Hernando de Soto

Spanish conquistador

• Born: c. 1496
• Birthplace: Jérez de los Caballeros?, Spain
• Died: May 21, 1542
• Place of death: Along the Mississippi River (now near Ferriday, Louisiana)

After playing a prominent role in the conquest of Nicaragua and Peru, de Soto led the 1539-1542 expedition that explored what became the southeastern United States. He also was the first European discoverer of the Mississippi River.

Early Life

Hernando de Soto (ehr-NAHN-doh day SOH-toh) was the second son of Francisco Méndez de Soto and Leonor Arias Tinoco (the proper family name is Soto but the English-speaking world calls him de Soto). The family was lower nobility, and Hernando received some education, although he was always by temperament a soldier and adventurer.

De Soto could expect to inherit little from his father’s small estate and thus sailed to Central America in 1513-1514 with Don Pedro Arias Dávila (called Pedrarias), the new governor of Panama. Pedrarias allowed his followers to ravage Central America as long as they respected his authority. In these lawless conditions, de Soto flourished. Above average in height, bearded, and darkly handsome, he was vigorous, brave, and aggressive, always in the vanguard. His spoils in land and Central American Indian workers made him wealthy.

By 1517, de Soto was a captain. He soon formed a partnership with Hernán Ponce de León and Francisco Campañón to share equally in the booty that fortune might bring them. They helped conquer Nicaragua in 1524. Campañón died in 1527, but de Soto and Ponce de León stayed on in Nicaragua. De Soto served a year as magistrate of León, although temperamentally unsuited to administration. He also became ambitious for his own governorship, but Pedrarias blocked those aspirations in Nicaragua.

Life’s Work

In 1530, de Soto agreed to join forces with Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. When he met Pizarro at Puná Island in late 1531, de Soto had two ships, one hundred men, and some horses. He expected to be Pizarro’s second in command and to receive an independent governorship. Pizarro gave de Soto charge of the vanguard. On a scouting foray inland to Cajas, de Soto seized several hundred Indian women and turned them over to his men. The Spaniards also learned at Cajas that the Inca Empire had been torn apart by a great civil war and that Atahualpa, leader of the victorious faction, was encamped with his army at Cajamarca not too far away.

When the Spaniards arrived at Cajamarca, Pizarro sent de Soto with a small detachment to greet Atahualpa. A great horseman, de Soto tried unsuccessfully to frighten the emperor, who had never seen a horse before, by riding right up to him: Atahualpa accepted Pizarro’s invitation to visit the Spaniards in Cajamarca the next day. Once he was inside the city walls, they took him captive. While a hostage, Atahualpa became close to de Soto and gave him valuable gifts. De Soto was on a scouting expedition when Pizarro executed Atahualpa. On his return, de Soto criticized the execution, arguing that Atahualpa should have been sent to Spain as a prisoner rather than killed. Always punctilious about keeping bargains, de Soto was also upset that Pizarro had killed the emperor after Atahualpa had filled rooms with gold and silver, as his agreed-on ransom.

On the march from Cajamarca to the Inca capital, Cuzco, during the second half of 1533, de Soto again led the vanguard. As they neared Cuzco, he disregarded orders and rushed ahead with his small force to claim credit for occupying the city. The Indians ambushed his party at Vilcaconga, however, and only the timely arrival of reinforcements saved him. Pizarro appointed de Soto lieutenant governor of Cuzco in 1534 but replaced him by that year’s end. Convinced that Pizarro would never give him an independent command in Peru, de Soto headed for Spain. He left behind Leonor Curuilloi, an Inca princess and his mistress, and their daughter Leonor. Ponce de León came from Nicaragua to manage de Soto’s property.

In Spain by 1536, de Soto had 100,000 pesos with him, a reputation as a great conqueror and explorer, and a hunger to lead a new expedition. He petitioned the king. On April 20, 1537, Charles V made him governor and captain general of Cuba and Florida and gave him authority to explore and conquer the New Land at his own expense. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, a survivor of the disastrous Panfilo de Narváez expedition to Florida, had come to Spain with tales of great riches in the New Land. De Soto tried but failed to persuade him to join the expedition. Hundreds of young adventurers rushed to enlist, however, assuming that Florida would make them rich and famous. His wife, Doña Isabel de Bobadilla (Pedrarias’s daughter, whom he had married in 1536), and about seven hundred carefully chosen soldiers of fortune sailed with him to Cuba in 1538.

