|
Spanish explorer finds defunct French fort
On this day in 1689, Spanish explorer Alonso De León discovered the ruins
of a French settlement, Fort St. Louis, on the Texas coast. The fort had
been established by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, in the summer
of 1685. In February 1685 La Salle, seeking the mouth of the Mississippi
River, had landed 280 colonists, including 100 soldiers, at the mouth of
Matagorda Bay in Spanish-claimed territory. The explorer made a temporary
camp on Matagorda Island while he sought a more secure location farther up
the bay. In April he chose a site on an eminence overlooking the "Riviére
aux Boeufs." Though disease devastated his men, La Salle saw the building
well under way by autumn, when he set out to explore the surrounding
country. In January 1687 he departed on his last journey, leaving at the
fort scarcely more than twenty men, women, and children in the charge of
the Sieur de Barbier. In late 1688 or early 1689 the Karankawa Indians
gained entry to the fort under guise of friendship and murdered all the
occupants but five children. Meanwhile, news that the French had founded a
settlement on the northern Gulf Coast had agitated New Spain in the
mid-1680s. As a result, De León led four expeditions between 1686 and 1689
seeking to find and destroy the French installation. The fourth expedition
left Coahuila on March 27, 1689, with a force of 114 men, and found the
deserted settlement on April 22.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- FORT ST. LOUIS
- LA SALLE, RENE ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE
- LA SALLE EXPEDITION
- DE LEON, ALONSO
- BARBIER, GABRIEL MINIME, SIEUR
- BARBIER INFANT
- KARANKAWA INDIANS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Coronado departs Culiacán in search of Seven Cities of Cíbola (1540)
- Law authorizing State Police repealed (1873)
|
