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Art Neuendorffer
Nov 9, 2006, 11:34:56 AM11/9/06
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<<The writing of Faust took Goethe almost 60 years to complete.>>
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<<[Faust is] his most important Masonic work. Throughout the tragedy
there is a struggle between good & evil just as there is in the
Masonic initiatory drama. "It is here that the keen student of
Freemasonry & the lover of Goethe find so many contacts between mind
of the poet & teachings of the Fraternity. As in the Legend of Hiram
Abif, Faust at last finds that evil may not forever strive successfully
with good; his final & greatest satisfaction is not in selfish
pleasure, which means death for the soul, but in work for humanity.>>
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Harvey called [John] Lyly Oxford's "MiniOn secretary" in 1589,
10 years after Lyly dedicated *Euphues & his England* to [Oxford].
.
MiniOn, n. [F. MIGNON, fr. OHG. minni love, G. minne; akin to E. mind.]
1. A LOVED one; one highly esteemed & favored; -- in a good sense.
.
<<MignOn: The young Italian girl who fell in love with Wilhelm
Meister's apprentice, her protector. Her love not being returned,
. she became insane & died. (Goethe: Wilhelm Meister.)>>
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"though _Faust_ is unquestionably Goethe's greatest work, it does
not contain the MasOnic allusions that abound in _Wilhelm Meister_"
.
. ---_Freemasonry, a Celebration of the Craft_ (p.78)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Goethe made Shakespeare famous with his two works:
.
. _Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre_ and
. _Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre_
.
. THOMAS CARLYLE translated Goethe's works into:
.
_Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship & Travels_(1796)
.
________________ wil[HE]lm
________________ me[ISTE]r's
________________ app[RE]nticeship &
________________ tra[VE]ls
---------------------------------------------
Blest be the man that SPA[RE]s these stones,
__And curst be he that MO[VE]s my bones.
-----------------------------------------------
J.W. von Goethe - _Wilhelm Meister?s Apprenticeship_
Book IV Chapter VII
.
WILHELM?S wounds once dressed, and his clothes put on, the surgeon
hastened off; just as the Harper with a number of peasants arrived. Out
of some cut boughts, which they speedily wattled with twigs, a kind of
litter was constructed; upon which they placed the wounded youth, and
under the conduct of a mounted huntsman, whom the noble company had left
behind them, carried him softly down the mountain. The Harper, silent
and shrouded in his own thoughts, bore with him his broken instrument.
Some men brought on Philina?s box, herself following with a bundle.
*Mignon skipped along through copse & thicket* , now before the party,
now beside them, and looked up with longing eyes at her hurt protector.
-----------------------------------------------
Mignon skipped along through copse & thicket
-----------------------------------------------
___ *SOTO* : down (Venetian)
___ *SOTO* : basement, cellar (Basque)
___ *SOTO* : copse, grove, thicket (Spanish)
------------------------------------------
Each _You Bet Your Life_ show would end with Groucho sticking
his head through a hole in the De Soto logo and say "When you go
into your De Soto dealer tomorrow, tell them Groucho sent you."
------------------------------------------------
____ *Fernandez de Soto*
----------------------------------------------
Lloyd Webber can sell Picasso 'sold under pressure from Nazis'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2442224,00.html
By Jenny Percival
.
<<A judge ruled today that Andrew Lloyd Webber can sell a £33 million
Picasso painting at auction, despite a German professor's claim
that his family was forced to sell it by the Nazis. The sale was
halted for four days after Julius H Schoeps, an heir to Berlin banker
Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan claiming
that he was the lawful owner. But US District Judge Jed S Rakoff
declared today that the sale of the oil-on-canvas painting can go ahead.
.
Lord Lloyd Webber plans to sell the 1903 portrait of Picasso's close
friend Angel Fernandez de Soto tomorrow at Christie's in New York
and intends to donate the proceeds to his charitable foundation.
.
The painting, signed and dated 1903, was described in a Christie?s
catalogue as capturing de Soto?s haunting face: "The elegantly
dressed sitter appears to scrutinise the viewer with an intense
gaze, his inner agitation suggested by the forceful brushstrokes
and the cloud of smoke hovering above him.">>
........................................................
http://www.stardustdvd.com/catalog/images/you-bet-life.jpg
........................................................
In a statement yesterday, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation dismissed
Schoeps? lawsuit as "utterly spurious without legal or factual
substance." The composer bought the painting at a Sotheby?s auction in
1995 for £18 million, saying at the time that he found it "mesmeric".
It has been exhibited on many occasions since and the foundation said
the painting?s ownership had never been questioned during that 11-year
period. A Foundation spokesman said: "The Picasso is not owned by
a private individual. It is owned by a charity whose principal
objectives are to advance the education of the public in the knowledge,
understanding & appreciation of the arts, especially painting,
music and theatre. "The Foundation intends to use the proceeds of
the sale of the painting to further those charitable objectives."
.
Mr Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born in 1875 in Berlin to a famous Jewish
family that included composer Felix Mendelssohn and philosopher Moses
Mendelssohn. Professor Schoeps is a great-great-grand nephew of Feliz
Mendelssohn. When the Nazis came to power, the Mendelssohn & Co bank had
become one of the largest private banks in Germany. Professor Schoeps'
lawsuit said that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy owned one of the great European
private art collections, including works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Renoir
and Monet, and never sold a piece before Hitler rose to power.
.
But Hitler targeted Mr Mendelssohn-Bartholdy for persecution,
intimidation and such a loss of fortune that he was forced to flee his
mansion and begin selling prized paintings into a depressed art market.
He placed five Picassos, including the de Soto painting, on consignment
with Berlin art dealer Justin K. Thannhauser in 1934. According to the
lawsuit, Mr Thannhauser sold the painting in 1936 to M. Knoedler & Co.
in New York. Mr Mendelssohn-Bartholdy died in 1935.
.
The painting shows Angel de Soto sitting nonchalantly at a bar with an
almost-empty glass before him and smoke curling around him. Picasso had
met the self-styled Bohemian in 1899 at the cafe Els Quatre Gats, an
artists? gathering place in Barcelona, where the pair quickly became
firm friends until de Soto was killed in the Spanish Civil War in 1938.
----------------------------------------------
____ *Hernando de Soto*
---------------------------------------------------
Hakluyt dedicated his translation of
*Hernando de Soto's* narrative to the Virginia Company.
-----------------------------------------------------
. MAY 30
-------------------------------------------------------
1220, Alexander Nevski born
1498, Columbus departs with 6 ships for 3rd trip to America
1539, Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer, lands in Florida
1574, Charles IX, King of France (1560-74), dies
1593, Christopher Marlowe "murdered"
1640, Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter, dies age 62
1660, King Charles II crowned on 30th birthday
1672, Peter I "the Great" born tsar (1682-1725)
1744, Alexander Pope poisoned from eating potted eels
1778, Voltaire [Francois-Marie Arouet] dies age 42
1960, Boris Pasternak, Russian poet dies, age 70
1967, Claude Rains dies, age 77
-------------------------------------------------
. MAY 21
---------------------------------------------------------
427 BCE, 'Plato' (a Greek nickname equivalent to 'Tubby') born
. http://michelesworld.net/dmm/lulu/characters/tubby.jpg
. Aristotle said, "I hold Plato dear, but I hold *TRUTH* dearer."
