Hernando De Soto and the Discovery of the Mississippi
[1500-1542]
[Illustration: Hernando De Soto.]
After the discovery of the New World by Columbus, the Spaniards, who had
no other thought than that he had found a new way to India, dreamed
eagerly of its marvellous wealth, and were impatient to be off to the
land where they believed fortunes awaited them. So zealous were they, in
their mad search for gold and adventure, that many were willing to leave
home and friends for years.
The most brilliant of these explorers were Cortez, the conqueror of
Mexico, and Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, both of whom carried back to
Spain many million dollars' worth of gold and silver. With Pizarro was a
young man named Hernando De Soto, whose adventurous life is full of
interest, and whose important discovery of the Mississippi River has
given him a prominent place in the history of our country.
He was born about 1500, of a poor but noble family. In his youth he
excelled in athletic sports, and possessed unusual skill in horsemanship
and in fencing. Taking a leading part in all the dangerous exploits in
the New World, he not only won fame, but went back to Spain after many
years' absence a rich man.
While Cortez and Pizarro had been conquering Mexico and Peru, other
Spaniards had been seeking their fortune in Florida.[3] Thus far these
men had brought back no gold and silver, but their faith in the mines of
the interior was so great that De Soto wished to conquer and explore the
country. Having already won great influence by his achievements, he
secured the favor of the king, who made him governor of the island of
Cuba, and appointed him leader of an expedition to conquer and occupy
Florida. He was to take men enough with him to build forts and plant a
colony, so as to hold the country for Spain.
[3] De Leon discovered this land in the full bloom of an Easter
Sunday (1513). In token of the day and the flowers he named
it Pascua Florida.
De Soto had no difficulty in getting followers to join him in this
enterprise. Young men from noble families flocked to his standard from
all parts of Spain, and as he knew that dangers and hardships awaited
them he was careful to select from the large numbers the strongest men.
De Soto's company included richly dressed nobles and warriors in
glittering armor. It was a gala day when they sailed out of port with
banners flying and cannon booming, and not a young man of them but felt
proud to sail on so grand an expedition. After arriving in Cuba, De Soto
spent some time there, and then leaving his wife to govern the island,
set out to explore Florida. His expedition was an imposing one,
comprising nine vessels, six hundred men, and about two hundred and
twenty-five horses. In May, 1539, the whole force landed at Tampa Bay,
on the western coast of Florida.
They had not advanced far into the interior when De Soto fell in with a
Spaniard named Ortiz, who had accompanied Narvaez in a previous
expedition some ten or eleven years before. According to his story, the
Indians had captured him, and only forbore to kill him because an Indian
girl had begged for his life. Ortiz had lived with the Indians so many
years that he had become very much like one himself; but we can imagine
his joy at seeing white men once more. The Spaniards were equally
rejoiced because they knew how serviceable their countryman would be as
a guide and interpreter.
[Illustration: DE SOTO DISCOVERING THE MISSISSIPPI]
The advantage of this good-fortune was soon counteracted, however, by De
Soto's unfriendliness to the Indians. He was not only indifferent to
their pleasure and sufferings, but even seemed to enjoy torturing and
killing them. It was his custom upon arriving at an Indian settlement to
demand food for his men and horses, and upon his departure to carry off
with him the head chief as guide and hostage, not releasing him until
the next tribe was reached. Indian men and squaws were forced into
service as porters for the Spanish baggage; and thus enslaved, often
with chains and with iron collars about their necks, they were compelled
to do all sorts of menial work. It is not strange that after such
treatment the Indians lost all confidence in De Soto. They not only
learned to hate him and the Spaniards but longed to be revenged upon
them. In return for the cruelties inflicted they purposely led the
Spaniards astray, and left untried no treachery which would serve to
destroy the pale-faced strangers.
In May, 1540, an Indian princess, rowed by her followers in a canopied
canoe, came across a stream to meet De Soto. When she landed, her
followers carried her in a litter, from which she alighted and
approached him. She gave him presents of shawls and skins, and a string
of pearls which she took from around her neck. In return for these acts
of courtesy De Soto made her a prisoner, and kept her going about on
foot with him until she escaped.
This is but an instance of the cruelty which made enemies of all the
Indians with whom the Spaniards came in contact. No doubt Indian runners
were sent hundreds of miles in many directions to tell the various
tribes of the inhuman deeds of the white men. No doubt these tribes
combined in a desperate effort to destroy De Soto and all his men. How
nearly they succeeded in their plan can be told in a few lines.
In the autumn of 1540 the Spaniards came to the tribe of a giant
chieftain whose slaves held over him, as he sat upon cushions on a
raised platform, a buckskin umbrella stained red and white. He was
sullen in the presence of the richly dressed Spaniards on their prancing
steeds, but allowed De Soto to carry him a prisoner to the next Indian
town, as the other head chiefs had done.
