Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/73

 CHAPTER II ADVENTURES OF DE SOTO Is Made Governor of Florida — Lands in Florida — Discovers the Mississippi — Place of Crossing — Direction of March — The Casquins — Religious Service — Attack on Cap- AHAS — Search for Salt — Probable Situation of Capaha Camp — Return to the South — Quigate — Location of Caligoa — Further Travels and Death — Interest Concerning Exact Route. It seems probable that De Soto was the first white man to set foot on the soil of Missouri. Certain difficulties are in the way of an exact determination of the question of his visit to this state. One of these is the somewhat ro- mantic style of the Spanish chroniclers who wrote the earliest accounts of his journey ; an- other is the difficulty of telling, from their ac- counts, just what places are referred to. It is no easy matter to identify with certainty, from the description given of places visited, where these places are. Yet, while we may not be sure, it seems highlj' probable that the travels of De Soto and his companions brought them into the Southeast Missouri. Ferdinand De Soto was one of the most daring and able of the Spanish soldiers of for- tune who explored the continent of America. He was with Avila on the isthmus of Darien, with Cordoba in Nicaragua; explored, inde- pendently, the coasts of Guatemala and Yuca- tan, seeking doubtless for a waterway to the west. In 1532, he accompanied Pizarro to Peru and was one of the boldest members of the remarkable band of men that overturned the empire of the Incas. From these expedi- tions De Soto returned to Spain with a large fortune, apparently willing to settle down to a life of ease. In 1537, however, he was ap- pointed by Charles V, governor of Florida and Cuba and in May, 1539, he landed at Tampa bay, Florida, with an expedition for the exploration of that country. He had with him a well-equipped army of six hundred men, the largest and most complete expedi- tion that Spain had sent to the New World. His purpose was to explore and conquer the country. Especially was he desirous of find- ing the great and populous cities which the imagination of the Spaniards, stimulated by their experiences in Mexico and Peru, pic- tured as existing in the great and unknown continent to the north. Strange stories were told by the Indians of these cities and return- ing wanderers of the Spanish had heard of Quivira, a great and rich city where there was gold enough to satisfy even the Spaniards. De Soto plunged into the wilderness with his little armj' and for nearly three years pur- sued his journey through the unexplored wil- derness of North America. For a time r was in the Carolinas; then he explored the 13