Hernando DeSoto's Trails through North America A:hover { COLOR: #2020CC} var sliderwidth="746px"var sliderheight="86px"var slidespeed=1slidebgcolor="#b9bcb3"var leftrightslide=new Array()var finalslide=''leftrightslide[0]=' 'leftrightslide[1]=' 'leftrightslide[2]=' 'leftrightslide[3]=' 'leftrightslide[4]=' 'leftrightslide[5]=' 'leftrightslide[6]=' 'leftrightslide[7]=' 'leftrightslide[8]=' 'leftrightslide[9]=' 'leftrightslide[10]=' 'leftrightslide[11]=' 'leftrightslide[12]=' 'var copyspeed=slidespeedleftrightslide=''+leftrightslide.join(" ")+''var iedom=document.all||document.getElementByIdif (iedom)document.write(''+leftrightslide+'')var actualwidth=''var cross_slide, ns_slidefunction fillup(){if (iedom){cross_slide=document.getElementById? document.getElementById("test2") : document.all.test2cross_slide2=document.getElementById? document.getElementById("test3") : document.all.test3cross_slide.innerHTML=cross_slide2.innerHTML=leftrightslideactualwidth=document.all? cross_slide.offsetWidth : document.getElementById("temp").offsetWidthcross_slide2.style.left=actualwidth+20+"px"}else if (document.layers){ns_slide=document.ns_slidemenu.document.ns_slidemenu2ns_slide2=document.ns_slidemenu.document.ns_slidemenu3ns_slide.document.write(leftrightslide)ns_slide.document.close()actualwidth=ns_slide.document.widthns_slide2.left=actualwidth+20ns_slide2.document.write(leftrightslide)ns_slide2.document.close()}lefttime=setInterval("slideleft()",30)}window.onload=fillupfunction slideleft(){if (iedom){if (parseInt(cross_slide.style.left)>(actualwidth*(-1)+8))cross_slide.style.left=parseInt(cross_slide.style.left)-copyspeed+"px"elsecross_slide.style.left=parseInt(cross_slide2.style.left)+actualwidth+30+"px"if (parseInt(cross_slide2.style.left)>(actualwidth*(-1)+8))cross_slide2.style.left=parseInt(cross_slide2.style.left)-copyspeed+"px"elsecross_slide2.style.left=parseInt(cross_slide.style.left)+actualwidth+30+"px"}else if (document.layers){if (ns_slide.left>(actualwidth*(-1)+8))ns_slide.left-=copyspeedelsens_slide.left=ns_slide2.left+actualwidth+30if (ns_slide2.left>(actualwidth*(-1)+8))ns_slide2.left-=copyspeedelsens_slide2.left=ns_slide.left+actualwidth+30}}if (iedom||document.layers){with (document){document.write('')if (iedom){write('')write('')write('')write('')write('')}else if (document.layers){write('')write('')write('')write('')}document.write('')}}  by Donald E. Sheppard ©2008 NACCALL TRAILS by State IntroductionDeSotoDeVacaContentsReferencesAcknowledgementsGlossaryOLD MAPS Geographic Reality King's Concession First Published in the Florida Anthropologist LinksSpanish Conquistadors wrote the oldest history we have of America, but told a different story than the one we learned in school. Fresh documents make it possible for us to track and study the Hernando DeSoto Expedition, Spain's longest journey into Native America. This Site traces DeSoto's trails, highways today, to villages which became our cities in Fourteen States. The DeSoto Chronicles* werepublished by 3 Expedition OfficersDIRECT OBSERVATIONS BY the King's Agent Fernandez de Biedma, DeSoto's Personal Secretary Rodrigo Rangel, and those of a central Portuguese Officer who modestly called himself A Gentleman of Elvas, WERE USED TO RESEARCH AND TRACK DESOTO FOR THIS REPORT. Garcilaso de la Vega, herein called "Inca," published a book based on interviews with, among others, one of DeSoto's Thirty Lancers. Inca's writings were also used despite his eventual place sequence confusion. ALL OF THESE TRANSLATIONS ARE THROUGHLY INDEXED HEREIN.CHRONICLED INDIAN PLACE NAMES BY CITY AND STATE     *These works, The Desoto Chronicles, the Expedition of Hernando DeSoto to North America 1539-1543, edited by Doctors Lawrence A. Clayton, Vernon James Knight, Jr. and Edward C. Moore of the University of Alabama, are the latest published translations. They were used for this report and are abbreviated "Clayton 1993" throughout.Superscripts (i.e. E 61, I 132-6) herein refer to quotes from one or more of the Chroniclers; B stands for Biedma, E for Elvas, R for Rangel and I for Inca, with page numbers where the statements occur. The example superscript, therefore, indicates that statements are from Elvas, page 61 and Inca, pages 132 through 136, in Clayton 1993. The Relation of Fray Sabastian Canete was also consulted for this report.TRACKING HERNANDO DESOTO'S ARMY None of DeSoto's maps or field notes is known to exist today. His chroniclers, however, accurately described his movements and works; usually calling him "Governor". He is referred to as "DeSoto" throughout this paper, that being common vernacular in this country, although "Soto" is proper. I believe that each chronicler reported some of what he saw or understood, but that each saw and heard things from different vantage points, especially when they were on the move.I 132 In the confusion of unexplored wilderness, they and their informants were among tribes who spoke languages so alien to their own that recorded location names varied among the chroniclers. Archeology was once thought to be the key to finding Conquest Trails (Brain 1985:xvi-xxiii in References), but that science has failed to do so in the sixty-odd years since ethnologists and