Vol. V. JANUARY, 1902. No. 3.
The publication committee and the editor disclaim responsibility for views expressed by contributors to the Quarterly.
To bring together a series of incidents that are properly a part of a larger narrative in such a manner as to give to them proportion and meaning is a task of considerable difficulty. It requires the compression into single paragraphs or sentences of circumstances and events the relation of which might well deserve chapters; the subordination of movements and occurrences that are of much importance; and the rejection of all material, howsoever interesting or valuable, that is not directly necessary to the construction of the special narrative. Such a task the writer has set himself in the preparation of this paper. It is his purpose to take out from the larger history of Spanish enterprises and endeavors in North America that specific connection of incidents pertaining to the first efforts of the Franciscan fathers to establish missions within the limits of the territory which later became known as Texas: in particular, to relate the history of the expeditions sent out in the years 1689, 1690, and 1691 by the viceroys of Mexico for the purpose of exploring the lands east of the Rio Grande, and of establishing missions among the Tejas Indians; and to suggest the probable causes of failure of these early missionary efforts.
During the seventeenth century the rulers of New Spain slowly pushed their conquests northward and eastward. Along the frontier and limited upon the east by the Rio del Norte lay a vast undefined region known as Nueva Vizcaya, the eastern portion of which was unoccupied, except by a few outlying missions and presidios; and beyond this to the north lay still more extensive territories, unexplored, unknown, and nameless. Into this vast region lying eastward from the Rio Grande, which later became known as the New Philippines or Texas, there were, during the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries, many random or accidental excursions. The first of these chance explorations was probably made by Cabeza de Vaca, who in the year 1535, with three companions of the ill-fated de Narvaez expedition, set out from the island of Malhado, somewhere off the eastern coast of Texas, and with incredible hardships and dreary wanderings, finally, according to his own story, came out at Culiacan on the Gulf of California. In 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, governor of Nueva Galicia, who had been charged with the conquest of the country of Cibola, crossed the northwestern corner of the State. 1 Moscoso, the successor of Ferdinand de Soto, probably led his men into the State from the east in 1543. 2 Espejo, Sosa, Oñate, Vaca, and many others, before the middle of the seventeenth century, were upon the lands east of the Rio Grande; but their explorations accomplished little, further than to stimulate curiosity concerning the eastern plains, and to give a vague notion of the geography of the country and the Indian tribes that inhabited it.
About the middle of the century, however, events began to trend toward a definite occupation of those lands. In the year 1661 Don Diego de Peñalosa, an adventurer from South America, became governor of New Mexico. While acting in this capacity he employed himself in making incursions into the lands east of the province. Whatever degree of extent or importance his explorations may have had, they were sufficient to arouse in him a desire to undertake a conquest of the eastern lands; with a view to which, in 1664, he returned to Mexico, where he published extravagant accounts of the discoveries he had made, and endeavored to induce the viceroy to authorize further explorations and conquests. In this effort he was unsuccessful, and, becoming involved in a humiliating quarrel with the Inquisition, he was compelled to leave Mexico. 3 After many vicissitudes of fortune he turned up in France, where, in the year 1682, he made representations to Louis XIV and his ministers in the hope that he might interest them in his projects.
Meanwhile, there had been an uprising of the Indians in New Mexico and many Spanish and friendly Indians had been slaughtered. In 1682 General Otermin, governor of New Mexico, determined to abandon the pueblo Isleta del Norte and take with him the friendly Indians from that place and those who had taken refuge there. With these Indians the padres founded three mission pueblos in the south. One of these pueblos, named Isleta, 4 was situated about twelve miles southeast of El Paso, on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande. Although this settlement is existing today, its establishment had no important influence.
While Peñalosa was a petitioner at the court of France, another line of forces, the spiritual, was beginning to operate toward the opening up of the territory east of the Rio Grande. In the year 1683, while the Spaniards were resting at El Paso from the long and exhausting struggle with the Indians of New Mexico, a messenger came from the chief of the Jumana tribe asking that missionaries be sent to his people, and bringing glowing accounts of the Tejas, which lay far to the southward. In response to this request the governor of New Mexico allowed an expedition to be organized under Juan Domingo de Mendoza, the spiritual interests of the enterprise being entrusted to Father Nicholas Lopez. The company descended the Rio Grande to the junction of the Concho, from which point it advanced eastward beyond the Pecos, and if we may trust the statement of Mendoza, penetrated to within twenty leagues of the nation of the Tejas. The expedition failed to accomplish the purpose for which it was organized, but it seems to have impressed deeply the imagination of both Father Lopez and Captain Mendoza. On their return they proceeded at once to the City of Mexico, where they urged the viceroy to undertake the conquest and Christianization of those eastern lands; and when they failed to arouse in him sufficient interest, they sent memorials to the king of Spain, with descriptions and maps of the lands they had visited. These representations, assisted no doubt by the earlier and more extravagant statements of Peñalosa, aroused the interest of the court to such an extent that a royal order was issued to Father Alonzo Posadas to make report upon the explorations that had been made of the lands east of the Rio del Norte, of the nature and resources of those lands and of the Indian tribes inhabiting them. In accordance with this order Father Posadas, in the year 1685, made what is apparently a full and truthful statement of all the explorations that had been made eastward from New Mexico, with such account of the geography of the country as, from his information, he was able to make. 5
But the government of Spain was not yet ready to make a definite advance toward the occupation of the territory northeast of the Rio Grande. It required the incitement of an imminent menace to Spanish authority in those lands to call forth a positive effort. This threat of supplantation came with the effort of the French to establish a colony upon the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
It has already been noted that the Count of Peñalosa, after his failure to interest the viceroy of Mexico in his behalf, went to France with the hope of retrieving his fortunes. 6 Recounting his story of fabulous lands and wonderful cities, he endeavored to interest the king in an enterprise to establish a colony at the mouth of the Rio Bravo. In a memoir dated January, 1682, he set forth the “advantages that might accrue to the king and his people” from the establishment of such a colony. 7 In 1684 the Sieur de la Salle returned from America, where for several years he had been wandering in the valley of the Mississippi, bringing encouraging reports of the lands he had explored and new plans of conquest. In a series of memorials 8 he presented a program of territorial extension in the new world, which was strikingly similar to the plan already outlined by Peñalosa. It was an elaborate scheme of aggrandizement at the expense of Spain, to start from a colony to be established near the mouth of the Mississippi. There is little doubt that La Salle and Peñalosa met 9 and compared plans and were inclined to assist one another. Peñalosa went so far as to abandon the idea of a colony at the mouth of the Rio Bravo. He proposed to proceed at once to the West Indies, organize a force of filibusters, and descend upon Pánuco—the northern outpost of the Spanish settlements upon the coast of the Gulf of Mexico—whence he would coöperate with La Salle in the conquest of the rich lands of Nueva Vizcaya. 10 Whether Peñalosa received any recognition of his proposed enterprise from the French government, it is unnecessary here to discuss. For palpable reasons Louis XIV was willing to strike a blow at Spain in her American possessions; and the prospect of adding to the dominion of France the valuable mines of Sonora and Sinaloa was, to his active imagination, especially attractive. Accordingly, April 14, 1684, La Salle received his commission to conquer and govern that portion of North American extending from Fort Saint Louis on the Illinois river to New Biscay. 11
It would be inconsistent with the purpose and limitations of this paper to give more than the briefest outline of the voyage and subsequent adventures of La Salle. Having received his commission he went to work to enlist his company and equip the expedition. For the transportation of his people to the new world he secured four vessels—the Joli, a ship of the royal navy of thirty-six guns; a storeship called the Aimable; the Belle, a frigate; and a ketch, the St. Francis. On the 24th of July, 1684, the ill-sorted company, consisting of two hundred and eighty people 12—seamen, soldiers, priests, artisans, women and children—embarked from the port of Rochelle; and eight months later, about the middle of February, 1685, after many hardships and misadventures, having missed the mouth of the Mississippi, it passed through the narrow channel between Matagorda Peninsula and Matagorda Island into the bay of Matagorda. It will be sufficient merely to indicate the events that followed,—the landing upon the sandy shore of the bay, which the French called Bay St. Louis; the loss by criminal carelessness of the storeship Aimable with the provisions, arms, and supplies that were on her; the departure of Beaujeu with those of the expedition who had become discouraged or dissatisfied; the settlement of the colony a few miles inland on the Lavaca River; the sickness, accidents, and misfortunes by which the company of two hundred was soon reduced to a few score; and La Salle's three painful efforts to pass overland to the Mississippi, ending with the tragedy of his murder by his own men. 13 The fate of the few unfortunate persons who were left at the village of St. Louis, as it touches the enterprises of the Spaniards, will appear as we proceed.
