QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Where are to be found the original documents on the organization of the municipalities of Texas?
C. W. Raines.
The work about which Edmond J. P. Schmitt inquires in The Quarterly for April, 1898, is undoubtedly the “Memorias para la Historia de Texas” of Padre Morfi. It is mentioned by H. H. Bancroft, 37 who cites a copy made in 1792 “by P. Manuel de Vega from the archives of the convent in Mexico.” Bancroft cites the collection of original materials used by Morfi in writing the “Memorias, etc.,” as “Texas, Doc. Hist.,” the full title being “Documentos para la Historia Eclesiástica y Civil de la Provincia de Texas.” It seems to be this collection, not the Memorias as Raines appears to suppose, 38 which forms vol. xxvii and xxviii of the Archivo General de Mexico. 39 The Memorias are still unpublished.
George P. Garrison.
All persons of the name of Jennings are requested to communicate with the undersigned, who is compiling a history of the several families of this name.
W. H. Jennings, 172 N. Washington Ave., Columbus, Ohio.
In reply to queries in the July number by Elizabeth H. West, I can answer:
No. 3.The Mississippi River was called the “Colbert” in honor of the Minister of France, M. Colbert, who died in 1683. In the Relation de Henri de Tonty, published by M. Pierre Margry, in Volume I of his “Découvertes et établissements des Francais,” we find it stated by Tonty that it was La Salle himself who so named the river. “Cela fut cause que nous n'arrivasmes que le 6 Février au fleuve de Mississippi, qui fut nommé Colbert par M. de. La Salle.” 40
No. 4.La Salle states first of all that his party was assured by the nations living along the great river that they were the first Europeans who have “descended or ascended the said River Colbert.” Moreover, French, who is very often wrong in his conjectures, can hardly be justified in saying that “La Salle seems to have been the first to identify the great river of Marquette and Joliet with the great river of De Soto.” On the contrary, in the fragment in his own handwriting, published by Margry in the second volume of his documentary collection, entitled Rivières et Peuplades des Pays Découverts, disproves this identity by adducing a number of arguments. 41
No. 5.The Seignelay, or Illinois, is the present Illinois River. It was by way of this river that Père Marquette made his return trip after the discovery of the Mississippi. 42
Edmond J. P. Schmitt.
38. Bibliography of Texas, p. 152.
39. Bancroft: North Mexican States and Texas, I xlv.
40. Loc. cit., p. 595.
41. See pp. 196-200, loc. cit., Vol. II.
42. See Marquette, Spark's American Biography, Vol. X, especially p. 298.
How to cite:
"QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.", Volume 002, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 179 - 180. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v002/n2/back_8.html
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