Editing Hernando de Soto (section)

== De Soto's exploration of North America ==
[[File:DeSoto Map HRoe 2008.jpg|thumb|left|A proposed route for the De Soto Expedition, based on [[Charles M. Hudson (author)|Charles M. Hudson]] map of 1997.<ref name=HUDSONKNIGHTS>{{cite book|author-link=Charles M. Hudson (author)|last=Hudson|first=Charles M.|title=Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun|isbn=0820318884|year=1997|publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780820318882}}</ref>]]

=== Historiography ===
[[Historian]]s have worked to trace the route of de Soto's expedition in North America, a controversial process over the years.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://npshistory.com/publications/transportation/desoto-nht.pdf|title=De Soto Trail: National Historic Trail study: Final Report|publisher=National Park Service Southeast Regional Office|year=1990|pages=9, 28|oclc=22338956}}</ref> Local politicians vied to have their localities associated with the expedition. The most widely used version of "De Soto's Trail" comes from a study commissioned by the [[United States Congress]]. A committee chaired by the [[anthropologist]] [[John R. Swanton]] published ''The Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission'' in 1939. Among other locations, [[Manatee County, Florida]], claims an approximate landing site for de Soto and has a national memorial recognizing that event.<ref>[http://www.manateechamber.com/history.asp Manatee County History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421013518/http://www.manateechamber.com/history.asp |date=21 April 2008 }}, Manatee Florida Chamber of Commerce.</ref> In the early 21st century, the first part of the expedition's course, up to de Soto's battle at [[Mabila]] (a small fortress town in present-day central [[Alabama]]<ref>Sylvia Flowers, "DeSoto's Expedition", U.S. [[National Park Service]], 2007, webpage: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090513014635/http://www.nps.gov/archive/ocmu/DeSoto.htm  NPS-DeSoto].</ref>), is disputed only in minor details. His route beyond Mabila is contested. Swanton reported the de Soto trail ran from there through [[Mississippi]], [[Arkansas]], and [[Texas]].

Historians have more recently considered [[Archeology|archeological]] reconstructions and the [[oral tradition|oral history]] of the various [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] peoples who recount the expedition.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} Most historical places have been overbuilt and much evidence has been lost.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} More than 450 years have passed between the events and current history tellers, but some oral histories have been found to be accurate about historic events that have been otherwise documented.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

The Governor Martin Site at the former [[Apalachee]] village of [[Anhaica]], located about a mile east of the present-day Florida state capitol in [[Tallahassee, Florida|Tallahassee]], has been documented as definitively associated with de Soto's expedition. The Governor Martin Site was discovered by archaeologist [[B. Calvin Jones]] in March 1987. It has been preserved as the [[DeSoto Site Historic State Park]].

The Hutto/Martin Site, 8MR3447, in southeastern [[Marion County, Florida]], on the [[Ocklawaha River]], is the most likely site of the principal town of ''Acuera'' referred to in the accounts of the ''entrada'', as well as the site of the seventeenth-century mission of Santa Lucia de Acuera.<ref>{{cite book|type=dissertation|last=Boyer III|first=Willet A.|title=The Acuera of the Oklawaha River Valley: Keepers of Time in the Land of the Waters|year=2010|publisher=University of Florida|url=http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041966/boyer_w.pdf|access-date=7 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Boyer III|first1=Willet|title=The Hutto/Martin Site of Marion County, Florida, 8MR3447: Studies at an Early Contact/Mission Site|journal=The Florida Anthropologist |volume= 70|pages=122–139|date= 2017|issue=3 }} On-line as{{cite news|title=The Hutto/Martin Site of Marion County, Florida, 8MR3447: Studies at an Early Contact/Mission Site|url=https://www.academia.edu/35114403|access-date=7 December 2017|publisher=academia.edu|date=7 December 2017}}</ref>

As of 2016, the Richardson/UF Village site (8AL100) in [[Alachua County, Florida|Alachua County]], west of [[Orange Lake (Florida)|Orange Lake]], appears to have been accepted by archaeologists as the site of the town of Potano visited by the de Soto expedition. The 17th-century mission of [[San Buenaventura de Potano]] is believed to have been founded here.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boyer III |first1=Willet |title=Potano in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: New Excavations at the Richardson/UF Village Site, 8AL100 |publisher=The Florida Anthropologist 2015 68 (3–4)|date=2015}} On-line as{{cite news|title=Potano in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: New Excavations at the Richardson/UF Village Site, 8AL100|url=https://www.academia.edu/20665037|access-date=23 January 2016|publisher=academia.edu|date=23 January 2016}}</ref>

