Food was growing scarce, and De Soto himself was taken ill. He knew that unless something should be done soon to make the Indians help them, all would perish. So he sent word to an Indian chief saying that he was the child of the sun, and that all men obeyed him. He then declared that he wanted the chief's friendship, and ordered him to bring him food.
The chief sent back word that if De Soto would cause the river to dry up he would believe him. This, of course, De Soto could not do.
He was disappointed and discouraged at not being able to get food. The illness from which he was suffering grew worse, and he died soon afterwards.
His followers were anxious to hide his death from the natives, who were very much afraid of him. So they placed his body in the hollow of a scooped out tree, and sunk it at midnight in the water.
Those of his followers who were left decided to try to reach home by following the river to its mouth. These men were in a wretched condition. Their clothing was nearly all gone. Few of them had shoes, and many had only the skins of animals and mats made of wild vines to keep them warm. They built seven frail barks and sailed down the Mississippi, avoiding Indians all the way, and in seventeen days they came to the Gulf of Mexico.
In fifty days more they succeeded in reaching a Spanish settlement on the coast of Mexico, where they were received with much joy.
Of the gay company of six hundred and twenty who had set out with such high hopes, only three hundred and eleven men returned.
THE GREAT RIVER AMAZON, AND EL DORADO.
As you may imagine, there was great excitement and curiosity in Spain, after the voyages of Columbus, about the new lands beyond the Western Ocean.