Los Sobrevivientes de La Florida


 Another available list was compiled by J. R. Swanton from
the four chroniclers. It amounts to 793 persons including many
repetitions, most acknowledged by the author. Considering that
Garcilaso de la Vega wrote his account from evidence supplied
him by others some 50 years after the fact, his figures are suspect.
When comparing the number of persons departing from Sevilla,
which he puts at 950 excluding sailors and de Soto's wife and
family and 12 priests, with the 657 registered passengers including
some females and priests, the exaggeration seems evident. The
memory factor may have played an important role in the
post-factum estimates of Garcilaso's informants. It appears that the
correct figure of those who sailed from Sevilla was higher than the
estimate of the Gentleman of Elvas, a little higher than what it is
shown in the original register, and lower by some hundreds than
Garcilaso's numbers. Two estimates which could be closer to the
real figure are those of the Florida survivors Juan Lopez and
Sebastian de Villegas contained in their short biographies in Part II
of this work. Both testified that the number of persons who sailed
from Spain was 700.


 Now, let us consider those who finally left Cuba for Florida.
Ten days before departure from Havana, the royal officials of the
expedition wrote a letter to the King informing him that the
armada consisted of nine ships and the army of 313 footmen and
200 horsemen, for a total of 513 soldiers.6 Once again the
chroniclers of the expedition provide varying figures. Hemandez
de Biedma wrote that 620 men landed at the Florida port of Bahia
Honda.7 Rodrigo Rangel recorded that 570 men, not counting 130
sailors, were present at the landing.8 Garcilaso de la Vega wrote
that the total number of persons who sailed from Havana for
Florida was 1,000, including the islanders who wanted to
accompany the expedition, but not counting the sailors.9 As
indicated in the individual biographies of the Florida explorers in
Part II, many do not appear in the original register made in Sevilla.
The conquerors not registered could have been added in Cuba,
leading to another limitation of the original roster for the purposes
considered here. During the year the expedition was readied in


7