WEBVTT 1 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:20.160 Sailing up the wide gray Guadalaville River on a spring day in fifteen thirty six, 2 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:27.519 Ernando de Soto would have first glimped Seville for the first time in years, 3 00:00:28.359 --> 00:00:33.880 over fifteen years since he had last seen Spain. For him, I'm 4 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:38.799 sure it was a beautiful sight. Just twenty two years earlier, he had 5 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:44.000 left this city as a no name page. Now he was returning, at 6 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:49.320 the age of thirty six, a hero. For not only was he the 7 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:55.600 most important captain from Peru to return home since Hernando Pizzaro a year earlier, 8 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:00.960 and one of the richest, carrying one thousand pounds of gold, he also 9 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:07.560 happened to be arriving at a singular moment in Spanish history, when his countrymen 10 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:15.719 were triumphant. As soto ship slowly wound through the freshly panted fields of spring 11 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:22.079 wheat, grapes and sartress south of the city, everything seemed to be going 12 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:30.079 right for the Spanish on the throne sat an energeticiff already tired king Emperor who 13 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:37.959 at thirty six dominated Europe as no one had since Charlemagne, controlling scattered territories 14 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:42.799 from Hungary to Germany to the Netherlands and Italy to Spain. In the past 15 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:51.120 five years, his soldiers in conquistadors had humiliated his enemies the French in Milan 16 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:56.719 and Venice, the Turks at Vienna, and conquered an immense new empire in 17 00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:04.280 the Indies. Within a decade, Charles's luster would dim as his machiavellian maneuverings 18 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:09.840 in Europe unraveled and he plunged into a bloody, soul wrenching campaign against Christian 19 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:16.680 reformers led by Martin Luther. But for the moment, the Spanish were exultant. 20 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:23.759 Sodo's friends later recalled that summer in Saville as a flurry of tournaments, 21 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:29.719 gambling and partying. In between all the games, Sodo made efforts to attend 22 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:36.240 to all the serious business of transitioning from one conquest to the next. All 23 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:42.960 of his gold was immediately impounded by the Casa de Contraxion, Spain's effective ministry 24 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:50.039 of New World conquest. This was standard operating procedure in the sixteenth century. 25 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:55.080 Men had to bribe and negotiate their money back. For Sodo, this process 26 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:01.199 seems to have gone smoothly. We don't know exactly how much tax Soto paid, 27 00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:07.919 though it seems he was forced into giving the crown alone amount unknown. 28 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:15.000 This was also common practice in the sixteenth century, as Charles the Fifth was 29 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:23.240 always broke. Almost immediately after arriving in Seville, Soto informed the Casa de 30 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:30.400 Contraccion that he intended to ask Charles for permission to carry out another conquest in 31 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:36.800 the New World. Odds are the Casa was thrilled with the prospect of more 32 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:43.240 taxes, not to mention the bribes. Charles himself did not arrive in Seville 33 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:50.319 for almost two years. The two men met in fifteen thirty seven. Interestingly, 34 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:55.400 they were nearly the exact same age. Apparently the Emperor was impressed with 35 00:03:55.479 --> 00:04:01.080 Soto, although we have no record of the meeting. Evidence of Soto's success 36 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:06.120 with the king came on April the twentieth, when Charles issued the first of 37 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:15.519 three documents providing Soto with permission to conquer a new territory. Soto originally wanted 38 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:24.759 permission to conquer what is today Columbia or Guatemala instead, and somewhat shockingly, 39 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:30.879 Charles granted Soto permission to invade a territory about as far away in the Indies 40 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:38.360 from that location as anyone thought you could get. They called it La Florida. 41 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:44.560 How exactly this happened, we're not sure. However, it seems likely 42 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:49.079 that Columbia and Guatemala had already been seized by other conquistadors, and they were 43 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:56.199 just off the table. Soto was not the first to try to conquer North 44 00:04:56.199 --> 00:05:01.279 America. The Spanish crown had already launched three separate expedition to seize what would 45 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:08.439 become the United States. All had ended in disaster. Ponce de Leon, 46 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:14.959 the Fountain of Youth Guy was the first. The most recent was Panphilo de 47 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:19.680 Navarez, who was a veteran of the Cuban conquest, but that had been 48 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:26.439 a decade earlier. In fifteen twenty seven, he landed in Tampa Bay, 49 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:32.319 but disappeared without a trace in June of fifteen twenty eight. Sodo signed his 50 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:39.519 contract with the king on April twentieth, fifteen thirty seven, after weeks of 51 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:43.839 haggling over how much tax Soda would pay and whether or not he would be 52 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:50.839 named governor for life in one major concession, the King also appointed Sodo the 53 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:56.399 governor of Cuba, which he planned to use as a base of operations for 54 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:01.120 his expedition. Now affairs were moving on the other side of the world in 55 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:06.399 a way that was going to have dramatic consequences for Hernando de Soto in the 56 00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:13.279 future. During the summer of fifteen thirty six, about the time Soda was 57 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:19.120 partying in Seville, far across the Ocean Sea in Mexico, Viceroy Antonio de 58 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:27.079 Mendoza received a gaunt, heavily tattooed medicine man would appeared one day to the 59 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:34.120 north of the city. His name was Alvar Nunez Cabasa de Vaca, former 60 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:41.519 royal treasurer of the Navarez expedition, which eight years earlier had disappeared without a 61 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:48.879 trace in La Florida. Declaring Cabesa de Vaca's survival a miracle, Mendoza provided 62 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:55.319 the former treasurer with clothes and housing, and the following year a ship to 63 00:06:55.399 --> 00:07:00.000 convey him back across the sea, where he arrived in Lisbon on August ninth, 64 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:10.120 journeying soon after to Belladelidkabesa Devaca met with King Charles and handed him a 65 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:15.720 brief report on the fate of Navadres's expedition. He also conferred with the king 66 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:25.040 in private reportedly telling him about certain secrets he told no one else. Of 67 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:30.839 course, the very mention of secrets, combined with Kabesa Devaca's claims to have 68 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:36.879 seen emeralds and gold, plunge the court into a frenzy of speculation. Fresh 69 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:45.680 rumors spread throughout the empire about the fantastical riches hidden deep in the interior of 70 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:51.120 La Florida. For Kabeesa Devaca, however, his homecoming was not satisfying. 71 00:07:53.240 --> 00:07:58.959 Having returned to Spain hoping to get Navadres' concession to La Florida, he was 72 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:05.879 not pleased to find that another person had beaten him to it for six years. 73 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:11.759 It turned out, Gabasa de Vaca and his compatriots had wandered across the 74 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:16.639 borderlands between what is today Mexico and the United States. It was during this 75 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:22.360 period he developed a compassion for Native Americans that was unheard of among Spaniards during 76 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:30.680 this period. It was also during this period that he began developing allusions of 77 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:37.399 grandeur as to the wealth of the region. For example, turquoise that Native 78 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:45.360 Americans gave him he mistook for emeralds. Soto and others would give their lives 79 00:08:45.799 --> 00:08:52.039 chasing these illusions, and it's hard for me distress just how important the timing 80 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:58.440 of this all is. Just as Soto is getting ready to move out to 81 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:07.440 Laflori, someone claims to have inside knowledge of all the wealth trapped within Now 82 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:15.159 was Cabesa correct? Of course he wasn't. There are no cities of gold 83 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:22.840 and emeralds hidden within the American southeast, But none of that mattered because nobody 84 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:28.080 knew that there was an old Mexico before Cortez stumbled upon it. Nobody knew 85 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:35.200 that there was an Inca empire before Pizarro showed up. Many Europeans, and 86 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:43.360 especially de Soto, very much believed that there were more hidden wealthy empires out 87 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:52.240 there for conquering. And what Cabeza de Vaca's testimony does is dumps gasoline on 88 00:09:52.320 --> 00:10:00.759 an already burning fire. By the fall of fifteen thirty seven, was consumed 89 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:05.639 with preparing for his expedition. This would prove to be one of the more 90 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:13.200 expensive of the kunquistador eras the total price tag came in just over one hundred 91 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:18.279 and thirty thousand castellanos, which was six times with the Spanish crown had spent 92 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:26.039 on the most expensive expedition up to that date. Thus, Sodo's expedition was, 93 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:33.519 in fifteen thirty seven, the most expensive unquistador action ever undertaken, at 94 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:39.240 least at its outset. If chroniclers are to be believed, Soda paid for 95 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:45.360 it all himself out of pocket, or nearly all of it. This would 96 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:50.960 have been incredibly unusual. Normally, one of the big banking houses based in 97 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:58.600 or with offices in Seville fronted the cash for these expeditions and also charged enormous 98 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:05.360 interest rates. Perhaps that is what Sodo sought to avoid by paying for his 99 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:11.639 expedition out of pocket. By the time he was done, Soto had purchased 100 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:18.159 at least five large ships, accompanied by several small, faster caravels designed for 101 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:24.120 exploring inlets and up large rivers. Sometime during the preparations, Soto named his 102 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:31.320 lieutenants. These were capable men, but crucially, they were also fiercely loyal. 103 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:37.480 Sodo had learned a lot watching the fallout between Almagro and Pisoto in Peru. 104 00:11:39.399 --> 00:11:45.960 He wanted a one, unified chain of command, with himself undisputably at 105 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:52.840 the top. Sodo undoubtedly went home briefly to see his family before setting off, 106 00:11:52.840 --> 00:11:56.440 but We know next to nothing about the time he spent there, and 107 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:05.039 it's almost certain that both of his parents were dead by then. On April 108 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:09.480 the first, fifteen thirty eight, Sodo ordered his men to muster at San 109 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:15.240 Lucar, a village alongside the Guadalavia River. On Sunday, April seventh, 110 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:20.080 Sodo and his men, hurt mass had a last feast of fresh food, 111 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:26.639 and boarded their ships. Soto's Amada was accompanied from San Lucar with another fleet 112 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:31.480 of twenty large ships bound from Mexico. These were commanded by a different royal 113 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:37.120 official. Soto, however, was in overall command. Interestingly enough, disaster 114 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:45.120 struck from the moment this fleet left San Lucar the first night out by mistake, 115 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:50.080 the other official ship actually went ahead of the flagship which Soto was in. 116 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:58.759 That's huge mistake in terms of naval operations. The ships became confused, 117 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:03.799 someone thought they were under attack, and they opened fire on the ship that 118 00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:09.200 had overtaken the flagship. One of the masts was knocked to the ground by 119 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:15.080 a cannonball. Soto, when he found out about it, was absolutely livid 120 00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:18.240 with the official who had allowed his ship to go out of line. In 121 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:22.000 fact, he ordered him to be executed, only to calm down the next 122 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:28.440 day and rescind the order. Soto and his fleet stopped at the Canary Islands 123 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:33.840 to resupply in late April fifteen thirty eight. Nearly every fleet stopped at the 124 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:39.039 Canaries during this period. Then they began to sail due west towards Cuba. 125 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:46.320 Soto's fleet took nearly twice as long as normal to cross the ocean. What 126 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:52.159 people in this age still didn't totally understand was how the Gulf Stream could work 127 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:58.200 as a super highway to sort of slingshot boats across the Atlantic. His men 128 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:03.480 did not sight Cuba until early fifteen thirty eight. As the ships drew closer, 129 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:09.000 the men noted the cliffs that rim the southern shore of Cuba. If 130 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:13.799 the navigator's calculations in terms of latitude and longitude were correct and the fleet had 131 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:18.399 arrived where they were supposed to, those on board should have seen a great 132 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:22.960 gap in the cliffs ahead. This was the narrow channel that leads into Santiago 133 00:14:22.039 --> 00:14:28.240 Bay, a protected harbor first discovered by Columbus in fourteen ninety two. Nineteen 134 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:33.559 years later, it had been conquered by Diego de le Vesquees, who began 135 00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:37.840 his rule over what had been a community of peaceful shell gatherers by enslaving them 136 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:43.679 and killing most of them within months of his arrival. Entering this treacherous channel 137 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:48.120 had always been nerve racking, particularly for a ship's pilot who had never been 138 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:54.759 there before. At best, he had a crude map haphazardly marking hidden shoals. 