SOTO, HERNANDO DE

born c. 1496, /97, Jerez de los Caballeros, Badajoz, Spain died May 21, 1542, along Mississippi River [in modern Louisiana, U.S.] Hernando also spelled Fernando Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and, in the course of exploring what was to become the southeastern United States, discovered the Mississippi River. Additional reading Miguel Albornoz, Hernando de Soto: Knight of the Americas (1986), is an informative biography. Narratives of de Soto's Florida expedition are found in modern translations of the original conquistador histories, such as John Grier Varner and Jeannette Johnson Varner (eds.), The Florida of the Inca (1951, reissued 1980), after Garcilaso de la Vega; James Alexander Robertson (ed.), True Relation of the Hardships Suffered by Governor Fernando de Soto (1932); and Edward Gaylord Bourne (ed.), Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida, 2 vol. (1904, reissued 1974). Miscellaneous documents and essays, with an attempt to trace de Soto's North American route, are presented in John R. Swanton (ed.), Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission (1939, reprinted 1985).