Written by Donald E. Sheppard
Drawings: Cheryl Lucente

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Winter at Pine Bluff

Hernando de Soto's army re-entered Arkansas in the middle of November, 1542. Within that week, under the Full Moon, they would explore for food to sustain themselves while building ships in which to escape to Mexico. The Indians of Lake Village, where DeSoto had died, had little food. The Spaniards would find several food rich towns upriver, which they had not found the Summer before. Those towns, near Pine Bluff on the Arkansas River, would become their home for the next 6 months. Unknown to them (and today's scientists), they had been told about the heavily populated Little Rock area, just upstream of Pine Bluff, one year before at Clinton. They would raid Little Rock and the Toltec Mounds area for food and clothing once they settled-in for the Winter of 1542-1543; their last in today's America.

"On reaching Nilco," an officer says as they entered Arkansas from Louisiana, "they found so little corn that it did not suffice for the (time it would take) building ships. The cause of this was that when the Christians were at Guachoya (Lake Village) at seed time, the Indians had not dared sow the lands of Nilco for fear of them; and they knew no other land thereabout where there was any (abundance of) corn. That was the most fertile land thereabout and where they had most hope of finding corn. They were all thrown into confusion; and most of them thought it had been a bad plan to have turned back from Daycao (Austin, Texas)... for there was neither pilot nor chart (to sail to Mexico from where they were), they did not know where the (Mississippi) river entered the sea, they had no information concerning the latter; they had nothing with which to make sails nor calk nor pitch..." © 1993, UA Press

Another officer says, "Having arrived here, we did not find as good provisions as we thought, because we did not find food in the town (Lake Village), since the Indians had hidden it. We had to look for another town in order to be able to winter and fashion the ships (with which to escape). Thank God we discovered two towns (just below Pine Bluff, International Paper owns the land today; its giant pulp mill is built there) much to our purpose that were on the river and had a great quantity of corn and were palisaded, and there we halted and built our ships with much labor (for the next six months)." The first officer says, "...at a distance of two days' journey thence (from Guachoya Province; having marched through wet lands from Dumas westward), near the great river were two towns of which the Christians had never heard, called Aminoya... in an open and level ground, at a half league's distance (1.3 miles) apart."

The men said, "They found on the banks of the river in the place where they happened to reach it, two villages near one another, each having 200 houses. A moat of water taken from the river itself surrounded them both and formed an island (which lies directly west of and adjoining today's Pine Bluffs Lock, located precisely where the ships were built on the firm river bank)... they formed a squadron that still numbered more than 320 infantry (soldiers) and 70 cavalry (horsemen), and attacked one of the villages ("It was surrounded with a stockade and was a quarter of a league from the great river..." says an officer), whose inhabitants abandoned it without making any defense... our forces attacked the other village and gained it with equal facility..." The men speculate that their reputation must have preceded their arrival, causing the Indians to flee. Tons of corn and other vegetables were moved into one town; the other was torn down for firewood and shelter. The Indians let them alone, without attacking for the remainder of their six month stay. "That village and its province were called Aminoya. It is 16 leagues (42 miles) up the river from the Province of Guachoya (at Dumas; that province extended southward from there to Louisiana)... seeing that the last days of January of the year 1543 had now come, they gave orders for cutting timber for making the brigantines in which they intended to go by way of the river down to the North Sea (the Atlantic Ocean; the gulf of which we call Mexico, where they finally went). There was a great abundance of timber throughout the vicinity..." The first officer adds, "For building ships, there was there the best wood they had seen in all the land of Florida..." which is the reason International Paper built its giant pulp mill on that place beside the river today. One survivor reported that upon meeting an old woman on the river flats, he was asked where his people planned to winter given that, "every fourteen years that Great River overflowed its bed and covered the whole country, and the natives took refuge in the top floors of the houses; and she said that year was the fourteenth..." but she was ignored.

The first officer goes on to say, "As soon as they were come to Aminoya (Province, the Pine Bluff flats), the governor (Moscoso) ordered the chains which each one had brought for his Indians (as slave harnesses) and all the other iron in the camp to be collected. He ordered a forge set up, nails made, and timber cut for building brigantines... and with one who knew how to build ships... four or five carpenters, who hewed the planks for him, built the brigantines... The Indians of a province located two days' journey up the river, by name Tagoanate (Little Rock, elsewhere called Guahate by another tribe the year before at Clinton), as well as those of Nilco and Guachoya (Lake Village) and others roundabout (the Toltec Mounds area), seeing that the brigantines were being built (to transport the Spaniards away)... frequently came and brought an abundance of fish..."

