For a century and a half before they made definite attempts to occupy the region now called Texas the Spaniards gradually explored it, proceeding step by step from the borders toward the interior, and slowly formed ideas concerning its geography and its suitability for settlement. Viewed in this light, the final occupation of Texas at the end of the seventeenth century was by no means the sudden event, brought about by the chance settlement of the French on the Gulf coast, which it was once thought to be.
Though it is not commonly known, Texas had its share in the romance, and myth, and fable which everywhere attended the Spanish conquest in America. In Florida the Spaniards sought the Fountain of Youth; in South America the Gilded Man (El Dorado); on the west coast of Mexico the Isle of the Amazons; in Arizona and New Mexico the Seven Cities of Cíbola; on the California coast the Strait of Anian. 2 Likewise, in Texas they searched for the Kingdom of Gran Quivira, where “everyone had their ordinary dishes made of wrought plate, and the jugs and bowls were of gold”; 3 for the Seven Hills of the Aijados, or Aixaos, where gold was so plentiful that “the natives not knowing any of the other metals, make of it everything they need, such as vessels and the tips of arrows and lances”; 4 for the Sierra (or Cerro) de la Plata (Silver Mountain), somewhere north of the Rio Grande; 5 for the pearls of the Jumano country; 6 and for the “Great Kingdom of the Texas,” a people who, like the Jumanos, had been miraculously converted by the woman in blue, 7 who lived next door to the Kingdom of Gran Quivira, were ruled by a powerful lord, had well built towns, each several miles in length, and raised grain in such abundance that they even fed it to their horses. 8 All these various quests and beliefs had made the Texas country an object of interest to the Spaniards long before it became a field for political contest with France.
There were four lines of approach to Spanish Texas, through the development of which a knowledge of the region was gradually unfolded: (1) From the east and south, by way of the Gulf of Mexico; (2) from the east, by way of the vast region known in early days as La Florida; (3) from the west and southwest, by way of New Mexico and Nueva Vizcaya; and (4) from the south, through the expansion of Nuevo León and Coahuila.
1. By way of the Gulf
In the course of the exploration of the Gulf coast and the search for a strait through the newly found land mass to the East Indies, Pineda, in the employ of Garay, governor of Jamaica, in 1519 ran the coast from Florida to Pánuco (Tampico) and back, and made a map which shows with substantial accuracy the entire shore line of Texas. Two years later, on the basis of this exploration, Garay was granted a province, called Amichel, comprising the whole Gulf coast from modern Alabama to Tampico, which he attempted to colonize at its southern extremity. 9 In this he was forestalled by the master conquistador himself, Cortes, who in 1522 founded a villa at Pánuco. 10 By 1528 two expeditions from this place explored the coasts northward beyond the Rio Bravo, or Rio Grande. On a later expedition, made in 1544, it is said, Father Olmos took back and settled at Pánuco the tribe of the Olives, thought by some to have been secured on Texas soil. 11 In 1553 more than three hundred survivors of a wrecked treasure fleet were cast on the Texas shore five days' march north of the Rio Grande, and escaped toward Pánuco. In 1558 an expedition destined to colonize Florida was led from Vera Cruz by Bazares. In latitude 27° 30’ he landed on the Texas shore; coasting eastward, in latitude 28° 30’, he discovered and took possession of a bay which he called San Francisco, and which may have been the modern Matagorda Bay. 12 Thereafter occasional voyages were made along the northern shores of the Gulf; but the Texas coast, instead of being one of the first portions of the Gulf shore to be colonized, as it would have been had Garay succeeded, was destined to be nearly the last, its settlement being deferred still two centuries after Garay's day.
2. By way of Florida
Incident to the early attempts to explore and conquer La Florida from the east, the survivors of two shattered expeditions, seeking refuge in the settlements of Mexico, entered what is now Texas, crossed large stretches of its territory, and gained the first knowledge sent to Europe of the southern and northeastern interiors. As has been intimated, so far as the crossing of Texas is concerned, both of these explorations were accidental.
Reference is made, of course, to the well known journeys of Cabeza de Vaca and Moscoso. In 1528 Cabeza de Vaca and some two hundred companions, survivors of the Florida expedition led by Narváez, were cast on the southeastern shore of Texas. After spending six years on Texas soil, and enduring the hardships of enslavement by the Indians, Vaca and three others made their way westward across the whole southwestern border of the present state of Texas, entered northern Chihuahua, and finally reached Culiacán, in Sinaloa. 13 In 1542 Moscoso led the survivors of the De Soto expedition into Texas near the northeastern corner, westward or south-westward to a point thought by Mr. Lewis to have been in the upper Brazos, and back across the Red River by essentially the same route. 14 This journey gave the Spaniards some knowledge of the geography of northeastern Texas and of the Caddoan group of Indians then, as later, inhabiting the region. It is remarkable, in this connection, that a map based on Moscoso's exploration shows the Nondacau, Nisone, Ays, and Guasco tribes in the same general location as that in which they were found a century and a half later. 15
3. By way of New Mexico
The third line of approach, that from the west and southwest through New Mexico, was till the later seventeenth century the principal one, and for this reason until 1685 western Texas was much better known than the southern portion, lying nearer Mexico, or than the eastern portion, commonly regarded as “old” Texas.
The Coronado expedition.—Just before the Moscoso party entered northeastern Texas, another band, led by Coronado, entered its northwestern border. Coronado had come, by way of the Pacific Slope, to New Mexico in search of the Seven Cities of Cíbola. Disappointed at what he found, and hearing while in the Rio Grande valley of a great kingdom called Quivira to the northeast, he set out in search of it across the Llanos del Cíbolo (Buffalo Plains), going, it is believed, from the upper Pecos River southeastward to the upper Colorado, thence north across the Brazos, Red, Canadian and Arkansas rivers, eastward into central Kansas, and directly back to the Pecos. In the course of the expedition, northwestern Texas was traversed in four distinct paths, and the Spaniards learned of the Llanos del Cíbolo and of the wandering tribes of Plains Indians who followed the buffalo for subsistence. 16
Incidental crossing of southwestern Texas.—After the Coronado expedition interest in our Southwest lagged for nearly four decades, when the Spaniards again gave it their attention, this time approaching it by way of the central Mexican plateau, across what is now northern Chihuahua and up the Rio Grande or the Pecos. In the course of the renewed exploration and the colonization of New Mexico, in the last two decades of the sixteenth century, several expeditions incidentally crossed the western extremity of Texas, between the Pecos and the Rio Grande. Of these expeditions the ones best known are those made by Father Rodríguez in 1581, Espéjo in 1582, Castaño de Sosa in 1590, Bonilla and Humaña about 1595, and Juan de Oñate, the colonizer of New Mexico, in 1598. 17 All this region was then a part of New Mexico, and the exploration of it was made chiefly incident to the development and exploitation of the more interesting Pueblo region in the upper Rio Grande valley.
