Vol. XLVI OCTOBER, 1942 No. 2
REX W. STRICKLAND
Moscoso's Trail in Texas J. W. Williams
The Expedition of Luís de Moscoso
in Texas in 1542 Albert Woldert
Texas Collection Walter Prescott Webb
Book Reviews
Book Notes and Acknowledgments
Contributors
PUBLISHED BY
THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
AUSTIN, TEXAS
1897—The Oldest Learned Society in Texas—1897
PRESIDENT:
L. W. Kemp
VICE-PRESIDENTS:
Herbert Gambrell
P. I. Nixon
George A. Hill, Jr.
Earl Vandale
RECORDING SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN:
TREASURER:
Charles W. Ramsdell
President L. W. Kemp
Ex-President Harbert Davenport
Ex-President W. E. Wrather
Vice-President Herbert Gambrell
Vice-President George A. Hill, Jr.
Walter P. Webb
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL:
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY:
Mrs. Coral Horton Tullís
Vice-President Earl Vandale
Vice-President P. I. Nixon
Recording Secretary and Librarian
Walter P. Webb
Treasurer Charles W. Ramsdell
State Librarian Fannie Wilcox
Amelia Williams (1943)
Claude Elliott (1944)
Anna Powell (1943)
Fellows
Adina de Zavala (1945)
R. L. BIESELE (1945)
Frances Donecker (1946)
J. Evetts Haley (1947)
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE:
L. W. Kemp
Eugene C. Barker
Charles W. Hackett
E. W. Winkler
Rudolph L. Biesele
Walter P. Webb
Charles W. Ramsdell
H. Bailey Carroll
Herbert Gambrell
THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
MANAGING EDITOR:
Walter Prescott Webb
ASSOCIATE EDITORS:
Charles W. Hackett
Rudolph L. Biesele
H. Bailey Carroll
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
W. A. Whatley
STUDENT EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
James H. McLendon
Charles Cumberland
Andrew F. Muir
Van Mitchell Smith
The Association was organized March 2, 1897. The annual dues are three dollars. The
Quarterly is sent free to all members.
Contributions to The Quarterly and correspondence relative to historical material should
be addressed to Walter P. Webb, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
Other correspondence may be addressed to The Texas State Historical Association, Austin,
Texas.
The publication committee and the editors disclaim responsibility for views expressed by
contributors to The Quarterly.
Entered at the post-office, Austin, Texas, as second class mail matter.
by published work, special aptitude for historical investigation may become
Fellows. Thirteen Fellows shall be elected by the Association when first
organized, and the body thus created may thereafter elect additional Fellows
an the nomination of the Executive Committee. The number of Fellows shall
never exceed fifty." The present list of Fellows is as follows:
Asbury, Prof. S. E.
Barker, Prof. Eugene C.
Biesele, Prof. R. L.
Bolton, Prof. Herbert Eugene
Carroll, Prof. H. Bailey
Casis, Prof. Lilia M.
Castaneda, Dr. Carlos E.
Clark, Prof. J. L.
Cox, Prof. I. J.
Crane, Judge R. C.
Curlee, Miss Abigail
Davenport, Mr. Harbert
Dunn, Dr. William Edward
Dobie, Prof. J. Frank
Elliott, Dr. Claude
Emmett, Mr. Chris
Estill, Prof. H. F.
Gambrell, Prof. Herbert P.
Garrett, Dr. Kathryn
Geiser, Prof. S. W.
Hackett, Prof. Chas. W.
Haggard, Mr. J. Villasana
Haley, Mr. J. Evetts
Hill, Mr. George A., Jr.
Holden, Prof. W. C.
Kemp, Mr. L. W.
Miller, Prof. E. T.
Nett, Dr. C. T.
Nixon, Dr. P. I.
Potts, Dr. C. S.
Powell, Dr. Anna
Raymond, Dr. Dora Neill
Richardson, Prof. Rupert N.
Schmitz, Rev. Joseph
Schoen, Dr. Harold
Shelby, Miss Charmion
Smither, Miss Harriet
Tucker, Mr. Philip C. 3rd
Villavaso, Mrs. Ethel Bather
Webb, Prof. W. P.
West, Miss Elizabeth H.
Williams, Dr. Amelia
Williams, Judge O. W.
Winkler, Mr. Ernest Wm.
Wrather, Mr. W. E.
Zavala, Miss Adina de
The constitution provides also that "Such benefactors of the Association
as shall pay into its treasury at any one time the sum of one hundred dollars
or shall present to the Association an equivalent in books, MSS., or other
acceptable matter, shall be classed as Life Members."
The Life Members at present are:
Arnold, Mr. M. L.
Baker, Mr. Hines H.
Beazley, Miss Julia
Blount, Mrs. Guy
Bobbitt, Mr. R. L.
Buchanan, Mr. A. A.
Carroll, Mr. H. Bailey
Carroll, Mr. J. Speed
Cartwright, Mr. and Mrs. J. I.
Clark, Mr. J. F.
Courchesne, Mr. A.
Cox, Mr. I. J.
Crane, Mr. R. C.
Curlee, Miss Abigail
Davidson, Mr. W. S.
Dealey, Mr. George B.
Deussen, Mr. Alexander
Dilworth, Mr. Thomas G.
Donaldson, Mrs. Nanna Smithwick
Donoghue, Mr. David
Driscoll, Mrs. Clara
Edwards, Mrs. Lillian Owens
Farrish, Mr. W. S.
Fortman, Mr. Henry F.
Gilbert, Mr. Harvey Wilbarger
Gilbert, Mr. John N.
Gleason, Rev. Joseph M.
Graves, Mr. Ireland
Gutsch, Mr. Milton R.
Hanriek, Mr. R. A.
Harris, Mr. Beverly D.
Hefley, Mr. W. T.
Hutcheson, Judge J. C, Jr.
Hyde, Mr. James H.
Jones, Mr. Roland
Magruder, Mrs. Hamilton
Maresh, Dr. Henry R.
Milbry, Mrs. C. H.
Moody, Col. W. L.
Moore, Mrs. John M.
Morehead, Mr. C. R.
Morris, Mr. J. S.
Parten, Mr. J. R.
Pew, Mr. John G.
Powell, Miss Anna
Randall, Dr. Edward
Scarbrough, Mr. and Mrs. Lem
Schmidt, Mr. John
Sinclair, Mr. J. L.
Staiti, Mrs. H. T.
Stone, Mr. Hugh Lamar
Streeter, Mr. Thomas
Tenney, Rev. S. M.
Thompson, Mr. Brooks
Timm, Mr. C. A.
Todd, Mr. Chas. S.
Waggener, Mr. Leslie
Walker, Mr. J. A.
Webb, Mr. Mack
West, Miss Elizabeth
Willacy, Mr. John G.
Williams, Judge O. W.
Williamson, Judge J. D.
Wythe, Mr. George
Young, Mr. Eldon
Kenyon College
PATRONS AND SUSTAINING MEMBERS
Patrons contribute to the work of the Association $500, payable over a
period of five years; Sustaining Members $250. The List of Patrons and
Sustaining Members follows:
Barker, Mr. Eugene C.
Blaffer, Mr. R. L.
Clayton, Mr. W. L.
De Golyer, Mr. E.
Denman, Mr. LeRoy
Francis, Mr. W. H.
Hagar, Mr. Dilworth S
Hill, Mr. George A., Jr.
Hughes, Mr. J. K.
Hutcheson, Mr. Palmer
Karcher, Mr. J. C.
Maercky, Mr. P. George
Perry, Mrs. Hally Bryan
Russ, Mr. Leon F.
Moss, Mr. H. S.
Shepherd, Mr. James L., Jr.
Smith, Mr. E. L.
Suman, Mr. John R.
Stark, Mr. H. J. L.
Webb, Mr. W. P.
Weiss, Mr. W. C.
Wheelock, Mr. Lloyd
Wilson, Mr. W. D.
Wrather, Mr. W. E.
American Liberty Oil Company
Houston Oil Company
CONTENTS
Moscoso's Journey Through Texas - - Rex W. Strickland - - 109
Moscoso's Trail in Texas J. W. Williams - - 138
The Expedition of Luis de Moscoso in
Texas in 1542 - - Albert Woldert - - 158
Texas Collection - Walter Prescott Webb - - 167
Book Reviews: Biographical Directory of the Texan Conven-
tions and Congresses, 1832-1845; Texas Newspapers, 1813-
1939: A Union List of Newspaper Files Available in Offices
of Publishers, Libraries, and a Number of Private Collec-
tions; Steen, Twentieth Century Texas: An Economic and
Social History; Martin, Border Boss: Captain John R.
Hughes, Texas Ranger; Schreiber, Mesquite Does Bloom:
An Historical Account of the First Fifty Years of St. Mary's
Parish and Community, Windthorst, Texas, 1892-194,2; Da-
vidson, Propaganda and the American Revolution, 1763-
1783; Lyon, The Man Who Sold Louisiana; Sonnichsen,
Billy King's Tombstone; The Unpublished Letters of Adolphe
F. Bandelier: Concerning the Writing and Publication of
The Delight Makers 184
Book Notes and Acknowledgments 198
Contributors 201
THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Vol. XLVI OCTOBER, 1942 No, 2
MOSCOSO'S JOURNEY THROUGH TEXAS
In my doctoral thesis, "Anglo-American Occupation of North-
eastern Texas, 1803-1845," I pointed out the necessity for a reex-
amination of the various hypotheses advanced in the effort to de-
determine the route followed by Luís de Moscoso in the course of
his Texas entrada
of 1542. This need I emphasized then by say-
ing: "So far as the location of places in Texas is concerned it
seems to me that Lewis' notes are faulty." The reference, of
course, was to the annotations accompanying "The Narrative of
the Expedition of Hernando de Soto, by the Gentleman of Elvas,"
in Spanish
Explorers
in
the
Southern
United
States,
1528-1542
(edited by F. W. Hodge). More recent study of all available
De Soto materials has served only to confirm my earlier impres-
sion. Furthermore, my interest in the problem has led me to
consider critically the views advanced regarding the Moscoso
itinerary in more recent inquiries: viz., Carlos Castañeda's Our
Catholic
Heritage
in
Texas,
Volume I, Chapter IV; Dr. Robert
T. Hill's articles in the Dallas
Morning
News,
1935-1936 passim;
and the Final
Report
of
the
United
States
De
Soto
Expedition
Commission.
Nor have I been fully convinced of the correctness
of the solution of the entrada
problem proposed in any of
these attempts.
The student of Moscoso's journey in Texas is limited in his
inquiry to three sources, none strictly contemporary. Of these
the most lengthy, Garcilaso de la Vega's La
Florida
del
Ynca:
Historia
del
adelantado
Hernando
de
Soto,
gouernador
y
capitán
general
del
Reyno
de
la
Florida,
y
de
otros
heroicos
caualleros
Españoles
é
Indios,
is secondary rather than primary, colorful
and romantic, but, truth to tell, so obscure and ambiguous that
it possesses little historical value. The second is furnished by
the "True Relation of the Hardships Suffered by Governor
Fernando de Soto and Certain Portuguese. Gentlemen During
the Discovery of the Province of Florida. Now newly set forth
by a Gentleman of Elvas." Buckingham Smith's translation is
readily available in Narratives
of
the
Career
of
Hernando
de
Soto,
edited by E. G. Bourne, or in Spanish
Explorers
in
the
Southern
United
States,
1528-1543,
edited by Frederick W.
Hodge and Theodore H. Lewis. The Fidalgo of Elvas' "Rela-
tion" has been more aptly rendered into English by James A.
Robertson; his translation is found in the Publications
of
the
Florida
State
Historical
Society,
II, 11 (1933). Thirdly, we
have Luís Hernández de Biedma's "Relation" in the Narratives
of
the
Career
of
Hernando
de
Soto.
Unfortunately the conclud-
ing part of Rodrigo Ranjel's account of the De Soto expedition
is missing, and thus the student of the Texas portion of the
entrada
loses the benefit of his clear, authoritative narrative.
So deprived of Ranjel's notes and skeptical of Garcilaso's ob-
scurantism, we are forced back upon the accounts of Biedma
and the Fidalgo, scanty and thin though they may be, in our
study of the journey of Moscoso.
An effort will be made here to use every available source of
information in an attempt to arrive at warrantable conclusions.
Especial attention will be paid to time-place sequence; the
Fidalgo has left enough chronological data for us to build up
a fairly accurate day-by-day calendar of the progress of the
expedition. His descriptions of places are less dependable, but
he does not entirely neglect the distance and direction of march.
The equation of time-distance data often suggests the more
probable of two possible locations. Biedma is to a less degree
helpful, though in more than one instance the correlation of
his notes with those of the Fidalgo furnishes the key to an
apparently insoluble problem.
Linguistic analysis of place and tribal names recorded by
the two chroniclers of the expedition provide a further check.
It must be granted that the Portuguese and Spanish efforts to
reproduce the Indian gutturals are awkward and inapt; yet a
study of the words left to us has yielded satisfying results.
Interesting probabilities have been suggested -- probabilities
which in some instances have served to support hypotheses
built upon quite dissimilar evidence. It should be emphasized,
however, that no identity of a place on the itinerary has been
determined by linguistics alone.
Dr. Herbert E. Bolton's scholarly studies of the location of
Indian tribes in East Texas in historic times has shed much
light on the problem. In every instance, save one, the locations
of the sites assigned by him to the several tribes of the Hasinai
confederacy fit logically into the time-distance sequence indi-
cated by the relations of the Fidalgo and Biedma. It has not
been necessary in any case violently to displace Indian groups
from the sites they occupied in historic times in order to justify
the route hypothecated in this study. Any conclusions estab-
lished upon such wishful dispossession must be suspect.
The Fidalgo and Biedma left little evidence that can be sub-
stantiated by archaeology, but at least once we have been able
to strengthen an otherwise almost unescapable conclusion by
resort to the data supplied by Clarence B. Moore's study of
aboriginal sites on Red River.
1 Pottery serves as well as the
written word to tell its story.
The mention of abundance of fish at two places along the way
has contributed to fix the probable location of two Indian groups.
Climatic conditions have been subjected to inquiry, but with
rather meager results. The location of salt springs and salines
between the Mississippi and Red Rivers has been studied at
length in an effort to determine the route pursued by Moscoso
as he marched from the Father of Waters to Texas in the
summer of 1542. For this data and for an authoritative study
of geologic conditions along Red River in the sixteenth century
the student must acknowledge his debt to A. G. Veatch's account
of the underground water resources of northern Louisiana and
southern Arkansas.
2
So we have given hostages to history, geography, chronology,
linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, zoology, hydrography,
and mineralogy in this synthesis. The results have been prob-
able in most instances and certainly logical.
Of the kindred sciences none has proven a more helpful hand-
maiden of history than geography. The ancient trails of the
Caddo and Hasinai are discernible yet to the student who con-
siders the ways of men who hunted salt, food and water. As
Archer B. Hulbert points out: "The 'pathless wilderness' is a
dearly cherished figment of the American imagination." Never
did the explorer or the pioneer forge forward into trackless
woods; they were obliged ever to seek out the tracks and trails
beat out by the feet of animals and natives in their quest for
subsistence. Again, he has said, "the sites of old ferries, . . .
will be found to be a reliable guide by which to locate the
ancient routes. Infallibly the ferries will mark the strategic
points where the ancient trails descended from the high grounds
to the fords."
