Hernando de Soto brought a 700-man army into Alabama in the fall of 1540 as part of the first major European expedition into the interior of the southeastern United States. After landing at Tampa Bay, Florida, in the spring of 1539, the expedition traveled through parts of Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas before abandoning its search for riches and leaving for Mexico in 1543. In Alabama, the party likely entered in the northeast near Piedmont, moved down the Coosa River Valley to Montgomery, and then traveled west and north to cross the Tombigbee River near Columbus, Mississippi. Near present-day Montgomery, de Soto met the Indian chief Tascalusa, who, resentful of harsh Spanish treatment of Indians, promised supplies and bearers at Mabila. On October 18, 1540, after de Soto and his advance party entered the town, Tascalusa ambushed them, and de Soto summoned his main force for an all-day battle in which more than 20 Spaniards and 2,500 Indians were killed. Although the Spaniards prevailed, the battle marked a turning point as the expedition found no gold or silver and suffered major losses before continuing slowly toward Mississippi. Over the next three years, the expedition reached the Mississippi River, de Soto died of fever, and about 300 survivors eventually retreated to Mexico. The expedition also became historically important because four principal accounts of it preserve valuable insights into the lives and customs of the Indians of the Southeast before European civilization transformed the region. The exact route through the Southeast remains uncertain, but in Alabama the route with the widest acceptance follows the path near Piedmont, down the Coosa River Valley, and into the Montgomery-Selma area, based on the best currently available archaeological evidence.