Floating down the Mississippi River near Vicksburg in the Summer of 1543, having spent 4 years plundering America, 320 Spaniards in 7 brigantines were making their way to a Spanish outpost on the Gulf of Mexico. Indians, angered by Spain's outrageous behavior, according to a Spanish Officer, attacked the "brigantines which they had not dared to before... twenty-five men were wounded. In this way they circulated from one (brigantine) to another... The Christians had brought (woven) mats... and the brigantines were hung with them (to block hostile Indian arrows)... they resolved to travel all that night, thinking that they would pass by the land of Quigualtam (Mississippi) and that the Indians would leave them..." but they did not. In fact, within a few days, the Indians of Natchez joined in the attacks.

From Mississippi to Louisiana, "Those (Indians) of Quigualtam (Mississippi) returned to their own lands, and the others in fifty canoes continued to fight for a whole day and night... but, because of the slowness with which we sailed (with horses in tow on barges), the governor made up his mind to land and kill the horses. We loaded the meat into the brigantines after salting it but left five of the horses alive on the shore... the Indians went up to them after we had embarked. The horses were unused to them and began to neigh and run about in various directions, whereat the Indians jumped into the water for fear of them. Entering their canoes behind the brigantines (somewhere above Baton Rouge), they continued to shoot at them without any pity and followed us that afternoon (past Baton Rouge) and night until 10 o'clock the next morning, and then went back upstream (as the Spaniards entered the swamps). Soon seven canoes came out from a small town (possibly Donaldsonville) located near the river and followed them for a short distance down the river shooting at them..."

"After that they had no trouble (passing through New Orleans), until they came almost to the sea... (where the river) divided into two branches, each of which was about a league and half (four miles) wide."

The Mississippi River Delta below New Orleans has changed dramatically in the five centuries since DeSoto's Army was there; more than any other shoreline in North America. Millions of acres of America's best soil have been deposited on the Mississippi River's giant Delta due to interior deforestation and intense agriculture along that river's feeders. The river flows through the soil deposits, called barrier islands, most of which are very near each other on the Delta. They are kept in check by the Corps of Engineers for ship navigation and flood control. DeSoto's people entered the Gulf of Mexico not far below New Orleans.

The Louisiana Coast

An expedition officer says, "A half a league (just over a mile) before they came to the sea (the Gulf of Mexico at Belize, on the Full Moon), they anchored for a day to rest because they were very tired from rowing (steering down the river) and greatly disheartened because of the many days during which they had eaten nothing but parched and boiled corn, which was doled out in a ration of a leveled-off helmet to each mess (group) of three (men). While we were there, seven canoes of Indians came to attack the Christians... The governor ordered armed men to enter the canoes (which had been brought down river) and go against the Indians and put them to flight. The Indians also came to attack us by land through a thicket and a swamp (the same way they did against Cabeza de Vaca, another Spanish coastal survivor, near the same place, a decade earlier). The Indians had clubs set with very sharp fish bones (the men say, "...an Indian the size of a Philistine... [had a]...dart, or long arrow, with three barbs in the place of one [at the tip]... The barb in the center was a handbreadth longer than the two on the sides... [like] harpoons and not smooth points.") This observation, the last of a very hostile Indian in America, may well have inspired today's "Devil" image which was born in Europe in the 1540's just after news of DeSoto's defeat arrived there. We inherited that Devil image: a tall, slender, body hairless red man, with a three pronged spear in hand. According to Spaniards, North America was the Devil's domain, given its defeat of the Great Conquistador, Hernando de Soto.

The officer continues, "They stayed there for two days (during Full Moon). From thence they went to the place where the branch of the river flowed into the sea (through Balize Barrier Island)." They would spend the next fifty-five days making their way to a Spanish outpost in New Spain (Mexico). "They took soundings in the river near the sea and found a depth of forty fathoms (over 200 feet)... On July 18th, 1543, they put out to sea (along the coast) and undertook their voyage amid calm and fair weather." They sailed for three days in fresh water, all fed by the Great River's estuaries. "That night they saw some (Indian fires on the) keys on the right (East Island, where Cabeza de Vaca lived for six years the decade before), whither they went (for food and wood for fires)." The next four days they sailed offshore over the shoals of Maringouin (part of which was in the fresh water discharge of the Atchafalaya River, at that time a major discharge of the Great River into the Gulf), out of sight of land but sounding for steerage, then were blown onto Pecan Island where they were forced to dig for fresh water. When the storm ceased, they sailed westward for two more days and entered a small creek (Calcasieu Pass). When they departed, they were caught in a storm which washed five of the seven brigantines ashore just east of Sabine Pass (below Port Arthor). When the sea calmed the next day, all reassembled in Sabine Lake, where they stayed for two days during the New Moon of July 31st, 1543, to careen their vessels on the Spring Tides and to gathering food and water.

Coastal Texas to New Spain

"They sailed another two days (from Port Arthor and into Texas) and anchored at a bay or arm of the sea (Gilchrist) where they stayed two days. They sailed another two days and anchored at a bay or arm of the sea (Galveston Bay) where they stayed (behind the island) for two days... six men went up the bay in a canoe but did not come to its head. They left there with a south wind which was against them (through San Louis Pass), but since it was light and their desire to shorten their voyage great, they went out by going into the sea, and journeyed for two days... with great toil, a very little distance, and entered behind and islet (San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge) by means of a branch of the sea (Matagorda Bay) which surrounded it. There was an abundance of fish there." The Colorado River empties into that bay; a natural spawning ground for hundreds of species.

The men say that on their 23rd day at sea (the day they reached Matagorda Bay), they entered behind a series of four or five islets close to the mainland (from there to Mexico: behind East and West Matagorda, San Jose, Mustang and Padre Islands; about two hundred and fifty miles of sandy islands). They pitched their boats for eight days (under the Full Moon, for the protection it offered, just inside San Bernard). Friendly Indians visited them several times, probably from up the Colorado River. When the Spaniards departed they sailed for thirteen days from point to point on the Texas mainland for protection from the strong north winds and for water and fire wood, resting for three days along their intercoastal journey (they averaged 25 miles per day sailing). They drifted out Brazos Santiago Pass, at the south end of Padre Island and into the open sea, on the Spring Tides of August 31th; thereby missing the Rio Grande altogether. They departed Texas on September 1, 1543.

An officer says they sailed within sight of land on strong winds for six days (along the Mexican shoreline), probably stopping for water, food and wood for several days along that coast. They saw mountains and palm trees by noon of the seventh sailing day, September 10th, 1543 (Full Moon), with muddy water in the sea. The River of Panuco, a known Spanish possession, was breaking over the sandy shoals. They put in before reaching the river's mouth. Several of the ships overshot the river the night before and had to return overland. The lead boats found friendly Indians who spoke Spanish and were informed that they were home at last.