Hernando de Soto
by Donald E. SheppardJust before DeSoto's Expedition, Cabeza de Vaca trudged America's Gulf Coast. Back in Spain, he reported a fabled northern sea to DeSoto, who thought it was the Pacific Ocean. Balboa had discovered that sea beyond Panama while DeSoto was there. Magellan had sailed that sea to markets in the East, but lost his life on that long voyage.
DeSoto, who called North America the Island of Florida, observed that a line drawn from Cuba to China ran across it. He planned to secure that shortcut by founding a colony in America at which to build ships then trade New World goods with China. The King granted DeSoto a 500 mile wide swath of land for himself and his heirs if he could settle it within four years.
DeSoto's search for that sea, and the rich Indian nations which Vaca told him were located there, was well recorded by his 640 man army from Florida to Lake Michigan and beyond. Coronado, who had also listened to Cabeza de Vaca but in Mexico City, searched western North America at the same time.