3 The ferries, generally, were located at the mouth
of a principal tributary of the river to be crossed--the ancient
trails followed the same laws of topography as do the high-
ways and railroads of today. Elevation and gradient are nat-
ural factors.
Students of the Moscoso entrada
of 1542 are agreed that the
Spaniards entered Texas at or near a place which the Fidalgo
designated as Naguatex. Indeed, De Soto had heard of the
locality while journeying through western Arkansas in the
autumn of 1541 but chose to march elsewhither and thus missed
Naguatex in person. As the Fidalgo points out:
He dismissed the two caciques of Tulla and Cayas,
and set out toward Autiamque. For five days he pro-
ceeded through very rough ridges and reached a vil-
lage called Quipana, where he was unable to capture
any Indian because of the roughness of the land and
because the town was located among ridges. At night
he set an ambush in which two Indians were captured.
They said Autiamque was six days' journey away and
that another province called Guahate was a week's
journey southward--a land plentifully abounding- in
maize and of much population. But since Autiamque
was nearer and more of the Indians mentioned it to
him, the governor proceeded on his journey in search
of it.
4
October 22, 1541, De Soto came to Quipana, identified by the
United States De Soto Expedition Commission as the village
whose site is yet discernible near the junction of Antoine Creek
and the Little Missouri River, in southeastern Pike County,
Arkansas.
5 There he rested for a day or two as he considered
the way he should turn next in his somewhat aimless journey-
ing. The Indians of Quipana hid in the thickets of the rough,
hilly country, and only at length were a few luckless natives
captured and put to the question. Two possible ways, they said,
were open to the invaders: six days' journey downstream was
Autiamque, and a week's travel away to the southward (actually
eight days) was Guahate. But since the larger number of In-
dians spoke of Autiamque, the governor decided to go thither.
Thus he let slip his opportunity to visit Guahate.
Guahate, in all probability, was none other than Naguatex,
to which, as we shall see, Moscoso came in the summer of 1542.
This identification rests upon the logic of time and distance.
From Quipana (granted that it has been correctly identified as
the junction of Antoine Creek and the Little Missouri River)
to Autiamque (located by the De Soto Commission in the vicin-
ity of present day Camden, Arkansas) is forty-two miles air
line, six days' journey being requisite to cover the distance as
it stretched out by the sinuosity of actual marching. Should
the same daily rate of march have been maintained from
Quipana southward to Guahate for eight days, the distance
between the two places as determined by the same process of
reasoning was fifty-six miles. Furthermore, if we measure
fifty-six miles southward from the mouth of Antoine Creek,
our calipers will rest upon Red River some twelve miles south
of Garland City, Arkansas. Thus we may conclude that the
southern terminus of the Quipana-Guahate trail was near the
center, from north to south, of the long famous, fertile Long
Prairie, on the east side of Red River, in Lafayette County,
Arkansas. The significance of this identification of the location
of Guahate becomes apparent when we recall that from time
immemorial Long Prairie was associated with the Caddoan
culture complex.
Moreover, the application of linguistics to our problem pro-
duces logical and satisfactory evidence of the association of
Guahate with the Caddoan culture. Let us affix the Caddo
gentilic nä-
to Guahate; we have Naguahate.
This suggests at
once that Guahate is nothing more nor less than the Fidalgo's
variant for Naguatex. The elision of the "x" (really "ch")
sound from Guahate awaits the explanation of a more skilled
philologist.
Incidentally, the verbose and obscure Garcilaso de la Vega
hints at the identity of Guahate and Naguatex. In a passage
quoted by Pichardo, the Inca says:
As it was the beginning of April, of the year 1542,
it seemed to the governor that it was time to go ahead
with his exploration. Having agreed upon this, he left
Utiangue, and took the road for the principal pueblo
of the province of Naguatex, which had the same name,
and by it the whole province was called. . . . Passing
from Utiangue to Naguatex, by the route which the
Castilians went, there were twenty-two or twenty-three
leagues of fertile and very populous country. Our men
marched over it in seven days, without anything of note
happening to them on the way, except in some narrow
places in the woods and arroyos, the Indians came out
to make sudden attacks. However, upon our men turn-
ing to face them, they took to their heels.
At the end of the seven days they reached the Nagu-
atex pueblo, found it deserted by its inhabitants, and
settled down in it. ... The governor, having been in-
formed of what was in that province and its vicinity,
both by the account of the Indians, and by those of the
Spaniards who went to examine the country, left the
pueblo of Naguatex with his army, accompanied by
four principal Indians, and led the Castilians into an-
other province. . . . The Spaniards . . . journeyed
five days through the province of Naguatex, and at
the end of this time, they reached another called
Guancane. . . .
6
In the consideration of this passage from Garcilaso, it should
be remarked, in the beginning, that his accounts of De Soto's
visit to Naguatex in April, 1542, and Moscoso's journey there
later in the same year seem to be glosses of the same episode.
Inasmuch as the versions of the routes followed by De Soto
and Moscoso respectively as furnished by Biedma and the Fi-
dalgo preclude any probability of De Soto's visiting Naguatex,
it appears certain that Garcilaso's two confused narratives re-
late to Moscoso's entrada.
Be that as it may, it is interesting
to note his statement that "there are twenty-two or twenty-
three leagues of very fertile and populous country" between
Utiangue and Naguatex. For, if Utiangue (Autiamque) is
taken to be Camden, as indicated by the Commission, and
Naguatex was located on Long Prairie, as we have assumed,
it is fifty-seven miles, as the crow flies, from one to the other.
Despite Garcilaso's obscurantism and ambiguity, his startling
exactness concerning the distance between the sites assumed
to be Autiamque and Naguatex cannot be dismissed lightly.
Possibly he possessed some source of accurate information
even though he was incapable of weaving it into a creditable
synthesis.
We may further fortify our supposition that Guahate and
Naguatex were one and the same place by comparing the Fi-
dalgo's statement that Guahate was "a land plentifully abound-
ing in maize and of much population" with his later descrip-
tion of Naguatex as "a region very well populated and well
supplied with food."
7 The phraseology is reminiscent and the
description is apt--for the land of the Caddo was certainly a
land of corn and people. This equation of Guahate and Naguatex
seems so plausible that it appears strange no previous study
of the Moscoso route has mentioned it. For such an identifica-
tion fixes within the space of a dozen miles the exact point where
the Spaniards crossed Red River in 1542.
As yet, however, we have not made use of all our available
information relative to the identity of Naguatex and Long
Prairie. For the probability that the two can be proven to be
the same becomes almost a certainty as we apply the data
supplied by the Fidalgo and Biedma concerning the Spanish
approach to Red River.
De Soto spent the winter of 1541-42 at Autiamque on the
River of Gayas--the town was in the vicinity of present Camden,
Arkansas, and the river was the Ouachita.
8 The next spring he
followed the river down to its juncture with the Mississippi;
somewhere there nearby De Soto died on May 21, 1542. Luis
de Moscoso was chosen his successor and immediately made
preparations to set out westward overland with the design of
reaching Mexico. Gauchoya, as the Fidalgo and Biedma called
the town where De Soto died, was probably in the neighbor-
hood of Ferriday, Louisiana. This is admitted grudgingly
inasmuch as a location farther up the Mississippi and nearer
the mouth of the Arkansas, say in the vicinity of Arkansas
City, would fit better into our hypothesis as a point of de-
parture; but the Commission's argument locating Gauchoya
near the mouth of the Ouachita seems incontestable.
Monday, June 5, 1542,
9 Moscoso and his ragged followers set
out from Gauchoya preferring to reach Panuco by land rather
than to try to search for it by sea. Fifteen days later, the
Spaniards came to Chaguate, which the Commission maintains
was located somewhere in the area now occupied by Price's
and Drake's Salt Works in Winn Parish. With this conclusion
there seems to be no quarrel. While the Fidalgo does not assert
that the main village of the province of Chaguate was situated
at the salt springs, he does say the Spaniards rested the day
before their entry into Chaguate at a small town where salt
was made. The cacique of Chaguate, we are told, had visited
De Soto at Autiamque in the previous winter.
At Chaguate, Moscoso was told "that three days' journey
from there was a province called Aguacay."
10 Aguacay, Biedma
avers, was due west from Chaguate; if, as the Commission
thinks, Aguacay can be identified as the Bistineau Salt Works,
near Doyline, Webster Parish, his sense of direction was sadly
awry. But until a more plausible location than the Bistineau
area can be suggested for Aguacay, it appears to fill most of the
conditions set forth by the Fidalgo. For example, he remarks,
"There a considerable quantity of salt was made from the sand
which they gathered in a vein of earth like slate and which was
made as it was made in Cayas.
11 A glance back at the salt-
making process employed at Cayas shows that there the salt
was leached from a blue clay. At the Bistineau Salt Works
there is an outcropping of just such cretaceous marl on the
shores of Tadpole Lake.
12
Thus far we have agreed with the Commission in its major
conclusions concerning the Moscoso itinerary from Gauchoya to
Aguacay, though some minor discrepancies may be allowed. But
our hypothesis for the journey from Aguacay to Naguatex must
vary from the reconstruction projected by the Commission. It
assumes the Spaniards marched from Aguacay to Red River and
reached that stream in the vicinity of Miller's Bluff, Cedar
Bluff or Peru Ferry, all north of Shreveport, but remarks that
they must have traveled very slowly. But if we locate Naguatex
near the center of Long Prairie, the time-distance sequence
becomes more plausible. In the light of this assumption let us
delineate the journey as they moved out from Aguacay.
On July 16, "the day the governor left Aguacay he went
to sleep near a small town subject to the lord of that province.
The camp was pitched quite near a salt marsh and on that
evening some salt was made there."
13 This was, it appears, not
a full day's journey; the shore of the above mentioned Tadpole
Lake seems quite satisfactory as the site of the camp where
salt was boiled. "Next day [July 17] he went to sleep between
two ridges in a forest of open trees ;"
14 if, as we believe, they
were following the old ridge trail between Dorcheat Bayou (the
northern tributary of Lake Bistineau) and Bayou Bodcau, the
open grove between two ridges was somewhere northwest of
Minden, Louisiana. "Next day [July 18] he reached a small
town called Pato ;"
15 Pato is shown on the "De Soto" map be-
tween confluent streams, which may very well have been Dor-
cheat Bayou and Bayou Bodcau. Really, at present, the two
streams do not join before their junction with Red River but
the cartographer was not obliged to be informed of such geo-
graphic niceties. Pato, then, let us assume, was somewhere
between Cotton Valley and Serepta. "The fourth day [July 19]
after he left Aguacay, he reached the first settlement of a
province called Amaye."
16 The "De Soto" map depicts Amaye
as lying between Bayou Bodcau and Red River. In considera-
tion of the distance covered and the direction of march, we may
conjecture that Amaye was situated somewhere in the vicinity
of Arkana, Arkansas, near the south end of the Long Prairie.
This assumption is strengthened by the statement that Nagua-
tex was a day and a half's journey from Amaye--i.
e.,
perhaps
fifteen to twenty miles at their average rate of march.
On July 20, Moscoso left Amaye and camped at noon on the
edge of a luxuriant grove, standing isolated in the prairie.
There the Spaniards were attacked by the combined bands of
the men of Amaye, Hacanac and Naguatex, whom they success-
fully beat off. They remained on the scene of battle that night
and the next day (July 21) they reached the habitations of
the Naguatex on the east bank of a river (Red River); though
the chief of the Naguatex, they were told, lived on the opposite
side of the stream.
The day was not yet spent and Moscoso marched down to
the very bank of the river; the opposite shore, it was observed,
was occupied by many Indians awaiting the invaders. The
leader, not knowing the strength of the aborigines, the location
of the fords, nor, indeed, the depth of the river, did not attempt
to force a passage; instead he drew back a quarter of a league
(just about two-thirds of a mile) and camped there "in an open
forest of luxuriant and lofty trees near a brook."
17
Moscoso had reached the ancient habitat of the Caddoan con-
federacy, whose several constituent tribes and sub-tribes dwelt
along Red River on either side from the mouth of Sulphur River
as far upstream as the Spanish Bluffs in present day Bowie
County, Texas. As we have seen, the Fidalgo mentions certain
of the groups encountered by Moscoso, namely, the Amaye, the
Hacanac and the Naguatex; he assigns the predominant place
among these to the Naguatex. His omission of the Kadohadacho
from his list renders rather improbable Lewis' conclusion that
the Spaniards crossed the river as far northward as the White
Oak Shoals, north of Texarkana. Obviously there is no reason
to identify any of the three groups of Indians mentioned as
the Kadohadacho, i.
e.,
the Caddo "proper." Rather it seems
we should take a clue from Father Douay, who visited the
region of the Great Bend of Red River in 1687. He says:
This tribe [Kadohadacho] is on the bank of a large
river, on which lie three more famous nations, the
Natchoos, the Nachites, and the Ouidiches, where we
were very hospitably received.
18
Or we should glance at the lists of tribes furnished by his
companion, Henri Joutel, who notes:
. . . Before our departure we were informed that
the villages belonging to our hosts, being four in
number, all allied together, were called Assony, Nath-
osos, Nachitos and Cadodaquio.
19
Tonty, who came to the land of the Kadohadacho in 1690 in
search of La Salle, observes:
The Cadadoquis are united with two other villages
called Natchitoches and Nasoui, situated on Red River.
All nations of this tribe speak the same language.
20
A study of these observations leads us to two or three con-
clusions worthy of credit: first, in the late 1600's the Kadoha-
dacho (to use the terminology adopted by the Handbook
of
American
Indians)
were the predominant tribe of the Caddoan
confederacy; secondly, associated with them were the Natchi-
toch, the Nanatscho and the Nasoni. The presence of the
Natchitoch and the Nasoni in the great bend region of Red
River has been a source of confusion to many students who
forget that these two tribes were divided in historic times
into the "upper" and "lower" Natchitoch and the Red River
and Angelina Nasoni.
Only Douay, it will be marked, mentioned the Ouidiches as
resident upon Red River in 1687, though both Joutel and Tonty
record the presence of Naouidiche or Naouadiche farther south
in the land of the Hasinai. Indeed Bolton proves beyond doubt
that the Naouidiche and the Nabedache were variant names
of the same tribe who dwelt in 1687 on San Pedro Creek, west
of the Neches.
21 The archaic name of the tribe, Gatschet says,
was Nawadishe,
from witish,
'salt'; therefore, they were the
"people of salt." All of which comes to but one fact: the
Ouidiches of Red River were not the same as the Naouidiche
(Nabedache) of the Neches. In default of any other witness
than Douay to the presence of the Ouidiche upon Red River,
one is inclined to assume that he misplaced them through a
forgivable lapse in recollection.
Thus, while one hesitates to disagree with so eminent an author-
ity as Swanton, his equation of Naguatex and Ouidiche seems
unjustified. Taking a clue from Gatschet, he identifies Naguatex
as nawidish,
"place of salt;"
22 in his notes on Indian names,
however, he renders the Caddoan word nawadish.
23 Even so,
this is not a very satisfactory transliteration of the Caddo word
that the Fidalgo was endeavoring to reproduce; let us suppose
instead that he was attempting to approximate syllables which
sounded to his ears näwitash.
