de Soto, Hernando

de Soto, Hernando also Fernando (1496–1542) a Spanish conquistador who, with Francisco Pizarro, conquered Central America and Peru. He was the first European to see the Mississippi River. At eighteen, de Soto's eagerness and skill as a horseman earned him a place on the 1514 expedition to the West Indies. In Panama he profited trading slaves in Nicaragua, and, after defeating his rival Gil González de Ávila, gained control of Nicaragua and expanded his trade in Native American slaves (1524–1527). After providing two ships to Pizarro's search for gold on the Pacific Coast of South America (1530), de Soto joined Pizarro, who made him his chief lieutenant in exchange for the use of his ships. When the conquest of Peru began in 1532, de Soto, as Pizarro's captain of horse, was instrumental in the defeat of the Incas and the first European to meet the Inca emperor Atahualpa. Made wealthy by the sack of Peru, de Soto returned to Spain (1536), where he hoped to be made a governor in the Americas. In 1537 he asked for special permission from the Spanish crown to conquer Ecuador, but instead was commissioned to conquer what is now Florida and made governor of Cuba. He embarked from Spain in April 1538 and landed, after a brief stop in Cuba, on the western coast of Florida in May 1539. He wintered at the Native American village of Apalachee (now Tallahassee), then headed north and west through what would become Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee with the help of Native American guides he abducted along the way. In southeastern Tennessee, near Lookout Mountain, he turned south into Alabama with his expedition (1540), and was met at Mauvila (now Mobile) by a confederation of Native Americans. The Spaniards thoroughly defeated the native warriors, but de Soto's army lost most of its equipment. De Soto allowed his men to rest for a month before turning back north to seek treasure inland. As his expedition traveled northwest through Alabama and west through Mississippi, Native Americans attacked repeatedly, but the Spaniards pushed on, until they reached the Mississippi River in May 1541, south of present-day Memphis. They crossed the river and went south again, through Arkansas and Louisiana. Early in 1542, they turned back to the Mississippi River. De Soto died of a fever in Louisiana and his men buried him in the Mississippi. His successor, Luis de Moscoso, led the remaining half of de Soto's expedition down the Mississippi River on rafts, and they reached the coast of Mexico in 1543.