The search for Gran Quivira.—But the subjugation of the Pueblos did not exhaust the energies of the conquistadores, and they turned again from time to time with all their old fire to exploit and exploration. To the east there were several points of interest. Gran Quivira was still to be sought somewhere across the Llanos del Cíbolo; adjacent to it were the Aijados, in whose country were the Seven Hills supposedly rich in gold; southeast of Santa Fé, on the upper Colorado River, were the Jumano Indians, who welcomed missionaries and afforded trade in hides, and in whose streams were found pearls. Finally, in the pursuit of these objects, still another, more remote, rose above the horizon in the east, the “Great Kingdom of the Texas.” 18
Concerning the expeditions made in search of Quivira after Coronado's day, our information is exaggerated and unsatisfactory, but the general outline of events is fairly clear. As the record has it, about 1595 Juan de Humaña and a party of soldiers were destroyed by the Indians while returning from a search for Quivira, at a place some two hundred leagues northeast of Santa Fé, afterward known in tradition as La Matanza (the death place.) 19 It was said that they were returning laden with gold. In June, 1601, Juan de Oñate, governor of New Mexico, made the opening expedition of the seventeenth century. Accompanied by two friars and eighty men, and with a survivor of the Humaña expedition as guide, he went east-northeast and north two hundred leagues from Santa Fé, reached La Matanza, received ambassadors from Quivira, engaged in a terrible battle with the Escanjaques Indians, and returned home. 19 In 1629, when Father Juan de Salas, of New Mexico, was on the eastern plains among the Jumanos, messengers from the Aijados and Quiviras were sent to see him and accompanied him to Santa Fé to ask for missionaries. 20 In 1634 Alonso de Vaca went three hundred leagues east from New Mexico, possibly in response to the call of 1629, to a great river across which was Quivira. Finally, Don Diego de Peñalosa, an evicted and discredited governor of New Mexico, later claimed that in 1662 he had made an expedition several hundred leagues east and north, and succeeded in finding the city of Quivira. That Peñalosa made such a journey at all is doubted by most scholars, 21 but the news that he was telling the tale at the court of France, for the purpose of getting up an expedition against Spain's possessions on the Gulf, aroused Spain in 1678 to take a livelier interest in Texas than she had before manifested, and to renewed talk of searching for Gran Quivira. 22
Father Benavides's proposal.—In 1630, when Quivira was attracting so much attention, Father Benavides, custos of the missions of New Mexico, made a most interesting suggestion regarding the eastern country, and one which later bore fruit. Writing of the “kingdoms” of Quivira and Aixaos, he described them as rich in gold; and, as a means of subduing them, restraining the English and the Dutch, and providing a shorter route from Cuba to New Mexico, he suggested the occupation of a place on the Gulf coast known as the Bay of Espíritu Santo, shown on the maps as somewhere between Apalache and Tampico, and, as Benavides thought, less than a hundred leagues from Quivira. 23 In 1632 Benavides published another memorial urging the same plan. 24 It will be seen that nearly half a century later the Spanish government took the proposal under consideration, and had set about putting it into effect before the La Salle expedition occurred.
Expeditions to the Jumanos: News of the Texas.—Much more satisfactory is our information concerning a similar series of expeditions made in the seventeenth century to the Jumano Indians of the upper Colorado River, in the interest of missionary work, pearl hunting, trade in skins, and exploration.
The Jumanos left a most interesting and, on account of the numerous localities in which people of that name were encountered at different times, a somewhat puzzling record. They were found, for example, on the Rio Grande below El Paso, in eastern New Mexico, in central Texas on the Colorado, in southeastern Texas, on the Arkansas, and on the Red. 25 This ubiquity of the Jumanos is to be explained in part, no doubt, by the migration of the tribe to and from the buffalo plains at different seasons of the year; but it seems equally clear that there were at least two distinct divisions of people known to the Spaniards by the same name. The division of particular interest here is the one which, in the seventeenth century, frequented or lived upon the buffalo plains of west-central Texas and was often visited there by the Spaniards of New Mexico for the purposes indicated.
The first recorded journey to these eastern Jumanos was made in 1629. 26 Previous to that time Father Juan de Salas, of Isleta (old Isleta, near the present Albuquerque) had worked among the Tompiros and Salineros in eastern New Mexico and had come in contact with Jumano living east of these tribes and hostile to them. 27 In the year mentioned, the Jumano sent a delegation to Isleta to repeat a request previously made that he go with them to their homes to minister to their people. On being asked why they desired missionaries, they told the story, now a classic in the of the Southwest, of the miraculous conversion of their tribes by a beautiful woman wearing the garb of a nun, and later identified as Mother María de Ágreda, abbess of a famous convent in Spain, who declared that she had converted these tribes during a visit to America “in ecstacy.” 28
Setting out with the petitioners, accompanied by Father Diego López and three soldiers, Salas went to a point more than one hundred twelve leagues eastward from Santa Fé, where he found a multitude of Indians, wrought miraculous cures, received messengers from the Quiviras and Aixados, and returned to Santa Fé for aid in founding missions among the people he had visited. 29 There is evidence that a part of the Jumanos followed the missionaries to New Mexico and were for a time ministered to in a separate mission. 30 But the period was short, and in 1632 Father Salas went again to the Jumanos on the plains, accompanied by Father Diego de Ortega and some soldiers. When Salas returned, Father Ortega remained with the Indians six months.
