Full Description
"For those interested in De Soto and his expedition, these volumes are an absolute necessity." —The Hispanic American Historical Review
The De Soto expedition was the first major encounter of Europeans with indigenous North Americans in the eastern half of the United States. De Soto and his army of over 600 men, including 200 cavalry, spent four years traveling through what is now Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. The De Soto Chronicles Volume 1 and Volume 2 present for the first time all four primary accounts of the De Soto expedition together in English translation.
The four primary accounts are generally referred to as Elvas, Rangel, Biedma (in Volume 1), and Garcilaso, or the Inca (in Volume 2). In this landmark 1993 publication, Clayton's team presents the four accounts with literary and historical introductions. They further add brief essays about De Soto and the expedition, translations of De Soto documents from the Spanish Archivo General de Indias, two short biographies of De Soto, and bibliographical studies.
For anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, The De Soto Chronicles are valued for the unique ethnological information they contain. They form the only detailed eyewitness records of the most advanced native civilization in North America—the Mississippian culture—a culture largely lost in the wake of European contact.
Contents
ILLUSTRATIONS
FOREWORD
by Edward C. Moore
GARCILASO DE LA VEGA, THE INCA
by Frances G. Crowley
LA FLORIDA
by Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca
Translated by Charmion Shelby for the 1935 United States De Soto Expedition Commission Edited by David Bost
With Footnotes by Vernon James Knight, Jr.
APPENDIX
GENEALOGY OF GARCl PEREZ DE VARGAS
by Garcilaso de la Vega
Translated by Frances G. Crowley
INDEX
