Learn Our History Today: On May 21, 1542, Spanish Explorer and Conquistador Hernando De Soto died in the wilderness along the Mississippi River in present day Arkansas. De Soto had begun his exploration of the present day United States three years earlier by landing in current day Florida with a force of 600 troops. Together he and these men began exploring the country, preparing it for future colonization by Spanish settlers, and searching desperately for the gold and other valuables they had heard abounded in this new land. De Soto journeyed throughout the present day southeast, visiting the states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama in search of these riches, but nothing of considerable valuable was ever recovered. In addition to searching for valuables, De Soto was also charged with subduing the Indian population of this new found land. However, this task proved to be exceedingly difficult as the Indians of North America were not nearly as centralized as the Indians of Mexico and Peru, which the Spaniards were used to dealing with. De Soto quickly set about enslaving the native population and forcing them to carry the baggage and supplies of his men. As can be imagined, this enslavement did not sit well with the Indians, and a large group of free Indians banded together and moved to attack the Spaniards. The Indian confederation attacked the Spanish with overwhelming numbers near present day Mobile, Alabama and the two sides fought a terrible bloody battle. In the end it was the Spaniards superior weaponry, consisting mainly of muskets, which won the day and saved De Soto from total annihilation. In the fight, one of the bloodiest Indian battles fought in North America, thousands of Native Americans were killed assaulting the Spanish. The Spaniards also suffered greatly, losing close to half of their number in the struggle. At this point, De Soto could have ended his exploration there and moved his extremely weakened force to the Gulf Coast where ships could then pick them up, but instead he chose to continue the journey, venturing west. The Spanish soon crossed the Mississippi near present day Memphis, Tennessee and travelled throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. It was as the expedition returned to Arkansas that Hernando De Soto caught a semi tropical fever and succumbed to the illness on May 21, dying on the banks of the Mississippi. His men weighed his corpse down with sand and sank it into the Mississippi, before taking to the river with the objective of returning home to the Spanish base in Mexico. They had still found no considerable treasure.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 22:32:32 +0000
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