Title: Hernando de Soto - HISTORY
Headings: Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto
Contents
Hernando de Soto’s Early Life and Career
De Soto’s Role in Conquest of Peru & Return to Spain
De Soto’s Expedition to North America
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Content: During a brief stay in his home country, he married Dávila’s daughter, Isabel de Bobadilla, and obtained a royal commission to conquer and settle the region known as La Florida (now the southeastern United States), which had been the site of earlier explorations by Juan Ponce de León and others. He also received the governorship of Cuba. De Soto’s Expedition to North America
De Soto set out from Spain in April 1538, set with 10 ships and 700 men. After a stop in Cuba, the expedition landed at Tampa Bay in May 1539. They moved inland and eventually set up camp for the winter at a small Indian village near present-day Tallahassee. In the spring, De Soto led his men north, through Georgia, and west, through the Carolinas and Tennessee, guided by Indians whom they took captive along the way. With no success finding the gold they sought, the Spaniards headed back south into Alabama towards Mobile Bay, seeking to rendezvous with their ships, when they were attacked by an Indian contingent near present-day Mobile in October 1540. In the bloody battle that followed, the Spaniards killed hundreds of Indians and suffered severe casualties themselves. After a month’s rest, the ever-ambitious De Soto made the fateful decision to turn northward again and head inland in search of more treasure. In mid-1541, the Spaniards sighted the Mississippi River.