Many archaeologists believe the [[Parkin Archeological State Park]] in northeast [[Arkansas]] was the main town for the indigenous province of [[Casqui]], which de Soto had recorded. They base this on similarities between descriptions from the journals of the de Soto expedition and artifacts of European origin discovered at the site in the 1960s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/parkin_site.pdf |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20081003085722/http://uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/parkin_site.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 October 2008 |title=The Parkin Site: Hernando de Soto in Cross County, Arkansas |access-date=19 September 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1246| title = Parkin Archeological State Park-Encyclopedia of Arkansas| access-date = 19 September 2008}}</ref>

Theories of de Soto's route are based on the accounts of four chroniclers of the expedition.

* The first account of the expedition to be published was by the Gentleman of Elvas, an otherwise unidentified [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] knight who was a member of the expedition. His chronicle was first published in 1557. An English translation by [[Richard Hakluyt]] was published in 1609.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando de Soto into Florida Published at Evora in 1557 |url=https://archive.org/details/anarrativeofthee34997gut|publisher=Internet Archive|access-date=25 November 2013}}</ref>
* Luys Hernández de Biedma, the King's factor (the agent responsible for the royal property) with the expedition, wrote a report which still exists. The report was filed in the royal archives in Spain in 1544. The manuscript was translated into English by Buckingham Smith and published in 1851.<ref>{{cite book|last=Altman|first=Ida|title=The Hernando de Soto Expedition: History, Historiography, and "Discovery" in the Southeast|year=1997|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-7122-7|pages=3–4|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzGphaI83EUC&q=Luys+Hern%C3%A1ndez+de+Biedma&pg=PA3|editor=Patricia Kay Galloway|access-date=25 November 2013|chapter=An Official's Report: The Hernandez de Biedma Account}}</ref>
* De Soto's secretary, Rodrigo Ranjel, kept a diary, which has been lost. It was apparently used by [[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]] in writing his ''La historia general y natural de las Indias''. Oviedo died in 1557. The part of his work containing Ranjel's diary was not published until 1851. An English translation of Ranjel's report was first published in 1904.
* The fourth chronicle is by [[Inca Garcilaso de la Vega|Garcilaso de la Vega]], known as ''El Inca'' (the Inca). Garcilaso de la Vega did not participate in the expedition. He wrote his account, ''La Florida'', known in English as ''The Florida of the Inca'', decades after the expedition, based on interviews with some survivors of the expedition. The book was first published in 1605. Historians have identified problems with using ''La Florida'' as a historical account. [[Jerald T. Milanich|Milanich]] and [[Charles M. Hudson|Hudson]] warn against relying on Garcilaso, noting serious problems with the sequence and location of towns and events in his narrative. They say, "some historians regard Garcilaso's ''La Florida'' to be more a work of literature than a work of history."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Milanich|first1=Jerald T.|last2=Hudson|first2=Charles|title=Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida|year=1993|pages=6–8|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville|isbn=0-8130-1170-1}}</ref> Lankford characterizes Garcilaso's ''La Florida'' as a collection of "[[legend]] narratives", derived from a much-retold oral tradition of the survivors of the expedition.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lankford|first=George E.|title=The Expedition of Hernando de Soto West of the Mississippi 1541–1543|year=1993|page=175|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|location=Fayetteville|isbn=1-55728-580-2|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIt0uRRwPPMC&q=reliability+Garcilaso&pg=PA160|editor=Young, Gloria A |editor2=Michael P. Hoffman|access-date=16 November 2013|chapter=Legends of the Adelantado}}</ref>

Milanich and Hudson warn that older translations of the chronicles are often "relatively free translations in which the translators took considerable liberty with the Spanish and Portuguese text."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Milanich|first1=Jerald T.|last2=Hudson|first2=Charles|title=Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida|year=1993|pages=8–9|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville|isbn=0-8130-1170-1}}</ref>