139 00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:58.679 Cautiously, the pilot, Alonzo Martine, would have lined up his ships, 140 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:03.840 coming up slowly to a steep and rocky headland to the right of the 141 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:07.440 harbor's entrance, and the lower ridge to the left were the rocky outcrops tumble 142 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:13.000 into the sea. From a short distance out, he would have seen that 143 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:16.440 the deepest part of the channel, where the water was the darkest, turn 144 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:20.039 in a wide sweep to the right, indicating shallows, to the left, 145 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:24.039 where the water was a lighter shade of blue. He could not see what 146 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:28.759 these shallows held, However, there was a small submerged inlet of rock, 147 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:35.879 sand and coral, known today as Smith's Key. This hazard has wrecked many 148 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.720 vessels over the centuries, and nearly added Sodo ship to the list. Thanks 149 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:46.120 to a spaniard on shore, who suddenly and inexplicably waved them in the direction 150 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:52.200 of the rocks. Riding a fast horse, this man deliberately signaled to the 151 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:58.360 fleet to bear left, a command that certainly confused Alonzo Martine, who saw 152 00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:03.240 the deep water of the channel moving to the right. Nonetheless, he obeyed 153 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:07.480 the signal from the shore, ordering the flagship to come hard to port. 154 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:15.519 This brought an eight hundred ton vessel swinging slowly around, and headed it directly 155 00:16:15.960 --> 00:16:22.240 for deadly Smith's Key. At this point, the man on shore abruptly changed 156 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:27.240 his mind even more frantically. He now signaled for the ships to turn hard 157 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:33.000 to starboard. One of the men on board, Guard Alasco, who is 158 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.000 the one who tells us the story, adds the following quote to make himself 159 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:42.080 better understood. He dismounted and ran to his right, making signs with his 160 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:47.480 arms and his cape, and saying, turn turn to the other side, 161 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:52.559 you will all be lost. Those on the flagship, when they understood him, 162 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:56.000 turned as rapidly as possible to the left, but as hard as they 163 00:16:56.039 --> 00:17:00.320 tried, they could not prevent the ship from striking inst a rock end quote. 164 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:07.400 The other ships of the fleet turned safely away, but the San Cristal 165 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:12.119 Ball scraped bottom quote, striking so hard against a rock that all on board 166 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:18.079 thought it was stove in and lost end quote. Fearing that the hull was 167 00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:22.440 taking on water. Many aboard the sand crystal Ball panicked and hastily grabbed the 168 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:27.880 ship's skiffs to escape. Because there was no protocol of women and children first 169 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:33.680 in the sixteenth century, the strongest and the quickest scrambled to make room for 170 00:17:33.720 --> 00:17:37.119 themselves, though Soto, who had brought his wife and her young lady in 171 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:44.000 waiting, made sure that they got safely aboard one of the lifeboats. Fortunately, 172 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:48.680 at this point, sailors searching below decks came running up to tell Soto 173 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:52.279 that there was no structural damage to the ship, and then the liquid slashing 174 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:57.200 around in the hold was from wine from broken casks, not seawater. But 175 00:17:57.319 --> 00:18:03.000 what had gone wrong here? Well, the townspeople of Santiago, the harbor 176 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:07.400 that they were sailing into, were horrified when they learned that they had nearly 177 00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:14.480 shipwrecked their new governor, But they were merely acting out of caution. A 178 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:18.279 group of French pirates had been raiding in the region, and the people mistakenly 179 00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:25.039 thought Sodo's fleet was a part of that man. Sodo then presented his credentials 180 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:30.359 to the city council, which immediately accepted him as governor. Sodo wanted to 181 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:33.759 try to woo as many young men to joining his expedition as possible. He 182 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:41.519 also started buying up huge quantities of cattle, farms, food, and manufactured 183 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:45.759 goods. This might sound like a good thing, but it actually wasn't, 184 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.400 at least as far as the people of Cuba were concerned. Cuba was very 185 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:55.079 much still a growing colony. It needed its farms and cattle to continue to 186 00:18:55.079 --> 00:19:00.759 survive. As far as many on the island were concerned, Sodo was leaching 187 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:06.240 away an already existing colony in the hope of building a new one somewhere else. 188 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:11.640 And where was the sense in that. Sodo remained in Santiago for about 189 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:18.559 four months. Now. Twenty years before, Santiago had been a major city, 190 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:22.680 but since the conquest of Mexico and Peru, it had evolved into a 191 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:29.119 backwater. Sodo really wanted to get moving to La Florida. But Sodo could 192 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:34.000 not entirely neglect local crises, especially because he was the governor most pressing was 193 00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:38.799 the situation with the French. Their King Francis the First, as we all 194 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:45.200 know, remained Charles's mortal enemy, as their struggle for domination in Europe spilled 195 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:49.759 over into the Americas, where pirates could stage random attacks almost with impunity. 196 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:55.880 Clearly, the days were over when every ship in the Caribbean was Spanish and 197 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:02.119 friendly and no seaward defenses were necessary. The Council of the Indies had discussed 198 00:20:02.119 --> 00:20:06.200 this very issue with Sodo before he left, ordering him to build a stone 199 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:11.279 fort in Havana to protect the gold fleets carrying crown taxes from Mexico to Spain. 200 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:18.480 Shortly after touching down in Santiago, Sodo received word that the pirates chased 201 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:22.519 away from Santiago in April, had just attacked Havanah and burned it to the 202 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:27.000 ground, a distressing development if true. Send Soto intended to use Havanah as 203 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:33.079 his base to explore La Florida. After one of his aids confirmed the attack, 204 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:37.920 Soto sent another with some men by sale to rebuild the city of Havana. 205 00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:45.039 Also in Santiago, Sodo lunched an effort to build the stone fortresses as 206 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:48.240 required by the Council of the Indies. In addition, Sodo had to deal 207 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:52.200 with what could be described as an uprising of Indians on the western portion of 208 00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:57.279 the island. Certainly, the locals appreciated all these efforts, the forts and 209 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:04.119 the dealing with the uprising, but Sodo's other legal decisions infuriated them. He 210 00:21:04.279 --> 00:21:10.599 forbade trade with the outside world, and I have to say, I really 211 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:17.039 don't know why. I have looked in ten to fifteen other books to see 212 00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:22.839 if there's some rationalis to why he would forbade Cuba from trading with anyone, 213 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:29.960 even other Spanish colonies, and I just don't see one. Regardless, the 214 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:36.359 decision absolutely crippled Cuba's economy, which was based on trade with Mexico. Plus, 215 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:42.160 he forbade the importation of slaves, even as andcomienda owners were desperate for 216 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:48.759 new sources of labor. Certainly, the vicinos of Cuba were grateful for Soto, 217 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:55.319 who was at least trying to cope with the problems that beset Cuba at 218 00:21:55.319 --> 00:22:03.440 this moment, but everything else he did made them absolutely furious. Sometime before 219 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:11.680 departing Santiago for Havannah, Sodo dismatched his major General Alonsode Ayala on a long 220 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:17.400 neglected mission to Peru, informing his partner Hernan Ponce de Leon but everything that 221 00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:22.480 had transpired since they parted three years earlier. In Peru, Sodo had more 222 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:26.440 on his mind, though, than a simple up to date report. He 223 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:30.720 instructed Ayala to ask Pons for an additional ten thousand ducats, desperately needed to 224 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:37.559 finance the expedition's final phase. A bold request considering Sodo hadn't communicated for over 225 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:42.759 a year with his partner. He instructed Ayala to tell Ponce that as far 226 00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:48.160 as he was concerned, the company and the pact of brotherhood still existed, 227 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:52.400 and that he would equally divide all plunder and wealth gained in La Florida with 228 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.599 his old comrade, provided, of course, Pond send him this money. 229 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:02.519 Ayala said, sale that summer, but he only got as far as Panama. 230 00:23:02.680 --> 00:23:06.319 Here he was told Ponce had already left Peru that he would be arriving 231 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:10.160 any day in Panama on his way to Spain. Having cashed out the company's 232 00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:15.920 properties while waiting for Ponce in Panama City, Ayala took care of another business 233 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:21.079 item for Soda, selling all the property bequeathed to him by his wife as 234 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:26.920 a dowry. Ayala later recalled he sold what was actually Pedro of the villa's 235 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:30.720 old ranch, which must have brought in a lot of money and also, 236 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:33.279 I'm not gonna lie, probably a little bit of self satisfaction for Hernando Dee 237 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:38.799 Soto. Somehow, however, despite the fact that there was only one town, 238 00:23:40.839 --> 00:23:45.720 Ayala managed to miss Ponce ne Leone as he was traveling through the Isthmus. 239 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:48.920 Later on, he would insist that this happened because he was sick, 240 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:55.519 though it's hard to believe that in this one colony Ponce slipped by Sodo servant 241 00:23:55.640 --> 00:24:02.400 undetected, but still he did. Either way, Ayala was either really sick 242 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:10.039 or more likely Ponce purposely avoided him for Soto's old partner. He was ready 243 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:14.519 to just go back to Spain. He wanted to just cash in his chips. 244 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:17.359 He didn't want any more frontier life. He didn't want the money from 245 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:22.119 the Florida. He figured he had enough money from Peru. I mean, 246 00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:27.319 this is the one rare guy who actually just cashes out at the gambling table 247 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:33.000 at the New World. Now, of course, this was of course also 248 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:40.240 super convenient for Ponce because he was taking back to Spain sixty to one hundred 249 00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:45.440 thousand pasos worth of gold and silver that he got from selling off the company's 250 00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:49.880 properties in Peru, half of which, according to the contract, should go 251 00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:57.920 to Hernando de Soto. So his reasons for eluding Ayala in Panama probably had 252 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:02.799 a lot less to do with a desire not to go on this expedition to 253 00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:07.240 La Florida, and a lot more to do with the fact that he didn't 254 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:11.480 want to give Soto his half back in Cuba. Early that fall, Soto 255 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:17.200 mustered his army, most of it would sail around to the northern coast of 256 00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:22.480 Cuba, where all would depart for La Florida. Soto, with one hundred 257 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:26.960 and fifty cavalry, would go overland so he could take stock of the province 258 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:32.079 he would never see again. Cuba, even up to this point, had 259 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:37.359 never been heavily populated, and the land that Soto now marched through to Havana 260 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:42.440 was mostly swamps and grassland. It wasn't the most fun trek in the history 261 00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:45.640 of the world, but frankly, it was a good taste of things to 262 00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:51.480 come. Eventually, Soto reached Havanah, where the fleet was waiting for him. 263 00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:57.920 But then he got some bad news. It seems that an expedition from 264 00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:06.480 Mexico led by Francisco de Coronado, was marching north to explore what is today 265 00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:12.759 the American Southwest. Soto, however, thought that this was one hundred percent 266 00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:18.400 part of La Florida. He was furious, according to one report, quote, 267 00:26:19.079 --> 00:26:25.480 not knowing where Coronado was going the governor and he's talking about. Soto 268 00:26:26.279 --> 00:26:30.279 began fearing that the two might encounter and hinder one another, and that trouble 269 00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:37.039 might arise between them, as had happened in Peru between Persaro and Almagro, 270 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:44.279 and in Central America during the Wars of the Captains end quote. Given what 271 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:48.720 Soto had lived through already, I honestly cannot say that I blame him for 272 00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:53.039 feeling the way that he did. It seemed like the only way that the 273 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:57.680 Spanish could lose in the New World was when they ran into each other. 