The Survivors of the De Soto Expedition


 Average age 24.6
 Mean age 24

 The data used to calculate the ages of the survivors in 1539
was drawn from declarations in the various probanzas in which
they testified. Many stated they were over or under a certain age,
and many would give a rounded figure like 25 or 30, following it
with the usual poco mas o menos. Therefore, the ages used here
may be approximate, and with that caution they should be
interpreted.


 3. Education and Literacy


 It is clear that some of the survivors must have received a
reasonable education for their time. Specifically, Rodrigo Rangel,
who was also the personal secretary of de Soto, Luis Hemandez de
Biedma, Luis de Moscoso, Juan de Afiasco, Juan Coles and Alonso
de Carmona all left writings that can witness their education. As
for the rest of the group, so little is known that an assessment of
their literacy lies in whether they knew how to sign their names.
Since witnesses in legal proceedings were required to sign their
declarations, this can be ascertained from the surviving documents.
The resulting data collected from available documents is displayed
individually in Appendix II.

 Many survivors were required, at some point, to sign their
names. Of these, only two declared that they did not know how to
write. They were Ana Mendez and Francisco Redondo. As a
consequence, for their time especially, this group of survivors may
have had an unusually high literacy rate. According to this
evidence, only three out of sixty-three, or only 5 percent of them
could not write. In comparison, if signing ones name equates with
literacy, it has been demonstrated by historian James Lockhart,
that 23% of the men who first conquered Peru and dethroned the
Inca Emperor were definitely illiterate, and some additional
percentage only marginally literate.159


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