One incident only of La Salle's outward voyage is important for our purpose to mention: that is the capture by Spanish cruisers, in September, 1684, off the island of San Domingo, of the ketch St. Francis. 14 From the prisoners thus taken the Spaniards learned of the intention of La Salle to make a settlement upon the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Alarmed by this intelligence, the viceroy, the Marquis de Laguna, wrote to the governor of Havana instructing him to prepare at once a frigate under command of Juan Enrique Barroto to examine the coast of the Gulf and find out the purpose of the French. 15 Barroto, accordingly, in the year 1686, sailed out of the harbor of Havana, and passed along the shores of the Gulf, exploring its bays and inlets but found no sign of the French. 16 In the following year the Conde de Monclova dispatched two brigantines to make a further search for the settlement of La Salle; but though they found the fragments of a wrecked vessel, the village of St. Louis several miles inland escaped their notice. 17 In the year 1688 the Spaniards received further and more definite information regarding La Salle's enterprise; 18 and in that year and the year following expeditions were sent out under command of Don Andres Pez, an experienced seaman, who made a thorough examination of the entire coast, but still found no evidence of the existence of a French colony. 19
While these efforts were being made by sea to discover the settlement of the French, expeditions were sent also by land. By order of the viceroy, in 1685-86, the Marquis de Aguayo, governor of the New Kingdom of Leon, sent Captain Alonso de Leon with a company of fifty men to explore the coast northward from Tampico toward the Rio Bravo. Descending to the coast, Leon advanced to the Rio Grande, which he crossed with some difficulty, and proceeded thence northward to the mouth of another river which he called Rio Salo; and, being unable to cross this river on account of the lagoons at its mouth, he abandoned the enterprise, not having come near Espiritu Santo Bay, nor heard anything of the French. Not long afterward a similar expedition of two companies of cavalry under command of Captain Leon proceeded up the coast to the Rio Bravo, crossed it, and advanced to the Rio Salo, and was again unable to go any further. Having heard nothing of the French settlement, Captain Leon concluded that the report of its existence was unfounded, and made no further efforts in that direction. 20
At this time Fray Damian Manzanet, a missionary friar lately come out from Spain, was residing in the mission of Caldera in Coahuila. Learning that the governor was desirous to know of the presence of any Frenchmen who might be in the lands east of the Rio Grande, he made inquiries of the Indian converts at the mission, and at length learned from one of them that there were white men living among the northern tribes. A short time afterward an Indian of the Quems nation came to the mission and upon being questioned told Father Manzanet that upon the coast to the north there was a village where were many white men with arms and large guns. He said also that he had been in that village and could lead the Spaniards to it. 21
These facts being brought to the knowledge of Captain Leon, who had been made commandant of the presidio of Coahuila, he undertook to make further investigations to determine the truth of the Indian's statements. By his order the Indian, Juan, who had first given information of the presence of the Frenchmen, went to a ranchería sixty leagues to the north to bring back a white man whom he had seen there. He succeeded in inducing the man to come to another ranchería nearer to the presidio of Coahuila, whither Captain Leon went with a company of twelve men and without difficulty brought him away. This man, Juan Francisco (Juan Enrique) was an old Frenchman, a native of Cheblie [Quebec (?)] in New France; he was probably an early deserter from La Salle's colony. He was brought to the viceroy, the Conde de Monclova, who at once ordered Captain Leon to renew his efforts to find the French settlement. For the new expedition it was provided that Leon should have a company of eighty men, forty from the presidios of Vizcaya, and forty from the New Kingdom of Leon. Fray Damian Manzanet was made chaplain of the company. 22
On the 27th of March, 1689, the force from Coahuila joined that from New Leon on the Sabinas, and the expedition set out. Three days later they crossed the Rio del Norte, and guided by the Quems Indian, who professed to have been in the village of the French, advanced northeast. 23 The country which they traversed was for the most part easy and hospitable, affording abundant water and forage. They passed over broad stretches of prairie, broken with occasional hills, and varied with dense thickets of mesquite and thorny shrubs. On the prairies were vast herds of buffaloes which afforded an abundant supply of meat for the company while it was on the march. They crossed and named the rivers Nueces, Sarco (Frio), Hondo, Medina, 24 and Leon 25 (San Antonio), and on the 14th of April camped near the Guadalupe. Here Captain Leon called a consultation to determine the best plan of approaching the French village, which the guide informed them was not far distant. It was thought best, after deliberation, that a part of the company should advance to the village, while the rest went into camp at a spot agreed upon. Accordingly Captain Leon set out with sixty men to the southeast. 26
When they had gone a short distance the rear guard captured an Indian. He conducted them to his ranchería where, upon inquiry, they learned that a few days before four white men had passed with a band of Tejas Indians, 27 going toward the north. They learned also that the village of the white men upon Espiritu Santo Bay had, about two months before, been plundered, and that all the people, except a few who escaped, had been put to death by the coast Indians. 28 From this ranchería Captain Leon went on in pursuit of the white men of whom he had heard, until he came to another village of Indians, where he was informed that the white men had gone on across the San Marcos River (Colorado). As he was already separated by a considerable distance from the rest of his company, and as he was told by the Indians that he would not be able to cross the San Marcos, he decided to abandon the pursuit and to send a letter by an Indian to the Frenchmen, assuring them of the kindly intentions of the Spaniards, and telling them to go on to meet him at the place where the village had been. 29
Having dispatched this letter, Captain Leon resumed his march southward, and on April 22 reached the village and fort of St. Louis, near the La Vaca river. All there was deserted and silent. About the yard were scattered the contents of plundered houses,—broken chests and boxes and barrels; the broken tackle of a ship; a great number of books with leaves torn and scattered, but bearing still the evidences of costly bindings; and broken cutlasses, and the stocks of many arquebuses with locks and barrels gone. On the prairie near by lay three dead bodies, one of which, from the fragment of a dress that still clung to it, appeared to be that of a woman. 30 The village consisted of five or six small houses of palisades, plastered over with mud, and covered with the skins of buffaloes; a larger house where apparently animals were kept; and a wooden fort, made from the timbers of a wrecked vessel. The fort had four lower rooms, one of which had served as a chapel; and above these rooms was an upper story which had been used for a storeroom. Scattered about the fort were several swivels and eight small guns of four or six pounds, some upon the floor and some upon their broken carriages. Upon the casing of the principal door of the fort was inscribed the year of its occupation, with other details of the history of the village. 31
Before setting out upon the return journey Captain Leon descended to the coast and explored the bay of Espiritu Santo. 32 Skirting the shore for many leagues, he saw the shattered spars and broken timbers of a wrecked vessel. On his return to the fort he found that the Indian messenger had arrived bringing a letter from the Frenchmen. They asked the Spaniards to wait for them, saying that they would be on in a few days; that they were waiting for another Frenchman who was with some Indians farther away.
