cover image Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms

Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms

Charles Hudson. University of Georgia Press, $40 (608pp) ISBN 978-0-8203-1888-2

For four years before dying in 1543, Hernando de Soto and his Spanish army blazed through the American Southeast in the futile search of gold, treasures and glory. Unfortunately, Hudson, a professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia, seems to have chronicled every grueling day of those four years. In this overly thorough account of de Soto's trek through ""La Florida"" one can only imagine that the Spaniards would have been as bored by the expedition as we are by the recounting. As related by the author, the expedition was an endless succession of marching, bivouacking, fording streams, rivers and bayous with de Soto constantly demanding ""women and porters"" from the natives. Only on the rare occasion when the army encountered large settlements does the narrative perk up. There the troops found the opportunity to exhibit their particular brand of cruelty as they plundered Native American villages and fought warriors who were desperate to save their families from enslavement or death and their homes from destruction. Hudson delves deep into the archaeology of the ancient Southeast and written accounts of the expedition from survivors. There is much to learn in this volume, but it is written with so little imagination (""On August 4 they came to another village, situated near the River of Casqui, where they found many pumpkins and a good supply of corn and beans"") and so much detail that, like fording a swamp, it is hard to negotiate. Illustrated. (July)