DeSoto's Midwestern Trail
by Donald E. SheppardHernando de Soto entered Illinois on Tuesday, the second day of August, 1541, by crossing the Wabash River at Mount Carmel. Within days he would visit the largest village he found in all of North America, we call it ElDorado; his people might have called it that, too.
DeSoto's Secretary says, "They spent the night on Wednesday at a burned town (Mount Carmel) and the following, Thursday, at another town next to the river (Grayville on the Wabash River), where there were many squash and much corn and beans. And the next day, Friday, they went to Quiguate..." (Province) by crossing the Little Wabash River at Carmi. ©University of Alabama Press
One of the advanced horsemen reported, "On the fourth of August, he (DeSoto) reached the town (ElDorado, well ahead of the army) where the chief was living. On the way (while camped at Carmi, the provincial boundary, with the advanced horsemen), the latter sent him blankets and skins, but not daring to remain in the town, went away. The town was the largest which had been seen in Florida. The governor and his men (in the advanced party) were lodged (by the Indians) in half of it; and a few days afterward (when the army arrived, having camped at Omaha the night before) seeing that the Indians were going about deceitfully (on the Full Moon), he ordered the other half (today's Harrisburg, the largest half of the town) burned, so that it might not afford them protection if they came to attack at night..." DeSoto typically chose to camp on open plains for the advantage they offered his mounted army. Trees on hillside campsites (like Harrisburg) obstructed his view and offered Indians opportunity to "fence" his horses by placing logs between trees to stop the horsemen from chasing them after midnight attacks, typically with fire on arrowheads directed toward the army and its livestock.
ElDorado lies near the center of a giant fertile plain, tens of thousands of acres, drained by three branches of the Saline River which runs into the Ohio River (as does the Wabash River). DeSoto stayed for three weeks on the north bank of the Middle Fork of Saline River in "...the largest town they saw in the land, next to the river of Casqui (the Wabash); and they found out afterwards (in Arkansas the following year) that the river was well peopled below (along the Mississippi River, which all of those rivers flow into), although they did not manage to find it out then, and for that reason they took the road to Coligua (Kaskaskia, their next destination when they left) passing through an uninhabited region..." of wetlands. They would depart westward through Harrisburg, Marion, Carbondale and Murphysboro on their way to Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River.
"This (ElDorado/Harrisburg) was the largest town that we found in Florida; it was on a branch (the Saline River) of the great river (the Mississippi with all of its tributaries)."
"An Indian well attended by many Indians came saying that he was the chief. The governor delivered him to his guard that they might look after him. Many Indians went off and came bringing blankets and skins. Seeing poor opportunity for carrying out his evil thought, the pretended chief, going out of the house one day with the governor, started to run away so swiftly that there was no Christian who could overtake him; and plunged into the river (Middle Fork of Saline River) which was a crossbow shot's distance from the town. As soon as he had crossed to the other side, many Indians who were walking about there (where Harrisburg is today), uttering loud cries, began to shoot arrows. The governor crossed over to them immediately with men of horse and of foot, but they did not dare await him. On going in pursuit of them, he arrived at a town which had been abandoned, and beyond it a swamp where the horses could not cross (South Fork of Saline River just below Harrisburg). On the other side (at today's Mitchellsville) were many women. Some men of foot crossed over and captured many of the women and a quantity of clothing. The governor returned to the camp (less than 10 miles away); and soon after on that night a spy of the Indians was captured by those who were on watch. The governor asked him whether he would take them to the place where the (real) chief was (or be fed to the dogs). He said yes, and the governor went immediately to look for the chief with 20 men of horse and 50 of foot. After a march of a day and a half (20 miles over swamps and broken hills) he found the chief in a dense wood (near Millstone Ridge), and a soldier, not knowing the chief, gave him a cutlass stroke on the head. The chief cried out not to kill him saying that he was the chief. He was taken captive and with him 140 of his people. The governor went back to Quigate (ElDorado) and told him that he should make his Indians come to serve the Christians; and after waiting for several days (while the army gathered what it could from that enormous plain) hoping for them to come, but they were not coming (as many Indian cultures, "Mississippian Cultures", had done elsewhere for their godlike chiefs), he sent two Captains, each one on his side of the river (the Saline River, southeast toward the Ohio River), with horse and foot. They captured many Indians, both men and women (from the large villages along the downstream banks). Upon seeing the hurt they received, because of the rebellion, they came to see what the governor might order them. Thus they came and went frequently and brought gifts of clothing and fish. The chief and two of his wives were left unshackled in the governor's house, being guarded by the halberdiers of the governor's guard. The governor asked them in what direction the land was more densely populated. They said that on the lower part of the river toward the south were large settlements and chiefs who were lords of wide lands and of many people ("Mississippian Cultures" in Arkansas), and that there was a province called Coligoa (today's Kaskaskia) toward the northwest, situated near some mountain ridges. It seemed advisable to the governor and to all the rest to go first to Coligoa, saying that perhaps the mountains would make a difference in the land and that gold or silver might exist on the other side of them. Both Quaguate (ElDorado) and Casqui and Pacaha (Vincennes and Terre Haute, Indiana) were flat and fertile lands, with excellent meadow lands along the rivers where the Indians made large fields."
