Hernando de Soto, fascinated by the stories…

Hernando de Soto, fascinated by the stories of Cabeza de Vaca, who had survived in North America after becoming a castaway and just returned to Spain, has selected six hundred and twenty eager Spanish and Portuguese volunteers, including some of African descent, for the governing of Cuba and conquest of North America.

Averaging twenty-four years of age, the men embark from Havana on seven of the King's ships and two caravels of de Soto's.

With tons of heavy armor and equipment, they also carried more than five hundred head of livestock, including two hundred and thirty-seven horses and two hundred pigs, for their planned four-year continental expedition.

He then writes out a new will before embarking on his travels.

On May 10, 1539, de Soto writes in his will: "That a chapel be erected within the Church of San Miguel in Jerez de los Cabelleros, Spain, where De Soto grew up, at a cost of 2,000 ducats, with an altarpiece featuring the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Conception, that his tomb be covered in a fine black broadcloth topped by a red cross of the Order of the Knights of Santiago, and on special occasions a pall of black velvet with the De Soto coat of arms be placed on the altar; that a chaplain be hired at the salary of 12,000 maravedis to perform five masses every week for the souls of De Soto, his parents and wife; that thirty masses be said for him the day his body was interred, and twenty for our Lady of the Conception, ten for the Holy Ghost, sixty for souls in purgatory and masses for many others as well; that 150,000 maravedis be given annually to his wife Isabel for her needs and an equal amount used yearly to marry off three orphan damsels...the poorest that can be found," who would then assist his wife and also serve to burnish the memory of De Soto as a man of charity and substance.