From now on the location of the Jumanos comes into clearer light. The place where they were found this time was described as two hundred leagues southeast of Santa Fé, on a stream called the Nueces, because of the abundance of nuts (nueces) on its banks. This description corresponds essentially with those of all subsequent journeys made in the seventeenth century. The stream, as we shall see, was clearly one of the branches of the Colorado River, and not improbably the Concho. 31
What occurred in the interim does not appear, but eighteen years later an expedition led by Captains Hernando Martín and Diego del Castillo visited the Jumanos on the Nueces and remained with them six months. While there two things of greatest interest occurred. The first was the gathering of a large quantity of shells (conchos) from the river, which, on being burned, disclosed pearls. The other was the approach of a portion of the party, after passing fifty leagues beyond the Jumano through the country of the Cuitaos, Escanjaques, and Aijados, to the borders of a people called “Tejas.” “They did not enter their territory,” our chronicler tells us, “as they learned that it was very large and contained many people,” but a “lieutenant” of the Tejas “king” went to see Castillo. This, so far as I know, is the first information acquired by the Spaniards unquestionably concerning the people from whom Texas got its name. 32
The arrival of Martín and Castillo at Santa Fé with pearls, at a time when the pearls of California were proving to be a disappointment, now created a new interest in central Texas. The samples were sent to the viceroy in Mexico, who at once ordered another expedition to the Nueces. It was made in 1654 by Diego de Guadalajara, with thirty soldiers, among whom was Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, thirty years later the leader of a more important expedition to the same place. Guadalajara found the Jumano in the same region where they had been encountered in 1632 and 1650. Thirty leagues farther on they had a hard fight with the Cuitaos, of whom they killed many, besides taking two hundred prisoners and rich spoils in the way of buckskins, elkskins, and buffalo hides. Still another interest in the country had arisen—that of commerce in peltry. 33
No other specific expedition to the Jumano is recorded till that of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, in 1684, the records of which settle all doubt as to the location of the tribe to whom these visits were directed. But in the interim many journeys seem to have been made to them for the purpose of trade, evidence of which has just come to light in the Mexican archives. In 1683, when a delegation of Jumanos from the eastern plains visited the Spanish refugees then at El Paso, the authorities declared in writing, as evidence of the friendship of the tribe, that before 1680, when the Pueblo revolt had occurred, trade and friendship had been maintained with the Jumanos “with such security that the Spaniards, six, eight, and ten, went to their lands and villages every year to trade with these Indians” in buckskins, teocas, and buffalo hides. 34 We shall see that the Mendoza party in 1684 brought back nearly five thousand buffalo skins. It was later asserted that some time before this event, two Franciscan missionaries, inspired by the Venerable Mother María de Ágreda, had gone to the Texas and baptized many of their number, “their very prince” being the first to receive the faith. 35 This allusion may have been to the visits of Father Salas and his companions to the borders of the Texas early in the century, for no other record of a missionary visit to these people before 1689 is known.
4. From the South, by way of Nuevo León and Coahuila
While there had thus been definite progress eastward from New Mexico during the first three-fourths of the seventeenth century, and considerable contact between that province and what is now the western half of Texas, from the south, the natural line of advance from Mexico to Texas, progress was slow.
The outposts of northeastern New Spain.—In the sixteenth century, nevertheless, northeastward expansion from the valley of Mexico had been rapid. It has already been stated that as early as 1522 Pánuco had been founded by Cortes himself, and that by 1528 two expeditions from that point had explored the coasts north of the Rio Grande. For half a century Pánuco remained the northeasternmost outpost, but meanwhile progress was more rapid along the central Mexican plateau, where, following the line of the most promising mineral deposits, by 1565 conquests were extended as far as Parras, Saltillo, and perhaps Monterrey.
Advance was now made again along the Gulf plain. In 1576 Luis de Carabajal pursued Indians into the country north of Pánuco, and in 1579 was commissioned to conquer and settle it. The province assigned to him was called Nuevo León, and was to extend two hundred leagues north from Pánuco, a jurisdiction reaching nearly or quite to the mouth of the Colorado River. For a few years Carabajal's headquarters were at Pánuco, but in (or by) 1583 he went inland with a colony, opened the mines of San Gregorio, and founded there the city of León, now Cerralvo. This place, situated about one hundred fifty miles from the coast and only some forty from the Rio Grande (near modern Mier), was for a long time the principal settlement and the capital of the province, and was for a century, with some intervals, the northernmost outpost on the Rio Grande frontier. Shortly after founding León, Carabajal established the villa of San Luis, farther south, which in 1596 became or was succeeded by the villa of Monterrey. Subsequently various intermediate points were occupied. 36
Temporarily a more northerly outpost than León was established. Hearing of rich mineral deposits toward the northwest, in the district called Coahuila, about 1590 Carabajal took from Saltillo supplies and a colony, opened mines, and founded the villa of Almadén where Monclova now stands. While there he was arrested by the Inquisition on the charge of Judaism and thrown into prison in Mexico, where he died. A few months after Carabajal's arrest, Castaño de Sosa, left in charge of the colony, abandoned the place and led the settlers off to attempt the conquest of New Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande at the Pecos and following that stream to the Pueblo region. 37 In 1603 and again in 1644 Almadén was temporarily reoccupied, but without success, and after this León (Cerralvo), where a mission was founded in 1630 and a presidio in 1653, remained the northern outpost till 1673. 38
Frontier explorations, 1590-1665.—By the middle of the seventeenth century explorations beyond the frontier had been made on a small scale in all directions. That they were not more extensive was due to Indian troubles and the feebleness of the frontier settlements. From Cerralvo an expedition was sent eastward in 1638 to verify the report that Europeans, thought to be Dutch, were trading with the Indians near the Gulf. The party was impeded by the swollen “Camalucanos” River, had a battle with the Indians, and failed to reach the coast. A direct route to the Gulf would have taken them across the Rio Bravo, but that stream was apparently not reached, unless it was the Camalucanos. By 1653 a regular line of trade had been established between Cerralvo and Pánuco, the Rio de las Palmas (solola Marina) had been re-explored, and the country twenty leagues beyond that stream traversed. 39
To the north the Spaniards were led short distances by a desire to establish connection with La Florida, by rumors of the silver deposit called El Cerro (or La Sierra) de la Plata, and in pursuit of Indians. Soon after Sosa's expedition up the Pecos, a party of eight men from Saltillo is said to have crossed the Rio Bravo into what is now Texas, but no details of the event are known. 40 Interest in Florida is shown by the fact that in 1613 two citizens of Nuevo León, Captains José Treviño and Bernabé Casas, offered the viceroy “their persons and their property to undertake the conquest of the interior provinces of the Kingdom of León, helping thereby to expel the English from La Florida.” 41 Perhaps they had heard of the settlement of Jamestown six years before. To discover the Cerro de la Plata two attempts were made in 1644 and 1648 by General Juan de Zavala, but both of them were frustrated by Indian revolts. Writing of this mineral deposit in 1648 De León said: “It is unknown to those now living . . . and must have been to those in the past.” 42 Summarizing in 1650 what he had accomplished by way of exploration since 1626, when he became governor, Martín de Zavala said of himself: “he has made a beginning of northern discovery, whereby he has explored more than fifty leagues with the purpose of continuing till communication is established with La Florida, and has almost certain knowledge of the Sierra de la Plata, which he intends to reach, a feat which has so often been attempted by the governors of Nueva Vizcaya and Nuevo León, but which has been abandoned because of Indian troubles.” 43 It is not clear whether the fifty leagues explored toward La Florida were those covered in search of the mine or not; but in either case, the Rio Bravo was in all probability passed.
