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Long before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Spaniards had explored and settled large parts of what is now the United States.
One of the regions the Spanish explored first was the Southeast. Hernando de Soto and 600 followers were the first European explorers to journey through the Southeast. For nearly four years, de Soto and his followers wandered through the region.
LA FLORIDA
After sailing from Cuba in 1539, de Soto landed in Florida. An earlier Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de León, had named the land La Florida, after a Spanish word meaning "flowery.”
La Florida was much larger than present-day Florida. It covered most of the area in what are now the southeastern states. One of de Soto's men described the animals the explorers found. "There are many lions and bears in Florida, wolves, deer, jackals, cats and rabbits (also live there)," he wrote.
Many different groups of Native Americans lived in La Florida. They grew corn, beans and squash. They also fished and hunted.
Because the native groups did not trust de Soto, they often left their villages before the Spaniards arrived. The Native Americans had good reason to fear de Soto. He captured and enslaved some of them.
SEARCHING FOR GOLD
De Soto and his men were mainly looking for gold. The search for gold led them out of present-day Florida north to what is now Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
After reaching North Carolina without finding gold, the explorers turned west and crossed the Appalachian Mountains. Upon hearing rumors of gold, de Soto led his men into Tennessee and south to Alabama.
In southern Alabama, the Choctaw Indians attacked the explorers. They killed many of de Soto's men, and some of his supplies were taken.
De Soto's expedition then turned northwest through Alabama and into present-day Mississippi. In May 1541, de Soto reached the Mississippi River, near what is now Memphis, Tennessee. Then they crossed into Arkansas, where in May 1542, De Soto died.
The explorers then retreated to the Mississippi River, where they built boats, which sailed down the river to the Gulf of Mexico. Only about half of the people who had landed with de Soto in Florida survived the trek across the Southeast.
Read this sentence from the passage: “Only about half of the people who had landed with de Soto in Florida survived the trek across the Southeast.”
What might you conclude from that sentence?
A) “La Florida” was important to the people of Spain
B) It is hard to live in the southeastern United States.
C) De Soto’s trip was a great success
D) De Soto’s trip was a difficult one that included many dangers
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La Florida” was important to the people of Spain
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