Page 17--The charter from the King, delivered on January 6, 1540
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"Coronado's Well-Equipped Army: The Spanish Invasion of"
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The route of De Soto is, of come, a question for a variety of views.[978] We have in the preceding narrative followed for the track through Georgia a paper read by Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr., before the Georgia Historical Society, and printed in Savannah in 1880, [979] and for that through Alabama the data given by Pickett in his History of Alaboma,[980] whose local knowledge adds weight to his opinion49811 As to the point of De Soto's crossing the Mississippi, there is a very general agreement on the lowest Chickasaw Bluff. [982] We are without the means, in any of the original sources, to determine beyond dispute the most northerly point reached by Soto. He had evidently approached, but had learned nothing of, the Missouri River.
Almost at the same time that Soto, with the naked,
starving remnant of his army, was at Pacaha, another Spanish force under Vasquez de Coronado, well handled and perfectly equipped, must in July and August, 1541, have been encamped so near that an Indian runner in a few days might have carried tidings between them. Coronado actually heard of his countryman, and sent him a letter; but his messenger failed to find Soto's party.[983] But, strangely enough, the cruel, useless expedition of Soto finds ample space in history, while the well-managed march of Coronado's careful exploration finds scant mention.[984]
No greater contrast exists in our history than that between these two campaigns.