The Discovery and Conquest of Terra Florida,
by Don Ferdinando de Soto, and six hundred Spaniards his followers. Written by a gentleman of Elvas, employed in all the action, and translated out of Portuguese, by Richard Hakluyt. Reprinted from the edition of 1611. Edited with notes and an introduction, and a translation of a narrative of the expedition by Luiz Hernandez de Biedma, factor to the same, by William B. Rye.
London, Hakluyt Society, 1851
De Soto's North American expedition was a vast undertaking. It ranged throughout what is now the south-eastern United States, searching both for gold, which had been reported by various Native American tribes and earlier coastal explorers, and for a passage to China or the Pacific coast. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River.
First edition of this translation, Hakluyt Society First Series, XXXIV; 8vo (22.5 x 15 cm); folding map as frontispiece, ex libris Inner Temple Library with bookplates and stamps, withdrawn stamp to titles, small marginal tear to hinge of map; original publisher's gilt blue cloth, some dampstaining to boards, spine darkened with slight chipping to head, internally a very good copy; 4, [6], lxvii, 200, vpp.
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