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Gallery: The Expedition Arrives

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	Actors portray Native Americans watching the arrival of Spanish conquistadores in Florida.
	Actor: "30th of May 1539. Today the week-long journey from our staging base in Cuba has ended alongside a large bay in La Florida. After years of planning our expedition has finally arrived."
	An actor rows a replica boat from the ship to the shore.
	An actor portraying Hernando DeSoto carries the Spanish flag to shore.
	A replica of the flag Hernando DeSoto carried with him on the expedition.
	Actors portraying Native Americans watch Spanish conquistadores land on their tribal land.
	Hernando DeSoto's first step onto Florida land.
	Hernando DeSoto alights onto a gulf beach.
	Carrying the flag of Spain, an actor portrays the landing of Hernando DeSoto in Florida.
	Narrator: "And so, from a natural harbor thought to be near Tampa Bay, began the first major European expedition of what is now the United States. Spain had first claimed the area only 47 years earlier when Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean."
	Actors portraying Spanish soldiers transfer supplies for the expedition from ships in the harbor.
	Actors portraying Spanish soldiers transfer supplies for the expedition from ships in the harbor.
	Replicas of Spanish ships anchored in a gulf harbor similar to the one where DeSoto landed in Florida.
	An actor portraying a Spanish soldier in DeSoto's American expedition carries supplies from the ship to a camp on the shore.
	Actors portraying Spanish soldiers transfer supplies for the expedition from ships in the harbor to their temporary camp on the shore.
	Narrator: "Small expeditions had been attempted by Ponce de Leon and Panfilo de Narvaez, but both met with failure. Now, Hernando DeSoto would lead an expedition of almost 700 men, 2 women, 240 horses, a pack of war dogs, hundreds of pigs, and tons of supplies deep."
	A portrait of Christopher Columbus.
	Portraits of Ponce DeLeon (left) and Panfilo DeNarvaez (right).
	An actor portraying Hernando DeSoto leads his soldiers onto the beach.
	Carrying replicas of Spanish weapons, reenactors land in a bay on the west coast of Florida.
	Carrying replicas of Spanish weapons, reenactors land in a bay on the west coast of Florida.
	A pack of war dogs were brought to Florida with the Hernando DeSoto expedition.
	Spanish soldiers arrive on a beach in Florida with a pack of war dogs.
	Narrator: "The Spanish Empire was growing. After seven hundred years of Muslim control, the Spaniards expelled the Muslim Moores and Iberian Jews, and the Spanish Christians regained control of the region."
	A map of Spain with a picture of a Spanish castle.
	A map of Spain with pictures of a Spanish Castle and an engraving.
	A map of Spain with illustrations of soldiers.
	A map of Spain with a carving depicting Spanish Christians.
	Narrator: "King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille united the warring kingships into the country we now call Spain. Free of the Moores, Ferdinand and Isabella looked to expand the boundaries of the new Spanish kingdom beyond any empire in history."
	A replica Spanish ship sails across the seas to the New World.
	The bow of a replica Spanish Ship sails through the Gulf of Mexico.
	The sails and crow's nest of a replica Spanish ship showing the Spanish cross in red.
	An actor portrays a Spanish explorer on a replica Spanish ship.
	Narrator: "Once Columbus brought back word of a new world across the sea, Spanish explorers and restless conquistadores sailed eagerly across the Atlantic in search of fame and fortune, all sanctioned by Spain, to fuel their growing empire with new colonies, gold, and converts to Christianity."
	Replica Spanish ships sail across the gulf, displaying the Spanish flag and cross.
	Actors portraying Spanish soldiers man the crow's nest of a replica Spanish ship.
	Actors portraying Spanish conquistadores observe holy mass on board a ship.
	A Spanish priest performs the Asperges, or cleansing with holy water, of Spanish soldiers observing holy mass aboard ship.
	Narrator: "America's wealth of treasure became the initial focus of attention, with expeditions led by Hernando Cortez against the Aztecs of Mexico in 1519, and Francisco Pizarro against the Incas of Peru in 1533."
	A portrait of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro appears with an engraving of an Aztec temple.
	Narrator: "One of those who assisted Pizarro was a young, aggressive explorer named Hernando DeSoto. After twenty years in Central and South America, DeSoto returned to Europe a rich man, having plundered his share of Inca gold and silver. But he soon grew bored with his life of luxury, and longed for the adventure of another expedition."
	Spanish conquistadores plundered Inca gold and brought it back to Spain.
	Narrator: "[Hernando DeSoto] decided to take a major gamble, to spend all of his money to finance another trip to the new world in search of even bigger treasure, and the powerful title of Royal Governor of the lands he explored and conquered."
	A replica Spanish ship follows another ship in the distance.
	The crow's nest of a replica Spanish ship.
	A replica of a Spanish ship sails from Cuba to Florida.
	Narrator: "But this time [Hernando DeSoto] would search in the southeastern wilderness of North America in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella's successor, King Charles the 5th."

 

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