The Texas State Historical Association.
PRESIDENT.
John H. Reagan.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Guy M. Bryan. F. R. Lubbock.
Julia Lee Sinks. T. S. Miller.
RECORDING SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN.
George P. Garrison.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
Lester G. Bugbee.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.
President John H. Reagan.
First Vice-President Guy M. Bryan.
Second Vice-President Julia Lee Sinks.
Third Vice-President F. R. Lubbock.
Fourth Vice-President T. S. Miller.
Recording Secretary and Librarian George P. Garrison.
State Librarian C. W. Raines.
Fellows Z. T. Fulmore for term ending 1903.
John C. Townes for term ending 1902.
R. L. Batts for term ending 1901.
Members Rufus C. Burleson for term ending 1905.
W. J. Battle for term ending 1904.
Beauregard Bryan for term ending 1903.
Dora Fowler Arthur for term ending 1902.
Bride Neill Taylor for term ending 1901.
The Association was organized March 2, 1897. There are no qualifications for membership. The annual dues are two dollars. The Quarterly is sent free to all members.
Contributions to the Quarterly and correspondence relative to historical material should be addressed to
GEORGE P. GARRISON, Recording Secretary and Librarian, Austin, Texas. All other correspondence concerning the Association should be addressed to LESTER G. BUGBEE, Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, Austin, Texas.
THE QUARTERLY OF THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
VOLUME IV. JULY, 1900, TO APRIL, 1901.
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE. John H. Reagan, George P. Garrison, Z. T. Fulmore, Mrs. Bride Neill Taylor, C. W. Raines. EDITOR. George P. Garrison. AUSTIN, TEXAS: PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. 1901.The Texas State Historical Association.
Organized March 2, 1897.
PRESIDENT.
John H. Reagan.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Guy M. Bryan, F. R. Lubbock,
Mrs. Julia Lee Sinks, T. S. Miller.
RECORDING SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN.
George P. Garrison.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
Lester G. Bugbee.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.
John H. Reagan, R. L. Batts,
Guy M. Bryan, Z. T. Fulmore,
Mrs. Julia Lee Sinks, W. J. Battle,
F. R. Lubbock, Beauregard Bryan,
T. S. Miller, George P. Garrison,
Mrs. Dora Fowler Arthur, C. W. Raines,
Mrs. Bride Neill Taylor, Rufus C. Burleson.
THE QUARTERLY OF THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
>VOLUME IV. JULY, 1900. NUMBER 1.
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE. John H. Reagan. George P. Garrison. Bride Neill Taylor. Z. T. Fulmore. C. W. Raines. EDITOR. George P. Garrison. AUSTIN, TEXAS: PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE ASSOCIATION. Price, FIFTY CENTS per number. [Entered at the Postoffice at Austin, Texas, as second class matter.]CONTENTS.
Route of Cabeza de Vaca. III B. Bethel Coopwood.
Reminiscences of Judge Edwin Waller P. E. Peareson.
A Retrospect of San Antonio Mrs. Emily B. Cooley.
Notices.
Notes and Fragments.
Affairs of the Association.
CONTENTS.
NUMBER 1; JULY, 1900.
Route of Cabeza de Vaca, III B. Bethel Coopwood 1
Reminiscences of Judge Edwin Waller P. E. Peareson 33
A Retrospect of San Antonio Mrs. Emily B. Cooley 54
Notices 57
Notes and Fragments 58
Affairs of the Association 59
NUMBER 2; OCTOBER, 1900.
Escape of Karnes and Teal from Matamoros R. M. Potter 71
Reminiscences of Mrs. Dilue Harris, I. 85
The Mexican Raid of 1875 on Corpus Christi Leopold Morris 128
New Orleans Newspaper Files of the Texas Revolutionary Period Alex. Dienst 140
Book Reviews and Notices 152
NUMBER 3; JANUARY, 1901.
Reminiscences of Mrs. Dilue Harris, II. 155
Difficulties of a Mexican Revenue Officer Eugene C. Barker 190
History of Leon County W. D. Wood 203
The First Period of the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition Walter Flavius McCaleb 218
Book Reviews and Notices 230
Notes and Fragments 232
Affairs of the Association 235
NUMBER 4; APRIL, 1901.
The San Jacinto Campaign Eugene C. Barker 237
Notices 346
Notes and Fragments 347
Vol. IV. JULY, 1900. No. 1.
The publication committee and the editor disclaim responsibility for views expressed by contributors to the Quarterly.
Part III B.
To understand how exaggerated stories were circulated among the Spaniards in Mexico a few instances may suffice. Tello says: “In this year, 1538, the Priest Fray Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo sent three religious teachers in some ships of the Marquis del Valle to a land of which there was notice that it was inhabited and very rich. They went and found the contrary, and on account of the Spaniards not wanting to stay they returned; and then the same Fray Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo sent other religious teachers by land, who went by the coast of the South Sea, and turned toward the north in company with a captain who was going also to discover new countries, though with different objects. Having, then, traveled a long time, they came to two roads, and the captain selected the one to the right hand and in a few days journey encountered very rough and steep mountains, where he could not go forward, and he turned back, as did one of the religious teachers on account of his being very ill. The other religious teacher took the left hand, with two Indians he was carrying with him for interpreters, and finding an open and continuous road, after a few days journey he came to a country inhabited by people, who came out to receive him, believing him to be a thing of heaven, calling him the messenger of God, touching and kissing his habit. They went on following him from day to day, some times two hundred, others three hundred, and as many as four hundred persons. Some of them left the road near midday to hunt hares, rabbits, and deer for their support and that of the religious teacher, to whom they first gave what was necessary. In this way they traveled more than two hundred leagues, until they were told that the country farther in was populated by clothed people and that they had flatroofed houses of many stories and garrets, and that there were other nations on the banks of a great river, where there were many walled towns, and that passing the river there were other very large towns of richer people, and that there were cows and other animals different from those of Castile, from where the natives of this land brought many things necessary for their sustenance, because they went at times to labor in that country.
“Before that, on account of some confused stories, there had gone out large fleets by sea and some armies by land to discover such countries, but God was not willing that it should be done except by a San Franciscan friar, ragged and patched, before anyone else, who having endured the greatest labors, hunger, and misfortunes of so long a road, returned to Mexico and gave an account thereof to his prelate, who was the Father Fray de Niza, previously commissary-general of the Indies, a learned man and very religious, who was then provincial of the province of the Holy Evangelist; and he also gave account to the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza.” 1
Here we have a part of the origin of the excitement about the Seven Cities and lands of great wealth; and it is not impossible that some wandering Indians may have crossed the country from the buffalo range to Sonora and spread the stories of houses, cattle, and other wealth, which accounts were seized upon and exaggerated and finally attributed to the survivors of the Narvaez expedition. But Mendoza had a basis on which to erect the fabric of fiction with which to interest Charles V in an expedition to the north.
But Tello goes on to say:
“The holy father Fray Marcos de Niza, to assure himself of what that religious teacher had related, determined to go and see it, and undertook the journey on foot barefooted, being already very old, with zeal for the salvation of souls, that although the religious teachers disturbed it, for that he did not abandon the journey, as Herrera says, decade VI., lib. 1, cap. i, p. 201, carrying with him Fray Juan Olmedo, who was of the province of Jalisco; and though Torquemada says he took him for a guide, it was not for this alone, but not to burden the holy province of Jalisco, whose son Fray Juan Olmedo was, and that he would take him, as his sons had labored for the glory and honor of having sent laborers to the vineyard of the Lord, of so many and such barbarous nations. See Juan de la Cruz, lib. 6, cap. II, and Cabrera, lib. 13, cap. II, p. 1262.
“He arrived at the town of San Miguel, which they call Culiacan, and received notice that a short time before there had arrived at the port of Mazatlan four men, one called Andrés Dorantes, another Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, another Juan del Castillo, another Esteban a negro, and Maldonado, who, as Cabrera says, escaped from the fleet which Pánfilo de Narvaez took to Florida. The Indians killed him and all his soldiers, without any more than these escaping, who in the utmost confusion and disorder arrived at those ports, discovering large provinces and nations; and having lost the vessel, they went inland towards Jalisco where they met Captain Diego de Alcaraz and the captain Melchor Diaz, who was afterwards alcalde mayor of Culican.” 2(He was made captain under Coronado in 1540.)
Here is a glimpse of the accounts about the arrival of Cabeza de Vaca, tending to show he came out in Jalisco, and that it was at a later date that Melchor Diaz became alcalde mayor of Culiacan; and it is cited from Cabrera. Now, if he was made such after Fray Marcos de Niza arrived at Culiacan, which was in 1538, by both this account and that of Francisco Gomara, then it was to succeed the nobleman Tapia. This is not only consonant with the records, but with all of Cabeza de Vaca's relation of the meeting with Alcaraz.
Tello goes on and says:
“From there (Culiacan) the reverend Fray Marcos de Niza made a report of his journey to the viceroy, and gave a very extensive account of all the ports of the South Sea, of those provinces and nations; and the viceroy, having received the account of said father, sent him orders to take possession of all those provinces, which from the first were administered by the religious teachers of Nuestro P. S. Francisco of the holy Province of Jalisco. The Fray Macros de Niza pursued his journey, starting from Culiacan, taking with him Fray Juan Olmedo with some Indians and Esteban the negro, and he went following the same route which Fray Juan had followed before. He arrived at Petatlan, and running the coast he discovered many provinces, passing more than three hundred leagues further on than where the Spaniards had gone. He obtained information of the seven cities of Quivira and of the three provinces of Marata, Acuz, and Tonteac, which are many leagues further on than the Síbolos, according to Gomara, Part I, folio 281, and Cornelio Wiclef in chapter of Nueva Granada, page 161.
“This holy baron having examined these provinces, he determined to send Esteban and some Indians to the province of the Síbolos, as in fact he did. They were put to death by those barbarians, only two escaping to bring the news to the holy father, who regretted their loss as was reasonable, and the Indians seeing the mortality the Síbolas had made among their companions, and fearing that the father might order them to go from that to another province, they determined to take his life, as Herrera says, by which they obliged him to withdraw with much pain, not from fear of death, but because those souls, as many as had been baptized, might be lost and apostatize from the faith.
“He withdrew after having taken possession of all those provinces, as stated by Herrera, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, cap. 201, fol. 235; Villagran, canto III, cap. II, fol. XI; Cabrera, lib. 13, cap. II, page 1162; Juan de la Cruz, lib. 6, cap. XIV.
“Having seen the provinces of Marata, Acuz, and Tonteac, which he called San Francisco, continuing the name given to them by Fray Juan the first time he went into the land, as is affirmed by Juan de la Cruz and Wiclef, he returned to New Spain, considering that if he should die there the knowledge of all those lands might be lost, and the baptized Indians inhabiting them, who were many, might apostatize.
“He arrived at Mexico and gave an account to the viceroy, D. Antonio de Mendoza, of what he had seen, and how what the other religious teacher had said was certain and true.” 3
Not only the great majority of the Spanish people, but Charles V himself held in highest esteem whatever such holy men might report; and no one was better informed of this fact than Mendoza, who, with this confirmation by Fray Marcos de Niza, deemed the story of such wonderful countries an unquestionable basis for asking permission and aid from the king to make the expedition to and conquest of Marata, Acuz, and Tonteac, and the Seven Cities of Síbola and Quivira, especially when he had not failed to shape the latter part of Cabeza de Vaca's relation in anticipation of the success of the labors of such holy fathers in that direction. And it is not strange that Cortés should pronounce the whole story of Fray Niza a fabrication based upon information obtained from some of his Indians.
Francisco Lopez de Gomara says: “Fernando Cortés and Don Antonio de Mendoza desired to make entrance into and conquest of that land of Síbola, each one by himself and for himself; Don Antonio as viceroy of New Spain, and Cortés as captain general and discoverer of the South Sea. They attempted to join in order to do it by concert of action; but having no confidence in each other, they quarreled, and Cortés came to Spain, and Don Antonio sent out Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a native of Salamanca, with a good army of Spaniards and Indians and four hundred horses.” 4
This shows that Mendoza was striving to get control of and make the expedition to Síbola; and had Cabeza de Vaca stated in his relation to the king that he came to Jalisco and there first met Alcaraz, Diaz, and Chirinos, that would not have aided the scheme for an expedition to the north from Culiacan. But being sent by Mendoza to inform the king of the country discovered, he must have been required to state that he came out at Culiacan. For, as Zamacois says, of the arrival of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions at Mexico: “The viceroy Mendoza treated them with much amiability; and on listening to the seductive relation they made to him of the rich country of Quivira, he proposed to send in the future an expedition to add that flourishing realm to the crown of Castile. In order to put in operation his enterprise, he told them they should form a plan of the territories that they had traversed in their long peregrination. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions obeyed the desire of the viceroy, by making the map in the most exact manner possible for them. A few days after that Cabeza de Vaca and Castillo embarked at Vera Cruz for Spain, commissioned by the viceroy to inform the monarch of the land discovered.” 5
This shows they were commissioned by Mendoza to make the relation to the king, and that he desired to make the expedition.
Again, Zamacois says: “While the realm of New Spain flourished visibly under the well managed government of the illustrious viceroy Don Antonio Mendoza, an occurrence came to cut the good friendship and excellent harmony which had reigned until then between him and Hernan Cortés. From the time notice of the existence of the rich realm of Quivira and of its seven brilliant cities, in which gold, silver, and pearls abound, was received, the viceroy proposed to send an expedition to discover and take possession of the country. On seeing the preparations being made to undertake the discovery, the Marquis del Valle declared that the enterprise belonged to him, as well on account of its being something analogous to his employment of captain general, as by the privilege the king had conceded to him for the discoveries on the South Sea. But the viceroy, who desired to participate in the glory promised by the aggregation of those famous territories to the crown of Castile, proposed to commit the expedition to Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, governor of New Galicia, and notified the Marquis del Valle that he should desist from taking any step in respect to the projected discovery.” 6
The extreme to which Mendoza carried his bitter opposition to any part being taken by Cortés in the enterprise, cannot be better expressed than it is in the quotation following:
“In the statement of his grievances, Cortés declares that Mendoza not only threw every possible obstacle in his way, seizing six or seven vessels which failed to get away with Ulloa, but that even after Ulloa had gone, the viceroy sent a strong force up the coast to prevent the ships from entering any of the ports. When stress of weather forced one of the ships to put into Guatulco, the pilot and sailors were imprisoned and the viceroy persistently refused to return the ship to its owner. About the same time, a messenger who had been sent to Cortés from Santiago in Colima was seized and tortured, in the hope of procuring from him information about the plans of Cortés.” 7
Mendoza was eager for the glory of adding the territories to be conquered to the crown; and he was active in combining reports to influence his royal majesty not only to permit him to set on foot the expedition, but to expend large sums of his own wealth to insure its success. “Money was advanced from the royal chest to any who had debts to pay before they could depart, and provisions were made for the support of those who were about to be left behind by fathers, brothers, or husbands. Arms and military supplies had been among the things greatly needed in New Spain when Mendoza reported its condition in his first letters to the home government. In 1537 he repeated his request for these supplies with increased insistence.” The subject is not again mentioned in his letters, and we may fairly suppose that he had received the weapons and munitions of war, fresh from the royal arsenals of Spain, with which he equipped the expedition on whose success he had staked so much. 8
This increased insistence being in 1537, it was before Fray Niza was sent out, and possibly before Cabeza de Vaca left New Spain, as he did not get off until April, 1537; 9 and he may have borne the communication to the king, delivering it after arriving in the port of Lisbon on the 9th day of August, 1537. Indeed, it may have been included in the commission given them by the viceroy a few days before they embarked at Vera Cruz.