.
1471, Albrecht Dürer born
1471, Lancastrian King Henry VI of England killed in the tower
. of London & Yorkist Edward IV takes the throne
.
1527, King Philip II of Spain born to Charles V
1536, GENEVA officially embraces Protestantism
.
1542, Hernando de Soto dies along the Mississippi (Memphis?)
.
1602, Martha's Vineyard 1st sighted by Bartholomew Gosnold
.
1662, King Charles II marries Princess Catherine of Portugal
.
1688, Alexander Pope born & soon contracts Botts disease,
. which left his spine malformed & his stature stunted
.
1780, Elizabeth Fry, Quaker minister & prison reformer born
.
1804, Lewis & Clark Expedition begins
---------------------------------------------------
. Appalachian
.............................................................
<<The authors of the book, Appalachia: A regional Geography, indicate
that the Appalachian Mountains were first named by Spanish explorers in
the 16th Century. Some believe that it may have been Hernando DeSoto
himself, among the first to explore the southern Appalachians, who took
the name of the Indian village or tribe of Apalachee in northern Florida
and applied it to what we now know as the Appalachian Mountains.
According to the Tennessee Chronicles page, it was because of the
Mobilian Trade Language used by the native guides that De Soto
mistakenly assumed the Appalachee tribe in Florida was the native
culture of the Southeast and named the Appalachian Mountains
after the tribe.>> http://www.fred.net/kathy/at/word.html
------------------------------------------------------------
. A Palatine
................................................
{Palatine hill}, or {The palatine}, one of the SEVEN HILLS of Rome,
. once occupied by the palace of the C[ae]sars.
. http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/apalachee.html
.............................................................
<<Archaeological evidence shows that before European contact, the
Apalachee in northern Florida grew maize, beans, & squash; built
ceremonial centers with PLATFORM MOUNDS, plazas, & villages; and
were part of an extensive trade network involving other Mississippian
cultures in the interior southeast. The largest prehistoric Apalachee
settlement at Lake Jackson north of Tallahasee originally consisted of
SEVEN LARGE EARTHEN MOUNDS. Rescue excavations of Mound 3 in the 1970s
by Calvin Jones of the Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties revealed
that chiefs were buried here between A.D. 1250 & 1500 with trade items
such as copper breastplates, engraved shells, and copper & stone celts
indicating their status. At the time of European contact, the Apalachee
had moved away from their mound centers and were living in large
villages. De Soto wintered in 1539-1540 at an Apalachee village called
Anhaica, described by Garcilaso de la Vega, who accompanied de Soto and
wrote a book entitled La Florida, as having "200 large & good houses."
He also wrote of many more villages scattered throughout the region.
Anhaica was identified by the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research
in 1987 within the city of Tallahassee. Potsherds show that in the
early sixteenth century the Apalachee had fewer trade contacts with
Mississippian peoples to the north and were influenced by other cultures
in Florida & Georgia. The Apalachee had a reputation among Spanish
explorers as fierce warriors who zealously defended their lands, bounded
by the Aucilla River to the east and the Ochochonee River to the west,
and from what is now the Georgia state line to the Gulf of Mexico.
By the early 17th century, however, they were overwhelmed by disease
and the superior weapons of the Spaniards, prompting them to cooperate
with the invaders and convert to Catholicism. In 1656 the residents of
Anhaica relocated to the newly built Mission San Luis de Talimali
nearby, where they lived until the Spanish mission system collapsed
under the weight of British attacks. Many of the Apalachee who survived
moved northwest to French-held Mobile, an area encompassing what are now
southeastern Mississippi and southwestern Alabama, where they continued
to practise Catholicism. The first baptism of a young Apalachee child at
the French fort was recorded on September 6, 1704, following a yellow
fever epidemic that killed many of the tribe. When France ceded its
properties east of the Mississippi to Britain in 1763 at the close of
the French and Indian War, the Apalachee community in Mobile moved
to Louisiana's Rapides Parish on the Red River to avoid living under
British rule. Here the Apalachee were considered by the French to be
important allies against the British, and good hunters and farmers
who could provide food for the growing city of New Orleans.>>
--JESSICA E. SARACENI
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/playing-cards/jack+knave.html
.
Why is the Jack called a Jack,
. rather than a prince or earl or another nobleman?
.
The Answer
.
The first European cards had all-male court cards; a seated king,
a cavalier astride his horse and a foot servant or soldier.
Thus we have the idea of rank increasing with the sequence of cards,
starting with 1 (the Ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, Knave,
Cavalier, King. (Sometimes the Ace ranks above the King.)
.
In the 15th century, for some reason (unknown), the French card makers
substituted a Queen instead of the Cavalier. French cards became popular
in England and formed the basis of the standard Englishial to the moral
principles of individuals, and the general well-being of society. As
early as 1332, Alphonso XI, king of Castile, founded an order called the
Band, and by its statutes none of the knights were allowed to play cards
or dice. They were also forbidden, in 1338, by John I. of Castile.
France, by an edict in 1397, forbade their use by working people on
working days. Germany also, in 1397, prohibited the inordinate use of
cards, but granted indulgences for play on stated occasions. England had
become so disturbed by their injudicious use that importation was
prohibited in 1463, previous to which time all printed cards were made
in France & Germany. Year after year legislation has attempted to
regulate their manufacture and use, and still they have increased in
popular favor. In America, they found a fruitful soil. They were the
companions of Columbus & *De Soto* , and beguiled the weary wanderings
of the early explorers. Puritan antagonism tried hard to drive them
from American soil; American legislation has failed to suppress them;
and, be their influence good or evil, they have increased continually
with the growth and prosperity of the country. There hangs about them
a charm, a mystery, an inexplicable fascination, -- merely pieces of
colored pasteboard; yet, by their curious combinations, they hold human
mind spell-bound. The perverted use of them has been ruin and
wretchedness; the legitimate, a pleasant pastime.>>
----------------------------------
Hernando de Soto (From Wikipedia)
.
<<Hernando de Soto (c. 1496?May 21, 1542) was a Spanish navigator and
conquistador, born in the Extremadura region of Spain. He participated
in the conquest of Panama at the side of Pedro Arias de Ávila
(Pedrarias), Nicaragua and took a very active role with Francisco
Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. Later, de Soto led the largest
expedition of both the 15th & 16th century through what would become the
Southeastern United States and the Midwestern United States searching
for gold & silver and other valuable goods. He's presumed to have died
on the banks of the Mississippi near present-day Lake Village, Arkansas.
.
Early career
Hernando de Soto was born to parents who were hidalgos of modest means
in Extremadura, a region of poverty and hardship from which many young
people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. Two
towns?Badajoz and Jerez de los Caballeros?claim to be his birthplace.
