León and Pánfilo de Narváez to penetrate
Florida’s interior had also been disasters.
Yet de Soto was not easily intimidated nor
was he immune to the excitement created by
Cabeza de Vaca’s return to Spain after his epic
adventures and by rumors of the fantastic
wealth of the Seven Cities of Cíbola, (leg-
endary cities in the American Southwest). The
two men formed a partnership for the Florida
venture, but the agreement collapsed when de
Soto refused to pay for a boat Cabeza de Vaca
bought for the trip. Like most explorers who
followed Columbus, de Soto was responsible
for funding his own expedition and had no
financial help from the Spanish Crown. This
meant that Charles V was entitled to a share of
whatever riches de Soto might discover, but if
no profit was made, de Soto and his partners
would bear the cost alone. The terms of the
charter also forbid de Soto to mistreat Indians
living on any land he would claim for Spain.
The reputation that he had acquired riding
with Dávila and Pizarro, however, gave no rea-
son to believe de Soto would honor this con-
dition. Later, in 1548, historian Gonzalo
Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés would note sar-
castically that “the Governor was much given
to the sport of slaying Indians.”
De Soto interested a group of Spanish
noblemen in the Florida venture. The idea
also attracted Portuguese volunteers, includ-
ing an adventurer who survived to write about
the journey under the pen name “A Fidalgo
[Gentleman] of Elvas.” The memoir of the
Gentleman of Elvas, along with those of de
Soto’s secretary Rodrigo Ranjel and the Span-
ish Crown’s representative, Luis Hernández de
Biedma, would provide the only first-person
descriptions of the expedition’s bloody
progress.LANDING IN LA FLORIDA
De Soto was confident in regards to his Florida
venture but spent a year in Cuba planning care-
fully. His conquistadores were armed with
crossbows, primitive guns called harquebuses,
and Irish wolfhounds trained as ferocious “war
dogs.” He assembled not only soldiers but
craftsmen needed to run a colony, such as
shoemakers and tailors. In addition to food and
trade items, hundreds of shackles and iron col-
lars for slaves were packed in waiting ships.
When all preparations were complete, the force
included some 620 men and 223 horses.Hernando de Soto and “La Florida” B 93
Beginning in 1538 Hernando de Soto explored much
of the present-day southeastern United States
before his death near the Mississippi River in 1540.
The rest of his party continued under the command
of Luis de Moscoso to present-day Tampico, on the
eastern coast of Mexico. (Library of Congress)