This shows only a detached portion of a plan to influence his royal majesty to approve and aid in putting on foot the proposed expedition. It is a clearly defined foot print of the infatuated viceroy's scheme, and cannot be attributed to any other cause, after the monster elephant and its trail through the mountains has been seen and made familiar to the readers of history.
Though Coronado's confirmation was not signed till April 18, 1539, it seems he was already in New Galicia arranging the administration and other affairs of his government, and “entertained Fray Marcos when the latter passed through his province in the spring of 1539, 10 and accompanied the friar as far as Culiacan, the northernmost of the Spanish settlements. Here he provided the friar with Indians, provisions, and other things necessary for the journey to the Seven Cities.” 11
The fact of Coronado's being there and entertaining Fray Marcos about the date of his nomination being confirmed by the king, which could not have reached him till a month or two later, is significant of some preconceived plan of operation; and if, as said by Gomara, Fray Marcos passed by Culiacan in 1538, such indication is even stronger. But if, as stated by Tello, Fray Marcos de Niza undertook the journey on foot and barefooted, 12 the prospective leader of the expedition to be gotten up on the holy father's report must have made a queer appearance in company with such a pedestrian.
Again, it is said that “about midsummer of 1539, Friar Marcos came back from Cíbola. Coronado met him as he passed through New Galicia, and together they returned to Mexico to tell the viceroy what the friar had seen and heard. Coronado remained at the capital during the autumn and early winter, taking an active part in all the preparations for the expedition which he was to command. After the final review in Compostela, he was placed in command of the army, with the title of captain-general.” 13
From this it appears that Coronado figured with Fray Marcos from the beginning, accompanying him to Culiacan as he went out, and joining him on the return and accompanying him to Mexico, where the scheme of Mendoza for the expedition was perfected. And it is not strange that Fray Marcos should report the Seven Cities, when that theory had been handed round from a much earlier period. Indeed, Guzman had with him an Indian who told of his father having gone “into the back country with fine feathers to trade for ornaments, and that when he came back he brought a large amount of gold and silver, of which there is a good deal in that country. He went with him once or twice, and saw some very large villages, which he compared to Mexico and its environs. He had seen seven very large towns which had streets of silver workers.” 14 And the name of the Seven Cities had already been given to the country Guzman was aiming to discover when he first started out from Mexico.
Now, whatever may have been the understanding between Mendoza and Fray Marcos, Coronado must have been a co-worker in the scheme, and when the report of the friar, supervised by Mendoza and Coronado, was completed at Mexico, and given out ot the public, everything was ripe to organize the expedition. The stories on the streets of the capital connected, blended, and confused the accounts of Cabeza de Vaca and Fray Marcos, and made the general impression that both had seen the Seven Cities, and freatly facilitated the plan of the viceroy and of Coronado. But it is plain to every student of the relation of Cabeza de Vaca that he did not claim to have seen or even heard of the celebrated Seven Cities of Síbola. Indeed, all that he says about the towns and houses is set forth in Part II of this paper, and it is as follows:
“Y á mí me dieron cinco esmeraldos hechas puntas de flechas, y con estas flechas hacen ellos sus areitos y bales; y pareciendome á mí que eran muy buenas, les pregunté que dónde las habian habido, y dijeron que las traian de unas sierras muy altas que están hácia el norte, y las compraban á trueco de penachos y plumas de papagayos, y decian que habia allí pueblos, de mucha gente y casas muy grandes.” 15 So as to the towns, all he says is that they said “there were towns there of many people and very large houses.” This was all they could find in his relation to corroborate the tales repeated on the streets, or the account of the Seven Cities of Síbola described by Fray Marcos. And it seems that Cabeza de Vaca was not educated in the already existing lore as to the Seven Cities; for his flight of more than a thousand leagues of populated country where they had much subsistence, and always planted beans and maize three times a year, was “close to the coast, by the way of those towns where we traveled,” which did not chime with the story of the Seven Cities, even if it had not been a patent exaggeration.
The dissatisfaction in Guzman's camp as to the route to be pursued and the change in favor of going down the river toward the territory of Francisco Cortés, and the subsequent determination to send Pedro Almendez Chirinos toward the north, after concluding the war with the Indians of the river of Cuitzeo, may be better understood by reference to Castañeda's account of the Indian Tejo, who, it seems, was at the foundation of the idea of the Seven Cities. This was general among the people at Mexico as early as 1530, while Cabeza de Vaca was yet in the vicinity of Mal-Hado, waiting to get Oviedo to come away with him. The following quotation is from Castañeda's narrative, translated by George Parker Winship:
“FIRST PART.
“Chapter 1, which treats of the way we first came to know about the Seven Cities, and of how Nuño de Guzman made an expedition to discover them.
“In the year 1530 16 Nuño de Guzman, who was President of New Spain, had in his possession an Indian, a native of the valley or valleys of Oxitipar, who was called Tejo by the Spaniards. This Indian said he was the son of a trader who was dead, but that when he was a little boy his father had gone into the back country with fine feathers to trade for ornaments, and that when he came back he brought a large amount of gold and silver, of which there is a good deal in that country. He went with him once or twice, and saw some very large villages, which he compared to Mexico and its environs. He had seen seven very large towns which had streets of silver workers. It took forty days to go there from his country, through a wilderness in which nothing grew, except some very small plants about a span high. The way they went was up through the country between the two seas, following the northern direction. Acting on this information, Nuño de Guzman got together nearly 400 Spaniards and 20,000 friendly Indians of New Spain, and, as he happened to be in Mexico, he crossed Tarasca, which is in the province of Michoacan, so as to get into the region which the Indian said was to be crossed toward the North sea, in this way getting to the country which they were looking for which was already named `The Seven Cities.' ” 17
This shows that the name was already in Mexico long before Cabeza de Vaca arrived there; and it is fair to presume that its being reported that he had seen or even heard of the Seven Cities was merely to add force to the general design.
Did the expression towards the North Sea, used by Castañeda, mean towards the Gulf of Mexico, which the Spaniards of New Spain call la Mar del Norte, or did it mean towards the north pole? The former seems to be the meaning of the words used.
Having gone to the crossing of the river coming from Toluca, Guzman intended to march northward from there; but the murmuring in his camp about the route caused him to order the two Indians he took from Mexico to be brought before him, but only one was found. When they brought him before Nuño de Guzman, he asked him for his companion, and he did not know what to say, nor what had become of the other. When asked whether he did not know there was nothing on the route they had proposed to take with the army, he simply replied that his companion knew better than he did. Then it was that Guzman called to him certain caciques of Jacona, who gave him information of the river of Cuitzeo and its settlements, as well as of the valley of Cuina. Hearing such good news and believing the same, he called his captains, and when together, he told them that they and all the army were lost, and that it was his fault in being guided by two Indians, and on that account he had called them together, and it was then determined to take the route to the west down the river toward the territory of Francisco Cortés. 18
It does not appear affirmatively that the missing Indian guide was Tejo, but it may fairly be presumed to have been he. He is stated to have been a native of Valle or Valles de Oxitipar, the locality of which is not stated; but if it was the Valles, first known as Tanzocob, Guzman may have obtained him at Pánuco, where he was governor before going to Mexico. And Tejo once getting out there on the river and, perhaps, recognizing the country may have fled to his native country or home.
After the fighting with the Indians of Cuitzeo river, Guzman, still having an idea of what his lost guide had said about the route to the Seven Cities, sent Pedro Almendez Chirinos toward the north in order to ascertain whether the course he first intended to take was correct. After going as far north as Chichimequillas, now Los Lagos, and into the Sierra Gorda, and not finding any way out toward the North sea or Gulf, Chirinos came out to the west again, and, taking the advice of the Zacatecan cacique, continued his march northward to the present site of Zacatecas, and there turned back across the country to reunite with Guzman's column. But had he taken the route from where he came back out of Sierra Gorda to the northeast, now pursued to where San Luis Potosí is, and thence out by Catorce to where Ventura now is, and there turned toward the Gulf, he might have found many Indian settlements and very high mountains, notably Cerro Potosí and Cerro Pablillo, and might have found the Seven Cities referred to by Tejo in the region now embracing Raices, Iturbide, Galeana, Hualahuises, Linares, Raiones, and Montemorelos. But pursuing the northerly direction, nowhere would he have found the locality now claimed for the Seven Cities between him and the Gulf, or, as it was then called, la Mar del Norte. So Tejo may have meant the region round Cerro Potosí; and when a small boy he may have gone up there with his father from Tanzocob or Tancanhuitz; the distance seeming to him to be great, on account of his youth. If he went from Tanzocob up by Valle de Maiz, and up the plain by Mier y Noregas to Galeana, he would have found scarcity of vegetation, except short grass (yerba).
Whatever may have been Tejo's native place, he may have observed his master's greed for gold and silver when he was robbing the sepulchres of the caciques round Pánuco of their contents, and added the story of the abundance of precious metals to please Guzman's fancy, until he could.find an opportunity to abscond and make his way to his tribal kindred. But however this may be, he antedated Cabeza de Vaca in having told of the Seven Cities, and may have been the author of the story which excited Guzman and the people of Mexico to go in search of Síbola.
There is in the fact of this Indian being called a Tejo, or Texo as the early Spaniards wrote it, enough to afford a nucleus for the history of the origin of the name Texas, by following the idea of his being a Texo to its connection with the Tejo tribe of the Tejo-Coahuilteca family which extended from near Red river to where Monclova is now in Coahuila, and whose family tongue has been referred to above. But this is not sufficiently connected with the subject of this paper to justify its examination here.
Finally, as the Seven Cities of Síbola are placed not far east of the Colorado of the West, and far north of Rio Gila, they do not correspond with the direction given by Tejo, which required a northern route from the crossing of the river coming from Toluca to a point even with these cities and thence toward the Gulf of Mexico, or la Mar del Norte, to reach them, thereby placing them east of such northern course, about which the dissatisfaction occurred in Guzman's camp as to pursuing such route.
But Tejo will here be left to be followed by some one writing upon the Tejo tribe, or the Tejas, whose indelible foot prints are eternized by their name in the plural, Texas, or Tejas, being fixed upon the territory over which they once roamed.
The existence of a family tongue from Texas to Michoacan, wherever the Nahoas went, is another reason to believe that Cabeza de Vaca traveled within its limits from the Bravo to where he met Alcaraz. And this great natural and even historical fact and Cabeza de Vaca's reference thereto constitute a proof of such being the limits through which he passed, which rises above his inventive genius, and defies the attempts of the most skillful schemers to change it.
Declining to enter the nebula of prehistoric times, it is rational to hold, with Señor Chavero, that there were three great groups occupying the country, to wit: Mayaquiché at the south, the Otomies at the centre, and the Nahoas at the north, and this especially between the great central table lands and the Mexican Gulf. The indelible recollections preserved as to the three will never allow doubts as to their existence; and in attempting to go back of them, the historian enters the field of hypothesis, where it is easy to make such blunders as might wound common sense; while the intelligent reader cares not whether these three great families sprang from Asiatic races, or were autochthons, or, under the Darwinian theory, by natural selection made where history first finds them, the astonishing bound from the monkey to the man. That they existed there will suffice for this part of the examination of Cabeza de Vaca's route, and such fact is patent from the parts of such families being in the country through which he passed even till the present day, with a family tongue as he notes.
The continuous emigrations of the Nahoas toward the south and of the Mayas toward the north, each as far as the central part occupied by the Otomies, caused the confusion of races and families, mixing the language and mutually changing religions and forms of worship, though always preserving enough of the original tongue of each people to serve as a common medium through which the different detached tribes could communicate their thoughts to each other. And it has been already shown that many of the tribes from the Bravo to Sierra Gorda were of the Nahoa family, whose emigrations toward the south, or centre of the country, brought them in contact there with the Otomi family and the Tarasco branch of it that found the powerful kingdom of Michoacan, of which the unfortunate king who was tortured and put to death by Guzman was the actual native ruler, and whose ancient realm embraced Jacona and all of Pedro Almendez Chirinos's encomienda.
In his volume on the State of Mexico, Velasco says, the inhabitants of the district of Jilotepec speak Spanish, the Mexican, and the Otomitl, and says the same of seven other districts of the State. He says the people of the district of Chalco de Diaz Covarrubias speak Spanish, Mexican, Nahuatl, and Otomitl; those of the district of Ixtlahuaca de Raion speak Spanish, Otomitl, and Mazahuatl; and the same is said of the district of Valle de Bravo. He says the people of the district of Toluca de Laredo speak Spanish, Mexican, Nahuatl, and Otomitl; and those of the district of Sultepec de Alquiseras speak Spanish, Mexican, and Nahuatl. 19 He also says the State has a population of 798,480; 51,199 whites, 287,056 mixed, and 460,225 Indians. 20 So the Nahuatl or Nahoa tongue is spoken today in three of the largest districts of the State of Mexico, which is bounded on the west by Michoacan, the home of the Tarascos, and the Otomi tongue is spoken in twelve of the districts of the same State. Here the Nahoa immigrants met and mingled with the Otomi family, and have continued to live among them till the present day. They doubtless went into Michoacan and Jalisco, among the Tarascos and Chichimecas, both of which tribes still have living representatives in their descendants located in these two States. Indeed, if there should be no further evidence of these families meeting, what is here pointed out would suffice to show the Nahoas and Otomies living together; but another State bears the same living evidence.