While waiting for them Captain Leon with a party of twenty men set out to the east and discovered the Rio de San Marcos (Colorado), which he explored almost to its mouth. 33 He then returned to the place where his company had gone into camp, and found that the Frenchmen still delayed to come; whereupon he determined to go with a few men in search of them, sending the rest of the company on to the Guadalupe to await his return. 34 He accordingly set out with thirty men toward the country of the Tejas. After three days he rejoined his company upon the Guadalupe, bringing with him two of the Frenchmen; they were Juan Archbepe 35 (Jean L'Archevêque,) a young man from Bayonne and one of the murderers of La Salle; and Santiago Grollet, a sailor who had deserted La Salle on one of his early journeys in search of the Mississippi. The other two Frenchmen, Pedro Muñi (Pierre Meusnier) and Pedro Talo (Pierre Talon), distrusting the Spaniards, preferred to remain with the Indians. 36
From the captives the Spaniards learned more in detail the story of the destruction of the little colony in Fort St. Louis. 37 Before the final catastrophe the smallpox had broken out among the villagers, reducing their number till there were scarcely more than a score left. La Salle had gone away with the ablest bodied of the men on a last toilsome journey in search of “the fatal river.” Day by day the few men, women, and children left upon the short of Bay St. Louis waited while hope slowly failed them. Around them was the unending wilderness, pathless and inhospitable; before them stretched a waste of sand beyond which spread out the wide, tantalizing expanse of the sea. Near the first of February, in the year 1689, the end came. They had been on friendly terms with the Indians around them, and suspected no evil. The savages came and went about the village, bartering for trinkets and professing friendship. But underneath this amicable pretension was a hatred which had existed since La Salle, soon after his landing, had taken from them their canoes; they were biding their time. One day five of them came to the village under the pretext of trading. They stopped at a house apart from the others and began to barter noisily. Soon all the people of the village, willing to accept any diversion to pass the tedious days, came out and gathered around the savages, watching curiously. Other Indians came and joined the boisterous colloquy. When all the white people of the village were in the house or near it, a band of warriors rushed up from the river, where they had lain concealed, set upon the villagers, and killed them all except five who were saved by the Indian women. 38 The five who were thus saved were the four children of the Canadian Talon, three boys and a girl; and a young man from Paris named Eustache Breman. The young Talons, before their rescue, had been compelled to see their mother killed before their eyes; their father had gone with La Salle on one of his early efforts to find the Mississippi and had never returned. After massacreing the villagers the Indians had plundered the huts and the fort, breaking open the chests and scattering their contents, carrying away whatever they fancied, and breaking up what they could not use. The four Frenchmen, L'Archevêque, Grollet, Meusnier, and Talon had been absent from the village among the Tejas Indians when the savages fell upon it; but, according to the story told by L'Archevêque and Grollet, as soon as they heard of the fate of the colonists they descended to the coast and examined the plundered houses. They found fourteen dead bodies upon the sand, which they buried. They said also that they found and destroyed a number of barrels of powder which the savages had overlooked. 39
Captain Leon also brought back with him to the Guadalupe the chief, or governor, of the Tejas Indians, who was treated with much kindness by the Spaniards, and in response gave many evidences of kindly disposition. The chaplain of the company, Fray Damian Manzanet, was especially impressed with the superior qualities of the savage chief, and was zealous to win his good will, giving him many presents and other assurances of friendship 40. The willingness and seeming sincerity with which the governor of the Tejas responded to these amicable advances encouraged the friar to make an effort to present to him the claims of the Christian religion. Making use of one of the Frenchmen as interpreter, he urged the savage chief and his people to become Christians, offering, if they wished it, to send priests to their village to teach them; and when the chief expressed his willingness to have the priests come among his people, Father Manzanet promised to return the following year at planting time. Thus upon the banks of the Guadalupe river the Tejas Mission was conceived. The missionary fathers of Mexico already had their eyes turned with zealous longing toward this nation of superior savages; but events hitherto had not been favorable to the establishment of a permanent mission among them. Now by the chance coöperation of temporal circumstances an opportunity was to be offered that held a promise of success for the efforts of the priests.
On the 3d of May the chief of the Tejas, with his attendants, departed, and at the same time Captain Leon and his company recrossed the Guadalupe and set out upon their return march. They reached the presidio of Coahuila the 15th of the same month, whence the two Frenchmen, L'Archevêque and Grollet, were at once dispatched in charge of Captain Francisco Martinez to the City of Mexico. The viceroy provided them with suitable clothing, and the following year they were sent with Don Andres Pez to Spain. 41
The accounts of this entrada of Captain Leon were received in Mexico with much enthusiasm. The story of the colony upon the shore of Espiritu Santo Bay, its establishment, unhappy experiences, and final destruction made an interesting narrative; but the interest of it was greatly increased by the suggestion of further and wider explorations and more important disclosures. Fray Manzanet and Captain Leon, desirous from different motives to urge on a second expedition, gave the best account they could of the lands through which they passed. The padre told of a nation of docile and friendly savages, able and willing to receive Christianity; and Captain Leon seems to have strained the truth in his desire to push the political aspect of the enterprise. The latter brought reports of another French village of many houses among the Tejas Indians, thus stimulating the fears of the viceroy, while Manzanet was appealing to his religious impulses. 42
Conference of the chief men of Mexico were called by the viceroy to deliberate whether any further steps should be taken in the matter. At these juntas Leon and Manzanet were present to urge their opinions in regard to a second entrada. At length after much discussion the viceroy determined to send out another expedition to the lands beyond the Rio Bravo. In its scope and purpose it was to be a marked advance upon the former expedition. Captain Leon was to inspect the bay of Espiritu Santo and its environs to ascertain whether there were left any Frenchmen of those who had come out with La Salle, or others who had arrived since, and was to destroy the wooden fort built by the French upon the La Vaca. He was also specifically instructed to inquire of the Tejas Indians whether they would receive missionaries; and, if they showed themselves willing, he was to conduct Fray Damian Manzanet, with such other Franciscans as Manzanet should select, to the village of the Tejas, and assist him in establishing a mission there. For the undertaking Leon was to have one hundred and ten soldiers, twenty from the presidios of Coahuila, forty from Sombrerete and Zacatecas, and the rest from the New Kingdom of Leon. Father Manzanet selected to assist him in the missionary work he was to undertake the three Franciscan fathers Fray Miguel Fontecuberta, Fray Francisco de Jesus Maria, and Fray Antonio Bordoy. 43
On the 28th of March, 1690, the combined military and missionary expedition set out from the presidio of Coahuila. It was an indiscriminate company of tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, miners, and other persons of adventurous turn, and little suited to the arduous business of opening a new country or making permanent settlements. Crossing the Rio Grande they advanced northeast, following a course similar to that of the former journey. At the Guadalupe the main body of the army stopped, while Captain Leon with twenty men descended to the coast. They found no evidence that the fort had been occupied since they were there before, though there were many signs of the presence of Indians in the vicinity. Father Manzanet declares that he himself set fire to the dismantled fort, and as there was a high wind blowing in half an hour it was in ashes. Captain Leon and his party then went down to the bay and made a further examination of it, passing all along its shores, and exploring also the river upon which the Frenchmen had built their village. 44
Having made a careful examination of the bay of Espiritu Santo, Leon returned to the camp on the Guadalupe, whence the entire company moved eastward toward the country of the Tejas, or Asinay. A small party which went on in advance encountered near the Colorado a band of Indians in whose company were two French youths, 45 Pedro Talo (Pierre Talon) and Pedro Muñi (Pierre Meusnier). It appears 46 that these two young men, who had been the companions of L'Archevêque and Grollet, had heard of the approach of the Spaniards, and not wishing to fall into their hands had left the nation of the Tejas, and that in their efforts to escape they encountered the advance guard of Leon's expedition and were made prisoners.
Captain Leon dispatched a messenger to the governor of the Tejas to announce the approach of the Spaniards, and in a short time he appeared with his attendants to welcome them. On the 22nd of May the company arrived at the chief village of the Tejas, where they were entertained with much kindness at the house of the governor. As the savages still showed themselves willing to have missionaries remain among them, the friars, with the assistance of Captain Leon, set to work at once to select a site for their mission; and as soon as this was done, they began to cut and haul logs to build a chapel, and a dwelling house for the priests. By the end of May the rude log church was finished, and on June 1st was consecrated with all solemnity.
The mission of San Francisco de los Tejas was situated somewhere between the Trinity and the Neches rivers, probably nearer to the latter. It stood in the heart of a savage wilderness, four hundred miles from the nearest settlement. Near it flowed a small stream, and around it was a pleasant forest. The three friars, Miguel Fontecuberta, Francisco de Jesus Maria, and Antonio Bordoy, with Fontecuberta as president, were left to carry on the missionary work. They set themselves at once to learn the language of the Indians, making a list of their words and phrases, and using the young Frenchmen as interpreters. 47 Only three soldiers were left to protect the mission, it being the opinion of Father Manzanet that more would not be needed. 48
The zeal which conceived this missionary establishment in the midst of an unexplored wilderness, and the self-sacrificing spirit of the holy men who undertook the well-nigh hopeless task of bringing the savage children of the forest to know and respond to the better impulses of the Christian religion are worthy of the highest commendation. But the wisdom of such an undertaking may well be questioned. It was based upon a confidence in the superior kindliness of disposition and capability of this particular tribe of Indians,—a confidence which subsequent events proved to be not well grounded. The Spaniards were yet to learn that the missionary fathers, howsoever patient and self-sacrificing they might be, could accomplish little toward bringing the Indians to respect the institutions and practices of civilization and Christianity without the constant assistance of the military to restrain the native impulses of the savage. To be successful the mission must advance with the presidio; this lesson the Spaniards had not yet learned. Moreover, the physical position of the mission of San Francisco was extremely unfavorable. Projected as it was a hundred leagues into the wilderness, remote and isolated, it had no natural source from which to renew its supplies of physical and spiritual strength. Its survival depended solely upon the persistence of a few priests and soldiers, sustained by the precarious favor of their savage beneficiaries or the chance coming at long intervals of relief expeditions from the far distant settlements of Mexico. The insincerity of the friendship of the Indians, the weakness of the guard left to protect the friars, and the remoteness of the church of St. Francis from the outposts of civilization were sufficient almost to foredoom the mission to failure.
