The author of this account is a mystery. The "Gentleman" is unknown, but since the document was in Portuguese (as is Elvas) it must be assumed the author was one of 22 Portuguese on the expedition. The context further seems to indicate that this Gentleman was a knight, although evidently not a central player in the command of the expedition.

Published very soon after the expedition by a printer / bookseller as a commercial endeavor the text is considered to be a genuine account by a member of the expedition although there is some controversy surrounding some terms and descriptions that may have been "lifted" from Rangel's official account by the publisher and merged into the Gentleman's account. Others believe that these coincidental paragraphs may have been taken from the Gentleman by Oveido when he later copied the works of Rangel into his book. This is possible since the original of the Rangel account is lost.

These reproductions are taken from pages 86, 87 and 88
THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES
by Clayton, Knight and Moore