On the banks of the Mississippi River in present-day Louisiana, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto dies, ending a three-year journey for gold that took him halfway across what is now the United States. In order that local peoples would not learn of his death, and thus disprove de Soto’s claims of divinity, his men buried his body in the Mississippi River.
In late May 1539, de Soto landed on the west coast of Florida with 600 troops, servants, and staff, 200 horses and a pack of bloodhounds. From there, the army set about subduing the natives, seizing any valuables they stumbled upon and preparing the region for eventual Spanish colonization. Traveling through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, across the Appalachians, and back to…