In his volume, State of Guanajuato, Velasco says of the inhabitants, that in the district of Hidalgo there are Otomies and Chichimecas who speak the languages of their names (p. 73); in that of San Diego there are Otomies and Chichimecas who speak the Spanish and their Indian languages (p. 77); in that of San Felipe are Otomies and Chichimecas who speak the languages of their names (81); in the municipality of Acámbaro there are Chichimecas and Tarascos who speak the languages of their names (p. 98); the same is true in the municipality of Tarandacuao (p. 101); in the partida of Comonfort there are some Otomies (p. 110); in the district of Cortazar there are a great number of Otomies, above all in the pueblo del Guaje (p. 115); in the municipality of Jerecuaro there are some Tarascos (p. 119); in the municipality of Coroneo there are Tarascos (p. 121); in the district of Salvatierra there are Tarascos (p. 130); in the district of Tarimoro there are Tarascos (p. 137); in the municipality of Yuriria there are Tarascos who speak the language of their name (pp. 141-142); in the municipality of Santiago Maravatio there are a great number of Tarascos (p. 144); in the municipality of Urangato there are Tarascos (p. 146); and the city of Guanajuato “was founded by Chichimecas who gave it the name of Quanashuato, a Tarascan name which means mountain of frogs, and was given to it on account of the Indians having found there a stone in the shape of a frog, which afterwards became the idol of the Chichimecas. It is also believed it was due to the abundance of frogs in the settlement” (p. 156).
Here are fourteen districts and municipalities of the State of Guanajuato in which the Otomies, Chichimecas, and Tarascos still live, and the picturesque capital still bears the Tarascan name given to it before the Spanish came to the country.
Guanajuato joins San Luis Potosí from near south of Salsipuedes, along the Sierra Gorda parallel with the Bagres river, or Rio de Santa Maria, as commonly called along there, up to Jaral and on to the line of Jalisco, north of Vaquerio. This division line passes a short distance south of the city of Santa Maria, and the tribes of the Sierra Gorda there were much the same as those along that part of the Bagres. From the northwest corner of Guanajuato the dividing line between it and Jalisco passes between Los Lagos and Cerro Gigante, and most of the route of Cabeza de Vaca as drawn on the sketch from Santa Maria del Rio to this mountain is through territory of Guanajuato, passing through the district of San Felipe and into that of Leon. In both the municipalities of the former there were and still are Otomies and Chichimecas who still speak the languages of their name; and these were in a land of maize. Even now the municipality of San Felipe produces about 400,000 hectolitres of maize per year and 10,000 of beans; and that of Ocampo about 100,000 hectolitres of corn and 20,000 of beans. It was from this corn region of the Otomies and Chichimecas that the corn was carried up on the point of Cerro Gigante; and these people spoke Otomi and Nahoa, and understood Cabeza de Vaca.
East and southeast of the district of San Felipe is the district of San Diego de la Union, in which there are still Otomies and Chichimecas. These bordered on the south side of Rio Bagres. East of it is the municipality of San Luis de la Paz which joins the State of San Luis Potosí, and in it there are a great number of Otomies. It borders the line of the route designated for that of Cabeza de Vaca on the south side of the Rio Bagres. The district of Victoria joins San Luis Potosí on the north and the State of Querétaro on the east, and the population of each of its municipalities is largely Otomies. This finishes the south side of the line of San Luis Potosí to almost in front of Salsipuedes and to the northeast corner of Guanajuato and northwesterly corner of the State of Querétaro.
Of the language of the State of Guanajuato, Velasco says: “Nearly all the inhabitants speak Castilian. Among the Indians Otomi, Tarasco, Pame, Chichimeca, and Jarepecha (a Tarasco dialect) are spoken” (p. 253). And it has already been shown that the Nahoas were mixed with the Otomies as far south as the State of Mexico; and the Pames, a tribe of the Nahoa family, extended from the State of Querétaro north to Rio Conchas.
The State of Querétaro borders on that of San Luis Potosí, its district of Jalpam being the most northerly and embracing the part so adjoining San Luis Potosí. The major part of its inhabitants are Otomies and speak Otomi, and there are some Huaxtecos. It is quite a corn region, producing nearly 300,000 hectolitres of corn and 60,000 of beans yearly. Above the northwestern part of it is the region in which Cabeza de Vaca found the town with houses, beans, pumpkins, and maize already gathered. In the State of Querétaro there are about 65,000 Otomies, who still speak that tongue.
Of the languages spoken in the State of Querétaro, Velasco says:
“The majority of the inhabitants speak Castilian. Only among the Indians the Otomi and the Pame are used.
“The Otomi is a very sweet language, the alphabet of which is composed of thirty-four letters” (p. 108).
It may not be amiss to mention here how the Tarascos derived their name. Omitting the eloquence of the historian in coming to the point, Zamacois tells the story as follows:
“The nobles being contented to have among them the white men who had destroyed the power of the Aztec empire, they gave their daughters to them, which was the proof of fraternity with which those nations manifested their appreciation to those whom they considered as already of the family. As the principal men of the realm in the act of giving their daughters to the Spaniards pronounced the word tarascue, which in their language signifies son-in-law, the Castilians gave the Indians of Michoacan the name of Tarascos, by which they were known thereafter.” 21
Under such circumstances Cristóbal de Olid was readily enabled to found the town he had gone there to establish.
In order to appreciate the extent and importance of the Otomi race and tongue, it must be remembered that the Otomies were among the most powerful allies of Cortés. As soon as they learned that the Tlaxcalans had united with Cortés, they joined in the common war being made against the Aztec empire, and proved efficient and faithful allies to the Spanish chief. After the reduction of the capital of the Aztec emperors, and the return of the Otomi caciques to their own territory, the two principal ones, after having received baptism, fixed their residence in Jilotepec, the chief city of the province of the Otomies. They were Nicolás de San Luis, a descendant of the emperor of Tula and Jilotepec, and Fernando de Tapia, of the first Otomi nobility; and they conceived the idea of conquering the Chichimecas of San Juan del Rio and Querétaro. They easily collected men and the other necessary elements to undertake the conquest, as all the caciques of the vast province of Jilotepec and Tula were their kinsmen, and most of them had embraced Christianity. Twenty caciques readily offered to follow them; and their squadrons being formed, they went to the conquest of the Chichimecas, who were scattered over the territory now embracing Querétaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, and others, and which territory was then called the “Great Chichimeca.”
On St. John the Baptist's day, 1531, they entered and took possession of the place where San Juan del Rio is now. They marched thence towards the present site of Querétaro, where a most singular battle was fought, which terminated in favor of the Otomies on the twenty-fifth of July, 1531. They captured many other places and spread the settlements of Otomies from Jilotepec and Tula northward into Querétaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, and parts of Hidalgo. 22
These were the people who had been met by and had mingled with the Nahoa family of the north, and had a common tongue with them, or, at least, understood the Nahuatl; and they are today a living evidence of the former existence of the Otomi family; and the Nahoas living in the State of Mexico and especially in the districts of Toluca, Sultepec, and Chalco de Diaz Covarrubias, are not only proofs of the former existence of their family, but also of their mingling with the Otomies.
For the purposes of this paper, it is not deemed necessary to examine critically all the signs indicating the land from which the Nahoa family came; nor is it proper to seize upon all that has been rashly affirmed by those little versed in the traditions or tongues of the family. The fact that tribes of this family were found in parts of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosí, and Hidalgo when the Spaniards came to the country, will suffice to show that if Cabeza de Vaca pursued the route indicated upon the sketch accompanying Part II of this paper he went through a country where the Nahuatl was spoken by the tribes. But, notwithstanding the fact of its being historically known that such tribes have existed along there ever since he went through the country en route to a land of Christians, it may not be out of place to notice what is said of this family by Señor Isidro R. Gondra in what he wrote at request of Señor Ignacio Cumplido, editor of the Spanish edition of Prescott's History of the Conquest. He says:
“The ancient and first inhabitants of New Spain, the Chichimecas, were savages and barbarians, going completely nude, and leading a wandering life, subsisting alone upon game without cultivating the soil. The Nahuatlacas (people who express themselves with clearness), people much more civilized, arrived from the North, where New Mexico has since been discovered, in which country there were two provinces, the one called Aztlan and the other Tecoloacan. The industrious and civilized inhabitants were divided into seven nations, each of which had its separate territory. It is said they came out of seven caverns about the year 820 of the Christian era, and that their journey to Mexico lasted eighty years, they not having found the signs of the lands which their idols had foretold to them. In their transit, they cultivated the soil and constructed cabins in many places, leaving in them many people, especially old persons and invalids.” 23
While this may contain some truth, it is mixed with Chichimeca and Aztec traditions not applicable to the Nahuatlacas, or Nohoa family. It combines parts of the traditions of the two peregrinations and adds that in reference to New Mexico from what the early writers told about the Coronado expedition. However, if the Indians met by this expedition among the buffalo were Comanches, they belonged to the Chichimeca family, and were not Nahuatlacas; but on the other hand, if they were descendants of the Nahoa family, then they were distinct from both the Chichimecas and the Aztecs, according to Gondara, and may have sprung from those left at some one of the cabins on the route of the Nahoa family, whose Aztlan may have been much farther north. Therefore, this degression may be ended with the suggestion that a comparison of the tongues of the tribes found in high latitudes west of the Mississippi with the Nahuatl, critically made by competent scholars, might develop many signs of kinship and cast some light upon the question of the true locality of Aztlan and Tecoloacan.
While it is believed that there is not sufficient similarity between the Mobilian and Nahuatl to prove that either sprang from the other, it seems that the Otomitl and the Creek or Muscogee are similar in some particulars.
It has already appeared that the greater portion of the early tribes found in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon were of the Nahoa family, and that they extended as far south as the Sierra Gorda. Those Cabeza de Vaca found at the end of the third day's journey after crossing the first large river, and who were lighter colored than any he had seen before, were of the Nahoa family and so were those at the foot of the mountain where he spent two nights. If he followed the route indicated in the second part of this paper, he passed through the Hualahuises, who were also of the same family. Those of Tanzocob were also of such family, and from there up the Bagres to Santa Maria del Rio he must have met Nahoas and Otomies and Tarascos who had also mixed with and learned the Nahuatl. The Liguaces on the right margin of the Bravo being of the Nahoa family, then if the Iguaces between the Bravo and the Gulf were the same tribe, with their name written by Cabeza de Vaca without the L they were also of the Nahoa family; and the principal Indian tongue Cabeza de Vaca had learned must have been Nahuatl, by means of which he was able to converse with all the tribes of Nahuatlacas he met on his route.
So if Cabeza de Vaca and his companions could understand the tribes of the Nahoa family, or, in other words, if they had learned a Nahuatl dialect, they were thereby enabled to converse with tribes found along the route designated from Jamaica Crossing on the Bravo to the Cerro de Gigante, where they found the town on the point of the mountain, whose people accompanied them to where they met Alcaraz. And they not only used a dialect serving such purpose, but in speaking of the tongue with which they and the Indians understood each other, Cabeza de Vaca says: “Which, for more than four hundred leagues of those we traveled, we found used among them, without there being another in all those countries.” 24
There where they met Alcaraz, then, we find them understanding the Indians in a tongue existing all along the route they had come, which answers the conditions above shown with reasonable certainty; and this seems to show that the route designated above, at least, afforded this general tongue spoken by the people along it, and which Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades understood. If there were other routes from where they left the Avavares before they crossed the first great river to Sonora and Sinaloa, along which there existed such a state of facts, those heretofore studying and writing upon this subject seem to have overlooked them; and this dialect sign of the route here adopted is submitted with the other indicia pointed out above to aid in making this examination as clear to the reader as a limited knowledge of the subject and the country to which it relates has enabled it to be done, but without claiming it to be as Nahuatl as might be asked by a Thomas among the readers of the Quarterly.
Now it may be proper to briefly notice the expression of Castañeda and Jaramillo about Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes. The translation by George Parker Winship will be adopted, as in the main it is very complete, and fully conforms to the rule laid down by Francisco Lopez de Gomara, who says to the translators: “Yo ruego mucho á los tales, por el amor que tienen á las historias, que guarden mucho la sentencia, mirando bien la propiedad de nuestro romance, que muchas veces ataja grandes razones con pocas palabras. Y que no quitan ni añadan ni muden letra á los nombres propios de indios, ni á los sobrenombres de españoles, si quieren hacer oficio de fieles traducidores.” 25
Castañeda says: “He traveled four days and reached a large ravine like those of Colima, in the bottom of which he found a large settlement of people. Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes had passed through this place, so that they presented Don Rodrigo with a pile of tanned skins and other things, and a tent as big as a house, which he directed them to keep until the army came up. * * * The women and some others were left crying, because they thought that the strangers were not going to take anything, but would bless them as Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes had done when they passed through here.” 26
Notwithstanding these expressions, wholly unsupported by any reason for using them, or showing from whom or how Castañeda got the information, the relation of Cabeza de Vaca repels the idea of his having passed that place; and, therefore, his own words will be presented as a proper answer to the theory of his having gone that way.
He was in the prickly pear region when he ran off from his oneeyed Mariame master and went to the Avavares, with whom he wintered in that region, among thorny, close chaparrals, where the wounds he received from the thorns, in his naked condition, caused him to contemplate the suffering of his Redeemer. After being separated from the Avavares for five days and reaching them again, he says: “And that night they gave me of the prickly pears they had, and next day we passed on from there and went to where we found many prickly pears, with which all satisfied their great hunger.” 27 After curing the dead Susol Indian, he was given two more baskets of prickly pears. 28 And he says he and his companions remained with those Avavar Indians eight months. 29 After leaving the Avavares and going to where they ate the two dogs, believing they had strength to go forward, they left those Indians and went to where they found fifty houses, and there the people gave them to eat prickly pear leaves and green prickly pears broiled. 30
This not only shows they were still among the prickly pears, but that it was in the early spring, as the green fruit was large enough to be broiled for food, though still green, which is the case in the lower part of Zapata county sometimes as early as the twentieth day of February. This was where they left the Indians crying for them. 31
Leaving those who were crying, they went to where they were given the flour of mezquiquez, or mesquite beans, 32 showing they were still among the mesquite growth. And from there they crossed the first large river, as wide as that at Sevilla and breast deep, and at sunset reached the hundred houses; which shows they were in a region of prickly pears and mesquite trees till they crossed this river. 33 From this place they traveled two days, reaching Indian houses each night, and on the third they arrived at many houses, where the people were whiter than any they had seen in the country till then. 34 Here they began to see the first mountains they saw in the country, which came consecutively from toward the sea of the north, and so, from the account given them by the Indians of the place, they believed they were fifteen leagues from the sea. 35 With these Indians they went from here toward these mountains, and when they arrived they were given and some small bags of silver. Next day all the people there desired to take them to others, their friends, who were at the point of the mountain; but, after remaining over one day, they went along the plain near the mountains, which they believed were not far from the coast, 36 and at sunset arrived at a place of twenty houses, where they were given prickly pears and no other thing. 37
Thus it appears they reached the foot of this mountain the evening of the fourth day's journey from the crossing of the river, and the next day's travel put them at the twenty houses, where they still received prickly pears.
