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, 1993, U of Alabama Press

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.

A rich, readable contribution to De Soto studies that commemorates the 450th anniversary of the ill-fated explorer's odyssey through the present southeastern U.S. and Texas. 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. . . . All academic libraries and larger public libraries should purchase this exceptionally valuable compilation. A compilation of superbly edited translations old and new. A who's who of anthropologists, historians, linguists, archivists, and researchers in the southeastern United States have combined their expertise to produce the most significant analysis of the De Soto entrada since Swanton (Southwestern Historical Quarterly). These handsomely produced volumes contain translations of virtually all known documents from the De Soto expedition, as well as new scholarship. For the first time all these sources are in one place (Florida Historical Quarterly). 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 and the latest in De Soto scholarship by experts best equipped to present it. But the work is not only for scholars: the translated chronicles are entertaining reading for anyone looking for a good adventure story and richly textured picture of the Southeast and Mid South during the 16th century. Profusely illustrated with maps and plates, these two volumes make an immensely valuable contribution (The North Carolina Historical Review).