172 : The Atlantic 



was Juan Ortiz and he was a captive of the Indians in Florida. After 

 twelve years he lived like an Indian, moved like an Indian, spoke 

 like an Indian and dressed like an Indian; that is to say, he mostly 

 went naked but he was still alive in Florida to greet the next Spanish 

 disaster. This was the expedition of Hernando De Soto, who landed 

 near the present city of Tampa in 1539. 



De Soto started out with 600 men and many horses loaded on 

 seven vessels and he went fighting and bullying his way northward 

 through Florida into Georgia. They made a loop through North and 

 South Carolina and returned southward in the region of the Tom- 

 bigbee and Alabama Rivers. The name of the region was reported as 

 Manilla from which the name "Mobile" may later have been derived. 

 By this time De Soto's men were hostile to his leadership and to his 

 plans so much so that he did not dare to approach the gulf with his 

 main force. In addition, he had to fight a battle against the Indians 

 who had assembled in great number. 



It is reported that De Soto lost eighteen men killed and 150 

 wounded but that the use of firearms and the burning of villages 

 accounted for the destruction of somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 

 Indians. De Soto moved in a northwesterly direction fighting Indi- 

 ans all the way and in 1541 reached the Mississippi River in the 

 neighborhood of the Chickasaw Bluffs. He crossed the river and in 

 a miserable march northward during the winter lost 250 more men. 

 After further futile wandering he reached the mouth of the Red 

 River in 1542 and died there in the spring of the year. 



A few hundred survivors under the leadership of Luis Moscoso 

 built boats and finally made the passage to the Spanish settlements 

 in Mexico. By this time much had been learned and reported about 

 the North American continent but there was still no settlement. 



We have seen already that the attempt of Luis de Cancer to estab- 

 lish a benevolent colony in Florida following the theories of Las 

 Casas came to grief and was abandoned in 1549. Between 1559 and 

 1 56 1, attempts to establish settlements in Pensacola and in the Caro- 

 linas also met with failure. 



In the meantime, the French were aroused and were anxious to 

 establish colonies in many parts of America. In 1562 French Hugue- 

 nots under the leadership of Jean Ribaut failed in an attempt to es- 

 tablish a settlement named Port Royal in South Carolina but another 

 French leader, Rene de Laudonniere, founded Fort Caroline on the 

 St. Johns River in Florida and Ribaut returned with a new expedi- 