After going on to where the Indian physicians gave them the two gourds, 38 and thence along the skirt of the mountain a distance they called fifty leagues to where they received the copper hawkbell, and another day's march over a mountain whose stones were scoriœ of iron to the houses on the beautiful stream where they ate the piñones, Cabeza de Vaca says of the people: “They eat prickly pears and piñones.” 39 And here they received the first buffalo skins, where there were prickly pears and piñones. From this place they made the journeys to the second large river, then through rough mountains and finally to the place on a stream flowing between some mountains where the captive Indian woman's father lived, finding houses with foundations, where the people ate maize and pumpkins, and thence in one day to the town of houses with foundations, where they ate maize and pumpkins, and were given skins of buffalo. Here the people went naked. From here they went up a river toward the sunset to find the place where maize grew all over the land; and they received cow hides along the lower part of the river, but Cabeza de Vaca does not mention seeing a buffalo after leaving the Avavares, yet does say he did not eat of their meat on his journey up the river.
So they were in the prickly pear region to where they got the first buffalo skins, and had left the Avavares when the green fruit was already large enough to be broiled and eaten, though green. They went to the latter place from the twenty houses near the coast, going inland, which was from the first mountain they saw, also near the coast. There is no mountain within fifteen leagues of the gulf coast in a prickly pear region north of the Rio Grande; and Pamoranes is the first so close south of it. So they must have gone inland or westward from the southern point of this mountain; for if there is another with such signs of identity, fifty years' acquaintance with the country has failed to bring it to the writer's notice.
This march being made in the early spring, if it had been northward from the Avavares, the natural conditions would have been very different. No mountain would have been found within fifteen leagues of the coast. Cabeza de Vaca's turn to go inland was near a mountain fifteen leagues from the coast in a prickly pear region, and if there is no such place north of the mouth of the Bravo, and the first one south of there is Pamoranes, then, at least, it may be said that he was south of that river when he made this turn to go inland, and that he was still in the prickly pear region where he got the first buffalo skins, and inland from Pamoranes. And he had gone there from the Avavares after the prickly pear leaves and green fruit were large enough to be broiled and eaten. He accounts for eight days' journey and then fifty leagues more, say eight days more, and then one day over the iron mountain, say seventeen days' journey from where he crossed the first great river to where he ate the prickly pears and piñones and received the first buffalo skins. If these journeys had been from the Pamoranes northward, he would have recrossed the Bravo and have been in middle Texas, and it would have been about the tenth of March; and had he continued to travel in the direction of the great ravine near the Point of Rocks in Colorado on the old Santa Fe road, he would possibly have reached there in April after the time he claims to have met Alcaraz on the Pacific coast. But during this time he would not have eaten any prickly pears on such route; but on it, at that time of year, he would have found vast herds of buffalo beginning to go northward, while he does not mention seeing a buffalo after leaving the Avavares. He would have encountered snow on his way farther north in going to the Point of Rocks, if he reached that place by the first of April, though it is a thousand miles from Culiacan, where he claims to have arrived in April; and as he makes no mention of seeing snow after reaching Mal-Hado on the 6th of November, 1528, until he reached the City of Mexico, it may be fairly presumed he did not encounter it on his march after leaving the Avavares; for he does not even mention any cold weather after that, though he complains of a cold snap during the five days he was separated from them and his companions.
Without examining any other part of Coronado's route, the great ravine may be located from the account of his marches from Cicuye to it. The army “proceeding toward the plains, which are all on the other side of the mountains, after four days' journey they came to a river with a large, deep current, which flowed toward Cicuye, and they named this the Cicuye river.” 40
Here it may be presumed they went out through the Galisteo pass in the Jumanes mountains, which would put them on the plains after going through these mountains. Then they may have gone to the Pecos river about where Cuesta is, near where the Fort Smith and Santa Fe wagon road used to cross this river.
It is presumed that Mr. Winship had evidence for his statement that “the bridge, however, was doubtless built across the upper waters of the Canadian,” 41 and it will here be presumed to have been near the mouth of the Mora, and that they went thence along the plain northeast of the Colorado fork to in front of Point of Rocks, which is the southern extremity of Raton mountains, not far from where the Santa Fe route crosses Utah creek. The head of this suits the description of the barranca or ravine, 42 as it may well be compared to the most magnificent barrancas of Colima. And whether the fourteen day's march was from near where Cuesta is, close to where the old Fort Smith and Santa Fe wagon road crosses Rio Pecos, or from near the mouth of the Mora, this ravine or barranca meets the description better than any other in that region. The distance from Cuesta to the junction of Ocate creek with the Colorado, as well as now remembered, is not much more than one hundred miles, and thence east, along the old Santa Fe route, by the Point of Rocks, to the cañon or barranca is not over forty miles; and this whole distance of one hundred and forty miles might have been made by the army in fourteen days. But if the bridge was at the mouth of the Mora, and the fourteen days counted thence to the barranca, then it was not more than one hundred miles. If this is the barranca or ravine referred to, it is about longitude 103° 30‐ W. and latitude 36° 30‐ N., which affords a basis for calculation.
The first mountain within fifteen leagues of the Gulf coast, going toward Pánuco, or Tampico, from the mouth of the Mississippi, is in latitude 25° N. and longitude 98° W., and if the south end of it is not where the twenty houses were, then it would be necessary to go south to find another so close to the Gulf coast. So going north on longitude 98° W. to latitude 36° 30‐ N. is 11° 30‐, and thence west to 103° 30‐ W. would be 5° 30‐, and these two as base and perpendicular would give the distance from Pamoranes to the barranca or to the Point of Rocks, on a right line as over 880 statute miles. In going to the twenty houses from where they crossed the first large river, they were traveling five days, and must have arrived there about the first of March. If they there took a right line for Point of Rocks on the first of March and averaged ten miles every day, it would have taken eighty-eight days to reach the Point of Rocks, making them arrive there on the twenty-seventh of June, two months and twenty-seven days after the date of their meeting Christians, wherever that may have been. Again, if they had averaged twenty miles per day, it would have required forty-four days to make the journey, and they would have arrived at the barranca or Point of Rocks on the thirteenth of April, while it is generally admitted that they reached San Miguel on the first of April. But in their nude condition, with flocks of Indians deployed on the flanks, hunting for game, ten miles for every day, including all days of delays and stops, would be a high average. So the very nature of the country and known distance from the most northerly mountain within fifteen leagues of the Gulf coast being considered, it is not possible for them to have gone from that mountain to Point of Rocks at the south end of Raton mountains, and thence to San Miguel or to Culiacan on the Pacific by the first of April.
Another view must suggest itself to every thinking person while investigating this subject. If they had gone north from the first mountain within fifteen leagues of the Gulf coast, they would have traversed six hundred miles of buffalo range before reaching Point of Rocks, and would have been going with the buffalo on the spring return to the north, which would have rendered it impossible for them to have failed to see thousands of these wild cows. But Cabeza de Vaca does not tell of seeing a single live buffalo after leaving the Avavares to go to a land of Christians.
Again, if they reached San Miguel on the first of April, they would have had to reach the barranca before that time, and they could not have failed to encounter some very cold weather on the plains, which would have reduced them to that necessity, experienced by so many who have traveled on those plains, of having to use buffalo chips for fuel. But no such thing is mentioned in Naufragios. Had the flocks of Indians, of whom Cabeza de Vaca tells, following and going with them, been of those wandering on the buffalo plains, they would have shown the Spaniards how to make fires and cook without wood. But Cabeza de Vaca fails to mention any such teaching, though he does tell how he got fuel out of the thorny chaparrals during the winter he was with the Avavares.
Every one living who was with the Sibley brigade in 1862, will remember the snow that fell in Albuquerque the night General Canby withdrew from in front of that place in April of that year. It covered the ground several inches deep, and men heavily clad suffered with cold; and had they been as nude as were Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades, many might have perished, especially if they had been out on the plains northeast of there without knowing the use of buffalo chips.
But Cabeza de Vaca's route from where he got the first buffalo skins was first along the valleys where jack rabbits were abundant and finally to houses with foundations, where they ate maize and pumpkins, while those at the barranca ate nothing but raw and badly broiled buffalo meat, of which Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades ate none after crossing the first great river.
Should it be claimed that the place where Cabeza de Vaca found the town on a stream flowing between some mountains, where the Indians had houses with foundations, or the one a day's march further on, was the barranca, then the fact of his eating beans and pumpkins there, when those of the barranca had nothing of the kind, and the further fact that those of the barranca ate buffalo meat and Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades did not, must be presumed to show an irreconcilible difference between the two places. And another marked difference is found in the fact that the people Cabeza de Vaca met there went perfectly nude, showing a warm climate, while those at the barranca were clad in skins and had large tents made of the same material, showing they were accustomed to cold weather. The fact of Cabeza de Vaca's leaving this place and going up a river which came from the sunset cannot be adjusted to the barranca. 43 But of the ravine and the hail storm there, Castañeda says: “And broke all the crockery of the army, and the gourds, which caused no little necessity, because they do not have any crockery in this region, nor do they grow gourds, nor do they plant maize, nor do they eat bread, but instead raw or badly broiled meat, and fruits.” 44
On leaving the place where he called the people los de las Vacas, Cabeza de Vaca tells of thirty-five days' journey to where he was waterbound, going to the sunset all the while, and had this been from the barranca, or the Point of Rocks, it would have taken him across by Taos and to the Red Fork of the Colorado of the West, about where the old trail from Santa Fe to Los Angeles in California used to cross it, and had he then continued west to some mountain with a town on the point of it, where he got the maize, and thence still westward, to meet Alcaraz, he would have been about on Virgin river, in the country of the Pah Utahs, near where Fremont crossed it in 1844; so that his Culiacan would have been on the Sand Desert east of Owen's Lake.
The suggestion that the place where Cabeza de Vaca says they ate piñones might have been at the head of Utah creek, because there are piñones there on the declivities of Raton mountain, lacks the support of very important signs of identity mentioned by Cabeza de Vaca. The first is the total absence of prickly pears, there being none within hundreds of miles of Point of Rocks; and the second is, that the place where Cabeza de Vaca found the piñones was inland from the mountain standing within fifteen leagues of the Gulf coast, and was reached before crossing the second large river; and had they gone from Pamoranes, without recrossing the Bravo, they would have been forced to go around the head of it. The third is that Cabeza de Vaca makes no mention of any cold weather where he found the piñones, while if it had been at the head of Utah creek, the country would most likely have been covered with snow; and if he traveled northward from the Gulf coast, he would certainly have noticed the prairie dog towns for more than three hundred miles, and would have mentioned these animals along his march from the barranca instead of telling the jack rabbit story and fitting it to the country beyond Galeana.
The story of the German king's celebrated painting of a wheat field may serve as an argument here. He offered a valuable premium to whoever could point out a valid defect, and many connoisseurs, desiring to win the prize, as well as to add to their reputation, having pronounced it perfect, a farmer's son sought and gained admittance to the gallery, and readily pointed out the defect, saying: “Where those pretty birds light on the wheat in my father's field, their weight bends the stalks on which they light, but the stalks on which the painter has placed them are very straight.” Though not a professional critic, he had seen wheat fields.
The suggestion that Cabeza de Vaca may have visited the barranca while peddling, is another idle thought, without considering any of the known collateral facts. While peddling none of the Spaniards were with him; and the only one he knew of was Oviedo, who remained on the Isle of Mal-Hado, and whom he visited every year. After meeting Dorantes, Castillo and the negro, he was given to the one-eyed Mariame as a slave, and did not peddle any more. So if he had gone to the barranca near Raton mountain while peddling, Dorantes could not have been with him; and the greatest distance he mentions going north after meeting his comrades was to where they ate the nuts, thirty leagues from the prickly pear region in which they finally left their masters and went to the Avavares. So it is presumed that the story of his going through the barranca with Dorantes is due to Castañeda's imaginative genius; as are many of the statements he makes.
The expressions of the bearded, blind man, given by Jaramillo, may be brought nearer the bounds of credibility. “Among whom there was an old blind man with a beard, who gave us to understand, by signs which he made, that he had seen four others like us many days before, whom he had seen near there and rather more toward New Spain, and we so understood him, and presumed that it was Dorantes and Cabeza de Vaca and those whom I have mentioned.” 45
This implies that the blind man had an idea of New Spain and its direction from where he was; and from the statements of Cabeza de Vaca, it seems that those of Mal-Hado also had a knowledge of there being such a country. The old man may have followed the buffalo south in winter when Cabeza de Vaca was the slave of the one-eyed Mariame and have encountered them and the Iguaces between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, or on the San Antonio river where they went to eat the nuts, and there met the four Spaniards, and learned of there being many such people farther south. Indeed, this old man may have been among those who Cabeza de Vaca says came down and lived upon the cows. All this was possible; and if the old man was a Comanche, then it is even probable, since his tribe roamed along the country between the Bravo and Nueces to the coast, and often as far south as where Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, is now. In fact, as late as 1818 they went down there, and on their return, on the left margin of the Bravo in front of where Matamoros is now, captured Victoriano Chapa, who was recovered from them at San Antonio, by the commandant of that place, in 1829, and is still alive. But as to the old man having seen the Spaniards “near there,” that is, near where Jaramillo speaks of, and as to his statement that “we so understood him, and presumed that it was Dorantes and Cabeza de Vaca and those [he] had mentioned,” it is fully answered in what is said above as to their having gone through the barranca; and needs only the application here of what Mr. Winship says: “But in trying to trace these early dealings of Europeans with the American aborigines, we must never forget how much may be explained by the possibilities of misinterpretation on the part of the white men, who so often heard of what they wished to find, and who learned, very gradually and in the end imperfectly, to understand only a few of the native languages and dialects.” 46 Indeed, it seems one leading desire was to make it appear that they had found traces of Cabeza de Vaca and his three comrades, as evidence of their having followed their back track and being on the right way to Quivira, which was connected with the route of these survivors of the Narvaez expedition only by gossip first circulated in Mexico.
