De Soto Essay

Hernando De Soto Tours Hernando De Soto sent out on an expedition to find an empire abounding in gold and jewels. He had six hundred troops, 213 horses, a pack of fighting hounds to aid him in his search, and his heard of swine. He landed in Florida May 28, 1539 in Tampa Bay in search for his gold. Shortly after arriving in pursuit of Indians his men were surprised to hear one of them shout in Spanish, “Do not slay me, cavalier; I am a Christian!” They were lucky to find a survivor of the Narvaez expedition, Juan Ortiz. Ortiz was a great aid to De Soto seeing that he had lived among the Indians for so long that he became an almost perfect interpreter. Ortiz unfortunately wasn’t able to give them much information of the country fifty or sixty miles from his own village. Once De Soto found out that Ortiz nor the Indians could give him much information about cities filled with gold he sent out a reconnaissance party to scout out the land. All they were able to find was more country that was “low, very wet, pondy, and thickly covered with trees”.
Through the travels of which was probably the Polk County Lakes, east of Tampa, De Soto’s troops were short on food since De Soto was saving his pigs. The men ended up eating water cresses, corn, and cabbage palm. There were not enough pigs even if De Soto was willing to slaughter them to feed his army. Some of them were even “eating herbs and roots roasted and other boiled without salt, and what was worst, without knowledge what they were.” They probably must have feared that the herbs were poisonous, but were so hungry that they ate them anyways. They did eventually find the “very delicious wild chestnuts,” which the Spaniards found to be “rich and good of flavor.” Following the trail of Narvaez expedition, De Soto headed to the Apalachee. At time they were introduced by the Indians by flute playing and at other times they fought. They would capture Indians and use them as slaves to carry baggage. De Soto had noticed