In November 1536, Hernando de Soto, a seasoned conquistador who had taken part in expeditions in Central and South America, was awarded a contract by the Spanish king to colonize La Florida, the land northeast of Mexico. He sailed from Spain in April 1538 bound for Cuba where he planned to organize the expedition.
Hernando de Soto never left the southeast. He died of fever in 1542 in present-day Arkansas and was buried in the Mississippi River to conceal his death from the natives.
Nearly a year later de Soto and his fleet of nine ships left Cuba for Bahía Honda (Tampa Bay). On board were 725 people, including two women, craftsmen, servants, friars, cavalry, and infantry. The ships also carried 220 horses, war dogs, pigs, food, and an array of weapons and tools.
On May 25, 1539 the ships anchored near the mouth of Tampa Bay. The Spaniards went ashore and set up camp in the Indian village of Uzita. Scout parties were sent out to reconnoiter the region, traveling as far as an Indian town in the vicinity of western Orange County.
In mid-July de Soto and an army of 500 accompanied by hundreds of Indians forced to serve as bearers headed north, intending to reach the territory of the Ocale Indians, where the expedition hoped to spend the winter. The rest of the expedition remained in camp.
Following Indians trails that roughly parallel highway US 41, de Soto reached the Inverness area and turned northeast across the Cove of the Withlacoochee wetlands, arriving at Ocale. The town turned out to be poorly provisioned. To secure food an armed party was sent east to the Acuera Indians in eastern Marion County. Soto and just over 100 men then marched on north through Marion and Alachua counties, leaving the rest of the expedition at Ocale.
After five days of traveling past villages of the Potano Indians, de Soto and his men found themselves in the town of Aguacaleyquen in southern Columbia County. Alarmed by the numbers of Indians, de Soto took the daughter of the town's chief hostage and send horsemen to Ocale to tell the people there to come north to reinforce him.
Reunited, the expedition continued north to near Lake City before turning west, marching through the territory of various Northern Utina Indian groups and reaching the Aucilla River, the eastern boundary of the Apalachee Indians.
Impressed by the agricultural bounty of the Apalachee, de Soto and his army moved on to the town of Anhaica (the Desoto Site in Tallahassee) and set up their winter camp. It was early October. Calvary were sent to Tampa Bay carrying orders for the rest of the expedition to come to Anhaica. Some of the people traveled overland, tracing de Soto's earlier route. Others, along with supplies, were loaded aboard ships that sailed to the coast south of Anhaica where passengers and cargo were off-loaded and taken to Anhaica.
In the early spring 1540, de Soto's army broke camp and headed northeasterly into Georgia. Three years later, after trekking through much of what would become the southeastern U.S., the defeated expedition would reach Mexico, having failed to establish a single settlement. Hernando de Soto never left the southeast. He died of fever in 1542 in present-day Arkansas and was buried in the Mississippi River to conceal his death from the natives.
With a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation, the De Soto National Memorial in partnership with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Division of Recreation and Parks and Office of Greenways and Trails, and the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Office plan to revise the existing Hernando de Soto Trail in Florida based on current research. The new trail and trail markers are planned for completion in 2009, during the 470th anniversary of de Soto's expedition through Florida. More on the new trail sites is found at http://www.nps.gov/deso/historyculture/places.htm.