All that is known with certainty is that he spent time as a child at
both places and he stipulated in his will that his body be interred
at Jerez de los Caballeros.
.
In 1514, de Soto accompanied Pedro Arias de Ávila to the Spanish
colonies, landing in Panama. His only possessions then were a shield and
his sword. In 1516, he became leader of a cavalry unit and went with
Francisco Hernández de Córdoba on his discovery and colonization voyage
through Nicaragua and Honduras. De Soto gained fame as an excellent
horseman, fighter, and tactician, but was known for extreme brutality
and ruthlessness when dealing with Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
In a conflict for supremacy in Nicaragua, de Soto fought for Dávila
against Gil Dávida Gonzales; Gonzales, an ex-officer of Dávila, had
tried to break away from him. De Soto denounced the treason
and defeated Gonzales's army.
.
First expedition ? South America
In 1528 de Soto led his own expedition along the coast of Yucatan,
hoping to find direct connection by sea between the Atlantic and the
Pacific Ocean. To that end, he accompanied Francisco Pizarro as a direct
representative to him on his venture in Peru and explored the country.
De Soto discovered the city of Cajas. With a group of fifty men, he
discovered an Inca road to Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire, and
became the first European to talk to the Sapa Inca Atahualpa when he
preceded Pizarro to Cajamarca on their invasion march. After Atahualpa
had been arrested during the Battle of Cajamarca in 1532, de Soto often
visited him in confinement, and a friendship between the two men
emerged. He broke with Pizarro when the Andes were to be redistributed
among the conquistadors, and when Atahualpa was executed despite
fulfilling his promise of filling a "Ransom Room" with gold
and two with silver.
.
Return to Spain
He returned to Spain in 1536, taking with him approximately 100,000
golden pesos ? his share of the conquest of the Inca Empire. At this
time, De Soto was famous for being the hero of the battle of Cuzco.
He settled in Seville, where he married, in 1537, Inés de Bobadilla,
the daughter of Davila. She came from one of the most respectable
families of Castile, with good connections to the Spanish court
under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
.
De Soto, having seen the legendary resources in Peru and read a report
written by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, suspected a similar wealth in
Florida. Cabeza de Vaca was one of four survivors of the disastrous
attempt of Pánfilo de Narváez to conquer Florida. De Soto saw his chance
to second the famous conquests of Pizarro and Cortés. He was declared
the governor of Cuba y adelantado de La Florida (meaning: all lands
north of Mexico) by Charles V. De Soto sold all of his goods and
equipped an expedition into the unexplored lands. His mission was
to conquer, settle, and "pacify" the unknown territories.
.
Expedition to Florida 1538-1542
.
In May 1539, he landed with approximately 600 to 700 men, twenty-four
priests, nine ships, and 220 horses on the western coast of Florida, in
what would become Bradenton, Florida, south of Tampa, Florida. He named
the place Espíritu Santo after the Holy Spirit. De Soto's aim was to
colonize the area, preferably from the center of a city like Cuzco or
Mexico City. Therefore, he brought several tons of equipment, tools,
arms, cannons, dogs, and pigs. The dogs, mostly Irish Wolfhounds,
became notorious weapons and instruments of punishment for the army.
In addition to the sailors, the ships brought priests, blacksmiths,
craftsmen, engineers, farmers, and merchants. Few of them had ever
traveled outside of Spain, or even their home villages.
.
Around the same time, the Mexican viceroy, Antonio de Méndez, sent an
expedition under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado into the territories
explored by De Vaca to search for what came to be known as the Seven
Cities of Cíbola, a gold-rich land of legend. De Soto feared for his
claims on La Florida. During the whole of his travels, de Soto felt
pressure to be the first to discover the legendary treasures and
appropriate settling grounds.
.
The exact course of de Soto's expedition is subject to discussions
and controversy among historians and local politicians. The primary
historical sources are journals left by the Spaniards, including de
Soto's own secretary. Aside from the usual precaution that has to be
applied to such sources, particular problems have to be considered in
regards to de Soto's expedition. The natives often had to pass through
a chain of interpreters, so that names and toponyms may have been
written down incorrectly. Additionally, many leaders and contacts had
their own interests in leading the expedition in the wrong directions.
Archeological reconstructions and the oral history of the natives have
only lately been considered. However, this bears the handicap that most
historical places have been overbuilt and more than 450 years of
history have passed between the incidence and its narration.
.
The most widespread version, which is also taught in United States
schools, recurs in a report of the Congress of the United States, under
the lead management of anthropologist John R. Swanton, from the year
1939. While the first part of the expedition's course, until the battle
at Mabila, is only disputed in details, the meandering route of the
later voyage remains largely unclear. The Spaniards were disoriented
and had almost no equipment left which could have served as indications
for the archeologists. The commonly assumed De Soto Trail runs in a
west-northwest direction across the US states Mississippi, Arkansas
and Oklahoma until Texas. Other opinions argue for a northern route
across Kentucky and Indiana to the Great Lakes.
.
Beginning at the Espíritu Santo, de Soto explored Florida and large
parts of the Southern United States. Already in Florida, his misfortune
began. Instead of being full of gold, the country was full of swamps and
mosquitos, and was extremely hot and humid. Also, the Indians he brought
with him angered the native tribes. The natives had had bad experiences
with the earlier expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez. De Soto's troops were
no less brutal. They captured Indians to use as workers and guides,
raped women, and looted villages in their search for food for their men
and horses. Most often, de Soto let the villages burn down and set up
a Christian cross on the sacred places of the Indians. In addition to
slaves and guides, the Spaniards often captured the tribes' chieftains
in order to gain safe passage.
.
The most important helper of the troops was Juan Ortiz, who came to
Florida in search of the Narvaez expedition and was captured by the
Uzica, a Calusa tribe.
.
The daughter of Chief Hirrihigua of the Uzica arguably served as
*a precursor to Pocahontas by begging for Ortiz's life* ,
as her father had ordered Ortiz to be roasted alive.
Ortiz survived captivity and torture, and joined, at the first
opportunity, the new de Soto Spanish expedition.
.
Ortiz knew the countryside and also helped as an interpreter. As a lead
guide for the de Soto expedition, Ortiz established a unique method for
guiding the expedition and communicating with various tribal dialects.
The "Paracoxi" guides were recruited from each tribe along the route.
A chain of communication was established whereby a guide who had
lived in close proximity to another tribal area was able to pass his
information and language on to a guide from a neighboring area.
Because Ortiz refused to dress and conduct himself as a hidalgo
Spaniard, his motives and council to de Soto were held in suspicion by
other officers. But Don Hernando remained loyal to Ortiz, thus allowing
him freedom to dress and live among his tribal Paracoxi friends.
.
Another important guide was the 17-year-old boy Perico, or Pedro, from
modern-day Georgia, who spoke several of the local tribes' languages
and could communicate with Ortiz. Perico was engaged as a guide
in 1540 and treated better than the rest of the slaves.
.
