The Survivors of the De Soto Expedition


Cuba several of the original recruits dropped out and many appear
to have been added.

 The large difference between Garcilaso's figure of the persons
arriving in Florida and that of the royal officials can be explained
in part, for while the officials were referring to military personnel
only, Garcilaso considered all persons including servants,
administrators, tradesmen, and it seems, people living in Cuba who
wanted to tour the eastern coast of Florida. The rest of the
difference may be due to an exaggerated count by Garcilaso. A
more likely number of those landing in Florida should exceed the
soldiers mentioned by the royal officials, and perhaps somewhere
around the 570 mentioned by Rangel and the 620 described by
Hernandez de Biedma. Some additional estimates can be gathered
from the biographies of the survivors in Part II. Pedro de Arevalo
declared that 650 persons went to Florida from Cuba, a figure
repeated by Francisco de Guzman.

 All these estimates are presented in Table 1. Based on them
and the official register, it appears that around 700 persons left
Spain for Cuba and, after nearly one year there, some 600 plus
finally left for Florida. It seems apparent that more were lost than
gained in Cuba, thus the allure of de Soto's adventure may not
have appealed to all the conquerors of the day. After all, Florida
was competing at that time with the fantastic news still coming
from Peru and, to some lesser extent, with the riches found in the
Uraba region east of Panama and the first notice of the possible
existence of a rich land south of the Santa Marta, province of
Nueva Granada.


 Table 1.

 Number of Persons Who Departed For Florida
 From Spain to Cuba

 Garcilaso de la Vega 950 plus
 Gentleman of Elvas 600