Näwi
means in Caddo "below"
or "down there;"
24 task
is the familiar term written elsewhere
techás,
i. e., "friends," or, more technically, "allies."
25 Thus
conceivably Naguatex was näwitash,
"friends down there." But
down where? Surely downstream from the main Kadohadacho
village, which was located, in historic times at least, on the
river above present day Fulton. Down there just where we
should expect to find the Naguatex in their villages on Long
Prairie. Perhaps it would not be too bold to suggest a pos-
sible connection between the Naguatex and the later Nachites
(Upper Natchitoch) of Douay's account.
The Amaye were clearly Caddoan, taking their name from
amay,
"man." Whether they can be recognized as any specific
one of the historic Red River tribes is debatable. As for the
Hacanac--if the Fidalgo originally spelled the word with the
Portuguese "ç" we should have azanaz,
i.
e.,
Nasoni. This
conjecture is lent some color of support by a notation on the
"De Soto" map which shows a village by the name of Aznauz,
though it is located far south of the region commonly allotted
to the Hacanac.
Surely we must seek for Naguatex on Red River. With our
problem thus delimited, we have but to search out a locale
that fills the conditions adduced by the Fidalgo in order to
determine its exact location. First, we must look for a populous,
fertile region inhabited by a confederacy of kindred folk, living
on either side of the river; secondly, this large, aboriginal
population must possess the ability to produce a superior sort
of pottery. For the Fidalgo has not neglected to observe that,
"Pottery is made there little differing from that of Estermez
or Montemor."
26 The presence of extensive aboriginal settle-
ments in Lafayette and Miller Counties, Arkansas, is abun-
dantly attested not only by the accounts of early explorers but
by archaeological evidence from many mound sites clustered on
either bank of the river from the mouth of the Sulphur Fork
up to Dooley's Ferry. Indeed, in no other Red River section
are the remains quite so prevalent save near the mouth of the
stream. Concerning the pottery taken from the southwest
Arkansas mounds, Clarence B. Moore observes that its makers
paid much attention to the ceramic art--even cooking vessels
were exquisitely modeled and profusely decorated.
Three sites warrant especial attention. Taken in order as we
ascend the river are the Haley Place, the Battle Place, and
the Foster Place. The Haley Place mounds are on the west
bank of Red River, just north of its juncture with the Sulphur
Fork; Moore rated this site as the most notable he studied in
Arkansas because of its extent, having both domiciliary and
burial mounds. The Battle Place mounds are located in La-
fayette County, four or five miles below Garland City but on
the opposite side of the river; they are on the shore of Battle
Lake, an old bed of the river; they are noteworthy not only
for the size of the principal mound but because the Battle Place
site is in close proximity to the Harrell and Cabinas Place
mounds on the east side of the river and has the McClure
Place site just across the river in Miller County. The Foster
Place mounds are situated just south of the Hempstead-La-
fayette County boundary; the site furnishes a pottery, a fine
polished black ware, of higher average excellence than any
found elsewhere on Red River, except possibly that discovered
at Gahagan far south in the vicinity of Coushatti.
27
In view of the size of the mound at the Battle Place, its
proximity to other sites both on the east and west side of
the river, together with the cumulative evidence furnished by
the study of time-distance sequence, it appears that no other
place in the Long Prairie area has a better claim to be iden-
tified as the village of the Naguatex on the left bank of Red
River. The village at the Haley Place may well be one of the
Naguatex habitations of the right bank; the "De Soto" map
shows Naguatex just so located between the Sulphur Fork and
Red River at the junction of the two streams. The Foster Place
site represents a town of kindred folk, whose identity must re-
main indeterminate.
Moscoso remained quietly at his camp on the east bank of
the river until the tenth day after his arrival. On the morn-
ing of July 31, he sent out two parties of horsemen, each guided
by Indians, to seek out the fords up and down the river. The
scouting parties, though opposed by hostiles, succeeded in get-
ting across to the opposite side, where they found extensive
habitations and much food; they, however, returned at evening
to the camp on the east bank of the river.
A day or two later Moscoso sent an Indian courier to inform
the cacique of Naguatex that if he did not come in and receive
pardon he would inflict upon him the chastisement he deserved
for his perfidy. The day after the emissary's departure he re-
turned with a message that the chief would visit the Spaniard
the next day; thus it would appear, from the time needed to go
and come from the chief's village, that the principal town of
the Naguatex was located at the distance of a day's journey
from Moscoso's camp. The day following the messenger's re-
turn (August 3 or 4) an embassy of natives came to visit
Moscoso to discover his mood; seemingly reassured, they re-
turned to their chief, who came in two hours later. The cacique
and his retinue presented themselves to Moscoso, as the Fidalgo
remarks, "all weeping after the manner of Tula which lay to
the east not very far from that place."
28 The chief emphasized
his humility in a speech which laid the blame for his intran-
sigence upon a brother who had been killed in the battle of
July 20. Moscoso granted his pardon to the supplicant.
Four days later (August 8) Moscoso set forth upon his way,
that is, he marched out from his camp in the grove. "But on
reaching the river he could not cross, as it had swollen
greatly."
29 Robertson's rendering of the Fidalgo's account
makes it clear that the freshet-filled stream was the one in
front of the camp and not another as Buckingham Smith's
awkward translation has led some students to believe. Balked
by the high water, "the governor returned to the place where
he had been during the preceding days."
30
Eight days after (August 16) Moscoso's first attempt to
cross the river, he set out again and "passed to the other side
and found a village without any people."
31 Profiting by former
experiences, Moscoso did not trust himself in the deserted village
where he would be liable to ambush but camped in the open
fields. He demanded guides of the chief of the Naguatex, who
neither came himself nor sent the assistance asked; after some
days, Moscoso sent scouting parties up and down the river to
burn the towns and seize captives. Both objectives were at-
tained so effectively that the cacique sent six principal men
and three guides "who knew the language of the region ahead
where the governor was about to go."
32
Inasmuch as Moscoso had lingered some days in the land of
the Naguatex on the west bank of the river, it may be assumed
that he used up the major portion of a week, let us say five
days. Thus it was not until August 22 that he was ready to
resume his journey. He had loitered first and last for a full
month plus a day or two more in the neighborhood of Naguatex.
All this we find in the True
Relation
of the Fidalgo, since Biedma
neglects entirely the episodes connected with Naguatex.
Biedma, however, in speaking of Aguacay (where Moscoso
had stopped on his way to Naguatex), interjects one illumi-
nating comment:
After leaving this place [Aguacay], the Indians
told us we should see no more settlements unless we
went down in a southwest-and-by-south direction,
where we should find large towns and food; that in
the courses we asked about, there were some large
sandy wastes, without any people and subsistence
whatever.
33
Thus Moscoso's inquiries concerning the ways thence from
Naguatex had elicited the reply that westward there were but
sterile, unpeopled areas. To the natives used to the lush pro-
ductiveness of the river bottom fields such must have seemed
the open Black Prairies westward with their interspersed mottes
of blackjack and post oak. Neither sterile nor sandy to us, to
the Caddo they were lands of deer and the buffalo, scarcely
fitted for corn; if the Spaniards sought towns and people they
must journey southwestward. The men of Naguatex knew the
speech of the natives in that direction and well they might, for
the language of the Caddo and Hasinai differed little. West-
ward along Red River the explorers could only expect to meet
the wandering Tonkawas and Kichai who spoke "barbaroi"
and find lands whose inhabitants were not acquainted with
even the primitive hoe culture of the Caddo.
Nor were there trails toward the west. In my long study of
the area between the Red River and Sulphur Fork, I have
found no evidence of an aboriginal ridge trail, though it is
reasonable to suppose that there must have been a hunting
path along the divide. But to the southwest there had led since
the time when the memory of man ran not to the contrary the
trail from the land of the Caddo to the habitations of their
kinsmen, the Hasinai of the East Texas pinelands.
The heat of summer was now heavy upon the steaming bot-
toms of Red River; on August 22, Moscoso departed from the
vacant fields of Naguatex on this side of the river, moving, as
Biedma makes evident, southwest-and-by-south. Surely he was
following the ancient road from Red River to the Hasinai.
At the end of the third day (August 24), he "reached a town
of four or five houses, belonging to the cacique of that mis-
erable province, called Nissohone." Students of the entrada
have correlated Nissohone -- Nisione, in Biedma's spelling --
with the Nasoni who in later years were living some thirty
miles north of Nacogdoches on the headwaters of an eastern
branch of the Angelina River, but they forget that in 1687
the "Upper" Nasoni were resident on Red River. It seems safe
to assume that the Nissohone of the Fidalgo were a small village
group of the Red River Nasoni, living poorly and miserably apart
from the main tribe on the river. The three days' march
requisite to cover the distance from Naguatex combined with
the Fidalgo's observation.that theirs was a poor region, thinly
peopled and producing scant corn, suggests that Moscoso had
reached the sandy upland west of Atlanta somewhere near the
junction of Cherry Branch and John's Creek. To this proposal
one objection can be offered: travelling at their average rate
of march (eight to eleven miles per day), the Spaniards could
scarcely have covered the distance between Naguatex and the
Nasoni camp in three days. But it must be remembered that
they had guides familiar with the country, that they were fol-
lowing a well-defined road and that their horses were rested
by the long stay at Naguatex.
The Fidalgo continues:
. . . Two days later, the guides who were guiding the
governor, if they had to go toward the west, guided
them toward the east, and sometimes they went through
dense forests, wandering off the road. The governor
ordered them hanged from a tree and an Indian woman,
who had been captured at Nissohone, guided him, and
he went back to look for the road. Two days later, he
reached another wretched land, called Lacane.
34
Two things are clearly indicated by this passage. The Span-
iards wished to follow a well-known trail or road, and the native
guides (those who had come with them from Naguatex?) sought
to lead them away from it to the eastward. The trail could
hardly have been any other than the ridge road that led south-
ward along the divide between Jim's Bayou on the east and
Black Cypress Bayou on the west down to the famous crossing
on Big Cypress, in the environs of Jefferson. Their guides were
attempting to entangle their unwelcomed guests in the thickly
timbered bottoms of the creeks tributary to Red River. Only
after Moscoso had hanged the recreant guides and employed
the services of a captive Nasoni woman did he find the road
which brought him four days after his departure from the
Nasoni village to another "wretched land called Lacane." They
arrived there in the afternoon of August 28. Lacono should
be equated with Nacono perhaps, though the De Soto Commis-
sion's surmise that the Nacao are meant cannot be disregarded,
nor should we overlook the possibility that Lacane and Naca-
niche may be the same. In any case, these three tribes, Nacono,
Nacao and Naconiche, lived to the northeast of all the Hasinai,
35
though in historic times, at least, none was located as far north
as the 32nd parallel. Despite this apparent contradiction, it
seems probable in consideration of our time-direction data that
the Lacane village (waiving all ethnic identifications) was sit-
uated somewhere in present day Harrison County alongside
the old Caddo path that bent crescent-wise east of Marshall
to reach the Sabine at the point where the Rusk-Panola County
boundary line now touches the river.
At Lacane, an Indian was captured and questioned concerning
the country beyond. The luckless captive told of the land of
Nondacao, populous, with its houses scattered about the fields
as was the custom of the Hasinai, and productive of much corn.
Its cacique, being summoned in advance by Moscoso, came to
meet the governor with weeping as had the chief of the Na-
guatex. Especially significant is the Fidalgo's statement that the
Indians presented the invaders with an abundance of fish;
Nondacao was undoubtedly close to a stream of some impor-
tance. Immediately the Sabine comes to mind. Considering
the direction and distance traveled since they had left Naguatex,
it seems fairly certain that they had reached one of the ancient
Anadarko (for Nondacao is equated with Anadarko) villages
south of the Sabine. Two such towns existed there in historic
times: an upper in the northern part of Panola County
36 and
a lower on the East Fork of the Angelina River in the extreme
southern part of Rusk County. The Fidalgo does not mention
the time requisite to go from Lacane to Nondacao but if we
glance ahead it will be seen that the Spaniards spent five days
on the road from Nondacao to Aays. If we measure back from
San Augustine (which we will accept tentatively as the site
of Aays) we find the distance to the old Caddo crossing on
the Sabine to be a little less than seventy miles, too great a
distance to be covered in five days at their customary leisurely
pace. From the Rusk County Anadarko site to San Augustine
is more nearly fifty miles, or just about the distance ordi-
narily covered in five days. The abundance of fish offered the
invaders at Nondacao argues rather for the Panola County site.
The De Soto Commission may offer the solution in its hypoth-
esis that the Indians of East Texas moved gradually southwest-
ward between 1542 and 1690;
37 in which case the Anadarko
met by Moscoso may have been living on the headwaters of
Attoyac Bayou where Shelby, Rusk and Panola Counties meet.
One day at the least and three days at the most would have
been sufficient to reach the various Anadarko sites discussed;
let us accept the median and allow two days' march. There-
fore, Moscoso probably reached Nondacao on the afternoon of
August 30.
From Nondacao Moscoso sought to reach Soacatino (Xacatin,
according to Biedma's variant); Soacatino breaks down into
two Caddo words, Scho-atino,
or, perhaps more properly, Sha
-
atino.
In either case, we have Red Hills or Red Mounds. As
near as our meager evidence ever approaches certainty, we have
here a geographic term for an area long later appropriately
named by the white settlers the Redlands. Of course Redlands
(Soacatino, Red Hills) is a generic term and we have no way
to determine definitely the exact village which the natives par-
ticularized as Soacatino. But the four Indian mounds once dis-
cernible in the north portion of Nacogdoches give evidence of
an aboriginal village.
But the guide conscripted at Nondacao played the usual game
and led the group out of the way to the eastward. After five
days they came to Aays (Hais is Biedma's spelling) some-
where in the neighborhood of present day San Augustine.
There they were attacked by the natives who sallied forth,
exclaiming, "Kill the cows--they are coming." Inasmuch as it
was September 4 (September 13 new style), the Indians may
well have expected the southward migration of the buffalo;
certainly they assumed that the horses, with which they were
not familiar, were a strange sort of bison. The hostility shown
by the Aays (Hais) was quite in character; the Eyeish, with
whom we must identify them, long maintained their reputa-
tion as a perverse and contentious folk. Moscoso defeated the
natives after a sharp fight and marched into their town. In
the fighting the Indians suffered heavy losses; no Spaniard was
seriously wounded though men and horses incurred some slight
injuries.
The length of the stay at Aays (Hais) is not indicated by
the Fidalgo or Biedma; Garcilasso, always suspect, says two
days. If we accept his reckoning, they left Aays on the morn-
ing of September 7; three days after their departure they
reached Soacatino, their journey having been lengthened by
the ruse of their guide (a native of Nondacao), who, as usual,
sought to lead them off the road. By highway the distance
from San Angustine to Nacogdoches today is thirty-five miles,
an interval which at the slow pace of the Spaniards would
have required three days' march. If, as we surmise, Soacatino
is an awkward attempt to render scho-atino
(sha-atino),
there
can be little doubt that the adventurers found Soacatino among
the Redlands of the East Texas Pine forests; Xuacatino, Biedma
observes, lay amid close forests. For our purposes the four
ancient mounds on the approximate site of present Nacogdoches
was the Soacatino of the Fidalgo.
