Hernando de Soto died of a fever on May 21, 1542, and his men consigned his weighted body to the waters of the Mississippi River in order to hide the knowledge of his demise from the natives.
His most trusted lieutenant, Luis de Moscosos Alvarado, a veteran of expeditions in Central and South America, took over and pushed west into what is now Texas before turning back to the Mississippi River.
Alvarado and fewer than half of the Spanish adventurers that that started the expedition built boats and drifted down the river to the Gulf of Mexico and along the coast of Texas before returning to settlements in present-day Mexico.
His reports of Texas provided little hope of material gain to would-be conquerors .