"Careful investigation has revealed De Soto to me as by no means so bad a man as I had supposed him to have been. And I think that the candid reader will admit that there was much, in his heroic but melancholy career, which calls for charitable construction and sympathy." -John S.C. Abbott, Preface, 1873 American historian John S.C. Abbott wrote Ferdinand de Soto-The Discoverer of the Mississippi (1873) as part of his American Pioneers and Patriots series. Ferdinand (aka Hernando) de Soto (1500-1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Central America and in the conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru. While exploring current southeastern United States, he discovered the Mississippi River and is the first European documented as having crossed this river.