FROM DE SOTO TO LA SALLE

In 1541, Hernando de Soto and his followers, all Spanish, were the first Europeans known to have penetrated Arkansas. He landed in Florida in 1539 with 550 followers and began searching for gold, silver and other treasures. They found nothing but Indians. The brutal and insulting conduct of the Spanish enraged the Indians. Although the Spanish had horses and firearms that terrified the Indians, and the armor the Spanish wore protected them to some extent from spears and arrows, the Indians constantly ambushed them. Thus DeSoto and his men were in dire straits when they reached the Mississippi in May, 1541. They built rafts and crossed in to the land of the Pacahas.

The exact site of DeSoto’s crossing is not known. Every town from Memphis to Rosedale on both sides of the Mississippi has claimed the honor. A special study in 1939 determined he crossed the river at Sunflower Landing south of Helena. Other studies have him crossing at or near Memphis, still others at Commerce Landing near Tunica, Mississippi. Be that as it may, DeSoto and his men crossed the Mississippi in May, 1541, and spent the summer and fall wandering through eastern Arkansas. His exact route is not known but the 1939 study indicates he might have gone as far north as Hughes and as far south as Arkansas Post before heading up the Arkansas River. He may have visited the city at Parkin which was one of the biggest temple mound complexes around. As the expedition went upriver, it probably either saw or stopped at Toltec Mounds near Scott. No evidence is found as to how far west they went. It is known they wintered someplace between Little Rock and El Dorado, probably near Calion, and then in the spring of 1542 came back to the Mississippi, either by going down the Ouachita or back down the Arkansas, probably the latter because they knew it. On the other hand, it is possible they went down the Ouachita as the Pacahas along the Arkansas were annoyed at the Spanish. As was usual, the Spanish managed to antagonize all the Indians they met.

Going down whichever river, DeSoto fell ill and died on May 21, 1542. The relations with the Indians were tense at best, and his followers feared the effect the knowledge of his death would have on the Indians. So his followers, in the middle of the night, sank his body in the Mississippi River near the mouth of the river they had traveled. Then they left the area and went down the Mississippi. On September 20, 1543, over a year later, the 320 survivors of DeSoto expedition turned up at Panuca, Mexico.

What Indians did DeSoto fight with in Arkansas? At the western end they would have contacted the ancestors of the Plains Indians and the Caddoes. But most of his travels in Arkansas were among the Pacahas, north of the Arkansas and west of the Mississippi. The accounts of the survivors said that very seldom were they out of sight of cooking smoke of Indian villages in eastern Arkansas. The land was fertile, climate good, but unfortunately, there was no gold, silver or jewels: only unfriendly Indians.