On the 2nd of June the army set out on its return march, following the road by which it had come. On the way Captain Leon learned that there were among the Indians of the coast three French children, and he determined to go to rescue them. He accordingly descended to La Bahia and without much difficulty found the Indians with whom the children were. The savages had become so much attached to the white children that at first they refused to let them go, but at length they were induced to give them up in exchange for horses. These children 49 were the brothers Robert and Lucien Talon and their sister Marie Madelaine. They were taken to Mexico and later were sent to Spain.
Rejoining his company at the Guadalupe, Captain Leon continued his return march. The remaining days of the journey were marked by no incident of importance. From the report of Father Manzanet it appears that Captain Leon, upon setting out to return to Mexico, relaxed his control of his subordinates, allowing each one to do largely as he pleased. Thefts, quarrels, and fights were of daily occurrence; the animals were so carelessly attended that numbers of horses and mules were lost; the soldiers entered the houses of Indians along the way, prying about, and in other ways making themselves exceedingly offensive; and when report of this conduct was brought to Leon he took no steps to punish the offenders or to prevent its happening again. With such incidents the march was continued to the Rio Grande. Here they were detained eighteen days on account of a rise in the river, and succeeded in crossing at last only by compelling the horses to swim. One man was lost in making this passage. 50
The successful establishment of a mission among the Tejas Indians stimulated both the political and spiritual authorities of Mexico to renewed enterprise. The practical difficulty of maintaining such an establishment so far from any base of supplies was scarcely considered; but with a zeal that gave promise of permanent achievement the rulers set themselves to formulate a program of further exploration and missionary effort. The acts of the viceroy received the royal approval, and another expedition on a more extensive scale was planned. 51 To command this third expedition the Conde de Galve appointed Don Domingo Teran de los Rios, governor of Coahuila and Texas. For the enterprise he was to have fifty 52 soldiers; and forty skilled seamen were to be sent by ship from Vera Cruz to bay St. Bernard (Espiritu Santo) to act in conjunction with him.
The instructions of the viceroy for the equipping of the party and the prosecution of the enterprise were minute and definite. The purpose 53 of the expedition as outlined was to be three-fold. In the first place it was to be a missionary enterprise. All the strength and resources of the expedition were to be directed primarily to enlarging the mission already established and to establishing eight other missions among the Indian tribes of the north, the Tejas, the Cadodachos, and one probably on the Guadalupe. To this end peaceable and tactful methods were to be used in dealing with the savages, with the design of conciliating them and inclining them to receive favorably the efforts of the priests. The natives were not to be harshly used, nor impressed into service, and were not to be abused in their property or their persons. In the second place, Governor Teran was to search the country to find out whether there were in it any Frenchmen or people of other nations of Europe, either in villages, smaller settlements, or living among the tribes of Indians. It was thought that there were still several of the companions of La Salle scattered among the Indians, and there was a lingering suspicion that there might be another French village somewhere to the north. The instructions of the viceroy called, in the third place, for a thorough exploration of the lands to the north, especially those occupied by the nation of the Cadodachos; the examination of the rivers to determine their courses, directions, sources, and mouths; and the observation of the various Indian tribes, their character, polity, and form of religious belief. 54
In order to carry out this extensive program the expedition was to be fully supplied with men, arms, and provisions. The personnel was to consist of fifty soldiers, nine priests, and such servants and attendants as were necessary; and in order the better to carry out the exploration of bays, inlets, and rivers forty men skilled in sea-craft were to be sent, as already indicated, to St. Bernard Bay to join the overland expedition. To support this company and to supply the mission already established, as well as others to be established, there were to be taken abundant supplies of provisions, arms, and munitions, large herds of horses and mules, and flocks of cattle, sheep, and goats. The use and dispensing of the provisions and supplies were placed entirely in charge of Fray Damian Manzanet, who was constituted by the viceroy commissary of the expedition; and only upon his order were these supplies to be appropriated and consumed, save such as were necessary for the immediate maintenance of the army. On the other hand, the military direction of the enterprise, the determination where it should go, what lands it should explore and courses follow, and the control of those who composed the company were, within the limits of his very detailed instructions, to be left to the discretion of Don Domingo Teran de los Rios. 55
It is to be remarked her that this third enterprise, as thus outlined in prospective, was far more extensive than either of the preceding ones. The first had been merely tentative and protective, sent out to ascertain the truth in regard to the reported French settlement. It had undertaken no occupation of the country, either political or religious. The second expedition was an advance on the first in that it provided for the establishment of missions among the Tejas Indians. It did not, however, attempt, or even purpose, a military occupation of the country; no garrisons were called for, and none established except the small guard left to protect the friars among the Tejas. Nor did it provide for any general or extensive spiritual conquest. The third expedition, however, in its scope, purpose, and equipment looked toward a general occupation of the lands to the northeast.
In accordance with the instructions of the viceroy the expedition was at once placed under way. The friars came up from the New Kingdom of Leon with the flocks and herds, and met the soldiers from Coahuila near the Sabinas; and on the 26th of May, 1691, the company of soldiers and friars with numerous attendants, and droves of horses, pack mules, cattle, sheep, and goats, took up its march toward the east. The young Frenchman, Pierre Meusnier, 56 was in the company, and probably also his companion, Pierre Talon. They advanced along the route of the preceding expeditions until they came to the Rio Grande, where they were detained for several days by a severe tempest of wind and rain. At the Hondo, being led by new guides, they left the course they had been following and pursued their way as directly as possible toward the country of the Tejas. 57 They crossed the rivers considerably higher up, giving to them all new names. The country over which they passed was similar to that described in the preceding journeys; vast prairies over which roamed countless buffaloes; dense thickets of mesquite and cat-claw; and numerous creeks and rivers whose banks were lined with walnut, cottonwood, oak, and elm.
On the 18th of June, near one of the branches of the Guadalupe, they were met by Indians who brought letters from the friars at Mission San Francisco. From these Father Manzanet learned that there had been a great deal of sickness among the natives, apparently a form of fever, from which many of them had died; and that also, on February 5th of the year 1691, had died Father Fontecuberta. 58
June 27th the company reached the Colorado and passed down it several leagues, being compelled on account of the rugged conformation of its banks, to cross it three times. At the third crossing, on the eastern bank of the river, the company halted, while Captain Francisco Martinez, following the instructions of the viceroy, took twenty soldiers, one hundred and fifty horses, and a number of baggage animals, and descended to the Bay of Espiritu Santo to meet the expedition which was to come by sea from Vera Cruz. While the main party was in camp upon the Colorado, a number of Indians of the Tejas nation arrived, bringing report of several white men 59 who had come among the Cadodachos, and saying that these men lived in a village upon the bank of a river beyond the land of the Cadodachos.