The first winter encampment of the expedition took place in Anhaica, the
capital of the Apalachee, close to Lake Tallahas. The site is also near
"Bahia de Caballos" where the members of the Narváez expedition were
forced to eat valued horseflesh for survival. This is the only place
on the entire route where the archeologists agree that de Soto's
expedition effectively had been.
..................................................
1540 ? To the north, The Battle of Mauvila
The expedition ventured along the eastern Appalachian Mountains and left
a trail of destruction. Sometimes the members of the expedition traded
the pigs they brought along to obtain food, sometimes they tried to get
what they needed by force. They crossed modern-day Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
.
Having heard of the famous gold treasure of the Cofitachequi, and
accompanied by their enemies, the Ocute, the expedition continued on
to the Carolinas. During weeks of marches, through hunger and thirst,
they realised that neither Perico nor the Ocute knew their way through
the territories of the Cofitachequi. Nonetheless, in the middle of May,
the expedition discovered the capital of the tribe,
situated at the site of today's Columbia, South Carolina.
.
The Spaniards were received in a relatively friendly manner ? especially
considering that they looted and pillaged several villages of the
Cofitachequi on their way. The Cofitachequi princess seemingly turned
over her tribe's sacred burial sites, pearls, and anything the Spaniards
valued to Don Hernando. However, the Spaniards demanded to see the
city's gold at once. Upon closer examination, the "gold" emerged as
simple copper. The Spaniards raided the city's burial temples, looting
ancient treasures. They found some pearls and weapons in the city, took
the young & charismatic female leader as a hostage, and ventured on
in their search for wealth, across the Carolinas, Georgia, & Alabama.
.
On their further erratic travels, they were led by wrong promises of
giant gold reserves in the east. In northern Alabama, they stumbled
upon the city of Mauvila (or Mabila). The Choctaw tribe, under chieftain
Tascalusa, ambushed them on the central place of the strongly-fortified
city. The Spaniards managed to fight their way out, then attacked the
city over and over again. In a battle of nine hours, twenty Spaniards
died, almost all were wounded, and twenty more died during the next
few days. All Choctaw warriors in the area ? between 2,000 & 6,000 in
number ? died fighting, in the fires, by executions, or by suicide.
Mauvila was burned down.
.
Even though the Spaniards won the battle, they lost most of their
possessions and forty horses. They were wounded, sickened, and almost
without equipment in an unknown territory, surrounded by enemies.
With the battle of Mauvila, the natives' respect for the expedition
also decreased. The Spaniards were attacked more and more often by
guerrillas and in the open. While his men had lost their hopes and
now only wanted to reach the coast to meet ships that were expected
to come from Cuba, de Soto still strived for new discoveries.
The expedition wintered in Chicasa in modern-day Mississippi.
....................................
1541 ? To the west, demoralised
.
De Soto discovering the Mississippi (Painting by William H. Powell, in
the US Capitol Rotunda)The expedition returned upcountry to the north,
where they met the Chickasaw tribe. De Soto demanded 200 men as porters
from the Chickasaw. They denied his claim and attacked the Spanish camp
during the night. The Spaniards lost about forty men and the remainder
of their equipment. According to participating chroniclers, the
expedition could have been destroyed. Luckily for the expedition,
the Chickasaw let them go, intimidated by their own success.
.
On May 8, 1541, de Soto's troops reached the Mississippi River.
It is unclear whether he, as it is claimed, was the first European
to see the great river. However, he is the first to document this
fact in official reports. De Soto was less interested in this discovery
though, recognizing it, first of all, as an obstacle to his mission.
He and 400 men had to cross the broad river, which was constantly
patrolled by hostile natives. After about one month, and the
construction of several floats, they finally crossed the Mississippi
and continued their travels westwards through modern-day Arkansas,
Oklahoma, & Texas. They wintered in Autiamique, on the Arkansas River.
..............................................
De Soto's death
After a harsh winter, the Spanish expedition decamped and moved on
more & more erratically. Their faithful interpreter, Juan Ortiz, had
died, making it more difficult to find directions, food sources and
communicate with the Indians in general. The expedition went as far
inward as the Caddo River, where they clashed with a militant Native
American tribe called the Tula, who the Spainards considered to be
the most skilled & dangerous warriors they had ever encountered.
This possibly happened in the area of present day Caddo Gap,
Arkansas (a monument stands in that community).
Eventually, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi River.
.
On the western banks of the Mississippi, in the Indian village of
Guachoya (near present-day McArthur, Arkansas ) de Soto died on
May 21, 1542 of a sickness. Since de Soto had propagated among the
local natives that he was an immortal sun god (as a ploy to gain their
submission without conflict), his men had to conceal his death.
They hid his corpse in blankets weighted with sand and sank it
in the middle of the Mississippi river during the night
(although the Indians were clever enough to see through the ploy).
.
De Soto's expedition had explored La Florida for three years
without finding the expected treasures or a place to begin with their
colonization. They had lost nearly half their men, most of the horses
had been killed (their main tactical fighting advantage), they were
wearing animal skins for clothes and many were injured and in poor
health. Upon consensus it was decided to abort the expedition and
try to find a way home, either down the Mississippi river, or
overland across Texas to the Spanish colony of Mexico City.
.
After Effects
De Soto's excursion to Florida was, from his view and the view of his
men, a deadly disaster. They acquired neither gold nor prosperity and
founded no colonies. The reputation of the expedition, at the time,
was more like that of the later Don Quixote than that of
Hernán Cortés. Nonetheless, it had several consequences.
.
On one hand, the expedition left its traces in the travelled areas
themselves. Some of the horses that escaped or were stolen helped
establish the first populations of mustangs in western North America. De
Soto was instrumental in forming the aggressive and hostile relationship
between the Natives and Europeans. On several occasions they encountered
hostile Natives to the new lands, and more times than not his expedition
instigated the clashes. More devastating than the gory battles, however,
were the diseases carried by the members of the expedition. Several
areas the expedition crossed were basically depopulated.
Many of the natives fled the cities struck by the illnesses towards
the surrounding hills and swamps. The social structures of the
population at the time were fundamentally changed.
.
On the other hand, the records of the expedition contributed in large
part to geographic, biological, and ethnologic knowledge in Europe. The
de Soto expedition's descriptions of the North American natives are the
earliest known source of knowledge on the societies in the southeastern
North Americas. They are, in fact, the only European description of
North American native habits before the natives encountered other
Europeans. De Soto's men were, at the same time, the first and the
last Europeans to experience the prime of the Mississippian culture.
.
De Soto's expedition also led the Spanish crown to reconsider Spain's
attitude towards its colonies north of Mexico. He created a claim on
large parts of the North Americas for the Spaniards, with their missions
concentrated mainly on the state of Florida and the Pacific coast.
.