This blind, bearded, old Indian is perpetuated in the memory of letters, whether he ever saw Cabeza de Vaca or not; and possibly Jaramillo's imagination enabled him to “so understand” the statement made by signs, while the blind Indian who made them would not recognize the story if told to him by one speaking his mother tongue. But it is not to be presumed that any one would deem such a story sufficient to affect the route of Cabeza de Vaca as above presented, or to negative a single natural object pointed out as one called for in Naufragios.
Now, the fact is fairly shown that the people where Cabeza de Vaca says they were given buffalo skins might have had them in 1536, and that the great preponderance of evidence drawn from natural objects pointed out along the route both aids and corroborates the probability that the proper places are indicated. And it is believed that the exaggerations of time and distance in the Naufragios are shown with sufficient certainty to repel the idea of their proving a route thousands of leagues longer than the one here adopted.
As to whether the facts support the statement that Cabeza de Vaca went to Culiacan and there found Melchor Diaz acting as alcalde mayor and captain of the province, all said on this subject is submitted to the impartial judgment of the reader, with the suggestion that the main hypothesis in the statement is that of Diaz's then occupying such positions, and if this is sufficiently shown to be untrue, then the statement falls to the ground, and the wanderers did not go there.
While the statements quoted from Castañeda and Jaramillo amount to two isolated and discordant assertions as to Cabeza de Vaca's having gone so far north, what is said in refutation of the idea, is but to strengthen the position that the route adopted in this paper is, in the main, the only one deducible from all said in Naufragios, without further reflection as to the acts or motives which influenced the latter part of Cabeza de Vaca's relation.
This is but the “short and simple annal” of one of the early settlers of Texas, and of some of the scenes of her early history. It is written almost as it fell from the lips of an eye-witness of all therein described, and is offered as a leaf in the volume which will some day exist of the deeds of our Texas pioneers. As it has no other object, the simple statement of that fact is all the apology it requires.
Richmond, November 18, 1873.
“The broken soldier . . . . Sat by his fire and talked the night away, Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done, Shoulder'd his crutch and show'd how fields were won.”
—Goldsmith.
Exactions by the government, in the shape of duties and taxes from the governed, have ever been seed for revolt and revolution. We need not go beyond the American continent for authority to sustain this assertion. Unequal taxation and unjust duties germinated the revolution of 1775, the first budding of which was the famous Tea Riot in Boston Harbor. To this there is a striking analogy in the conception of that revolution which separated Texas from Mexico—a revolution which, comparing the men and means engaged, with the grand results, is almost without a parallel, and which, by a king of Cæsarian operation, as it were, tore from the body of the effete maternal nationality Mexico, the blooming child Texas, and placed it as a young republic in the western world. Velasco was the Boston Harbor of the Texas Revolution, and the scene of the first chapter in its history. There, too, taxes and duties, unjustly demanded by the government, were the cause of the émeute.
In 1832 Velasco was a Mexican post, garrisoned by near two hundred and fifty men, who were in a fort of circular form, having in the center a mound or raised plateau of earth, whereon the artillery was placed en barbette, so as to fire over the outer wall, and command a range on every side. This outer wall was surrounded by a fosse or ditch, and perhaps with something intended for cheveaux-de-frise or abattis. There were at that time several vessels trading between Velasco and New Orleans, which were engaged in exporting home articles and bringing in supplies to barter for Mexican bars of silver and other articles. Among these vessels was the “Sabine,” which carried out the first cotton ever raised in Gulf Prairie, produced by Westall and McNeil, and was owned by Edwin Waller, then a young man, native of Virginia, who had visited Texas for his health. Up to this year no duties or customs had been demanded from persons engaged in this trade by government officials, but it coming to their ears that the commerce was becoming profitable their attention was aroused, and the commander of the Velasco fort notified the captain of the Sabine, Jerry Brown, that he must pay certain duties, and procure a clearance for his vessel from Colonel Bradburn, then commanding at Anahuac, before he would be allowed to sail. This was demanding impossibilities, as there was no land communication with Anahuac, and the embargo thus laid prevented intercourse by water. Captain Brown reported this state of facts to Edwin Waller, the vessel's owner, who in company with Wm. H. Wharton visited the commanding officer, and offered to pay him a duty of fifty dollars, for permission for his vessel to leave. The official demanded one hundred dollars for the privilege, and this Mr. Waller refused, seeing the intention of the officer to blackmail him, and believing that to yield would be but to pave the way for future extortions. After speaking this opinion to the officer with more emphasis than deference, Waller retired, to consider upon the situation. Finally, he persuaded Captain Brown to agree to “run the blockade,” and accordingly the plan was arranged to protect the vessel as well as might be, with cotton bales, that the sailors should hoist sail, the passengers to go below into the “hold” and that thereupon Wharton would unloose one fastening of the boat, and Waller the other, simultaneously, to give her as fair a start as possible. All of which was accordingly done, and the first “overt act” of resistance to Mexican authority was committed by Mr. Waller's vessel sailing boldly past the nose of the fort, outward bound.
The sight of this daring violation of his orders excited the Mexican commander to vigorous action, and, forming his garrison on the bank of the river, he opened a fusilade upon the defiant craft, which did damage only to her rigging. Inspired by this sight, another vessel lying higher up the river, and commanded by Captain Fuller, set sail to follow in the wake of the Sabine, which, now being out of range of small arms, was seen crowded with passengers on deck, huzzaing and shouting in derision and triumph, among them one lady, a Mrs. Sweet, the sister of Samuel M. Williams. This so inflamed the Mexicans that they turned on Captain Fuller's vessel, and opened on her a heavy fire. Before the vessel passed out of range a shot from the Mexicans struck the tiller or helm held by Captain Fuller, wounding him; he immediately called for his rifle, intending to return the salute, when a young man, Spencer Jack, the uncle of Thomas M. Jack, of Galveston, asked leave to fire the gun, and did so with good effect, as he wounded a Mexican in the thigh. This worthy set up such a howl of pain and fright that his comrades ceased firing and gathered in disorder around him, under which diversion Captain Fuller sailed quietly on his victorious way. The ball being extracted from the limb of the fallen hero by an American (one Dr. Robinson, hereinafter named), and the wound proving slight, the warlike ardor of the Mexicans revived, and they at once arrested as the originators of this bold disobedience Colonel Wharton and Edwin Waller, and conducted them as prisoners inside the fort. Colonel Wharton, with characteristic sagacity and talent, soon argued himself out of limbo, but Mr. Waller proving more obdurate, the insulted commander sentenced him to be sent to Matamoras, to the tender mercies of the authorities there. After much trouble, and principally through the aid of Colonel Wharton, many good promises being exacted, Mr. Waller was finally and reluctantly released, and a hollow truce prevailed for a season.
When the Sabine sailed, Captain Brown was ordered by Mr. Waller to invest the proceeds of her cargo in two cannons, and to bring them back on the return trip for retaliation upon the fort in case of any hostile demonstration. The cannons did come, though too late to do duty at the storming of Velasco, and being dedicated to the service of the cause, were placed on board a vessel which cruised out after war was declared, as one of the first men of war of the Texas navy, but never returned again to report her deeds. Neither ship, crew nor cannons were ever heard of again, and their fate is unknown.
This occurrence was really the detonating spark which fired the train of revolution; this was the capstone to the arch of national feeling which had been gradually growing in the minds of the American settlers; this was, in fact, the bud of the Texas revolution, as Boston had been before of the revolt—the secession from England. The desire to resist Mexican authority was here aroused by the belief that it could be done successfully. “The first gun” sounded when young Jack fired and wounded the Mexican soldier.
Soon after this, a meeting of citizens was held at Brazoria, with Col. Wm. H. Wharton as chairman, and he earnestly advised decided measures, arguing that the spirit of strife had already been aroused; that Colonel Bradburn had confined American citizens unjustly at Anahuac; that the citizens, headed by Col. Frank Johnson, who had gone thither to demand their release, had failed to obtain it, and had met an unfriendly reception; that Spencer Jack had shot a regular soldier of the Mexican army, while in the discharge of his duty; that the people on both sides were excited; and that it would be better for them (the citizens), by a bold move to swoop down at once upon Velasco and storm and capture the fort and garrison, and so rid the section of Mexican authority. There was considerable debate upon this proposition, and the meeting finally agreed that the chairman should appoint a committee of five, a majority of whom should decide the issue of war or inaction. Colonel Wharton appointed as that committee Edwin Waller, W. J. Russell, Thos. Westall, J. W. Cloud (a clergyman), and — McNeil. These retired to deliberate on their verdict, and their first ballot showed Waller and Russell for war and the other three opposed it. Waller and Russell at length converted the clergyman to their faith and finally the committee became unanimous and announced to the people that their “voice was for open war.” The forces then assembled with Col. John Austin in command, and Henry Brown, a gallant officer and the father of the present John Henry Brown, as second in command, and this embryo “army of the republic” took up their line of march, about one hundred and twenty strong.
When we reflect that they were about to attack twice their number of well armed and well disciplined soldiers, heavily entrenched, and backed by the great Mexican nation, we cannot but admire their calm restlessness and cool effrontery. No doubt they trusted that Providence would enable them to give Mexico some reasonable excuse for thus attacking one of her forts, and that the chapter of accidents would aid them in capturing the fort, but still there was as much dashing courage and steady fortitude in the attempt as animated any beau sabreur who charged with the Light Brigade at Bloody Balaklava. It was purely sublime.
The “army” proceeded as far as Brown's landing, and there halting sent a “committee of invitation” to the commander of the fort with the modest request that he should immediately surrender his post and garrison to the invaders. The Colonel replied that “army regulations” demanded of him some show of resistance, but that after firing a few rounds on the assaulters he would gracefully surrender. From the denouement we are inclined to think this reply a piece of grim humor on the Colonel's part, and an ironical reply to the moderate demands of the rebels.
The besiegers then moved down, arriving at the fort about ten o'clock at night, carrying planks and spades wherewith to throw up a breastwork. The order was to move up to within thirty paces of the fort and thereby get out of the range of the cannon, which could not be depressed sufficiently to cover ground so near, and the men, if discovered and fired on, were not to return the fire, but to proceed with all haste to set up the planks and throw up sand against them, so forming entrenchments, and then to await the arrival of morning and the schooner Brazoria. The latter was mustered in as a “gun boat” with two small pieces of ordnance, and commanded by W. J. Russell, now of Fayette county. This vessel was a New Orleans trading boat, and was impressed by the revolutionists for war purposes, her commander, Captain Roland, an Englishman, being friendly to their cause, but fearing to risk the vessel voluntarily. In the engagement following, the mate of this vessel, while sitting in the cabin, making cartridges by order of Captain W. J. Russell, commander, between Andrew Mills, a brother of Robert Mills, of Galveston, and then prominent as a revolutionist, and Theodore Bennett, was killed, a ball from the fort passing through his body, and was the only person on board seriously hurt.
The night was not dark enough to conceal the attacking forces, and they had just put their planks in position when the garrison discovered and fired on them. Contrary to orders, the fire was returned by one of Colonel Austin's party, one Robinson, before alluded to, and at once the firing became general. It may be said here of Robinson, who it seems was rather fond of the oleum frumenti, that his wife bitterly opposed his joining the volunteers, and in her irritation at his obstinacy on this head, she expressed the hope that the Mexicans might shoot him. Strangely enough he was perhaps the first Texan killed on the occasion. The fight continued fiercely through the night, and nearly every ball from the fort perforated the planks protecting the Texans, scattering splinters in all directions, and thus wounding many. Among others Colonel (then Captain) Robert H. Williams, of Matagorda, lost an eye from a splinter.
By daylight many of the attacking party were disabled, the guns of many more were clogged up, their ammunition was failing, and, to use the expression of a brave participant, they were “right badly used up.” More than one of them, too, had “limbered to the rear” for safety, without “standing on the order of his going.” Colonel Munson, the father of the present Judge Munson, of Brazoria, and Thos. Westall, had charge of the guard to “keep up stragglers,” and by their coolness and steadiness rendered great service in the engagement.
The fort “flashed its red artillery” for a space, but the Texan riflemen soon silenced most of the guns. Their terrible precision so intimidated the enemy that they dared not stand by their pieces, but sponged and loaded lying flat on their backs under the guns. Even this plan was finally abandoned, for the unerring marksmen shot them in the hands and arms. The gallant war craft “pounded away” with her two pieces, but was unable to do perfect execution from the relative position of the combatants, and the fact that her principal ammunition was “trace chains,” which, though generally useful, were not exactly suited to that purpose.
The work was principally done by small arms, and noticeable in the garrison was a company commanded by a German, which was posted in the ditch outside the fort. This detachment did earnest work, and finally, being out of ammunition, the officer ordered a detail into the fort for more. To this the courage of his men was unequal, as in going into the fort they must necessarily be exposed to the deadly fire of the rifles. Enraged at their cowardice, the officer himself made the attempt, but fell almost the instant he exposed his body. This terrified the company, and they communicated the countersign to the fort, and then amid the wild huzzas of the patriots the white flag fluttered from the fort.
“And the red field was won.”
In the battle Edwin Waller was wounded in the head, and it is probable that his life was saved by his having tied around his brow a thickly twisted handkerchief, which turned or deadened the force of the bullet, but the concussion gave him a painful bruise and a pair of black eyes for several days after. Among others killed and wounded are remembered several from Matagorda county, a detachment having joined the Texans from that county, organized by S. B. Buckner and Robert H. Williams, the former of whom was killed and the latter wounded, losing an eye as already stated.
The garrison, after their surrender, were allowed to retain their side-arms and personal property, and some of them were sent by water to Matamoros.
