Soto (1539)
Barrows, John. Abrégé de la collection des voyages ou Histoire des découvertes faites par les Européens dans les différentes parties du monde [...]. Paris: s.n., 1768.
On May 25, 1539, 620 Spanish soldiers and 223 horses landed in Florida in the vicinity of Tampa Bay; they were under the orders of Hernando de Soto. Born in 1500, the son of a landowner in Extremadura, Spain, Soto had taken part in the conquest of Peru in 1532 by the side of Francisco Pizarro. Subsequently appointed governor of Cuba and Florida, on that day in May 1539 Soto embarked on the conquest of Florida, a territory of unknown size and without boundaries.
Firmly resolved either to find treasure or to perish, Soto pushed ahead towards the interior of the continent, though changing direction at the least hint of treasure. Constantly waging war against the Indians of North America, his expedition thus passed through the following American states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. In 1542 Soto died of fever on the banks of the Mississippi, without having found any treasure but having lost over 200 men. One of the members of his expedition wrote afterwards: "We had no captain, no pilot, no compass and no map. We did not know how far away the sea was ... nor if the river followed a circuitous route ..." Finally, in September 1543, the survivors, who numbered only 311, managed to get back to Mexico, which was then Spanish territory.
The four original documents concerning Soto's venture all bring out his character: at once resourceful and fearless, but also cruel and merciless with the Indians of North America, which makes him a typical representative of a conquistador.
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