Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast.

I'm your host, Jack Heneman.

I'm recording this episode on April 29, 2021, in the Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana.

This episode is the third to explore Orlando De Soto's invasion of the

American Southeast from 1539 to 1542. Our goal, as always, is to make history fun and

interesting, even when it's also brutal and ugly, which it's about to get.

Thank you again for listening and telling your friends about the history of the Americans podcast.

We hope we're telling good stories here, and good stories are meant to be shared.

You're doing a great job so far, and if you haven't subscribed to the podcast by one means or another so you don't

miss an episode, please consider doing. Last week, we looked at Soto's upbringing, the forces that

shaped him, a brief history of his conquests in Central and South America, and the painful,

yet ironic story of Juan Ortiz, rescued by Soto after a living 11 years in the

captivity of a central Florida Indian tribe. The expedition had landed at Tampa Bay at the end of May

1539 and camped there for six weeks, hoping to capture some Indians who would lead them toward an advanced

Indian civilization with a lot of gold, maize, or both. Gold was important because, well, it was cash money.

Maize was important because maize meant large settlements with agricultural surpluses.

Large settlements were important because they were a thing

that could be conquered, unlike the mobile bands of hunter-gatherers who predominated on the

peninsula of Florida. Agricultural surpluses were important because Soto had horses and 600 men

who needed to eat. Soto's army traveled on its stomach, but didn't

have any meals ready to eat. Now that Soto had his translator and Ortiz, he organized his army

into units designed for different purposes and began marching to the north. Generalizing a bit,

...