The chronicles describe de Soto's trail in relation to [[Havana]], from which they sailed; the [[Gulf of Mexico]], which they skirted while traveling inland then turned back to later; the [[Atlantic Ocean]], which they approached during their second year; high mountains, which they traversed immediately thereafter; and dozens of other geographic features along their way, such as large rivers and swamps, at recorded intervals. Given that the natural geography has not changed much since de Soto's time, scholars have analyzed those journals with modern [[Topography|topographic intelligence]], to develop a more precise account of the De Soto Trail.<ref name=HUDSONKNIGHTS /><ref name=HUDSONFORGOTTEN>{{Cite book|title=The Forgotten Centuries-Indians and Europeans in the American South 1521 to 1704|editor1-last=Charles|editor1-first=Hudson|editor1-link=Charles M. Hudson (author)|editor2-last= Chaves|editor2-first=Tesser Carmen|year=1994|publisher=University of Georgia Press}}</ref>

=== 1539: Florida ===
[[File:DeSoto-Hernando-1791.jpeg|thumb|[[Library of Congress]]' engraving.<br />The Spanish caption reads:<br />"HERNANDO DE SOTO: Extremaduran, one of the discoverers and conquerors of Peru: he travelled across all of Florida and defeated its previously invincible natives, he died on his expedition in the year 1542 at the age of 42".]]

In May 1539, de Soto landed nine ships with over 620 men and 220 horses in an area generally identified as south [[Tampa Bay]]. Historian Robert S. Weddle has suggested that he landed at either [[Charlotte Harbor (estuary)|Charlotte Harbor]] or [[Charlotte Harbor (estuary)|San Carlos Bay]].<ref name="Weddle">{{cite book|author1=Robert S. Weddle|editor1-last=Galloway|editor1-first=Patricia Kay|title=The Hernando de Soto Expedition: History, Historiography, and "Discovery" in the Southeast|date=2006|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-7122-7|page=223|edition=New|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzGphaI83EUC&q=cHARLOTTE&pg=PA223|access-date=17 February 2017|chapter=Soto's Problems of Orientation}}</ref> He named the land as ''Espíritu Santo'', after the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]]. The ships carried priests, craftsmen, engineers, farmers, and merchants; some with their families, some from Cuba, most from Europe and Africa. Few of the men had traveled before outside of Spain, or even away from their home villages.

Near de Soto's port, the party found [[Juan Ortiz (captive)|Juan Ortiz]], a [[Spanish people|Spaniard]] living with the Mocoso people. Ortiz had been captured by the [[Uzita (Florida)|Uzita]] while searching for the lost [[Narváez expedition]]; he later escaped to [[Mocoso]]. Ortiz had learned the [[Timucua language]] and served as an interpreter to de Soto as he traversed the Timucuan-speaking areas on his way to [[Apalachee]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hann|first=John H.|title=Indians of Central and South Florida: 1513–1763|year=2003|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville|isbn=0-8130-2645-8|page=6}}<br />{{cite book|last=Milanich|first=Jerald T.|title=Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast Vol. 14|year=2004|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|page=213|editor=R. D. Fogelson|chapter=Early Groups of Central and South Florida}}<br />{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060507155726/http://www.floridahistory.com/inset444.html DeSoto's Florida Trails]}} – retrieved 5 September 2008</ref>

Ortiz developed a method for guiding the expedition and communicating with the various tribes, who spoke many dialects and languages. He recruited guides from each tribe along the route. A chain of communication was established whereby a guide who had lived in close proximity to another tribal area was able to pass his information and language on to a guide from a neighboring area. Because Ortiz refused to dress as a [[Hidalgo (nobility)|''hidalgo'']] Spaniard, other officers questioned his motives. De Soto remained loyal to Ortiz, allowing him the freedom to dress and live among his native friends. Another important guide was the seventeen-year-old boy ''Perico'', or Pedro, from what is now [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. He spoke several of the local tribes' languages and could communicate with Ortiz. Perico was taken as a guide in 1540. The Spanish had also captured other Indians, whom they used as [[slave]] labor.{{clarify|reason=this is the first time "slavery" has been mentioned. Not a trivial topic.|date=December 2013}} Perico was treated better due to his value to the Spaniards.