De Soto County, Mississippi (where he allegedly died), De Soto Parish,
Louisiana, and Hernando County, Florida are named after Hernando de
Soto. The place of his disembarkation, Espiritu Santo, Florida, is
located in Hernando County. Since 1948, the De Soto National Memorial
has existed near the city of St. Petersburg, Florida. Several
other cities and a car model are named after him.>>
----------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
<<The writing of Faust took Goethe almost 60 years to complete.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
<<[Faust is] his most important Masonic work. Throughout the tragedy
there is a struggle between good & evil just as there is in the
Masonic initiatory drama. "It is here that the keen student of
Freemasonry & the lover of Goethe find so many contacts between mind
of the poet & teachings of the Fraternity. As in the Legend of Hiram
Abif, Faust at last finds that evil may not forever strive successfully
with good; his final & greatest satisfaction is not in selfish
pleasure, which means death for the soul, but in work for humanity.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvey called [John] Lyly Oxford's "MiniOn secretary" in 1589,
10 years after Lyly dedicated *Euphues & his England* to [Oxford].
.
MiniOn, n. [F. MIGNON, fr. OHG. minni love, G. minne; akin to E. mind.]
1. A LOVED one; one highly esteemed & favored; -- in a good sense.
.
<<MignOn: The young Italian girl who fell in love with Wilhelm
Meister's apprentice, her protector. Her love not being returned,
. she became insane & died. (Goethe: Wilhelm Meister.)>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
"though _Faust_ is unquestionably Goethe's greatest work, it does
not contain the MasOnic allusions that abound in _Wilhelm Meister_"
.
. ---_Freemasonry, a Celebration of the Craft_ (p.78)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Goethe made Shakespeare famous with his two works:
.
. _Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre_ and
. _Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre_
.
. THOMAS CARLYLE translated Goethe's works into:
.
_Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship & Travels_(1796)
.
________________ wil[HE]lm
________________ me[ISTE]r's
________________ app[RE]nticeship &
________________ tra[VE]ls
---------------------------------------------
Blest be the man that SPA[RE]s these stones,
__And curst be he that MO[VE]s my bones.
-----------------------------------------------
J.W. von Goethe - _Wilhelm Meister?s Apprenticeship_
Book IV Chapter VII
.
WILHELM?S wounds once dressed, and his clothes put on, the surgeon
hastened off; just as the Harper with a number of peasants arrived. Out
of some cut boughts, which they speedily wattled with twigs, a kind of
litter was constructed; upon which they placed the wounded youth, and
under the conduct of a mounted huntsman, whom the noble company had left
behind them, carried him softly down the mountain. The Harper, silent
and shrouded in his own thoughts, bore with him his broken instrument.
Some men brought on Philina?s box, herself following with a bundle.
*Mignon skipped along through copse & thicket* , now before the party,
now beside them, and looked up with longing eyes at her hurt protector.
-----------------------------------------------
Mignon skipped along through copse & thicket
-----------------------------------------------
___ *SOTO* : down (Venetian)
___ *SOTO* : basement, cellar (Basque)
___ *SOTO* : copse, grove, thicket (Spanish)
------------------------------------------
Each _You Bet Your Life_ show would end with Groucho sticking
his head through a hole in the De Soto logo and say "When you go
into your De Soto dealer tomorrow, tell them Groucho sent you."
------------------------------------------------
____ *Fernandez de Soto*
----------------------------------------------
Lloyd Webber can sell Picasso 'sold under pressure from Nazis'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2442224,00.html
By Jenny Percival
.
<<A judge ruled today that Andrew Lloyd Webber can sell a £33 million
Picasso painting at auction, despite a German professor's claim
that his family was forced to sell it by the Nazis. The sale was
halted for four days after Julius H Schoeps, an heir to Berlin banker
Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan claiming
that he was the lawful owner. But US District Judge Jed S Rakoff
declared today that the sale of the oil-on-canvas painting can go ahead.
.
Lord Lloyd Webber plans to sell the 1903 portrait of Picasso's close
friend Angel Fernandez de Soto tomorrow at Christie's in New York
and intends to donate the proceeds to his charitable foundation.
.
The painting, signed and dated 1903, was described in a Christie?s
catalogue as capturing de Soto?s haunting face: "The elegantly
dressed sitter appears to scrutinise the viewer with an intense
gaze, his inner agitation suggested by the forceful brushstrokes
and the cloud of smoke hovering above him.">>
........................................................
http://www.stardustdvd.com/catalog/images/you-bet-life.jpg
........................................................
In a statement yesterday, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation dismissed
Schoeps? lawsuit as "utterly spurious without legal or factual
substance." The composer bought the painting at a Sotheby?s auction in
1995 for £18 million, saying at the time that he found it "mesmeric".
It has been exhibited on many occasions since and the foundation said
the painting?s ownership had never been questioned during that 11-year
period. A Foundation spokesman said: "The Picasso is not owned by
a private individual. It is owned by a charity whose principal
objectives are to advance the education of the public in the knowledge,
understanding & appreciation of the arts, especially painting,
music and theatre. "The Foundation intends to use the proceeds of
the sale of the painting to further those charitable objectives."
.
Mr Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born in 1875 in Berlin to a famous Jewish
family that included composer Felix Mendelssohn and philosopher Moses
Mendelssohn. Professor Schoeps is a great-great-grand nephew of Feliz
Mendelssohn. When the Nazis came to power, the Mendelssohn & Co bank had
become one of the largest private banks in Germany. Professor Schoeps'
lawsuit said that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy owned one of the great European
private art collections, including works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Renoir
and Monet, and never sold a piece before Hitler rose to power.
.
But Hitler targeted Mr Mendelssohn-Bartholdy for persecution,
intimidation and such a loss of fortune that he was forced to flee his
mansion and begin selling prized paintings into a depressed art market.
He placed five Picassos, including the de Soto painting, on consignment
with Berlin art dealer Justin K. Thannhauser in 1934. According to the
lawsuit, Mr Thannhauser sold the painting in 1936 to M. Knoedler & Co.
in New York. Mr Mendelssohn-Bartholdy died in 1935.
.
The painting shows Angel de Soto sitting nonchalantly at a bar with an
almost-empty glass before him and smoke curling around him. Picasso had
met the self-styled Bohemian in 1899 at the cafe Els Quatre Gats, an
artists? gathering place in Barcelona, where the pair quickly became
firm friends until de Soto was killed in the Spanish Civil War in 1938.
----------------------------------------------
____ *Hernando de Soto*
---------------------------------------------------
Hakluyt dedicated his translation of
*Hernando de Soto's* narrative to the Virginia Company.
-----------------------------------------------------
. MAY 30
-------------------------------------------------------
1220, Alexander Nevski born
1498, Columbus departs with 6 ships for 3rd trip to America
1539, Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer, lands in Florida
1574, Charles IX, King of France (1560-74), dies
1593, Christopher Marlowe "murdered"
1640, Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter, dies age 62
1660, King Charles II crowned on 30th birthday
1672, Peter I "the Great" born tsar (1682-1725)
1744, Alexander Pope poisoned from eating potted eels
1778, Voltaire [Francois-Marie Arouet] dies age 42
1960, Boris Pasternak, Russian poet dies, age 70
1967, Claude Rains dies, age 77
-------------------------------------------------
. MAY 21
---------------------------------------------------------
427 BCE, 'Plato' (a Greek nickname equivalent to 'Tubby') born
. http://michelesworld.net/dmm/lulu/characters/tubby.jpg
. Aristotle said, "I hold Plato dear, but I hold *TRUTH* dearer."