historians surrendered that study to them. Little evidence of conquest has been found, mostly in Florida, all leading archeologists to very suspicious conclusions (1951, Ripley P. Bullen). On the other hand, knowledge in other sciences has flourished in the century since the DeSoto trail theory we learned was deduced in 1857. We now realize that early trail seekers misunderstood ancient native migration, 16th century moon phases, tides and coastal mariners' tactics, and failed to comprehend geographic reality and Spanish "paced" land navigation.Moon phases and coasts were critical to Conquistadors (Tabulation). The King's Agent with DeSoto described his trail through Florida in relation to the coast (see Biedma in Clayton 1993). To him and all seamen everywhere the word "coast" meant navigable water nearest to land; a functional sea lane (The King's Concession from Clayton 1993). Historians have used the shoreline of our shallow Gulf of Mexico in placing DeSoto's trail. That shoreline lies about fifteen miles inland of Florida's "coast," so their DeSoto trails have been placed about that distance inland of DeSoto's. The only complete description of DeSoto's Florida trail was made when DeSoto's Thirty Lancers rode back down his trail after guiding him to North Florida. The length of their reported ride, however, has been discredited and shortened by scholars by an amount believed by them to have been exaggerated by a sixteenth century transcriber of their journal (Swanton 1939:151). The Thirty Lancers rode on Harvest Moon at journey's mid-way, unknown until the advent of powerful computers, enabling the Lancers well lit over-night passages between places confused by scholars until now. Tides are also affected by the moon (Katzeff 1981:93). Certain harbors were impassable to large Spanish Galleons except on particular moon phases (Clayton 1993:II:73). "Spring Tides," which occur near new and full moon, increase the tide's amplitudes allowing large ships to enter. DeSoto's and Cabeza de Vaca's biggest mistakes in Florida arose from ignoring that fact. It cost them dearly during their landings, as we shall see (for Vaca and DeSoto). The moon's phase, from then on, would be taken into account on every tactical decision DeSoto made. Precise lunar intelligence of the early sixteenth century became available with the advent of atomic time measure, radar telescopes and digital computers (the data used herein was provided by Mammana 1994). Only now can we focus on DeSoto's genius and folly.  Distance-measurement was important in Conquest. To most of us, distance traveled is the mileage we read on an odometer. To sixteenth century colonizers, however, it meant the actual distance between marks, along straight lines, measured in Spanish judicial leagues by pacers and plotted by cartographers for eventual land title. There are 2.6 "legal" statute miles per Spanish judicial league; so 1 league = 2.6 miles, (see Columbus's League by Keith A. Pickering; or Blake 1988; Brain 1985:xvi; Chardon 1980:295; Hodge 1907:22 footnote 2; Swanton 1939:104). There are 5,000 paces per judicial league, as measured by DeSoto in Cuba.Most of America's land is titled in reference to a property grid similar to the one DeSoto planned; with statute miles our units of "legal" measure. That land titling concept was inherited from the Romans (King 1990:99). DeSoto's people knew that he could only claim lands inland of two hundred leagues of coast for his colony, and that they could claim homesteads only within the boundaries of that colony. They kept track of desirable locations in their personal journals and thereby described the army's movements precisely. Modern topographic maps of North America allow us to follow their directions with astonishing precision. DeSoto's army had over two-hundred horses, each requiring adequate food every day (Clayton 1993:I:225). Horses were so important to DeSoto's mission that pastures or Indian villages with stored food were always his intermediate destinations. But American Indians had no horses or cattle, so their lifestyles were not accommodating to DeSoto's (Clayton 1993:II:69, 146). To make allowance for this, DeSoto marched his army in six divisions (Clayton 1993:I:58). Each camped separately at various fields and Indian villages. DeSoto's army was strewn across the landscape as it advanced, their campsites often at great interval. Horsemen provided DeSoto with intelligence for selecting desirable campsites for each, then "posted" his marching orders accordingly.DeSoto's Captains were, thereby, kept aware of the location of other divisions in case of attack. Their horses and men fed on village fields with stored grains. Accurate distance measure was DeSoto's key to these ends, and would serve as the foundation of land title once his planned colony was founded. Other DeSoto trail seekers have ignored land title planning, ancient lunar movement technique, equestrian lifestyle and paced navigation altogether. Florida's 130,000 acre rock phosphate ridge and its giant pebble phosphate fields are almost forgotten today. Most were mined-out well before many of us were born. In DeSoto's time, however, Florida's phosphate ridges and fields