274 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:06.799 Every native civilization that they had encountered, every first nation's empire had simply been 275 00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:11.640 unable to stand up to that deadly combination of smallpox, armor and horses. 276 00:27:12.920 --> 00:27:21.559 The only thing that could derail an expedition was another expedition, so stepped on 277 00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:26.039 the gas. Sometime in late fifteen thirty eight, he ordered one of his 278 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:30.720 lieutenants to find a suitable landing spot in La Florida for his expeditionary force. 279 00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:37.279 The man was an accomplished geographer a navigator, so he skipped all the marshy 280 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:42.359 ground in Florida's southern shore and went instead to the more hospitable Gulf. Eventually 281 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:47.880 he picked a landing spot, which most historians agree was Tampa Bay. As 282 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:52.039 an asside, by the way, there is this whole cottage industry that I 283 00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:57.599 never knew existed amongst historians. When it comes to recreating Soto's North American Trek, 284 00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:03.559 no one, and I do mean no one agrees on every spot, 285 00:28:04.599 --> 00:28:10.680 but I'm going to do my best to give you the consensus in terms of 286 00:28:10.759 --> 00:28:15.960 generally where he is and when. And we're talking about a trek here. 287 00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:19.160 You know, that's five six years long, so it's not huge, but 288 00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:26.240 he manages to cover quite a large swath of territory in that time. When 289 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:30.400 the ships returned, Soda was delighted to learn that not only was there an 290 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:36.519 excellent landing spot, but there was evidently much gold in Florida as well. 291 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:44.960 This the advanced team had apparently learned from conversing with natives. The final account 292 00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:51.279 for the expedition was about six hundred officers, soldiers, tradesmen, servants, 293 00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:56.920 and non Indian slaves. They also took around two hundred and forty horses, 294 00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:02.920 so in terms of men, Soto had about three and a half times what 295 00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:08.039 peace Auto had when he conquered Peru. He also had five large ships, 296 00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:17.559 two caravels, and two small brigantines. Finally, on the eighteenth of May 297 00:29:17.720 --> 00:29:51.200 fifteen thirty nine, the expedition to conquer La Florida set out. Sodo's fleet 298 00:29:51.240 --> 00:29:55.559 first sighted the shoreline of La Florida on made the twenty fifth, fifteen thirty 299 00:29:55.640 --> 00:30:02.400 nine. Immediately, lookouts began scanning the coastline looking for a broad natural harbor, 300 00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:07.400 but they found was an inlet Soto called Bahia, the Espiritu Santo. 301 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:15.720 Most historians agree that today is Tampa Bay, where exactly Soto's boot first met 302 00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:22.759 Americans soil, however, remains a matter of conjecture and hot debate. When 303 00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:27.839 they got closer to the shore, Soo dispatched a brigantine and scouting party that 304 00:30:27.839 --> 00:30:33.160 he would personally lead to find a campsite. At this point, the fleet 305 00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:37.599 probably stood at anchor near a thin coastal island in Tampa Bay, which today 306 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:45.559 is called Longboat Key. Soto led his brigantine out ideally define natives with whom 307 00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:53.119 they could confirm the existence of gold ideally nearby. They didn't find any. 308 00:30:53.319 --> 00:31:00.519 In fact, they got lost. Soon the Soto found himself with the sun 309 00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:06.559 dropping fast below the horizon. Not wanting to get caught away from the fleet 310 00:31:06.599 --> 00:31:11.519 after dark, Soto ordered the rowers to return to the ships, But when 311 00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:15.279 they emerged from the narrow passage between the two islands, they found that the 312 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:19.920 wind had shifted direction and stiffened too, a light gale that nearly prevented them 313 00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:25.279 from paddling out into the open sea. Once free of the inlet, the 314 00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:29.440 tiny craft could make no headway toward the fleet as the wind pushed them repeatedly 315 00:31:29.640 --> 00:31:33.519 back against the beach in Longboat Key. Finally, as the sun dropped into 316 00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:38.160 the sea and the sky darkened into twilight, the governor gave up and ordered 317 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:41.559 his men to run the brigantine under the beach for the night in a protected 318 00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:48.680 spot out of the driving wind. This could have either been potentially Longboat Key 319 00:31:48.799 --> 00:31:53.079 or possibly back inside sarah Soota Bay. We're not sure wherever it was. 320 00:31:53.720 --> 00:31:57.920 One of the men on board them, Roligo Ranjel, says that they found 321 00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:04.599 a small Indian village hastily abandoned, containing quote a hut like the large ones 322 00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:07.279 that have been seen in the Indies, and several smaller ones and quote. 323 00:32:08.440 --> 00:32:14.279 Sodo was now with his small group stranded on shore miles away from his fleet. 324 00:32:15.160 --> 00:32:20.359 Alviedo, one of Soto's key lieutenants back with the ships, noted that 325 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:23.640 he was very lucky Sodo, that is, the natives didn't wipe out his 326 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:30.839 scouting party then in there. Luckily, the next morning the fleet spotted Sodo's 327 00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:35.720 brigantine and they were able to send the caravel to collect the men. For 328 00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:42.119 four more days, the fleet proceeded slowly into the bay. On May thirtieth, 329 00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:45.799 Sodo found a suitable enough landing space that he ordered the horses unloaded, 330 00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:53.519 assuming he followed normal conquistado procedures. Soto then likely cleared out enough space for 331 00:32:53.559 --> 00:33:00.839 a campsite, cleaning the underbrush and felling several trees during this process, Soto's 332 00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:07.000 men first encountered a group of hostile natives. The meeting didn't go well. 333 00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:10.880 Two natives were killed and two horses were wounded, and no one found any 334 00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:16.839 gold. Not the best start. The following morning, Soo took a hundred 335 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:22.319 or more men in brigantines to find a more suitable campsite. He found it 336 00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:29.759 eight miles to the north, in an abandoned Indian village called Osita. Soto 337 00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:35.119 decided to make this his temporary headquarters and ordered his men to march there at 338 00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:39.400 once. Everyone, including the stragglers, reached Osita by June the third, 339 00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:45.319 muddy hot and happy to find abandoned huts to rest in. But the bad 340 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:51.160 news was that this seemed like an extremely primitive village. Not only was there 341 00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:54.759 no site of golden pyramids, or golden temples, or golden anything. These 342 00:33:54.799 --> 00:34:00.200 locals didn't even seem to grow corn, a crop with which the span it's 343 00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:06.960 now associated with advanced Mesoamerican cultures. Soto, of course, remained undaunted. 344 00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:12.880 The question, then, of course, is when Hernando de Soto planted the 345 00:34:12.920 --> 00:34:16.400 purple and gold standard of Castile and Arragon on the Florida coast. What exactly 346 00:34:16.920 --> 00:34:23.239 was he claiming, Because he did that according to the King, the governor 347 00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:30.280 combined the concessions given to Panfilo, Navarees and Lucas de Ayom. Theoretically this 348 00:34:30.519 --> 00:34:37.519 encompassed the entire of North America above Mexico, all seven point three million square 349 00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:40.440 miles of it. Quite a piece of real estate to be claimed by one 350 00:34:40.519 --> 00:34:45.079 person standing on a beach who had no real idea of the continent's size. 351 00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:52.360 But then again, such as the age of the Comquisador. Still, even 352 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.760 if to Soto had known the audacious claim he was putting forth, I doubt 353 00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:00.880 it would have stopped him. Nor was Soto a loan as he offloaded his 354 00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:06.639 men in material late that May near the Indian village of Ossita. Other explorers 355 00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:10.559 were making their own bids to penetrate deep into the interior. In Mexico, 356 00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:16.480 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was about to launch his invasion of what was now the 357 00:35:16.519 --> 00:35:22.960 southwestern United States, and far away to the northeast in the Saint Lauris River 358 00:35:22.039 --> 00:35:27.960 Valley. The French explorer Jacques Cartier two years later would begin his third and 359 00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:32.000 final expedition, trekking deep into Canada. Where he had already claimed the homelands 360 00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:37.840 that belonged to the Huron, the Algonquin, and the Iroquois, all for 361 00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:43.760 France without ever asking them. Meanwhile, to the west, a man named 362 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:50.719 Francisco de Yula and later Juan Rodrigo Cabrillo were exploring the Pacific coast from Mexico. 363 00:35:51.320 --> 00:35:55.559 Should eventually take Cabrillo as far north as present day Oregon. It was 364 00:35:55.599 --> 00:36:04.679 an age when one had to just point and say mine. In fifteen thirty 365 00:36:04.760 --> 00:36:08.039 nine, though Columbus's first voyage was then forty seven years old, Europeans knew 366 00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:13.480 next to nothing about North America. It may come as a surprise to some 367 00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:16.519 of you listening, but all the attention had been in the Caribbean, Central 368 00:36:16.519 --> 00:36:22.920 and South America, but would become the United States in Canada largely an afterthought. 369 00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:27.159 That's going to change when England becomes more of a colonial player in the 370 00:36:27.199 --> 00:36:34.880 seventeenth century. But even Jamestown won't be founded until sixteen o seven. Soto 371 00:36:35.320 --> 00:36:39.679 was in uncharted lands already, he and his men had met and killed several 372 00:36:39.719 --> 00:36:45.480 of the local peoples, the Tumukuian Indians, the people who inhabited the upper 373 00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:52.480 half of the Florida Peninsula. Soto actually didn't want to kill these people. 374 00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:58.320 He hoped to capture a few to interrogate them again. He wanted to know 375 00:36:58.360 --> 00:37:04.519 we're all the kingdoms of the Gold were. Sodo's early frustration at being unable 376 00:37:04.559 --> 00:37:08.639 to capture knowledgeable Indians, or any Indians for that matter, other than a 377 00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:14.920 few scragglers, became a major problem as summer preceded and the Natives continued to 378 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:21.000 elude his men. In part this was because of the inexperienced Spaniards had not 379 00:37:21.079 --> 00:37:27.679 yet properly learned about how to sneak through the swamps and forests. But even 380 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:31.159 when Soto's men managed to find Indians, they proved to be among the most 381 00:37:31.199 --> 00:37:39.039 formidable fighters Soto had ever seen, including the incas. Their secret weapon was 382 00:37:39.079 --> 00:37:46.320 something that was unheard of anywhere else in the Indies, belong bow. Indeed, 383 00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:52.320 Soto had not faced such deadly bows and arrows since his late teens in 384 00:37:52.440 --> 00:38:00.320 Colombia. The Florida Natives used what was kind of a massive bow, was 385 00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:07.559 six or seven feet long. There was no poison, but their deadly accuracy 386 00:38:07.800 --> 00:38:14.400 was almost perfect, even from as far away as two hundred paces Sodo's men 387 00:38:14.719 --> 00:38:19.039 had great difficulty even bending these bows that were as tall as a man. 388 00:38:20.039 --> 00:38:25.840 According to one the arrows were quote very heavy and so tough that a sharp 389 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:31.840 and cane passed through a shield, somber pointed like a fishbone, some as 390 00:38:31.840 --> 00:38:37.360 sharp as an awe, and others with a certain stone like a diamond point. 391 00:38:37.320 --> 00:38:44.239 Generally, when these strike against armor, they go right through the links 392 00:38:44.599 --> 00:38:49.480 and quote, so Sodo was up against it in terms of the odds, 393 00:38:49.480 --> 00:38:53.119 and Frank was probably a little bit surprised by the sophistication of the weaponry that 394 00:38:53.159 --> 00:38:57.599 was being used by the natives, despite the fact that they didn't seem to 395 00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:05.079 evidence any other characteristics of advanced Mesoamerican civilizations. During these first busy weeks in 396 00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:08.840 La Florida, Soto sent his scouts out in all directions in the hopes of 397 00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:15.079 finding evidence of an advanced civilization. He also organized his army into permanent squadrons 398 00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:21.880 for cavalry and two infantry. Around sixty days, the camp remained a flurry 399 00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:25.800 of activity as men unloaded the ships and built palisades of earth and timber. 