The De Soto Chronicles, The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539-1543
Edited by Lawrence A. Clayton, Vernon James Knight, Jr., and Edward C. Moore

The De Soto expedition was the first major encounter of Europeans with North American Indians 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. For anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians the surviving De Soto chronicles are valued for the unique ethnological information they contain. These documents are the only detailed eyewitness records of the most advanced native civilization in North America - the Mississippian culture - a culture that vanished in the wake of European contact.

These translations of the four primary accounts of the venture, with new notes and introductions, make valuable historical and ethnographical information easily available and accessible both to scholars and to general readers. . . These handsomely produced volumes contain translations of virtually all known documents from the De Soto expedition. For the first time all these sources are in one place. These books bring together in two volumes all the De Soto chronicles, three in new translations. They also contain many new materials never before published in translation. . . the translated chronicles are entertaining reading for anyone looking for a good adventure story and richly textured picture of the 16th century.

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