542, De Soto died. Amid the sorrows of the moment and fears of
the future, his body was wrapped in a mantle, and sunk in the middle of
the river. A requiem broke the midnight gloom, and the morning rose upon
the consternation of the survivors. It has indeed been aptly said, that
De Soto 'sought for gold, but found nothing so great as his burial
place.'

The men now looked about them for a new leader. Their choice fell upon
Luis de Moscoso. This man was without enterprise or capacity. After
enduring every calamity, the party built seven brigantines, and in
seventeen days, July, 1543, passed out of the mouth of the river, and
followed the coast toward the east. Out of six hundred, but few over
three hundred ever returned to Cuba.

From the expedition of De Soto more than a century elapsed before any
further discoveries were made. In May, 1673, Marquette, a priest, and
Jolliet, a trader, and five men, made some explorations of the river.

The great work of discovery was reserved for Robert Cavelier de la
Salle, a Frenchman. By his commands, Father Louis Hennepin made the
discovery of the Upper Mississippi, as far as the Falls of St. Anthony.
In January, 1682, La Salle himself, with twenty-three Frenchmen and
eighteen Indians, set out for the exploration of the Lower Mississippi,
entering the river from the Illinois, and descending it until he
arrived at the Passes of the Delta. Here, to his surprise, he found the
river divided into three channels. A party was sent by each, La Salle
taking the western, and on April 9th the open sea was reached. The usual
ceremonies attendant upon any great discovery were repeated here.

Enlivened by success, the party returned to Quebec. La Salle returned to
France, and in 1684, aided by his Government, set sail with four
vessels, for the discovery of the river from the sea. In this he was
unsuccessful. After encountering several storms and losing one of his
vessels, the expedition entered St. Louis Bay (St. Bernard) on the coast
of Texas. The party disembarked, one of the vessels returned to France,
and the others were lost on the coast. Thus cut off, La Salle made every
effort to discover the river by land; but in every attempt he failed. At
length he was assassinated by one of his followers on the 19th of March,
1687. Thus terminated the career of the explorer of the Mississippi.

The discovery of the mouth of the river from the sea, was an event of
some years later, and was consumma