassed by the Indians. Contrary to popular belief, De Soto was not the first European to discover the Mississippi, for Spanish had been on the river near its mouth at New Orleans many times before. However, nobody had explored it, and neither would De Soto at this time, for he was only crossing it to continue his journey farther west.

After all of his men were across the river, De Soto turned north and marched a little ways past modern day Memphis. Here he ran into more trouble with the Pacaha Indians. In early August the expedition turned westward once again, making it as far as the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area before turning back towards the Mississippi River and eventually making winter camp with the Utiangue Indians just south of Little Rock. The winter was the coldest they had yet experienced, and more men died due to the cold, including the interpreter, Juan Ortiz.

In the spring of 1542, De Soto decided to return to the Mississippi near to where he had first crossed. The group camped at the Indian village of Guachoya, and it is here that De Soto fell ill with fever. He died shortly thereafter on May 21, 1542. To conceal his death from the Indians, his body was sunk in the Mississippi. Part of the Spanish mystique among the Indians, and one reason why the Spanish could win battles while being severely outnumbered at times, was because De Soto passed himself off as a god. Should he be seen dead, the Indians would know that none of this was true.

Before dying, De Soto put Luis de Moscoso in charge. Moscoso immediately decided to end the expedition and get back to Mexico. Because building boats to travel down the Mississippi would take too much time, and sailing across the Gulf of Mexico would be very risky, he felt that travel over land was the best way to go. The expedition headed back to Utiangue, then turned southwest and began zigzagging its way towards Dallas, Texas. However, it was southeast of Dallas that Moscoso realized that travel by land was a mistake, so the survivors retraced their steps all the way back to the Mississippi and made winter camp in Aminoya, an Indian village on the river southwest of Memphis. By this time roughly only 322 of the original 700 men were still alive.

In spring they began building seven boats to transport themselves down the river, and in July they were ready to depart. On the way they endured constant attacks from the Indians who lived along the river. They had melted down their large cannon to make nails and other parts for the boats and no longer had any effective way to halt the attacks. Only their armor could stop the barrage of Indian arrows that were hurled against them on a near daily basis.

It took them about two weeks to make it to the Gulf of Mexico, arriving on July 16, 1543. However, their journey was not over, for they had to sail along the entire Gulf shore from New Orleans all the way to Mexico, where they finally found a Spanish frontier colony on the Rio de Panuco River on September 10, 1543. More men died along the way, leaving 311 survivors from the expedition.

There are many reasons why Spain never made any further, serious attempts to colonize North America. The arrival of the French and English had a lot to do with it, but much can be pinned to the accounts of the survivors of De Soto’s expedition. No gold. Plenty of hostile Indians. In today’s terms, the men reported that the place “sucked.” As a result, La Florida and the Gulf coast remained the stronghold for Spanish colonization in North America.

Today the Tampa area honors De Soto with parades and by naming schools, parks, and counties after him, citing his contributions to Florida and the eventual colonization of North America. However, he never set foot in 95 percent of Florida, and he certainly had no influence on the English, who colonized the east coast along the Atlantic Ocean. Even to the Spanish at the time, his expedition was a complete failure. No gold was found. No colonies were established. No Indians were converted to Christianity (De Soto brought twelve priests with him). These were all things stipulated by King Charles when he agreed to allow De Soto the expedition. Of course De Soto had no intentions of doing anything but finding gold and stealing it from whoever had it. If anything, he is responsible for the bad European-Indian relations that would continue for hundreds of years, and the decimation of the Indian populations within twenty years of his expedition due to the diseases his men spread. His only contributions were that to geography and an extensive knowledge of the Indians and their culture.

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