To retrace briefly, on the day they left Aays (Hais) their
guide, a man of Nondacao, informed them that his people had
heard that the Indians of Soacatino had seen other Christians.
Moscoso, on his arrival at Soacatino, inquired anxiously if
this rumor was true. No, the Indians replied, they had not
actually seen the white men but they had heard it said that
they were traveling about near somewhat to the south. Biedma
adds his recollection of the report, saying, "Hence the Indians
guided us eastward to other small towns, poorly off for food,
having said that they would take us where there were other
Christians like us, which afterward proved false." His state-
ment that the Indians led them eastward, from which direction
they had just come, has confused most students of the entrada;
obviously through an error in transcription the phrase al
este
has been substituted for al
oeste
-- the Indians really guided
them westward. Westward to the site of the Hainai village on
the east side of the Angelina where later, in 1716, was estab-
lished the mission of Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción.
Most commentators have either chosen to discredit altogether
the rumors concerning the other Christians or have elected to
build upon them a problematic account of the proximity of
Coronado. Especially have a few made use of the approach of
other white men to prove that Moscoso ascended Red River
far enough westward to meet with natives who had seen
or heard of Coronado. More reasonably, it seems, we may
assume that the people of Soacatino had heard of Christians,
who surely were not members of the Coronado expedition but
rather Cabeza de Vaca and his associates. Cabeza had traded
inland from Galveston Island in 1530-31 to a distance of thirty
or forty leagues;
38 he had not gone as far north as the Red-
lands but the rumor of his presence to the southward had
doubtless passed from tribe to tribe until it came to the land
of the Hasinai.
Here we should pause to establish our time sequence as defi-
nitely as possible. First, let us recall that Moscoso left Aays
(Hais) on the morning of September 7 and reached Soacatino
in three days' marches—thus he reached Soacatino in the after-
noon of September 9. Thence he went to the site of the village
afterward occupied by the Hainai; thence he turned and trav-
eled for "about six days in a direction south and southwest,"
where he halted. So says Biedma. Presumably he had reached
Guaseo at the time he came to a temporary stop. If we assume
he left Soacatino on the morrow of his arrival there, he set
forth on September 10, and used x
days in reaching Hainai
(two days should suffice), bringing him to the evening of Sep-
tember 11; add six more days required to reach Guaseo and
we have September 18. Singular confirmation of this date is
found in a statement of the Fidalgo:
... He marched for twenty days through a poorly
populated region where they endured great need and
suffering; for the little maize the Indians had they hid
in the forests and buried it where, after being well
tired out with marching, the Spaniards went trailing
it, at the end of the day's journey looking for what
they must eat. On reaching a province called Guasco,
they found maize with which they loaded the horses
and the Indians whom they were taking.
39
The puzzle presented by the statement that "he marched tor
twenty days through a poorly populated region where they
endured great need and suffering" before he came to Guasco
may be solved by adopting the Commission's suggestion, "this
20 may include part of the preceding itinerary."
40 If we
count back twenty days from September 18 (our tentative
date for the arrival at Guasco) we have August 30; further
inquiry shows they probably arrived at Nondacao on that day.
A rereading of the Fidalgo's account will reveal further that
he had insisted upon the poverty of the country since their
departure from Nondacao, although he had recorded that "the
land of Nondacao was a very populous region, . . . and there
was an abundance of maize."
41 But we have not exhausted our
time data; they camped in the vicinity of Guasco for four days,
certainly, and perhaps a day or two more; after which they
went ten days' journey to the River Daycao, from whence they
decided to retrace their steps eastward, "for it was already the
beginning of October."
42 And so it was according to our recon-
struction of the time-sequence; quite probably they turned back
from Daycao during the first week of October. Thus if we are
right in our time-sequence hypothesis -- and it cannot be in
error more than two or three days -- Moscoso came to Guasco
either on September 18 or 19.
To reach Guasco, Biedma says they marched for six days in
a direction south and southwest. The journey thither from the
small town poorly off for food (which we have agreed was
the village later occupied by the Hainai, if, indeed they were
not resident there in 1542) was accomplished slowly and de-
viously. Their guides as usual were treacherous and the coun-
try through which they were marching afforded little food.
The location of Guasco lies at the very heart of the entrada
problem; thus we need to use every available scrap of evidence
to determine the place's identity. Guasco, we note first of all,
was not a town but a province or region; secondly, it was fertile
and productive of much corn. All of which argues for an area
populated by a number of Indian groups, sedentary in their
customs and essentially agricultural in their life. At once,
the distance traveled, the direction followed and the nature of
the folk found at the end of the march suggests Guasco should
be identified as the ancient habitat of the Hasinai which spanned
the Neches River to include the vicinity occupied at present by
Alto and Weches. Although the De Soto Commission spent
some effort in an attempt to identify Guasco as a variant
Caddoan name for a tribe of that people, possibly the Yscani,
43
the answer seems simpler and clearer.
Guasco is the Fidalgo's rendition of the Caddoan word wä
-
scho.
The element scho
is familiar to students of Caddo lin-
guistics; it means "hill" or "mound." The term variously
reproduced by early travelers as scha,
sco
or scho
and in
Mooney's modern glossary as sha.
44 In the Representation of
the Missionary Fathers, 1716, the Neche are termed the
Nascha
45--it needs no great imagination to find in this word
the Caddoan dissyllable na-scha,
i.
e.,
"people of the hill, spe-
cifically, of course, the people of the great mounds southwest
of present day Alto. But Guasco may be equated with wä-scho,
or better still, näwä-scho,
if we add the gentilic nä-.
The pre-
mmption that Guasco and Nascha are the same appears too
strong to dismiss as mere coincidence. Until a more plausible
solution is advanced, it seems we are justified in identifying
Guasco as the land of the Neche, if not the very village occupied
ov that folk in historic times.
But we have further conjectures to offer in support oi our
identification of Guasco inasmuch as "thence they went to an-
other village called Naquiscoca."
46 Some students of the entrada
problem have suggested that Naquiscoca is recognizable as
Nacogdoches, partially, we suspect, because the Nacogdoches
better known than other more obscure members of the Hasinai
confederacy. The correlation is not impossible, of course, but
a scrutiny of the Fidalgo's appellative, Naquiscoca, reveals the
presence of three Caddoan elements which may be rendered
näwi-scho-cha,
a phrase which quite probably can be translated
"lower hill place." The old Nabedache village on San Pedro
Creek across the Neches River from the land of the Neche fits
the description.
At Naquiscoca the Indians at first denied that they had
heard of other Christians but when their memories were sharp-
ened by torture the natives said that they (the Christians) had
reached "another domain ahead called Nacacahoz and had re-
turned thence toward the west whence they had come."
47 Mos-
coso moved on to Nacacahoz, spending two days on the way;
there a captive Indian woman told a fantastic story of her
capture by white men from whom she had subsequently escaped.
To ascertain the truth of her story, Moscoso sent a party of
horsemen, guided by the woman, to search out the place of her
supposed capture. After the party had gone three or four
leagues the woman confessed that she had lied; "and so they
considered what the other Indians had said about having seen
Christians in the land of Florida."
48 Having found the land
about Nacacahoz poor in corn, they returned to Guasco.
Who were the Nacacahoz thus introduced, somewhat casually
into our story? Some have seen in them the well-known Natchi-
toches,
49 but more reasonably it appears that Nacacahoz is the
Fidalgo's attempt to render Nacachau, which had as its variants
Nacachao and Nacachas.
50 But in 1716 the Nacachau were
living on the east side of the Neches River just north of the
Neche; if they were resident there in 1542 they do not fit into
our scheme very clearly. But if the Nacacahoz of the Fidalgo
could be identified as the Nechaui, who were living, according
to Peña's diary,
51 some five and a half leagues southeast of
the old crossing between the Neche and the Nabedache in 1721,
then we have settled the Guasco-Naquiscoca-Nacacahoz problem.
To sum up briefly: Moscoso reached Guasco (Nascha, Neche),
southwest of the present site of Alto, September 18 or 19;
thence he went across the Neches River to the village of the
Nabedache near Weches; from there he journeyed somewhat
southeast to the village of the Nechaui, a distance of about
fourteen or fifteen miles, in search of other white men. A
scouting party failed to find any evidence of other Christians
thereabout, if indeed the rumor of their presence was not just
a lie served up to please the Spaniards. From Nacacahoz, as
we have previously stated, the weary adventurers returned to
Guasco.
There "the Indians told them that ten days' journey thence
toward the west was a river called Daycao where they some-
times went to hunt in the mountains and to kill deer; that on
the other side of it they had seen people, but did not know
what village it was."
52 Much thought and not a few guesses
have been devoted to the identity of the River Daycao. Of one
thing we can be certain: it was beyond the land of the agri-
cultural Hasinai. Furthermore, ordinarily a ten days' journey
would enable them to cover approximately a hundred miles, but
their rate of march had declined to nearer six or seven miles
per day. Again, though the Fidalgo says that Daycao was
toward the westward (but he does not say due westward),
Biedma indicates the direction pursued was rather toward the
southwest. This time-direction datum, without the aid of fur-
ther evidence which will be brought to bear on the problem,
suggests that the River Daycao was the Trinity. If they moved
along the old hunting path from the Neches to the Trinity,
approximating the later Camino Real, they reached the Trinity
somewhere in southwestern Houston County. In no instance
could they have gone as far west as the Brazos--time did not
permit.
Here it should be explained that the Caddo word for "river
was a nasalized vocable which the Fidalgo rendered cao
and
Joutel transliterated into French as cano,
ex., Canohatino,
Red
River.
53 Nor should we overlook the established fact that in
very early times the Bidai Indians were located just south of
the famous crossing of the Old Spanish Road on the Trinity.
It is not known definitely by what name these Indians desig-
nated themselves; bidai
is a Caddo word meaning "brush-
wood."
54 Tribal traditions asserted that the Bidai were the
oldest inhabitants of the area, and, though surrounded by the
Caddo, at least in later times, they remained aloof and retained
their independence. Daycao, therefore, was the Caddo designa-
tion for the river west of their principal habitat; it meant
"River of the Bidai," or, in its shortened form, "Brushy
River." Persons acquainted with the natural features of the
Trinity bottoms can testify to the accuracy of the descriptive
appellation.
A cursory reading of their accounts may give the impression
that the Fidalgo and Biedma are not in accord concerning the
course of events involved in the march from Guasco to Daycao
and their sojourn at the latter place. The Fidalgo implies that
the Spaniards moved as a unit from Guasco to the east bank
of the River Daycao, whence Moscoso sent a few horsemen
to explore the opposite side, but they went westward only a
few miles at the most. Biedma, on the other hand, says that
a party of ten mounted on swift horses went farther to see if
maize could be found; they traveled for eight or nine days and
found a wretched folk without houses but living in huts, sub-
sisting on fish and flesh. But a careful comparison of our
two sources suggests a reasonable explanation of the apparent
differences in the accounts.
Let us examine Biedma's narrative first; he says:
Thence [i.
e.,
from Guasco] we sent ten men on swift
ble, and see if any town could be found where we
might re-supply ourselves with maize, to enable us to
pursue our journey. They went as far as they could
go, and came upon some poor people without houses,
having wetched huts into which they withdrew; and
they neither planted nor gathered anything, but lived
entirely upon fish and flesh. Three or four of them,
whose tongue no one we could find understood, were
brought back. Reflecting that we had lost our inter-
preter, that we found nothing to eat, that the maize
we brought upon our back was failing, and it seemed
impossible that so many people could cross a country
so poor, we determined to return to the town where
the Governor Soto died, . . .
55
Place over against this the Fidalgo's account:
There [i. e.,
at Guasco] the Christians took what
maize they found and could carry and after marching
ten days through an unpeopled region reached the
river of which the Indians had spoken. Ten of horse,
whom
the
governor
had
sent
on
ahead,
56 crossed over
to the other side, and went along the road leading to
the river. They came upon an encampment of Indians
who were living in very small huts. As soon as they
saw them, they took to flight, abandoning their posses-
sions, all of which were wretchedness and poverty. The
land was so poor, that among them all, they did not
find half an 'alquire' of maize. Those of horse cap-
tured two Indians and returned with them to the river
where the governor was awaiting them. They continued
to question them in order to learn from them the popu-
lation to the westward, but there was no Indian in the
camp who understood their language.
57
From the two passages, often thought contradictory, we can
reconstruct the movement of the Spaniards westward from
Guasco substantially as follows. Moscoso selected ten horse-
men to ride in advance of the main force for some days (not
necessarily eight or nine days) while he followed more slowly
with the remainder of his army, who were obliged to adjust
their pace to that of the foot soldiers and bearers carrying
corn on their backs. Ten days were thus used up in reaching
the Daycao. Meanwhile the scouts, who had ridden ahead,
reached the river, crossed over to the west side, captured two
to four of the unfortunate natives and returned to join the
governor at his camp. The reconnoitering party reported the
poverty of the country across the stream. Its miserable folk
lived in huts (both Biedma and the Fidalgo emphasized the
wretchedness of the dwellings); nor could the captives speak
a tongue intelligible to Moscoso's Hasinai guides. They had
reached at last the westernmost terminus of their fruitless
Odyssey. Disheartened by the unfavorable report of their
scouts and faced by the lateness of the season, for it was the
beginning of October, they decided it was the better part of
judgment to return eastward to the Great River from whence
thev had come.
So far as the evidence, specific and cumulative, can be brought
to bear on the problem it indicates that Moscoso had reached
the Trinity River in what is now southwestern Houston County,
Texas. Perhaps the camp was located some miles south of the
old crossing, long afterward known as Robbins' Ferry, opposite
the mouth of Bedias Creek, today the boundary between Walker
and Madison Counties. How long the Spaniards remained there
does not appear in the record, but only a few days at the most;
thence they turned back along the way they had come. As
they retreated they began to repent their folly in despoiling
the Indian villages on the outward march and it was only when
they returned to Naguatex that they found the houses rebuilt
and filled with corn. From Naguatex they pressed on to
Guachoya, whence the next year they went to Mexico. But
that segment of their adventure does not belong to our story
of Moscoso's journey through Texas in 1542.
58
One or two further observations, indicative rather than con-
firmatory of the validity of conclusions reached in this account
concerning the route pursued by Moscoso, should be offered here.
First, much has been said by the exponents of the Red River
route about the sterility of the soil and the dryness of the
climate in the area traversed by Moscoso. The commentators
forget that summer was upon the land: the heat of August
and September had dried the corn brown in the fields, the
dusty-gray leaves of the oak hung intermingled with the droop-
ing needles of the pine, the cicada droned constantly through-
out the drowsy day, and above all, a copperas sky—surely one
who knows the drought of summer in East Texas will not need
the semi-aridity of the Grand Prairie to provide the stage for
Moscoso's entrada.
For the summer of 1542 was droughty; the Fidalgo expresses
the amazement of the Spaniards at finding Red River running
at flood stage when rain had not fallen for weeks in the vicinity
of their crossing. Thereafter, throughout their journey, they
passed through a country that had not had rain for some time
prior to their coming. This may and perhaps does account for
the chroniclers' failure to mention the crossing of the rivers
they found--the Sulphur Fork, the Sabine, the Angelina and
the Neches. Certainly, a century and a half later Joutel and
Douay, who traveled over the Texas portion of the route in
reverse direction, but in spring and not in summer, had occasion
to note the presence of all four streams.
