Excerpt from History of Winneshiek and Allamakee Counties, Iowa Early in the Spring of 1542, Ferdinand Desoto discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Washita. After the sudden death of Desoto, in May, of the same year, his followers built a small vessel, and in J uly, 1543, descended the great river to the Gulf of Mexico. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.