Fernando de Soto, met his earthly demise at around the age of 46, when he died from the effects of a fever in the American Indian village of Guachoya




☞Today in History -- On today’s date 481 years ago, Sunday, May 21, 1542, famous Spanish explorer & conquistador Hernando de Soto (circa-1496 - 1542), also spelled Fernando de Soto, met his earthly demise at around the age of 46 when he died from the effects of a fever in the American Indian village of Guachoya, at the present-day location of the town of McArthur in Desha County, Arkansas.

☞RequiΓ©scat in Pace, Hernando de Soto.

☞At the time of his demise, de Soto was leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the present-day United States. A vast undertaking, de Soto’s North-American expedition ranged throughout the southeastern region of the North American continent searching for gold, silver, & a passage to China. 

☞Because de Soto had encouraged the local natives to believe that he was an immortal sun god as a ploy to gain their submission without conflict, his men made an effort to conceal his death. 

☞The actual location of de Soto’s burial is not known, & sources vary regarding the manner of his burial. According to one source, de Soto’s men wrapped his corpse in blankets weighted with sand & sank it in the middle of the Mississippi River during the night. Another source relates that his body was placed within a hollowed-out tree trunk before being placed in the waters of the Mississippi.

☞The photograph depicts an engraved illustration of the scene of the night-time burial of Hernando de Soto in the Mississippi River in 1542 -- from the 1906 book “Ferdinand de Soto & the Invasion of Florida” by noted American ornithologist, naturalist, explorer, historian, & author Frederick Albion Ober (1849-1913), published by Harper & Bros. of New York.

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