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Updated: July 16, 2025
Still, De Soto should not be condemned unheard; and while we have no evidence that he paid the natives for the food he took from them, still we have no proof that he did not do so. In accordance with his invariable custom, he made strenuous efforts to win the confidence of the natives.
"Ay," answered Roger, who went on to tell of Alvarez's little soliloquy relative to de Soto while searching for the papers in the cabin of the sinking Gloria del Mundo. "He will do de Soto a bad turn, of that I am sure, if he ever gets the opportunity," remarked Roger in conclusion. All was now ready for their departure.
There he was reënforced by a detachment of one hundred men with an additional number of horses under the command of young Hernando de Soto, another gallant Estremaduran, and quite the most attractive among this band of desperadoes, whose design was to loot an empire and proclaim the Holy Gospel of Christ as the Spanish people had received the same.
Those persons who had been sent by the late general, Ferdinand de Soto, when he first advanced into the interior of Florida, to bring him supplies from the Havannah, faithfully obeyed his orders, as they sailed from thence four several years, and plied all along the coast to find him, but could never hear any tidings of him or any of his men, till, in the year 1543, arriving at Vera Cruz in October, they learnt that the remains of the expedition had been conducted to Mexico.
It was one of those imaginative stories which the Indians were always ready to tell, and the whites as ready to believe, and it was well for La Salle that he did not attempt the fanciful adventure. Savage settlements were numerous along the Mississippi, as De Soto had found a century and more earlier.
Few complaints arose against the administration of the two first Spanish governors, Diego Velasquez and Pedro de Barba. The oppression of the natives dates from the arrival of the cruel Hernando de Soto about the year 1539. The mortality of the negro slaves, observed in our days in the West Indies, can alone throw some light on these numerous contradictions.
The next day being the 21st of May, 1542, departed out of this life the valorous, virtuous, and valiant captain, Don Fernando de Soto, Governor of Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida: whom fortune advanced, as it useth to do others, that he might have the higher fall.
Several thousand natives, brandishing their javelins and their war clubs, stood upon the opposite bank of the stream. De Soto and his horsemen, without a moment's hesitation, plunged into the stream, and some by swimming and some by fording, soon crossed the foaming waters.
"De Soto fared equally with his men in every respect; and, though troubled and anxious for the fate of his great expedition, he wore a sunny countenance to cheer up his followers. These chivalrous spirits appreciated his care and kindness, and to solace him they concealed their sufferings, assumed an air of contentedness, and appeared as happy as though revelling in abundance."
Before starting on the march to the interior of the country, De Soto sent all the vessels back to Cuba. In this way he cut off all hope of retreat, in case the men should become discouraged. But no one thought of wanting to return now. Everybody was in high spirits.
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