400 00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:30.960 As Soda organized the army, his men debated whether an author governor should build 401 00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:37.760 impermanent settlement. Soto, who usually let his men openly talk over such matters 402 00:39:37.800 --> 00:39:43.360 before making his final decision, cut off these discussions in mid July. He 403 00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:46.360 told them that there would be no colony here because the soil was too swampy 404 00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:52.360 and too sterile. He did not dismiss the idea of an inland settlement, 405 00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:58.639 however. Now, according to a couple of sources, the nearby native chiefs 406 00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:01.960 knew that the Spaniard were coming, and they sent out a party of thirty 407 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:07.920 men to greet them, some sixty to eighty miles from their main town, 408 00:40:07.960 --> 00:40:14.159 which is called Osita, west of present day Orlando, Carrying gifts of maze 409 00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:19.320 and fur. They brought a titillating message from their ruler that up north, 410 00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:22.480 in a place called Ocala, the Spaniards would find all the treasure they could 411 00:40:22.519 --> 00:40:31.639 carry. The scouts told Soto's men quote that land talking about Ocali had gold 412 00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:36.280 in abundance, so much so that when they came to make war on the 413 00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:42.960 people of Ocali, they wore hats of gold resembling helmets end quote. Now 414 00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:46.559 to an extent, was any of this true? No, And quite frankly 415 00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:52.639 did these native Americans believe any of this. No, they just shrewdly understood 416 00:40:52.679 --> 00:40:58.159 what the Spaniards wanted and were willing to give them the information that would take 417 00:40:58.199 --> 00:41:04.519 them somewhere else, anywhere other than here. And not for the last time, 418 00:41:04.599 --> 00:41:08.079 I'm going to bring up Sodo's biggest mistake, failing to build a settlement 419 00:41:08.199 --> 00:41:15.480 on the coast. Soto spent his entire time in North America trying to find 420 00:41:15.719 --> 00:41:21.360 a civilization to loot and plunder. He never put down any roots. Had 421 00:41:21.440 --> 00:41:24.760 he, he would have been able to resupply and reconnoiter more effectively and more 422 00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:34.639 permanently. But he didn't. Before departing Tampa Bay, Soto ordered one of 423 00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:37.440 his men to stay with forty others to guard the harbor and the remaining ships 424 00:41:37.440 --> 00:41:43.880 of the fleet, and keep open communication lines between Florida and Havana. This 425 00:41:44.039 --> 00:41:46.320 was on the ninth of July. At this point, the mood of Sodo 426 00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:51.159 and everyone else in the expedition remained high. At the end of a letter 427 00:41:51.199 --> 00:41:54.199 that he wrote around the same time, Soto concludes, quote, may it 428 00:41:54.239 --> 00:41:59.960 please God that this may be so? For of what these Indians say, 429 00:42:00.039 --> 00:42:02.360 I believe nothing, but I will see and must see, although they know 430 00:42:02.800 --> 00:42:06.559 and have it for a saying that if they lie to me, it will 431 00:42:06.599 --> 00:42:10.880 cost them their lives. But further on we will find much treasure. End 432 00:42:10.920 --> 00:42:15.920 quote. Now. From his vantage point high on top of Osita's mound, 433 00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:21.840 Hernando de Soto had an excellent view of his army preparing to leave this ground 434 00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:25.760 to march north to Alkala. This is on July fifteenth, fifteen thirty nine. 435 00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:30.320 Later that morning, Soto probably took a final look on the mound, 436 00:42:30.360 --> 00:42:36.519 watching with great satisfaction as his men formed its neat lines and their units set 437 00:42:36.599 --> 00:42:40.400 off briskly to scout and secure the road to the interior. The army departed 438 00:42:40.440 --> 00:42:45.400 Osita, arrayed in standard Unquista marching order, beginning as always, with the 439 00:42:45.480 --> 00:42:51.400 vanguard behind them. Came the main army, called the battle line, divided 440 00:42:51.440 --> 00:42:54.079 into squadrons. Some of these men would have been an alerting case of attack. 441 00:42:54.400 --> 00:43:00.119 Others protected the senior officers. Still others protected the porters, slaves, 442 00:43:00.239 --> 00:43:05.480 prisoners, and noncombatants, snaking along the trail in a procession that sometimes stretched 443 00:43:05.480 --> 00:43:09.800 for several miles. Typically, Sodo rode at the head of this large ungainly 444 00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:15.039 center. Throughout July Sodo and his army continued moving north through Florida. It 445 00:43:15.079 --> 00:43:20.880 would have been frankly, absolutely miserable. The land was all swamps and marshes. 446 00:43:21.719 --> 00:43:24.880 There were constant hidden run attacks from Native Americans who were always shadowing his 447 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.559 army, though Sodo and his men likely could not see them much of the 448 00:43:29.599 --> 00:43:35.079 time. On July the twenty fourth, Sodo reached what is today probably with 449 00:43:35.119 --> 00:43:40.320 a Coochie swamp. It's a twelve mile long depression of stagnant bogs and freshwater 450 00:43:40.400 --> 00:43:46.559 lakes just outside Orlando. Sodo's biggest problem now was not a lack of gold, 451 00:43:47.199 --> 00:43:52.039 there was clearly none of that in central Florida, but a lack of 452 00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:57.719 food. Sodo tended to move quickly with an advanced force, while the bulk 453 00:43:57.719 --> 00:44:02.800 of his slower moving army followed. Captured Native porters suffering under heavy burdens and 454 00:44:02.840 --> 00:44:09.000 from a lack of nutrition, dropped dead in their tracks in droves. Still, 455 00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:15.960 Sodo pressed on as the desperate men followed him, hoping for word that 456 00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:20.639 they had found food. Right now, they were trying to reach the town 457 00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:24.239 of Ocala, which Sodo had been told possessed a bounty of food supplies, 458 00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:31.280 and the problem was he didn't know exactly where Ocalay was. His men had 459 00:44:31.320 --> 00:44:36.920 no choice but to continue marching, mud and mock up to their knees, 460 00:44:37.679 --> 00:44:45.320 hasted endlessly by mosquitoes and haunted by the distant and eerie calls wolves, alligators, 461 00:44:45.320 --> 00:44:51.400 and birds. The army ultimately did reach Akalai, but in what was 462 00:44:51.440 --> 00:44:54.159 going to be a preview of probably everything to come from here on out, 463 00:44:55.440 --> 00:45:00.800 it was not the oasis Sodo thought it would be. O'calley turned out to 464 00:45:00.840 --> 00:45:07.800 be little more than a village or another several villages put together, probably no 465 00:45:07.960 --> 00:45:15.000 more than a few dozen palm thatched huts. There were no great stores of 466 00:45:15.079 --> 00:45:19.679 food, there was no gold, but there was enough for the army to 467 00:45:19.719 --> 00:45:28.559 avoid the ever present specter of starvation. After the last stragglers arrived in O'kali, 468 00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:32.440 the Spaniards wearily gathered corns, squash, pumpkins, and beans, plundering 469 00:45:32.440 --> 00:45:37.119 the Indians fields. Because they had even fewer servants left alive after the march 470 00:45:37.320 --> 00:45:43.360 through the swamp, most were forced to prepare their own food while his men 471 00:45:43.519 --> 00:45:47.039 ate and regained their strength. Sodo wondered about his situation, dismayed to find 472 00:45:47.119 --> 00:45:52.519 himself already two months into his expedition, with several men and horses killed and 473 00:45:52.679 --> 00:45:57.320 nothing to show for it. But this hardly damped the enthusiasm of a man 474 00:45:57.360 --> 00:46:02.440 who had survived grueling marches from Darien to the Andes, who had remained convinced 475 00:46:02.599 --> 00:46:08.760 that these past eight weeks were merely the prelude to a successful quest. Continuing 476 00:46:08.760 --> 00:46:14.000 to dream, Soto's next would be El Dorado was a kingdom to the north 477 00:46:14.079 --> 00:46:20.239 called Appalachi. This time the goal was never gold, Soo knew there was 478 00:46:20.280 --> 00:46:23.199 no gold there. His only hope now was to find enough food to get 479 00:46:23.199 --> 00:46:28.639 his men through the winter. They would worry about the gold later on. 480 00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:35.159 In August eleventh, he departed Okale for this new mythical land of plenty. 481 00:46:35.320 --> 00:46:38.840 He had no guides, but Soto new Appalachi lay somewhere to the north, 482 00:46:39.440 --> 00:46:45.639 so north he would go for Once the pass was easy to follow, Soto 483 00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:51.599 was able to use what was effectively an ancient highway, cleared so well that 484 00:46:51.679 --> 00:46:55.480 three or four people could walk abreast. This helped the men make good time 485 00:46:55.920 --> 00:47:00.599 and encouraged Soto to believe that this time he was going somewhere more sophisticated. 486 00:47:02.119 --> 00:47:07.400 Four days later, the army marched through what are today the outskirts of Gainesville, 487 00:47:07.440 --> 00:47:13.119 Florida. By now the countryside had shifted from swamps to dry grass land 488 00:47:13.159 --> 00:47:16.480 and forest. Food was much more plentiful, and the men began to recover 489 00:47:16.559 --> 00:47:22.280 some of their lost strength. In August the sixteenth, they crossed the Santa 490 00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:28.280 Fe River, about twenty miles north of Gainesville, and here Soto's trek nearly 491 00:47:28.280 --> 00:47:30.920 came to an end, at least for him. They came upon a local 492 00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:37.840 group of Indians, whose chief devised a trick. They would pretend to be 493 00:47:37.920 --> 00:47:43.480 friends, surround Soto and his men, and then quickly launch a surprise attack. 494 00:47:44.840 --> 00:47:49.599 The Indians made the first move, one man telling us that no sooner 495 00:47:49.599 --> 00:47:54.440 had Soto arrived quote and the conversation was beginning when he saw himself immediately surrounded 496 00:47:54.559 --> 00:48:00.880 by Indians endote, but having anticipated this attack and someone actually told him about 497 00:48:00.920 --> 00:48:07.920 it a trader, Soto gave the signal to trigger a full scale Spanish charge, 498 00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:12.800 which was one blast on a trumpet. Soto's cavalry came rushing across the 499 00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:17.679 field, smashing into the surrounding Indians, taking them completely by surprise. They 500 00:48:17.719 --> 00:48:22.039 fled towards two ponds on the end of the plane, but the Spanish were 501 00:48:22.079 --> 00:48:28.159 not about to let them escape. After surrounding the pond and waiting out several 502 00:48:28.239 --> 00:48:35.239 days, several Indian soldiers eventually emerged from the cool black water. The Spaniards 503 00:48:35.239 --> 00:48:38.199 bound them up with rope and marched them back to Soto's camp. Once in 504 00:48:38.239 --> 00:48:44.159 town, Soto ordered them put in chains and imprisoned in a huge lodge house 505 00:48:44.159 --> 00:48:49.360 in the village. As the sun rose. Another eyewitness tells us that these 506 00:48:49.400 --> 00:48:53.760 Indians quote were allotted among the Christians for their service and quote, with individual 507 00:48:53.920 --> 00:48:59.639 prisoners being let off in ropes and chains to the personal areas of the soldiers, 508 00:49:00.159 --> 00:49:04.599 where they were put to work grinding corn, carrying equipment, fetching grass 509 00:49:04.639 --> 00:49:08.159 for the horses, and obeying whatever commands were given to them. Soto was 510 00:49:08.280 --> 00:49:13.559 used to Native Americans, who had been crushed this decisively in battle, being 511 00:49:13.599 --> 00:49:19.360 docile and dejected. But here's where he would get a lesson indifference. No 512 00:49:19.599 --> 00:49:22.679 sooner had the first chief been released from his chains. Later on that he 513 00:49:22.760 --> 00:49:28.119 turned on Soto and punched him in the mouth, delivering quote such a great 514 00:49:28.159 --> 00:49:31.719 blow that it bathed Soto's teeth in blood and made him spit out more blood 515 00:49:31.880 --> 00:49:37.519 end quote. This, of course, was entirely suicidal, but it didn't 516 00:49:37.559 --> 00:49:42.280 matter. The immediate revolt seemed to engulf all the warriors, even though still 517 00:49:42.280 --> 00:49:45.440 in ropes and chains. They tried to grab whatever they could to use his 518 00:49:45.519 --> 00:49:52.000 weapons, one man apparently snatching quote the pestle for crushing maze, which he 519 00:49:52.119 --> 00:49:57.280 used with all his might to try to kill his master end quote. Others 520 00:49:57.320 --> 00:50:01.079 grabbed swords and lances much more useful for this purpose, carelessly left about. 521 00:50:02.440 --> 00:50:07.880 But the outcome was never in out Sodo Spaniards rallied against the prisoners, who 522 00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:13.440 were still mostly unarmed and chained or otherwise encumbered. Within minutes, the conquistadors 523 00:50:13.480 --> 00:50:17.320 had grabbed weapons and were battling back, cutting down the most recalcitrant warriors and 524 00:50:17.440 --> 00:50:22.079 recapturing others. This time, the prisoners were not going to be spared, 525 00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:28.760 bloodied, and furious, Soda ordered most of the survivors executed, though too 526 00:50:28.800 --> 00:50:31.599 many. That was a mistake. Sodo was, after all, desperate for 527 00:50:31.719 --> 00:50:36.320 labor, and he really could have used the servants. Perhaps killing a few 528 00:50:36.360 --> 00:50:39.320 as an example would have been a more appropriate and measured response. In fact, 529 00:50:39.840 --> 00:50:45.280 some of Sodo's own men wrote in their diaries, considering the punishment excessive 530 00:50:45.480 --> 00:50:49.559 and wasteful, and criticizing their commander wouldn't be the first time they would do 531 00:50:49.599 --> 00:50:53.639 so. After the massacre, Soto had no choice but to keep moving. 532 00:50:54.320 --> 00:51:00.199 By late September, he reached roughly what is today Tallahassee, Florida. Here 533 00:51:00.280 --> 00:51:04.360 things were much nicer. The pine forests of North Florida are pleasant. In 534 00:51:04.480 --> 00:51:08.639 late September, the humidity eases off and the temperature becomes tolerable, even for 535 00:51:08.719 --> 00:51:15.079 men wrapped in thick quilted armor, chainmail, and metal jackets. Yet Hernando 536 00:51:15.119 --> 00:51:20.960 de Soto was clearly on edge as his guides became gradually more and more terrified. 537 00:51:21.119 --> 00:51:25.559 Approaching the Appalachi border go back, they pleaded, regaling their interpreter with 538 00:51:25.639 --> 00:51:32.119 gruesome stories about legendary Appalachi atrocities and the fierce, maniacal bravery of warriors feared 539 00:51:32.159 --> 00:51:37.360 for hundreds of miles beyond their domain. For some Spaniards, the terror among 540 00:51:37.400 --> 00:51:44.119 their guides undoubtedly wetted their appetite for a good fight. Others were less enthusiastic 541 00:51:44.400 --> 00:51:49.559 about facing an even more formidable foe. There was also continued muttering among the 542 00:51:49.559 --> 00:51:52.320 men about the fate of Penphilio de Navarez his army at the hands of the 543 00:51:52.360 --> 00:51:59.280 Appalache he a dozen years earlier, an incident that resulted in that entire expedition 544 00:51:59.480 --> 00:52:05.719 being white doubt. Soto's preoccupation with the coming campaign and the high statehead and 545 00:52:05.760 --> 00:52:10.599 winning it seems to have made him more irritable than usual. An infantry men 546 00:52:10.960 --> 00:52:16.599 named Alvaro de Canna found out the day the army departed, sneaking away from 547 00:52:16.599 --> 00:52:22.119 his unit without permission to fetch a sword that he left behind. His absence 548 00:52:22.159 --> 00:52:25.920 was noted and reported to Sodo, but instead of exacting the usual fine, 549 00:52:27.320 --> 00:52:32.000 demotion or flogging for the breach of military discipline, a tense Soto ordered the 550 00:52:32.079 --> 00:52:40.320 young man hung. The sentence stunned the army, Sodo soon calmed down and 551 00:52:40.440 --> 00:52:47.199 canceled the execution. Regardless, there are no further reports of swords being left 552 00:52:47.280 --> 00:52:52.639 behind. By now, the Appalachi knew the Spaniards were coming already, the 553 00:52:52.639 --> 00:52:59.880 Appalachi dispatched a large force of warriors to stop the advancing Spaniards. Their plan 554 00:53:00.159 --> 00:53:02.239 was to use a series of hidden run attacks, and if that failed, 555 00:53:02.559 --> 00:53:07.920 simple slash and burn. They would eliminate the food supply and thereby stop the 556 00:53:07.960 --> 00:53:14.119 Spanish dead in their tracks. These guys knew what they were doing, by 557 00:53:14.159 --> 00:53:17.079 the way. It would not be until the British and Creek, working in 558 00:53:17.119 --> 00:53:23.320 tandem, eliminated them in the early eighteenth century. The proud Indian Soda was 559 00:53:23.360 --> 00:53:30.440 about to confront were the first true Mississippians along the Spaniards route. That is, 560 00:53:30.480 --> 00:53:35.400 the first highly organized kingdom with a strong central authority, standing army, 561 00:53:35.679 --> 00:53:39.599 elite classes of politicians, priests and warriors, and a complex network of trade 562 00:53:39.760 --> 00:53:45.800 with other Mississippian kingdoms as far north as the Great Lakes and perhaps as far 563 00:53:45.880 --> 00:53:51.760 south as Tegoshtiklan in Mexico. At the time that Sodo arrived, the Appalachi 564 00:53:51.920 --> 00:53:55.239 king ruled a prosperous kingdom that worshiped the sun, grew an abundance of corn, 565 00:53:55.559 --> 00:54:00.280 and built large cities filled with pyramids in what is today modern Leon County 566 00:54:00.360 --> 00:54:07.119 in Florida. In fifteen thirty nine, this country was fertile enough to feed 567 00:54:07.119 --> 00:54:12.760 some twenty five thousand Appalachi and possibly as many as one hundred thousand, by 568 00:54:12.760 --> 00:54:20.239 far and away the most dense population that Soto had yet come across. On 569 00:54:20.320 --> 00:54:23.679 October, the first Sodo officially crossed into what might be called Appalachi Country, 570 00:54:24.079 --> 00:54:29.119 on the east side of the Assilla River, which flows through Georgia and parts 571 00:54:29.199 --> 00:54:34.119 of North Florida. According to one source, the Indians began their attack as 572 00:54:34.119 --> 00:54:38.280 soon as Sodo's vanguard quote ventured a few steps into the swamps and thickets end 573 00:54:38.320 --> 00:54:45.480 quote. The same man continues, quote there was a lively combat. A 574 00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:49.559 path the Indians had made was so narrow that two men could scarcely get through 575 00:54:49.559 --> 00:54:53.280 it and were attacked the whole way end quote. Now, actually, in 576 00:54:53.320 --> 00:54:58.719 this particular instance, the Appalachi were like sort of Greek like at Thermoplai, 577 00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:01.800 able to find a bottle neck in the woods, and wouldn't allow the Spaniards 578 00:55:01.840 --> 00:55:07.199 to get past. Soto became infuriated. He joined the combat, but even 579 00:55:07.320 --> 00:55:12.920 his marshal prowess couldn't push back the Appalachi. On this occasion, the battle 580 00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:16.960 became quote cruel and bloody, as the Spaniards pushed hard into the waste high 581 00:55:17.039 --> 00:55:23.000 water, slashing and lancing and firing their guns, headed inexorably toward their targets 582 00:55:23.039 --> 00:55:29.840 the main channel of the river, and eventually Soto and his men do manage 583 00:55:29.840 --> 00:55:32.599 to reach it by the end of the night, but both sides suffered many 584 00:55:32.679 --> 00:55:38.119 deaths and wounds. With night falling, Soda ordered his men to stand fast 585 00:55:38.159 --> 00:55:44.800 and pitch a makeshift camp. He then ordered another subordinate to build a bridge 586 00:55:44.800 --> 00:55:49.039 across the deep channel of the water. In describing the battle, another witness 587 00:55:49.039 --> 00:55:53.360 tells another colorful story, ripe with kind of romance and drama. But as 588 00:55:53.480 --> 00:55:57.719 usual, a lot of these stories don't jive with what we do about the 589 00:55:57.719 --> 00:56:01.079 actual battle, and frankly, according to yet a third witness, this battle 590 00:56:01.159 --> 00:56:06.800 was actually no more than a small skirmish. The Appalachi stuck to the plan, 591 00:56:07.239 --> 00:56:12.400 retreating, burning their villages and fields, and launching harassing attacks against Soto 592 00:56:12.440 --> 00:56:16.440 and his men. It was a grueling march. On October sixth, Soto 593 00:56:16.480 --> 00:56:22.800 reached the Appalachi capital of on Ahyika, which the natives had not burned. 