When news of the Spanish return found Chief Nilco, he dispatched a relative to appease the army with offerings; several days later Chief Gouchoya brought his people in, "and every eight days they went to their houses and returned with new presents and offerings..." according to the men. "Having calculated what size the brigantines would have to be in order to hold all the people who must embark on them, we found that we would need seven... the necessary materials were gathered for this number of brigantines, and in order to prevent the winter rains from hindering the work, we built four very large shelters that served as dockyards, where we all labored equally... Some sawed the timber to make boards, others finished it with iron axes, others beat iron into nails, others made charcoal, others fashioned oars, and others twisted the ropes. Out people were engaged in these activities throughout the months of February, March and April... (while) the Indians brought many blankets, new and old..." Blankets were used for sail making and caulk... Nilco, the closest friendly chief, provided more than the other tribes and warned the Spaniards of a pending attack by others. "Thus it must be known that opposite the village of Guachoya (Lake Village) on the other side of the Great (Mississippi) River, there was a very large province called Quigualtanqui (Greenville, Mississippi) abounding in food and well populated. Its lord was young and warlike and was beloved and obeyed throughout his state and feared in the others because of his great power." The attack, however, would be delayed until the Spaniards drifted down the Arkansas River and into the Mississippi the following Summer. In the meantime, "On the 18th of March 1543, which that year fell (precisely) on Palm Sunday ... while the Spaniards were marching in procession... the river rose so furiously and with such a rush that it entered the gates of the village of Aminoya, and two days thereafter one could not go through the streets except in canoes... before this rise reached its greatest height, which was on the 20th of April" ...Full Moon. The Spring thaw of the nearby Ozark Mountains caused the Arkansas River to flood. "At the end of April the river began to recede as slowly as it had risen... by the end of May the river was back in its bed."

The first officer confirms, "In the month of March, although it had not rained in that land for over a month, the river rose in such a manner that it stretched clear to Nilco (Province), nine leagues (24 miles) away; and the Indians said that it spread over another nine leagues of land on the other side (to the Mississippi River bed)... Indians came and went in canoes... As soon as the waters fell, they agreed with the governor that he should send men to Taguanate..." today's Little Rock, for additional supplies. Other Indians helped the Spaniards on that raid, "They assaulted the town, capturing Indian men and women and blankets, which (along) with those they (already) had, were sufficient for their needs" of caulking the ships, making additional ropes and sails. "The building of the brigantines (was) completed in the month of June - it being summer and a long time having passed since it had rained - the river rose up to the town until it reached the brigantines, whence they were taken by water to the river." The Mississippi River's Spring Flood, which occurs well after the Arkansas River's, had backed up into the Arkansas River, causing the second flood at Pine Bluff that season.

The men say, "They butchered the hogs, which they had hitherto kept for breeding in spite of all their past hardships, and they still reserved 18 of them... they gave three, two females and one male for breeding, to each of the friendly chiefs. The meat of those that were killed was salted for the journey... they provided canoes to carry the horses that they had remaining... The canoes were fastened together by twos, so that the horses could be carried ("they killed 20 of the 50 that remained" for meat and hides)... each brigantine carried one (canoe) at the stern to serve as a ship's boat... they busied themselves in embarking the ship-stores and the horses, and in dressing the brigantines and the canoes with boards and skins of animals as a defense against the arrows. Then on the day of the Apostles (June 29th) they embarked..."

The Great River Journey

The first officer says, "They abandoned 500 Indians (slaves and their children)... among whom were many boys and girls who spoke and understood Spanish... three hundred and twenty-two Spaniards left Aminoya in seven brigantines... They left Aminoya (Province) on the second day of July, 1543..." the day before the darkness of New Moon, having spent several days making adjustments as they slowly drifted downstream from Pine Bluff to a point near Dumas on the Arkansas River, the end of Aminoya Province. "The day they left Aminoya, they passed Guachoya (Province) where the Indians were awaiting them in canoes on the river (near Arkansas Post)... the Indians accompanied the governor's ship in their canoes. Coming to where an arm of the river led off to the right (at the flooded White River junction), they said the province of Quigualtam lay nearby. They importuned the governor to go make war on them, and said that they would aid them. But since they said that Quigaltam lay three days' journey below (given the slow rate of the Spanish ships), it seemed to the governor that the Indians had planned some treachery against him. There he took leave of them and proceeded on his voyage where the force of the water was greater (in the Mississippi River). The current was very powerful and, aided by their oars, they journeyed at a good rate (being away from the backwaters of the White and Arkansas Rivers)."© 1993, University of Alabama Press

The first officer continued, "The first day (along the Mississippi River) they landed (to feed themselves and the horses) in a wood on the left side of the river (in Bolivar County, Mississippi) and at night they slept in the (moored) brigantines. Next day they came to a town (today's Mound Landing) where they landed, but the people there did not dare await them." Supplies were found in Quigaltam Province, the land surrounding Greenville, Mississippi, along with hundreds of hostile Indians, of which they had been warned, during that week near Chief Quigaltam's Province. The river split just below Greenville at that time. The Spaniards chose the left, or southerly fork, to hasten their departure and thereby bypassed Lake Village all together, the place where DeSoto's body had been placed in the Mississippi River the year before. It would take the Spaniards 17 days to reach the mouth of the Mississippi River, averaging just under 40 miles per day, from the time they entered it above Greenville. Their struggles near Quigaltam slowed their progress, however. The Indians, "going ahead of them (in canoes), when they reached a town (Vicksburg) near a bluff, they (the Indians) all united (with other tribes), as if to show that they were a mind to wait there (to attack the Spaniards)... Next day, the Indians got together one hundred canoes, some of which held sixty or seventy Indians, and the principal men with their awnings with white and colored plumes of feathers... and from that place, the Indians all came down upon the Spaniards..." who were also in canoes ahead of the brigantines. Eleven Spaniards were killed near Vicksburg; twenty-five others would be wounded.

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