Title: De Soto Expedition | NCpedia
Headings: De Soto Expedition
De Soto Expedition
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De Soto Expedition
by David G. Moore, 2006
Hernando De Soto traveled through the region that would become the southeastern United States from 1539 to 1543 with an army of more than 600 men in an attempt to discover riches comparable to those found in Mexico and Peru. Highly ambitious, De Soto had been granted the right to oversee the conquest of La Florida (the name given to peninsular Florida and the land between the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts) for the Spanish Crown. Although he traveled almost 4,000 miles and found many bountiful lands, he discovered no gold or silver and very few gems. During his passage, he wreaked havoc on the indigenous chiefdoms of southeastern Indians. Relying on Indian guides and commandeering all available food supplies, he and his army practiced what was in some cases a "scorched-earth" policy. He died on the banks of the Mississippi River on 21 May 1542. The remnants of his army (just over 300 men) ultimately fled La Florida and sailed from the mouth of the Mississippi along the Gulf Coast until they reached Spanish settlements in Mexico. The actual route that De Soto followed through the Southeast has been the source of much scholarly inquiry. In 1935 the U.S. Congress authorized a comprehensive study of the De Soto expedition to identify and mark his route. The U.S. De Soto Expedition Commission, led by ethnologist John Swanton, published its findings in 1939.