Hernando de Soto in Florida (1539)
In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.
Historical Context
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish conquistador who had already earned fame and fortune by helping Francisco Pizarro conquer the Inca Empire of Peru in the early 1530s. Returning to Spain a wealthy man, he won appointment as Governor of Cuba and was authorized by King Charles I to conquer the North American mainland. De Soto assembled a large force of over 600 soldiers, horses, pigs, and war dogs in Cuba, drawing on veterans of earlier Caribbean and South American conquests who hoped to find another wealthy civilization — another Mexico or Peru — in the unexplored interior of North America.
Did You Know?
Hernando de Soto became the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River, reaching it in May 1541. He died of fever on its banks a year later in May 1542. To prevent nearby Native Americans from learning he was mortal, his men secretly weighted his body and lowered it into the river under cover of darkness.
What Happened
On May 30, 1539, de Soto's fleet of nine ships landed near present-day Tampa Bay, Florida. Among the first discoveries was Juan Ortiz, a Spaniard who had been living among the Tocobaga people for eleven years and became a crucial interpreter. From Tampa Bay, de Soto led his army north through Florida, into Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Alabama, seeking gold and silver. In October 1540, his army fought the bloody Battle of Mabila against the Choctaw chief Tascalusa, in which thousands died. In May 1541, the expedition crossed the Mississippi River — the first Europeans documented to do so — and pushed westward into present-day Arkansas.
Legacy
Hernando de Soto died of fever in May 1542 on the west bank of the Mississippi. His men sank his body secretly in the river, then built boats and floated down to the Gulf of Mexico, arriving in September 1542 with only about 300 of the original 600 survivors. Though de Soto found no gold or wealthy civilization, his four-year expedition mapped much of the American Southeast for the first time. It also began a catastrophic era of European-introduced disease among the region's Native peoples, with epidemics devastating populations from Florida to the Great Plains. De Soto is commemorated across the American South, and the 1539 landing remains a landmark in the European exploration of North America.