On the 18th of July Captain Martinez returned, bringing with him two young Frenchmen whom he had rescued from the Indians. They were Jean Baptiste Talon and Eustache Breman, 60 two of the five youths who had been saved by the Indian women at the time of the destruction of La Salle's colony. 61 Martinez had remained at Espiritu Santo from the 6th to the 13th of July, and in that time had seen nothing of the sea expedition; he had passed along the shores of the bay, making fires to attract the attention of any persons who might be in the vicinity, and questioning the Indians, but was unable to learn anything of the expedition. Leaving a letter with the Indians of the coast to be delivered to the Spaniards in the event of their landing, he then set out to return to the camp upon the Colorado to make report of his ill success. 62
A disagreement now arose as to what course should be followed. It was the opinion of Governor Teran that another detachment of ten men should descend to the coast, the main company waiting meanwhile, and remain fifteen or twenty days on the lookout for the sea expedition. But to this Fray Damian Manzanet and the other friars would not assent. It was their opinion that the company should proceed to the country of the Tejas, whence a party could be sent down to meet the seamen from Vera Cruz. As no agreement could be reached Governor Teran called a junta of the missionary fathers and principal officers of the company to decide the matter. 63 Father Manzanet, speaking for the friars, stated their reasons for opposing a second descent to the coast. He urged that the Indians of that region were unfriendly, and that a party of ten men would certainly come to harm; that the country for many leagues in the vicinity of Espiritu Santo Bay was a waste and would in no wise support men and horses; and that it was especially necessary for the company to proceed on the way to the land of the Tejas to relieve the wants of the friars and soldiers who had been for fourteen months without assistance, and were in great need. 64 Although this argument was not without force, the plan of Governor Teran would have been, without doubt, the wiser; it would have saved much time and needless traveling, and might have given an entirely different ending to the expedition. But the judgment of the chief officer was overruled, and it was decided to proceed on the way to the mission.
The expedition was delayed at the Brazos (called Rio del Espiritu Santo and San Geronimo) two days in crossing the flocks, and another day at the Trinity. The friars became impatient at the slow progress of Governor Teran, and from the Trinity went on in advance toward the mission. They were met outside the village of the Tejas by the fathers Francisco de Jesus Maria and Antonio Bordoy, who confirmed the report of the death of Father Fontecuberta, and of the fatal sickness among the Indians. In a single month as many as three hundred died among the tribes of the Asinais, and among all the friendly nations called Tejas some three thousand died during the year 1690-91. 65
The friars also gave an account of the work they had done in the year since Manzanet had left them. They had continued their labors among the Asinais at Mission San Francisco, and at another mission established a few miles to the north upon a stream called Archangel San Miguel (probably the Neches). This second mission was built in June, 1690, and was the especial charge of Father Francisco de Jesus Maria; it was named Santisimo Nombre de Maria. 66 The labors of the fathers had not been without reward. They had succeeded in inducing a number of the Indians to receive baptism, among them the great Xinesi, head of the Asinais tribes. This chief, or governor, was baptized on his death-bed, but miraculously recovered, and according to Father Francisco became “a very good Christian, for he has given me his word that he will do nothing other than what I tell him.” 67 But the work of conversion had been necessarily slow on account of the numerical weakness of the missionary force, the difficulty of learning the native languages, and the indifference of the Indians. The leaven was too small to lighten quickly so large and ponderous a loaf.
Governor Teran with the soldiers, flocks, and herds reached the village August 4th, and was introduced into it with much ceremony by the governor and chief men of the Asinais. Delivering the presents and messages which the viceroy had specially directed should be conveyed to the governor and captains of this nation, Teran proceeded with due formality to constitute, out of the lands of the Tejas tribes, a new province which he called “El Nuevo Reyno de Nueva Montaña de Santander y Santillana.” 68 He then delivered to the frairs the flocks, herds, provisions and other supplies which had been brought for the support of the missions, and on the 24th of August set out to return to the Bay of Espiritu Santo to meet the sea expedition, which Captain Martinez had failed to find.
Recrossing the Trinity, Brazos, and Colorado lower down, he advanced as far as the Guadalupe, where he left the company under the command of Captain Martinez, and with a few men descended to the coast. He arrived September 8th, on the La Vaca, and found the company of seamen under Captain Gregorio Salinas de Varona awaiting him. It appears that they had landed on the shore of the bay July 2nd, and had been waiting ever since, though for some reason Martinez had been unable to find them. From this camping place of Santa Margarita 69 de Buena Vista Teran dispatched to the viceroy letters and reports of the progress of the expedition. He was compelled to wait eighteen days while the sailors were unloading the arms and supplies from the ships. In the meantime he sent for Martinez to come down and join him; and at length, September 27th, the combined forces set out from Santa Margarita for the New Kingdom of Nueva Montaña de Santander y Santillana.
The unfortunate results of the long delay soon became apparent. The company had hitherto been favored with fair weather and tolerable roads; they had known little of the real hardships of exploring a new country. But henceforth the season was against them; the autumn rains set in; the rivers rose and inundated the valleys; the roads became muddy and well-nigh impassable; and, what with the mud and the swollen streams, the expedition did not reach the mission until the 26th of October.
Whether during the two months of Teran's absence the friars had made any attempts to establish other missions, it is impossible to ascertain. It seems probable, however, that they had confined their efforts to the missions already established, awaiting the return of the soldiers before undertaking to locate others, as provided in the instructions of the viceroy. Indeed, Fray Manzanet and his assistants, either because of the increasing practical difficulties of their work or the lack of proper support from the military, made no vigorous effort to carry out the elaborate missionary program, and soon it was almost lost from sight.
After resting his company for a week in the vicinity of the missions, Governor Teran was again ready to take up the march to the country of the Cadodachos. It was an exceedingly unfavorable time to set out on such a journey. The troublesome showers which had delayed the forces on their return from the sea were but a slight forewarning of the hardships they were soon to endure. The inexperienced adventurers had as yet felt only the milder hardships which are the common experience of pioneer explorers. Their easy passage, in the summer season, across the broad prairies of the southwest, where the supply of food for themselves and provender for their horses was abundant, had but poorly prepared them to undergo the severe privations of a winter journey through a dense, pathless forest. A wiser course would have been to wait in camp near the missions until the winter season was over; but Teran had apparently already lost faith in the expedition, and was anxious to have it done with; so on the 6th of November he advanced southeast across the San Miguel, and thence northward toward the land of the Caddos. 70
Each day the march became more arduous and painful. The endless stretches of forest and thicket afforded little pasturage for the beasts, consequently they were soon jaded, starved, and unable to travel. Day after day the rain poured, swelling the creeks to rivers and making the rivers impassable. There were very many of these streams to be crossed, the largest of which they called El Grande del Nombre; many of them they were compelled to bridge, and where that was impossible to cross on rafts. To add to the difficulties of floods and bad roads, the weather turned cold, snow fell, and ice formed on the arroyos. The unseasoned explorers, ill clothed and poorly fed, were soon in no condition to go further; the cattle and baggage animals were dying of starvation and cold, and the whole company was brought to a standstill. Leaving Captain Gregorio Salinas de Verona in command, Teran took thirty men and the strongest of the animals and pushed on. Father Manzanet and several seamen were in the party. At last, on November 28th, they reached the great river of the Caddos (probably the Red River). There was for them little pleasure or enthusiasm in the discovery; they looked on it rather with a feeling of relief at the prospect of speedily having done with a disagreeable business. Their examination of the river and the country adjacent to it was hurried and imperfect. In a lagoon a few hundred yards from the river they found a canoe, which they transported to the main stream, and Teran and several of the seamen embarked in it and rowed several miles down the stream, sounding it, and marking its windings. Teran also, the following day, crossed the river with Father Manzanet and visited the Indians 71 on the other side, finding them friendly and disposed to receive Christianity. But no missionaries were left among them. The severity of the season, and the lack of supplies necessary to equip a mission would have been sufficient to compel the postponment of missionary efforts among the Cadodachos, even if the friars had been willing to remain under such unfavorable conditions.
Having carried out his instructions as best he could under the circumstances, Governor Teran returned to where he had left his main party and began the return march. The severity of the weather continued. The rain changed to sleet; the undergrowth of bushes and brambles became covered over with snow; the animals feeding upon the frozen shrubs grew leaner and more jaded, and one by one died. The soldiers were compelled at length to dismount, place the baggage on their saddle horses, and go on foot. Food failed them until they had barely one meal a day. Men became worn out and lagged behind; a negro trumpeter strayed away, and though parties were sent out to search for him, he was not found. December 30, the wretched company reached the mission of Santa Maria, where they remained a few days, and then moved on to Mission San Francisco.
