Explorer
de Soto Discovered a Continent Instead of Riches
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON — Sixteenth century Spanish explorer Hernando
de Soto anticipated riches and enduring fame when he set off
in May 1539 on what would be a years-long journey throughout
much of the present-day southern and central United States.
Fate had other plans. De Soto found no New World wealth and
his fame has dimmed with the passage of time. Ill and dispirited,
he died in the wilderness and was secretly laid to rest within
the waters of the great tributary he discovered.
De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi River near present-day
Memphis, Tenn., in the spring of 1541 remains a singular event.
Yet, he is also known for what he didn’t find. Unlike Spanish
conquistadors Hernan Cortez and Francisco Pizarro, who earlier
had conquered the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, respectively,
and brought back fabulous booty, De Soto found no new riches.
Spanish explorers in Florida a decade before de Soto were told
by the inhabitants that cities of immense wealth lay just beyond
the horizon, probably in the hopes of ridding themselves of
the strange interlopers. The natives de Soto met in his travels
offered him fish, furs and freshwater pearls, but no silver,
gold and jewels. But, they also told him of lands of wealth.
Besides riches, the great powers of the 16th century also believed
the New World offered an ocean shortcut to the lucrative trade
markets in India and China — the legendary "Northwest
Passage." De Soto would come to realize to his chagrin
that no such route existed.
While historians agree de Soto found "Old Muddy,"
uncertainty exists regarding the exact path of his exploration
some 230 years before the birth of the United States.
Born around 1500, de Soto was one of many young noblemen who
lacked a family fortune. In those days, such men sought glory
and gold through military service. After campaigning under Pizarro
against the Incas, De Soto returned home to Spain a rich man.
He married the daughter of the politically connected governor
of Panama, thus gaining access to the royal court.
Bored with the staid life in Spain and eager for greater renown
and wealth, de Soto sought and received the titles of governor
of Cuba and governor of Florida from King Charles V and permission
to explore and establish New World colonies. The money for all
the equipment and horses required for the expedition came from
de Soto’s own pocket. After a year of preparation, he sailed
from Cuba for Florida.
After spending a night ashore May 25, 1539, de Soto landed his
600-member force a few days later near present-day Tampa. Scholars
believe that he headed northward in early June on the start
of an eventual 4,000-mile journey that wound through present-day
Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi,
Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana, Illinois, and possibly
Oklahoma.
Luck visited de Soto in the form of Juan Ortiz, captured by
Indians during the ill-fated 1528 Florida expedition headed
by Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvaez. Ortiz, who had learned
the Indians’ language, customs and much of the local geography,
became a valued guide and interpreter for the de Soto expedition.
The conquistadors often treated the native peoples they met
with brutality. Narvaez allegedly cut off the nose of a chieftain.
Indians and disease killed most members of his party, and him
eventually. De Soto had learned cruelty in Peru with Pizarro
and would also kidnap and kill Indians during his travels.
De Soto's behavior earned the enmity of the Indians. He and
his party were surprised and almost destroyed in an attack near
Mobile, Ala., in October 1540. De Soto pressed on, convinced
that cities of gold lay just ahead. He and his men also passed
along European germs and disease to the Indians — thousands
are believed to have died.
From his discovery of the Mississippi — and an alleged
stop on the shores of Lake Michigan near present-day Chicago
—de Soto realized two important things: that he was wandering
in a land far larger than he originally thought, and, there
was no Northwest Passage. He correctly reasoned that a river
as immense as the Mississippi must drain a huge land mass, and
that the large fresh water lake he'd found couldn't be a shortcut
to China.
Worn-out and dispirited, de Soto caught a fever and died May
21, 1542, near the banks of the river he had discovered. His
men weighed down his body and threw it into the Mississippi
at a secret location so that the Indians couldn’t molest
it.
Francisco Coronado, who explored the American Southwest around
the same time of the de Soto expedition, also failed to find
gold. Their failures to find a passage to the Orient and new
wealth led Spain to abandon plans for a New World empire, leaving
that vision to the French and English.
Today, myriad counties, towns and schools across the Midwest
and Southeast are named after de Soto. The William Powell painting
"Discovery of the Mississippi by de Soto" is one of
eight famous works displayed in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington.
His name and likeness adorned a line of cars in the mid-1900s.
Like their Spanish forebear, they failed to find gold, success
and favor among the natives of America and disappeared 40 years
ago leaving nary a trace.
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