De Soto and his expedition of over 600 men spent four years (1539-43) traveling through what is now Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. He discovered the Mississippi River, died of a fever, and was buried near the river. These documents are the only detailed eyewitness records of the most advanced native civilization in North America - a culture that vanished in the wake of European contact.

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