Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun

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Between 1539 and 1542, Hernando de Soto led a small army on a grueling exploration across nearly four thousand miles of the Southeast, a journey shrouded in mystery until now. Anthropologist Charles Hudson provides a groundbreaking route reconstruction, mapping de Soto's expedition and linking it to specific archaeological sites for the first time. This journey, arguably the most significant event in the Southeast during the sixteenth century, left a bloody mark on the landscape and native cultures as de Soto sought gold and personal glory. The Spanish army ventured from Florida to Texas, ultimately abandoning their mission. Despite his failures, de Soto became the first European to explore what would become the American South, dying a broken man on the banks of the Mississippi River in 1542. Illustrated and clearly written, this narrative unfolds against the backdrop of a now-extinct social and geographic landscape. Hudson expertly chronicles both de Soto's expedition and the native societies encountered, blending archaeology, history, and historical geography into a monumental study of the sixteenth-century Southeast.