This battle occurred during the supremacy of Bustamente, which was succeeded by that of Santa Anna, who, soon after his accession to power, dispatched five vessels of war, heavily laden with troops and munitions, to retake the Fort of Velasco, and to exterminate the capturers thereof. 48 This armament, with colors flying, and with grand display, sailed up and anchored off Velasco, preparatory to disembarking for the purpose of thinning out the inhabitants. This news of course soon reached the people of the country, and caused the wildest excitement. “Then there was hurrying to and fro”; the people sent runners with the tidings in every direction, and a convention was called to meet forthwith at Brazoria, to devise measures to meet the issue. The convention was held accordingly, and after deliberation, Colonel Wm. H. Wharton, as chairman of a committee, was sent down to Velasco to confer with the Mexican authorities, and endeavor to stay the threatened destruction. This gentleman, so distinguished in his day for sagacity and ability, adopted the wisest diplomacy for the hour, the plan of temporizing with the enemy, and in the interview which he held with the hostile chiefs, with all of the eloquence for which he was noted, set out the facts that the Texans had ever been loyal to the Mexican government, expecially to Santa Anna; that the capture of Velasco was “only a party movement” against Bustamente, to show their deep devotion to the cause of Santa Anna; and that the whole affair originated in their admiration for him, and was but a pleasant way they adopted to show their loyalty. He welcomed the Mexicans to the country, and besought the officers to come up to Brazoria and partake of the hospitality of its patriotic people. The truth is, up to that time Santa Anna had not exhibited the objectionable features of his character, as he subsequently did, and it was generally hoped that, as President of Mexico, he would prove a decided improvement on Bustamente. The Mexican officers suffered themselves to be persuaded, and accordingly came up to Brazoria, where they were fêted and entertained in the most sumptuous manner, remaining pleased and willing guests, and finally departed, happy in the belief that the Texans were a most loyal people and Colonel Wharton a particularly warm friend of Santa Anna.
Although the officers commanding this expedition were thus blarneyed out of their savage mission by Colonel Wharton's ruse de guerre, yet their government was not so well deceived thereby, and in fact from the day that Edwin Waller's vessel ran the blockade and raised the embargo, and Spencer Jack wounded the Mexican soldier, there never was, between the government and the colonists any cordiality of feeling, nor anything save distrust and want of faith cloaked and hooded in pleasant speeches and empty compliments. On that day the spirit of revolution was born never to die again.
Shortly after these officers “marched up the hill and then marched down again,” Almonte visited Brazoria and the surrounding country with a great flourish of trumpets and with the ostensible charitable purpose of inquiring into the needs and wants of the inhabitants; and, although he was everywhere received in the most elegant and courteous manner by the colonists, yet while interchanging compliments with his hosts he was secretly taking notes of the numbers, strength, and resources of the people, while they were as busily engaged in procuring and storing up powder and appliances of war for the “irrepressible conflict.”
The first powder procured for this purpose was purchased by Wm. H. Wharton, Jno. A. Wharton, Edwin Waller, Robert Mills—all prominent and zealous “war men,”—Wm. J. Russell, and Jere Brown, and was stored away by them in a brick out-house owned by Mrs. Jane H. Long, widow of General Long, now a resident of Fort Bend county, and perhaps the earliest and oldest living settler of Texas.
There seems to have been quite a strong feeling of opposition in those days between the “war party” and the “peace party,” and in the many meetings held by the people to discuss the war question, the different parties usually spoke their opinions of each other in terms the freest and most emphatic, so that in some of the stormiest of them, it really seemed that in the meeting, at least, war would certainly prevail, and that the members would commence hostile operations upon each other. Nothing serious, however, resulted from the “freedom of debate,” and the meetings passed without any real violence. Among those who zealously and unwaveringly advocated the cause of war and freedom, Edwin Waller, Wm. H. Jack, and the two Whartons, stood ever conspicuously together as firmly united politically as they were socially.
In the Consultation, as it was called, which met at San Felipe de Austin in November, 1835, and adjourned about a month afterwards, 49 Edwin Waller and Jno. A. Wharton were two of the delegates who represented the municipality of Columbia, and stood shoulder to shoulder in opposing the measures of Sam Houston, then member from Nacogdoches. In the first hours of the consultation, however, when Waller and others who had arrived found there was not a quorum present, and while awaiting the arrival of the Northern delegates, it was resolved by those present to form themselves into a military company, and to march westward to assist at the capture of San Antonio, which was then in Mexican hands. This was accordingly done, and the company, which Waller had joined, enrolled under Stephen F. Austin, who afterwards left the command to Wm. B. Travis, familiarly known as Buck Travis, who, with a small force, was then encamped on the Salado. While encamped here the enemy sallied out and attacked Austin's little army, but the sortie was handsomely repulsed, and so the warlike delegates had the honor of participating in the first battle fought in Western Texas, and of returning to their legislative labors crowned with the laurels of military conquerors. The army stationed here felt the necessity of some legislative action, and of the formation of some government under whose flag to fight, and which should procure for the troops the necessary supplies and munitions. Accordingly, they assembled soon after this battle, and by vote decided that the delegates should return to the Consultation. It is related as a reminiscense of the day that but one man voted against the return of the delegates—so greatly was felt the necessity of establishing a government—and that man was soundly thrashed by Frank Adams for entertaining such an opinion. The delegates did return, met there the delegates from Northern Texas, and formed the provisional government. It is worthy of note that all four of the delegates from Columbia voted in the Consultation for independence, upon which occasion Edwin Waller, being a prominent and untiring advocate of that measure, was told by General Houston in a speech that he and his colleagues would “find grapevines awaiting them at home,” as a reward for their course on this occasion. The prophecy was doomed to be proven false by the vote of the same constituency by whom Edwin Waller was afterwards returned as a member of the Convention of 1836, where he was one of the committee which framed the constitution of Texas as a republic, and his name stands third on the list of the signers of that document. That of itself will hand his name down to posterity, for certainly the intellects which in that dav, under the surrounding difficulties, conceived and prepared such a code of organic law as that constitution are as much distinguished in their field of labor even as those who died on the ramparts of the Alamo, or the plains of San Jacinto. The cool wisdom of the one is only equalled by the brilliant courage of the other, and as there were heroes in the field, so there were statesmen in the cabinet to set the young ship of State afloat on the tide.
We can not do more in this modest little sketch than allude to these services of Mr. Waller, which distinguished him among his compeers as an able man and a fervent patriot, ever ready with pen or rifle to aid the cause of his adopted land. On the completion of his duties by the adjournment of the Convention, he was free to buckle on his war harness again, and hastened to enter the field as a soldier of the army of General Houston. In this army he served until the close of the war, and the establishment of the independence of the Republic. On leaving Washington on the Brazos, a the close of the Convention, Mr. Waller had hastened to see after his family, whose home lay directly in the route of one division of the Mexican army, and on arriving there he found his family gone, and the Mexicans within a few miles of his house. One of his neighbors informed him that his family had left with that of Col. Wm. G. Hill. He at once set out to find them, overtook them, saw them safely across the San Jacinto river, and returned again to the army. The Mexicans revenged themselves for not finding the family at home when they called by sacking and pillaging the house and premises. Mayhap some of his old Mexican acquaintances of Velasco were in the command, and thus wreaked their revenge on one of the first men who dared to raise their embargo of 1832.
It may be mentioned as characteristic of the times that when Mr. Waller was alcalde of the municipality forming what are now known as the counties of Brazoria, Matagorda, Wharton and Fort Bend, he frequently commuted the punishment of offenders convicted of murder from death to whipping and branding, on account of his opposition on principle to capital punishment. In the exercise of this office he granted divorces, and exercised the general powers of a court of common law and equity, and it was indeed an office of great trust and responsibility. This was the only office filled by Judge Waller under the Mexican government, but with the establishment of the Republic, and frequently afterwards, he was called upon to serve the people. He was at once appointed by the congress president of the board of land commissioners, Theodore Bennett and A. C. Hyde being his associates, to grant certificates for land to all those who had stood firm and trusty in the past dangers and conflicts. This duty was performed with his usual exactness and fidelity, and in a manner to increase Judge Waller's estimate by the people as a public officer. He was again put in official harness in the year 1839, when he was appointed as government agent to select a site for the State capital, to lay off and plan the city, and to superintend and conduct the erection of the public buildings. The present capital, the city of Austin, was his choice, and the child of his skill and energy, now grown and matured, stands yet as the seat of government in Texas, a silent testimony of the modest but invaluable service rendered by Judge Waller to the young Republic.
The following is a copy of the official bond required of Judge Waller upon his assuming the duties of this position, the original bond being now in existence:
“Republic of Texas, “County of Harrisburg.
“Know all men by these presents, That we, Edwin Waller, Wm. T. Austin, Thos. G. Masterson, B. T. Archer, Thos. J. Green, Wm. Sims Hall, Samuel Whiting, John W. Hall, Louis P. Cook, William Pettus, W. B. Aldredge, and Charles Donoho, citizens of the Republic aforesaid, are held and firmly bound unto Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the Requblic of Texas, and his successors in office, in the just and full sum of one hundred thousand dollars, good and lawful money of said Republic, for the payment of which, well and truly to be made, we bind ourselves, heirs and executors, administrators, and assigns, firmly by these presents, sealed with our seals, and dated this twelfth day of April, A. D. one thousand, eight hundred and thirty-nine.
The conditions of the above obligations are such that if the said Edwin Waller shall faithfully and honestly perform the duties of agent for the seat of government, agreeably to the provisions of `An Act entitled an act for the permanent location of the seat of government,' approved January 14, 1839, to which he has been appointed and duly commissioned by the President, then this obligation shall cease and become null and void, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue.
(Signed) “Edwin Waller, \[SEAL\] “Wm. T. Austin, \[SEAL\] “Thos. G. Masterson, \[SEAL\] “B. T. Archer, “Thos. J. Green, “Wm. G. Hill, “Wm. Sims Hall, “Sam'l Whiting, “John W. Hall, “Louis P. Cook, “Wm. Pettus, “W. B. Aldridge, “Charles Donoho, “Approved. (Signed) “Mirabeau B. Lamar.”
The penalty of the bond was one hundred thousand dollars, and it was found afterwards that during his performance of this duty, Judge Waller handled over \$400,000. If anything in the way of testimony to his integrity were needed, more than the list of names signed to his official bond, as sureties for the faithful execution of his important duties, it is certainly supplied by the following letters written to Judge Waller, one from John G. Chalmers, Secretary of the Treasury, and the other from W. H. Collier, Acting Auditor:
“City of Austin, “Treasury Department, October 7, 1841. “To Edwin Waller, Esq., State Government Agent.
“Sir:—Enclosed you will receive your bond as government agent for locating seat of government, and in surrendering up your obligation, I beg leave to express my great satisfaction at the full and satisfactory manner in which you have adjusted and settled up so extensive and complicated a matter, a circumstance rather unusual with the agents of this government.
“Yours most respectfully, (Signed) “John G. Chalmers, “Secretary of Treasury.”
“Auditor's Office, October 7, 1841. “Edwin Waller, Esq.
“Sir:—You are hereby notified that your accounts as government agent in erection of public buildings at the city of Austin have all been examined, and I find you entitled to receive a credit for moneys disbursed to the amount of one hundred and fourteen thousand, two hundred and forty-two dollars and ninety-five cents, and that you are chargeable in addition to the amount now standing against you, viz.: \$113,550, with the sum of two thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars, leaving a balance in your favor of four thousand, one hundred and nineteen dollars and seventy-three cents.
“Very respectfully, your obedient servant, (Signed) “H. H. Collier, “Acting Auditor.”
Now, if the honorable Secreary of the Treasury was correct in his statement about government agents, which we may well believe from our experiences of the present day, certainly Judge Waller has reason to be proud of his record as an agent. The secretary, in styling the mission “an extensive and complicated matter,” did not name all of the difficulties which surrounded Judge Waller in his position. For, to accomplish his undertaking, he had but two hundred laborers, a motley crew, drawn from all the nationalities of the world—of all colors, classes and characters, and \$113,000 in Texas scrip; he was poorly supplied with the articles and appliances necessary to his work; his employes were wild characters; many of them turbulent and restless under control, and many of them unfitted for the labor. There was little if any protection from the weather, to which all were more or less exposed in all its variations and changes; with a cuisine which often boasted no more than “beef, and corn bread ground on a hand mill, and water from the spring”; exposed to frequent inroads and raids by the hostile Indians; and acting as surveyor, treasurer, secretary, director and president combined, he was certainly surrounded by an array of difficulties almost as hard to overcome as “an army with banners.” In the face of these obstacles, the work was begun in May and finished in November of the same year, and in such manner as to elicit the commendations above referred to. Among other incidents of the season, a party of Indians came in one night to where some of the men were camped near a creek named from Judge Waller, and yet called Waller's creek, and carried off as trophies a brace of scalps of the workmen.
The public buildings erected at this time were all of plank and dogs and made of native timber, and in consequence presented no very classically artistic appearance, but were serviceable and comfortable. The city was duly laid off, and, when mapped out, onefourth of the lots in the plan were sold by Judge Waller for \$300,000, which was quite a snug amount of public funds to be handled by an officer under bond for only \$100,000.
The erection of public as well as private buildings rapidly progressed, and on the seventeenth day of October, 1839, President Lamar, with a portion of his cabinet, arrived in Austin. This was a day of great rejoicing among the citizens. The president was met a few miles from the city by a large procession, headed by General A. Sidney Johnston (who was then Secretary of War, but who had preceded the president), and General Edward Burleson. Judge Waller had been selected by the citizens to receive the president; and as it is believed that his address will be read with interest, it is inserted as follows:
“Having been called upon by my fellow citizens to welcome your excellency on your arrival at the permanent seat of government for the republic, I should have declined doing so on account of conscious inability, wholly unused as I am to public speaking, had I not felt that holding the situation here that I do, it was my duty to obey the call. With pleasure, I introduce to you the citizens of Austin, and at their request give you cordial welcome to a place which owes its existence as a city to the policy of your administration.
“Under your appointment, and in accordance with your direction, I came here in the month of May last for the purpose of preparing proper accommodations for the transaction of the business of the government. I found a situation naturally most beautiful, but requiring much exertion to render it available for the purpose intended by its location. Building materials and provisions were to be procured, when both were scarce; a large number of workmen were to be employed in the lower country and brought up in the heat of summer, during the season when fever was rife; and when here, our labors were liable every moment to be interrupted by the hostile Indians, for whom we were obliged to be constantly on the watch; many-tongued rumor was busy with tales of Indian depredations, which seemed to increase in geometrical progression to her progress through the country. Many who were on the eve of immigrating were deterred by these rumors from doing so. Interested and malicious persons were busy in detracting from the actual merits of the place, and every engine of falsehood has been called into action to prevent its occupation for governmental purposes. Beauty of scenery, centrality of location and purity of atmosphere have been nothing in the vision of those whose views were governed by their purses, and whose ideas of fitness were entirely subservient to their desire for profit. Under all these disadvantageous circumstances, and more which I cannot now detail, a capitol, a house for the chief magistrate of the republic, and a large number of public offices were to be erected and in readiness for use in the short period of four months. Not discouraged at the unpromising aspect of affairs, I cheerfully undertook to obey your behests. Numbers of the present citizens of Austin immigrated hither, and with an alacrity and spirit of accommodation, for which they have my grateful remembrance, rendered us every assistance in their power.
