Mail links from the de Soto entrada of 1540

Abstract

Among 22 links recovered in Florida from Hernando de Soto's expedition, four were of tin bronze and the remainder of iron. Most of the iron links were completely mineralized but sectioning revealed remnant areas of sound meta! in eight links. The microstructures indicated that the links were fabricated from drawn wire by rivetting. There was no conclusive evidence that high-phosphorus iron had been selected for the wire.