DeSoto's Midwestern Trail
by Donald E. SheppardHernando de Soto entered Kentucky from Clarksville, Tennessee, during the full moon of May 10th, 1541. A truce with the natives would last through the next three states with one exception: at the Ohio River, Kentucky's northern border where "...all the army crossed that great river... and they gave many thanks to God, because in their opinion, nothing so difficult could ever be offered them again."
From Fort Campbell "...(they) marched for four short daily journeys of three leagues (8 miles) each, since the indispositions of the sick and wounded did not permit longer ones." Lenghty stops were made along there way near Hopkinsville and Madisonville. Both were raided for favorite morsels: corn, women and dogs. As they continued northward, "One league from this town was found another with much corn, and then, after another league, another, likewise with much corn. There they saw the great (Ohio) river."
"On Saturday, the twenty-first of May (1541), the Army moved on to a savanna between the river and a small town (Henderson), and they made camp (near Audubon State Park on the Ohio River's Big Bend), and began to make four rafts in order to cross to the other side."
"There they saw the Great (Ohio) River." "On Saturday, the twenty-first of May (1541), the Army moved on to a savanna between the river and a small town (Henderson), and they made camp (near Audubon State Park on the Ohio River's Big Bend), and began to make four rafts in order to cross to the other side.
Anther said, "... they came to a passage where they could cross the Great River, not that they could ford it, but where there was an open passage for reaching it, for previously all along its banks there had been extremely large and very dense woodlands, and the banks on either side were very high and steep and one could not go up or down them."
They camped just above Henderson while building rafts to cross the Ohio River. The river banks flatten north of Audubon Park and there's a low grassy north bank near Green River Island, as that bank is called today. The river's flats have shifted slightly in the last five centuries. The "island" on the north bank was part of Kentucky at statehood but DeSoto found it about where it is today, attached to the north bank.
"Many of the Conquistadors said that the river was larger than the Danube. On the other bank of the river up to seven thousand Indians gathered to defend the crossing with up to two-thousand canoes, all with shields which were made of canes joined together, so strong and so tightly sewn that a crossbow would scarcely pierce them." The Indians gathered on the west bank of the Ohio River which was filled by Spring run-off and April showers.
"We immediately moved there (very near Audubon State Park on the river's east bank), houses were built, and the camp was established on a level place, a crossbow flight from the river. All of the corn of all the towns behind (including Henderson, Sebree and Madisonville) was collected there, and the men set to work immediately to cut timber and square the planks for rafts."
"Immediately the Indians came down river (from today's Indiana), landed, and told the governor that they were vassals of a great lord called Aquixo, who was lord of many towns and people on the other side of the river (he lived at Angel Mounds State Park; a large scattering of farms and villages at the time)."
"Here we found the first little walnuts (pecans) of the land, which are much better than those from Spain..." They're still the pride of Kentucky - the pecan breeding stock of America - the best in the world. "This town was near the Great River. They told us that this and other towns there pay tribute to a lord of Pacaha, who was well known in all the land." He would be found in Terre Haute, Indiana. DeSoto was headed his way from the time he crossed the Cumberland River and first heard about him at Clarksville.
Natives assembled on the west bank of the Ohio River directly opposite today's Audubon State Park, where the Spaniards were building their rafts. "During this time the Indians each day at the hour of three in the afternoon (with the sun at their backs to blind the Spaniards) placed themselves in two hundred and fifty canoes that they had there, very large and well shielded, and drew near the shore where we were with a great yell. They shot all the arrows that they could and returned to the other bank."
"Arrows came raining and the air was filled with them, and with such a yell, so that it seemed a matter of great dread; but when they saw that the work on the rafts did not let up for them, they said that Pacaha, whose men they were, commanded them to remove themselves from there, and thus they left the crossing undefended. And on Saturday, the eight of June, all the army crossed the Great River in four rafts, and they gave thanks to God, because in their opinion, nothing so difficult could ever be offered them again."
Another eyewitness says, "... they made four rafts, in three of which, one early morning three hours before it became light, DeSoto ordered a dozen horse to enter, four to each one - men whom he was most confident would succeed in gaining the land in spite of the Indians and assure the crossing or die in doing it - and with them some of foot - crossbowmen and rowers - to place them on the other side. In the other raft, he ordered Juan de Guzman to cross with men of foot... And because the current was strong, they went up stream along the shore for a quarter of a league (almost three-quarters of a mile) and in crossing they were carried down with the current of the river and went to land opposite the place where the camp was."
DeSoto launched his rafts east of camp to surprise the natives who were west of his camp. After all, the Ohio River's big bend around DeSoto's camp afforded him opportunity to do so. His rafts were simply dragged upstream for launching, as DeSoto had done elsewhere for the same purpose.
"At a distance of two stones' throw before reaching shore the men of horse went from the rafts on horseback to a sandy place of hard sand and clear ground (on Green River Island at today's Ohio River Bridge point) where all the men landed without any accident. As soon as those who crossed first were on the other side, the rafts returned immediately to where the governor was and in two hours after the sun was up all the men finished crossing. The crossing was nearly a half league (over a mile) wide, and if a man stood on the other side, one could not tell whether he were a man or something else..."
Ancient historians have pointed out that DeSoto's Secretary, from whom was gained our knowledge of the timing of DeSoto's activity in America, erred in reporting the day or date of the Great River's crossing. The secretary wrote, "On Saturday, the 8th of June, all the army crossed the great river," but the 8th of June was a Wednesday in 1541. They deduced that June 18th, which was a Saturday, was the actual date of his crossing. If that be so, the moon would have been rising directly in front of DeSoto to light his way three hours before dawn. He crossed the Ohio River to eastward, not the Mississippi River to westward, in June of 1541, as previous historians have mistakenly surmised.
Indiana Trails