The expedition was about to end in failure. Governor Teran had apparently had little heart in it since his first difference with the friars and had only persevered from a sense of obligation to the viceroy. The hardships which his people had been compelled to suffer, and to which they were little accustomed, had discouraged them, and had even cast a chill over the enthusiasm of the priests. Further differences arose between Manzanet and the soldiers. Governor Teran on the return march from the country of the Caddos had promised the soldiers that if they would take their saddle horses to carry the baggage, he would let them take fresh horses from those left at the mission for the march to the sea. But when they reached the missions, and were ready to set out upon their return to Espiritu Santo Bay, Manzanet refused to let them have the horses; nor would he even let them have a few cattle to support them until they came to the country of the buffaloes. Teran several times urged upon Father Manzanet the necessity of providing the men with horses and cattle for the return journey, and when the commissary still refused, he sent the soldiers to take what they wanted. 72 Thus the breach between the two leaders of the expedition was widened. The missionary plan seems to have been abandoned entirely; and the missions already established were not in a flourishing condition. The friendliness of the Tejas was not unmixed with duplicity; while professing good will in order to secure the presents which the Spaniards frequently made them, they were constantly pilfering from the missions and stealing and killing the animals. 73 Moreover, they attributed the disease and deaths among them to the influence of the new religion which they had professed, and began to rebel against it and to threaten the priests. 74 These difficulties were aggravated by the harshness and lack of tact which marked the dealings of the soldiers with the natives. Indeed, to sum up the whole matter, the practical obstacles in the way of carrying out the missionary enterprise, together with the lack of harmony between the spiritual and military leaders of the expedition, prevented the establishment of a single one of the eight missions that had been contemplated in the organization of the enterprise. A strong man, convinced of the importance of the work he was set to do, might have reorganized the shattered expedition, infused hope into it, compelled obedience from the soldiers, sought out and punished the offending Indians, and carried the undertaking through successfully. But Teran had neither the executive ability nor the address necessary to prosecute such an enterprise, and was apparently only anxious to get safely out of it in such a manner as to satisfy the viceroy that he had not been lax in performing the duty assigned him.
Laying aside all unnecessary baggage, in order that the horses and mules might pass more easily over the difficult roads, the company set out January 9th for Santa Margarita and the sea. The winter was not yet over, and the constant rains had raised the rivers, until the country for miles along the way was submerged. The Trinity confronted them with a roaring current, which for thirteen days they were unable to cross. The Brazos stretched out before them like a sea of water, and when at last they succeeded in crossing, they were compelled to go on for miles through water and mud. At the Colorado they met a relief party, which had been sent out by the viceroy, and from there went on with less difficulty, arriving at Santa Margarita on the 5th of March. The whole company of seamen and soldiers embarked on the schooner Santo Cristo, and on the 24th of March set sail from the bay Espiritu Santo for Vera Cruz, reaching 75 there April 15, 1692, a little less than a year after Governor Teran had set out from Coahuila.
It has already been suggested with perhaps sufficient clearness why this expedition of 1691 failed to accomplish the primary purpose for which it was sent out. The weakness and unwisdom of Governor Teran, the jealousy and headiness of Father Manzanet, the failure of the military and spiritual forces to act in harmony, and the unusual hardships and privations which befell the untried company were sufficient to have brought a much less difficult enterprise to disaster. It is doubtful, however, whether even with the most favorable seasons and a perfect coöperation of priests and soldiers, the plan of the viceroy could have been carried through successfully. To form and to garrison properly eight or ten missions among the tribes of the Tejas and the Cadodachos would have required several hundred soldiers instead of the small number that composed Teran's company. It would have required also the establishment of some method of communication, at least reasonably sure and regular, with the distant towns and settlements of Mexico, whence supplies could be brought for the missions and presidios. But access to the lands of the Asinais and Caddos was, under the most favorable conditions, difficult. Remote, inland, and confined by dense forests and treacherous rivers, they could be reached only by long and tedious overland marches. To make a number of religious settlements in a region so remote and inaccessible would have been a task of immeasurable difficulty; and to establish them upon a footing of tolerable security and permanence would have taxed the energies and resources of an expedition much more intelligently planned and wisely executed than was the unfruitful enterprise of 1691.
Father Francisco, in his letter to the Count of Galve, sets forth some of the difficulties encountered during the year and three months in which he was chaplain of the missions among the Asinais. The many superstitions of the Indians, the adverse influence of their medicine men, the evil conduct of the soldiers who had been left to guard the missions, the difficult task of learning the many languages or dialects, rendered it impossible to accomplish much good. He wisely suggests that thereafter a strong garrison should be placed with each mission; that the soldiers who form these garrisons be married men; and that they bring with them their families, and thus constitute villages around the missions. He insists that in order to convert them the Spaniards must set them a good example. “And so I beg your Excellency,” he writes, “that you consider how this, as agreeable to the Lord, may not be lost by sending the criminals taken from the prisons, both unmarried and vagabonds, who, if they were turned loose among Christians, would do harm, and would here commit atrocities, and prevent the ministers of the Lord, by their depraved life and bad example, from gathering the fruit of these souls.” 76 In this pathetic appeal we are able to read the causes of the failure of these first missionary efforts, and to foresee the policy which the Spaniards were constrained later to adopt in their efforts to convert the savage tribes.
Of the subsequent history of the missions San Francisco and Santa Maria little can be told in detail. As has been indicated already, the Indians began to give trouble before the departure of Teran's company. 77 A small guard 78 was left to protect the friars, but it was altogether inadequate; and what little assistance the few soldiers might have rendered in preserving the missions from injury was precluded by their lack of discipline and self-restraint. So great, indeed, were the difficulties and discouragements that six of the friars who had come out with Teran's expedition refused to remain, and others, it seems, remained unwillingly. Manzanet, and the four or five friars 79 who left with him, continued their efforts at San Francisco and Santa Maria for more than a year; but the work did not prosper. For two successive seasons the harvests were destroyed by drought; the cattle became afflicted with a disease from which most of them died, and those that did not were stolen by the natives; the soldiers became more unruly and offensive; and the savages grew constantly more threatening. In the summer of 1693 an expedition was sent up from Coahuila with fresh supplies for the missions; but it had not the effect of encouraging the friars to persevere; on the contrary, several of them took advantage of the opportunity to return to Mexico. Manzanet sent letters to the viceroy describing the condition of the missions, and setting forth their urgent needs, and asking especially that a sufficient number of soldiers be sent to secure the friars from the violence of the savages. But the government was not in a mood to do anything. There was no longer any urgent political reason for maintaining settlements beyond the Rio Grande. The alarm of a French occupation had passed, and there was a disposition to postpone to some future time the occupation of the eastern lands. On the 21st of August, 1693, the government ordered that the missions be abandoned, and instructed the priests to retire. In the night of October 25 the friars left the missions, burying the bells and such property as they could not take with them, and returned to Coahuila. 80 A little later, March, 1694, the viceroy formally ordered the abandonment of the province of Nueva Montaña, and Texas was left for twenty years to the undisturbed possession of the Indian tribes, to wait until another and more serious menace to their authority in the lands east of the Rio Grande should stimulate the rulers of New Spain to a saner and more determined effort to make good their title to that vast region by the fact of actual occupation.
The question may well be raised here, by way of conclusion, whether these several unsuccessful efforts to establish missions among the Tejas and Cadodachos were of any permanent value in the evolution of Texas. Without doubt, they were. A certain amount of substance and energy must always be wasted in forcing civilization into an unbroken wilderness. Each new country has its peculiar difficulties, which only experience can teach how to overcome. Paths must be traced, mountains and valleys traversed, boundaries searched out, and coasts and rivers explored; and these things are seldom accomplished without the lavish expenditure of men and means. That remote inland settlements are difficult to establish, and more difficult to maintain; that the organization of an extensive system of missions must be the slow work of years, and not the accomplishment of a summer campaign; that the conversion of even the most tractable of Indians must be a mingling of force with persuasion; and finally, that the mission could thrive only when it existed side by side with the presidio,—these were the useful deductions from Fray Damian Manzanet's costly experimenting. And there were other lessons of value. A more correct idea of the geography of Texas was obtained; the most important rivers were named and their courses determined; roads were marked out from Coahuila to the plains of southwest Texas along which Spanish civilization could advance more surely; and the bay of Espiritu Santo became an easy and familiar landing place for later expeditions. All these facts were worth something when the time came at length to undertake seriously the task of opening the lands beyond the Rio Grande for settlement. These early missionary efforts, then, are not to be considered unimportant. The little log church of San Francisco and its companion mission by the Neches, although ephemeral and productive of no immediate good, in the larger outlook were eminently worth while; for they served as an admonition and a warning when, twenty years later, the friars came again to stretch their line of larger and more substantial churches from the Rio Grande to the Sabine.
