Hernando de Soto led and expedition into the Southeastern US in the 1540s. Moving through Modern Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, he got into a lot of fights with native chiefdoms already in the area and by 1542 the expedition was camping in a native town on the banks of the Mississippi in poor shape.
To keep the natives from attacking, De Soto convinced them he was the invincible son of their Sun God. It’s up for debate how much they actually believed this, but after sending messages to the Chiefs of surrounding towns, one replied along the lines of “I’ll believe that shit when the river dries up.”
During this time, De Soto died of a fever. His men, trying to keep the ruse up, hastily buried him in a grave in the corner of the town courtyard and told the Natives he had ascended to the sky. When the natives started asking why there was a new patch of dirt in the yard and why the dogs were digging at it they waited until night and dug De Soto’s rotting body back up.
Stuffing it in a hollow log and filling it with sand, they took it out on a boat in the middle of the Mississippi and dumped it in the river.
The survivors of the expedition would travel through Arkansas trying to find a way home before giving up and returning to sail down the Mississippi in boats, being attacked by pissed off natives every step of the way until they made it back to Mexico.
SnooMarzipans5913 on
I swear 1/2 of the history of Spanish colonization of the new world is Shakespeareian tradegy and the other half is a Montey Python sketch.
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CONTEXT
Hernando de Soto led and expedition into the Southeastern US in the 1540s. Moving through Modern Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, he got into a lot of fights with native chiefdoms already in the area and by 1542 the expedition was camping in a native town on the banks of the Mississippi in poor shape.
To keep the natives from attacking, De Soto convinced them he was the invincible son of their Sun God. It’s up for debate how much they actually believed this, but after sending messages to the Chiefs of surrounding towns, one replied along the lines of “I’ll believe that shit when the river dries up.”
During this time, De Soto died of a fever. His men, trying to keep the ruse up, hastily buried him in a grave in the corner of the town courtyard and told the Natives he had ascended to the sky. When the natives started asking why there was a new patch of dirt in the yard and why the dogs were digging at it they waited until night and dug De Soto’s rotting body back up.
Stuffing it in a hollow log and filling it with sand, they took it out on a boat in the middle of the Mississippi and dumped it in the river.
The survivors of the expedition would travel through Arkansas trying to find a way home before giving up and returning to sail down the Mississippi in boats, being attacked by pissed off natives every step of the way until they made it back to Mexico.
I swear 1/2 of the history of Spanish colonization of the new world is Shakespeareian tradegy and the other half is a Montey Python sketch.