De Soto spent a year in Cuba to train his men and gather provisions. The expedition departed for Florida in May, 1539, with de Soto’s wife remaining behind to govern Cuba. It landed at Espiritu Santo (Tampa) Bay on May 30. At the outset, de Soto discovered Juan Ortiz, a survivor of the Narváez expedition who had lived with the Indians for twelve years. Ortiz became de Soto’s interpreter.

De Soto had made his fortune in Central America and Peru by plundering the Indians. He intended to do the same in Florida. When the expedition came to an Indian settlement, de Soto took the chief hostage so that the Indians would serve the Spaniards while they ravaged the village. When the expedition was ready to move on, de Soto forced the hostage chieftain to provide porters (he took neck irons and chains to Florida with this aim in mind). De Soto released the porters and chief at the next village, where new hostages where seized. Those who resisted were mutilated, burned alive, or thrown to the dogs.

The Spaniards wandered through what later became Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. De Soto knew nothing of the land, nor did he have a destination in mind. He simply assumed that the Indians of the New Land would have riches to plunder. The expedition proceeded north from Tampa Bay and soon exhausted its supplies. From then on, the explorers lived off the land and Indian agriculture, plus a herd of swine that de Soto had brought in the fleet. Turning west, they reached the rich agricultural lands of the Apalachees in the Florida panhandle and stayed from October to March, 1540.

Then they marched northeast toward Cofitachequi, on the Savannah River near what became Augusta, Georgia. Their porters had died during the winter, and the Apalachees had run away before they could be enslaved. Thus, the Spaniards had to carry their own food and equipment. At Cofitachequi, they found large quantities of freshwater pearls, and de Soto himself obtained a chestful after plundering the village and burial grounds. Taking the queen hostage and thus provided with porters, de Soto headed northwest through Cherokee land in the Carolina piedmont and then turned west toward the Tennessee River. The Spanish learned about tribes rich in gold somewhere farther on but could never find them. De Soto cared nothing about mining; only plunder interested him.

In July, 1540, de Soto marched south, having learned of a rich people called Coosa (Creek territory). They were moving through Alabama, toward Mobile Bay. Disappointed by Coosa, they continued southwest and came to the Mabilas (Choctaws). At Mabila, the Indians revolted, killed twenty-two Spaniards, and burned much of the equipment, including de Soto’s pearls. By then, more than one hundred of the men who had started with de Soto at Tampa Bay were dead. Although not too far north of Mobile Bay, de Soto refused to push on to the coast, fearful that his men would desert. Instead, he turned north again and occupied a Chickasaw village for winter quarters. After enduring the Spaniards for several months, the Chickasaws revolted on March 4, 1541. They set fire to the village and killed a dozen Spaniards, fifty horses, and many of the pigs. The Spanish escaped annihilation only because a sudden storm prevented the Indians from immediately renewing their attack.

Pushing westward, de Soto discovered the Rio Grande (Mississippi) on May 8, 1541, built barges, and crossed the mighty river on June 18 a little above its junction with the Arkansas. The Spaniards wandered for two months through central Arkansas. De Soto sent a scouting party to the Ozarks after rumors of gold there. They spent the severe winter of 1541-1542 at Utiangue in south-central Arkansas.

Battered and discouraged, the expedition left Utiangue on March 6, 1542, and followed the Ouachita River south through Louisiana to the Mississippi. De Soto fell ill with a fever. Realizing that his end was near, he named Luis de Moscoso, another veteran of Peru, to succeed him. The explorer died on May 21, 1542, to the relief of those who wanted to abandon the quest. His men sank his body in the Mississippi to hide it from the Indians.

The men decided to march overland to Mexico and traveled several hundred miles into Texas. After four months and no sign of Mexico, they turned back. They spent their last winter near the Mississippi at Aminoya (northwest of Natchez). In the spring of 1543, they built barges, and floating down the river to the Gulf of Mexico in July, they then sailed west. Clad in rags and animal skins when they arrived in Mexico in September, 1543, about one-third survived of those who had started at Tampa Bay.