FOOTNOTES:
the Journal of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, XIV,
483-644.
Louisiana and Southern Arkansas," United States Geological Survey Pro -
fessional Papers, No. 46, House Documents, LXVII, 59th Congress, 1st
Session.
States, 53.
by Governor Fernando de Soto . . . by a Gentleman of Elvas," in the
Publications of the Florida Historical Society, No. 11, II, 201. Robertson's
translation will be used throughout this paper. It will be cited simply
as Elvas.
III, 10.
them to the Gregorian calendar.
Louisiana and Southern Arkansas," 30.
Discover the River Mississippi," in Cox, I. J. (ed.), Journeys of La Salle,
II, 178.
the Bureau of American Ethnology.
the Journal of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, XIV,
483-644.
nando de Soto, II. 36.
Historical Quarterly, XI, 268.
in Spanish Explorers in Southern United States, 1528-1543, 56.
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1103.
54Ibid., I,145.
Hernández de Biedma" in Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto,
II, 37.
according to his hypothesis will be found appended to "The Narrative of the
Expedition of Hernando de Soto, by the Gentleman of Elvas in Spanish
Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1542. His notes are quoted,
and my comments are set off in italics. He located Aguacay on the
west bank of the Ouachita River, two miles south of Arkadelphia, in
Clark County, Arkansas. The attack by the chiefs of Naguatex, Hacanac
and Amaye occurred "probably on the Prairie de Roane, near Hope. The
small river upon which they camped the next day (incidentally the small
river existed only in Lewis' misreading of Buckingham Smiths faulty
translation) was "Little River in Hempstead County." The place where
they crossed Red River was "about three miles east of the line between
Texas and Arkansas, in the latter state, and is known as White Oak
Shoals." At that point, Lewis thought he saw just such an island as the
one upon which Pato is shown on the De Soto map. But Pato was on the
thither bank of Red River, not on this side. This is "in the elbow or
'great bend' of Red River, and is about forty miles long, and from two to
thirteen miles wide. At the upper end of the island and just south of the
ford, is an overflowed piece of land known as the Bench Farm, which is
the property of Mrs. Edna L. Orr. It was here that Moscoso and his fol-
lowers camped for several days. This is the only large island above Fulton
on Red River, and the next ford, forty miles above by land, is too far up."
Lewis has Moscoso camping on the wrong side of the river. Lewis dis -
regards Nisione, Lacane, and Nondacao completely, but locates Aays
(Hais) "to the southward of Gainesville, Texas, the town being located
just west of the 'Lower Cross Timbers,' on the prairie." (He fails to state
his reasons for placing Aays just there.) Soacatino, he asserts, was in the
Upper Cross Timbers in the vicinity of Wichita Falls. Guasco he places in
Palo Pinto or Young County and identifies with the name Waco, linguisti -
cally an almost impossible equation. He thinks the Naquiscoca was the
tribe known to the Spaniards as the Naquis and to the French as the
Haquis. He does not mention the Nacacahoz. Now comes the return to
Guasco and the trip to the river Daycao, which he identifies as the Double
Mountain Fork of the Brazos. The Indians captured on the other side of
the river were Comanches. The southward migration of the Comanche
probably had not reached Texas in 1542. "The point at which they prob-
ably stopped was at the south angle of the river, in the northwestern part
of Fisher County, distant about 100 miles from the fort." There, of course,
they turned back to Naguatex. This hypothesis overlooks the logic of time
and distance entirely; from the White Oak Shoals to Wichita Falls, thence
to Young County, to Naquiscoca (not definitely located by Lewis), and
then out to the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos is roughly four hundred
and twenty-five miles air line. This distance had to be covered in forty-three
or forty-five days, since it is fairly evident that Moscoso left Naguatex
August 23 and reached Daycao at the beginning of October (say October
6). Such a rate of march was not impossible, granted that the invaders
were constantly on the move, which they were not. The Fidalgo states
that the distance from Naguatex to Daycao, whatever route was followed,
was approximately two hundred and sixty-five miles, i. e., three hundred and
ten from Aguacay to Daycao, less about forty-five miles. Finally, we can-
not, except by the most radical dislocation of Indian groups, conceive of
the Nasoni, Anadarko, Eye-ish and other Hasinai confederates living in
the upper Red River-Brazos region in 1542.
Dr. Robert T. Hill's reconstruction of the Moscoso route may be found
in the Dallas Morning News, September 1, 1935, March 29 and October 4,
1936. Substantially he outlined the itinerary as follows: from Bowie
County westward up Red River as far as Spanish Fort in Montague County,
where he placed Soacatino. Thence twenty days southward to Guasco,
identified as modern Waco, then to Navasota (his Naquiscoca), thence
back to Guasco and from there out to the juncture of the Concho and
Colorado in the vicinity of Paint Rock. One needs only to say that the
distances covered by such a march would have been impossible within
the time limits set by the Fidalgo.
MOSCOSO'S TRAIL IN TEXAS
Seeming now as if they had come from the pages of an ancient
story book, a party of Spanish adventurers, headed by Luys de
Moscoso, made the first entrada of Europeans into the northeast
corner of Texas just four hundred years ago. To connect the
journey of these archaic figures--some of whom were clad in
the armor of mediaeval knights--with the Southwest of today
presents a field for no little interesting speculation. An attempt
to follow the actual route of these Spaniards, which is the chief
problem of this paper, holds some of the intriguing aspects of
dragging a bit of mythology into the plain daylight of Texas
history. A brief review of the background of the expedition
will prove helpful.
1
The expedition originated in Spain under the official stamp
of the king, and included several persons of noble birth, chief
of whom was the leader of the party, Hernando de Soto. With
a will of iron, and courage that knew no fear, De Soto conducted
his party from Spain to Cuba, from Cuba to Florida, and from
there across most of the area that is now the southern United
States. His long-drawn-out journey was, in the main, a search
for gold. With his curiosity in microscopic focus looking for
that precious element, he crossed the present states of Georgia,
South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Missis-
sippi, Arkansas, Missouri, and probably parts of Kansas and
Oklahoma. After three years of such wandering, De Soto
turned back to the mouth of the Arkansas.
2 Somewhat broken
in spirit, he sickened and died, leaving his followers to work
out their own salvation.
Indian fights and long exposure had taken a toll of nearly half
of his six hundred men, and only about forty of his two hundred
and forty horses still survived.
3 The search for gold had proved
to be a disappointment; these men who had been fired by
visions of immense riches had worn out their European clothes
and were now dressed in the skins of animals.
4 Probably their
morale had suffered as much as their raiment.
After De Soto's death the luxury-loving Moscoso was selected
as leader. After due consultation with the ranking Spaniards
of the group, he decided to turn the course of travel toward the
settlements in Mexico. Thus the frayed-out remnant of the well
trimmed De Soto expedition came into the land that we now
know as Texas. Slowed to a snail's pace by the lack of horses
and further impeded by a train of captured Indian slaves and
burden-bearers, the party was able to travel little more than
an average of six miles per day.
5 For four months this strange
party of white and red-skinned humanity moved westward and
southwestward under the convoy of the few mounted men who
still faintly resembled Spanish cavalry. Then fear seized them,
fear of starvation if they went ahead, and the party returned to
the mouth of the Arkansas, hoping to escape by water.
But details of the journey are not the purpose of this paper.
Chiefly, this effort is concerned with the route which the
Moscoso party followed in Texas. Difficult as that task may be,
the writer has employed evidence not previously emphasized in
attempting its solution.
To begin the search for a trail at the very end of it is an
odd, and doubtless novel procedure, but that is the method to
be employed in this research. Like raveling an old stocking
by beginning at the toe, that journey of four hundred years
ago seems easier to understand when first approached from
the "wrong end." Here, at the final point of that long, crooked
trail—on the bank of some Texas river—this unique party of
Spaniards gave up the idea of crossing the North American
continent by land. That stream beside which Moscoso's party
stood in early October, 1542, most authorities believe, was the
Brazos, but agreement ends just there. As to the exact place
on that great river, those same authorities disagree by half the
width of Texas.
Why should one believe that the Brazos was the actual stream
upon which that journey ended? First, because it is the one
Texas river that is almost exactly one hundred and fifty leagues
southwest from the mouth of the Arkansas, the exact distance
given by accounts as to this last leg of the Spaniards' journey.
6
Next, this Texas water course was the second large river
mentioned on the route southwest from the mouth of the Ar-
kansas. Finally, the river beside which the Spaniards ended
their journey was a stream so large that certain of the East
Texas Indians could see other Indians on the opposite bank, but
apparently had no communication with them, and did not know
what people they were.
7 Certainly no Texas river other than
the Brazos seems to fit all these descriptions.
The big puzzle, however, still remains: at what place on the
Brazos did Moscoso's Spaniards halt and face eastward? The
writer has attempted the task of hunting down the answer to
that question only because a great length of that important
river is within easy range of the family car and a modest-sized
tank of gasoline.
Clues that throw light on any part of Moscoso's trail are
extremely scarce. Accounts of this expedition have dropped a
few specific phrases or sentences that are probably due more
attention than they have previously received. Most prominent
among such expressions is part of a sentence used by the Gen-
tleman of Elvas. The Spaniards, in an unfruitful search for
other white men, finally reached an Indian village called Guasco.
The natives of this village told the Spaniards of other Indians
who might be of assistance. "... ten days journey . . .
toward sunset was a river called Daycao [probably the Brazos]
whither they sometimes went to drive and kill deer and whence
they had seen persons on the other bank but without knowing
what people they were."
8 Moscoso and his followers did as
directed and pushed westward to the river Daycao, where these
Guasco Indians went to drive
and kill
deer. It was the end of
their long journey previously referred to.
It is evident that the Spanish explorers came to a final halt
in the heart of the deer country, a fact which brings us imme-
diately into a search for the habitat of the north Texas deer
of four centuries ago. Facts about deer that were true only one
century ago will probably yield the required truth. Josiah
Gregg, one of the keenest observers of frontier conditions dur-
ing the last century, said that deer did not inhabit the high
plains. These anmials, he observed, were to be found farther
east, in and near the timbered belts and along certain timber-
lined streams that arose to the west of those wooded areas.
9
Marcy, in 1849, crossed West Texas from the Big Spring to
near the site of Denison. His party did not kill any deer until
they had crossed to the east side of the Brazos in present Young
County.
10 Kendall, with the Texan Santa Fe Expedition in 1841,
found deer scarce in the prairie country to the east of the
Brazos, some miles above present Waco;
11 he apparently found
them plentiful in the upper Cross Timbers,
12 and found one
large herd on the Wichita River, not a great distance from
the location of Seymour.
13 This appears, however, to have
been near the west edge of the deer country. Meat became
scarce with the Texans and a special party of experienced
hunters were detailed to keep them supplied. Kendall reported
only one more deer killed.
14
Thus far, the accounts of Gregg, Marcy and Kendall seem
to show a cross section of the deer country with those fleet-
footed little animals most numerous in the upper Cross Timbers,
and less numerous in the prairies to the east and west of that
wooded belt. Other experiences confirm this picture. In 1840
Colonel William G. Cooke and his Texas soldiers found game
so scarce in the open country between the sites of Waxahachie
and Dallas that they were forced to kill their mules for food.
15
Certainly they were not in the heart of the deer country. It
should be added that the game on which they did subsist be-
tween the Waco Village and Waxahachie did not seem to in-
clude venison.
Sixty-eight years earlier, De Mézières crossed this same
prairie that lies to the east of Waco. He reported that the
Quitsey Indians, who lived east of the Trinity, traded the skins
of buffalo and deer to the people of Natchitoches. He also
reported that the "Tancagues" traded these same commodities
to the Tuacana Indians, whose principal village was located in
the prairies west of the Trinity.
16 In each case the supply of
deerskins came from the west. Certainly these statements are
not to be construed as meaning that deer were not found in
the timber of East Texas, but that they were far more plentiful
somewhere to the west. Thoroughly consistent with that fact
is the statement of the Indians of Guaseo [in 1542] that the
place where they hunted deer was ten days' travel toward the
sunset.
17
The Coronado expedition came past the east edge of the
Staked Plains only one year before Moscoso came to Texas.
Coronado's men found deer, so says the account of Castañeda,
but the description left of those animals plainly shows that
what they found were not deer but antelope. Castañeda's state-
ment "the deer are pied with white"
18 contains its own tell-
tale evidence. The pronghorn, or prongbuck, that lived west
of the Cross Timbers and in the high plains, which is popularly
called an antelope, was undoubtedly "pied with white."
19 The
deer of Central Texas were not so colored. All of which con-
firms Gregg's statement that deer did not inhabit the high
plains, for the kind of deer that Coronado saw obviously were
not deer at all. Gregg's statement of one hundred years ago
tells plainly that the high plains was the antelope country and
that the timbered area to the east was the deer country.
20
Castañeda's statement of four hundred years ago tells part of
the same story. That the upper Cross Timbers were the heart
of the deer country on both of these widely separated dates
seems to be borne out by such straws of evidence as present
themselves.
A further fact helps to limit the terminal point of Moscoso's
journey. The Indians of Guasco sometimes went west to wher-
ever that terminal point was in order to drive
and kill deer.
In what kind of country could Indians, on foot, successfully
drive and kill deer? Certainly not in a wide open prairie, say
the best modern deer hunters whom the writer has been able
to contact.
21 The type of terrain where the drive method of
hunting deer was most likely to have succeeded must have
included canyons and, possibly, open places in the timber. The
one place where the upper Cross Timbers are cut with canyons
and at the same time where that timbered area intersects the
Brazos River ranges some sixty to ninety miles west of Fort
Worth, chiefly in Palo Pinto County. Quite by coincidence, a few
wild deer are still at large in that section. It offers something
better than a guess as to where Moscoso ended his journey in
Texas. The nearest landmark for identification is Possum
Kingdom Dam.
Tentatively allowing the end of Moscoso's trail to rest at this
place beside the Brazos, we turn, for additional evidence, to
another animal. De Soto brought a herd of hogs from Cuba
and drove them the entire journey across the present Southern
States.
22 That herd of swine was nurtured by him as something
very precious. Indications are that at night the hogs shared
the camp site with the Spaniards.
23 De Soto kept them as a
kind of insurance policy against starvation.
24 According to
accounts, it seems that only once did he issue pork to his follow-
ers. At the death of De Soto this moving hog ranch had grown
to seven hundred swine.
25 These animals were auctioned among
the surviving Spaniards and driven into Texas.
26 Very likely
some of them strayed off into the woods of East Texas, and
furnished a beginning for the strange species known to pioneers
as "razor-backs." The writer has labored diligently to discover
whether or not these thin-backed swine inhabited the upper
Cross Timbers; the evidence is overwhelmingly in the affirm-
ative, and some of that evidence pre-dates the first Anglo-Amer-
ican settlements by almost one hundred years.
27 But the whole
effort loses point when one continues the search and finds that
wild hogs, at least similar to razor-backs, ranged the surface
of Texas almost wherever there were acorns, from the shinnery
of Motley County to the Sabine River bottom, and even to the
Gulf of Mexico.
