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ing a diplomatic approach to the native
peoples and established a friendship with
the Inca monarch, Atahuallpa. Pizarro
found it expedient to send Soto on a distant
mission at the time that Atahuallpa was
being killed in violation of previous agree-
ments. Despite these differences Soto played
a leading role in the exploration and con-
quest of the Inca Empire and carried a huge
share of the golden spoils home to Spain.
Newly married and with a splendid resi-
dence and a grand lifestyle, Soto neverthe-
less became restless and eager for new
challenges in the process of conquering ter-
ritory for Spain. After reading the account
by Á
LVA R
N
ÚÑEZ
C
ABEZA
DE
V
ACA
of his
experiences in F
LORIDA
and adjacent lands,
Soto determined to return to the New
World. He converted much of his wealth
into financing a large expedition and
secured from the Crown the governorship
of C
UBA
as well as the authorization to con-
quer Florida (which included much of what
is now the southeastern United States).
After assembling a force of nearly a thou-
sand soldiers and civilians and gathering a
great number of horses and supplies in
Cuba, he left his wife as acting governor
and landed at Espíritu Santo (present-day
Tampa) in 1539.
Soto's initial contacts with the Indian
tribes of Florida were as unsuccessful as
those of P
ÁNFILO
DE
N
ARVÁEZ
10 years ear-
lier. He persisted in his explorations and his
search for treasure, encountering almost
constant opposition and steadily losing
fighting men in clashes with the native
population. In the course of the next two
years he penetrated what is now Georgia,
Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas and
possibly both Texas and Oklahoma. During
his march to the west, he discovered the
Mississippi River and crossed it on boats
constructed by his followers (although the
mouth of the great river had been sighted
by several earlier explorers, Soto was its
effective European discoverer). Worn out
by wounds and sickness, like the majority
of his comrades, Soto died on the bank of
the Mississippi in 1542. The survivors sank
his body in the river to prevent its desecra-
tion by Indians.
Although Soto played a conciliatory role
in the conquest of Peru, becoming increas-
ingly unhappy with the brutality of Pizar-
ro's actions, he was unable to retire to a
peaceful life with his own share of the Inca
treasure. In his later career as
ADELANTADO
of Florida he adopted many of the harsh
and destructive tactics he had previously
denounced, and his reputation has become
that of a cruel conqueror. Whatever the
final judgment on his character, Soto ranks
with H
ERNÁN
C
ORTÉS
and Pizarro as one of
the great conquistadores for the sheer
breadth of his ambitions and his discover-
ies. His explorations opened up a vast new
area of the Spanish Empire in America, and
the preserved records of his expeditions
added tremendously to European knowl-
edge of North America.
Souza Cardoso, Amadeo de
(1887-1918)
Portuguese artist
The son of a landowning family in northern
Portugal, Souza Cardoso pursued prelimi-
nary studies aimed at a career in architec-
ture; however, after arriving in Paris in
1906 he soon shifted his attention to paint-
ing. Moreover he quickly exchanged the
company of Portuguese expatriates for a
more cosmopolitan range of artists then
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