THE next day, being the 21st of May, 1542, departed out of this life the valorous, virtuous, and valiant captain, Don Ferdinando de Soto, governor of Cuba, and _adelantado_ of Florida, whom fortune advanced, as it used to do others, that he might have the higher fall. He departed in such a place and at such a time, as [that] in his sickness he had but little comfort; and the danger wherein all his people were of perishing in that country, which appeared before their eyes, was cause sufficient why every one of them had need of comfort, and why they did not visit nor accompany him as they ought to have done. Luys de Moscoso determined to conceal his death from the Indians, because Ferdinando de Soto had made them believe that the Christians were immortal, and also because they took him to be hardy, wise, and valiant; and, if they should know that he was dead, they would be bold to set upon[146] the Christians, though they lived peaceably by them. In regard to their disposition, and because they were nothing constant, and believed all that was told them, the _adelantado_ made them believe that he knew some things that passed in secret among themselves, without their knowledge how or in what manner he came by them; and that the figure which appeared in a glass[147] which he showed them did tell him whatsoever they practised and went about; and therefore neither in word nor deed durst they attempt any thing that might be prejudicial unto him. Illustration: THE BURIAL OF DE SOTO. As soon as he was dead, Luys de Moscoso commanded to put him secretly in a house, where he remained three days; and, removing him from thence, commanded him to be buried in the night at one of the gates of the town within the wall. And as the Indians had seen him sick, and missed him, so did they suspect what might be. And passing by the place where he was buried, seeing the earth moved, they looked and spake one to another. Luys de Moscoso, understanding of it, commanded him to be taken up by night, and to cast a great deal of sand into the mantles wherein he was winded up, wherein he was carried in a canoe, and thrown into the midst of the river.