Pursuit of the Indians was a constant occupation on this frontier. From the outset slave catching for the markets and for the encomiendas, which in Nuevo León were generally established, had been a favorite occupation at Cerralvo, more attractive than mining. 44 In retaliation, the savage tribes made frequent raids upon the settlements, and were as often pursued beyond the frontiers by such doughty warriors as Alonso de León, Juan de Zavala, Juan de la Garza, and Fernández de Azcué. In 1653, for example, a campaign led by Garza was made jointly by soldiers of Saltillo and Nuevo León against the Cacaxtles, who were found more than seventy leagues northward from Monterrey. 45 Two years later another joint campaign was made by the soldiers of Saltillo and Monterrey against the same tribe. The troop of one hundred three soldiers, equipped with eight hundred horses, and led by Fernández de Azcué, were supported by more than three hundred Indian allies of the Coahuila region. Going north from Monterrey, at a place twenty-four leagues beyond the Rio Bravo they encountered the enemy within a wood, surrounded them, fought all day, slew a hundred men and took seventy prisoners, themselves suffering the loss of twenty wounded. This campaign of Azcué, made against the Cacaxtles, is the first expedition to cross the lower Rio Grande of which we have definite record. 46
Thus, by 1670 the Spaniards had barely broken over the Rio Grande frontier below the Pecos. Now, however, another forward step was taken on this border, the frontier of settlement pushed northeastward, and missionary activity extended across the Rio Grande, a movement that brought other important developments in its train. As was often the case, the pioneers in this advance movement were the missionaries; their leader was Juan Larios, a native of Nueva Galicia and a friar of the Franciscan province of Santiago de Jalisco.
The founding of Coahuila: the Larios-Bosque Expedition.—In 1670 Father Larios began missionary work on the troubled Coahuila frontier, where he seems to have remained alone for some three years. Returning to Guadalajara, in 1673 he went again to Coahuila, accompanied by Father Dionysio de Peñasco and Fray Manuel de la Cruz, a lay brother. Aided by soldiers sent by the governor of Nueva Vizcaya, they founded of the roving tribes two Indian settlements, one on the Sabinas River and one to the north of that stream. On one of his missionary trips made at this time Fray Manuel de la Cruz crossed the Rio Grande to visit the interior tribes, and barely escaped capture by the Yerbipiames, a people who from that time till the day of their extinction gave untold trouble on this border. In the next year, 1674, Antonio de Valcárcel, appointed alcalde mayor of the Coahuila district, founded on the site of the thrice abandoned Almadén a “city” called Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, and assisted Father Larios in transferring thither his temporary missions, which included numerous Indians from across the Rio Grande. Meanwhile the friars had been joined by Father Dionysio de San Buenaventura. In 1675 Valcárcel sent Alférez Fernando del Bosque, accompanied by Fathers Larios and San Buenaventura across the Rio Grande to explore the country and reconnoiter the tribes, and as a result of the report brought back four missions were soon established in the Coahuila district, one for each of the four groups or confederacies, which embraced tribes to the north as well as to the south of the Rio Grande. 47
News of the Texas.—Now the Texas arose above the Coahuila horizon, just as they had appeared above that of New Mexico a quarter of a century before. In 1676 the Bishop of Guadalajara visited Coahuila, and one of the reasons which he gave in his report for favoring the four missions recommended by Bosque was the opportunity which they would afford to reach and convert a more important people beyond, the Texas, of whom he gives a most interesting account. “Coahuila,” he says,
has as a neighbor on the north, inclining somewhat to the east, a populous nation of people, and so extensive that those who give detailed reports of them do not know where it ends. These [who give the reports] are many, through having communicated with the people of that nation, which they call Texas, and who, they maintain, live under an organized government (en policía), congregated in their pueblos, and governed by a casique who is named by the Great Lord, as they call the one who rules them all, and who, they say, resides in the interior. They have houses made of wood, cultivate the soil, plant maize and other crops, wear clothes, and punish misdemeanors, especially theft. The Coahuiles do not give more detailed reports of the Texas because, they say, they are allowed to go only to the first pueblos of the border, since the Great Lord of the Texas does not permit foreign nations to enter the interior of his country. There are many of these Coahuiles who give these reports, and who say that they got them through having aided the Texas in their wars against the Pauit, another very warlike nation. The Coahuiles once pacified, the Spaniards can reach the land of the Texas without touching the country of enemies.
This account of the Texas is of special interest as being the earliest extant, so far as is known, although, as we have seen, reports of jective points of the Spaniards both of New Mexico and Coahuila was thenceforth the Kingdom of the Texas. 48
Summary.—By 1676 some advance had been made into Texas from all directions. Sixteenth century explorers coming by way of the Gulf, Florida, and New Mexico had run its coasts and traversed its southern, northern, and western borders. In the seventeenth century the continued search for Gran Quivira had led to further explorations in the west and north; frequent visits to the Jumano country had made better known the country between Santa Fé and the middle Colorado, while some beginnings had been made of missionary work and settlement in the Rio Grande valley between El Paso and the mouth of the Conchos River. 49 In addition to interest in Quivira, the Aixados, the Jumanos, the pearls of the Nueces (Colorado), and trade in peltry and captives on the plains, there had arisen a desire to reach another land reputed to be rich but as yet untrod, the Great Kingdom of the Texas. From the south, meanwhile, the frontier had slowly expanded across the lower Rio Grande through the search for the Cerro de la Plata, pursuit of hostile Indians, efforts to establish communication with Florida, and missionary work among the tribes of the Coahuila frontier. In the pursuit of this last object, interest was aroused, here as in New Mexico, in the Texas Indians.
It is clear that all these forces were leading slowly but surely to the occupation of central and eastern Texas, even in the absence of the stimulus of foreign aggression. But the old interests were now all quickened by rumors of foreign encroachment, and thenceforth the various lines of advance rapidly converged and led to the settlement of the country beyond the Trinity. At the same time the El Paso district, at the other extreme of Texas, became definitely settled as a result of a counter movement from New Mexico.