The expedition traveled north, exploring Florida's West Coast, and encountering native ambushes and conflicts along the way. Hernando de Soto's army seized the food stored in the villages, captured women to be used as slaves for the soldiers' sexual gratification, and forced men and boys to serve as guides and bearers. The army fought two battles with Timucua groups, resulting in heavy Timucua casualties. After defeating the resisting [[Timucuan]] warriors, Hernando de Soto had 200 executed, in what was to be called the Napituca Massacre, the first large-scale massacre by Europeans in the current United States.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sloan |first1=David |last2=Duncan |first2=David Ewing |date=1996 |title=Hernando de Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40030985 |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=327 |doi=10.2307/40030985 |jstor=40030985 |issn=0004-1823}}</ref> One of Soto's most important battles with the natives, along his conquest of Florida, was a 1539 battle with Chief Vitachuco. Unlike other native chiefs who entered into peace with the Spanish, Vitachuco did not trust them and had secretly plotted to kill Soto and his army, but he was betrayed by interpreters who told Soto the plan. So, Soto struck first and, in the process, killed thousands of natives. Those that survived were surrounded and cornered by woods and water. Thousands were killed during the 3 hours battle and 900 survivors took refuge in the pond, specifically Two-mile Pond in Melrose, where they continued to fight, while swimming.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Florida of the Inca {{!}} Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) |url=https://eada.lib.umd.edu/text-entries/florida-of-the-inca/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=eada.lib.umd.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Noszky |first1=H. von |title=An Indian Battlefield Near Melrose |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |date=1909 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=47-48 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1419&context=fhq |access-date=31 October 2024}}</ref> Most eventually surrendered, but after 30 hours in the water, 7 men remained and had to be dragged out of the water by the Spanish. De Soto's first winter encampment was at ''[[Anhaica]]'', the capital of the [[Apalachee]] people. It is one of the few places on the route where archaeologists have found physical traces of the expedition. The chroniclers described this settlement as being near the [[Narváez expedition#Apalachee|"Bay of Horses"]]. The bay was named for events of the 1527 [[Narváez expedition]], the members of which, dying of starvation, killed and ate their horses while building boats for escape by the Gulf of Mexico.

=== 1540: The Southeast ===
From their winter location in the western panhandle of Florida, having heard of gold being mined "toward the sun's rising", the expedition turned northeast through what is now the modern state of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seibert |first1=David |title=De Soto in Georgia |url=http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/baldwin/desoto-in-georgia |website=GeorgiaInfo: an Online Georgia Almanac |publisher=Digital Library of Georgia |access-date=4 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Seibert |first1=David |title=De Soto in Georgia |url=http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/bibb/desoto-in-georgia1 |website=GeorgiaInfo: an Online Georgia Almanac |publisher=Digital Library of Georgia |access-date=7 November 2016}}</ref> Based on archaeological finds made in 2009 at a remote, privately owned site near the [[Ocmulgee River]], researchers believe that de Soto's expedition stopped in [[Telfair County, Georgia|Telfair County]]. Artifacts found here include nine glass [[trade beads]], some of which bear a [[Chevron bead|chevron pattern]] made in [[Venice]] for a limited period of time and believed to be indicative of the de Soto expedition. Six metal objects were also found, including a silver pendant and some iron tools. The rarest items were found within what researchers believe was a large council house of the indigenous people whom de Soto was visiting.<ref>{{cite web |title=Archaeologists Track Infamous Conquistador Through Southeast |work=Science Daily |publisher=ScienceDaily LLC |date=5 November 2009 |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105084838.htm |access-date=14 November 2010 |author=Fernbank Museum of Natural History |author-link=Fernbank Museum of Natural History}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ajc.com/news/fernbank-archaeologist-confident-he-189165.html |last=Pousner |first=Howard |title=Fernbank archaeologist confident he has found de Soto site |work=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]] |date=6 November 2009 |access-date=14 November 2010}}</ref>

The expedition continued to present-day [[South Carolina]]. There the expedition recorded being received by a female chief (''[[The Lady of Cofitachequi]]''), who gave her tribe's pearls, food and other goods to the Spanish soldiers. The expedition found no gold, however, other than pieces from an earlier coastal expedition (presumably that of [[Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón]].)