Most Interior Indian tribes had heard about DeSoto, and his treachery, from their neighbors and traders long before he arrived in their towns. They also knew that his army was obsessed with finding gold. It didn't take long for them to realize that even the slightest mention of gold in a nearby area would rid them of the army's menacing presence. The lure of easy riches drove DeSoto's army: both Indians and Desoto knew that and used that ploy to move the army overland.
"Here (at ElDorado) we tarried eight or nine (more) days to look for interpreters and guides, still with the intention, if we were able, to traverse to the other sea (the Pacific Ocean), because the Indians told us that eleven days from there was a province where they killed cows (Buffalo in Missouri: Indians traveled at 25 miles per day or more - they probably hunted near Springfield, 275 miles due west of ElDorado), and there we would learn of interpreters in order to cross (this "Island of Florida") to the other sea."
"The governor left the chief of Quigate in his town; and an Indian who guided him through large pathless forests conducted him for seven days through an uninhabited region (the natives had fled) where they lodged each night amid marshes and streamlets of very shallow water (due west from Harrisburg, down Crab Orchard Creek to Marion and Carbondale, then down Big Muddy River from Murphysboro to the Mississippi River then up its east bank to Kaskaskia). So plentiful were the fish that they killed them by striking them with clubs; and the Indians whom they took along in chains roiled the water with mud, and the fish, as if stupefied, would come to the surface and they caught as many as they wished..." in the massive swamps between Harrisburg and Carbondale. There are many levees (earthen dams) along that course today to protect the cities of that very low-lying area.
Another eyewitness says, "On Friday, the 26th of August, they departed from Quiquate (ElDorado) in search of Coligua (Kaskaskia), and they spent the night at a swamp; and from swamp to swamp they made their journey of four swamps and four days (48 miles to Murphysboro, marching at twelve miles per day, their normal marching rate), in which swamps were large numbers of fish, because the great river floods all that area when it overflows its banks. And on Tuesday (the fifth day on the trail, through a "...land of rugged mountains...") they went to the river that they call Coligua (we call it the Mississippi), and on Wednesday likewise along the same river (up its wide east bank), and the following day, Thursday, which was the 4th of September, to Coligua (Kaskaskia, 85 miles from ElDorado in 7 days), and they found the town populated."
"...the Indians of Coligoa had not heard of Christians (perhaps due to their extreme northern isolation), and when we arrived they took flight up a river (either the Kaskaskia or Mississippi River; Kaskaskia village was located at their junction) which flowed near the town... some plunged into the river, but Christians who went along both banks captured them..."
"...and in it they took many people and clothes and a great deal of food and much salt (salt was gathered from the Saline Creek on the Mississippi River's bank opposite Kaskaskia). It is a pleasant town among some mountains, on a gorge of a river, and from there they went at midday to kill cows (buffalo), since there were many wild ones..." in the fertile flats of the gigantic Mississippi River gorge. That setting is the same today, minus the buffalo, of course. DeSoto saw them, for the first and only time in his life, directly below today's St. Louis.
DeSoto's delight at finding another magnificent valley in America's interior must have been tempered by his perception of the big river running through it. That river had to drain a country much larger than Desoto had previously conceived. His search for the South Sea ended the day he sighted the Mississippi River; his people would never mention that search again. The irony of Desoto's discovering the Mississippi River, for which he is famous today, is that the discovery itself ended his dream of finding a northern passage to China. There was no hope for finding a nearby sea upstream of such a river and Desoto knew that. Spanish Conquest of America ended in Illinois. DeSoto would die of anguish within 8 months of his now famous discovery.
"We inquired about a road in the direction we were headed and whether there was any village in that district, far or near. They were never able to tell us anything except that if we wished to travel where there might be a village, we had to turn west-southwest." The French would discover the same situation there in the next century. Kaskaskia would become their northern headquarters on the Mississippi River.
"They said that five or six leagues beyond (about 15 miles), toward the north, were many cattle (buffalo), but because the land was cold (during winter), it was poorly populated; that the best land they knew of, as being more plentifully supplied with food and better inhabited, was a province toward the south (west) called Cayas..." supposedly in Southern Missouri. DeSoto would dramatically alter his planned course, for his forth and final time in North America, at Kaskaskia. He had altered course at Marianna, Florida, due to an Indian boy's report that gold could be found toward the sun's rising; at Mabila, Alabama, due to massive battle losses; then again at Terre Haute, Indiana, when he learned that Lake Michigan was not the Pacific Ocean. This would be his last. From then on he would lead his army ever southward.
According to a Portuguese Officer, "That town of Coligoa (Kaskaskia) was situated at the foot of a mountain in a field of a river the size of the Caya River which flows through Estremadura (Portugal; that giant river drains half of Spain). It was a fertile land and so abundant in corn that the old was thrown out in order to store the new. There was also a great quantity of beans and pumpkins, the beans being larger and better than those of Spain; and the pumpkins likewise... The chief of Coliqoa gave a guide to Cayas (Missouri) and (the chief) remained in his town."
"On Tuesday, the sixth of September, they departed from Coligua and crossed the (Mississippi) river another time..." on the Full Moon.