Personnel from the De Soto-Moscoso Expedition who Visited Texas

Introduction

The De Soto Expedition explored the southeastern United States from 1539 to 1542. While the expedition was at the Mississippi River, Governor Hernando De Soto died, and command passed to Luis de Moscoso Alvarado. Moscoso brought the men into Texas in the vicinity of present-day Texarkana. They explored parts of east Texas, including present-day San Augustine. After reaching a large river – probably the Neches or Trinity – Moscoso halted his advance and turned the expedition around. The men returned to the Mississippi River, where they built seven brigantines, or small sailing ships. They descended the river in the ships, then, upon reaching the Gulf of Mexico and sailing out into it for a bit, found the Texas coast and followed its shores and bays to the province of New Spain, at present-day Tampico. For a more detailed examination of Moscoso’s activities in Texas, see the previous article, "The De Soto-Moscoso Expedition in Texas."

This article lists the known members of the De Soto-Moscoso expedition who visited Texas in 1542.

Method and Sources

Unlike some other Spanish expeditions, in which one or more companies of soldiers explored in different directions while other companies stayed put at a base camp, De Soto's army moved more or less as a whole. When Moscoso took command and brought the expedition into Texas, everyone went with him. The records do not mention anyone dying or leaving the expedition while it was on its way to Texas, while it was there, or during its return to the Mississippi River. There were some deaths at the Mississippi River while the men were building their boats, and there were others who died during the journey down the river. We can safely conclude, then, that everyone who survived the expedition also went to Texas. Compiling a list of expeditionaries who visited Texas is a straightforward process of building a list of the known survivors, then adding to it the names of those who died after the Texas segment was concluded.

All contemporary witnesses state that there were between 300 and 350 survivors. The person who wrote the longest and most detailed account of the De Soto Expedition, who called himself "A Gentleman of Elvas," gives a precise number of 311. D'Elvas is our only source about deaths on the expedition between Texas and New Spain. He writes that "many" died of illness while Moscoso and his men were camped on the Mississippi River, building their ships. He writes that 322 expedition members boarded the ships, and that 11 soldiers died during a conflict with natives on the river as the ships were making their way down the river. If D'Elvas's accounting is correct, a complete list of De Soto Expedition members who visited Texas would include all 311 or so survivors, plus the 11 who died on the river, plus the "many" who died of illness while the ships were being built. Unfortunately, only five of the dead men's names are given in the records. The bulk of our effort, then, is spent on coming up with as many of the survivors' names as possible.

The earliest account of the De Soto Expedition was written in 1544 by Luis Hernández de Biedma, a royal official and member of it, shortly after he returned to Spain. Biedma's original manuscript still exists in the General Archives of the Indies in Seville. In the same folder as Biedma's manuscript is a list of names of 221 men who survived the expedition. The date and authorship of this document is unknown – the handwriting is different from Biedma's - but because of its position in the archives as, essentially, an appendix to Biedma's account, and also for lack of a better term, this list is referred to in this article as "the Biedma list." Buckingham Smith translated it to English in 1866 and published it as an appendix to his Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida. For many expeditionaries, only their surnames are listed. For a few, the list notes their occupation or relation to other expeditionaries.

The names on the Biedma list are grouped by place of origin, but some of the groupings are imprecise. For example, there is a group of from Badajoz, which is the name of both a province and the capital city of that province, then there is another group from "Zafra, Almendralejo, and Segura," which are towns in Badajoz Province. In the second group, which of the three towns a survivor is from is noted for some, but not others. There is also a list of survivors from "Xeréz and Villanueva." There are multiple Spanish towns named Jerez, and Villanueva simply means "new village" and could be any number of Spanish towns, but considering that they are paired together, they probably refer to Jerez de los Caballeros and Villanueva de Barcarrota, which are both in Badajoz Province.¹ One group is simply titled, "Castilla la Vieja," or "Old Castile" - a group of about eight provinces that were part of Spain prior to its late Medieval expansion.

The Biedma list is a good start, but with only 221 names, it is incomplete. There are sources that include some names that are not on this list. The three narrative accounts of the De Soto Expedition – those of Biedma, D'Elvas, and another survivor, Rodrigo Rangel – provide some.² Several names are found in official declarations or testimonies that survivors gave. De Soto researchers have combed through these records to find the names of as many survivors as they can. The most thorough effort undertaken to date is that of researcher Ignacio Avellaneda in 1990. Avellaneda found 36 names to add to Biedma's 221, for a total of 257. If D'Elvas's figure of 311 survivors is accurate, then, as Avellaneda writes, "54 names await discovery."

