Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun
Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
The 20th anniversary edition of the study that first revealed De Soto’s path across the 16th century American South includes a forward by Robbie Ethridge
Between 1539 and 1542, the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto led a small army on an expedition of almost four thousand miles across Southeastern America. De Soto’s path had been one of history’s most intriguing mysteries until the publication of Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun. Using a new route reconstruction, anthropologist Charles Hudson maps the story of the de Soto expedition, tying the route to a number of specific archaeological sites.
De Soto’s journey cut a bloody and indelible swath across both the landscape and native cultures in a quest for gold and glory. The desperate Spanish army followed the sunset from Florida to Texas before abandoning its mission. De Soto’s one triumph was that he was the first European to explore the vast region that would be the American South. But in 1542, he died a broken man on the banks of the Mississippi River.
In this classic text, Hudson masterfully chronicles both De Soto’s expedition and the native societies he visited. The narrative unfolds against the exotic backdrop of a now extinct social and geographic landscape. A blending of archaeology, history, and historical geography, this is a monumental study of the sixteenth-century Southeast.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For four years before dying in 1543, Hernando de Soto and his Spanish army blazed through the American Southeast in the futile search of gold, treasures and glory. Unfortunately, Hudson, a professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia, seems to have chronicled every grueling day of those four years. In this overly thorough account of de Soto's trek through "La Florida" one can only imagine that the Spaniards would have been as bored by the expedition as we are by the recounting. As related by the author, the expedition was an endless succession of marching, bivouacking, fording streams, rivers and bayous with de Soto constantly demanding "women and porters" from the natives. Only on the rare occasion when the army encountered large settlements does the narrative perk up. There the troops found the opportunity to exhibit their particular brand of cruelty as they plundered Native American villages and fought warriors who were desperate to save their families from enslavement or death and their homes from destruction. Hudson delves deep into the archaeology of the ancient Southeast and written accounts of the expedition from survivors. There is much to learn in this volume, but it is written with so little imagination ("On August 4 they came to another village, situated near the River of Casqui, where they found many pumpkins and a good supply of corn and beans") and so much detail that, like fording a swamp, it is hard to negotiate. Illustrated.