[[File:De Soto burns Mabila HRoe 2008.jpg|thumb|left|De Soto's men burn [[Mabila]], illustration by [[Herb Roe]]]]
De Soto headed north into the [[Appalachian Mountains]] of present-day western [[North Carolina]], where he spent a month resting the horses while his men searched for gold. De Soto next entered eastern [[Tennessee]]. At this point, de Soto either continued along the [[Tennessee River]] to enter [[Alabama]] from the north (according to [[John R. Swanton]]), or turned south and entered northern [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] (according to [[Charles M. Hudson]]). Swanton's final report, published by the Smithsonian, remains an important resource<ref>''Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission''. John R. Swanton with an Introduction by Jeffrey P. Brain. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1985.</ref> but Hudson's reconstruction of the route was conducted 40 years later and benefited from considerable advances in archaeological methods.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blanton |first=DB |title=Conquistador's wake : tracking the legacy of Hernando de Soto in the indigenous Southeast |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-8203-5635-8 |pages=107–108}}</ref>

De Soto's expedition spent another month in the [[Coosa chiefdom]] a vassal to [[Tuskaloosa]], who was the [[paramount chief]],{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} believed to have been connected to the large and complex [[Mississippian culture]], which extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. De Soto turned south toward the [[Gulf of Mexico]] to meet two ships bearing fresh supplies from [[Havana]]. De Soto demanded women and servants, and when Tuskaloosa refused, the European explorers took him hostage.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heritage History – Products |url=https://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=resources&s=char-dir&f=tuscaloosa |access-date=6 March 2022 |website=www.heritage-history.com}}</ref> The expedition began making plans to leave the next day, and Tuskaloosa gave in to de Soto's demands, providing bearers for the Spaniards. He informed de Soto that they would have to go to his town of ''[[Mabila]]'' (or ''Mauvila''), a fortified city in southern Alabama,<ref name="maubilianind">"The Old Mobile Project Newsletter" (PDF). ''University of South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies''.</ref> to receive the women. De Soto gave the chief a pair of boots and a red cloak to reward him for his cooperation.<ref>[[Charles M. Hudson (author)|Hudson, Charles M.]] (1997). ''Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun''. [[University of Georgia Press]]. pp. 230–232.</ref> The [[Mabila|Mobilian]] tribe, under chief Tuskaloosa, ambushed de Soto's army.<ref name="maubilianind" /> Other sources suggest de Soto's men were attacked after attempting to force their way into a cabin occupied by Tuskaloosa.<ref name="mobilenew">{{Cite book | last =Higginbotham | first =Jay | year =2001 | title =Mobile, The New History of Alabama's First City | location =Tuscaloosa | publisher =The University of Alabama Press | page =10  | isbn =0-8173-1065-7 }}</ref> The Spaniards fought their way out, and retaliated by burning the town to the ground. During the nine-hour encounter, about 200 Spaniards died, and 150 more were badly wounded, according to the chronicler Elvas.<ref name="chronicles">{{Cite book | last1 =Clayton | first1 =Lawrence A. | last2 =Knight | first2 =Vernon J. |last3 =Moore | first3 = Edward C. | year =1993 | title =[[The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando De Soto to North America in 1539–1543]] | location =Tuscaloosa, Alabama | publisher =[[The University of Alabama Press]] }}</ref> Twenty more died during the next few weeks. They killed an estimated 2,000–6,000 Native Americans at Mabila, making the battle one of the bloodiest in recorded North American history.<ref name="Horwitz2009">{{cite book |author=Tony Horwitz |title=A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VrF9_VNnGIAC |access-date=3 March 2012 |date= 2009 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-42832-7 |page=239}}</ref>

The Spaniards won a [[Pyrrhic victory]], as they had lost most of their possessions and nearly one-quarter of their horses. The Spaniards were wounded and sickened, surrounded by enemies and without equipment in an unknown territory.<ref name="mobilenew" /> Fearing that word of this would reach Spain if his men reached the ships at [[Mobile Bay]], de Soto led them away from the Gulf Coast. He moved into inland [[Mississippi]], most likely near present-day [[Tupelo, Mississippi|Tupelo]], where they spent the winter.

=== 1541: Westward ===
[[File:Discovery of the Mississippi.jpg|thumb|''Discovery of the Mississippi'' by [[William H. Powell]] (1823–1879) is a [[Romanticism|Romantic]] depiction of de Soto seeing the Mississippi River for the first time. It hangs in the [[United States Capitol rotunda]].]]
{{main||Casqui|Pacaha|Tunica people}}
In the spring of 1541, de Soto demanded 200 men as porters from the [[Chickasaw]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Quackenbos|first=George Payn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLVFAAAAIAAJ&q=spring+of+1541%2C+de+Soto+demanded+200+men&pg=PA57|title=Illustrated School History of the United States and the Adjacent Parts of America: From the Earliest Discoveries to the Present Time ...|date=1864|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|language=en}}</ref> They refused his demand and attacked the Spanish camp during the night.

