Los Sobrevivientes de La Florida


about the de Soto expedition to Florida because he was part of it,
having gone from Sevilla to Cuba with many others. From Havana
he sailed in May, 1539, for Florida where he suffered much travail
and shortages of food. He saw de Soto fall sick in May 1542, and
witnessed his death in a port called Guachoya. Bustillo and the
other survivors then decided to abandon Florida and arrived in
Mexico in September, 1543. Bustillo signed his deposition. This
conqueror should be the same Gutierre de Bustillo, son of Rodrigo
Coaca and Maria Cavallos, citizens of Villasedil, a clear
misspelling of Valladolid, SR-325. Hemandez de Biedma listed
him as one of the survivors, simply giving his last name as
Bustillon, and his origin as Castilla la Vieja, Smith-296.


 Caldera. Survivor from Alburquerque, Smith-295.

 Calderon, Pedro. Survivor from Badajoz, Smith-293. We
know he endured the hardships of the Florida expedition because
he appeared as a witness twice in Mexico in 1547, and once in
Badajoz, Spain, in 1558. In Mexico he declared he knew de Soto
in Sevilla in 1537 and that de Soto sent Juan de Afiasco to Florida
to discover a suitable port and to obtain some guides. Afiasco came
back after two months, having done both. He found a secure port
and brought back to Havana two Florida natives who asserted that
many riches and gold were to be found there. When the de Soto
expedition reached the port, which they named Espiritu Santo,
many left to explore inland, while Calderon remained behind as
captain of the men that safeguarded the ships. It was there that he
received a message from Isabel de Bobadilla for her husband, de
Soto, by a captain who brought it from Havana.29 When Calderon
testified in Badajoz in 1558 in the probanza of Gonzalo Silvestre,
another of de Soto's men, he asserted he was around 60 years old
and a native of that city. He had known Silvestre since 1538 when
both were among the soldiers going from Sevilla to Cuba and on to
Florida. In the Florida expedition he was one of de Soto's captains
for nearly five years. After de Soto's death and finding they could
not maintain themselves, Silvestre and Calderon constructed
several brigantines. With them they were able to reach New Spain.


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