A Journal of the Last Voyage Perform'd by Monsr. de La Sale, to the Gulph of Mexico, to find out the Mouth of the Mississippi River ***; And Translated from the Edition just published at Paris. London, 1714. 81
Bancroft (H. H.), North Mexican States and Texas, I 373-476.
Bancroft (H. H.), Arizona and New Mexico, 190 et seq.
Barcia (Andrés Gonzales), Ensayo Cronológico para la Historia General de la Florida (Madrid, 1733), 294. Anonymous translation in Historical Collection of Louisiana, IV 208-210. 82
Bonilla (Antonio), Teniente de Ynfanta, Breve Compendio de los sucesos ocurridos en la Provincia de Texas, desde su conquista ò reduccion hasta la fecha. Mexico, 1772. MS. 83
Carta de Fray Damian Manzanet à Don Carlos de Siguenza y Góngora sobre el descubrimiento de la Bahía del Espíritu Santo. MS. In A. and M. College library. A fac-simile with a translation by Miss Casis of the University of Texas is in The Quarterly, II 254-312. 84
Carta y Relacion de Fray Francisco de Jesus Maria al Conde de Galve, Agosto 15, 1691. MS. In A. and M. College library. 85
Carta en que se da noticia de un viage hecho á la Bahia de Espiritu Santo y de la poblacion que tenian ahi los Franceses (May 18, 1684) in Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida. New Series (1875), 293.
Correspondance de Cabart de Villermont au sujet de la Salle et de son enterprise, Margry, II 421-465.
Dernière lettre de La Salle au ministre avant son départ, et ses adieux à sa mère, in Margry, II 469-471.
Dernier Mémoire et dernière lettre de Cavelier de la Salle, 1686-1687, in Margry, III 537-550. 86
Derrotero de la Jornada que hizo el General Alonzo de Leon para el descubrimiento de la Bahia del Espíritu Santo, y Poblacion de Franceses, año de 1689, in Memorias para la Historia de la América Septentrional, XXVII 1 et seq. 87
Descripcion y diaria demarcacion executada por el General Don Domingo Terán principiada en 16 de Mayo de 1691, y finalizada en 15 de Abl de 1692 88, in Memorias para la Historia de la América Septentrional, XXVII 23-74.
Diario, del Viage del Capitan Martinez qe principio en 3 de Julio y finalizó en 17 del mismo. del año de 1691, in Memorias para la Historia de la América Septentrional, XXVII 112 et seq. 89
Diario que hicieron los Padres Misioneros que principia en 16 de Mayo y finalizo en 2 de Agto. de 1691, in Memorias para la Historia de la América Septentrional, XXVII 87 et seq. 90
Douay (Father Anastasius), Narrative of La Salle's Attempt to Ascend the Mississippi in 1687, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, IV 197-229.
Interrogations faites a Pierre et Jean Talon, par ordre de M. le comte de Pontchartrain, á leur arrivée de la Vera Cruz, le 14 de Septembre, 1698, in Margry, III 610-621. 91
Journal de l'abbé Jean Cavelier, in Margry, II 501-509.
Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de La Salle fit dans le golfe du Mexique, redigé et mis en ordre par M. de Michel. Paris, 1713. 92
La Salle, revenu de sa déconverte du Mississippi en descendant par le Canada, se propose d'en retrouver l' embouchure par le golfe du Mexique, Margry, III 15 et seq. 93
Le Clercq (Father Christian), Account of La Salle's attempt to reach the Mississippi by sea, and of the establishment of a French colony in St. Louis Bay, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, IV 185-196.
Lettres de M. de Beaujeu au Ministre de la Marine, Margry, II 395-410.
Mouvements des Espagnols à propos de l'occupation présumée de la baie du Saint-Esprit par les Français. (1686-1688.) Margry, III 567-572. 94
Offre faite par le comte de Peñalossa d'établir les Francais au Rio-Bravo et de conquérir ensuite la Nouvelle-Biscaye, Margry, III 39-70.
Parecer del Padre Com°. Fr. Damian Masanet y demás Religiosos Misioneros, Julio 19 de 1691 as in Memorias para la Historia de la América septentrional XXVII 84 (a la vuelta)-87 (a la vuelta).
Parkman, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West. 95
Relation de Henri de Tonty, Margry, I 573-616. 96
Relation de Henri Joutel, Margry, III 91-534. 97
Shea (John G.), Expedition of Don Diego de Peñalosa.
Villa-Señor y Sanchez (Joseph Antonio), Theatro Americano. 98
Vues de La Salle sur les mines de la Nouvelle-Biscaye, après s'être établi soixante lieues au-dessus de l'embouchure de Mississippi (1684), Margry, II 359-373.
Ynstrucciones dadas por el Superior Govierno, pa que se observen en la entra 99 de la Provincia de texas. Mexico y Enero 23 de 1661, in Memorias para la Historia de la América septentrional, XXVII.
Bancroft in his North Mexican States and Texas, Vol. I, cites many other valuable secondary authorities to which I have not had access, but as will appear from what has been given above most of the important contemporaneous narratives have been at my service.
The subject of this sketch, the Reverend Father Edmond John Peter Schmitt, the son of Peter and Magdalen (Mouth) Schmitt, was born at New Albany, Indiana, March the 16th, 1865, and died at San Antonio, Texas, May the 5th, 1901. In his comparatively short career of thirty-six years he has left a sufficiently strong impress upon the religious and intellectual life of his native State and of our own, to warrant a review of some of its leading features in the pages of The Quarterly.
The events of his early life may briefly be summarized. At the age of five, he entered the parochial schools of his native town, where by his modest diligence, he soon became a favorite pupil. At fourteen, forced by pecuniary losses of his father to enter active business, he still continued his studies privately and began to collect a library. When he passed his eighteenth birthday, having assisted in relieving his father's financial embarrassments, he entered the college of St. Meinard to prepare himself for his chosen career, the priesthood. This latter step was not taken without strenuous opposition from his father, who feared the rigors of a devoted priest's life would prove too much for his delicate son. But the prattled desire of the boy of eight had strengthened into the firm purpose of serious youth, and that purpose was not to be gainsaid.
Such had been the careful self-instruction of the young student, and such was his industry that he was able to complete the regular five years' course in two, and at the close of this short period he found himself considering the special field for his life work. A short trial as a novice of the order of Benedictines, at St. Meinard, convinced him that his particular field should be the secular priesthood. He then entered the seminary of St. Meinard, and applied himself, with his usual diligence, to the regular course in philosophy and theology. During this period began his historical labors, of which the published results did not cease until death itself ended them.
Ordained in 1890 by the Bishop of Indianapolis, the Right Reverend F. S. Chatard, a week later he offered his first mass in the church of St. Mary's at New Albany—the church in which he was baptized and in which, later, was sung his own last high mass. Shortly after, he was placed in charge of the parish of St. John, in Warrick county, Indiana, with several other small mission churches under his direct supervision. Then followed five years of active and energetic pastoral work, supplemented by a constantly increasing amount of literary production, generally of a historical character.
His increasing labors, especially in connection with the erection of a noble church edifice for his rural parish, proved too much for a physical constitution never any too strong for the tasks imposed upon it. In 1895, he suffered severe hemorrhages and came South to seek renewed health in Texas. After a few month's sojourn, the desire to be again at work drew him back to Indiana. He was given the chaplaincy of an orphanage. Soon his condition grew much worse, but rallying a little, he returned to Texas, where, in San Antonio, for five years longer he carried on with his grim enemy a losing but determined fight.
In such a life as his there was much that was inexpressibly sad, and yet, much that was charming, for his was an attractive personality. A loyal and devoted priest, he was no ascetic; a man of exact and mature scholarship, he was no mere cut-and-dried specialist. Passionately devoted to the ceremonies and observances of the Church he served, he never lost sight of human interest in narrow formalism. Loving historical research next to the services of his Church, he brought to this field of labor an accurate and discriminating scientific spirit, freshened by an intimate acquaintance with what most men designate as “hobbies.” Although these latter always occupied a secondary position in his busy life, yet, in many cases, as in his collections of curios and coins, in his various scrap and stamp albums, etc., they were of themselves of great value.
