The De Soto Chronicles Vol 1 & 2: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539-1543

Introduction to Bibliography of de Soto Studies

L%trodac~ t& [lJ~y[!/ 0{/J~J~ byJeffrey P. Brain and Charles R. Ewen The search for the route of Hernando de Soto through the southeastern United States has become a consuming pursuit for many cartographers, historians , and archaeologists. Since the pioneering efforts of Guillaume Delisle in 1718, researchers have chased a variety of alternative routes. In 1939, when John Swanton put together the Final Report ofthe United States De Soto Expedition Commission, the archaeological evidence was sparse. Nearly fifty years later, Brain (1985, xlvi) summarized the progress that had been made on defining the expedition's route since the commission 's report and wryly remarked "that we are far more uncertain about the exact itinerary than the Commission was." Five years after Brain's summary, De Soto scholars are still no closer to agreement on the route and, in fact, may have become more divisive in its interpretation than ever. Swanton himself foresaw this almost forty years ago, saying, "Hernando de Soto, his expedition, and the places he visited will probably be matters of discussion for years and years" (Swanton 1952a, 3II). "Discussion" could be termed a euphemism for the heated debate that the study of the expedition's route has inspired. Indeed, the debate has polarized into two opposing factions: those that choose to adhere primarily to refinements of the route proposed by Swanton and those that support the route as reinterpreted by Charles Hudson of the University of Georgia and his associates. We will not attempt a discussion of the disputed points here; rather the reader is referred to the original references presented in our bibliography . The Purpose of the Bibliography This bibliography is intended to aid the scholar pursuing research on topics related to Hernando de Soto's entrada in the southeastern United States. It is not intended as a general guide to the Early Contact Period in the New World. It was difficult to set the parameters of the bibliography. Including every reference that might conceivably have some bearing on De Sotorelated research would have been beyond the scope of this work and certainly beyond the endurance of the compilers. Some general references have been included because they seemed to us to be useful research tools. There may be some personal bias in their selection, as the preponderance of archaeological references betrays the archaeological backgrounds of the authors. A special effort was made to include those sources not readily available to the casual researcher. This so-called grey literature consists mainly of unpublished manuscripts in possession of the compiler, letters to other scholars or institutions, and archaeological contract reports on file at various federal and state agencies. Several scholars, who are actively pursuing De Sotorelated research, were contacted and asked to contribute their most obscure references. Their responses resulted in the compilation of some truly arcane literature. Pains have also been taken to include all points of view expressed by the various De Soto scholars. Opinions range widely concerning where the expedition went, who they encountered, and what constitutes evidence for these conclusions. Attempts were made to be impartial in the selection process , and all references are presented in an equal fashion. Readers are invited to examine the opposing hypotheses on the various topics and draw their own conclusions. This introductory essay discusses the De Soto literature in a topical manner . During the compilation of the references it became apparent that there were several major themes pervading the literature. They are: the route of the army, archaeological investigations, artifact studies, biographical studies, and De Soto in explicitly fictitious literature. Many of the works included in the bibliography fit into more than one category, while others were idiosyncratic and hard to fit into any general category. Not all categories that appear in the bibliography (e.g., general anthropological and historical studies ) appear in this essay; however, the intent is to get the researcher off to a good start. The reader should also consult the extensive bibliography published in Swanton's Final Report (1939>337-43). The Route of the Army The route of the De Soto entrada is one of the longest-lived and most hotly contested issues in the study of the protohistoric Southeast. The ear508 ~ THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES liest route version in this bibliography is Delisle's (1718) Carte de fa Louisiane et cours du Mississipi, which graphically depicts what he thought was the track of the expedition. Other early studies of...