Hernando De Soto
1496-1542
Spanish Conquistador, Explorer, and Mariner
Hernando, known also as Fernando, de Soto was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. He spent nearly all of his youth at his family manor house, but at 17 he told his father of his desire to go to Seville and attempt to secure employment in a merchant fleet that traded in the West Indies. Though his father desired for him to study the law, de Soto was eventually permitted to pursue his interests in Seville. The young de Soto did quickly garner a position on a ship in 1514, but as a member of Pedro Arias Dávila's exploratory expedition to the West Indies and not specifically as a merchant. A skilled horseman and trader, de Soto quickly became known for accomplishing daring feats to gain high profits from his ventures.
De Soto's renown helped him create several successful partnerships with fellow explorers, such as Francisco Campañón and Juan Ponce de León. The influence of these men, however, led de Soto to abandon his mercantile interests in favor of conquistador pursuits. Adopting a military-like approach, de Soto commanded his fleet to vie for control of Nicaragua against fellow Spaniard Gil González de Ávila. He defeated his rival in Central America in 1527, and then plundered his new territory for precious metals and slaves. De Soto captured the bulk of his capital through slave trading—mostly by capturing natives.
After the death of his patron, de Soto allied himself with explorer Francisco Pizarro. After confirmed reports of a civilization in South America that possessed great wealth in gold, the two men planned an expedition to Peru in 1532. De Soto lent the fellow explorer two ships in return for being named Pizarro's Chief Lieutenant and the expedition's "Captain of Horse." The expedition led to the conquer of the Incan Empire. De Soto and the men under his command were instrumental in defeating the Inca at Cajamarca—a devastating battle for the Inca. Shortly thereafter, he became the first European to make contact with Atahuallpa, the Incan emperor. De Soto formed an amicable political alliance with the Incan ruler after the Spanish defeated the Incan capital at Cuzco. Pizarro undermined this alliance and held Atahuallpa for enormous ransom. Though the sum demanded was met and offered to Pizarro, he grew suspicious of the Incan ruler's power and murdered him. Dissatisfied with Pizarro's actions, de Soto left SouthAmerica to return to Spain in 1536, taking with him enough plunder to make him one of the wealthiest men in Europe.
Hernando de Soto. (Corbis Corporation. Reproduced with permission.)Though his feats in Peru gained him power and accolades from the Spanish court, de Soto was soon anxious to return to the New World. He petitioned the crown in 1537 to grant him permission to lead an expedition to conquer Equador but was refused. Instead he was made governor of Cuba and charged with the conquest of Spanish territory in North America. The following year, de Soto took 10 ships and 700 men to Cuba. In 1539, his Spanish forces landed in Florida, near present-day Tampa. What ensued was one of the most far reaching and devastating episodes in the history of European contact with the populations of the New World.
De Soto pushed his way through not only Florida, but Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee. He abducted native guides to lead his expedition through the southeast, in search of gold. However, the native peoples of the southeast did not possess the gold wealth of the highly advanced Incan civilizations de Soto had encountered in Peru. Disappointed, in 1540 de Soto attempted to head to Mobile Bay in Alabama to rendezvous with his ships. He was met with resistance from the natives at Mauvilia (Mobile). The local Native Americans were decimated, butthe Spanish forces were weakened severely. Losing most of his men, supplies, and plunder, de Soto decided to extend his expedition and recoup his losses instead of returning to Spain.
De Soto again pushed northward, though this time the decision would prove fatal. His expedition was plagued by Indian attacks as they made their way through Alabama and Mississippi. On May 21, 1541, de Soto became the first European to sight the Mississippi River. However, he encountered the river south of Memphis, Tennessee, and instead of following the river and charting its path to the Gulf of Mexico, de Soto crossed the river into Arkansas in search of more wealth. The expedition was fruitless. De Soto decided to turn back and follow the Mississippi River southward. De Soto fell ill—most likely with Yellow Fever. He died in Louisiana, exactly one year after first sighting the Mississippi River, and was given a mariner's burial in that river.
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