Why did Spanish officials send an expedition led by Alonso de Leon to Texas in 1698?

De León (ca. 1639-1691) was born in Cadereyta, Nuevo León, in 1639 or 1640, the third son of Alonso De León and Josefa González.  As a boy he was sent to Spain to prepare for a naval career and returned to Nuevo León by 1660.  De León was chosen to lead overland efforts aimed at finding La Salle's French settlement on the northern Gulf Coast of New Spain in the mid 1680s.  He led four expeditions into Texas between 1686 and 1689.  The third expedition began in May 1688 and resulted in the capture of Jean Jarry, a naked, aged, and confused Frenchman. The fourth expedition which left Coahuila on March 27, 1689 discovered the ruins of the French settlement, Fort St. Louis, on the banks of Garcitas Creek. In 1687 De León became governor of Coahuila and three years later he and Massanet cooperated in founding the first Spanish mission in East Texas, San Francisco de los Tejas.   He is credited with being an early advocate for the establishment of missions along the frontier, and he blazed much of the Old San Antonio Road on his expeditions. He returned to Coahuila and died there on March 20, 1691. His survivors included his wife, Agustina Cantú, four sons, and two daughters. His descendants still reside in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. Biography extracted from The Handbook of Texas by Donald E. Chipman.

d.

the northwest territory became the most densely populated area in the u.s.