594 00:56:22.840 --> 00:56:28.440 This is actually the only point in all of Soto's four thousand mile march that 595 00:56:28.559 --> 00:56:32.840 we can say we know exactly where he is. That's because on Ahyika was 596 00:56:32.880 --> 00:56:37.760 in downtown Tallahassee, about a half a mile from the Florida State Capitol building. 597 00:56:39.159 --> 00:56:45.159 Recognizing that he could go no further before winter set in, Soto decided 598 00:56:45.199 --> 00:56:47.760 to fortify the town and use the stores of food left to get through the 599 00:56:47.760 --> 00:56:52.519 winter. Then he would continue to search for his city of gold, increasingly 600 00:56:52.559 --> 00:57:00.719 becoming an obsession. Hernado to Soto left on a hika on marched the third 601 00:57:00.920 --> 00:57:07.639 fifteen forty. Certainly the decision was a mistake, so to missed an opportunity 602 00:57:07.639 --> 00:57:10.760 to found a new colony. Had he done so, he might have established 603 00:57:10.760 --> 00:57:15.880 a base from which he could launch later expeditions. But his head remained full 604 00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:22.679 of illusions of grandeur and gold for the moment. His men continued to share 605 00:57:22.679 --> 00:57:28.400 in these fantasies, and so departed with great fanfare, convinced they were all 606 00:57:28.599 --> 00:57:34.639 merely steps from finding temples of gold. It did not take long for the 607 00:57:34.719 --> 00:57:38.880 army to reach Georgia. From there they moved essentially due north toward the foothills 608 00:57:38.880 --> 00:57:44.440 of the Appalachian Mountains. Here, the days and nights became a bit repetitious. 609 00:57:44.960 --> 00:57:49.079 They marched. Sometimes they came upon an Indian settlement. Sometimes it was 610 00:57:49.119 --> 00:57:53.360 occupied, more often it was abandoned. Occasionally the army was attacked by different 611 00:57:53.400 --> 00:57:58.760 bands of warriors who emerged from the woods or swamps, and then quickly retreated 612 00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:02.400 back from whence they came. On March the twenty third, fifteen forty, 613 00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:08.719 Soto reached Talaya, the capital of one of the four advanced civilizations his army 614 00:58:08.719 --> 00:58:14.920 would march through in Georgia. Sodo stayed in Twya only a few hours. 615 00:58:15.480 --> 00:58:20.639 He suddenly became obsessed once again with wanting to keep moving, inspired by the 616 00:58:20.639 --> 00:58:27.079 sophistication relativists of the Twaya people. According to one source quote, it was 617 00:58:27.119 --> 00:58:32.079 a constantly observed custom of his Sotos that he must go himself to any new 618 00:58:32.119 --> 00:58:37.000 discovery of provinces, because he was not satisfied with the reports of others, 619 00:58:37.320 --> 00:58:42.960 but wished to see it with his own eyes end quote. They next reached 620 00:58:42.960 --> 00:58:46.679 the kingdom of the Echiesi. While they found some advanced farming techniques, there 621 00:58:46.760 --> 00:58:52.519 was no evidence of Inca style grandeur. Soto only tarried a day from it 622 00:58:52.679 --> 00:58:58.719 Chiesi. Sodo continued following the various rivers of central Georgia as his army moved 623 00:58:58.760 --> 00:59:04.920 north. On me the first Sodo crossed into what is today South Carolina. 624 00:59:05.360 --> 00:59:08.400 There he entered the kingdom of the This is a very difficult word for me 625 00:59:09.400 --> 00:59:16.079 Kofichiki. This was probably the most sophisticated civilization Soto and his men had seen 626 00:59:16.199 --> 00:59:22.199 thus far. For one fleeting moment, it seemed like it might all pay 627 00:59:22.239 --> 00:59:28.480 off. The Queen of the Choki arrived to meet them wearing a string of 628 00:59:28.519 --> 00:59:35.880 precious pearls. Here was finely evidence of a luxury good Sodo could do something 629 00:59:35.920 --> 00:59:39.719 with. Plus, the homes and the clothing of the people here were just 630 00:59:39.840 --> 00:59:47.079 much more elaborate in general. Unfortunately for Sodo, if there had been grandeur, 631 00:59:49.000 --> 00:59:53.079 it was gone. The Kofi Chikiti had just been decimated by plague. 632 00:59:54.000 --> 01:00:00.400 It's unlikely that the queen even ruled over half of the territory she and her 633 01:00:00.440 --> 01:00:04.760 progeny had once. One of our historians tell us that the queen herself first 634 01:00:04.760 --> 01:00:08.280 told Soto of the plague when they met at the river. She apologized to 635 01:00:08.320 --> 01:00:14.159 the lack of food on hand, and told him that quote, the pestilence 636 01:00:14.159 --> 01:00:17.199 of the year before had deprived her of the provisions she might have given Soto 637 01:00:17.239 --> 01:00:22.920 in previous years end quote, she was able to give him enough corn for 638 01:00:22.039 --> 01:00:27.760 his immediate needs, though food supplies in the capital region were minimal. Enough 639 01:00:28.440 --> 01:00:32.679 that as soon as the men had regained their strength, they continued northeast towards 640 01:00:32.679 --> 01:00:39.360 a vassal city. This which was called Ilapi, was probably located near present 641 01:00:39.440 --> 01:00:45.960 day Cherra in South Carolina, about fifty five miles further north. There, 642 01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.719 the queen said that she had several large stores of food, which was true, 643 01:00:50.440 --> 01:00:53.559 but Sodo continued to pester the queen and the people. Where were the 644 01:00:53.599 --> 01:00:59.679 gold? Where was all the precious metals? Unfortunately, at least for Soto, 645 01:01:00.079 --> 01:01:02.800 there weren't any, and the pearls turned out to be the only piece 646 01:01:02.840 --> 01:01:09.960 of evidence that they have of Jofikitkiti wealth and power. Everyone in the army 647 01:01:10.440 --> 01:01:15.840 was now just kind of feeling defeated, let down by the meager treasure in 648 01:01:15.920 --> 01:01:20.800 Kofi Chikiti. I mean, it was hard for everybody to make their fortune 649 01:01:20.800 --> 01:01:25.960 on one string of pearls. As SODA's men rested and regained their strength, 650 01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:31.840 however, they began talking amongst themselves about how appropriate this place would be to 651 01:01:32.000 --> 01:01:37.559 establish a colony. According to one man, quote, all them men were 652 01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:42.119 of the opinion that they should settle that land, as it was an excellent 653 01:01:42.159 --> 01:01:49.679 region. End quote. He was actually dead on agriculturally, this region of 654 01:01:49.679 --> 01:01:53.880 the United States today is great, but strategically and again, what Europeans still 655 01:01:53.880 --> 01:02:00.960 didn't totally know was that right here along the coast of South carol Lina would 656 01:02:00.960 --> 01:02:06.519 be a perfect place for a port. The Gulf Stream pushes ships north as 657 01:02:06.559 --> 01:02:09.840 they travel up from the Caribbean, and they'll need a place to resupply. 658 01:02:10.760 --> 01:02:15.760 If Soto would have recognized that, his whole expedition may have actually been a 659 01:02:15.800 --> 01:02:23.440 success. But Arno de Soto had no interest in the tedious process of building 660 01:02:23.480 --> 01:02:30.760 colonies. He insisted to keep going, both because this region was low on 661 01:02:30.880 --> 01:02:36.079 food because he was nervous about meeting up with his fleet, which he had 662 01:02:36.159 --> 01:02:40.559 left back in Florida. None of this was really true, though. Sodo 663 01:02:40.639 --> 01:02:45.199 simply just didn't want to stop in a place with no gold and a small 664 01:02:45.280 --> 01:02:51.320 population of potential laborers and slaves. Indeed, when he heard that twelve days 665 01:02:51.599 --> 01:02:55.159 in lynd there lived a great king ruling a country called Chiaha, he refused 666 01:02:55.159 --> 01:03:01.920 to listen to talk about any more, staying in Kofiji Kitti Lands. While 667 01:03:01.920 --> 01:03:08.679 the men went along, some were starting to wonder, starting to wonder if 668 01:03:09.360 --> 01:03:16.199 Donna Soto the governor of La Florida, the member of the Order of Santiago, 669 01:03:17.239 --> 01:03:22.360 the hero of Peru. Something in to wonder if he was losing his 670 01:03:22.440 --> 01:03:54.320 mind. So it was that on May the twelve or thirteenth, Soto spurred 671 01:03:54.320 --> 01:04:00.239 his horse and turned his back forever on probably his best for success in North 672 01:04:00.280 --> 01:04:08.440 America. Once again, his obsession with finding piles of gold so impacted Soto's 673 01:04:08.480 --> 01:04:14.760 decision making that he failed to see the opportunity right there in front of him 674 01:04:14.880 --> 01:04:18.760 to an extent, and then of the Soto is a cautionary tale. He 675 01:04:18.920 --> 01:04:25.559 is not unlike Macbeth or any other tragic figure from Shakespeare. He had huge 676 01:04:25.679 --> 01:04:30.599 dreams that he simply could not let go of. In the end, they 677 01:04:30.679 --> 01:04:35.760 killed him. From North Carolina, Soto turned his army due west and began 678 01:04:35.800 --> 01:04:42.280 the march to Tennessee. The Spaniards in this area associated mountains with gold and 679 01:04:42.360 --> 01:04:46.000 other precious metals, so the sight of the looming Appalachian mountains meant more to 680 01:04:46.039 --> 01:04:50.639 Soto than their sheer beauty. Of course, there's irony in all this talk 681 01:04:50.639 --> 01:04:56.360 and rumors of precious metals, for the truth is that there was and still 682 01:04:56.599 --> 01:05:00.719 is a small amount of naturally occurring gold in this region, recovered mostly by 683 01:05:00.760 --> 01:05:05.679 panning in creeks and streams, first discovered in eighteen twenty by a Carolina farmer. 684 01:05:06.239 --> 01:05:12.800 Mines in North Georgia. The Carolinas and Eastern Tennessee produced as much as 685 01:05:12.840 --> 01:05:16.119 a million dollars a year worth of gold until eighteen forty eight, when the 686 01:05:16.159 --> 01:05:23.800 miners literally pulled up stakes and rushed off to California. Soto failed to locate 687 01:05:23.840 --> 01:05:28.559 copper deposits that still exist in the area, saw some of which were worked 688 01:05:28.599 --> 01:05:32.960 by prehistoric Mississippians. In late May, Soto reached the French Broad River, 689 01:05:33.079 --> 01:05:38.440 which runs through Asheville, North Carolina. He was moving quickly now, his 690 01:05:38.599 --> 01:05:43.360 army running out of supplies. Here's a journal from one of Soto's men that 691 01:05:43.400 --> 01:05:45.480 gives you a good sense of what the day to day going was like. 692 01:05:47.159 --> 01:05:50.760 Quote. Friday, May twenty eighth, we spent the night in an oak 693 01:05:50.840 --> 01:05:56.880 grove. Saturday May twenty ninth, we marched alongside a large creek, which 694 01:05:56.880 --> 01:06:00.679 we crossed many times. Sunday, May thirtieth, in the morning, messengers 695 01:06:00.719 --> 01:06:05.000 came in peace, and we arrived early in Gulasi, and the Indians gave 696 01:06:05.079 --> 01:06:10.239 us many tamales, many little dogs and corns, and because this was a 697 01:06:10.239 --> 01:06:15.320 good resting place, the soldiers afterwards called the term house of Gulasi when they 698 01:06:15.320 --> 01:06:20.159 threw the dice for good luck. May thirty first Monday, Soda left for 699 01:06:20.199 --> 01:06:25.880 Gulossi and took the army to an oak grove alongside the river. Tuesday June 700 01:06:26.000 --> 01:06:30.639 first, we passed through Knnesoca and spent the night in the open. Wednesday 701 01:06:30.719 --> 01:06:33.599 June the second, we spent the night alongside a swamp and we ate a 702 01:06:33.639 --> 01:06:40.519 great number of mulberries. Thursday June third, we followed a large creek next 703 01:06:40.559 --> 01:06:45.039 to the river, the French Broad River. We had crossed in the savannah 704 01:06:45.280 --> 01:06:48.920 where the cicacia went away, and now it was large. Friday June the 705 01:06:48.960 --> 01:06:54.000 fourth, we went to a pine forest in a creek where the Indians from 706 01:06:54.079 --> 01:06:58.880 Chihaha came in peace and brought corn. Saturday June the fifth, in the 707 01:06:58.920 --> 01:07:01.840 morning, we crossed the very broad River across a branch of it and entered 708 01:07:01.920 --> 01:07:06.880 Chiaha, which is an island on the same river. End quote. This 709 01:07:08.079 --> 01:07:13.159 island capital is near present Bay Dandridge, Tennessee. It had no gold, 710 01:07:13.320 --> 01:07:17.239 but it did have puntiful supplies of food, and the army as a result 711 01:07:17.280 --> 01:07:23.320 rested there for twenty two days. Refreshed. After their respite in Chiaha, 712 01:07:23.440 --> 01:07:28.079 Soto's men on June twenty eighth, fifteen forty plunged back into their journey, 713 01:07:28.559 --> 01:07:31.679 the full army traveling together for the first time since they crossed into the wilderness 714 01:07:31.679 --> 01:07:36.800 at the Savannah River. For eighteen days, the Spaniards trekked roughly one hundred 715 01:07:36.840 --> 01:07:43.400 and fifty miles across low mountain passes and down river valleys, their path alternating 716 01:07:43.400 --> 01:07:47.440 from why highways to narrow trails. Now numbering some five hundred and fifty men 717 01:07:47.960 --> 01:07:53.440 plus hundreds of porters, slaves and servants, the army moved either single file 718 01:07:53.800 --> 01:07:57.320 or two or three minute breast, depending upon the terrain. Their goal was 719 01:07:57.400 --> 01:08:00.719 now to head for the heartland of the next major missus sit the Empire, 720 01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:05.599 the Cusa, during this summer march, which would eventually take the army beyond 721 01:08:05.639 --> 01:08:11.119 Cusa toward the planned rendezvous with Soto's fleet on the coast of Alabama. So 722 01:08:11.239 --> 01:08:15.239 Too finally established a marching rhythm he had been after since making landfall in Law, 723 01:08:15.280 --> 01:08:20.960 Florida. This involved the usual conquistador method of quickly bringing local chiefs under 724 01:08:21.000 --> 01:08:26.319 his power, so the Spaniards could use his authority to demand food, lodging 725 01:08:26.600 --> 01:08:30.239 porters, and women, until Sodo had passed through this kingdom and on to 726 01:08:30.319 --> 01:08:34.319 the next, where the process would begin again in very much a leech like 727 01:08:34.520 --> 01:08:42.239 manner. Soto's smooth and largely uneventful progression across the southern Appalachians was hardly a 728 01:08:42.279 --> 01:08:46.279 coincidence. He chose this route specifically because he had been told that the army 729 01:08:46.319 --> 01:08:50.359 would find the stores of food that they needed and large numbers of Indians to 730 01:08:50.399 --> 01:08:56.399 impress into servants. The Indians, too, were continuing to operate under the 731 01:08:56.399 --> 01:09:00.840 tactic of giving Sodo and the invaders whatever they asked in order to get rid 732 01:09:00.880 --> 01:09:04.399 of them. None of the native leaders, however, fully appreciated how much 733 01:09:04.479 --> 01:09:10.399 luck contributed to their design. If Soto had found any sign of treasure at 734 01:09:10.439 --> 01:09:15.920 all among the natives of Tennessee and Georgia, this march would have instantly ceased 735 01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.079 to be benign, with Soto grabbing whatever he wanted, whether or not the 736 01:09:19.159 --> 01:09:26.079 natives cooperated. Soto seems relaxed during this period his plan to march south and 737 01:09:26.119 --> 01:09:30.239 link up with his fleet seemed more feasible than ever. It was late June, 738 01:09:30.239 --> 01:09:32.600 so we had plenty of time. As a result, he stopped his 739 01:09:32.720 --> 01:09:39.840 army frequently, affording the men an opportunity to rest and recuperate. Soto had 740 01:09:39.880 --> 01:09:44.359 three years left on his royal contract. He must have felt like that was 741 01:09:44.399 --> 01:09:47.800 plenty of time to find what he was searching for. He had mapped out 742 01:09:47.840 --> 01:09:53.359 a rough idea of La Florida. He could always now come back with more 743 01:09:53.359 --> 01:09:59.720 men later and continue the expedition. Sotos marched to Cusa, was not entirely 744 01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.279 without difficulty. In Costi, the next major kingdom of the Chiaha, Soho 745 01:10:04.399 --> 01:10:10.479 saw his peaceful sojourn nearly turned violent when he and eight Spaniards entered the capitol, 746 01:10:10.760 --> 01:10:16.000 probably situated twenty eight miles southwest of modern Knoxville, Tennessee, looking for 747 01:10:16.119 --> 01:10:21.039 corn. Some of his party began plundering all kinds of different storehouses near the 748 01:10:21.119 --> 01:10:26.720 chief's palace. This was despite a friendly welcome from the Indians, with no 749 01:10:26.800 --> 01:10:30.720 regard for the fact that the group was vastly outnumbered and lightly armed, that 750 01:10:30.800 --> 01:10:33.760 the main army was in a camp about a half a mile away. This 751 01:10:33.880 --> 01:10:41.079 outrageous behavior angered the people who seized the looters and began to quote unquote beat 752 01:10:41.119 --> 01:10:44.880 them, while others grabbed their bows and arrows to come forth to the plaza 753 01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:48.600 end quote. Normally, Soda would have met such an assault against his own 754 01:10:48.640 --> 01:10:53.720 men with deadly force, if only to drive home the point that Indians who 755 01:10:53.800 --> 01:10:58.920 dared to lay hands on a European faced automatic punishment, even if the European 756 01:10:59.000 --> 01:11:03.960 was at fault. But because Soto had entered in the town carelessly and unarmed, 757 01:11:04.399 --> 01:11:09.000 quote, he abruptly found himself in a position where he was likely to 758 01:11:09.000 --> 01:11:14.159 be the one penalized or even killed. He first heard about the fight between 759 01:11:14.159 --> 01:11:17.079 his men and the Indians when several natives breathlessly rushed up to the leader, 760 01:11:17.359 --> 01:11:20.439 that is, the native leader, to report that the Spaniards were trying to 761 01:11:20.479 --> 01:11:27.600 plunder the royal storehouses. They were quickly followed by the bloodied Spaniards themselves, 762 01:11:27.680 --> 01:11:30.760 who ran up to join Sodo's army. Angrily, turning to his guest, 763 01:11:31.399 --> 01:11:36.359 the king demanded the Native American king an explanation as to what the native soldiers 764 01:11:36.359 --> 01:11:43.039 were doing. A conquisador with less experience might have panicked or attacked in a 765 01:11:43.119 --> 01:11:46.279 suicidal charge and it would have been suicide. In this case, Sodo did 766 01:11:46.359 --> 01:11:51.199 neither. Instead, he proved once more the nimbleness of mind during a life 767 01:11:51.359 --> 01:11:57.319 threatening crisis had been a hallmark of his success in the New World. As 768 01:11:57.359 --> 01:12:00.520 the Indians closed in, he suddenly turned on his own men and began to 769 01:12:00.600 --> 01:12:05.199 quarrel with them, pretending to chastise them for stealing the natives corn. He 770 01:12:05.239 --> 01:12:11.760 whispered them to play along and suffer it. Quote be tolerant because of the 771 01:12:11.800 --> 01:12:14.960 evident danger in which we were, and that no one should put a hand 772 01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.359 on his weapons endote. He then quote thrashed some of them as he flattered 773 01:12:19.359 --> 01:12:23.960 the leader and told him that he did not wish the Christians should anger them 774 01:12:24.039 --> 01:12:30.199 end quote. Evidently the roost worked and the whole situation managed to be disfused. 775 01:12:30.560 --> 01:12:34.680 Eventually, Soto passed into the Empire of the Cusa, the largest indigenous 776 01:12:34.680 --> 01:12:40.319 empire of the American South, and he would make it to the capital of 777 01:12:40.319 --> 01:12:45.319 said empire, but historians hotly debate exactly where that was. The most likely 778 01:12:45.359 --> 01:12:51.920 site is Cartier, It's Georgia, roughly between Chattanooga and Atlanta. One thing 779 01:12:53.000 --> 01:12:56.600 is certain, though, upon arrival and said capital the Empire of the Cusa 780 01:12:56.680 --> 01:13:00.039 came out to meet Soto with great pomp and circumstance, only to have Sodo 781 01:13:00.119 --> 01:13:05.479 immediately take the man captive. Soda then took what food he could, and 782 01:13:05.520 --> 01:13:10.119 then he plus the emperor, who was a good hostage, continued south. 783 01:13:11.920 --> 01:13:15.880 On September the sixteenth, the army reached Talisi, near Childersburg, Alabama, 784 01:13:15.920 --> 01:13:23.840 about fifteen miles southeast of Birmingham. This was probably the last town under control 785 01:13:23.920 --> 01:13:30.279 of the Kusa Empire. Here Soda received several ambassadors from a nearby king named 786 01:13:30.520 --> 01:13:34.239 Tasca Lusa. Now here's the thing. It's not Tuscaloosa. I know. 787 01:13:34.279 --> 01:13:40.039 That's really confusing, because there is a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and it is 788 01:13:40.439 --> 01:13:43.680 really tempting to think that the two names are associated with each other, but 789 01:13:43.880 --> 01:13:50.920 they're not. Tascalousca was the king of the Atahachee, who were considered feared 790 01:13:50.960 --> 01:13:59.520 warriors. Sodo would soon learn the veracity of that reputation here. At this 791 01:13:59.600 --> 01:14:02.800 point, Soto also let the Cusa emperor, who he was still toting around, 792 01:14:03.079 --> 01:14:05.920 go back home, given that he was no longer of any use. 793 01:14:08.159 --> 01:14:13.800 And it's really hard to document just how devastating Sodo's march through the Cusa territory 794 01:14:13.960 --> 01:14:17.640 was to the people there. What we can say is that when another expedition 795 01:14:18.000 --> 01:14:25.239 comes the same way about twenty years later, they found a land essentially diminished 796 01:14:25.239 --> 01:14:30.319 to nothing. The population density that existed when Sodo marched through the head evaporated. 797 01:14:31.359 --> 01:14:36.439 Odds are that disease brought by Soto or possibly other European contacts, were 798 01:14:36.439 --> 01:14:42.600 out most of the devastation. By the sixteen seventies, when the British started 799 01:14:42.640 --> 01:14:46.039 exploring the region, there was simply nothing left of any of these high Mississippian 800 01:14:46.159 --> 01:14:51.239 civilizations, and these, of course, were the true losers of Soto's expedition. 801 01:14:54.079 --> 01:14:58.359 As Sodo headed south, King Taskaloosa of the Atahatchie weighed his options about 802 01:14:58.399 --> 01:15:01.359 what to do with these powerful, deadly strangers moving toward him, with the 803 01:15:01.399 --> 01:15:08.600 inevitability of a tornado gathering to vent its fury. But Tescaloosa probably knew more 804 01:15:08.640 --> 01:15:13.079 in advance about the strangers than most of the Mississippian rulers, because he had 805 01:15:13.079 --> 01:15:16.119 already met a European, actually, a Greek man had wandered through. His 806 01:15:16.199 --> 01:15:23.279 name was Doroteo Diadoro, which is fascinating because it's basically flipped. I've never 807 01:15:23.319 --> 01:15:27.960 seen a name like that before. Regardless. Thirteen years later, this Greek 808 01:15:28.000 --> 01:15:31.159 man had become a castaway on the coast of the South during the desperate voyage 809 01:15:31.319 --> 01:15:39.199 of Panfilo de Navarez, the last failed effort to conquer La Florida. Later 810 01:15:39.279 --> 01:15:44.319 on, Cabesa de Vaca explained how he had disappeared, he being Dado when 811 01:15:44.560 --> 01:15:47.880 Navarez's fleet sent him to fetch water in the vicinity of what is today Mobile 812 01:15:47.960 --> 01:15:55.439 Bay. Nothing was known about his fate until the Indians showed Soto a small 813 01:15:55.520 --> 01:15:59.760 dagger that had belonged to this Greek man, who had apparently lived for a 814 01:15:59.800 --> 01:16:05.439 period of time in the Adahachee town of Piachi. Whether or not King Tascalusa 815 01:16:05.640 --> 01:16:11.319 actually met Teodoro is not known, but it seems likely that the king would 816 01:16:11.359 --> 01:16:15.920 have at least received a detailed report about this stranger and about the Spaniards that 817 01:16:15.920 --> 01:16:23.800 he came with, But this information would have been misleading to Tascalusca because Navarez's 818 01:16:23.800 --> 01:16:29.680 shabby fleet and emaciated army probably could not have provided anywhere close to an accurate 819 01:16:29.720 --> 01:16:34.840 example of what the Spanish could do in battle. Tascalusa may also have received 820 01:16:34.960 --> 01:16:41.600 sketchy reports about Navarez's routing by the Appalachi in Florida, and over the past 821 01:16:41.640 --> 01:16:47.319 few weeks about Sodo's largely peaceful march through Chiaha, all of which probably contributed 822 01:16:47.359 --> 01:16:50.800 to the course of action which was about to be taken. With regard to 823 01:16:50.840 --> 01:16:58.439 these new visitors, there is evidence that the Adahachee dynasty of Tascalusa had only 824 01:16:58.520 --> 01:17:02.960 ruled for two or three generation. Still, there's no evidence whatsoever that Tascaloosa's 825 01:17:02.960 --> 01:17:08.560 hold on power was anything but absolute. We know next to nothing about the 826 01:17:08.560 --> 01:17:13.119 city of Adahachee itself, other than had a plaza and one temple mound. 827 01:17:14.560 --> 01:17:18.520 What we do know is that while Tascaloosa welcomed Soto upon his arrival to the 828 01:17:18.560 --> 01:17:25.960 city, the Indian king was already planning a devastating sneak attack on the newcomers. 829 01:17:27.079 --> 01:17:32.399 This suggests that Tascaloosa's military understanding and abilities were at the very least significantly 830 01:17:32.439 --> 01:17:39.319 advanced. On October the tenth, Soda arrived in the capital of the Adahachie, 831 01:17:39.359 --> 01:17:44.359 which is also just called Adahachie. Here, Soda was greeted warmly, 832 01:17:44.840 --> 01:17:48.920 and that evening sat down with Tascaloosa at a great banquet. Soda at this 833 01:17:48.960 --> 01:17:54.680 point probably thought that this would be nothing but another pleasant march through another Mississippian 834 01:17:54.760 --> 01:18:00.760 kingdom. When Sodo demanded food, porters and women, his usual refrain arrival 835 01:18:00.800 --> 01:18:06.159 in an indigenous kingdom, Taskaluska gave him several hundred porters, but rebuffed his 836 01:18:06.239 --> 01:18:12.119 other demands for the moment. Sodo left the next day with his army, 837 01:18:12.520 --> 01:18:16.439 but as they marched away, Taskaluska was sending orders for his warriors to assemble 838 01:18:16.720 --> 01:18:23.279 at another one of his towns, Mabia, further south. It took Soto 839 01:18:23.399 --> 01:18:28.359 six days of marching, but he ultimately reached Mabia. There, several within 840 01:18:28.399 --> 01:18:31.920 Sodo's camp warned him from entering the town, but Sodo dismissed to the warnings. 841 01:18:32.680 --> 01:18:35.319 He said he was tired of sleeping in a camp. He wanted to 842 01:18:35.359 --> 01:18:41.279 sleep inside the wall town, which was situated on a plane. We can't 843 01:18:41.319 --> 01:18:48.199 say today exactly where Mabia was, only that given Sodo's presence speed, it 844 01:18:48.319 --> 01:18:57.039 should have been about where Selma, Alabama is today. When Sodo arrived in 845 01:18:57.119 --> 01:19:00.800 Mabia, he received the welcome that he was used to. He and his 846 01:19:00.840 --> 01:19:05.199 parties soon found themselves having a good time, entertained by Indian dancers as the 847 01:19:05.279 --> 01:19:13.720 King Tascalousa and his nobles chatted amiably, and everyone feasted and drained fermentmented beverages 848 01:19:13.760 --> 01:19:16.840 and just generally had a good time. But one of the historians along with 849 01:19:16.880 --> 01:19:21.840 the expedition then explains what happened next, saying that Tuscaloosa went to a hut 850 01:19:21.840 --> 01:19:28.239 where his aids were holding a secret council of war quote when Tuscalousa was among 851 01:19:28.279 --> 01:19:30.720 his captains and the chief men of his army, and he told them that 852 01:19:30.720 --> 01:19:34.960 they must come quickly, whether they would immediately cut the throats of the Spaniards 853 01:19:35.079 --> 01:19:39.800 who were there in the pueblo and of the others after them as they arrived, 854 01:19:40.319 --> 01:19:45.760 or whether they would wait until all of those had come quote. For 855 01:19:45.800 --> 01:19:48.640 a long time, the council argued over which option was best, until the 856 01:19:48.720 --> 01:19:54.079 King Tascaloosa, rising to his full height, threw his weight behind, killing 857 01:19:54.079 --> 01:19:59.159 at once any Spaniards who came within their power. He then issued the order 858 01:19:59.199 --> 01:20:02.560 to his troops in the houses around the plaza to attack Soto and his party 859 01:20:02.600 --> 01:20:10.000 immediately. Eyewitnesses now report only that Taskaloosa slipped away into a nearby house and 860 01:20:10.039 --> 01:20:14.800 then refused to come out when Soto asked him, telling Sodo that quote, 861 01:20:14.880 --> 01:20:16.520 he would not come out of there, and he would not leave that town 862 01:20:16.640 --> 01:20:21.319 end quote. Then, according to the same historian, Taskaloosa issued a warning 863 01:20:23.039 --> 01:20:27.039 quote, if Sodo wished to go in peace, he should go immediately and 864 01:20:27.079 --> 01:20:30.760 should not insist on trying to take him out of his lands and dominion by 865 01:20:30.800 --> 01:20:34.680 force. End quote. At this point, according to the chroniclers, those 866 01:20:34.680 --> 01:20:39.720 Spaniards began looking around the town and realized that the houses were not empty as 867 01:20:39.720 --> 01:20:45.199 they had assumed, but filled with Indian soldiers armed for battle. Some of 868 01:20:45.239 --> 01:20:48.439 the members of Sodo's guard, his personal guard, first noticed things were amiss 869 01:20:48.840 --> 01:20:54.680 when they saw natives hiding bundles of arrows and bows secretly, and some palm 870 01:20:54.760 --> 01:20:59.640 leaves. This sent them rushing back to Warren Soto, who must have frowned 871 01:20:59.640 --> 01:21:02.640 as he grabbed his helmet and strapped it on while ordering the guard to fetch 872 01:21:02.680 --> 01:21:08.520 the horses as quickly as they could. At about this time, one of 873 01:21:08.560 --> 01:21:12.600 Sodo's lieutenants was trying to get Tuscaloosa to come out of the hut. He 874 01:21:12.680 --> 01:21:16.560 grabbed a nearby noble and demanded to bring Tuscaloosa to him. When a man 875 01:21:16.600 --> 01:21:23.239 refused, he cut his arm off. The battle began moments later when the 876 01:21:23.279 --> 01:21:29.239 Indians answered Sodo's repeated demands for Tuscaloosa's return by suddenly bursting out of the houses 877 01:21:29.399 --> 01:21:33.920 and swarming into the streets and plaza Mabia, shouting war cries and brandishing clubs, 878 01:21:34.000 --> 01:21:38.680 maces, and loaded bows. This was it. This was the moment 879 01:21:38.680 --> 01:21:44.520 for the expedition. According to one source quote, immediately the Indians came out, 880 01:21:44.920 --> 01:21:48.359 charging towards Sodo's position and leaping up to man the walls and towers guarding 881 01:21:48.359 --> 01:21:54.680 the city endote. Depending on what account you believe, Tuscaloosa had a hidden 882 01:21:54.960 --> 01:21:58.840 three thousand, five thousand, or maybe even eleven thousand warriors and huts, 883 01:21:58.840 --> 01:22:02.439 which he now threw against Hernando de Soto, his small aids and group of 884 01:22:02.439 --> 01:22:08.359 bodyguards. These men found themselves suddenly cut off from the city's gates and from 885 01:22:08.359 --> 01:22:12.920 the rest of the Spanish army, which remained sprawled out across several miles along 886 01:22:12.960 --> 01:22:16.920 the Alabama River. Soto and his party were fully armed, but they found 887 01:22:16.960 --> 01:22:21.600 themselves engaged in the situation very unfavorable to their style of fighting, which of 888 01:22:21.600 --> 01:22:27.199 course was cavalry based. They were trapped in a cramped fortress town, with 889 01:22:27.239 --> 01:22:32.159 their horses across the plaza and masses of Mississippians surging toward them, eager to 890 01:22:32.199 --> 01:22:36.640 engage them using a close style of fighting that they excelled in. During the 891 01:22:36.680 --> 01:22:42.720 first few confusing minutes of the fight, five Spaniards of Soto's guard were struck 892 01:22:42.760 --> 01:22:46.279 down by arrows and a crush of well aimed blows from maces. The others 893 01:22:46.520 --> 01:22:51.520 survived this initial wave of attackers, though some were wounded. Soto too was 894 01:22:51.600 --> 01:22:56.880 hit with some twenty arrows, though none penetrated his heavily quilted armor as he 895 01:22:56.960 --> 01:23:00.720 hacked back and forth of his sword. As the Baniards fought to free themselves 896 01:23:00.760 --> 01:23:05.279 and escape out of the gate, two of them, Rodrigo Ranelle and jue 897 01:23:05.319 --> 01:23:10.279 Mendez de Solis, a member of Soto's guard, managed to fight their way 898 01:23:10.279 --> 01:23:14.680 to two of the horses tethered across the plaza. So Lise was shot dead 899 01:23:14.840 --> 01:23:17.960 as he climbed into one of the saddles, but Rangell, as himself relates, 900 01:23:18.319 --> 01:23:23.960 managed to mount his horse and rear it up against the Attahachee This caused 901 01:23:24.000 --> 01:23:28.119 the charging Indians to pause long enough for Soto to dash over to another mount 902 01:23:28.239 --> 01:23:32.119 and jump into the saddle. Soto could have then escaped the city through a 903 01:23:32.199 --> 01:23:36.479 nearby gate, but this was not his style. Instead, he turned abruptly 904 01:23:36.560 --> 01:23:41.239 back into the fray, blasting into the midst of the Indians to clear a 905 01:23:41.279 --> 01:23:45.760 path for bloodied bodyguards to follow him. This was what the conquist the Dords 906 01:23:45.760 --> 01:23:50.359 were famous for. This was their principal tactic, a sudden, aggressive thrust 907 01:23:50.399 --> 01:23:57.359 forward into the midst of unarmored Indians. Miraculously, Soto and most of the 908 01:23:57.399 --> 01:24:01.000 remaining guards escaped Mabila alive, battling their way to the gate, where they 909 01:24:01.079 --> 01:24:05.279 ran out into the