1. Peñalosa and Plans to Occupy the Bay of Espíritu Santo
In 1678 news was received at the Spanish court that Peñalosa, the discredited governor of New Mexico already mentioned, had proposed at the court of France an expedition against New Spain. Incident to the investigation of the report, the royal secretaries brought forth Benavides's memorial of 1630, and noted his recommendation that the Bay of Espíritu Santo be occupied as a base of operations in New Mexico and Quivira and as a defence against the encroachment of foreigners. Thereupon the king asked the viceroy for a report on the geography of the country east of New Mexico and the feasibility of Benavides's plan—“what advantages would come from Christianizing the kingdoms of Quivira and Tagago [Teguayo]; what means would be needed to effect it; whether it could be done better by the way of Florida than through the Bay of Espíritu Santo; and whether any danger was to be feared from the proposals of Peñalosa.” 50
Some time before August 2, 1685, Martín de Echegaray, pilot major and captain at Pensacola, reported to the king the danger that the French might occupy the Bay of Espíritu Santo and enter thence to New Mexico. He accordingly repeated the suggestion of Father Benavides, and offered to explore the bay with a view to its occupation and to prepare a map of the coast. A junta de guerra approved the proposal, and on August 2 the king ordered the governor of Florida to cooperate with Echegaray. At the same time, he repeated the request for the report from the viceroy, which had not yet been made, “in order that from all directions may be had the desired notices with respect to all the foregoing, for the greater security and certainty of the achievement of the discovery of the said Bay of Espíritu Santo and the kingdoms of Quivira and Tagago, and of their settlement and conservation, in order thereby to make the said provinces of Florida secure from the menaces in which they stand from the corsairs and pirates who commonly infest them.” 51
2. The Settlement of the El Paso District
Meanwhile, the center of the province of New Mexico had been transferred to the El Paso district, where it remained till near the end of the seventeenth century. This change of base not only resulted in the planting of considerable establishments on what is now Texas soil, but also served to increase interest in the country toward the east.
In 1659, a mission, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, was begun at El Paso, on the south side of the river, and a small civil settlement grew up there. Before 1680 another mission, San Francisco de los Sumas, was founded some twelve leagues down the river. In 1680 the colony received a large accretion through the revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. As a result of this event all the Spanish inhabitants and the Indians of three pueblos retreated down the river and settled at the Pass and at different points below that place on both sides of the river for a distance of twelve or more leagues. There were now in or near the valley six missions, Guadalupe, San Francisco de los Sumas, Senecú, Socorro, Isleta, and Santa Gertrudis; four Spanish villages or pueblos, San Lorenzo, San Pedro de Alcántara, San José, and Isleta; and the presidio of El Paso.
In 1683 and 1684 missionary work was temporarily extended from El Paso to the junction of the Conchos with the Rio Grande, a point then known as La Junta, among the Julimes and their allies. Already two Franciscans, Fray García de San Francisco, founder of the mission of Guadalupe at El Paso in 1659 and guardian there till 1671, and Fray Juan de Sumesta, had separately visited the Indians at La Junta, but had not remained. Requests for missionaries at Parral proving without avail, the Indians turned in 1683 to the settlement of El Paso. In response to their appeal, Fray Nicolás López and Fathers Juan Zavaleta and Antonio Acevedo went in December, 1683, to La Junta, and before the end of 1684 seven churches had been built for nine tribes, living, apparently, on both sides of the Rio Grande, and five hundren persons had been baptized. Father López tried to secure a settlement of Spaniards for the place, but failed, and within a short time the missions were abandoned on account of an uprising. 52
3. The Mendoza-López Expedition to the Jumanos, 1684
The same appeal that led Father López to undertake missionary work at La Junta resulted in the expedition made in 1684 by Juan Domínguez de Mendoza and Father López to the Jumano Indians of the Nueces; this event, in turn, greatly increased interest in the eastern tribes, especially the Texas and Quiviras.
The principal bearer of the request for missionaries in 1683 was a Jumano Indian known to history as Juan Sabeata, who appeared before Governor Cruzate in October. 53 According to his story he and some of his people lived with the Julimes at La Junta. Part of his tribe lived six days to the eastward, on the Nueces River, which was three days beyond the place where the buffalo herds began. Among more than thirty tribes which he named as living toward the east were the “extended nation of the Humanas,” the “great kingdom of the Texas,” and the “great kingdom of Quivira.” He told particularly of the “great kingdom of the Texas.” This populous realm, which was fifteen days eastward from La Junta, was ruled by a powerful king. As for the man who had visited Castillo in 1650, he was not king, “but only the king's lieutenant.” The Texas were a settled people, raised crops in abundance, and were neighbors of La Gran Quivira, so close, indeed, that they visited back and forth almost daily. From what he had heard, they would gladly welcome settlers and missionaries, for ever since Castillo's day they had been wishing for and expecting them. Even now two messengers from the Texas were waiting at La Junta for a reply to their request sent through Sabeata. A touch of interest was added to the story by the statement, on the authority of the two Texas messengers “that in that part of the east Spaniards enter by water in Houses made of trees, and maintain trade with the said Nation of the Texas.” 54 It was easy for the authorities, after the menace offered by Peñalosa, to transform these “Spaniards” into encroaching Frenchmen.
