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Aguayo expedition enters Texas
On this day in 1721, an expedition under the Marqués de Aguayo crossed
the Rio Grande into Texas. José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, Marqués de San
Miguel de Aguayo, was governor of Coahuila and Texas when the viceroy of
New Spain accepted his offer to reestablish Spanish control of East
Texas in the wake of the French invasion of 1719. Aguayo organized a
force of some 500 men, which he called the Battalion of San Miguel de
Aragón, with Juan Rodríguez as guide. Aguayo reached San Antonio on
April 4 before proceeding to East Texas. A detachment under Domingo
Ramón occupied La Bahía del Espíritu Santo on the same day. The Indians
east of the Trinity welcomed the Spanish, as did the French commander
Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, who agreed to withdraw to Natchitoches.
Leaving 219 of his men at various presidios in Texas, Aguayo returned to
Coahuila, where the force was disbanded on May 31, 1722. The expedition
resulted in the increase in the number of missions in Texas from two to
ten, the increase in the number of presidios from one to four, and the
establishment of so definite a Spanish claim to Texas that it was never
again disputed by France or by the French in Louisiana.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- AGUAYO EXPEDITION
- AGUAYO, MARQUES DE SAN MIGUEL DE
- RODRIGUEZ, JUAN
- RAMON, DOMINGO
- ST. DENIS, LOUIS JUCHEREAU DE
- NUESTRA SENORA DE LORETO PRESIDIO
- SPANISH MISSIONS
- SPANISH TEXAS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Scholar Harriet Smither dies (1955)
- Legendary Texas yodeler silenced (1987)
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