surrounding fields and raised the alarm among the soldiers then arriving 910 01:24:05.319 --> 01:24:10.640 at the outskirts of town. However, they were forced to lead behind a 911 01:24:10.680 --> 01:24:14.840 priest and some of Soto's servants who were holed up to a house. They 912 01:24:15.119 --> 01:24:19.640 were all killed As Soto and his party retreated in chaos. The Indians made 913 01:24:19.680 --> 01:24:24.840 a move that would later proved disastrous for the Spaniards. They invited the armor's 914 01:24:24.840 --> 01:24:30.000 porters to join them in the new bloody fight. Having stopped not far from 915 01:24:30.039 --> 01:24:32.960 Abea's walls. These Indians, some of them at a Hatchee warriors pressed into 916 01:24:32.960 --> 01:24:39.039 service just two days earlier, and others from as far away as Florida, 917 01:24:39.239 --> 01:24:44.600 responded eagerly to the defender's request. They sit down their loads, helped each 918 01:24:44.640 --> 01:24:47.119 other, strike off their chains, and grabbed weapons from the stockpiles in the 919 01:24:47.159 --> 01:24:53.279 cities. In fact, they went through the army's own baggage, grabbing weapons, 920 01:24:53.319 --> 01:24:58.079 clothes, and everything from iron pots to leather shoes. Shortly thereafter, 921 01:24:58.159 --> 01:25:01.279 the Indians quote closed the gates to the town and began to beat their drums, 922 01:25:01.479 --> 01:25:05.159 to raise banners with a great yell, and open the trunks and bundles 923 01:25:05.159 --> 01:25:10.119 to display on top of the wall all that the Spaniards had brought end quote 924 01:25:10.920 --> 01:25:14.760 out of the field. The Spaniards were in disarray as Sodo, probably looking 925 01:25:14.800 --> 01:25:17.439 like a porcupine with arrows sticking out from his armor, galloped hard to the 926 01:25:17.479 --> 01:25:23.920 nearest soldiers, shouting them furiously to get ready to defend themselves. The governor 927 01:25:23.920 --> 01:25:28.399 then organized a troop to encircle the town to prevent any Indians from escaping, 928 01:25:28.920 --> 01:25:32.279 taking an additional sixty or eighty men to form into four squadrons so that he 929 01:25:32.279 --> 01:25:38.119 could assault the town on four sides as well. Liss was Sodo at his 930 01:25:38.199 --> 01:25:42.680 finess. This was Sodo at his worst also, and this is pure conquistador 931 01:25:43.600 --> 01:25:48.920 surrounded with innumerable odds, where the intelligent thing to do for any military commander 932 01:25:48.960 --> 01:25:54.439 would be strategic retreat or withdrawal. What is Sodo going to do. He's 933 01:25:54.439 --> 01:25:58.560 going to do what the conquistador would do. He's going to charge right back 934 01:25:58.600 --> 01:26:03.279 into the numbers. According to one historian, the signal for the Spanish counterassault 935 01:26:03.279 --> 01:26:08.640 was the blast of an arquebus, which boomed over the Alabama planes as the 936 01:26:08.680 --> 01:26:14.800 four squadrons threw themselves against the palisaded town. The Indians repelled this onslaught, 937 01:26:14.840 --> 01:26:18.239 with the Spaniards pulling back in exhaustion, most of them so tired from the 938 01:26:18.319 --> 01:26:24.720 unexpected combat after weeks of comparative inactivity, that they paused for a moment to 939 01:26:24.800 --> 01:26:28.760 assuage their thirst from a nearby pond. They only stopped when they realized that 940 01:26:28.800 --> 01:26:31.800 the pond was already soaked in blood from the earlier parts of the combat. 941 01:26:32.680 --> 01:26:38.319 After this brief pause, the Spaniards attacked again and again, and this give 942 01:26:38.359 --> 01:26:43.159 and take of Spanish attacks and Indian peris continued throughout the afternoon. According to 943 01:26:43.199 --> 01:26:46.640 one why witness, the Indians quote fought with so much spirit that they drove 944 01:26:46.720 --> 01:26:53.640 us the Spaniards outside again and again end quote. Another witness adds that at 945 01:26:53.720 --> 01:26:58.319 one point the Indians even tried an offensive thrust outside their walls, rushing out 946 01:26:58.359 --> 01:27:00.960 as the Spaniards appeared to be falling back, but this was only a ruse 947 01:27:01.039 --> 01:27:05.520 by Soto to try to draw the mount which failed when the defenders quickly retreated 948 01:27:05.560 --> 01:27:11.800 back behind their walls. It was during this action that another witness reports one 949 01:27:11.800 --> 01:27:15.479 of the army's favorite captains was killed, one of Soto's in laws, Don 950 01:27:15.560 --> 01:27:18.439 Carlo Sonriquez. He had stopped to pull an arrow out of his horse in 951 01:27:18.439 --> 01:27:21.560 front of the city wall, only to be struck by another in the neck 952 01:27:21.840 --> 01:27:26.800 between his armor's collar and the bottom of his helmet, According to one witness, 953 01:27:26.880 --> 01:27:32.039 quote, asking for confession, he fell dead. The battle continued well 954 01:27:32.079 --> 01:27:35.880 into the autumn afternoon, though as more and more Spanish troops heard the alarm 955 01:27:35.880 --> 01:27:42.399 and rushed forward as reinforcements, it soon became clear that once more European arms 956 01:27:42.399 --> 01:27:46.840 and armaments would prevail Repeatedly, they threw themselves against the walls, hacking with 957 01:27:46.920 --> 01:27:51.159 swords and axes against the plaster, cane and branches. Each time they were 958 01:27:51.159 --> 01:27:56.560 beaten back, only to return to hack away more of it. Finally, 959 01:27:56.600 --> 01:27:59.920 as the afternoon waned, they breached the wall enough for a few men to 960 01:28:00.039 --> 01:28:04.000 Russian side and set the nearest houses on fire. Instantly, the flames caught 961 01:28:04.039 --> 01:28:09.119 on the cane thatch roof as a deadly wall of fire exploded across the city, 962 01:28:09.720 --> 01:28:14.279 and in a flash, heat and smoke shattered the Indians defense. Hundreds 963 01:28:14.279 --> 01:28:17.960 of Atatachee were trapped and obliterated by the flames within minutes. The rest ran 964 01:28:18.079 --> 01:28:23.039 for their lives, either into the central plaza or over the walls and the 965 01:28:23.079 --> 01:28:28.960 fields outside. Either option brought the warriors face to face with Spanish swords as 966 01:28:28.960 --> 01:28:32.199 SODA's cavalry stood ready to cut them down in what devolved into a massacre, 967 01:28:32.520 --> 01:28:38.359 like the slaughter at Kajamarca, when Sodo and his outriders spent the night of 968 01:28:38.479 --> 01:28:43.960 Atahuelpas captured killing Inca, but unlike the Peruvians, the Atahachee had fought on 969 01:28:44.399 --> 01:28:47.760 until the cause became so hopeless that a great number of them committed suicide by 970 01:28:47.800 --> 01:28:53.680 fleeing quote into the burning houses were piled up on top of one another. 971 01:28:53.880 --> 01:28:59.199 They were suffocated and burned to death due. This battle, one of the 972 01:28:59.199 --> 01:29:03.520 bloodiest fought in five centuries of warfare between Europeans and Indians on what would become 973 01:29:03.640 --> 01:29:10.239 United States. Soil ended at sunset, with Mabia in flames and heaps of 974 01:29:10.279 --> 01:29:15.119 Indians lying dead or dying as men moaned and coughed and blood soaked the ground. 975 01:29:16.359 --> 01:29:20.760 One of the last Indians died as twilight came and the first cool breeze 976 01:29:20.760 --> 01:29:27.359 of night blew over the battlefield. It happened as a group of Spaniards, 977 01:29:27.359 --> 01:29:31.279 themselves wounded and exhausted and drenched in blood and sweat, chanced to look up 978 01:29:31.560 --> 01:29:39.159 on what remained of Maybea's smoldering ramparts. There they saw an Indian warrior wake 979 01:29:39.239 --> 01:29:43.279 up after lying unconscious for most of the battle, reviving just as a line 980 01:29:43.279 --> 01:29:46.479 of fire was closing in on him, threatening to burn him alive. The 981 01:29:46.560 --> 01:29:50.479 men desperately tried to escape the flames by running up a bastion, only to 982 01:29:50.479 --> 01:29:55.479 look out into the plain, where he saw heaps of dead Indians and units 983 01:29:55.520 --> 01:30:00.479 of Spanish cavalry, chasing down those still alive and running them through lances. 984 01:30:00.520 --> 01:30:04.880 Overwhelmed by despair and what he probably knew was the end of his people and 985 01:30:04.960 --> 01:30:13.600 their civilization, this unnamed Mississippian quickly unstrung his bowstring, and before the Spaniards 986 01:30:13.640 --> 01:30:16.439 watching him could scramble up the wall to stop him, threw it over the 987 01:30:16.479 --> 01:30:21.039 branch of a nearby tree, wrapped it around his neck, and hung himself. 988 01:30:46.159 --> 01:30:50.399 We have no idea how many Native Americans died at Mabia, but the 989 01:30:50.479 --> 01:30:56.239 next time that a European gets to southern Alabama, nineteen years later, the 990 01:30:56.319 --> 01:31:03.279 only trace of Tasca Lusca's kingdom was few survivors amongst the ruins of Atahachee. 991 01:31:04.079 --> 01:31:09.119 All that night, Sodo writhed in pain from the injuries he sustained in the 992 01:31:09.119 --> 01:31:14.239 battle, a reminder both of the battle's ferocity and of his own foolishness for 993 01:31:14.279 --> 01:31:17.439 getting himself ensnared in the ambush in the first place. He was, of 994 01:31:17.439 --> 01:31:23.680 course lucky. Eighteen to twenty five Spaniards died one of the worst battles for 995 01:31:23.760 --> 01:31:28.600 European and the New World up to that point, but the most devastating loss 996 01:31:29.000 --> 01:31:32.279 was the complete destruction of the army's baggage train, which had burned to the 997 01:31:32.319 --> 01:31:39.199 ground in the midst of the fire. Soto now desperately needed to get back 998 01:31:39.199 --> 01:31:44.880 to his ships. Now. Interestingly, our chroniclers offered differing accounts about whether 999 01:31:44.960 --> 01:31:47.960 or not the army even found the ships. One claims that Soto did hear 1000 01:31:48.000 --> 01:31:51.880 about them from Indians on the coast, who sent word to his translator, 1001 01:31:51.960 --> 01:31:57.159 Juan Ortiz, that the Spanish vessels were at Anchor six days march to the 1002 01:31:57.159 --> 01:32:02.079 south. This chronicler insists, though, that Soto did not contact the fleet, 1003 01:32:02.640 --> 01:32:08.520 worried that his men might desert him and return to Cuba. Accordingly, 1004 01:32:08.800 --> 01:32:13.239 the governor arranged that the translator should be quiet about it and make sure that 1005 01:32:13.479 --> 01:32:17.479 none of the items of value make their way to the ships. Now there's 1006 01:32:17.640 --> 01:32:23.319 another story here, though. There's a different chronicler that tells us that Soto 1007 01:32:23.359 --> 01:32:27.560 did mention the existence of the ships to his men, but refuse to let 1008 01:32:27.560 --> 01:32:32.680 anyone make contact with them. This historian gives us a reason that has nothing 1009 01:32:32.720 --> 01:32:39.960 to do with fear of desertion. He says Soto vetoed the request because the 1010 01:32:40.079 --> 01:32:45.840 army was low on provisions, this man writes, quote, many wish that 1011 01:32:45.880 --> 01:32:49.159 the governor would go to see because they the Indians gave us news to the 1012 01:32:49.199 --> 01:32:54.520 Brigantines. But he did not dare to go to the ships because the month 1013 01:32:54.560 --> 01:32:58.920 of November was already half over and it was very cold, and he felt 1014 01:32:58.920 --> 01:33:02.479 it advisable to look for a land where he might find provisions in order to 1015 01:33:02.520 --> 01:33:08.239 be able to winter end quote. But this seems like an odd reason. 1016 01:33:09.119 --> 01:33:14.039 Even if there was a scarcity of food in southern Alabama, it seems incredible 1017 01:33:14.319 --> 01:33:18.079 that Sodo would move off his current position without contacting the captain of the fleet 1018 01:33:18.720 --> 01:33:26.399 or offloading desperately needed supplies that might help alleviate the lack of provisions. Nor 1019 01:33:26.479 --> 01:33:30.199 does it seem likely that if the army knew about the ships, someone didn't 1020 01:33:30.199 --> 01:33:33.880 slip away to try to find them beg passage to Cuba, something that the 1021 01:33:33.880 --> 01:33:40.119 commander of the fleet is adamant later on did not happen, And curiously, 1022 01:33:40.600 --> 01:33:45.960 a third of our contemporary historians, the ones who are writing as Sodo's traveling, 1023 01:33:45.239 --> 01:33:50.479 he doesn't mention the ships at all, which is a perplexing omission given 1024 01:33:50.520 --> 01:33:56.560 that this man was Soto's secretary and he would have been far more likely to 1025 01:33:56.600 --> 01:34:01.359 know about the ships than anyone else. I suspect the real reason that Hernando 1026 01:34:01.399 --> 01:34:06.119 de Soto turned away from the ships was because he continued to believe in the 1027 01:34:06.239 --> 01:34:13.399 dream of an Eldorado. He continued to believe in his ultimate success. The 1028 01:34:13.520 --> 01:34:18.039 thing that I think perplex's most historians is why did Soto's men continue to follow 1029 01:34:18.119 --> 01:34:25.399 him after the disaster at Mabia. Only one historians suggests that there was any 1030 01:34:25.439 --> 01:34:30.720 true dissension in the army, and he recounts a story about half baked mutiny 1031 01:34:30.000 --> 01:34:35.159 led by the Royal treasurer in a story that rings about as true as any 1032 01:34:35.399 --> 01:34:40.640 in the narrative that he wrote. The same man was in Peru. He 1033 01:34:40.720 --> 01:34:45.960 describes Hernando de Soto after Mabia is facing an army quote frightened and disturbed by 1034 01:34:45.960 --> 01:34:50.920 the incredible ferocity of the battle end quote, with a sizeable number of men 1035 01:34:51.319 --> 01:34:55.520 now wishing to quote leave the land and go away from it as soon as 1036 01:34:55.560 --> 01:35:00.960 they could. A few of these grumblers conspired to desert to the to look 1037 01:35:00.000 --> 01:35:04.680 for whatever ships they could find. However, before they could leave, their 1038 01:35:04.680 --> 01:35:11.760 plan was leaked to the governor Desto quote. This man says that Dosto actually 1039 01:35:11.800 --> 01:35:15.800 disguised himself, which is this is kind of crazy to investigate the allegations personally. 1040 01:35:15.840 --> 01:35:20.039 So I guess hernandode Soto like shaved really quickly or put on like a 1041 01:35:20.079 --> 01:35:24.760 fake beard or something and pretended to be, you know, just some common 1042 01:35:24.840 --> 01:35:28.520 joe walking around. What do you guys think of the captain? No mutiny 1043 01:35:28.600 --> 01:35:30.479 which probably killed that guy, you know, I just can't imagine that. 1044 01:35:30.399 --> 01:35:35.159 That just seems like something out of a really really bad comedy, reduction of 1045 01:35:35.199 --> 01:35:41.920 this entire investigation. But according to one historian, it absolutely happened. And 1046 01:35:42.000 --> 01:35:45.000 it turns out that he found out that his men did want to leave, 1047 01:35:45.600 --> 01:35:49.840 and this man wrote, quote this hurt the governor exceedingly, for he understood 1048 01:35:49.920 --> 01:35:55.079 from these words that his army was disintegrating and that his men, in finding 1049 01:35:55.079 --> 01:35:59.359 a place to go, would all desert him. End quote. So it's 1050 01:35:59.399 --> 01:36:02.920 kind of interesting that the iron willed de Soto at the very end of his 1051 01:36:02.960 --> 01:36:06.439 life, because we are getting close to the end of it here wounds up 1052 01:36:06.479 --> 01:36:12.319 just feeling personally really upset by the things that his men are saying, not 1053 01:36:12.439 --> 01:36:15.920 that this might imperil the expedition. From a strategic perspective, but he almost 1054 01:36:15.920 --> 01:36:19.439 seems to believe at this point that the only thing that he has going is 1055 01:36:19.439 --> 01:36:24.800 this personal charisma and belief that everything's going to be okay. And when that 1056 01:36:24.920 --> 01:36:29.439 starts to get rattled for the first time, he starts to maybe wonder about 1057 01:36:29.439 --> 01:36:32.119 the wisdom of all of this, if only he would have gone to the 1058 01:36:32.119 --> 01:36:39.199 ships. But by mid November winter was fast approaching. The army finally began 1059 01:36:39.239 --> 01:36:43.840 to limp along inland in search of food to pillage. They crossed the Alabama 1060 01:36:43.920 --> 01:36:49.119 River near Selma and continued northwest. Desperate for food, Soto's army now effectively 1061 01:36:49.199 --> 01:36:57.439 lurches from village to village like locusts, eating anything and everything available. By 1062 01:36:57.479 --> 01:37:00.720 early December, the rain and snow had now begun and matters were getting desperate. 1063 01:37:01.359 --> 01:37:05.880 Soto managed to find another native civilization, this time called the Chicasa, 1064 01:37:06.159 --> 01:37:12.039 not Chickasaw, Chikasa, with whom the army stayed through the winter as very 1065 01:37:12.119 --> 01:37:16.520 much uninvited guests. So too remained there until early March when the snows cleared. 1066 01:37:17.640 --> 01:37:20.399 Once the Spanish were on the move, that Chikasa had their revenge. 1067 01:37:20.399 --> 01:37:28.439 However, like Tascaloosa, Chikasa planned a nighttime sneak attack. Their warriors trailed 1068 01:37:28.439 --> 01:37:31.159 Soto's army until what night. They set the roofs of the houses the Spaniards 1069 01:37:31.159 --> 01:37:35.520 were staying in on fire. When the Spaniards ran out to the warriors attacked. 