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50 free Hernando De Soto trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hernando de Soto trivia quiz follows the Spanish conquistador from a poor corner of Extremadura to the banks of the Mississippi. The easy questions are ones anyone who studied American exploration could answer: the river he is credited with crossing first, the state where he landed in 1539, the Inca conquest he took part in, and how his men disposed of his body. The harder end is for history readers: the three towns that claim his birth, the governor whose daughter he married, the game he taught Atahualpa in captivity, the Spaniard found living naked among the Mocoso, the Napituca massacre, the female chief who gave him pearls, the paramount chief who ambushed him at Mabila, the pigs that became razorbacks, the four chroniclers historians rely on, the commander who led the survivors to Mexico, and how many of the roughly 700 came home. Pedrarias Dávila, the Coosa chiefdom, the De Soto National Memorial, the Memphis bridge and the Chrysler car get questions too. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the explorer, his expedition and the peoples he met before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our conquistadors, Age of Exploration and Inca Empire quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Roughly when did de Soto die on the banks of the Mississippi?
1542
Sources place his death near Lake Village, Arkansas, or Ferriday, Louisiana.
Q 02In which Spanish region was de Soto born?
Extremadura
Three towns in the province of Badajoz claim him.
Q 03Which town did historian Ursula Lamb consider his most likely birthplace?
Jerez de los Caballeros
He asked in his will to be buried there among his family.
Q 04With which first Governor of Panama did the teenage de Soto sail to the New World in 1514?
Pedro Arias Dávila
He would later marry the governor's daughter Isabel de Bobadilla.
Q 05Which second territory did Pedrarias Dávila govern from 1527 after Panama?
Nicaragua
He also founded Panama City in 1519 and lived to about 90.
Q 06In which Nicaraguan city did de Soto hold an encomienda and become a regidor?
León
He had taken part in the conquest of Nicaragua under Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1524.
Q 07Whose conquest of the Inca Empire did de Soto join as a captain?
Francisco Pizarro
He brought his own hired ships and men to Pizarro's base at Tumbes.
Q 08How many men did Pizarro send with de Soto to invite Atahualpa to a meeting at Cajamarca?
Fifteen
The next day the Spanish attacked and captured the Inca ruler.
Q 09What game did de Soto teach the captive Atahualpa?
Chess
The two became friendly while the Inca's subjects filled a room with gold and silver for his ransom.
Q 10Where was de Soto when the Spanish decided to execute Atahualpa?
Scouting for a rumoured Inca army
He returned to report he had found no army.
Q 11Which post did de Soto hold in 1534 while Pizarro built his coastal capital?
Lieutenant governor of Cuzco
Almagro later refused him the second-in-command role for the conquest of Chile.
Q 12Which chivalric brotherhood admitted de Soto on his wealthy return to Spain in 1536?
Order of Santiago
His will asked for the order's red cross on the black cloth over his tomb.
Q 13Which governorship did the King grant de Soto instead of Ecuador?
Cuba
He was expected to colonise North America within four years.
Q 21Where did the expedition spend its first winter, 1539–40?
Anhaica, capital of the Apalachee
The site lies a mile east of Florida's capitol in Tallahassee and was found in 1987.
Q 22Who found the Governor Martin Site at Anhaica in March 1987?
B. Calvin Jones
It is preserved as the DeSoto Site Historic State Park.
Q 23Which chiefdom's female ruler gave de Soto pearls, food and other goods in 1540?
Cofitachequi
Its capital district lay in the Wateree valley near Camden.
Q 14Whose tales of surviving years as a castaway in North America fascinated de Soto?
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
He recruited 620 Spanish and Portuguese participants for the venture.
Q 15How many pigs did the expedition carry when it left Havana?
200
Escaped swine became ancestors of the razorback hogs of the Southeast.
Q 16Where is de Soto generally thought to have landed in May 1539?
Tampa Bay
Historian Robert Weddle has suggested Charlotte Harbor or San Carlos Bay instead.
Q 17What name did de Soto give the land where he came ashore?
Espíritu Santo
Nine ships carried priests, craftsmen, engineers, farmers and merchants.
Q 18Which Spaniard, found living with the Mocoso people, became the expedition's interpreter?
Juan Ortiz
He had been captured while searching for the lost Narváez expedition and had learned Timucua.
Q 19How was the interpreter dressed when the Spaniards found him near their port?
Naked, holding a bow and arrows
Nine Indians with him scattered as the party approached.
Q 20What is called the first large-scale killing by Europeans in the current United States?
The Napituca Massacre
De Soto had the defeated Timucuan warriors executed.
Q 24In which modern state was the pearl-giving chiefdom of the Wateree valley centred?
South Carolina
Juan Pardo found it much diminished in 1566.
Q 25Which paramount chief lured de Soto to the fortified town of Mabila in 1540?
Tuskaloosa
An Alabama city is named in his honour.
Q 26Roughly how many Native Americans died at Mabila, one of the bloodiest battles in North American history?
2,000–6,000
Some 150 Spaniards were badly wounded and many died in the nine-hour fight.
Q 27How many warriors did the paramount chief conceal at Mabila, according to accounts?
More than 2,500
The Spaniards eventually burned the village down.
Q 28Near which present-day city did the expedition most likely spend the winter of 1540–41?
Tupelo
In spring he demanded porters from the Chickasaw, who attacked.
Q 29On what date did de Soto's troops reach the great river?
8 May 1541
A 1935 commission favoured Sunflower Landing, Mississippi, as the crossing point.
Q 30Which Arkansas state park is thought to be the main town of the province of Casqui?
Parkin
European artefacts found there in the 1960s match the expedition journals.