.
1471, Albrecht Dürer born
1471, Lancastrian King Henry VI of England killed in the tower
. of London & Yorkist Edward IV takes the throne
.
1527, King Philip II of Spain born to Charles V
1536, GENEVA officially embraces Protestantism
.
1542, Hernando de Soto dies along the Mississippi (Memphis?)
.
1602, Martha's Vineyard 1st sighted by Bartholomew Gosnold
.
1662, King Charles II marries Princess Catherine of Portugal
.
1688, Alexander Pope born & soon contracts Botts disease,
. which left his spine malformed & his stature stunted
.
1780, Elizabeth Fry, Quaker minister & prison reformer born
.
1804, Lewis & Clark Expedition begins
---------------------------------------------------
. Appalachian
.............................................................
<<The authors of the book, Appalachia: A regional Geography, indicate
that the Appalachian Mountains were first named by Spanish explorers in
the 16th Century. Some believe that it may have been Hernando DeSoto
himself, among the first to explore the southern Appalachians, who took
the name of the Indian village or tribe of Apalachee in northern Florida
and applied it to what we now know as the Appalachian Mountains.
According to the Tennessee Chronicles page, it was because of the
Mobilian Trade Language used by the native guides that De Soto
mistakenly assumed the Appalachee tribe in Florida was the native
culture of the Southeast and named the Appalachian Mountains
after the tribe.>> http://www.fred.net/kathy/at/word.html
------------------------------------------------------------
. A Palatine
................................................
{Palatine hill}, or {The palatine}, one of the SEVEN HILLS of Rome,
. once occupied by the palace of the C[ae]sars.
. http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/apalachee.html
.............................................................
<<Archaeological evidence shows that before European contact, the
Apalachee in northern Florida grew maize, beans, & squash; built
ceremonial centers with PLATFORM MOUNDS, plazas, & villages; and
were part of an extensive trade network involving other Mississippian
cultures in the interior southeast. The largest prehistoric Apalachee
settlement at Lake Jackson north of Tallahasee originally consisted of
SEVEN LARGE EARTHEN MOUNDS. Rescue excavations of Mound 3 in the 1970s
by Calvin Jones of the Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties revealed
that chiefs were buried here between A.D. 1250 & 1500 with trade items
such as copper breastplates, engraved shells, and copper & stone celts
indicating their status. At the time of European contact, the Apalachee
had moved away from their mound centers and were living in large
villages. De Soto wintered in 1539-1540 at an Apalachee village called
Anhaica, described by Garcilaso de la Vega, who accompanied de Soto and
wrote a book entitled La Florida, as having "200 large & good houses."
He also wrote of many more villages scattered throughout the region.
Anhaica was identified by the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research
in 1987 within the city of Tallahassee. Potsherds show that in the
early sixteenth century the Apalachee had fewer trade contacts with
Mississippian peoples to the north and were influenced by other cultures
in Florida & Georgia. The Apalachee had a reputation among Spanish
explorers as fierce warriors who zealously defended their lands, bounded
by the Aucilla River to the east and the Ochochonee River to the west,
and from what is now the Georgia state line to the Gulf of Mexico.
By the early 17th century, however, they were overwhelmed by disease
and the superior weapons of the Spaniards, prompting them to cooperate
with the invaders and convert to Catholicism. In 1656 the residents of
Anhaica relocated to the newly built Mission San Luis de Talimali
nearby, where they lived until the Spanish mission system collapsed
under the weight of British attacks. Many of the Apalachee who survived
moved northwest to French-held Mobile, an area encompassing what are now
southeastern Mississippi and southwestern Alabama, where they continued
to practise Catholicism. The first baptism of a young Apalachee child at
the French fort was recorded on September 6, 1704, following a yellow
fever epidemic that killed many of the tribe. When France ceded its
properties east of the Mississippi to Britain in 1763 at the close of
the French and Indian War, the Apalachee community in Mobile moved
to Louisiana's Rapides Parish on the Red River to avoid living under
British rule. Here the Apalachee were considered by the French to be
important allies against the British, and good hunters and farmers
who could provide food for the growing city of New Orleans.>>
--JESSICA E. SARACENI
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/playing-cards/jack+knave.html
.
Why is the Jack called a Jack,
. rather than a prince or earl or another nobleman?
.
The Answer
.
The first European cards had all-male court cards; a seated king,
a cavalier astride his horse and a foot servant or soldier.
Thus we have the idea of rank increasing with the sequence of cards,
starting with 1 (the Ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, Knave,
Cavalier, King. (Sometimes the Ace ranks above the King.)
.
In the 15th century, for some reason (unknown), the French card makers
substituted a Queen instead of the Cavalier. French cards became popular
in England and formed the basis of the standard Englishial to the moral
principles of individuals, and the general well-being of society. As
early as 1332, Alphonso XI, king of Castile, founded an order called the
Band, and by its statutes none of the knights were allowed to play cards
or dice. They were also forbidden, in 1338, by John I. of Castile.
France, by an edict in 1397, forbade their use by working people on
working days. Germany also, in 1397, prohibited the inordinate use of
cards, but granted indulgences for play on stated occasions. England had
become so disturbed by their injudicious use that importation was
prohibited in 1463, previous to which time all printed cards were made
in France & Germany. Year after year legislation has attempted to
regulate their manufacture and use, and still they have increased in
popular favor. In America, they found a fruitful soil. They were the
companions of Columbus & *De Soto* , and beguiled the weary wanderings
of the early explorers. Puritan antagonism tried hard to drive them
from American soil; American legislation has failed to suppress them;
and, be their influence good or evil, they have increased continually
with the growth and prosperity of the country. There hangs about them
a charm, a mystery, an inexplicable fascination, -- merely pieces of
colored pasteboard; yet, by their curious combinations, they hold human
mind spell-bound. The perverted use of them has been ruin and
wretchedness; the legitimate, a pleasant pastime.>>
----------------------------------
Hernando de Soto (From Wikipedia)
.
<<Hernando de Soto (c. 1496?May 21, 1542) was a Spanish navigator and
conquistador, born in the Extremadura region of Spain. He participated
in the conquest of Panama at the side of Pedro Arias de Ávila
(Pedrarias), Nicaragua and took a very active role with Francisco
Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. Later, de Soto led the largest
expedition of both the 15th & 16th century through what would become the
Southeastern United States and the Midwestern United States searching
for gold & silver and other valuable goods. He's presumed to have died
on the banks of the Mississippi near present-day Lake Village, Arkansas.
.
Early career
Hernando de Soto was born to parents who were hidalgos of modest means
in Extremadura, a region of poverty and hardship from which many young
people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. Two
towns?Badajoz and Jerez de los Caballeros?claim to be his birthplace.
All that is known with certainty is that he spent time as a child at
both places and he stipulated in his will that his body be interred
at Jerez de los Caballeros.