were the centers of life on peninsular Florida's west side. They had large, naturally fertile pastures with enough grain to comfortably support DeSoto's entire army and its livestock. DeSoto's army rested on them until the food ran out due to consumption or packing for the road ahead. Unfortunately, archaeologists will never get to study them. Surface mining has destroyed them. Detailed satellite photographs, accurate lunar tables and laser-defined topography did not exist until recently. For that matter, neither did effective mosquito repellant, reliable all-terrain vehicles, snake bite antivenins or affordable deep-probe metal detectors to use in locating historic sites. Today we have the benefit of these tools, plus newly-annotated translations of the DeSoto's Chronicles to track his conquest. To add to the difficulty of understanding what the chroniclers meant, native hosts frequently told them about villages using the village chief's name, or vice versa, and provinces were often referred to in a similar manner. Inca, never having been in North America, confused place names occasionally and never understood what the others called provinces (he names ten provinces in Florida I 33-38 and 189, the others agree on four). I attempt to clarify this by qualifying each native name I use here, and I use the name assigned by the chronicler who, in my opinion, best describes specific people, places or events. Most specifics, however, are similarly titled by the various chroniclers, excepting Inca in several noted cases. Forgotten activity and lost notes in conquest probably account for certain aberrations. The observer's scattered localities during particular events could likewise account for discrepancies in ranging, timing and sequencing reports. A conquest Glossary is included here.If we are to find DeSoto's trail and learn more about the places he visited, then surely we must begin by understanding and applying what these people wrote.  This works-in-progress is an attempt to do just that; it varies substantially from previously published works, however. What follows is my version of the events, circumstances, and geographic locations involved in DeSoto's landing and movement through North America. Earlier explorations of our Gulf Coast by another credible American explorer, Cabeza de Vaca, are also included. I have done my best to use all of the DeSoto chronicles, without bias from other published route reconstructions. I have attempted to match the geographic descriptions provided by DeSoto's Chroniclers with existing locations in America's geography. Today's place names are used in many cases to facilitate identification of sites which may not otherwise be known to those less familiar with Early American History. ABOUT THE AUTHOR During my research, I, Donald E. Sheppard, have visited every site mentioned in this report to verify my interpretations of source data. My interest is purely avocational, however. I have helped scientists find things over the years - quarters, transportation, sponsorship, volunteer diggers, favorable publicity and significant sites (including the Tatham Mound - see photos below) using historic documentation and dogged persistence. In the process, I have learned a few things about my beloved country, and a lot about how difficult it is to trudge the many swamps DeSoto was supposed, by Official Trail Seekers, to have crossed.   I have studied places on ancient maps for 35 years, searched for and found some places, surveyed them, surfaced collected them, excavated a few, and turned over everything I have ever found to the proper public custodian. I owe Florida my education: two Master's Degrees, one in Science from the University of West Florida, the other in Computer Arts from the Univ. of Florida, a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of South Florida, an Associate in Arts from the St. Petersburg Junior College, and a high school diploma from Clearwater High School. I am an airplane pilot and Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Navy. Over the years I have sailed Florida's coasts and flown its skies. My family has lived in Central Florida for five generations. ...to Contact the AuthorABOUT THIS PRESENTATION  The study of DeSoto's conquest is inseparable from that of Panphilo de Narvaez. Both were Spanish conquistadors who are known to have entered and exited Florida near the same locations, within a dozen years of each other. Narvaez failed utterly. DeSoto followed and partially succeeded here. DeSoto's army became aware of native aversion to Spaniards, provoked by Narvaez and coastal slave hunters, shortly after landing in Florida. