DE SOTO. Hernando de Soto, a noble from Seville in Spain, had won fame and fortune with Pizarro in Peru. The King of Spain, to reward his bravery and skill in conquering Indians, made him Governor of Cuba. In those days the Governor of Cuba controlled Florida. It was a larger Florida than the present state of that name, for Spanish Florida included the whole north coast of the Gulf of Mexico running back into the continent without any definite boundary. THE STORY OF THE GILDED MAN. De Soto had heard a fanciful story of a country so rich in gold that its king was smeared every morning with gum and then thickly sprinkled with powdered gold, which was washed off at night. De Soto thought this country might be somewhere in Florida, and prepared to search for the Gilded Man, or in the Spanish language _El Dorado._ THE COMRADES OF DE SOTO. More than six hundred men, some of them from the oldest families of the nobility of Spain and Portugal, flocked to De Soto's banner. They sold their possessions at home and ventured all their wealth in the hope of obtaining great riches in Florida. DE SOTO'S ROUTE THROUGH THE SOUTH OF NORTH AMERICA. De Soto crossed from Cuba to the west coast of Florida in 1539, and advanced northward by land to an Indian village near Apalachee Bay. Here he spent the first winter. A white man, whom the Indians had taken captive twelve years before and finally adopted, joined De Soto and became very useful as an interpreter. [Illustration: SPANISH KNIGHT OF 16TH CENTURY] In the spring De Soto renewed his explorations. It was like a journey into the interior of Africa. The expedition passed northeasterly through the country now within Georgia and South Carolina, as far, perhaps, as the border of North Carolina. From here it passed through the mountains, and turned southwesterly through Tennessee and Alabama until a large Indian village called Mauvilla was reached. This was near the head of Mobile Bay. Mobile was named from the Indian village Mauvilla. The Alabama Indians, whose name means "the thicket clearers," were near by. Here again De Soto changed his course to the northwest into the unknown interior. THE HARDSHIPS OF THE JOURNEY. His army was almost exhausted by the difficulties of the journey. A road had to be cut and broken through thickets and forest, paths had to be made through the many swamps, and fords found across the rivers. It frequently became necessary to stop for months at a time, to let the horses, worn out from travel and starving because of the scarcity of fodder, fatten on the grass. The stores which the army brought with them soon gave out. The men were forced to live like Indians, and were often reduced to using the roots of wild plants for food. Where they could, they robbed the Indians of their scanty stores of corn and beans. [Illustration: INDIANS BROILING FISH]