Hernando de Soto (courtesy of the Granger Collection, New York and VISIT FLORIDA)

In November 1536, Hernando de Soto, a seasoned conquistador who had taken part in expeditions in Central and South America, was awarded a contract by the Spanish king to colonize La Florida, the land northeast of Mexico. He sailed from Spain in April 1538 bound for Cuba where he planned to organize the expedition.

Nearly a year later de Soto and his fleet of nine ships left Cuba for Bahía Honda (Tampa Bay). On board were 725 people, including two women, craftsmen, servants, friars, cavalry, and infantry. The ships also carried 220 horses, dogs, pigs, food, and an array of weapons and tools.

On May 25, 1539 the ships anchored near the mouth of Tampa Bay. The Spaniards went ashore and set up camp in the Native American village of Uzita. Scout parties were sent out to reconnoiter the region, traveling as far as a Native American village in the vicinity of western Orange County.

In mid-July, headed north, intending to reach the territory of the Ocale, where the expedition hoped to spend the winter. The rest of the expedition remained in camp.

Following Native American trails that roughly parallel today’s U.S. Highway 41, de Soto reached the Inverness area and turned northeast across the Cove of the Withlacoochee wetlands, arriving at the main village of the Ocale. The town turned out to be poorly provisioned, a party was sent east to the Acuera in eastern Marion County to secure food. Soto then marched on north through Marion and Alachua counties, leaving the rest of the expedition at Ocale.

After five days of traveling past villages of the Potano, de Soto and his men found themselves in the town of Aguacaleyquen in southern Columbia County. Alarmed by the number of Native Americans, de Soto took the daughter of the town’s chief hostage and sent horsemen to Ocale to tell the people there to come north to reinforce him.

Reunited, the expedition continued north to near today’s Lake City before turning west, marching through the territory of various Northern Utina groups and reaching the Aucilla River, the eastern boundary of the Apalachee.

Impressed by the agricultural bounty of the Apalachee, de Soto moved on to the town of Anhaica (the DeSoto Site in Tallahassee) and set up their winter camp in early October. Cavalry was sent to Tampa Bay carrying orders for the rest of the expedition to come to Anhaica. Some of the people traveled overland, tracing de Soto’s earlier route. Others, along with supplies, were loaded aboard ships that sailed to the coast south of Anhaica where passengers and cargo were off-loaded and taken to Anhaica.

In early spring of 1540, de Soto broke camp and headed northeasterly into Georgia. Three years later, after trekking through much of what would become the Southeastern U.S., his defeated expedition would reach Mexico. Hernando de Soto never left the southeast. He died of fever in 1542 in present-day Arkansas and was buried in the Mississippi River to conceal his death from the natives.

With a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation, the De Soto National Memorial in partnership with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Division of Recreation and Parks and Office of Greenways and Trails, and the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Office plan to revise the existing Hernando de Soto Trail in Florida based on current research. The new trail and trail markers are planned for completion in 2009, during the 470th anniversary of de Soto’s expedition through Florida. More on the new trail sites is found at De Soto.