Governor Cruzate was enthusiastic at the prospect of a new field for exploration, and forwarded Sabeata's declaration to the viceroy with a letter in which he stated that he would consider it a great triumph if “another New World” and “two Realms with two more Crowns” should be added to the kingdom. 55 In answer to Sabeata's request, Father López went to La Junta, as we have already seen. Shortly afterward he was followed by Maestre de Campo Juan Domínguez de Mendoza and a small band of soldiers, destined to “the Discovery of the Orient and the Kingdom of the Texas.” 56 On January 1, 1684, the party, accompanied by Father López, and leaving Father Acevedo to minister to the Indians at La Junta, set out for the country of the Nueces, which they found after going seventy leagues northward to the Pecos and thence forty leagues toward the east. Mendoza kept a diary of the expedition which identifies the Nueces with one of the branches of the upper Colorado, probably the Concho, and with the stream visited by the expedition of 1654, for Mendoza had himself been on that journey and recognized the place. Moreover, he had with him Hernando Martín, who had been one of the leaders of the expedition of 1650. Forty leagues from the head of the Nueces, at a stream called the San Clemente, apparently the Colorado, a temporary fort and chapel were built. During the stay of several weeks a number of Indians were baptized and nearly five thousand buffalo hides secured. The Indians asked for missionaries and settlers, and before returning Father López and Mendoza promised to return within a year prepared to grant the request. 57
Writing to the king of this expedition Father López said:
Penetrating and mapping out their lands, both to the north and the east, I was in sixty-six other nations [besides those at La Junta], all docile and friendly toward the Spaniard, and asking also for the water of baptism, and that we should settle where it should seem convenient. . . . We were in their lands six months, sustained by the said heathen solely on the fruits of the soil. . . . Their mineral hills offer much; there are many rivers, all with different kinds of fish and abounding in nacre, from which years ago many pearl were secured. . . . And besides these nations we had ambassadors from the Texas, a powerful kingdom, where Mother María de Ágreda catechized many Indians, as she relates in her writings. . . . And we came to tread the borders of the first settlements of this nation. . . . We succeeded also in treading the lands of the Aijados nation, next to the great kingdom of Quivira, of whom Fray Alonso de Benavides makes mention, but because the said Aijados were at war with the tribes which we had in our friendship, I did not communicate with them, although they were already planning to make friends with us. It [the Aijados tribe] is less than seventy leagues distant from La Gran Quivira. 58
4. Proposals for the Occupation of the Jumano Country, 1685- 1686
This expedition of 1684, coupled with news of Peñalosa's doings, now became the basis of an attempt to occupy the Jumano country with missionaries and soldiers, and of renewed talk by the New Mexico officials of Gran Quivira, Gran Teguayo, and the great Kingdom of the Texas.
On their return to El Paso, Father López and Mendoza both went to the city of Mexico. In a memorial of June 7, 1685, López urged, besides support for the settlements about El Paso and the missions at La Junta, the occupation of the recently explored country of the Jumanos. Sixty-six tribes, he said, north-eastward from La Junta, had given obedience, and twenty additional missionaries were needed to serve them. 59 He was backed in this request by his order, for the commissary general advertized the new field in the various monasteries, and forty-six friars volunteered to go. 60 López's petition being negatived by the authorities at Mexico on account of the bad situation at El Paso, in March, 1686, he urged anew “the manifest peril threatened by delay.” At present two hundred men would suffice to avert the danger, at little cost, because of the richness of the country; but later it would “be impossible to repair it with millions.” He now asked, not for twenty but for fifty-two missionaries. 61 In another memorial he requested one hundred soldiers, even from the jails, and offered, on the promise of his two wealthy brothers of El Rosario, to furnish for the undertaking five hundred fanegas of maize, three hundred beeves, and two hundred horses. 62 His proposals were pronounced by the fiscal as “fantastic, and ideas meriting no consideration”; 63 but he had already turned to the king, repeating his request, and urging especially the nearness of the country to be occupied to the Aijados, Texas, and the great kingdom of Quivira. 64
About the same time Mendoza also addressed a memorial to the viceroy, saying that Peñalosa, under whom he had served in New Mexico, really possessed detailed information regarding Teguayo, the Sierra Azul, and the kingdom of the Texas. “And if this Peñalosa should carry out his intention, great ruin of this New Spain is to be feared, since these lands are the most fertile and fruitful of this New World.” But in Mendoza lay the remedy. To avert the danger he offered, if the king would only supply him with two hundred men from the jails, to enter the eastern country again, explore as far as the North Sea, reconnoiter Gran Quivira and the Kingdom of the Texas, make maps and reports, plant two presidios in the country of the Nueces, and reduce the Indians to settled life. The only expense to the crown would be that incident to arming the men and maintaining them till they should reach the Nueces, since, once there, the country would support, not two hundred, but two million; “for, besides these advantages, we have immediate recourse to the settlement of the Texas, which nation plants maize, calabashes, and beans.” This memorial was perhaps written by Father López, for, besides bearing internal marks of that friar's authorship, it was sent by him to the king with “hearty commendation.” 65
5. The La Salle Expedition and the Occupation of Eastern Texas, 1685-1690
By this time news had been received in Mexico of the La Salle expedition to some point on the Gulf coast, and in 1686 began the series of explorations, four by sea from Vera Cruz and five by land from Monterrey and Monclova, in search, not of the French alone, but (1) of the French, (2) the Bay of Espíritu Santo, and (3) the country of the Texas, which had not yet been reached. 66
The events of this period have been so well told by Clark and Garrison that they need no more than the merest summary here. But from what has gone before, some of them will now take on a new meaning. In 1689, on the fourth of these land expeditions, De León and Father Massanet found the remains of the French settlement on Matagorda Bay, to which the name of Espíritu Santo thenceforth became attached for a reason which is now obvious. During the same expedition De León and Massanet went as far east as the Colorado River, where they were met by the chief of the Nabedache, the westernmost of the Hasinai, or Texas, tribes. After a short conference they arranged to return in the following year to found a mission for his people. 67
Again the country of the Texas had been approached but not reached, and again was recorded a description of that promised but unseen land. On the basis of this conference, preconceived notions, and the reports made by some rescued Frenchmen who had been farther east, De León wrote in May, 1689, as follows:
The Texas ... are a very well governed (política) people, and plant large quantities of maize, beans, calabashes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. They say that they have nine settlements, I mean towns (pueblos), the largest one being fifteen leagues long and eight or ten wide. It must contain eight hundred heads of families (vecinos), each one having a large wooden house plastered with clay and roofed with lime, a door attached to the house, and its crops. In this way they follow one after another. .... They are very familiar with the fact that there is only one true God, that he is in Heaven, and that he was born of the Holy Virgin. They perform many Christian rites, and the Indian governor asked me for ministers to instruct them, [saying] that many years ago a woman went inland to instruct them, but that she has not been there for a long time; and certainly it is a pity that people so rational, who plant crops and know that there is a God should have no one to teach them the Gospel, especially when the province of Texas is so large and so fertile and has so fine a climate. 68
To this argument for occupying the Texas country, De León added the report of a rumor that there was another French settlement farther inland, in the region which he had not explored.
True to their promise, and with the co-operation of the government in Mexico, in the following year, 1690, De León and Massanet returned east with a party, reached the westernmost village of the Texas (Hasinai) 69 confederacy, near the Neches River, and founded there the first establishments in Spanish Texas. 70 This event, it is now plain, was not merely the result of the La Salle expedition, but was the logical culmination of the long series of expeditions made to the eastward from New Mexico and of the expansion of the Nuevo León-Coahuila frontier, and more especially of the quest, begun as far back as the time of Castillo and Martín, for the “great kingdom of the Texas.” This is the principal explanation to be offered for the fact that the first Spanish outpost in eastern Texas was placed, not on the Bay of Espíritu Santo, where the French menace had occured, but several hundred miles to the eastward. It was put among the Indians whom the Spaniards so long had hoped to reach.