“To the utmost extent of my abilities I have exerted myself and have succeeded in preparing such accommodations as I sincerely hope will prove satisfactory to your excellency and my fellow citizens of Texas.
“In the name of the citizens of Austin, I cordially welcome you and your cabinet to the new metropolis. Under your fostering care may it flourish, and aided by its salubrity of climate and its beauty of situation, become famous among the cities of the New World.
Judge Waller, after building the city, was elected the first mayor thereof and guided the municipal helm with as much credit as he had managed his rough detachment of laborers. The attachment of these men to their old commander was afterwards exhibited in a serio-comic manner, which, with the accompanying circumstances, is well worthy of mention.
The party feeling between the “peace men” and “war men” in the days before the revolution had been very high and naturally produced partisanships and prejudices which outlived the issues that created them. As an “original war man,” Judge Waller was early brought into direct and strong opposition to General Houston, who at first opposed war, so that when, after the war, Houston and Lamar were opposing candidates for presidential honors, Judge Waller took the stump for Lamar, who was an intimate personal friend, besides being of the same political faith. After the election of President Lamar, he nominated Judge Edwin Waller to the congress, as postmaster-general of the Republic. This nomination was very stoutly opposed by the Houston wing, and pointedly so by Governor Albert C. Horton of Matagorda, who had been an unsuccessful applicant for the position of government agent before mentioned. At the same time that the nomination was being discussed, Judge Waller's bill for erecting the State capitol was pending, and his opponents, especially Holmes of Matagorda, in commenting on the nomination, made this bill the basis for a severe personal attack upon Judge Waller, delivered from the floor of the house, by which Judge Waller was very much irritated. Having been privately assured by Harvey Kendrick, a most worthy and estimable man among the pioneers of the country, that the whole onslaught was conceived and matured by Governor Horton, Judge Waller demanded of him a personal explanation; and, upon Horton's denying any complicity in the matter and refusing to make any acknowledgement, Judge Waller attacked him vi et armis, hilariter, celeriter, and like another Rhoderick Dhu and Fitz James, they grappled each other, and “the engagement became general,” as the army reporters used to say. They “tugged and strained” around the campers in front of the capitol, in sight of President Lamar, and the whole Texan congress, who took a recess to witness “the row,” a sight which then as now, appealed to the deepest emotions of the Texan character. At first, Governor Horton, by his superior stature and strength, inflicted considerable punishment on his antagonist who, however, struggled manfully for victory, while the congressmen stood around shouting riotously and boisterously, encouraging first one gladiator and then the other. This was rather undignified in them, but we must remember that the congress then was in its boyhood, and had not forgotten primitive simplicity and natural feeling.
At this stage of the game, however, the president was very excitedly and clamorously calling upon the members to “part them—separate the combatants;” but both houses ignored his veto, and yelled and laughed more vigorously than ever, or contented themselves with observing an “attentive neutrality.” Now, although Horton had the muscle above Judge Waller, yet he was inferior in another important ingredient, towit, “wind,” and it was not long before the latter's superior endurance enabled him to turn the tide of battle, and Governor Horton at the same time, and to give the governor back his compliments with interest. Seeing this, and perhaps thinking he had supported the presidential dignity under trying circumstances sufficiently long, President Lamar brandished his hat fiercely in the air and shouted lustily, “Do not interrupt them, let them fight, let them arrange it without interference;” from which one would conclude that Judge Waller had at least the ear of the executive department in the issue.
The uproar had penetrated to the camp of Judge Waller's former employes, before mentioned, and the rumor reached them that the congress was murdering, maiming, or hanging their old “boss.” They gathered like Clan Alpine, and “fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,” they poured in a stream to the capitol, in numbers enough to have “cleaned up” both houses and the executive and judiciary besides.
Perhaps the government of Texas was never in such actual danger of bouleversement as at this critical moment, when this battalion of outré stragglers “rallied on the reserve” to protect the “boss.” One burly son of the Teutonic race leveled an argument a posteriori at Governor Horton, and others rushing in, the combatants were for the first time effectually separated, and when the judge arose from the sward, flushed and tattered, and seemingly “bleeding at every vein,” the interveners raised a war-whoop which made the welkin ring. They asked to be informed of the names of his persecutors, who was the man, and where he was, and in their excitement offered to pull down the capitol and thrash the congress, jointly and severally, as a slight testimonial of their affection for their old leader. Several speeches were required to pacify them, and they were not entirely satisfied that it was not their duty to preserve the “balance of power” by razing the building they had erected, and thus proroguing the congress until Judge Waller himself recovered breath enough to address them and explain the situation. Upon this they retired mollified, no doubt feeling that they had earned the gratitude of the members by sparing them. The passage-at-arms between Horton and Waller ended there, and they afterwards became warm personal friends, in verification of the sentiment of the old general in the Lady of Lyons, who always felt so much more affection for a man after fighting with him.
The ballot in the Senate on Waller's nomination resulted in an even vote, and the President of the Senate, Anson Jones, gave the casting vote for Waller, who was accordingly declared postmaster-general of the republic. This was a compliment to the ability of Judge Waller, inasmuch as Anson Jones was one of the Houston sympathizers, and was afterwards elected president through the influence of Houston and his party. Judge Waller retained his position of postmaster-general but a short time, when he retired from active political life to seek rural ease and domestic comfort.
In 1840, however, Judge Waller was an active participant in another of the noted and dangerous scenes of that period, namely, the Plum creek fight. An army of Comanche Indians, about four hundred in number, had extended one of their raids coastward, and reached the town of Linnville. They set fire to and burned down the town, leaving it in complete ruins, from which it never revived. First having plundered all the stores and warehouses, murdered several of the citizens, and carried others off into captivity, among whom was a lady, a Mrs. Watts, who had but lately become a bride and whose husband was butchered in her sight.
Edward Burleson, Felix Huston, Ben McCulloch, Edwin Waller and others, assembled together what force they could, on hearing of this outrage, and started on the war-trail to intercept the marauders. In all, some seventy men from the vicinity of Austin, Victoria, Gonzales, and Seguin were in the company. The Indians were loaded down with spoils and booty, to which they clung with great tenacity of purpose. Among other articles many of them had brought off blocks of gay and gaudy colored ribbon, and in the hurry of pursuit one end of the ribbon would become loosened and it would gradually unroll from the block and trail out behind the fleeing savages. It was indeed a ludicruous scene, the painted savages scouring across the prairies in terror, on their wild ponies, “bloody with spurring, fiery red with speed,” and the lengths of glaring ribbons trailing behind them like the tail of a comet and hanging out as signals to the pursuers of the track of the Indians, and as proofs of their hellish mission lately consummated. When the whites came up with the Indians, the contest was short. Many of the latter were killed—nine in one slough where they had “bogged down,” and all of their plunder, including dry goods and quite a number of mules and horses, was recaptured. Among the captives released by this victory were two white ladies, the Mrs. Watts spoken of and another lady whose name is forgotten, and a negro woman.
After the battle, the conquerors slept on the field, and with them eight or ten friendly Indians. These had busied themselves in their own fashion in looking after commissary supplies, and brought into camp quite a fine lot of “Comanche beef,” towit: Indian flesh. They attached especial importance to roast hands, one of which, nicely “browned” and done to a “cracking,” they offered to Judge Waller, but he modestly yet firmly declined the savory morsel. The savages evidently pitied his ignorance of the virtues of roast Indian and devoured their whole supply with infinite gusto. One would think there could hardly be a doubt of the disputed assertion that the Carancahuas were cannibals after this déjeûne a la fourchette, made of “hot hand,” so positively proved on them.
Although Judge Waller was solicited by the people of Travis county to allow his name to go before the people of that district as a candidate for congress, yet remaining firm in his intention of abandoning public life, and honors, he declined the nomination. Notwithstanding this, however, he came very near being elected by the voluntary votes of the district, which was a much more pleasant compliment than if he had been, after the annoyances and labor of a hard canvass, really elected.
After his retirement from the stirring scenes of his younger days, Judge Waller filled for many years the office of chief justice of Austin county, in which he lives, and presided in his chair with such judgment and energy as to lend to the office some of the dignity intended to attach to it, but which, sooth to say, has been seldom seen there. His judgment was not only appreciated by the people of the county at large, but in the higher courts; his decisions in important matters, reviewed on appeal, were invariably affirmed.
From this post Judge Waller was again summoned to the front when the second revolution vibrated its war-cry through Texas. He was again sent to represent his people in convention, and with the same love of his State which animated him as a young man, in the convention which separated Texas from Mexico he, in his old age, labored in the convention which declared the ties between Texas and the United States sundered forever. When the Ordinance of Secession was passed by the convention, Judge Edwin Waller was the first to sign it. On the same list is the name of John A. Wharton, a descendant of those Whartons with whom Judge Waller's early history is so intimately interwoven.
This was his last political act, and is perhaps the only unsuccessful public deed in his interesting record. Since then Judge Waller has lived the life of a Southern gentleman, surrounded by those who delight to honor him. His residence is in Austin county, eighteen miles from Bellville, the county seat, where he superintends his plantation. Judge Waller was born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, in 1800, and is therefore now seventy-four years old, though he appears younger, and is still active and strong in business life. He is with us as a connecting link with the past; his history, his name, is identified with the most interesting, the most chivalric period of Texan history, and with the lives of her best beloved sons; Lamar, Travis, Houston, Wharton, Jack, Austin, “have gone and left the world behind,” and there are but a few of their fellow-heroes of that day like Edwin Waller left with us to remind us that “There were giants in those days . . . . men who of old were Men of Renown.”
To the student of Texas history San Antonio is Rome. All roads lead hither; all roads hence.
The first grant or deed of land in the city to an individual was in the year 1727. These grants or deeds were often verbal, depending for their proof on witnesses and occupation of the land. In May, 1749, it was decreed by Gov. Pedro de Barrio Junca Espilla that “from this time forward all titles, grants, etc., of any nature be put in writing to avoid discord,” or, as the quaint old record puts it, “una Guerra.” The first recorded grant of land was on Soledad Street in 1744, the same year in which the street received its title of Solitary.
It is said that the mortar used in the construction of the various missions in and around San Antonio, especially that for the domes, abutments and altars, was mixed with milk furnished largely from the corrals of private families, who in their holy zeal made daily sacrifices in order that the good friars might not be disappointed in the necessary supply; and the children, inspired with hope of what was to be a veritable St. Peter's, are said to have toiled at piling the small stones and pebbles in smooth heaps for ready use, often handing them to the workers, who labored slowly but faithfully on. So grew old San Fernando.
Three sides of the stone wall which enclosed its church square, the first “Campo Santo” of the city, within which slept the dead of the parish, weré torn away in the early seventies. The piece facing west is part of the original wall.
Just across Galan street, on the corner of Military Plaza, stood the building 51 that tradition says was honored by the presence of Santa Anna on the night previous to the occupation of San Antonio and siege of the Alamo. In this block was the old Cassiano residence. It fronted east on Main Plaza, standing on the site now covered by the Southern Hotel.
The “Quinta,” an old rock house used by General Arredondo in 1813 as a military prison for women, fronted west on Quinta street, adjoining, perhaps, part of the old Bowen residence. 52
In the early days of the city, San Antonio river and San Pedro creek ran full and clear. The average width of the river was sixty feet, and that of the creek fifteen, and both were bordered with Tula grass stretching out here and there into great fields. As late as thirty years ago the Mill Bridge was a most picturesque locality. The river ford was full two hundred feet wide, with a sweep of crystal water from one to three feet deep, fed by a spring at Carcel, or Market street. Back of the old Losoya homestead on Losoya street, about fifty yards above Crockett, was another large spring and rivulet, and just north of the Commerce street bridge from under a huge boulder of limestone came a bold flow of pure water. Alas, what was is now no more; but the day brave Ben Milam and his followers crossed the “Ford of los Tejas,” on their way to the “Molino Blanco,” it was a river well worthy of name and fame. Locate this ford at the bridge, near the Lone Star Brewery, and the old mill a few hundred yards below on the west bank.
Of the Garza house, the south front and west corner are intact. Worthy of notice are the small window over the door, and the deep well. This place became the property of de la Garza in 1734. Mr. Leonardo Garza has the deed, which is dated 1771. From the signatures and transfers it seems clear that the house was built between 1735 and 1740.
The Navarro building, on the northeast corner of Commerce and Flores Streets, was torn down about two weeks ago. This building had walls three and a half feet thick, and was built of adobe 53, with red cedar rafters. On one of the rafters the date 1728 was burned into the wood. This property was transferred from Veramendi to Navarro in 1838, according to the records.
The Veramendi house is still standing, its facade marred by advertisements and a tin awning. The zaguan, or entrance hall, is one of two belonging to the eighteenth century left in the city. The other is that of the Alamo. Some ten years ago the Veramendi doors were covered with a coat of green paint and marked with the words, “These doors have swung on their pivots since 1720.” I have not been able to verify this date. The consesus of opinion among those in a position to know would make it about ten years later. Just beyond the entrance fell Milam. Yoakum says, “Milam was buried where he fell,” but local tradition says it was under a group of fig-trees on the slope to the river, and that his remains were afterwards removed to the old Protestant cemetery, now Milam Park, where he still sleeps—if not exactly under the stone erected to his memory, certainly within twenty feet of it.
East Commerce street was called the “Alameda” as late as 1875, and on this street, in the vicinity of St. Joseph's church, tradition tells of a huge grave filled with the mortal remains of the heroes of the Alamo. How many such graves are all around us—brave dead, whose names are never, and never will be, seen or heard, who faltering not in the path of duty respond only to the roll call from above.
NOTICES.
