PREFACE


 This work examines the survivors of Hemando de Soto's
expedition to Florida. Their story began in the year 1538, when
many were enticed to embark from Sevilla in search of golden
cities previously described by Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, one
of the four stragglers who endured an incredible trek from Florida
to the city of Mexico. These men, and others recruited in Cuba,
explored a territory that extends over ten of the present-day
southeastern states. The remnants of the de Soto expedition
continued to the port of Panuco on the Mexican gulf coast and
disbanded upon reaching Mexico City. Several remained there or
went back to Spain or Cuba, while others continued to Peru and
other parts of the Spanish Empire.

 Two important works have been central to this study. One is a
list of survivors attached to the account written by the chronicler of
de Soto's Florida expedition, Luis Hernandez de Biedma.
Although written in a different hand, it is found within the same
folder in the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla, and will be cited
here as the Hernandez de Biedma list. It seems to be a post-factum
document, not complete and sometimes inaccurate, but still
invaluable. A translation of this list appears in the 1866, New York
edition of Buckingham Smith's Narratives of the Career of
Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida, without citing its
location in the Archivo General de Indias. To this list I refer often.
The other work of importance is the register of the passengers who
embarked from Seville for Florida, preserved as well in the
Archivo de Indias. This last source was transcribed by Antonio de
Splar and Jos6 de Riijula in 1929, and by Crist6bal Bermtidez Plata
in 1939. I have used both transcriptions, although that of
Bermuidez Plata appears more accurate. However, the annotations
included here are in Solar and Rtijula's El Adelantado Hemando