de Soto, Hernando (1496–1542)

A Spanish explorer who led the first European expedition into the southeastern United States. De Soto was born into a poor family in the Estremadura region of western Spain. He joined the expedition of Pedro Arias de Avila to Panama in 1514, and successfully fought for de Avila against his rival Gil David Gonzales. De Soto accompanied Francisco Pizarro to Peru in 1528 but had a falling out with Pizarro after the Spanish defeated the Incas under their emperor Atahualpa. The Peru expedition had greatly enriched him, however, and de Soto returned to Spain in 1536 a hero for his part in the conquest of the Incas.

De Soto married and settled down in Spain. But when King Charles V honored him with the title of adelantado (colonial governor) of Florida, a place the Spanish still had not fully explored, his ambitions in the New World returned. He set out in 1539 with six hundred men and nine ships, landing at a bay he called Espiritu Santu (Holy Spirit), on the western coast of Florida. De Soto's mission was to establish a permanent settlement, make a claim for Florida in the name of the king of Spain, and to find legendary cities of gold. The expedition, however, spent three fruitless years in Florida, suffering hunger, disease, and the attacks of hostile Native American tribes. With his men dying at an alarming rate, de Soto attempted to return overland to New Spain (Mexico), and led the expedition across the southeastern United States, passing through Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Running out of provisions in the dry plains of Texas, the expedition returned to the Mississippi River valley, where de Soto died of a fever in 1542. His body was wrapped in a blanket, weighted with stones, and sunk in the river by his men in order to avoid a clash with Native Americans, to whom he had claimed to be an immortal god.

See Also: Cortes, Hernán; exploration; Pizarro, Francisco