3. Castañeda, Narrative, translated by Winship, in Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, I, 493.
4. Niel, Apuntamientos, in Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, Tercera Serie, tomo iv, 92. See also Benavides, Memorial, in Land of Sunshine, xiv, 139-140.
5. “Un cerro dicen que hay, que llaman el de La Plata, incognito a los que hoy viven, tambien lo seria a los pasados; es hacia el Norte.” (León, Historia de Nuevo León [Mexico, 1909], 84. Diego Ramón explored the Cerro de la Platta, at the order of the viceroy, sometime before 1703. Hidalgo, Fray Francisco, “Relacion de la Quivira” [MS], 65.)
6. See page 10.
7. See note 4 page 8 for a statement concerning the miraculous conversion of various tribes in Texas.
8. Declaration of Juan Sabeata before Governor Cruzate, of New Mexico, at El Paso del Rio del Norte, October 20, 1683. MS.
9. Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States, 149-153; Navarette, Colección de Viages, iii, 147-153, where the Pineda map is reproduced.
10. Called San Estévan del Puerto. Bancroft, Mexico, II, 94-101.
11. Prieto, Alejandro, Historia, Geografía y Estadística del Estado de Tamaulipas (Mexico, 1873), 16, 60; Bancroft, Mexico, II, 267; Orozco y Berra, Manuel, Geografía de las Lenguas, 293, 296; Shea, J. G., History of the Catholic Missions (1855), 45-46; Vetancur, Crónica (1697), 92. There is a confusion of the names of Olmedo and Olmos in this connection.
12. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, 352-357. Barcía, Ensayo Cronologico, fol. 28 et seq.; Shea. op. cit., 49.50.
13. Bandelier, The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca (Trail Makers series); Hodge, The Narrative of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, in Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543. For various critical articles relative to the route of Cabeza de Vaca, see the early files of The Quarterly.
14. With regard to the district traversed the present writer hopes to have something to say at a later time.
15. Lewis, The Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando de Soto, by the Gentleman of Elvas, in Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.
16. Winship, George Parker, The Coronado Expedition; Castañeda, Narrative of the Expedition of Coronado, edited by Hodge, in Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543. The route, as outlined above, is that marked out by Hodge, op. cit., map.
17. Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico, 74-128; De León, Historia de Nuevo León, 92-95; Niel, Apuntamientos, 91-92.
18. Niel, Apuntamientos, 91-93. Posadas, Informe á S. M. sobre las tierras de Nuevo Mexico, Quivira, y Teguayo (1686), in Duro, Don Diego de Peñalosa, 53-67.
19. Niel, Apuntamientos, 91-92; Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico, 149-150.
20. Posadas, Informe, 1686.
21. For the Peñalosa expedition, see Cesaro Fernández Duro, Don Diego de Peñalosa y su Descubrimiento de Quivira (Madrid, 1882); John Gilmary Shea, The Expedition of Don Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa (New York, 1882); Miller, E. T., “The Connection of Peñalosa with the La Salle Expedition,” in The Quarterly, V, 97-112.
22. See pp. 17-18.
23. Benavides, Memorial, translation in the Land of Sunshine, xiv, 139-140.
24. Duro, Don Diego de Peñalosa, 132.
25. For a summary of the history of the Jumanos, see Hodge, “The Jumano Indians,” in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society at the Semi-Annual Meeting, April, 1910; a treatment of special phases of the subject, suggested by Hodge's paper, is contained in Bolton, “The Jumano Indians in Texas, 1650-1771,” in The Quarterly, XV, 66-84.
26. In 1582 Espejo had encountered Jumano living on the Rio Grande, and during the last years of the sixteenth century Jumano were under instruction by the missionaries in eastern New Mexico. Hodge, op. cit.
27. Benavides, Memorial, 1630; Vetancur, Chrónica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio (1697), 96.
28. For the foundation of the story of the miraculous conversion of the Jumano, see Benavides, Memorial, in Land of Sunshine, xiv, 139, and Vetancur, Chrónica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio (1697), 96. Secondary accounts are in Shea, The Catholic Church in America, I, 195-198, and Schmidt, “Ven. María Jesus de Agreda: a Correction,” in The Quarterly, I, 121-124. For references to the conversion of the Texas by this mysterious person, see the letter of De León, quoted on page 25; and Manzanet, Carta, translated by Lilia M. Casis, in The Quarterly, II, 311. Manzanet (Massanet) there states that while at the village of the Nabedache chief in 1690 the chief “asked me one evening for a piece of blue baize to make a shroud in which to bury his mother when she died; I told him that cloth would be more suitable, and he answered that he did not want any color other than blue. I then asked him what mysterious reason he had for preferring the blue color, and in reply he said that they were very fond of that color, particularly for burial clothes, because in times past they had been visited frequently by a very beautiful woman, who used to come down from the hills, dressed in blue garments, and that they wished to do as that woman had done. On my asking whether that had been long since, the governor said it had been before his time, but his mother, who was aged, had seen that woman, as had also the other old people. From this it is easily to be seen that they referred to the Madre María de Jesus de Agreda, who was very frequently in these regions, as she herself acknowledged to the Father Custodian of New Mexico, her last visit having been made in 1631.” Father Casañas, writing in 1691 at the Nabedache village, made the comment, evidently intended to controvert the foregoing opinion, that the Indians “greatly esteem any piece of woolen cloth, especially if it is blue. This is due solely to the circumstance that the sky is of this color.” Relación, August 15, 1691. MS.
29. See the works of Benavides, Vetancur, and Hodge, already cited.
30. Hodge, The Jumano Indians, 10-11, and works cited therein.
31. See Bolton, “The Jumano Indians in Texas, 1650-1771,” in The Quarterly, XV, 68-74; Posadas, Informe, 1686.
32. Posadas, Informe; Declaration of Juan Sabeata, October 20, 1683. There is no good reason for thinking that Yejo, the Indian referred to in Castañeda's narrative of Guzmán's exploring activities on the west coast of Mexico, or the Teyas met by Coronado on the buffalo plains, were of the Texas group found in the later seventeenth century east of the Trinity River. See Winship, The Coronado Expedition, 472-473; Wooten (editor), Comprehensive History of Texas, I, 8.
33. Posadas, Informe, 1686.
34. “Declaración de los Yndios que vinieron á esta Plassa de armas de San Lorenço de la toma del rio del Norte,” August 11, 1683. MS. Provincias Internas, vol. 35, Expediente, 2, p. 60.