28 If these were truly De Soto's hogs, some of
the breed is still left in Jasper County, perhaps to offer a humble
grunt in celebration of this, the four hundredth anniversary of
the first Spanish expedition in northeast Texas. Possibly there
is some slight confirmation of the theory that Moscoso came to
the end of his trail near Possum Kingdom Dam in the fact
that the razor-backs were once unusually numerous from a point
southward of Desdemona (commonly called Hog Town) north-
eastward across Young and Jack Counties.
29
Leaving this statement on its own merits, or demerits, let
us turn to a certain consideration about De Soto's hogs that
drives home an important fact, almost with sledge-hammer
blows. The route of the Spaniards was limited to the country
where there was food for the hogs. Could these explorers have
crossed vast stretches of prairie accompanied by their moving
pork supply? Obviously not, unless Moscoso had seen fit to
conscript an additional seven legions of Indians to carry the
necessary corn and acorns. The Spaniards were, plainly, unable
to camp in the prairie for very long, unless acorn-bearing or
nut-bearing trees were close at hand.
Applying this simple fact to the route of the explorers, one
is almost forced to the conclusion that Moscoso did not go west
of the upper Cross Timbers, since the prairies beyond would
have meant starvation for the hogs.
From the Indian village of Guasco to the end of their trail
the Spaniards were forced to carry corn on their backs for
their food supply.
30 They camped on the banks of the river
Daycao and waited for ten horsemen to return. Meanwhile,
no more corn was in sight and the party faced uncertainty if
they went ahead, or ten days without an additional supply of
corn until they could march back to Guaseo. Under such cir-
cumstances surely the Spaniards did not divide their corn with
the hogs. Or, put another way, surely this last point on Mos-
coso's journey was, at least, near timber that bore either nuts
or acorns. The upper Cross Timbers, which provided a haven
of security for the deer could, at the same time, have furnished
food for Moscoso's hogs.
One may glean still further evidence from the study of the
range of another animal. Apparently the Moscoso party never
did enter the country in which buffalo grazed in immense
herds.
31 It is unthinkable that the Spaniards could have en-
countered these most distinctive animals of the plains in mass
and that both of the two narrators of the journey should have
overlooked the fact; this consideration has, no doubt, been a
major element in many previous discussions of the route of
Moscoso. But part of the import of that statement seems to
have been overlooked. The buffalo country was, of course, west
of the Cross Timbers and on the high plains, but it did not
stop there. On the plains to the west, southwest and to the
east and northeast of Waco, great herds of the bison grazed,
by the hundreds and even by the thousands. In 1841, Kendall
found them very numerous from Austin to a point westward
of Waco.
32 Once, near modern Salado, he remarked that one
could see "... nothing in any direction save the immense
animals. . . ."
33 For at least three days' travel to the north,
Kendall observed that buffalo continued to be numerous. In
the prairie that lies west of Cleburne, he stated that "... the
buffalo had evidently been driven to the south."
34 No more
buffalo were encountered until Kendall and his party had passed
through the upper Cross Timbers, probably near the east line
of Clay County.
Some ten months earlier, Colonel Cooke, with a military de-
tachment, passed over a route near the present towns of Belton,
Waco, and Waxahachie. He found buffalo "in abundance" from
Belton to Waco, and again on the prairie to the southwest of
the site of Waxahachie.
35 However, northward of this area game
became so scarce that Colonel Cooke's soldiers were forced to
eat their dogs, mules, and horses.
36 Supplementing Cooke's
experiences, the diary of a Tennesseean who traveled through
Texas in 1846, tells of some five hundred buffalo in the prairie
north of the site of Corsicana.
37
Almost seventy years earlier, De Mézières made a journey
that extended from the Trinity River westward and up the
Brazos from the site of present-day Waco. He observed that
the number of wild cattle was "incredible."
38 He passed over
the same ground on other occasions and, with less definiteness
of statement, seems to have found somewhat the same situation.
De Mézières, at a later date, journeyed to the southwest of
the Waco Village. His observations about buffalo in that area
confirmed the statements of both Cooke and Kendall.
39 Also,
this early-day Frenchman found buffalo along the San Antonio
road, between the Colorado and Brazos rivers.
40 Probably these
observers have left us something like the true limits of the
portions of the buffalo country that are essential here.
Apparently the upper Cross Timbers served as a barricade
to prevent large herds of buffalo from ranging to the east.
With a minor exception, to be noted later, those animals were
very scarce, to say the least, from Red River south to the prairie
about Waxahachie. However, coming from the plains of West
Texas down the Colorado, and extending east to Waco and even
far toward the Trinity, there was almost continuous prairie.
Along this line, and over many millions of acres extending to
the south and far down between the Colorado and Brazos, was
once the range of the buffalo. More extended research would,
doubtless, paint the picture in finer detail, but the present in-
formation will lend material assistance toward completing this
study.
If one accepts the thesis that Moscoso did not enter the buffalo
country, then it must follow: first, that he and his Spaniards
did not reach the Colorado River;
41 second, that he did not
reach the Brazos near Waco, or that he did not traverse the
country east of Waco and south of Waxahachie; and third,
that he did not go north of the Cross Timbers.
From the above discussion it becomes apparent that to avoid
the buffalo country entirely one is limited to two areas in
which he might approach the Brazos. One of these begins
some miles below Waco and extends to the Gulf of Mexico, a
section properly termed the lower Brazos. It is difficult to be-
lieve that Moscoso's Spaniards entered an area so near the coast
because all of the Indians contacted by these explorers on this
last part of their journey displayed an utter lack of knowledge
of the sea.
42
The other area in which one might approach the Brazos and
still avoid the buffalo country as delimited above is the span
of that river west of Fort Worth that extends from a little
above Graham to a little below Weatherford, a span of perhaps
seventy miles by direct line measurements. This section cuts
through the upper Cross Timbers and the Palo Pinto Moun-
tains, and includes the large, government-built Possum King-
dom Dam already referred to. It is the same area in which a
few deer are still running wild, and is also the section pre-
viously noted beyond which natural food for Moscoso's hogs
would have reached the vanishing point.
Plainly these studies of game-ranges throw the spotlight of
probability on the Palo Pinto Mountains as the final point reached
by the De Soto expedition. A careful observer may travel across
the countryside and find in the Texas corn fields another bit of in-
formation that is perhaps equally illuminating, i.
e.,
an imaginary
line that divides the good corn country from the poor corn country
which runs just west of Fort Worth. East of the line there is from
three to ten times as much corn grown per county as just west
of it, and corn production thins out to nearly nothing a hundred
miles up the Brazos.
43 Up the Red River, corn production is
moderately successful almost to the hundredth meridian. Pio-
neer farmers tried industriously to raise corn in the country
west of the "good corn belt" but the result was largely failure,
and other feed crops were substituted.
One hundred and seventy years ago De Mézières found the
villages of corn-producing Indians west of the Trinity, near
present-day Waco, and a short distance up the Brazos from
that point. But these villages stopped at the same imaginary
line that now lies at the west edge of the good corn country.
44
Later the pressure of white population drove these Indians up-
stream into the upper Cross Timbers and finally into a reserva-
tion near the site of Graham, Texas. However, they must have
had their difficulties with farm production, for a white agricul-
tural expert was furnished
45 them throughout most of the
history of the reservation.
The corn belt, probably the same as shown, both by modern
statistical tables and by a glance at Indian geography of one
hundred and seventy years ago, appears to have presented a
very real problem to the Moscoso expedition of four hundred
years ago. These Spaniards found corn in some measure wher-
ever they went until they reached the village of Guasco; here
there was enough corn to supply them on at least two occasions.
At last, loaded with corn from this Indian village, they began
the final ten-day march west toward the river Daycao. Appar-
ently neither corn nor Indians were found along the route, and
even though ten horsemen scoured the country ahead, there
was no more corn to the west.
46 The Indians found west of
the river did not farm at all, and were not even able to speak
the language of any of the numerous captives which the Span-
iards had collected from a vast range of corn-producing vil-
lages.
47 Between Guaseo and the river Daycao, Moscoso and his
men had evidently stepped over an economic boundary line.
They had passed out of the corn belt and away from Indians
who lived on corn into the area where red men lived on "flesh
and fish."
48
Such a boundary line, by all the standards which we are able
to muster, lay just west of the site of Fort Worth and, by the
same reasoning, the village of Guasco was not a great distance
from Fort Worth itself, and the crossing on the river Daycao
must have been a place on the Brazos somewhere to the west
in the region of the Palo Pinto Mountains. In no other section
of Texas does the Brazos enter the corn belt, and to assume
that either the Trinity or the Colorado was the stream ap-
proached by the Spaniards leads one into difficulties that can
hardly be explained away. The Trinity west of the corn belt
is only a creek and the Colorado above that belt is so far into
Central Texas that it is beyond the estimated range of Moscoso's
journey.
Accepting the Palo Pinto Mountains area on the Brazos as
the terminal point of the Spanish expedition, one may anchor
one end of the Moscoso trail at that point and begin to study
the route of that journey in reverse.
Indian villages were scattered along some portions of that
route, and furnish the key to part of the search for the trail.
Within the corn belt the Indian's plan of economy limited him
to small portions of the vast acreage now cultivated by white
men. He could not build his villages in the stream valleys that
were subject to overflow, and his failure to obtain water by
digging wells, or by other artificial means, prevented him from
making use of most of the uplands. Thus, of the whole economic
kingdom on which the white race has since waxed wealthy, he
was denied all but a few fragments.
One of those fragments was the valley of Village Creek that
lies some ten miles eastward and southeastward of Fort Worth.
In 1841 it supported a Caddoan Indian population that ran well
into the hundreds.
49 It ranges some sixty to ninety miles east of
various parts of the Palo Pinto Mountains and, considering the
slow speed of Moscoso's footmen, the two places were separated
by a distance of about ten days' travel. By all the reckonings of
space and direction, it was the proper site for the community
of Guasco. Other known village sites were southward on the
Brazos,
50 and near and along another stream eastward of Waxa-
hachie
51 that also is now called Village Creek--all of them miles
too far from the Palo Pinto Mountains to blend into the picture
left us of Moscoso's trail.
If the real Guasco of four hundred years ago was located on
the Village Creek that now skirts the town of Fort Worth, it
must have been isolated from similar habitations by a number
of miles toward the northeast, for apparently history has not
left a record of any large Indian community between that
stream and the area near Greenville. That the Trinity River
and many of its tributaries are subject to overflow is the prob-
able reason why an area so rich in agricultural possibilities did
not support a large population of corn-producing Indians. Im-
mediately west of Greenville are the Caddo Forks
52 of the
Sabine River. The name suggests that the area was once hab-
itable for some of these agricultural Indians, and authoritative
maps show that such Indians did live nearby at least a century
and a half ago.
53
Eastward of Greenville, the valleys of Sulphur and Cypress
Rivers, subject to great inundations, were hardly suitable to
the uses of crop-growing Indians. Still further to the east, in
the section below Texarkana, is a condition known as the Raft
in Red River where that great stream meanders across a flat
country, formerly blocking its own course with logs and drift,
and making habitation near its wide stream bed all but im-
possible.
However, to the north of Sulphur River, along the ridge be-
tween Paris and Texarkana and northward of that ridge on
both sides of the valley of Red River, is an area where corn-
producing Indians could supply their full requirements. The
best evidence of this is not a review of theory but reference
to the well known historic fact that a whole chain of the vil-
lages of such Indians was once located in this section. Nearly
two and a quarter centuries ago the Cadodachos lived along
Red River,
54 above the site of Texarkana, in such numbers as
to make it probable that they were the largest population of
their kind anywhere near the northeast corner of Texas.
Moscoso came into a land, part of which was called Naguatex,
that was very similar to the home of these Cadodacho Indians
of known history. The Naguatex Indians were great corn
farmers and they lived on both sides of a large river that, to
the amazement of the Spaniards, stayed at flood stage for eight
days when it had not rained for a whole month.
55 There is no
stream except Red River anywhere near the northeast corner
of Texas that has a large enough and long enough drainage
area to have kept its banks full for so many days without a
considerable amount of local rainfall.
Other evidence of similarity can be found between the land
of the Naguatex and the land of the Cadodachos. Just four and
a half days (say twenty-five to thirty miles of travel) before
Moscoso came to Naguatex, he made some salt from a lake.
About twenty-five miles north of Texarkana was once a great
salt works that employed fifty boilers to turn out its product.
56
Still another tie has been found between the land of the
Naguatex Indians and the valley of Red River. These redmen
of Moscoso's day were pottery-making Indians,
57 and such pot-
tery has been found in modern times in the valley of Red
River eastward of Paris.
58
Another of the miscellany of common earmarks between Mos-
coso's route and the Red River country must be arrived at by
indirection. During the two weeks after crossing the large
stream (assumed here to be Red River), the Spaniards were
several times treacherously led astray by Indian guides, into
thickets.
59 Certainly the inference is that if they had to be led
astray into thickets they were normally traveling in a some-
what more open country, which could hardly have been to the
south or southwest into the deep woods of East Texas. On the
other hand, the ridge westward from Texarkana and reaching
beyond Paris, was a somewhat open country, flanked, however,
on the south by the thickly timbered bottom of Sulphur River,
which could have furnished thickets equal to the wildest dreams
of mischief-making Indian guides.
In this connection, it should be remembered that about ten
days' travel (probably from fifty to one hundred miles) after
crossing the stream that must have been Red River, the Span-
iards saw some buffalo at a place called Aays (or Hais).
60 The
evidence is unmistakable that buffalo once grazed along the prai-
ries to the east and west of Paris.
61 If these animals at any
time grazed within fifty to one hundred miles in any other
direction from the land once occupied by the Cadodacho vil-
lages, or say Texarkana for convenience, the writer has been
unable to find the evidence. If the heavily wooded section of
East Texas that lies to the south and southwest of Texarkana
has ever been the range of the buffalo the fact seems not to
have been handed down to modern historians.
Assuming that Aays was somewhere near the site of Paris,
the route of Moscoso, a little further along its course, also fits
the topography of that part of Texas. Three days' travel from
Aays the Spaniards came to a place called Socatino, which was
among "close forests."
62 The country to the northeast of Green-
ville was once covered by the Black Cat thicket and the Jer-
nigan Thicket which, together, made it a veritable jungle.
63
Possibly this was the site of Socatino.
Here it is convenient to call attention to the three phases of
Moscoso's journey in Texas and to note, as far as possible, the
direction of travel in each case. During the first phase of this
journey, from Naguatex to Socatino, the explorers were prob-
ably traveling nearly west.
64 A significant statement from the
Elvas account informs us that three days after crossing the
large river in Naguatex, an Indian guide was hanged for leading
the party "east" instead of "west."
65 On the second phase of
the journey, stretching from Socatino to Guasco, the Elvas
statement indicates that the Spaniards were traveling south-
ward,
66 but Biedma gives the impression that there was a con-
fusion of directions which, during the last six days of this leg
of the journey, terminated "in a direction south and south-
west."
67 If the two accounts can be taken to mean that the net
direction was toward the southwest, they will harmonize with
the general observation made elsewhere in the Elvas narrative,
namely, that the direction of travel was "always westwardly."
68
A third phase of the journey, after a short side trip, led west-
ward from Guasco to the river Daycao.
69
These three phases of Moscoso's journey and the direction
of travel indicated are in harmony with the route of the expe-
dition as presented in this paper. Briefly stated, and with a
few details that have not been previously mentioned, that route,
as suggested here, crossed Red River not many miles above
Texarkana, passed near Clarksville, Paris and Greenville, and,
after some wandering about, reached the eastern edge of the
lower Cross Timbers, possibly west of the site of McKinney.