Father Schmitt was a man of wide human sympathies. He delighted in social intercourse, in which his many-sided genius, supplemented by careful reading, had fitted him to take a prominent part. His musical and artistic tastes were apparent in many ways, aside from a special fondness for the liturgy of his Church. He was a charming conversationalist, and a ready debater as well, but he never allowed the latter quality to detract from the charming urbanity that his friends so prized in him.
Of what we may call his minor passions that of ransacking book stores and libraries was easily the chief. His knowledge of books bearing upon any ordinary historical subject was really remarkable. Doubtless, he never entered a library without leaving behind a suggestion that caused his visit to be remembered. He was especially interested in the acquisition by libraries of books that were “worth while,” and in the diffusion of knowledge concerning them.
Father Schmitt was more than generous to a fault; with him, it was a failing. The worthy and unworthy were alike helped by him, lest, in refusing any, some needy one should suffer. It was no uncommon thing for him to give away “not merely his coat, but his cloak also,” and his relatives or friends must rival him in generosity in order to prevent the entire depletion of the good father's wardrobe.
Toward his parents his love and loyalty were beautiful. To us who knew him in San Antonio his affection for his father and the latter's devotion to him were touching. At the close of his seminary course it became possible for him to go abroad for some years' study, either in the Tyrol, or at the Vatican in Rome. To a man of his historical tastes the opportunity seemed too good to be missed; but he chose to remain in this country, so as to be near his mother, then failing from the same disease that was later to attack him. Again, in 1895, he hastened from his pastoral duties to his dying mother's bedside, and very likely in the long watch beside her, contracted the germs of the fatal disease. His appreciation of family life was high, and nowhere better shown than in his tender filial devotion.
As a youth, Father Schmitt had been a frequent contributor to newspapers and periodicals. During his seminary course his efforts were turned into their life-long channel—the history of the pioneers of the Catholic faith in the United States. His first work of this character, published in Cincinnati, was Lose Blätter aus der Geschichte der Deutschen St. Marien Gemeinde, a history of German Catholic pioneer days in New Albany, Indiana, and vicinity. A little later there appeared from Vienna his Bibliopraphia Benedictina, a complete bibliography of that order in America. During his pastorate his attention was attracted to the early French mission of Vincennes, in his preparation of a life of Bishop Bruté, the first bishop of that section of our country. His work on this biography was greatly interrupted, and he died leaving the volume still incomplete, but in such shape that another may easily finish it. He lived to see some results of his labor in this field, however, in the publication of the Records of Vincennes, in two installments, in the Catholic Historical Magazine for the present year. He also found time for occasional historical or religious contributions to periodicals, and for one or two evangelistic booklets. At this time he also assisted the Honorable W. H. English in the preparation of the latter's account of the life and campaigns of George Rogers Clarke. Thus he has aided materially in the important work of recording the history of the French and German pioneers of his native State.
In the midst of his busy life, he was suddenly called to another scene of labor. In a distant State and amid unfamiliar surroundings, his delicate health permitting no vigorous occupation, he found occasional opportunities for his chosen field of work, the history of his beloved church, from another point of view—the Spanish. The early work of the Franciscans in Texas aroused the same interest as that of the Benedictines or Jesuits in Indiana. The gloom of the daily struggle for life was lightened by the joy of assisting to exploit a virgin field of historical research. During the five years that preceded his death, he succeeded as no other student of our early history has done in making himself master of the enchanting details of the career of the Franciscans in Texas. When one considers the burden of ill-health under which he labored this statement is significant, and the amount of work turned out by him really marvelous.
His first article published in the Quarterly appeared in the number for October, 1897, and bore the title Ven. Maria Jesus De Agreda: A Correction. This was followed, in the number for January, 1898, by Sieur Louis de Saint Denis. Although contributing no more formal articles, his name frequently appeared in the magazine appended to some note or question. The most important of these appeared in the number for July, 1899, on The Name Alamo; his last in April, 1900, relating to the church of San Fernando. These contributions all show his careful and painstaking research, and his desire to assist the cause of exact scholarship. Father Schmitt was elected to a life membership in the Association a few months before his death.
His work for the Quarterly by no means exhausts his productions of this period. For the local chapter of the Daughters of the Republic he wrote The Story of the Alamo, a sketch of its history taken from records hitherto largely unused. The manuscript of this is now in possession of the organization, by whom it will shortly be published. A more ambitious work, A Catalogue of Franciscan Missionaries in Texas (1528-1859), published in April last, is an indispensable aid to the student of Texas history. Although as yet necessarily incomplete, it must form the basis for any future research in that field. His most important work for this period, however, was his collection of notes and maps on the various Franciscan missions of Texas. He had made a thorough study of parish and mission records, as preserved by the ehurch authorities in San Antonio, and from these had made eopious notes. In addition, he prepared a series of maps locating the missions, with plans of them, so far as was possible, from descriptions or extant drawings. His health did not permit him to travel in order to verify in person his data; nor, for this reason, was he able to examine the material in the Bexar Archives bearing upon his subject. Had his life been spared a few years longer, doubtless he would have been able to bring out an authoritive work on the early Texas missions. His notes and maps are now in the possession of Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, O. F. M., an author of note on the early missions of the order, by whom they doubtless will be well used.
While engaged in his study of the mission records he was able to formulate a very complete list of the various Indian tribes of the Southwest, from which the missions were recruited. The value of this list has been duly acknowledged by the authorities of the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington. Another auxiliary work in which he had made an important beginning was the preparation of a more elaborate and complete bibliography of Texas than has yet been attempted. For this purpose he was using, as a foundation, the work of Judge C. W. Raines, and greatly expanding it in many particulars. During this period he was a frequent contributor to the periodical press of this vicinity. Another important work, posthumously published, A Collation of Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico, is, like most of those mentioned above, intended for the scholar rather than the general reader.
Thus did our worthy friend occupy himself during the declining years of his life. Shut in from the busy world in which he would only too gladly have taken his place, snatching occasional moments of partial strength for some task to benefit pure scholarship rather than to minister to the delight of the public, he did faithfully what he could in giving his true measure of devotion to the cause he loved. It is only fitting that those who knew of what he accomplished and sympathized with his aims and struggles should render him a modest tribute of love and appreciation.
[The following is an exact copy of a pamphlet published at Corpus Christi shortly after the depredations of the Mexicans and Indians with which it deals occurred. It was kindly furnished by Mr. Leopold Morris, of Corpus Christi. The pamphlet was prepared with the purpose of representing to the State and United States authorities and to the country at large the existing condition of affairs on the Texas frontier, and with the hope that better protection might be secured for the future. It contains reports of the citizens' meetings held at the time, affidavits of eye witnesses of the atrocities incident to the raid, a graphic account of it based upon these depositions, and an impassioned, though dignified, appeal for protection. Copies of the pamphlet were ordered sent to the government officials and to the leading journals of the country. It is now exceedingly rare.—Editor Quarterly.]
Hon. William M. Evarts, Secretary of State of the United States, Washington, D. C.
Sir:We, the citizens of a district of country between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, in the State of Texas, one of the United States of America, through a committee duly selected and appointed by us, as hereinafter set forth by the proceedings of our meetings, consisting of the Hon. Joseph Fitzsimmons, county judge of Nueces county, chairman; Hon. John C. Russell, judge of the district court of the 25th Judicial District of the State of Texas; Hon. John M. Moore, mayor of the city of Corpus Christi; Capt. John J. Dix, and Capt. H. W. Berry, members, together with Wm. H. Maltby, secretary, and Edward Buckley, Esq.; Col. Nelson Plato and Wm. Headen as corresponding secretaries—selected with a view to the commendatory character of their official stations—beg to address you as the Chief of State of this great nation—a Statesman in whom we have confidence—and through you to speak to His Excellency the President, to Congress, and through all to appeal to the warm and sympathetic hearts of our countrymen.
We are a peaceful, law-abiding and industrious people. We have come hither from the West, East, North and South to occupy this wilderness of verdure. We peacefully follow our flocks and herds which roam over the wide-spreading savannas, through the lovely valleys, across the hills, or scatter far over the great expanses of our grander prairies.
Our homes are far apart. Ten and twenty and fifty miles often intervene between our houses. Again, where streams flow or where permanent water is abundant, the ranchos or dwellings are nearer, but seldom, indeed, in sight.
We have been greatly exposed. We have overcome many difficulties. We have prospered. We hoped to give advantages to our children that have been denied to ourselves. We had in view that they