Hernan Cortes overran and conquered Mexico from 1518 to 1521, and the discovery and conquest of Guatemala by Alvarado, the invasion of Florida by De Soto, and of Nueva Granada by Quesada, followed in rapid succession.
Hernando de Soto and a body of Spanish adventurers crossed the Tombigbee river, in December 1540, near the present city of Columbus, marched through the north part of the state, and reached the Mississippi river near Memphis in 1541.
Tampa Bay was the landing-place of the expeditions of the Spanish explorers, Pamfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto.
During the SpanishAmerican War United States troops were encamped in De Soto Park in Tampa, and Port Tampa was the point of embarkation for the United States army that invaded Cuba.
That Hernando de Soto entered the borders of the present state of Louisiana, and that his burial place in the Mississippi was where that river takes the waters of the Red, are probable enough, but incapable of conclusive proof.