The publications of the Southern History Association for May, in addition to copious Reviews and Notices, contain several valuable articles. Congressman Stoke's plan for investigating “the character and condition of the archives and public records of the several States and Territories, and of the United States,” is commented upon. Under the title of Anecdotes of General Winfield Scott, Gen. Hamilton gives several interesting incidents touching the life of this great man. The Journal of Thomas Nicholson describes his visit to his brethren, the Friends, on the Cape Fear, in 1746, and his visit to England in 1749. Of greatest value, perhaps, is the paper by D. R. Goodloe, entitled The Purchase of Louisiana, and How it was Brought About.
The April number of the American Historical Review contains the following articles: The Problem of the North, a study in English border history, by G. T. Lapsley; Social Compact and Constitutional Construction, by A. C. McLaughlin; The United States and Mexico, 1847-1848, by E. G. Bourne; and The Chinese Immigrant in Further Asia, by F. W. Williams. The document, A Memorandum of M. Austin's Journey from the Lead Mines in the County of Wythe, in the State of Virginia, to the Lead Mines in the Province of Louisiana, West of the Mississippi, 1796-1797, is of particular value. Introduced by a sketch of Moses Austin's life, written by his son, Stephen F., the journal is itself a rich commentary upon the character of the man who took the initiative in the Anglo-American colonization of Texas.
NOTES AND FRAGMENTS.
The Bexar Archives are now deposited in the vault of the University. Their classification has begun, and when it is finished they will be more available for investigation; but the work is a tedious one, and will consume a long time. The translation, which is a still larger task, is also to be pushed as rapidly as possible, but until the University can give more help for the purpose, it will go on but slowly.
The Lamar Papers.—The collection of documents made by President Lamar has been lately received by the State Librarian. Several years ago these papers were placed by Mrs. Lamar in the hands of Dr. J. W. Palmer, of Baltimore, to be edited for publication, but for some reason the plan was not carried out, and Mrs. Calder, the daughter of President Lamar, has secured the return of the papers, and has had them deposited for the time in the State capitol building. The collection fills a box measuring some six or eight cubic feet. No list nor general description of the papers has been transmitted, so far as their present custodian is aware, but some documents not known to exist elsewhere have been found among them. President Lamar was a scholarly man, and knew what was best worth gathering and preserving. It may be assumed, therefore, that the collection is of real value. More definite information concerning it will be given in a future number of The Quarterly.
AFFAIRS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
Gen. Felix H. Robertson of Waco contributes to the Association's collection of relics a desk once owned by Judge R. T. Wheeler, or the first Supreme Court of Texas. The gift has not been received, but is expected soon.
Mrs. Cornelia Branch Stone adds to the collection of the Association three copies of the “Magnolia Weekly,” dated respectively August 13, 1864; August 20, 1864; and February 11, 1865, published at Richmond, Va. They contain various war notes and other items of interest.
Mr. A. Y. Walton of San Antonio sends for the library of the Association a pamphlet copy of the Informe Oficial of Viceroy Revilla-Gigedo to the King of Spain relative to the condition of the Texas missions in 1793. This is one of the most valuable sources for the history of the missions, and the gift is thankfully accepted.
Mr. H. A. McArdle of San Antonio, the well known artist, has given the Association a letter from Capt. R. M. Potter to himself, written in 1881, which contains an interesting account of the escape of the Texas commissioners, Karnes and Teal, from Matamoros in the fall of 1836. The letter will be published in the October Quarterly, and the original will be preserved in the vault of the University.
The fourth annual meeting of the Association was held in Room 54 of the Main Building of the University of Texas, Austin, June 21, 1900, at 10 a. m., President Reagan in the chair. Judge Z. T. Fulmore read a paper on The Causes of the Mexican War, and Dr. W. F. McCaleb one on The First Period of the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition. The paper of Miss Elizabeth West, on The Picturesque Side of Protestantism in the Republic, was read by title.
Mrs. Cornelia Branch Stone of Galveston, on behalf of Mrs. Sallie Sawyer Ayres of Washington, D. C., then presented to the Association a fac-simile of the great seal of the Confederate States, 54 which was received by President Reagan. In reference thereto the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That the thanks of the Association are hereby tendered Mrs. Sallie Sawyers Ayres and Mrs. Cornelia Branch Stone for the fac-simile of the great seal of the Confederacy generously given it by the former through the agency of the latter.
A similar resolution was adopted relative to the gift by Mr. J. W. Darlington, of Taylor, of a painting of the first capitol building of the Republic erected in Austin. 55
The Association then proceeded to the election of officers for the year 1900-1901. Judge John H. Reagan was elected President, and Hon. Guy M. Bryan, Mrs. Julia Lee Sinks, ex-Gov. F. R. Lubbock and T. S. Miller, Esq., were elected Vice-Presidents in the order given. Mr. L. G. Bugbee was elected Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer; Judges Z. T. Fulmore and John C. Townes were elected Members of the Council from the Fellows, Judge Fulmore for the term ending in 1903, and Judge Townes to fill the unexpired term of Judge Raines, resigned. 56 Dr. Rufus C. Burleson was elected from the members to serve on the Council for the term ending in 1905.
The Association then adjourned.
THE I. &G. N. (INTERNATIONAL AND GREAT NORTHERN RAILROAD.)
Is the Short and the Sure of It
BETWEEN TEXAS AND ST. LOUIS. BETWEEN TEXAS AND KANSAS CITY. BETWEEN TEXAS AND MEMPHIS. BETWEEN TEXAS AND MEXICO.
JUST LOOK AT THE MAP!
THROUGH SLEEPERS TO ST. LOUIS
hi rend="bold">Through Sleepers to Ft. Worth, Dallas and Kansas City.
VIA MILANO AND THE
I. &G. N.-SANTA FE ROUTE.
THE SHORTEST TRIP. THE SHORTEST TIME. THE LEAST TROUBLE. THE BEST SERVICE.
International &Great Northern Railroad, PALESTINE, TEX. L. TRICE, 3rd V.-P. &Gen'l Supt. D. J. PRICE, G. P. T. A.
THE KATY FLYER VIA THE MK AND T Missouri, Kansas &Texas Railway.
A NEW FAST SOLID
Vestibuled Train
WITH THROUGH SLEEPERS AND FREE RECLINING CHAIR CARS FROM Texas to St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City, AND ALL POINTS NORTH, EAST AND WEST.
New and modern equipment, first class service. Finest route to the north. Meals at our dining stations 50 cents.
THE Milano Route.
I. &G. N. San Antonio to Milano.
SANTA FE North, South and East.
PULLMAN SLEEPERS AND FREE RECLINING CHAIR CARS. SAN ANTONIO TO KANSAS CITY via MILANO TO PURCELL.
Observation, Library Sleepers, SAN ANTONIO TO ST. LOUIS via MILANO AND PARIS.
EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR.
Take this Route from Austin.
Sleepers to FT. WORTH, GAINESVILLE, DALLAS and PARIS.
Call on P. J. LAWLESS, Passenger Agent, Austin, or address: W. S. KEENAN, Gen. Pass. Agt., GALVESTON, TEXAS.
BEST PASSENGER SERVICE IN TEXAS
ONLY LINE WITH—
Two Fast Trains Daily for St. Louis and the East.
Through Coaches and Sleepers without Change between North Texas and New Orleans.
Reclining Chair Cars (Seats Free) through to St. Louis, Memphis and El Paso.
Pullman Sleeper Daily without change to California.
L. S. THORNE, VICE-PRES. AND GEN'L MGR., DALLAS, TEXAS., E. P. TURNER, GEN'L PASS. AND TICKET AGT.
When you have anything to PRINT Remember that Von Boeckmann, Schutze &Co. are PRINTERS And from them you will receive first-class work in PRINTING 811 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas.
THE QUARTERLY OF THE Texas State Historical Association.
Back Numbers of The Quarterly may be had at the following prices, postage prepaid:
Volume I (bound in half morocco) $3 00
Volume I (unbound) 2 00
Single Numbers (except that for July, 1898) 50
NUMBER 4.
Establishment of the University of Texas O. M. Roberts
The Real Saint-Denis Lester G. Bugbee
The Old Mexican Fort At Velasco Adele B. Looscan
Recollections of Early Schools M. M. Kenney
Some of My Early Experiences in Texas. I. Rosa Kleberg
The Life and Services of Oran Milo Roberts Dudley G. Wooten
The Old Fort at Anahuac Adele B. Looscan
Sketch of the Development of the Judicial System of Texas. I. J. C. Townes
H. P. Bee F. R. Lubbock
The Cherokee Nation of Indians V. O. King
Jottings from the Old Journal of Littleton Fowler Dora Fowler Arthur
The Capitals of Texas O. M. Roberts
Rutersville College Julia Lee Sinks
Sketch of the Development of the Judicial System of Texas. II. J. C. Townes
Enduring Laws of the Republic of Texas. II. C. W. Raines
Notes on the History of La Bahia Del Espiritu Santo Bethel Coopwood
Early Experiences in Texas. II. Rosa Kleberg
The “Prison Journal” of Stephen F. Austin.
Captain Adolphus Sterne W. P. Zuber
The Founding of the First Texas Municipality I. J. Cox
Life of German Pioneers in Early Texas Caroline Von Hinueber
Descubrimiento de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo Damian Manzanet
Translation: Discovery of the Bay of Espiritu Santo Lilia M. Casis
The Battle of Gonzales Miles S. Bennet
NUMBER 1.
The Adventures of the “Lively” Immigrants W. S. Lewis
The Communistic Colony of Bettina Louis Reinhardt
San Augustine Emma B. Shindler
Col. Turner's Reminiscences of Galveston Frances Harwood
Peter Hansborough Bell C. Luther Coyner
Route of Cabeza de Vaca in Texas O. W. Williams
Those desiring to order back numbers or to subscribe, and those having copies of the number for July, 1898, which they are willing to sell, will please address
THE QUARTERLY, Lester G. Bugbee, Business Manager, Austin, Texas.
2. Tello, Cap. XCII.
3. Tello, Cap. XCII.
4. Historia de las Indias, Part I: Tit. Síbola.
5. Zamacois, Vol. IV, pp. 605-606.
6. Zamacois, Vol. IV, pp. 652-653.
7. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-93, Part I, p. 369, and note 2 thereon.
8. Ibid., p. 378.
9. Naufragios, Cap. XXXVII.
10. Gomara says Fray Marcos de Niza and another Franciscan friar went in by Culiacan in the year 1538. Historia de las Indias, Part I. Tit. Síbola.
11. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-93, Part I, p. 381.
12. Tello, Cap. XCII.
13. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-93, Part I, pp. 381-382.
14. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-93, Part I, pp. 472-473.
15. Naufragios, Cap. XXXI.
16. Tello gives the date of Guzman's leaving the City of Mexico as the beginning of November, 1529. Cap. XXVI.
17. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Part I, pp. 472-473, and original Spanish, pp. 416-417.
18. Tello, Cap. XXVIII.
19. See pages 55-150.
20. Ibid., p. 157.
21. Historia de Mejico, Tom. IV, pp. 73-74.
22. An interesting account of this war is given by Zamacois, Vol. IV, pp.548-554.
23. Tradition of the Nahuatlacas, p. 22.
24. Naufragios, Cap. XXXIV.
25. Historia de las Indias: A los Trasladadores.
26. Cap. XIX. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 505-506.
27. Naufragios, Cap. XXI.
28. Ibid., Cap. XXII.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Naufragios, Cap. XXII.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid., Cap. XXVIII.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid., Cap. XXIX, showing they had such there.
39. Naufragios, Cap. XXIX.
40. Mr. Winship's note 1 as to this is “The Rio Pecos.” See Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Part I, p. 504.
41. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-93, Part I, p. 504.
42. The following description is given by Mr. Egan, of Laredo, Texas.
43. See Naufragios, Cap. XXX.
44. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Part I, p. 442.
45. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Part I, pp. 588-589.
46. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Part I, p. 394.
47. 48. The Mejía expedition. This sentence is misleading. The expedition occurred several months before Bustamente's supremacy had been overthrown It was not despatched by Santa Anna, as the narrative here states, but was hastily organized by Mejía himself without orders from his commander-in-chief, and carried out with the approval of his immediate superior, Moctezuma. It came about in this fashion: In 1830 Bustamente, who had been vice-president of the Mexican Republic under Guerrero, and had driven the latter from the city, assumed the functions of the presidency. In January, 1832, the garrison at Vera Cruz had demanded the dismissal of Bustamente's obnoxious ministry, and had invited Santa Anna to take the lead against the Bustamente party. This declaration is called the Plan of Vera Cruz. Santa Anna accepted the invitation. In the civil war that followed, Colonel Mejía, in charge of a small force of Santa Anna's supporters, was conducting a movement against Colonel Guerra of the Bustamente party, who was in command at Matamoros, when the news of the disturbances in Texas led Mejía to propose, and Guerra to accept, an armistice between them until Mejía could lead his troops against the insurrectionary colonists and restore quiet. It was then supposed by these two officials that the attacks on Anahuac and Velasco were the beginning of a secession movement in Texas; but, as the story goes on to show, the fears of Mejía on this point were easily dispelled.—Editor Quarterly.
49. The meeting had been called for October 15. The delegates, however, did not assemble till the 16th, and on the 17th, for want of a quorum, they adjourned to November 1, when the regular session began. The Consultation adjourned finally November 14.—Editor Quarterly.
50. 51. Torn down in 1895.
52. This location agrees with the Yoakum map.
53. Adobe is really sun-dried brick, but common use applies the term to all the old rock buildings in the city, which are built of all sorts and sizes of rock and pebbles cemented together.
54. Mrs. Ayres writes that the original seal is a block of silver about two inches thick, which she understands to be now in the possession of a United States army officer; that Col. John T. Pickett, of Kentucky, had the reproductions made; and that she recently purchased from his son all that remained of them. With each reproduction goes a certificate from J. S. and A. B. Wyon, chief engravers of her Majesty's seals, whose predecessor, Joseph S. Wyon, engraved the original in 1864 for James M. Mason, then representing the Confederate States in London. The certificate states that the reproduction must be correct for the reason that its impression is the same as that which the Wyons have preserved from the original, of which they have never made a duplicate.
55. Mr. Darlington, who was one of the builders, gave the assurance that the painting, though executed only from descriptions furnished by himself, is a faithful representation of the old capitol. President Reagan, who knew the building well, added his testimony to the same effect.
56. Judge Raines became, by his appointment at State Librarian, an ex-officio member of the Council, and has therefore given up his place as an elected member.
How to cite:
"Issue View", Volume 004, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v004/n1/issue.html
[Accessed Mon Nov 23 17:00:27 CST 2009]
