This Land Is My Land

We Left but a Mystery Grave

This Land is My Land is a historical fictional story about the life and adventures of the soldiers, artisans, and clergy under the leadership of Hidalgo Don Hernando De Soto beginning in the year of 1538 and coming to a tiring end in 1542. The theme illustrates the difficulty of men and women in the first exploration of La Florida and its damaging effects to new lands and the indigenous people who had founded the land many years earlier. It elaborates how exploration is irresistible to human beings and will always have its good and bad outcomes. They begin with about seven hundred and fifty men and women of various cultural and ethnic backgrounds, mostly Portuguese and Spaniard. The route of exploration went through Cuba, 10 states and Mexico ending with about two hundred and twenty-six survivors. The protagonist is the gold and land-seeking explorer and Adelantado Don Hernando De Soto searching for new lands and riches to aid in his own as well as his countries profits. After his death, Luis de Moscoso follows him as the leader to get the remaining explorers safely to the city of Mexico. It does not demonstrate a one sided wrongdoing but the unethical and unfair actions that come about when differently cultivated humans meet. It is not a heartwarming story of great adventures, which leads to a Thanksgiving. It describes the four-year march across the interior of todays southeastern United States based on information the author gathered from translations of four of the original notes and writing of the original company.