The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the
Mississippi, by John S. C. Abbott

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi
American Pioneers and Patriots

Author: John S. C. Abbott

Release Date: June 20, 2009 [EBook #29172]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FERDINAND DE SOTO ***

Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

FERDINAND DE SOTO,

THE

DISCOVERER OF THE MISSISSIPPI

BY

JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

NEW YORK:
DODD & MEAD, No. 762 BROADWAY.
1873.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
DODD & MEAD,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

WM. MCCREA & CO., Stereotypers, LANGE, LITTLE & HILLMAN,
Newburgh, N. Y. PRINTERS,
108 TO 114 WOOSTER STREET, N. Y.

_AMERICAN PIONEERS AND PATRIOTS._

FERDINAND DE SOTO.

THE

DISCOVERER OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

ILLUSTRATED.

NEW YORK: DODD & MEAD, No. 762 BROADWAY.
1873.

[Illustration]

PREFACE.

Mr. Theodore Irving, in his valuable history of the "Conquest of
Florida," speaking of the astonishing achievements of the Spanish
Cavaliers, in the dawn of the sixteenth century says:

"Of all the enterprises undertaken in this spirit of daring
adventure, none has surpassed, for hardihood and variety of
incident, that of the renowned Hernando de Soto, and his
band of cavaliers. It was poetry put in action. It was the
knight-errantry of the old world carried into the depths of
the American wilderness. Indeed the personal adventures, the
feats of individual prowess, the picturesque description of
steel-clad cavaliers, with lance and helm and prancing
steed, glittering through the wildernesses of Florida,
Georgia, Alabama, and the prairies of the Far West, would
seem to us mere fictions of romance, did they not come to us