Discoverer; born in Xeres,
Estremadura, Spain, about 1496,( of a noble but impoverished family.
Davila, governor of
Darien, was his kin patron, through whose generosity he received a good education, and who too him to
Central America, where he engaged in exploring the coast of the
Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles in search of supposed strait connecting the two ocean When
Pizarro went to
Peru,
De Soto a companied him, and was his chief lieutenant in achieving the conquest of that country.
Brave and judicious, De Sot was the chief hero in the battle that resuited in the capture of
Cuzco, the capital
of the Incas, and the destruction of their empire.
Soon after that event he returned to
Spain with large wealth, and was received by King Charles V. with great consideration.
He married Isabella
Bobadilla, a scion of one of the most renowned of the
Castilian families, and his influence at Court was thereby strengthened.
Longing to rival
Cortez and
Pizarro in the brilliancy of his deeds, and believing
Florida to be richer in the precious metals than
Mexico or
Peru,
De Soto offered to conquer it at his own expense.
Permission was readily given him by his
King, who commissioned him governor of
Cuba, from which island he would set out on his conquering expedition.
Elegant in deportment, winning in all his ways, an expert horseman, rich and influential, and then thirty-seven years of age, hundreds of young men, the flower of the
Spanish and
Portuguese nobility, flocked to his standard, the wealthier ones dressed in suits of gorgeous armor and followed by trains of servants.
With these and his beautiful young wife and other noble
ladies De Soto sailed from
Spain early in April, 1538, with seven large and three small vessels, the
San Christoval, of 800 tons, being his flag-ship.
Amply supplied and full of joy in the anticipation of entering an earthly paradise, gayety and feasting, music and dancing prevailed on board the flag-ship during that sunny voyage, in which richly dressed ladies, with handsome pages to do their bidding, were conspicuous, especially on warm moonlit nights within the tropic of Cancer.
At near the close of May the fleet entered Cuban waters.
De Soto occupied a whole year preparing for the expedition, and at the middle of May, 1539, he sailed from
Cuba with nine vessels, bearing 1,000 followers, and cattle, horses, mules, and swine, the first of the latter seen on the
American continent.
He left public affairs in
Cuba in the hands of his wife and the
lieutenant-governor.
The voyage to
Florida was pleasant, and the armament landed on the shores of
Tampa Bay on May 25, near where
Narvaez had first anchored.
Instead of treating the natives kindly and winning their friendship,
De Soto unwisely sent armed men to capture some of them, in order to learn something about the country he was to conquer.
The savages, cruelly treated by
Narvaez, and fearing the same usage by
De Soto, were cautious.
They were also wily, expert with the bow, revengeful, and fiercely hostile.
With cavaliers clad in
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steel and riding 113 horses, with many footmen armed with arquebuses, crossbows, swords, shields, and lances, and a single cannon, and supplied with savage bloodhounds from
Cuba, and handcuffs, iron neck-collars, and chains for the captives,
De Soto began his march in June, 1539.
He was accompanied by mechanics, priests, inferior clergy, and monks in sacerdotal robes bearing images of the Virgin, holy relics, and sacramental bread and wine, wherewith to make Christians of the captured pagans.
At the very outset the expedition met with determined opposition from the dusky inhabitants, but
De Soto pressed forward towards the interior of the fancied land of gold.
He wintered east of the
Flint River, near
Tallahassee, on the borders of
Georgia, and in March, 1540, broke up his encampment and marched northward, having been told that gold would be found in that direction.
He reached the
Savannah River, at
Silver Bluff.
On the opposite side of the stream, in (present)
Barnwell county, lived an Indian queen, young, beautiful, and a maiden, who ruled over a large extent of country.
In a richly wrought canoe, filled with shawls and skins and other things for presents, the dusky cacica glided across the river, and with kind words welcomed the Spaniards and offered them her services.
Presents were exchanged.
A magnificent string of pearls was hung upon her neck.
This she drew over her head and hung it around the neck of
De Soto as a token of her regard.
Then she invited him and his followers to cross over to her village.
In canoes and on log-rafts they passed the stream, and, encamping in the shadows of mulberry-trees, they soon received a bountiful supply of venison and wild turkeys.
There they enjoyed the young queen's hospitality until May, and when they departed
De Soto requited the kindness of the royal maiden with foul treachery.
He carried her away a prisoner, and kept her near his person as a hostage for the good behavior of her people towards the Spaniards.
She finally escaped, and returned home a bitter enemy of the perfidious white people.
De Soto crossed the beautiful country of the Cherokees (see
Cherokee Indians), and penetrated the fertile Coosa region, where the Spaniards practised the most cruel treachery towards the friendly natives.
De Soto was rewarded in kind not long afterwards, and in a terrible battle with the Mobilians, on the site of
Mobile, the expedition was nearly ruined.
Turning northward with the remnant of his forces, he fought his way through the
Chickasaw country (
Chickasaw Indians), and reached the upper waters of The
Yazoo River late in December, where he wintered, in great distress.
Moving westward in the spring, he discovered the
Mississippi River, in all its grandeur, in May, 1541.
It was near the
Lower Chica-Saw Bluff, in
Tunica county, Miss.
Crossing the mighty stream,
De Soto went
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westward in his yet fruitless search for gold, and spent a year in the country towards the eastern slopes of the
Rocky Mountains.
Returning to the
Mississippi in May, 1542, he died of a fever on its banks on the 21st.
As he had declared to the Indians, who were sun-worshippers, that he was a son of the sun, and that Christians could not die, it was thought wise to conceal his death from the pagans.
He was secretly buried in the gateway of the
Spanish camp.
The
Indians knew he was sick.
He was not to be seen, and they saw a new-made grave.
They looked upon it and pondered.
Moscoso ordered the body to be taken up at the dead of night.
He was wrapped in mantles in which sand had been sewed up, taken in a boat to the middle of the great river, and there dropped to the bottom in 19 fathoms of water.
Herrera says it was sunk in a hollow live-oak log. When the
Indian chief asked
Moscoso for
De Soto, that leader replied, “He has ascended to heaven, but will return soon.”
Before his death
De Soto had conferred the leadership of the expedition upon
Moscoso, his lieutenant, who, with the wretched remnant of the expedition,
wandered another year in the region west of the
Mississippi; and returning to that river in May, 1543, they built rude vessels, and, with a number of beautiful
Alabama girls whom they had carried away captive after the battle at Maubila, they made their way to
Mexico, where the elegant Castilian ladies at the court of the viceroy were enraptured by the beauty of the dusky Mobilian girls.
The news of
De Soto's death cast a gloom over
Havana, and poor Doña Isabella, wife of the great leader, who had so long waited for his return, died of a broken heart.