born 0441; 1496/97, Jerez de los Caballeros, Badajoz, Spain
died May 21, 1542, along the Mississippi River
Spanish explorer and conquistador.
He joined the 1514 expedition of Pedro Arias Dávila (14401531) to the West Indies, and in Panama he quickly made his mark as a trader and explorer. By 1520 he had accumulated a small fortune through his slave trading in Nicaragua and on the Isthmus of Panama. He joined Francisco Pizarro on an expedition to conquer Peru in 1532, returning to Spain in 1536 with great wealth. Commissioned by the Spanish crown to conquer what is now Florida, he departed in 1538 in command of 10 ships and 700 men. On that expedition he explored the extensive region that was to become the southeastern U.S. and discovered the Mississippi River for Europeans. Overcome by fever, he died in Louisiana and was buried in the Mississippi River.