1070 01:37:36.600 --> 01:37:43.000 Fortunately for Sodo that Chikasa were so successful in their initial attack that the 1071 01:37:43.039 --> 01:37:47.000 horses got loose, and this so spooked the natives that they abruptly broke off 1072 01:37:47.039 --> 01:37:51.359 their attack. Had they not, Sodo almost certainly would have perished that very 1073 01:37:51.479 --> 01:37:58.279 night. As it were, any baggage Tascaloosa had not destroyed was now lost 1074 01:37:58.319 --> 01:38:02.720 forever. Sodo responded with immediate action. He moved his men three miles away 1075 01:38:02.720 --> 01:38:08.279 and prepared for another attack. It never came, but the men were now 1076 01:38:08.319 --> 01:38:13.039 absolutely miserable from lack of food and the bitter cold. After a week, 1077 01:38:13.239 --> 01:38:17.119 the Chicasa finally attacked again, but Sodo was ready and the attack was easily 1078 01:38:17.119 --> 01:38:24.840 repulsed, and so the army kept moving. Finally, on May eighth, 1079 01:38:24.880 --> 01:38:28.920 fifteen forty one, the army came out of the wilderness and stood atop a 1080 01:38:29.000 --> 01:38:35.600 low bluff. Below them stretched the mighty Mississippi River. Interestingly, those Europeans 1081 01:38:35.600 --> 01:38:41.680 who first gazed down upon the river had no idea of its importance. They 1082 01:38:41.760 --> 01:38:45.399 only marveled at the river's size. I do want to say, by the 1083 01:38:45.399 --> 01:38:51.880 way, there are a lot of conflicting claims now by different historians as to 1084 01:38:51.960 --> 01:38:58.000 who saw the Mississippi River first. In terms of Europeans, for a long 1085 01:38:58.079 --> 01:39:02.840 time, Hernando de Soto was credited as being the first European to quote unquote 1086 01:39:02.840 --> 01:39:08.479 discover the Mississippi River. But I do want to point out now those claims 1087 01:39:08.800 --> 01:39:12.880 have subsequently been hotly disputed. I'm not sure that we have a final conclusion 1088 01:39:13.000 --> 01:39:17.199 yet. The men who are with Sodo were happier, frankly to see a 1089 01:39:17.279 --> 01:39:20.760 town down the river, about thirty miles to the south of Memphis, with 1090 01:39:20.880 --> 01:39:26.479 ripening fields of corn. The corn they could eat the Mississippi, while pretty 1091 01:39:26.720 --> 01:39:31.119 they couldn't. For nearly a month, Sodo's half starved army rested under shade 1092 01:39:31.119 --> 01:39:36.439 trees along the Mississippi. They ate local corn and roasted a huge aquatic beast 1093 01:39:36.439 --> 01:39:43.439 the Spaniards called a bagrey, but which we now know today is a catfish. 1094 01:39:43.600 --> 01:39:47.079 Sodo's engineers worked to construct four flat bottom rafts to take the army across 1095 01:39:47.119 --> 01:39:51.960 the river. The engineers finished the rafts on June the seventeenth and crossed the 1096 01:39:53.039 --> 01:39:58.439 river that very night. Soto had now reached the final state in what would 1097 01:39:58.520 --> 01:40:03.359 be the United States that he would ever see, Arkansas. His goal right 1098 01:40:03.399 --> 01:40:08.640 now remained the same, find an indigenous community he could leach off of and 1099 01:40:08.760 --> 01:40:13.840 buy more time for his army to recover. Soto moved north after crossing the 1100 01:40:13.960 --> 01:40:17.439 river, staying in Pachaca, the home of yet another Native American band. 1101 01:40:18.159 --> 01:40:23.560 He stayed there for about a month, all the while continuing to reconnoiter the 1102 01:40:23.600 --> 01:40:28.600 area looking for gold. Never giving up on his dream. He left there 1103 01:40:28.600 --> 01:40:32.640 in late July and turned south. His army was now no longer able to 1104 01:40:32.640 --> 01:40:40.159 move great distances without regular stomping, and this time traveling perhaps fifty miles around 1105 01:40:40.279 --> 01:40:45.760 twenty one days. It's hard to see what Soto's purpose is at this point, 1106 01:40:45.159 --> 01:40:50.439 other than simply to keep moving forward. If you look at a map 1107 01:40:50.520 --> 01:40:58.119 right now, he's basically zig zagging between the Mississippi River and the Arkansas River, 1108 01:40:59.039 --> 01:41:02.319 moving from river to river or stream to stream, really with no discernible 1109 01:41:02.359 --> 01:41:08.600 goal or object. And so it was on September fourteenth, he reached the 1110 01:41:08.720 --> 01:41:17.640 Arkansas River proper. On September the fourteenth, a Wednesday Whig party came to 1111 01:41:17.680 --> 01:41:23.079 a quote unquote large river, the Arkansas, which one of the men said 1112 01:41:23.399 --> 01:41:29.159 flowed into the Mississippi. By now, the weight of Soto's gathering failure must 1113 01:41:29.159 --> 01:41:33.039 have been bearing down on him. Indeed, the better realization that he was 1114 01:41:33.119 --> 01:41:38.119 not going to be successful must have confronted him every time he looked in the 1115 01:41:38.159 --> 01:41:43.039 starving faces of his men, or watched the unsteady gait of the lean horses, 1116 01:41:43.600 --> 01:41:48.000 scarred by battle wounds and bites from swarms of insects, and ridiculously armored 1117 01:41:48.039 --> 01:41:54.239 now and dried hides of buffalo. But the forty one year old kept going. 1118 01:41:55.159 --> 01:41:59.640 In mid September, they reached the tilled fields and small villages of the 1119 01:42:00.119 --> 01:42:04.319 US, most likely arriving at the Arkansas River about thirty miles north of Little 1120 01:42:04.399 --> 01:42:10.680 Rock. He entered this verdant valley, where the river flows slightly flanked on 1121 01:42:10.760 --> 01:42:15.119 the north and south by tree clad mountains and hills that fade into the distant, 1122 01:42:15.439 --> 01:42:19.840 hazy expanse of purple and green. Soto continued to press on down the 1123 01:42:19.960 --> 01:42:26.359 valley, sending out parties scouting as far west now as Oklahoma, a few 1124 01:42:26.359 --> 01:42:30.439 miles from what is Fort Smith, Arkansas. There, the Spaniards found themselves 1125 01:42:30.640 --> 01:42:35.039 entering a brand new topography, if anything they had seen before, what looked 1126 01:42:35.039 --> 01:42:40.239 like a sea of grass, where the soil was chalkier, less rich, 1127 01:42:40.640 --> 01:42:43.880 the land was flat, and there seemed to be so little water that no 1128 01:42:44.000 --> 01:42:48.199 trees could grow. Obviously, it was a place unsuited for any sort of 1129 01:42:48.279 --> 01:42:55.119 large scale Indian kingdoms or empires, and nor was there any evidence of any 1130 01:42:55.159 --> 01:43:00.439 ocean anywhere nearby. Faced with the reality of dead ends to the west and 1131 01:43:00.560 --> 01:43:06.720 north, even Soto had to admit that this expedition had finally reached the end 1132 01:43:06.760 --> 01:43:12.199 of the line, but he was still not ready to give up, having 1133 01:43:12.279 --> 01:43:18.760 one final card to play. Nearby were the Okawachee Mountains, a steep, 1134 01:43:18.960 --> 01:43:26.159 rocky range that no doubt reminded Soto of his time in Nicaragua, Hoduras and 1135 01:43:26.199 --> 01:43:30.640 then also in Peru. In these places, the Spaniards had found traces of 1136 01:43:30.680 --> 01:43:36.279 gold and streams and in shallow, narrow veins. Praying that these mountains too 1137 01:43:36.560 --> 01:43:42.199 contained gold nuggets, he ordered his men on the eighteenth of October to go 1138 01:43:42.279 --> 01:43:45.960 into the Ochatchee Foothills, where he wandered about For the next five days. 1139 01:43:46.560 --> 01:43:51.439 They sifted through the silt of creeks and rivers, but every single time the 1140 01:43:51.520 --> 01:44:00.000 men came up empty. On October twenty third, he reluctantly left the mountains 1141 01:44:00.279 --> 01:44:04.680 marched quickly back to Arkansas, now not interested in gold, but only finding 1142 01:44:04.720 --> 01:44:09.760 a well provisioned town within which to pass the winter. The Army's third in 1143 01:44:09.760 --> 01:44:15.399 North America, Sodo had now finally made a decision, the decision he should 1144 01:44:15.399 --> 01:44:18.079 have made a long time ago. He planned to go back to the Mississippi 1145 01:44:18.159 --> 01:44:23.199 River, establish a base where it met the ocean, and then returned to 1146 01:44:23.239 --> 01:44:28.600 Cuba to prepare another expedition. Great idea, Too bad it was just about 1147 01:44:28.600 --> 01:44:33.680 three years too late. Ironically, at almost the exact same time, the 1148 01:44:33.760 --> 01:44:40.239 expedition, which had left Mexico under Francisco de Coronado, was in Central Kansas 1149 01:44:40.279 --> 01:44:45.119 and itself on the verge of giving up. Hence, the two failed quests 1150 01:44:45.159 --> 01:44:49.359 for gold were only seven hundred miles apart, even though there's no evidence either 1151 01:44:49.479 --> 01:44:55.960 knew of the presence of the other. Near Redfield, Arkansas, about twenty 1152 01:44:56.000 --> 01:44:59.920 miles south of Little Rock, Sodo and his men spent another terrible winter. 1153 01:45:00.960 --> 01:45:04.680 During this winter, Sodo lost his translator, who died of illness. If 1154 01:45:04.680 --> 01:45:08.720 you looked around at the faces of his men at this point, I'm sure 1155 01:45:08.760 --> 01:45:13.399 one thing would be clear. No one expected to get out alive, not 1156 01:45:13.479 --> 01:45:18.600 anymore. On March sixth, fifteen forty two, the snows ended and Sodo 1157 01:45:18.680 --> 01:45:23.479 began the march towards the Mississippi. He was now desperate to get back to 1158 01:45:23.560 --> 01:45:27.079 the Gulf of Mexico, find his ships, and make it back to Spain. 1159 01:45:28.319 --> 01:45:31.359 Sadly, he had no idea how far he truly was from the gulf. 1160 01:45:32.319 --> 01:45:36.880 By mid April, he reached present day Arkansas City, which he thought 1161 01:45:36.960 --> 01:45:43.039 was close to the gulf, but which is in reality one hundred and seventy 1162 01:45:43.079 --> 01:45:48.159 five miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. The locals told Sodo such, 1163 01:45:48.239 --> 01:45:54.600 but by now he was far too delusional to believe them. By late April, 1164 01:45:55.039 --> 01:45:59.800 Sodo was racked by fever. By mid May, it was clear he 1165 01:45:59.840 --> 01:46:04.840 was going to die. In mid May fifteen forty two, Soto's fever was 1166 01:46:04.920 --> 01:46:10.640 racking his forty two year old frame, turning him gaunt and pale. What 1167 01:46:10.760 --> 01:46:15.800 he felt as he slipped farther into delusions of fever we don't know. Gathering 1168 01:46:15.840 --> 01:46:18.760 his close friends together, he told them quote, he was about to give 1169 01:46:18.800 --> 01:46:24.720 them an accounting before the throne of God of all his past life end quote, 1170 01:46:25.560 --> 01:46:30.319 though the witness tells us he didn't seem particularly concerned about this. Indeed, 1171 01:46:30.680 --> 01:46:34.039 he was dying the way he had lived, worshiping his warrior God, 1172 01:46:34.520 --> 01:46:39.680 and undoubtedly feeling as though he had served Spain and the God, well, 1173 01:46:40.159 --> 01:46:45.159 of course, was Spanish. He thanked his remaining soldiers for remaining loyal despite 1174 01:46:45.199 --> 01:46:50.000 all their hardships. He asked them to forgive any offense they might have received 1175 01:46:50.000 --> 01:46:55.159 from them. His men, in turn, begged him to choose a successor. 1176 01:46:56.359 --> 01:47:00.840 Sodo named his old comrade from Peru, Luis do Mosoko, probably because 1177 01:47:00.840 --> 01:47:06.800 he knew his old friend was a savvy leader and anxious to get out slowly 1178 01:47:06.960 --> 01:47:13.840 and quietly. Hernando de Soto receded deeper into fever. Then, on May 1179 01:47:13.880 --> 01:47:20.479 the twenty first, fifteen forty two, he died. Luis de Mosoko and 1180 01:47:20.560 --> 01:47:26.439 a small band of Sodo's friends disinterred him and carried his body to one of 1181 01:47:26.479 --> 01:47:30.920 the army's dugouts at the river's edge, they loaded the already rotting corpse of 1182 01:47:30.960 --> 01:47:35.600 the Governor of La Florida into a large hollow log and carried it out to 1183 01:47:35.600 --> 01:47:41.960 the middle of the river. There, in really what was an almost impossibly 1184 01:47:42.039 --> 01:47:46.479 poetic finale to this guy's life, his friends heaved the log containing his body 1185 01:47:46.840 --> 01:47:51.560 into the swirling, writhing rivers of the Mississippi, where it quickly sank beneath 1186 01:47:51.600 --> 01:47:57.479 the surface, plunging him to the depths of the river. Hernando de Soto 1187 01:47:57.520 --> 01:48:02.039 supposedly discovered. It took more than a year for Luis de Mosoko to lead 1188 01:48:02.079 --> 01:48:08.239 the remnant of Sodo army out of left Florida and to return three hundred and 1189 01:48:08.239 --> 01:48:13.520 eleven of them safely to Mexico. He tried to march overland one thousand miles 1190 01:48:13.520 --> 01:48:17.319 across Arkansas in Texas, but turned back near modern day Dallas, where the 1191 01:48:17.319 --> 01:48:23.399 country was too dry and sparsely populated to feed and maintain his army. In 1192 01:48:23.399 --> 01:48:27.800 September fourteen ninety two, they arrived back at the Mississippi, where Soto had 1193 01:48:27.840 --> 01:48:32.119 died. Here they spent another winter in a nearby city before building boats to 1194 01:48:32.119 --> 01:48:38.920 float down the Mississippi. Harassed by floods and fierce attack by Native Americans, 1195 01:48:39.560 --> 01:48:45.159 Mosoko and his exhausted troop finally made it to the Gulf. They then sailed 1196 01:48:45.159 --> 01:48:50.600 to Mexico, astonishing the neighbors of a town called Panuco by arriving on September 1197 01:48:50.760 --> 01:48:57.960 tenth, fifteen forty three, after having been long ago e'ven up for dead. 1198 01:49:00.680 --> 01:49:05.439 Hernando de Soto, in a lot of ways, closes the book on 1199 01:49:05.520 --> 01:49:13.520 the age of the Conquistador. There will be other small expeditions, but his 1200 01:49:13.680 --> 01:49:19.319 is really the last Spanish throw of the dice in an effort to find another 1201 01:49:19.439 --> 01:49:26.920 indigenous empire, another city of gold somewhere in the Americas. By the middle 1202 01:49:27.000 --> 01:49:32.960 of the sixteenth century, enough of the Americas have been explored that Europeans have 1203 01:49:33.560 --> 01:49:41.239 finally, perhaps quietly, perhaps reticently, accepted the fact that they're just simply 1204 01:49:41.279 --> 01:49:46.239 who were no more kingdoms of Mexica. There were no more kingdoms of Inca 1205 01:49:46.399 --> 01:49:54.039 worth conquering. From the middle to the late sixteenth century. On the attitude 1206 01:49:54.119 --> 01:50:00.199 towards the New World is going to shift as we see less conquistador and more 1207 01:50:00.279 --> 01:50:06.520 intrepid settlers who are trying to use the land to produce luxury cash crops like 1208 01:50:06.720 --> 01:50:14.600 tobacco and especially sugarcane that they can sell, realizing that the gold itself was 1209 01:50:14.600 --> 01:50:19.640 tapped out. I also think Hernando de Soto is a cautionary tale from the 1210 01:50:19.720 --> 01:50:26.079 age. I don't fault him at first for what he was doing, although 1211 01:50:26.640 --> 01:50:31.000 to us, of course, conquistadors are horrifyingly brutal in their attitudes towards the 1212 01:50:31.039 --> 01:50:38.079 first nations of the Americas. But that being said, you have to remember 1213 01:50:38.680 --> 01:50:46.159 her Non Cortez had discovered a wealthy indigenous empire. Francisco Pizzato, whom Hernando 1214 01:50:46.239 --> 01:50:54.000 de Soto worked with, also discovered one. There's no indication whatsoever, given 1215 01:50:54.039 --> 01:50:59.880 the size of the Americas that they should have been tapped out of wealthy kingdom 1216 01:51:00.239 --> 01:51:04.159 that Spaniards like DeSoto could have simply leeched off of which is what his goal 1217 01:51:04.239 --> 01:51:13.720 ultimately was. DeSoto just didn't realize that there were no more empires at the 1218 01:51:13.840 --> 01:51:18.359 end of the day. He didn't understand that the way that Europeans needed to 1219 01:51:18.399 --> 01:51:24.119 approach the Americas had to change time and time again. Even his own men 1220 01:51:24.279 --> 01:51:29.479 fault him for not building a settlement. He had tons of opportunities, and 1221 01:51:29.560 --> 01:51:34.359 the history of the Americas, especially if we think about Georgia and the Carolinas, 1222 01:51:35.279 --> 01:51:42.319 might have been very different. If there's a thriving Spanish colony by the 1223 01:51:42.399 --> 01:51:47.560 seventeenth century around what is Charleston, that may very well check British advances in 1224 01:51:47.600 --> 01:51:51.319 the region. Of course, there's no way of knowing, but it's an 1225 01:51:51.359 --> 01:51:59.039 interesting historical what if Regardless, DeSoto was working on the old model, which 1226 01:51:59.159 --> 01:52:02.880 was fine, conquer take. Problem was there was no one to conquer, 1227 01:52:03.359 --> 01:52:10.439 There was nothing to take. He just didn't know that yet. All right, 1228 01:52:10.439 --> 01:52:13.520 Well, today's episode was a lot of content, but if you still 1229 01:52:13.560 --> 01:52:17.680 need more, check out the website at Western Sip podcast dot com. Also, 1230 01:52:18.199 --> 01:52:23.720 you can now do a free seven day trial of my Patreon service. 1231 01:52:24.039 --> 01:52:28.000 So if you check out the link in the show notes Patreon dot com forward 1232 01:52:28.039 --> 01:52:32.800 slash Western sip Podcast. Instead of paying the dollar or two dollars or five 1233 01:52:32.880 --> 01:52:36.880 dollars a month, whatever you would like, you can give it a try 1234 01:52:36.880 --> 01:52:41.399 and see if you're like some of the additional content that's there. Again, 1235 01:52:41.479 --> 01:52:45.920 for twelve dollars a year, you get no ads, and that's super helpful 1236 01:52:45.960 --> 01:52:48.199 to me too because it helps purchase the books that keep it all going. 1237 01:52:49.000 --> 01:52:51.159 So if you want to check that out, feel free. There's also still 1238 01:52:51.199 --> 01:52:56.560 a seven day free trial of Western Cive two point zero. That link is 1239 01:52:56.560 --> 01:53:00.600 in the show notes as well. Now, next time we are gear as 1240 01:53:00.600 --> 01:53:03.079 we are actually for the first time in months, going to move away from 1241 01:53:03.079 --> 01:53:08.560 the Americas. We're going to go back to Europe. And I want to 1242 01:53:08.600 --> 01:53:13.479 now spend the next couple of weeks talking about something that's been growing since the 1243 01:53:13.560 --> 01:53:18.079 Age of Discovery got kicked off, and that is the scientific revolution, the 1244 01:53:18.159 --> 01:53:25.760 early scientific revolution. So we're talking about math, astronomy, Copernicus, Galileo, 1245 01:53:25.920 --> 01:53:31.720 take Obrahey, all of these people who change the way dramatically that humankind 1246 01:53:32.119 --> 01:53:36.600 sees the world, especially from a European perspective. And don't worry, we're 1247 01:53:36.640 --> 01:53:41.640 also going to talk about the reaction to that, because for every Galileo, 1248 01:53:42.279 --> 01:54:03.960 there's an inquisition, and it's important to understand the ying and the yang Fo mite