From here, following in a southward direction along the margin
of this timber belt, the trail reached Village Creek southeast of
Fort Worth, at the village known as Guasco. Here there was a
detour southward up Village Creek, but the trail returned to
Guasco and finally passed toward the west near the sites of
Fort Worth and Weatherford. The route continued westward
lear Possum Kingdom Dam and came to a final halt in Bone
Bend (on the Brazos) near the northwest corner of Palo
Pinto County. . .
Certainly this statement of a route contains minute details
for which there is no absolute proof, but there is a somewhat
plausible reason for each. Passing over the east end of the
route as far as the lower Cross Timbers without additional
comment, one may ask why the suggestion that the Spaniards
followed the edge of this timber belt southward to Guasco. The
answer seems to be that Biedma reveals that these explorers
were traveling south and southwest when they concluded the
second phase of their journey, and it is a physical fact that
the eastern edge of the lower Cross Timbers approaches Village
Creek in the very direction stated by Biedma.
70 Even the sup-
posed detour up Village Creek is in harmony with the fact of
known history that Indian habitations were stretched for miles
lid that stream in 1841.
71
From a point on Village Creek southeast of Fort Worth (at
the place which seems probable as the location of Guasco) the
suggestion here that Moscoso's route extended up the Brazos
to a horseshoe curve called Bone Bend, requires additional clari-
fication. Up that very route was a long forgotten horse path
over which some of the gold seekers of 1849 traveled to Cali-
fornia.
72 Much of the path followed well-beaten Indian trails
that lead to Bone Bend. The Northern
Standard
of Clarksville
recommended it as one of the two routes from North Texas to
California.
73 It was undoubtedly a natural path, for no road
workers had preceded the California-bound emigrants. Much
of this route appears on the Arrow
smith
map
of 1841 as a
Comanche Indian trail to East Texas.
74 Recently a very old
crucifix and a string of rosary beads were discovered near this
trail in the Possum Kingdom Dam area.
75 This discovery may
be evidence of early communication between the old missions of
East Texas and points up the Brazos.
Even before the period of these missions, La Salle found
Comanche Indians in an East Texas village with loot which
they had stolen in Santa Fe.
76 But one hundred and fifty years
before La Salle, Moscoso himself found turquoise and cotton
shawls at Guasco that had come from the direction of the sun-
set.
77 Guasco, near the west edge of the corn belt and the last
town west of all the farming Indians, should certainly have
had first contact with a trade from the area near the turquoise
mines of New Mexico. Is it possible that this trade route from
Guasco to New Mexico, the Indian trail down the Brazos to
East Texas and Moscoso's route from Guasco to--shall we say
Bone Bend--were, in part, the same dirt road?
Permitting the question to rest on the information already
presented, let us turn for a moment to a consideration of the
elements of time and distance involved in the three phases of
this journey. From Naguatex to Socatino required about fifteen
days' travel; from Socatino to Guasco required twenty days;
and from that place to the river Daycao required ten days.
78
These points, as interpreted in this paper, were apart by about
one hundred and twenty miles, seventy miles and eighty miles,
respectively. Plainly, the middle section is out of proportion to
the remainder of the journey, but the lack of a consistent direc-
tion of travel on this leg of the journey, and the difficulty of
obtaining food (corn) at the end of each day offer a reasonable
explanation.
Leaving these more minute details of route for whatever they
seem to be worth, it should be noted that in this paper Moscoso's
trail has been studied largely by attempting- to eliminate certain
portions of Texas from the area visited. To have stayed far
away from the sea, out of the buffalo country and at the same
time not to have exceeded the limits of the section where there
was food for the herd of hogs, Moscoso's trail was limited to
a relatively small portion of North Texas. This area was almost
a rectangle one hundred miles wide by three hundred miles long.
It lay north of the site of Waxahachie and east of Graham,
and if Moscoso remained within it he could travel no other
direction except "always westerly" as stated by the Gentleman
of Elvas.
On the positive side of the picture, Moscoso did go far enough
toward the southwest corner of this rectangle to reach a river
at some place beyond the corn belt and in the heart of the deer
country. The translation of the Elvas narrative employed by
the United States De Soto Expedition Commission includes lan-
guage concerning this deer country that hardly leaves any room
for one to doubt its location. According to this translation, the
Indians of Guasco recommended that Moscoso go to a place
on the river Daycao "where they sometimes went to hunt in
the mountains and to kill deer."
79 This language can hardly
have an ambiguous meaning, for the only place in the north-
east half of Texas where there are mountains along a river is
in and near Palo Pinto County, west of Fort Worth. Moscoso
did as directed and concluded his journey in those mountains.
Since the study of his entire trail depends heavily on this
western anchorage, perhaps the few significant words of the
above translation, when taken with the chief considerations of
this paper, do much to drag the route of Moscoso into plain
daylight.
FOOTNOTES:
in the Conquest of Florida, as told by a Knight of Elvas and in a relation
by Luys Hernández de Biedma (2 vols.; New York, 1904). Hereafter cited
as Bourne, De Soto. The introduction to this article is based chiefly on
these narratives.
the river Daycao (Bourne, De Soto, I, 166-180) reveals that about seventy
days were so spent. This does not include the detour at Guasco. Accepting
the estimate of 150 leagues (Bourne, De Soto, I, 182) as something near the
correct distance traversed in those seventy days, the result is an average
near six miles per day.
This volume contains the diary of Randolph B. Marcy made in 1849 on his
expedition across the Texas plains and return. Marcy observed that the
deer had probably been driven out of the area just west of the Brazos by
Indian hunters, but that fact does not materially change the evidence as
to their habitat.
(Austin, 1935), I, 107.
able to find deer, killed a mustang and, in true Texas fashion, made a joke
of it, allowing it to be eaten before explaining that the delicacy was horse
meat.
County, Texas (Sherman, Texas, 1936) 45. Colonel Cooke's Report is
copied in full in this volume, pp. 44-47.
Frontier, 1768-1780 (Cleveland, 1914), I, 286, 290. Hereafter cited as
Bolton, De Méziéres.
of it that lay on the Brazos River. Since deer were not numerous in open
prairies, and since the only timbered belt that intersected the upper Brazos
was the upper Cross Timbers, it is logical to suppose that the deer country
known to the Indians of Guaseo was in that timber-belt. The lower Cross
Timbers, it will be noted, did not reach the Brazos River. Probably the hill-
country northwest of San Antonio, with its natural water supply and
numerous hiding places, was a great deer country in 1542, as well as now.
Cabeza de Vaca found deer more numerous inland from the coastal plain.
The Palo Pinto mountain country in the upper Cross Timbers has the same
natural advantages for deer as has the San Antonio hill-country. Probably
it was a good deer country in 1542.
Southern United States, 1528-1543 (New York, 1907), 363.
37: see also Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, 369.
subject is Mr. L. T. Cowden of Wichita Falls, Texas. Having hunted deer
in Texas during each of the last eighteen years, and in New Mexico almost all
of these years, he has killed forty-six deer during those seasons, almost the
total number which was permitted by law. Mr. Cowden regards it as
highly improbable that any drive method of deer hunting could have suc-
ceeded, except where timber or canyons—preferably the latter—aided the
hunter. To this he adds, "You don't find deer in open prairie, unless they
are near 'cover' anyway."
were killed in the fire.
known; they were numerous far down the coast of Texas (J. Frank Dobie,
A Vaquero of the Brush Country, 35). They were along the wooded stream,
bottoms near modern Belton in 1841 (Kendall, The Texan Santa Fe Expe -
dition, I, 87). They were numerous in the woods of southwest Jack County
in 1885 (Interview with W. J. Ribble of Graham, Texas). Also, many wild
hogs were in the timber of Montague County in 1856 (Interview with
Cash McDonald near Bowie, Texas). They were along Red River in north-
east Fannin County in 1875 (Interview with W. G. Bralley of Wichita
Falls, Texas). They were in the same area as early as 1803 (Sibley's
Report, No. 4. Original U. S. vs. Texas, 755). A strange herd of some
seventy-five wild hogs lived in the tall grass covering a flat on Soap Creek,
seven miles southwest of Midlothian, Texas, in 1877. They apparently sub-
sisted on roots and acorns that grew nearby, and made their bed for
winter protection of the tall grass (Interview with George F. Smith,
Wichita Falls, Texas). Pioneer citizens in Erath and Eastland Counties
rounded up the wild hogs on Armstrong Creek, in the autumn of 1877.
The hogs were vicious—formed themselves in a protective circle, with noses
pointed outward. Only by cautious and persistent efforts, and the use of
many dogs could this circle be broken and the drive continued (Interview
with R. H. Williams, Abilene, Texas). In the 1870's local citizens of
Young County had a regular camping place on Salt Creek northeast of
modern New Castle, where they hunted wild hogs each year (Interview
with Henry Williams, New Castle, Texas) In 1880 wild hogs were
numerous in the shinnery of Dickens County (W. C. Holden, Rollie Burns
80) Wild hogs were found in the shinnery of Motley County in 1881
(Holden to Williams). In 1882, a wild unbranded hog was killed near the
northwest corner of Jack County (Interview with Paul Christian, Antelope,
Texas) However, it appears that no wild hogs lived in the bottoms of the
Little Wichita River, on the east fork of that stream; or on the several
thousands of acres of oak timber adjoining. George Cunningham of Hen-
rietta, Texas, hunted over this area as a boy as early as 1874, and makes
this report.
about wild hogs was that they were numerous in the parts of the upper
Gross Timbers nearest Desdemona, and Young and Jack Counties.
Colonel Cooke's Report.
writer through the courtesy of A. W. Neville of Paris, Texas. The diary
was published in a recent copy of the Paris News. The date is not available.
country, or so located that Moscoso must have passed through a portion of
the buffalo range to have reached it.
for 1924, in a block of fourteen counties that lie just east of the 98th
Meridian and from Waco on the Brazos, northeast to Red River, showed an
average of 650,000 bushels per county. The three westernmost of those
counties were Montague, Wise and Parker, with a production of 442,000,
434,000, and 372,000 bushels, respectively.
Following the Brazos River upstream to the west of the 98th Meridian,
corn production by counties was as follows: Palo Pinto, 128,000; Young,
82,000; Stephens, 40,000; Throckmorton, 10,000; Baylor, 40,000; Haskell,
30,000; Knox, 52,000; King, 2,800; Stonewall, 7,300; Dickens, 15,000; and
Kent, 9,500. Obviously the west line of Parker County, which is almost
identical with the 98th Meridian, was the point at which corn production
made its sudden drop.
Figures for 1934 (which was a very poor corn year in Texas) show a
similar line of contrast in corn production, except that the west boundary
of the corn belt in that year was some thirty miles east of the 98th Meridian
(see The Texas Almanac for 1939-40, 177-179).
was up the Brazos in a very dry area, beyond the corn belt. De Mézières
explains that the plentiful supply of meat was the reason why the village
had not been abandoned.
592. Dr. J. J. Sturn of Waco went among the Indians of the lower reserva-
tion near the site of Graham, Texas, in 1857. His capacity was that of
farmer. He continued his stay among them as long as they were in Texas
and moved with them to Fort Cobb in Indian Territory in 1859. Dr. Sturn
married a Caddo Indian woman and continued to live among the people
of that tribe.
Indians, and probably even that small amount was an importation since
the Indians "neither planted nor gathered anything."
Austin, Wm. H. Hunt, Engineer, 1840. Drawn by H. L. Upshur, 1841. This
old map is in the library of the University of Texas.
Republic of Texas, dated 1844, in the State Land Office, lists these streams
as the "Caddo" forks of the Sabine.
graphical introduction and annotations by C. E. Castañeda (Albuquerque,
1935), map opposite p. 426.
Texas, is editor of the Paris News, author of The History of Lomar County
and a loner-time resident of that area.
quotes a report of 1849 made by John Barrow and Dr. Edward Smith. The
essential part of that quotation is as follows: "... buffalo had been
plenty about the prairies near Paris, Clarksville and Bonham."
resident of the Greenville area.
an early road that branched from the Preston-Austin road,
Bird's Fort on its southwesterly course, missing Village Creek (then Caddo
Creek) by less than a mile. This route, as shown by the old map, followed
the east edge of the lower Cross Timbers and, in view of this fact of
topography, was probably a trail used by Indians and white men alike.
the Land Office of Texas and other official surveys (London, 1841).
of Graham, Texas, discovered these relics. Through his courtesy, the writer
obtained a photograph of the crucifix.
169-180) a time table may be constructed without great error. The
Spaniards came to a place near Naguatex, either on the 20th or 22nd of
July, 1542, and reached the river Daycao "... the beginning of Octo-
ber ..." following. This time interval is about 75 to 80 days. Most of
these days are definitely accounted for; it was one day from this first
point to Naguatex; then 10 days were spent resting near a river in Nagua-
tex; the horsemen spent an unknown amount of time investigating and
forcing their way about Naguatex; for two days Moscoso awaited an
answer to his message to the chief of Naguatex; one day later the chief
came to Moscoso; four days longer Moscoso waited before he resumed his
journey (it is possible this time overlapped the three days during which
he awaited and received the Chief of Naguatex); eight days rise on [Red]
River caused further delay; for "some" days he awaited the cacique, but
finally he burned the towns and received guides; it was three days' travel
to Nissohone; it was two days' travel to Lacane; it was an unknown time
(probably but a day or two) to Nondacao; it was five days to Aays; then
three days to Socatino; then twenty days to Guasco; an unknown time
to Naquiscoca; two days to Nacacahoz; the horsemen hunted Christians
possibly one day; possibly two days back to Guasco; then ten days to the
river Daycao. The total days accounted for is either seventy-one or seventy-
four, depending on the meaning of the language of one of the passages.
Obviously it accounts specifically for nearly all the time between July 20
and "the beginning of October."
THE EXPEDITION OF
LUÍS DE MOSCOSO IN TEXAS IN 1542
He who would see the new world
The golden pole the second,
Other seas, other lands,
Achievements great and wars,
And such things attempted
As alarm and give pleasure,
Strike terror and lend delight,
Read of the author this pleasing story
Where nothing fabulous is told.
1
The expedition of Luís de Moscoso, having been a continuation
of that of Hernando de Soto through the tier of southern states
in 1541 and 1542, was of such great interest that a few words
should be devoted to de Soto as a tribute to the memory of this
great explorer and to the members of his remarkable expedi-
tion before referring to his successor, Moscoso.
Hernando de Soto was the son of an esquire of Xerez de
Badajoz, who "went to the Indias of the Ocean sea belonging
to Castile."
2 De Soto, having gained immense wealth from his
adventurous journey with Pizarro in conquering Peru, and sub-
sequently having returned to Seville, "employed a superintend-
ent of household, an usher, pages, equerry, chamberlain, foot-
men, and all the servants requisite for the establishment of a
gentleman."
3 It has been said that in Seville de Soto spent large
sums and went about arrayed in costly apparel.
The citizens of Seville, whose interest had already been
aroused by the relation of Cabeza de Vaca regarding the riches
of the New World, saw evidence of the wealth acquired by de
Soto in Peru. Repetitions of these reports gained momentum
and so inflamed the imagination of the people that it was not
long before many citizens of Spain and Portugal expressed a
willingness to go with de Soto to this land of glittering gold.
