|
|
 |
 |
Hernando de Soto (~1500-1542)
Inspired by the promise of great wealth contained in Cabeza de Vaca's recent report, the expedition of Hernando de Soto was the best equipped that ever set out for conquest in the New World.
On May 30, 1539, De Soto's fleet of nine ships landed in Florida (at today's Tampa Bay) and began its three-year exploration of Florida and Georgia. Because ten years earlier the commander Narvaez de Panphilo had angered the Indians in the area, De Soto experienced native hostility and treated the Indians brutally.
In April 1541, De Soto's expedition attacked a fort surrounded by a stockade. 2,000 Indians died and almost all of the Spanish were either wounded or killed. They continued on through the interior until they reached the Mississippi River where Memphis is located today.
After crossing the river in boats, De Soto went northwest through Arkansas where he spent the winter. In the spring, he retraced his steps back to the Mississippi River. There, on June 20, 1542, De Soto caught a fever and died. Afraid that the Indians would dig up his corpse, De Soto's body was placed in a dug-out tree trunk and sunk in the Mississippi River. [more]
|
|
|
|
|
