Hernando de Soto (Spain) discovers and navigates the Mississippi River. He can still see the remains of the large villages of the rich agricultural kingdoms that had emerged along the river over the centuries. But two years before his arrival, the local population had been exterminated by a smallpox epidemic, which disintegrated society. The epidemic was likely brought by Indian traders with ties to the Caribbean, where the Spanish were already present. For over a century, no other Europeans would visit this river, until the French arrived, finding no visible remains of the Indian cities, swept away, only earthen mounds.