On 8 May 1541, de Soto's troops reached the [[Mississippi River]].<ref name=Morison1974>{{cite book| last = Morison| first = Samuel| title = The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, 1492–1616| url = https://archive.org/details/europeandiscover00mori_2| url-access = registration| publisher = Oxford University Press| year = 1974| location = New York }}</ref>

De Soto had little interest in the river, which in his view was an obstacle to his mission. There has been considerable research into the exact location where de Soto crossed the Mississippi River. A commission appointed by [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1935 determined that [[Sunflower Landing, Mississippi]], was the "most likely" crossing place. De Soto possibly traveled down [[Charley's Trace]], which had been used as a trail through the swamps of the [[Mississippi Delta]], to reach the Mississippi River.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Ian W. |editor1-last=Rafferty |editor1-first=Janet |editor2-last=Peacock |editor2-first=Evan |title=Time's River: Archaeological Syntheses from the Lower Mississippi Valley |date=2008 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=978-0-8173-8112-7 |page=378 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dgdMCbaAQAC |chapter=Chapter 16. Culture Contact Along the I-69 Corridor: Protohistoric and Historic Use of the Northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi}}</ref> De Soto and his men spent a month building flatboats, and crossed the river at night to avoid the Native Americans who were patrolling the river. De Soto had hostile relations with the native people in this area.<ref>{{cite book | last = Flowers | first = Judith Coleman | title = Clarksdale and Coahoma County | publisher = Arcadia | year = 2016 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BYD8CwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 | isbn = 978-1439655030 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Marley | first = David | title = Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present | publisher = ABC-CLIO | year = 1998 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rdvp3cGJUZoC&pg=PP1 | page = 45| isbn = 978-0874368376 }}</ref>
[[File:Historia de Puerto Rico (IA historiadepuerto00mill) (page 131 crop b).jpg|thumb|left|Illustration of an indigenous man at the banks of the river with de Soto and others]]
In the late 20th century, research suggests other locations may have been the site of de Soto's crossing, including three locations in Mississippi: [[Commerce, Mississippi|Commerce]], [[Friars Point, Mississippi|Friars Point]], and [[Walls, Mississippi|Walls]], as well as [[Memphis, Tennessee]].<ref>{{cite book | last1 = McNutt | first1 = Charles H. | year = 1996 | editor1-last = McNutt | editor1-first = Charles H. | title = The Central Mississippi Valley: A Summary | work = Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CIJoOR6ndgMC&pg=PP1 | publisher = University of Alabama Press | page = 251| isbn = 978-0817308070 }}</ref> Once across the river, the expedition continued traveling westward through modern-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They wintered in ''Autiamique'', on the [[Arkansas River]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foti |first=Tom |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED134441.pdf |title=Arkansas: Its Land and People |publisher=Environmental Education Office, Arkansas State Dept. of Education |year=1975 |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=21–22 |language=English}}</ref>

After a harsh winter, the Spanish expedition decamped and moved on more erratically. Their interpreter Juan Ortiz had died, making it more difficult for them to get directions and food sources, and generally to communicate with the Natives. The expedition went as far inland as the [[Caddo River]], where they clashed with a Native American tribe called the [[Tula people|Tula]] in October 1541.<ref>Charles Hudson (1997). pp. 320–325.</ref> The Spaniards characterized them as the most skilled and dangerous warriors they had encountered.<ref name=c21>Carter, Cecile Elkins. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eYtJfJ9yDEQC&q=Spiro&pg=PA17 ''Caddo Indians: Where We Come From''.] Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001: 21. {{ISBN|0-8061-3318-X}}</ref> This may have happened in the area of present-day [[Caddo Gap, Arkansas]] (a monument to the de Soto expedition was erected in that community). Eventually, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi River.