.
In 1514, de Soto accompanied Pedro Arias de Ávila to the Spanish
colonies, landing in Panama. His only possessions then were a shield and
his sword. In 1516, he became leader of a cavalry unit and went with
Francisco Hernández de Córdoba on his discovery and colonization voyage
through Nicaragua and Honduras. De Soto gained fame as an excellent
horseman, fighter, and tactician, but was known for extreme brutality
and ruthlessness when dealing with Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
In a conflict for supremacy in Nicaragua, de Soto fought for Dávila
against Gil Dávida Gonzales; Gonzales, an ex-officer of Dávila, had
tried to break away from him. De Soto denounced the treason
and defeated Gonzales's army.
.
First expedition ? South America
In 1528 de Soto led his own expedition along the coast of Yucatan,
hoping to find direct connection by sea between the Atlantic and the
Pacific Ocean. To that end, he accompanied Francisco Pizarro as a direct
representative to him on his venture in Peru and explored the country.
De Soto discovered the city of Cajas. With a group of fifty men, he
discovered an Inca road to Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire, and
became the first European to talk to the Sapa Inca Atahualpa when he
preceded Pizarro to Cajamarca on their invasion march. After Atahualpa
had been arrested during the Battle of Cajamarca in 1532, de Soto often
visited him in confinement, and a friendship between the two men
emerged. He broke with Pizarro when the Andes were to be redistributed
among the conquistadors, and when Atahualpa was executed despite
fulfilling his promise of filling a "Ransom Room" with gold
and two with silver.
.
Return to Spain
He returned to Spain in 1536, taking with him approximately 100,000
golden pesos ? his share of the conquest of the Inca Empire. At this
time, De Soto was famous for being the hero of the battle of Cuzco.
He settled in Seville, where he married, in 1537, Inés de Bobadilla,
the daughter of Davila. She came from one of the most respectable
families of Castile, with good connections to the Spanish court
under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
.
De Soto, having seen the legendary resources in Peru and read a report
written by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, suspected a similar wealth in
Florida. Cabeza de Vaca was one of four survivors of the disastrous
attempt of Pánfilo de Narváez to conquer Florida. De Soto saw his chance
to second the famous conquests of Pizarro and Cortés. He was declared
the governor of Cuba y adelantado de La Florida (meaning: all lands
north of Mexico) by Charles V. De Soto sold all of his goods and
equipped an expedition into the unexplored lands. His mission was
to conquer, settle, and "pacify" the unknown territories.
.
Expedition to Florida 1538-1542
.
In May 1539, he landed with approximately 600 to 700 men, twenty-four
priests, nine ships, and 220 horses on the western coast of Florida, in
what would become Bradenton, Florida, south of Tampa, Florida. He named
the place Espíritu Santo after the Holy Spirit. De Soto's aim was to
colonize the area, preferably from the center of a city like Cuzco or
Mexico City. Therefore, he brought several tons of equipment, tools,
arms, cannons, dogs, and pigs. The dogs, mostly Irish Wolfhounds,
became notorious weapons and instruments of punishment for the army.
In addition to the sailors, the ships brought priests, blacksmiths,
craftsmen, engineers, farmers, and merchants. Few of them had ever
traveled outside of Spain, or even their home villages.
.
Around the same time, the Mexican viceroy, Antonio de Méndez, sent an
expedition under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado into the territories
explored by De Vaca to search for what came to be known as the Seven
Cities of Cíbola, a gold-rich land of legend. De Soto feared for his
claims on La Florida. During the whole of his travels, de Soto felt
pressure to be the first to discover the legendary treasures and
appropriate settling grounds.
.
The exact course of de Soto's expedition is subject to discussions
and controversy among historians and local politicians. The primary
historical sources are journals left by the Spaniards, including de
Soto's own secretary. Aside from the usual precaution that has to be
applied to such sources, particular problems have to be considered in
regards to de Soto's expedition. The natives often had to pass through
a chain of interpreters, so that names and toponyms may have been
written down incorrectly. Additionally, many leaders and contacts had
their own interests in leading the expedition in the wrong directions.
Archeological reconstructions and the oral history of the natives have
only lately been considered. However, this bears the handicap that most
historical places have been overbuilt and more than 450 years of
history have passed between the incidence and its narration.
.
The most widespread version, which is also taught in United States
schools, recurs in a report of the Congress of the United States, under
the lead management of anthropologist John R. Swanton, from the year
1939. While the first part of the expedition's course, until the battle
at Mabila, is only disputed in details, the meandering route of the
later voyage remains largely unclear. The Spaniards were disoriented
and had almost no equipment left which could have served as indications
for the archeologists. The commonly assumed De Soto Trail runs in a
west-northwest direction across the US states Mississippi, Arkansas
and Oklahoma until Texas. Other opinions argue for a northern route
across Kentucky and Indiana to the Great Lakes.
.
Beginning at the Espíritu Santo, de Soto explored Florida and large
parts of the Southern United States. Already in Florida, his misfortune
began. Instead of being full of gold, the country was full of swamps and
mosquitos, and was extremely hot and humid. Also, the Indians he brought
with him angered the native tribes. The natives had had bad experiences
with the earlier expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez. De Soto's troops were
no less brutal. They captured Indians to use as workers and guides,
raped women, and looted villages in their search for food for their men
and horses. Most often, de Soto let the villages burn down and set up
a Christian cross on the sacred places of the Indians. In addition to
slaves and guides, the Spaniards often captured the tribes' chieftains
in order to gain safe passage.
.
The most important helper of the troops was Juan Ortiz, who came to
Florida in search of the Narvaez expedition and was captured by the
Uzica, a Calusa tribe.
.
The daughter of Chief Hirrihigua of the Uzica arguably served as
*a precursor to Pocahontas by begging for Ortiz's life* ,
as her father had ordered Ortiz to be roasted alive.
Ortiz survived captivity and torture, and joined, at the first
opportunity, the new de Soto Spanish expedition.
.
Ortiz knew the countryside and also helped as an interpreter. As a lead
guide for the de Soto expedition, Ortiz established a unique method for
guiding the expedition and communicating with various tribal dialects.
The "Paracoxi" guides were recruited from each tribe along the route.
A chain of communication was established whereby a guide who had
lived in close proximity to another tribal area was able to pass his
information and language on to a guide from a neighboring area.
Because Ortiz refused to dress and conduct himself as a hidalgo
Spaniard, his motives and council to de Soto were held in suspicion by
other officers. But Don Hernando remained loyal to Ortiz, thus allowing
him freedom to dress and live among his tribal Paracoxi friends.
.
Another important guide was the 17-year-old boy Perico, or Pedro, from
modern-day Georgia, who spoke several of the local tribes' languages
and could communicate with Ortiz. Perico was engaged as a guide
in 1540 and treated better than the rest of the slaves.
.
