were skilled fighters. Even so, Hernando
de Soto (ca. 1500–1542) came to Florida
in 1539, searching for gold. His expedi-
tion (1539–1543) slogged across parts of
what are now Florida, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and
Texas. Although he discovered the
Mississippi River in 1541 (where he was
buried after dying of fever), his expedi-
tion’s reports did not make Florida or the
American Southeast sound any more
attractive to Spanish ears. The Spanish
claim to the territory languished for two
more decades.
What brought Spain back to Florida
was not desire for wealth but a strategic
interest in keeping foreign rivals from
grabbing the peninsula, particularly since
Florida threatened the sea lanes through
which Spanish ships carried New World
treasure home to Spain. In 1564, a group
of Huguenots, or French Protestants,
organized by Protestant leader Admiral
Gaspard de Coligny and led by the
Norman navigator Jean Ribault, had
landed near the St. Johns River in
February 1562, before moving north to
Port Royal Sound. There, on present-day
Parris Island, Ribault left twenty-eight
men to build a settlement known as
Charlesfort. Ribault then returned to
Europe to gather supplies for the new
colony. However, he was arrested in
England, and unable to return.
Under attack by Indians and without
Ribault’s leadership or adequate supplies,
the Huguenot colonists abandonedSPAIN IN THE AMERICAS 47In 1513, six years before Hernán Cortés’s expedition to Mexico, Juan Ponce de León explored and then claimed Florida for the
Spanish crown. In 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez led an expedition along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and in 1539, Hernando de Soto led a
mission that crossed the Mississippi River and reached as far west as Texas. Both Cortés and Narváez died in the course of their
travels; Ponce de León died shortly after returning to Cuba, from arrow wounds inflicted by the Native Americans he had
encountered there.Spanish Exploration in the Southeast, 1513–1532
Hernando de Soto (Library of
Congress)