35. “Memorial de Fray Nicolás López acerca de la repoblación de Nuevo Méjico,” April 24, 1686, in Duro, Peñalosa, 67.
36. This summary of the early history of Nuevo León is based mainly on León, Alonso, Historia de Nuevo León (Mexico, 1909); Portillo, Estéban L., Apuntes para la Historia Antiqua de Coahuila y Texas (Satillo, 1888); González, E. J., Lecciones Orales de Historia de Nuevo León (Monterey, 1887); González, E. J., Colección de Noticias y Documentos para la Historia del Estado de Nuevo León (Monterey, 1885); Prieto, Alejandro, Historia, Geografía y Estadística del Estado de Tamaulipas (Mexico, 1873).
37. Leon, 91-95; Bancroft, North Mexican States, I, 100-107. Bancroft could not determine the location of Almadén, but this point is now perfectly clear.
38. León, Historia de Nuevo León, 84, 87-88, 95-98, 102, 125-127; Arlegui, Crónica, 85, 126-128, 228; González, Lecciones Orales, 26.
39. León, Historia de Nuevo Leon, 153.
40. Portillo, Apuntes, 114, note. It is referred to the time of Francisco de Urdiñola the younger, who became governor of Nueva Vizcaya in 1591.
41. González, Lecciones Orales, 52, citing Cavo, Tres Siglos; León, Historia de Nuevo León, 29-30, 81, 133-134, 153, 160-163, 204, 214, 219.
42. León, Historia de Nuevo León, 84.
43. Memorial presented to the king through Alonso de León. Ibid., 214.
44. Ibid., 95.
45. Ibid., 221-222.
46. Ibid., 228-230. There is a persistent tradition, found in many eighteenth century and nineteenth century official Spanish documents, that an expedition made in 1630 explored clear to the San Andrés (Red) and Mississippi rivers, and marked out the boundaries of the province of Texas, but the story is not well substantiated, and contains so many conflicting and impossible elements that it is self-refuting.
47. The principal source for the history of the developments described above is a collection of documents entitled “Autos de la conquista de la Prova. hecha en este ano por D. Antonio Balcarcel,” etc. Some of them are printed in Portillo, Apuntes. They were used by me in the original in the archives of Mexico.
48. “Informe que hizo el Yllmo Senor Don Manuel Fernz. de Sta Cruz Abpo de Guadalaxa. a el Yllmo, y exmo Senor Maestro Don Fr. Payo de Rivera, Arzobispo de Mexico.... dando Relasion de las Tierras de Coahuila,” etc., 1676. MS. in the archive of the Bishopric of Linares.
49. On the past point see p. 19.
50. Bolton, “Notes on Clark's The Beginnings of Texas,” in The Quarterly, XII, 152; Duro, Don Diego de Peñalosa, 50-53.
51. Cédula of August 2, 1685, printed in Duro, Peñalosa, 50-53. Without knowing the date of Echegaray's proposal, it can not be stated whether it was made before or after news of the La Salle expedition reached Florida. It may have been suggested by the La Salle expedition of 1682 down the Mississippi.
52. The above summary is based mainly on two collections of original Spanish manuscripts entitled “Auttos tocantes; al Alsamiento de los Yndios de la Provincia de la Nueba Mexico,” and “Autos Pertenecientes a el alçamiento de los Yndios de la Proua del Nuevo Mexico y la entrada, Y subçesos de ella que se hiço para su recuperacion.” In addition some use has been made of the church archives of Juarez. I am indebted to Miss Anne Hughes for much aid in digesting the two expedientes, and to Mr. J. W. Curd, for notes from the Juarez documents.
53. This account of the Mendoza expedition is based on the original documents in the archives of Mexico. They consist for the most part of the two collections named in the note next above, and another entitled “Viage Que A solicitud de los Naturales de la Prova. de Texas . . . Hizo el Maestre de campo Juan Dominguez de Mendoza.”
54. Declaration of Juan Sabeata, October 20, 1683. Sabeata added that “he who came to see said Sargento Mayor Diego del castillo when he was there was not their King, but his Lieutenant, for the King never leaves home, and lives with great authority.” Ibid.
55. Cruzate to the viceroy, October 30, 1683. MS.
56. Opening paragraph of Mendoza's “Derrotero.” Mendoza's “Ynstruccion” required him to undertake “the new discovery of the Jumanas and of all the other nations who are their friends.” MS. in the Bancroft Collection.
57. Mendoza, “Derrotero,” and accompanying documents, in “Viage Que A Solicitud,” etc. For further details see Bolton, “The Jumano Indians in Texas, 1650-1771,” in The Quarterly, XV, 68-74.
58. Memorial, April 24, 1684, in Duro, Peñalosa, 67-74. In another account López stated that they were within twenty-five leagues of the Texas.
59. López, “Representación,” June 7, 1685, in Viage Que A Solicitud, 53-73.
60. Memorial to the king, April 24, 1686, in Duro, Peñalosa, 67-74.
61. “Segunda Representación,” in Viage Que A Solicitud, 73.
62. Memorial of April 24, 1686, in Duro, Peñalosa, 67-74.
63. Dictamen fiscal, May 22, 1686.
64. Memorial of April 24, 1686. Duro, Peñalosa, 67-74.
65. “Memorial del Maestre de Campo Juan Domínguez de Mendoza,” in Duro, 74-77.
66. Note the emphasis put by Father Massanet on the discovery of the Bay of Espíritu Santo as well as the search for the French. Letter to Sigùenza, in The Quarterly, II, 281-312.
67. “Derrotero de la Jornado que hizo el General Alonzo de León para el descubrimiento de la Bahía del Espíritu Santo, y Población de Franceses: Ano de 1689.” Memorias de Nueva España, XXVII, fol. 1, et seq.; Bolton, “The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions,” in The Quarterly, XI, 263-266.
68. “Carta en que se da noticia de un viaje hecho a la bahía de Espíritu Santo, y de la población que tenian ahi los franceses.” In Buckingham Smith, Documentos para la historia de la Florida.
69. For a discussion of the meaning and usages of the words Texas and Hasinai, see Bolton, “The Native Tribes about the East Texas Missions,” in The Quarterly, XI, 249-276.
70. El Paso being in what was then New Mexico.
How to cite:
Bolton, Herbert E., "THE SPANISH OCCUPATION OF TEXAS, 1519-1690 ", Volume 016, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 1 - 26. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v016/n1/article_3.html
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