The first winter encampment of the expedition took place in Anhaica, the
capital of the Apalachee, close to Lake Tallahas. The site is also near
"Bahia de Caballos" where the members of the Narváez expedition were
forced to eat valued horseflesh for survival. This is the only place
on the entire route where the archeologists agree that de Soto's
expedition effectively had been.
..................................................
1540 ? To the north, The Battle of Mauvila
The expedition ventured along the eastern Appalachian Mountains and left
a trail of destruction. Sometimes the members of the expedition traded
the pigs they brought along to obtain food, sometimes they tried to get
what they needed by force. They crossed modern-day Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
.
Having heard of the famous gold treasure of the Cofitachequi, and
accompanied by their enemies, the Ocute, the expedition continued on
to the Carolinas. During weeks of marches, through hunger and thirst,
they realised that neither Perico nor the Ocute knew their way through
the territories of the Cofitachequi. Nonetheless, in the middle of May,
the expedition discovered the capital of the tribe,
situated at the site of today's Columbia, South Carolina.
.
The Spaniards were received in a relatively friendly manner ? especially
considering that they looted and pillaged several villages of the
Cofitachequi on their way. The Cofitachequi princess seemingly turned
over her tribe's sacred burial sites, pearls, and anything the Spaniards
valued to Don Hernando. However, the Spaniards demanded to see the
city's gold at once. Upon closer examination, the "gold" emerged as
simple copper. The Spaniards raided the city's burial temples, looting
ancient treasures. They found some pearls and weapons in the city, took
the young & charismatic female leader as a hostage, and ventured on
in their search for wealth, across the Carolinas, Georgia, & Alabama.
.
On their further erratic travels, they were led by wrong promises of
giant gold reserves in the east. In northern Alabama, they stumbled
upon the city of Mauvila (or Mabila). The Choctaw tribe, under chieftain
Tascalusa, ambushed them on the central place of the strongly-fortified
city. The Spaniards managed to fight their way out, then attacked the
city over and over again. In a battle of nine hours, twenty Spaniards
died, almost all were wounded, and twenty more died during the next
few days. All Choctaw warriors in the area ? between 2,000 & 6,000 in
number ? died fighting, in the fires, by executions, or by suicide.
Mauvila was burned down.
.
Even though the Spaniards won the battle, they lost most of their
possessions and forty horses. They were wounded, sickened, and almost
without equipment in an unknown territory, surrounded by enemies.
With the battle of Mauvila, the natives' respect for the expedition
also decreased. The Spaniards were attacked more and more often by
guerrillas and in the open. While his men had lost their hopes and
now only wanted to reach the coast to meet ships that were expected
to come from Cuba, de Soto still strived for new discoveries.
The expedition wintered in Chicasa in modern-day Mississippi.
....................................
1541 ? To the west, demoralised
.
De Soto discovering the Mississippi (Painting by William H. Powell, in
the US Capitol Rotunda)The expedition returned upcountry to the north,
where they met the Chickasaw tribe. De Soto demanded 200 men as porters
from the Chickasaw. They denied his claim and attacked the Spanish camp
during the night. The Spaniards lost about forty men and the remainder
of their equipment. According to participating chroniclers, the
expedition could have been destroyed. Luckily for the expedition,
the Chickasaw let them go, intimidated by their own success.
.
On May 8, 1541, de Soto's troops reached the Mississippi River.
It is unclear whether he, as it is claimed, was the first European
to see the great river. However, he is the first to document this
fact in official reports. De Soto was less interested in this discovery
though, recognizing it, first of all, as an obstacle to his mission.
He and 400 men had to cross the broad river, which was constantly
patrolled by hostile natives. After about one month, and the
construction of several floats, they finally crossed the Mississippi
and continued their travels westwards through modern-day Arkansas,
Oklahoma, & Texas. They wintered in Autiamique, on the Arkansas River.
..............................................
De Soto's death
After a harsh winter, the Spanish expedition decamped and moved on
more & more erratically. Their faithful interpreter, Juan Ortiz, had
died, making it more difficult to find directions, food sources and
communicate with the Indians in general. The expedition went as far
inward as the Caddo River, where they clashed with a militant Native
American tribe called the Tula, who the Spainards considered to be
the most skilled & dangerous warriors they had ever encountered.
This possibly happened in the area of present day Caddo Gap,
Arkansas (a monument stands in that community).
Eventually, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi River.
.
On the western banks of the Mississippi, in the Indian village of
Guachoya (near present-day McArthur, Arkansas ) de Soto died on
May 21, 1542 of a sickness. Since de Soto had propagated among the
local natives that he was an immortal sun god (as a ploy to gain their
submission without conflict), his men had to conceal his death.
They hid his corpse in blankets weighted with sand and sank it
in the middle of the Mississippi river during the night
(although the Indians were clever enough to see through the ploy).
.
De Soto's expedition had explored La Florida for three years
without finding the expected treasures or a place to begin with their
colonization. They had lost nearly half their men, most of the horses
had been killed (their main tactical fighting advantage), they were
wearing animal skins for clothes and many were injured and in poor
health. Upon consensus it was decided to abort the expedition and
try to find a way home, either down the Mississippi river, or
overland across Texas to the Spanish colony of Mexico City.
.
After Effects
De Soto's excursion to Florida was, from his view and the view of his
men, a deadly disaster. They acquired neither gold nor prosperity and
founded no colonies. The reputation of the expedition, at the time,
was more like that of the later Don Quixote than that of
Hernán Cortés. Nonetheless, it had several consequences.
.
On one hand, the expedition left its traces in the travelled areas
themselves. Some of the horses that escaped or were stolen helped
establish the first populations of mustangs in western North America. De
Soto was instrumental in forming the aggressive and hostile relationship
between the Natives and Europeans. On several occasions they encountered
hostile Natives to the new lands, and more times than not his expedition
instigated the clashes. More devastating than the gory battles, however,
were the diseases carried by the members of the expedition. Several
areas the expedition crossed were basically depopulated.
Many of the natives fled the cities struck by the illnesses towards
the surrounding hills and swamps. The social structures of the
population at the time were fundamentally changed.
.
On the other hand, the records of the expedition contributed in large
part to geographic, biological, and ethnologic knowledge in Europe. The
de Soto expedition's descriptions of the North American natives are the
earliest known source of knowledge on the societies in the southeastern
North Americas. They are, in fact, the only European description of
North American native habits before the natives encountered other
Europeans. De Soto's men were, at the same time, the first and the
last Europeans to experience the prime of the Mississippian culture.
.
De Soto's expedition also led the Spanish crown to reconsider Spain's
attitude towards its colonies north of Mexico. He created a claim on
large parts of the North Americas for the Spaniards, with their missions
concentrated mainly on the state of Florida and the Pacific coast.
.
De Soto County, Mississippi (where he allegedly died), De Soto Parish,
Louisiana, and Hernando County, Florida are named after Hernando de
Soto. The place of his disembarkation, Espiritu Santo, Florida, is
located in Hernando County. Since 1948, the De Soto National Memorial
has existed near the city of St. Petersburg, Florida. Several
other cities and a car model are named after him.>>
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Art Neuendorffer
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