[Illustration: Routes Traversed by De Soto and De Leon.]
This town was called Mavilla, an Indian word from which we get the name
Mobile for the city and river in Alabama. As the Spaniards approached
this town Indians came out to meet them, their faces showing signs of
displeasure and evil intent. Fearing nothing, however, De Soto, attended
by about a dozen of his men, rode boldly inside the town, which was
surrounded with a palisade.
The giant chieftain then asked for a release that he might return to his
own people, and on being refused went into a house in which many Indian
warriors were concealed. When De Soto ordered him to come out he
refused. In the excitement that followed, a Spaniard cut down with his
sword an Indian warrior standing near by. Then, in wild fury, hundreds
of dusky warriors rushed like madmen out of the house to the attack, and
soon shot down five of De Soto's body-guard. Of course he had to flee
for his life. But before he could reach the main force outside the town
he fell to the ground two or three times, struck by Indian arrows.
It was the beginning of a terrible battle, in which the Spaniards,
although outnumbered, had the advantage because of their horses, swords,
firearms, and superior training. Finally, from the outside, they closed
the gates to the town, and set fire to the Indian buildings. The Indians
fought with desperation, but they either fell, cut down by Spanish
swords, or rushed in mad fury to perish in the flames. When night came,
only three Indian warriors remained alive. Two of these fought until
they were killed, and the last unfortunate one hanged himself on a tree
with his bow-string. The Spaniards said they killed at least 2,500
Indians, but they lost in killed and wounded about a third of their own
number. It was a dearly bought victory.
Nor was Indian craftiness the only source of trouble for the Spaniards.
De Soto's men had to travel through thick forests with no road except
the narrow path made by wild animals or the trail made by the Indian
hunter. They spent many laborious days in picking their way through
dense underbrush and miry swamps, stopping here and there to make rafts
to carry them across the numerous streams. Often without food and on the
point of starving, they were obliged to feed upon native dogs, and were
sometimes reduced to berries, nuts, bear-oil, and wild honey.
In spite of hunger, disease, death, and many other misfortunes, however,
De Soto in his mad search for gold threaded his way through the tangled
forests until, in the spring of 1541, about two years after landing at
Tampa Bay, he reached the bank of the Mississippi River. After spending
months in making boats, he at length crossed the mighty stream, and then
continued his march in a northerly and westerly direction, going, it
would seem, as far as the site of what is now Little Rock, the capital
of Arkansas.
Marching southeast, probably to the banks of the Washita, he spent a
winter so severe that many of the party, including Ortiz, died.
About the middle of April, 1542, the Spaniards, travel-spent and sick at
heart, reached the mouth of the Red River, where De Soto, discouraged
and broken in spirit, was taken ill with fever and soon died. At first
his followers buried his body near the town where they were staying, but
when the Indians began with some suspicion to examine the ground under
which he lay, the Spaniards in the darkness of night took up the body,
wrapped it in blankets made heavy with sand, and sadly lowered it into
the waters of the mighty river which it was De Soto's chief honor to
have discovered. After many more hardships the wretched survivors of
this unhappy company, numbering not many more than half of those who
landed at Tampa Bay, found their way to a Spanish colony in Mexico. Thus
ended in disaster the expedition which sailed with such hope of wealth
and renown.
REVIEW OUTLINE
SPANISH THIRST FOR GOLD AND ADVENTURE.
DE SOTO'S EARLY LOVE OF SPORTS AND DANGEROUS EXPLOITS.
DE SOTO PLANS TO EXPLORE AND COLONIZE FLORIDA.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION.
DE SOTO SETS OUT ON HIS VOYAGE.
HE FALLS IN WITH ORTIZ.
DE SOTO'S CRUEL TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS.
THE INDIAN PRINCESS.
THE PLAN TO DESTROY DE SOTO AND HIS MEN.
THE GIANT CHIEFTAIN.
DE SOTO IN DANGER.
A TERRIBLE BATTLE.
DE SOTO DISCOVERS THE MISSISSIPPI.
DIFFICULTIES AND SUFFERINGS.
MORE TROUBLES FOR THE SPANIARDS.
DE SOTO'S DEATH.
TO THE PUPIL
1. Find on the map Mexico, Peru, Porto Rico, Cuba, Florida,
Mobile the Mississippi River, and the Washita River.
2. Draw a map in which you will indicate De Soto's route.
3. Tell in your own words the story of this wretched march
through the forests.
4. Make a mental picture of De Soto's meeting with the Indian
princess; of De Soto and his body-guard in Mavilla; of the burial
of De Soto's body by night.
5. What did De Soto accomplish? When?