Title: Soto, Hernando de | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: Soto, Hernando de
Soto, Hernando de
Hernando de Soto
Goes to the Americas
Longs for adventure
Enslaves Native Americans
Follows visions of gold

Content: Following the leads of Indians who always directed them to faraway places, De Soto's expedition traveled through the present-day states of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina , then crossed the Appalachian Mountains into Tennessee before heading south into Alabama . In the fall of 1540, near Mobile Bay in present-day Alabama, de Soto and his men engaged in a fierce battle with a group of Choctaw Indians led by Chief Tuscaloosa (birth and death dates unknown). The Spanish killed three thousand Native American warriors, and only twenty-two Spanish soldiers lost their lives. Follows visions of gold
In the spring of 1541, the expedition headed northwest, running low on supplies and horses. In May they came upon the wide Mississippi River just south of present-day Memphis, Tennessee. They camped along its banks for a month, building barges in order to cross it. Still searching for gold, de Soto pushed his men westward through present-day Arkansas. The only treasures they found were buffalo hides. Many soldiers were killed in fighting with Native Americans or died of hunger and illness as they worked their way south along the Mississippi River. In the spring of 1542 de Soto himself fell ill, probably of malaria (a fever spread by mosquitoes), and died at the age of forty-two.