=== Death ===
[[File:Burial of de Soto - engraving.jpg|thumb|right|Burial of de Soto]]
De Soto died of a fever on 21 May 1542, in the native village of ''[[Guachoya]].'' Historical sources disagree as to whether de Soto died near present-day [[Lake Village, Arkansas]]<ref name=":0" /> [[McArthur, Arkansas]], or [[Ferriday, Louisiana]].<ref name="Hudson_Death-of-de-Soto:349-52">[[Charles M. Hudson (author)|Charles Hudson]] (1997). [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780820318882/page/349 pp. 349–352 "Death of de Soto"].</ref> Louisiana erected a historical marker at the conjectured site<ref>{{Cite web |last3=LA |date=2009-07-27 |title=Hernando de Soto |url=https://www.stoppingpoints.com/louisiana/Concordia/Hernando+de+Soto.html |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=Stopping Points Historical Markers & Points of Interest}}</ref> on the western bank of the Mississippi River.<ref>{{cite web |author=Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism |title=Hernando de Soto Historical Marker |url=http://www.stoppingpoints.com/louisiana/Concordia/Hernando+de+Soto.html |access-date=9 August 2009}}</ref>

Before his death, de Soto chose [[Luis de Moscoso Alvarado]], his former [[mestre de camp|maestro de campo]] (or field commander), to assume command of the expedition.<ref name="TexBook">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Handbook of Texas Online |url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmo71 |title=Moscoso Alvarado, Luis de |author=Robert S. Weddle |access-date=22 November 2007}}</ref> At the time of death, de Soto owned four Indian slaves, three horses, and 700 hogs.<ref>Davidson, James West. ''After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection'' Volume 1. McGraw Hill, New York 2010, Chapter 1, p. 3</ref>

De Soto had deceived the local natives into believing that he was a deity, specifically an "immortal [[solar deity|Son of the Sun]]",<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Mitchem |first=Jeffrey M. |date=2023-11-01 |title=Hernando de Soto (1500?–1542) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/hernando-de-soto-1770/ |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref> to gain their submission without conflict. Some of the natives had already become skeptical of de Soto's deity claims, so his men were anxious to conceal his death. The actual site of his burial is not known. According to one source, de Soto's men hid his corpse in blankets weighted with sand and sank it in the middle of the Mississippi River during the night.<ref name="Hudson_Death-of-de-Soto:349-52" />

=== Return of the expedition to Mexico City ===
{{main|Quigualtam}}
De Soto's expedition had explored ''La Florida'' for three years without finding the expected treasures or a hospitable site for colonization. They had lost nearly half their men, and most of the horses. By this time, the soldiers were wearing animal skins for clothing. Many were injured and in poor health. The leaders came to a consensus (although not total) to end the expedition and try to find a way home, either down the Mississippi River, or overland across [[Texas]] to the Spanish colony of [[Mexico City]].

They decided that building boats would be too difficult and time-consuming and that navigating the Gulf of Mexico was too risky, so they headed overland to the southwest. Eventually, they reached a region in present-day Texas that was dry. The native populations were made up mostly of subsistence hunter-gatherers. The soldiers found no villages to raid for food, and the army was still too large to live off the land. They were forced to backtrack to the more developed agricultural regions along the Mississippi, where they began building seven ''bergantines'', or [[Pinnace (ship's boat)|pinnaces]].<ref name="TexBook" /> They melted down all the iron, including horse tackle and slave shackles, to make nails for the boats. They survived through the winter, and the spring floods delayed them another two months. By July they set off on their makeshift boats down the Mississippi for the coast.

Taking about two weeks to make the journey, the expedition encountered hostile fleets of war canoes along the whole course. The first was led by the powerful paramount chief ''[[Quigualtam]]'', whose fleet followed the boats, shooting arrows at the soldiers for days as they drifted through their territory. The Spanish had no effective offensive weapons on the water, as their [[crossbow]]s had long since ceased working. They relied on armor and sleeping mats to block the arrows. About 11 Spaniards were killed along this stretch and many more wounded.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

On reaching the mouth of the Mississippi, they stayed close to the Gulf shore heading south and west. After about 50 days, they made it to the [[Pánuco River]] and the Spanish frontier town of [[Pánuco, Veracruz|Pánuco]]. There they rested for about a month. During this time many of the Spaniards, having safely returned and reflecting on their accomplishments, decided they had left ''La Florida'' too soon. There were some fights within the company, leading to some deaths. But, after they reached Mexico City and the Viceroy [[Antonio de Mendoza|Don Antonio de Mendoza]] offered to lead another expedition to ''La Florida'', few of the survivors volunteered. Of the recorded 700 participants at the start, between 300 and 350 survived (311 is a commonly accepted figure). Most of the men stayed in the New World, settling in Mexico, Peru, Cuba, and other Spanish colonies.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}