Another document that pertains to this effort is a passenger register containing the names of 657 people who sailed from Spain with De Soto. Because this roster includes the names of many people who stayed in Cuba and did not even go to Florida, as well as many who died before the expedition reached Texas, its main utility for us is to verify the names we already have and, in some cases, provide a bit of extra information, such as adding a given name to what would otherwise only be a surname.

Natives

Like most Spanish expeditions into unexplored regions, De Soto and Moscoso used natives in various ways, most importantly as guides and interpreters. Often, these natives were seized, placed into iron chains, and compelled to go with the Spaniards until they saw fit to let them go. If an expedition was headed into an enemy tribe's territory, natives would sometimes go along in large numbers, willingly, as allies of the Spaniards, so as to make war on their enemy when they got there. While Hernando de Soto was in charge, his expedition typically included large numbers of natives to serve as porters, personal servants, and sex partners.

The narrative accounts of the De Soto Expedition do not give much information about how many natives Moscoso brought into Texas with him and how they were used, but they do make it clear that there were some. Guides and interpreters are specifically mentioned. The Gentleman of Elvas writes that the day before Moscoso and his men boarded the ships that would take them down the Mississippi River, Moscoso announced that all of their native servants would be released, except for about a hundred or so that he and some others retained. About 500 men, women, boys, and girls were released at that time. D'Elvas further writes that Moscoso announced that, because their ships carried a limited amount of fresh water, the remainder would be released when the ships entered the sea, but Moscoso secretly told his friends that they did not have to release their servants, and could take them all the way to New Spain. We do not know how many of the natives were actually taken to New Spain. We also do not know how many of the apparently 600 natives who were with the expedition on the Mississippi River were with it during its explorations of Texas. We also do not have names for any of them. Because of this utter lack of information, our personnel list does not include any natives.

List of Personnel

Our list, below, mostly follows Avellaneda's, with a few modifications. The Biedma list (BL) is used as the foundation. Names found in testimonies are indicated by the year or years in which the testimony was taken. Any other additions are justified in the notes. Names that are found on the passenger register (PR) are so noted. (As stated above, a person's name being on the PR is not sufficient to justify adding them to this list, but it does help to identify people where information is lacking.)

Many names are spelled differently in multiple sources. Spelling discrepancies in names are extremely common in old records. For example, one survivor is listed in some records with the surname of Castejón, while in other records, his name is Castrejón, but they are obviously the same person. In the table below, in instances of a discrepancy of one missing or extra letter, we indicate it with square brackets, e.g., Cast[r]ejón. Often, the same person can be known by more than one surname. For example, a man named Juan whose father's surname was García and mother's surname was Rodríguez, who was a resident of the town of Albornos in the province of Ávila could be listed in records as Juan García Rodríguez, Juan García, Juan Rodríguez, Juan de Albornos, Juan de Ávila, or combinations such as Juan García de Ávila. Similarly, one source may give a man's hometown as his origin, while another gives his birthtown, his home province, his parents' hometown, or a nearby, larger city. We should not be misled by these many discrepancies into thinking that the documents refer to multiple people when they are simply multiple references to the same man. Thankfully, Avellaneda was diligent in scrutinizing the records and avoiding possible duplications. Nevertheless, we find a few differences between our review of the sources and Avellaneda's, and note them in the list below. Specifically, we have stricken three names from Avellaneda's list as duplicates.

The Biedma list contains many abbreviated names. This is similar to how the names George and William are often abbreviated as "Geo" and "Wm" in English records. The name that the abbreviation "G^o" is meant to represent is uncertain. Avellaneda usually expands it to mean Gonzalo, even though there are numerous instances in the Biedma list where the name Gonzalo is fully spelled out. Avellaneda also suggests Gregorio as a possibility.

An interesting discrepancy Avellaneda finds in the records is with men who the Biedma list states were Portuguese, but who appear on the passenger register as being from Spanish towns or provinces near the Spain-Portugal border. Avellaneda posits that when booking their travel, these men "preferred to declare themselves as Spanish in order to secure an unencumbered passage to the Indies."

According to Avellaneda's research, the average age of the known survivors was 24 at the time that the expedition disembarked in Florida. The oldest was 42; the youngest, 10.