50 Fun Facts About Hernando De Soto

Roughly when did de Soto die on the banks of the Mississippi?

Sources place his death near Lake Village, Arkansas, or Ferriday, Louisiana.

In which Spanish region was de Soto born?

Three towns in the province of Badajoz claim him.

Which town did historian Ursula Lamb consider his most likely birthplace?

He asked in his will to be buried there among his family.

With which first Governor of Panama did the teenage de Soto sail to the New World in 1514?

He would later marry the governor's daughter Isabel de Bobadilla.

Which second territory did Pedrarias Dávila govern from 1527 after Panama?

He also founded Panama City in 1519 and lived to about 90.

In which Nicaraguan city did de Soto hold an encomienda and become a regidor?

He had taken part in the conquest of Nicaragua under Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1524.

Whose conquest of the Inca Empire did de Soto join as a captain?

He brought his own hired ships and men to Pizarro's base at Tumbes.

How many men did Pizarro send with de Soto to invite Atahualpa to a meeting at Cajamarca?

The next day the Spanish attacked and captured the Inca ruler.

What game did de Soto teach the captive Atahualpa?

The two became friendly while the Inca's subjects filled a room with gold and silver for his ransom.

Where was de Soto when the Spanish decided to execute Atahualpa?

He returned to report he had found no army.

Which post did de Soto hold in 1534 while Pizarro built his coastal capital?

Almagro later refused him the second-in-command role for the conquest of Chile.

Which chivalric brotherhood admitted de Soto on his wealthy return to Spain in 1536?

His will asked for the order's red cross on the black cloth over his tomb.

Which governorship did the King grant de Soto instead of Ecuador?

He was expected to colonise North America within four years.

Whose tales of surviving years as a castaway in North America fascinated de Soto?

He recruited 620 Spanish and Portuguese participants for the venture.

How many pigs did the expedition carry when it left Havana?

Escaped swine became ancestors of the razorback hogs of the Southeast.

Where is de Soto generally thought to have landed in May 1539?

Historian Robert Weddle has suggested Charlotte Harbor or San Carlos Bay instead.

What name did de Soto give the land where he came ashore?

Nine ships carried priests, craftsmen, engineers, farmers and merchants.

Which Spaniard, found living with the Mocoso people, became the expedition's interpreter?

He had been captured while searching for the lost Narváez expedition and had learned Timucua.

How was the interpreter dressed when the Spaniards found him near their port?

Nine Indians with him scattered as the party approached.

What is called the first large-scale killing by Europeans in the current United States?

De Soto had the defeated Timucuan warriors executed.

Where did the expedition spend its first winter, 1539–40?

The site lies a mile east of Florida's capitol in Tallahassee and was found in 1987.

Who found the Governor Martin Site at Anhaica in March 1987?

It is preserved as the DeSoto Site Historic State Park.

Which chiefdom's female ruler gave de Soto pearls, food and other goods in 1540?

Its capital district lay in the Wateree valley near Camden.

In which modern state was the pearl-giving chiefdom of the Wateree valley centred?

Juan Pardo found it much diminished in 1566.

Which paramount chief lured de Soto to the fortified town of Mabila in 1540?

An Alabama city is named in his honour.

Roughly how many Native Americans died at Mabila, one of the bloodiest battles in North American history?

Some 150 Spaniards were badly wounded and many died in the nine-hour fight.

How many warriors did the paramount chief conceal at Mabila, according to accounts?

The Spaniards eventually burned the village down.

Near which present-day city did the expedition most likely spend the winter of 1540–41?

In spring he demanded porters from the Chickasaw, who attacked.

On what date did de Soto's troops reach the great river?

A 1935 commission favoured Sunflower Landing, Mississippi, as the crossing point.

Which Arkansas state park is thought to be the main town of the province of Casqui?

European artefacts found there in the 1960s match the expedition journals.

Of what did de Soto die on 21 May 1542?

He died at the native village of Guachoya.

What had de Soto told the local natives he was, to win their submission?

His men were anxious to hide his death from the increasingly sceptical locals.

According to one source, what did his men do with de Soto's body?

They wrapped it in blankets and did it at night.

What did de Soto own at his death, besides four Indian slaves and three horses?

He had set out with a far smaller herd three years earlier.

Whom did de Soto choose to command the expedition after his death?

He had been de Soto's maestro de campo, or field commander.

Where did the survivors finally reach Spanish territory after about 50 days on the water?

Chief Quigualtam's fleet had chased their boats down the Mississippi, shooting arrows for days.

How many of the roughly 700 participants are commonly said to have survived the expedition?

Most stayed in the New World; few volunteered for another Florida venture.

Which chronicler's account, La Florida, do historians warn is closer to literature than history?

He never joined the expedition and wrote decades later from survivors' interviews.

Who translated the Gentleman of Elvas's chronicle into English in 1609?

The Portuguese knight's account was the first published, in 1557.

Which anthropologist chaired the 1939 US commission that fixed the standard De Soto Trail?

His route beyond Mabila ran through Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas.

Near which Florida city does the De Soto National Memorial commemorate the 1539 landing?

Historians do not agree that the site was the actual landfall.

Which carmaker sold the DeSoto brand from 1928 to 1961?

It was positioned below Dodge, then above it from 1933.

Which interstate does the Hernando de Soto Bridge carry across the river at Memphis?

Its double-arch shape earns it the nickname the M Bridge.

Whom did de Soto marry after returning rich to Spain in 1536?

She was the daughter of his old commander Pedrarias Dávila.

How many marks of gold did the King award de Soto as his share of the Inca plunder?

He also received 17,740 pesos and the right to conquer Florida.

Where in Georgia do 2009 finds of Venetian chevron beads suggest the expedition stopped?

The site near the Ocmulgee River also yielded a silver pendant and iron tools inside what may have been a council house.

In spring 1541 de Soto demanded 200 porters from which people, who attacked his camp instead?

The night attack came after the expedition's winter near present-day Tupelo.

Which tribe, met on the Caddo River in October 1541, did the Spaniards call their most dangerous foes yet?

A monument to the expedition stands at Caddo Gap, Arkansas, where the clash may have occurred.

In which native village did de Soto die of fever in May 1542?

Sources disagree whether it lay near Lake Village or McArthur, Arkansas, or Ferriday, Louisiana.

De Soto's will asked for a chapel in the Church of San Miguel in his hometown at what cost?

He also wanted his tomb draped in black broadcloth topped by the red cross of the Order of Santiago.