Hernando De Soto was born c. 1500 in Barcarrota, Spain, in an impoverished but noble family. The second son of Francisco Méndez de Soto and Leonor Arias Tinoco, he had at least two younger sisters and an older brother. Although the family was of noble heritage, de Soto was poor and borrowed money to travel to the New World in 1514.
De Soto's education was obtained through the generosity of Pedrarias D vila, who is said to have sent his protege to the University of Salamanca.
When the youth was about nineteen De Soto followed Pedrarias to Central America, serving as captain in that cruel governor's conquests.
After earning a reputation for valor in Central America, he sailed in 1532 to serve Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro in the conquest of Peru, arriving in time to be the first European to salute the Inca Atahualpa, whom he met at Caxamarca. The Inca admired the doughty conqueror for his horsemanship and soldierly qualities, and De Soto was one of the few Spaniards who condemned Pizarro for executing Atahualpa, though De Soto himself had led the van in the Inca's capture.
Following the sack of Cuzco and the development of the Pizarro-Almagro feud over possession of that city, De Soto astutely withdrew from Peru, leaving behind him his mistress, the princess Curicuillar, and their daughter, and carrying to Spain a share of Inca booty amounting to 180, 000 cruzadas. With this fortune, a pleasing manner and handsome face, and deserved reputation as a vigorous but not needlessly bloodthirsty conquistador, he won the favor of Charles V, and at Valladolid on April 20, 1537, obtained from the monarch a contract to conquer Florida. His reward was to be a marquisate and twelve square leagues of land; he was also made governor of Cuba, which island he used as the base of his expedition.
His small army was composed of Spanish and Portuguese Estremadurans, and numbered nearly one thousand men. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, then returning to Spain after crossing North America with three survivors of the Florida expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, declined to join De Soto, having hoped for this new commission himself.
De Soto's fleet sailed from San Lucar on April 6, 1538, reaching Cuba in May. After replenishing his equipment, he left the island in charge of his wife, and sailed from Havana on May 18, 1539. He landed on the Florida coast on May 30, near the village of Ucita on Charlotte Bay, not at Tampa, as has sometimes been stated.
Here began that warfare with the Indians which continued with brief interludes through three years. De Soto's method was to capture the chiefs he visited, compelling each in turn to guide the Spaniards through his territory. For interpreter he had Juan Ortiz, a rescued Spaniard who had been twelve years among the Indians. Leaving four ships under guard, he marched his army north through Florida, entering successively Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; detachments may have entered Missouri and Louisiana. The quest, like those of Coronado in New Mexico and Narvaez in Florida, was for another Mexico or Peru; failing to find such a Golden Chersonese, he would tarry nowhere, though his followers were several times ready to plant colonies.
After approaching the Carolina border, he returned south and west to Apalache. Wintering here, the Spaniards discovered on Horse Bay, now called Ochlockonee, remnants of the outfitting of the makeshift ships of the unfortunate Narvaez.
From here Juan de Anasco, De Soto's readiest navigator, went to bring forward the people from Charlotte Harbor, and another subordinate, Francisco Maldonado, sailed west along the Gulf to find a better port. Maldonado located Achusi (Pensacola) sixty leagues away, and then went to Cuba, with orders to return the next season.
Breaking camp on March 3, 1540, the gold-hunters crossed the Flint and other rivers, reaching the Savannah at Cutifachiqui, some miles below Silver Bluff. The unnamed queen of this realm graciously presented them with many pearls, and they found relics of the Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon expedition to the nearby Atlantic coast, but there was no gold, and De Soto marched north to Xualla province, around the headwaters of Broad River, North Carolina. Crossing the Blue Ridge into northeastern Georgia, the adventurers rested in Guaxule province, where they feasted on "dogs, " praising the flavor of what may have been opossum. In nearby Chiaha they heard of gold in Chisca, thirty leagues away, but it proved to be only copper, and the march was resumed from what is now Loudon County, Tennessee, southward through Coste, just above Chattanooga, to Cosa in Talladega County, Alabama.
Here was a chief of sumptuous manage who urged the strangers to tarry and colonize his opulent land, but De Soto, unimpressed, and anxious now for word and supplies from Cuba, hurried along the Alabama to Mauvila, between the Alabama and the Tombigbee.
In October the Mauvilians trapped and defeated him, killing many soldiers and horses. Mortified at the reverse, De Soto nevertheless concealed the fact that Maldonado was waiting at Achusi, and again led his ragged army north, to winter at Chicana, in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, where new Indian attacks added numerous losses to other miseries.
April 1541 found the dogged explorers floundering through swamps to the Mississippi, which the most recent authoritative opinion thinks to have been crossed from Tunica County below Memphis. It was the first conscious discovery of the great river by white men; Narvaez had passed the mouth unknowingly, and Cabeza de Vaca had landed to the west of it. Fortune now beckoned De Soto's men into St. Francis and Mississippi counties, Arkansas. At Pacaha, their farthest north, the undaunted treasure-hunters swung west to Quiguate, perhaps in Lee, or St. Francis County, and thence through Woodruff and Cleburne counties into Oklahoma on Grand River.
A final bitter winter was spent in "Autiamque" beyond Fort Smith. Another April arriving, the now disillusioned conquistadores turned homeward. Crossing the Arkansas near Pine Bluff, they struggled on to Guachoya, probably near Arkansas City, reaching the Mississippi on April 16; but lack of vessels and Indian hostility rendered futile all efforts to cross. Balked thus, the tireless leader was forced to bed, death at hand. Taking leave of his companions, and naming Luis de Moscoso his successor, the warrior died. Buried first within the camp to conceal his death from the enemy, his body was soon disinterred for the same purpose, and ceremoniously consigned to the river.
Relations with most Indians of Arkansas were relatively cordial, but de Soto and his soldiers thought nothing of torturing and killing those who refused to cooperate. His primary aim was the gaining of riches, and present-day Indians in Arkansas and other Southern states view him as a murderer.
De Soto was married to his patron's daughter Isabel, thus becoming brother-in-law to Vasco Nunez de Balboa.
