In 1528 he left the service of his patron and went on a journey of exploration, in search of the passage supposed to connect the ocean west of Spain with that east of Asia. Columbus, Cortez, and others had searched for this water-way which, as you and I know, does not exist. De Soto explored more than seven hundred miles of the coast of Guatemala and Yucatan. As he found no passage between the two oceans, he decided that there was none and gave up the search. In 1532, De Soto with a band of horsemen joined Francisco Pizarro, the leader of the army which invaded and conquered Peru. He was nominally under the command of Pizarro but was really the master of his brave band of three hundred volunteer horsemen. Some historians say that the brave De Soto did more to secure victory than did the cruel Pizarro. At all events, the higher glory belongs to the young cavalry-man; he displayed more humanity in his dealings with the natives than any other Spanish leader and he endeavored to prevent the murder of the captive Inca, or emperor, of Peru. The wealth wrested from the conquered Peruvians enriched the Spanish invaders. De Soto, who had landed in America with “nothing else of his own save his sword and shield” became master of a fortune of “an hundred and four score thousand ducats.” He returned to Spain and married Isabella, his patron’s daughter, from whom he had been separated about fifteen years. But he was not content to rest at home. The age’s spirit of adventure and love of wandering was in his veins. Remembering De Vaca’s tales about Florida, he persuaded the emperor Charles V. to appoint him governor of Cuba and to grant him the region of Florida to explore and conquer at his own expense. Adventurers flocked to join him, hoping that in the unexplored land of Florida they would find treasures to equal or surpass those of Mexico and Peru. De Soto’s wife went with him as far as Cuba, and there he bade her farewell--a final farewell, as events proved--and in May, 1539, he set sail with five vessels for Florida. He landed at Tampa Bay on the west coast. From the first he encountered hardship and opposition. Florida was occupied by Indian tribes naturally fiercer and more warlike than the Mexicans and Peruvians; they had met with cruelty and outrage, the outrage and cruelty of the Spaniards under De Leon and Narvaez. Almost everywhere De Soto found ready-made foes, expert with war club and bow and arrow. For nearly four years he and his men wandered from place to place, through morasses and forests, seeking gold and treasure but finding them not. Disappointed in his search he grew bitter and merciless. “He was much given to the sport of slaying Indians,” says one old historian.