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca provides us with the only existing narrative of the Narvaez Entrada, which was poorly executed and scantily recorded (Superscripts in this report which refer to Vaca are shown as V, and are linked directly to the spot in his Narration, linked hereto, where the statement occurs.) DeSoto's chroniclers, who wrote their perceptions of Narvaez and described the place where he built his boats for escape, are relied upon here for additional intelligence of his conquest. Once DeSoto marched to Apalache and established his winter quarters, he dispatched his Thirty Lancers to ride back down his trail to bring forward all troops and ships left at port in south Florida. The Lancer's journal, questionably understood but factually related by Inca, is used here to establish distances between places which the chroniclers failed to record in their personal journals when they blazed that trail. Inca's account of the Thirty Lancers journey will, therefore, be discussed, at times, before we discuss DeSoto's arrival at Apalache. I know of no other way to substantiate this incredible journey as it unfolds. A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY of HERNANDO DESOTO Detailed Biography   Hernando de Soto was born in 1500 of a respectable family in Spain. As a young man, DeSoto sailed to and learned slaving skills in Panama. Vicious dogs, fast horses and extortion became his hallmark. DeSoto earned the title "Child of the Sun" for conducting dawn raids on unsuspecting villages. He captured village chiefs then extorted their citizens for their return.DeSoto was influenced by 3 New World Explorers: Ponce de Leon, who discovered North America (La Florida), Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean (the South Sea) below Panama, and Magellan, who sailed that ocean to the Orient, the greatest market on earth. DeSoto's ambitions would, to a large extent, be governed theirs. While DeSoto was in Panama, Balboa was put to death by its dictator for over-stepping his bounds without the strength of a personal army to hold his ground. Learning from that, and with an army of his own, DeSoto signed on with Francisco Pizarro to conquer South America in 1532. Spectacular brutality earned DeSoto huge Incan ransoms. He became one of the richest men in the world before leaving Peru in 1536. DeSoto returned to Spain to seek recognition at Court, but was not accepted there as a peer. Narvaez and another conquistador had recently disappeared while attempting to colonize North America at two different places, thus tarnishing the reputation of New World Conquistadors in general but setting the stage for DeSoto's attempt to establish his own. He married Isabel de Bobadilla, whose family held power at court. At that time, Cabeza de Vaca, a nine year survivor of the Narvaez Expedition and first to explore today's America, stirred Europeans with stories of great riches to be found there.E 48 The King, despite DeSoto's petition to "make discovery in the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean)", granted his trusted soldier a four year commission to colonize and hold La Florida instead (see the King's Concession to DeSoto in Clayton 1993:I:359-365). DeSoto was assigned the governorship of Cuba from which to stage his invasion of today's United States, land once "owned" by Ponce de Leon, Narvaez and another failed conquistador. Vazquez de Coronado was dispatched from Mexico to explore and conquer the western part of North America at the same time.I 63-66DeSoto selected eager conquest volunteers from Spain, Portugal and Cuba, many of African descent. Some were farmers, soldiers, traders, accountants, ship builders, carpenters, tailors or clergymen Hoffman. They averaged 24 years of age. Some had been in the new world before, some with DeSoto.  DeSoto's soldiers provided their own weapons, horses, hounds, servants and equipmentI 72-79, 86, 88 & 130: some even brought their wives. They sailed to Cuba with stores of clothing, trade goods, shields, armor, helmets, cross-bows, guns, black powder, nails, tools, seeds and plows for the conquest and settlement of our mainland. More animals - horses, hardtack, long legged pigs, blood hounds and mules - were bartered from Cuban plantation owners (Clayton 1993:I:373). DeSoto's livestock count came to at least five hundred, including two hundred and thirty-seven horses.Ibid, R 254 DeSoto landed in Charlotte Harbor, Florida, on June 1st, 1539. One month later he marched his army inland then spent that winter in North Florida. With news of gold "toward the sun's raising" he headed northeast during the spring of 1540: traveling through Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. Finding no gold, he headed west through Tennessee, then south through Georgia and Alabama. His object was to meet his ships at Mobile Bay. In October 1540, Chief Tuscaloosa's Tribe ambushed DeSoto's army 100 miles above that port. Despite emerging victorious, DeSoto retreated his army northward, beyond the Tennessee River, to isolate them from escape and, thereby, to preclude bad news from reaching prospective settlers in Spain.In the spring of 1541, DeSoto proceeded due north through Kentucky and Indiana: his scouts as far as Chicago. Finding no ocean to cross to China for Spanish trade, but Lake Michigan, instead, DeSoto retreated southwestward through Illinois and Missouri searching for Cabeza de Vaca's fabled native cities of gold. DeSoto wintered in Arkansas and on May 21, 1542, died of anguish at Lake Village. His weighted body was placed in the Mississippi River; his army fled to Mexico. Hernando DeSoto's Conquest of Florida (and other states) Front Page |
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