Significance

De Soto evokes conflicting impressions. On one hand, he was certainly one of the bravest Spaniards of his time. He was gallant and courageous, the epitome of the explorer and conquistador. On any expedition, he was always in the vanguard; in any battle, he was in the front ranks. He amassed a huge fortune in Nicaragua and Peru, and he failed to do so in North America only because there were no rich Indian cities to plunder. Yet adventure, danger, and the unknown seemed to attract him more than riches. His expedition was extremely well organized. He recruited not only soldiers but also artisans, who could build boats and bridges. He raised a herd of pigs on the march so that the expedition would have meat later. Despite rugged terrain and many attacks from Indians, he held the expedition together.

On the other hand, de Soto was a plunderer, not a builder. His expedition made no effort to settle or colonize; nor did it even attempt to exploit the natural resources of the region. De Soto had learned too well the lessons under Pedrarias, and the experiences in Peru reinforced them. Perhaps he took less delight in butchery than some Spaniards, but he was ready to torture and kill in his quest for the riches of Florida. Indians’ lives were worth little to him. Although he considered Christianization of the Indians one of his expedition’s responsibilities, he did little to achieve it. Moreover, he was too stubborn and proud to end the foray despite its obvious failure to find the booty for which the Spaniards hunted.

The Spanish atrocities should not, however, obscure the achievements of the expedition. It was the first major European exploration of the North American interior and left valuable information about the North American Indians and the geography of the region. De Soto and his men left a legacy of courage, ambition, and perseverance rarely equaled as they opened the region to European expansion. The great river they discovered eventually proved to be a natural treasure more valuable than the booty de Soto sought.

Bibliography

Bourne, Edward Gaylord, ed. Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto. Translated by Buckingham Smith. 2 vols. New York: Allerton, 1904. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1973. Contains English translations of the three most important chronicles of de Soto’s expedition by Luis Hernández de Biedma, factor of the expedition, Rodrigo Ranjel, de Soto’s secretary, and an unidentified Portuguese man from Elva.

Ewen, Charles R., and John H. Hann. Hernando de Soto Among the Apalachee: The Archaeology of the First Winter Encampment. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998. Narrative of the discovery, excavation, and interpretation of the only known de Soto camp site. Provides historical background, detailed description of the site and what was learned from it, and new translations of the portions of the sixteenth century travel narratives relating to this camp. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Galloway, Patricia, ed. The Hernando de Soto Expedition: History, Historiography, and “Discovery” in the Southeast. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. Anthology of essays that seeks to expand traditional studies of de Soto’s expedition to discuss its broad cultural implications, as well as focus on specific details such as the daily routine and health of its members. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Hemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970. An excellent, well-written account of the conquest of Peru, with information about de Soto’s role in it.

Hudson, Charles. Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South’s Ancient Chiefdoms. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997. Study of the disastrous impact of de Soto’s expedition on the Native American civilizations he encountered. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Maynard, Theodore. De Soto and the Conquistadores. New York: Longmans, Green, 1930. The best biography of de Soto, although marred by some inaccuracies and omissions.

Ober, Frederick A. Ferdinand de Soto and the Invasion of Florida. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1906. Based extensively on Garcilaso’s narrative and aimed primarily at younger readers.

Sauer, Carl Ortwin. Sixteenth Century North America: The Land and the People as Seen by the Europeans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. Contains a chapter on de Soto’s expedition by the leading historical geographer of sixteenth century North America. Critical of de Soto’s motives and behavior.

Sola y Taboada, Antonio del, and José de Rújula y de Ochotorena. El Adelantado Hernando de Soto: Breves noticias, nuevos documentos para su biografía. Badajoz, Spain: Ediciones Arqueros, 1929. Particularly important for its documentary appendices, that include the agreement between de Soto and Ponce de León, de Soto’s capitulation for the conquest of Florida, the information about his background that he submitted to enter the Order of St. James, his will, and an inventory of his property.

United States de Soto Expedition Commission. Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1939. A scholarly, definitive study of the route followed by the de Soto expedition.

Vega, Garcilaso de la. The Florida of the Inca. Translated and edited by John Grier Varner and Jeannette Johnson Varner. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1951. The most famous of the four early chronicles of de Soto’s expedition. Unlike the others, it was not written by an eyewitness and is thus more problematical.