The Long Road To mabila - DeSoto's Expedition into the Interior of the United States

Hernando de Soto, rich from the 1536 Conquest of Peru, was the first to explore the interior of North America. He sought a northern passage to the finest market in the world. His people were the first Europeans to chronicle this “island of Florida.” They followed trails that became our highways, describing Native Americans along their way at places that are cities today. De Soto’s huge army landed in Florida in 1539. They circled through Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, North Georgia, and Alabama searching for gold along their way to supply ships at Mobile Bay or possibly Pensacola Bay. They lost their spoils in fires of battle perhaps just above Mobile. De Soto led his demoralized army due north, away from the ships, beyond the Tennessee River to prevent their escape back to Cuba or Mexico. In 1541 they trekked farther north, through Kentucky and Indiana, and the scouts as far as Chicago. Not finding an ocean and thereby a passage to China as he had anticipated, but Lake Michigan instead, he led his army southwest, through Southern Illinois, still searching for that elusive passage. De Soto discovered the Mississippi River, then he later sighted the Missouri River, which obviously drained a continent and NOT an island, (as he had surmised). In disgust he headed through the mountains of Missouri, searching for Vaca’s wealthy tribes. Finding no gold in or around those mountains, de Soto turned south. He died of anguish in Arkansas in 1542.