Some sold their vineyards, their houses, and their lands to go
to this newly discovered country. Encouraged by the enthu-
siasm of the people, de Soto bought seven ships and gathered
together those who desired to go with him to the new land.
"Portuguese turning out in polished armor, and the Castilians
dressed very showily in silk over silk, pinked and slashed.
Some were in shirts of mail; all wore steel caps or helmets
but had very poor lances. Six hundred men in all followed de
Soto to Florida."
4 Among his principal companions were Luis
de Moscoso and his two brothers.
5
In the month of April, 1538, de Soto, having received the
appointment of Adelantado of New Spain,
6 delivered the vessels
to their seven captains, took for himself a new ship fast of sail,
placed aboard sufficient cattle, swine, provisions, and equipment
for his followers, unfurled the sails of his ships, and with a
favorable wind got his ships over the bar of Sanlúcar on Sunday
morning of Saint Lazarus with great festivity, after command-
ing the trumpets to be sounded and many charges of artillery
to be fired. With high hopes and great confidence in the leader,
the expedition was now on its way toward the sunset and the
new-found land called "Florida."
Accompanying de Soto in this enterprise was his faithful wife,
the former Doña Ysabel de Bobadilla, daughter of Pedrarias
Dávila Count of Puñonrostro, and with her the wives of Don
Carlos, of Baltasar de Gallegos and of Nuño de Tobar.
The emperor, in conferring upon de Soto the honor of Gov-
ernor of the Island of Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida," had
given the explorer all the authority needed.
The first landing of the de Soto expedition was at the Canary
Islands, from which the adventurers went on to Havana. In
May, 1539, de Soto left his wife, Doña Ysabel, with the ladies
accompanying her, to govern the island of Cuba during his
absence, and, having acquired two more ships, he with his
eager followers landed on the west coast of Florida on the
30th day of May, 1539. "Two hundred and thirteen horses were
unloaded to unburden the ships,"
7 and the men landed on shore.
The expedition started to the northward, where they met with
stout resistance from the Indians. Moscoso was made master
of camp and set the men in order.
8
Continuing the march the expedition reached the town of
Ucita on Trinity Sunday. From there with much endurance
and fortitude and numerous pitched battles with the natives,
the Europeans slowly fought their way through the northern
part of what is now Florida. Going northward they passed
through the present states of Georgia, South Carolina, Ten-
nessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, then,
according to the Final
Report
of
the
United
States
de
Soto
Expedition
Commission,
de Soto again returned to Louisiana,
9
still searching for the gold and precious stones which appar-
ently were never found. The fierce encounters with the Indians,
the hardships endured, and the failure to secure the long sought
wealth, doubtless preyed heavily upon the mind of de Soto. A
fever came on him of such severity that it caused him to take to
his bed at Guaychoya, on the west bank of the Mississippi River
in the present Louisiana. Realizing his death was near, de Soto
called about him the remainder of his followers and thanked
them for their great qualities, "their love and loyalty to his
person," and asked them whom they desired to lead them to
New Spain, whereupon they answered Moscoso, and in con-
formity with their wishes de Soto appointed Luís de Moscoso
de Alvarado Captain General to lead them. On the following
day at Guaychoya, May 21, 1542, "departed this life the intrepid
Captain Don Hernando de Soto, Governor of Cuba and Adelan-
tado of Florida."
10
Moscoso, in an effort to prevent the news of the death from
becoming known to the Indians, secretly buried the body of
de Soto, but within three days it was exhumed, and during
the night under the orders of Moscoso it was enshrouded with
shawls, covered with an abundance of sand, placed in a canoe,
and "committed to the middle of the stream."
11
Soon after the death of de Soto, Moscoso called the principal
personages together to consult regarding the best method of
procedure. It was agreed that the expedition toward New Spain
should be continued. Accordingly, they started out from Guay-
choya and apparently crossed the northern part of Louisiana,
12
passing just north of what is now the city of Shreveport, The
expedition then turned sharply toward the southwest to the
province of Nondacao, finally arriving on the east line of what
is now Texas and entering this state in the neighborhood of
Joaquin apparently about August 20 to 25, 1542. (The Nonda-
caos in later years it is believed migrated toward the west and
were found in the section known now as Rusk, Gregg, and part
of Smith Counties.
13)
According to Dr. John Reid Swanton, Chairman of the de
Soto Expedition Commission, the Moscoso party marched from
the region of Joaquin to Ays (Hais, Ais = San Augustine,
Texas), and, according to the report of the commission, "when
the Spaniards reached Hais they were on their way to a province
called Soacatino which, it is therefore reasonable to suppose,
lay still farther toward the southwest."
14
Continuing from Soacatino to the southwest the Moscoso
expedition passed through what is now Angelina County just
below Lufkin, then through Trinity County above Groveton,
touched the extreme southwest tip of Houston County, and
thence came to Daycao (Trinity) River on the east border line
of Madison County, just above the junction of the Bedias Creek
with the Trinity. Crossing the Daycao, the expedition sent
out a detachment of men to explore the section slightly west of
that stream.
After having given more thorough study to the historic data
in regard to the route of Moscoso in Texas, and being ac-
quainted with the general geography of East Texas, the writer
desires to state that he is in substantial agreement with the
de Soto Expedition Commission in regard to the route of Mos-
coso in Texas as far as the province known as Ays, but it is
the opinion of the writer that the expedition of Moscoso after
leaving that place proceeded some fifteen to twenty-five miles
sooth of present San Augustine to Soacatino; and from Soa-
catino eastward toward the Sabine River where water could
be obtained during August. After making many turns and
looking for Christians who might come to their aid, the mem-
bers of the expedition possibly proceeded as far south as the
east central portion of Newton County, but finding neither
Christians nor gold, they finally turned toward the west, reach-
ing the Neches or Angelina River. Proceeding northward up
the Angelina River the expedition reached Guasco, possibly
situated on the east side of that stream in what is now the
extreme southeastern border of Nacogdoches County. From
Guasco, the party continued to Nacquiscoca and still further
northward to the Nacacahoz (Nacogdoche). Here the expedi-
tion turned and marched southward, returning to Guasco, pos-
sibly situated on or near an old Indian Trail where water was
abundant; this point would in a general way correspond with
the crossing of the road later known as the La Bahía road on the
Angelina River. Leaving Guasco and proceeding to the south-
west along this trail (possibly the La Bahía road in later years),
the expedition came to the river Daycao (the Trinity), across
which ten horsemen had been sent to explore the region west
of the river.
According to the Gentleman of Elvas, the Moscoso expedi-
tion "returned over the way"
15 which they had come, and, if
the writer's inference is correct, the party evidently passed
through Guasco again on the way to Aminoya on the west
bank of the Mississippi River, where seven brigantines were
built
16 to hold the remnant of three hundred twenty-two Span-
iards, who subsequently made their way down the Mississippi
River in these vessels to the Gulf of Mexico, and by good fortune
and favorable winds, turned westward and finally arrived at
the River Pánuco.
17
The following evidence is offered in support of the writer's
interpretation of the route of the Moscoso Expedition in Texas:
1. The account of the Gentleman of Elvas, as translated by
Buckingham Smith with corrections made by J. Franklin Jame-
son.
18 Regarding this account the United States de Soto Expe-
dition Commission makes the following statement: "In our
study of the route [of the de Soto-Moscoso Expedition] we
shall, therefore, accept the Ranjel narrative as basal, supple-
ment it by means of the Elvas relation and the sketch by
Biedma, and finally, in the light of these three, study what
Garcilaso's informants have to tell us. Unfortunately, as already
stated, the Ranjel narrative breaks off at the point where de
Soto took up his winter quarters in the fall of 1541. From
there on our principal guide will be Elvas, supplemented by
the meager data of Biedma, and whatever can be distilled from
the romantic pages of the Inca."
19
2. The map of the Gentleman of Elvas.
20 This map shows
the names and locations of provinces in a vertical line just west
of the river (probably the Sabine), and extending almost in a
vertical line south of the province of Ays (San Augustine).
3. The Swanton map of North America.
21 This map shows
the province of Xautatino lying south of the province of Ays.
4. The statement of Jesús María,
22 who enumerates with
others the Guasco (in 1691) as living "toward the north and
east" of his mission, Nombre de María.
23
5. The names of the tribes or provinces marched through in
East Texas are Caddoan.
6. The statement of the Gentleman of Elvas in which he
says: "The country [of Soacatino, Sacatín, Xautatino, etc.] was
very poor, and the want of maize was greatly felt; [the] natives
being asked if they had any knowledge of Christians said that
they had heard that near there towards the south such men
were moving about."
24 It is to be noted that at this time there
seemed to be no difficulty in interpreting the words or lan-
guage of these probably Caddoan tribes. After hearing the
report of the Christians somewhere toward the south the Gen-
tleman of Elvas says: "For twenty days the march [after
leaving Soacatino] was through a very thinly peopled country,
where great privation and toil were endured; the little maize
there was, the Indians having buried in the scrub."
25
7. The statement of Biedma in his narrative where he says:
"We went from this place [Hais], and came to the province
of Xacatin, which was among some close forests, and was scant
of food. Hence the Indians guided us eastward to other small
towns poorly off for food, having said they would take us where
there were other Christians like us, which afterwards proved
false, although as we made so many turns it might be in some
of them they had observed our passing. We turned to go south-
ward [from Xacatin] with the resolution of either reaching
New Spain or dying. We travelled about six days in a direc-
tion south and southwest when we stopped."
26 If the Moscoso
expedition on leaving Xacatin [Soacatino] travelled eastward,
and if this province of Xacatin was south of Ays, as it seemed
to be, Moscoso apparently marched toward the Sabine River,
where his army could obtain water during the hot month of
August. If one should go to a point some fifteen or more miles
south of San Augustine, and from there eastward, he would
be in the vicinity of the Sabine River; then by turning south-
ward for some forty miles he would reach the neighborhood
of the eastern portion of what is now Newton County. The
topography of this region fits the description of sand, pine, and
oak trees, and not far to the south is the "Big Thicket," which
even at the present time is known for its almost impenetrable
nature, being composed of large trees, bushes, swamps, and
thick undergrowth. The "Big Thicket" is said to extend roughly
from the Sabine River on the east more or less to the Trinity
River, the northern edge of the thicket being only a few miles
south of Livingston, Polk County.
8. The references of the Gentleman of Elvas to the narrative
of Cabeza de Vaca.
27 These references indicate that Moscoso
was familiar with the descriptions of the country as given by
Cabeza de Vaca. One might offer a supposition that the Chris-
tians referred to by the Indians at Soacatino were members of
the ill-fated Narváez expedition who might have been rescued
by the native Indians residing in South Texas and not to the
Christians of the Coronado expedition in northwest Texas.
9. After the wanderings of Moscoso and his men of from six
to twenty days he apparently came to Guasco (see map).
10. From Guasco, Moscoso went to another settlement called
"Nacquiscoca," and from there to "Nacacahoz,"
28 which latter
name sounds so much like the word "Nacogdoche" that the
writer's interpretation is that the term Nacacahoz meant
Nacogdoche. The old San Antonio trail or road passed through
the present town of Nacogdoches; it was found in one locality
in 1686 or 1687 by the men of la Salle's expedition, who said
that the road they travelled was as good as between two cities in
France, thus showing its antiquity.
While at the province of Nacacahoz, Moscoso sent out a
captain with fifteen cavalrymen to "discover if there were any
marks of horses or signs of any Christians having been there."
29
From the Nacacahoz province Moscoso returned to Guasco
where he was told that: "Ten days journey from there toward
the sunset was a river called Daycao, and that they had seen
persons on the other bank but without knowing what people they
were. The Christians took as much maize as they could find and
journeying ten days through a wilderness [note that they were
not here in an open or prairie country] they arrived at the river
Daycao [Trinity] of which the Indians had spoken,"
30 and
where ten horsemen had crossed the river Daycao and cap-
tured two natives. After the captives were brought into camp
it was discovered that no one could interpret their language,
thus indicating that the two captives were unfamiliar with the
Caddoan dialect. They were believed to belong to some tribe who
wandered like Arabs and lived on prickly pears.
31
11. From the Daycao the expedition "returned over the
way,"
32 which, according to the writer's interpretation, means
that they returned by way of Guasco, thence to Anilco on the
Mississippi River, a distance of 150 leagues.
In this contribution the writer does not go so far as to claim
that all of his interpretations are entirely correct. Some day
it is to be hoped that a lost or misplaced manuscript may be
found which will throw more light upon the question of the
exact route of the Moscoso expedition in Texas. History is
anxiously waiting for that day.
FOOTNOTES:
Hernando de Soto in F. W. Hodge and Theodore H. Lewis (eds.), Spanish
Explorers in Southern United States, 1528-1543 (New York, 1907), 133;
hereinafter referred to as Elvas.
hereinafter referred to as Final Report.
Southern United States, 1528-1543, 233.
Eighteenth Century (Berkeley, 1915).
United States, 1528-1543, 133ff.
1528-1543, 133.
1691-1722," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXX, 286.
the Tejas Indian Village (San Pedro) and the Spanish Missions in Houston
County, Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXXVIII, 204.
1528-1543, 244.
of Hernando de Soto (2 vols., New York, 1904), II, 37.
1528-1543, 246, 248, and 149.
TEXAS COLLECTION
The function of history, as I see it, is to describe and make
understandable the forces which have shaped the destiny of
man and brought him to the present time equipped as he now
is with his ideas and institutions. Prehistoric man carried little
baggage; present day man staggers under his load of ideas,
institutions and tools which have been gathered slowly and
painfully in the long march from then
to now.
History is the
record of how, when and where man acquired this baggage
which we call civilization. History is an invoice of a bill of
goods acquired by purchase and inheritance from the past and
offered to man in the market of the immediate and distant
future.
What I have said seems to apply to history, whether global,
national, state, or local. All of the worthy aims and high pur-
poses stated for history are latent in the general principles
laid down.
If what I have said is true, then it should be quite clear why
intelligent men and women are interested in history. They are
interested for the same reason that a merchant is interested in
the invoice, price and qualities of the goods placed on his shelves.
The intelligent ranchman is much concerned with the pedigree
of his Hereford bull and his palomino stud. Every breeder is
interested in the pedigree -- which is simply the history —of
what he breeds. Man breeds in addition to his own kind some-
thing we call civilization. History is the pedigree of that civ-
ilization and culture.
We would think it very strange of any man who would pay
a high price for a thoroughbred and not demand the papers
with the horse. The papers do not make the thoroughbred a
better horse, but they do make him far more valuable to the
owner and more interesting to others. History is the "papers"
of man; it is the register of his lineage, the record of his per-
formance, and the guarantee of his qualities.
The growing neglect of American history in the colleges of
this country was emphasized in the New
York
Times
of June 21
in both news-story and editorial. In a nation-wide survey it was
discovered that the study of United States history is not re-
quired for the undergraduate degree in 82 per cent of the insti-
tutions of higher learning. The argument that students study
history in the high schools is blasted by the fact that 72 per cent
of the higher institutions do not require history for admission.
This means that many students go through high school and
college without studying the history of the country in which
they live.
In Texas there has been a constant shift away from history
for the past twenty years. Three years ago the history section
was omitted from the program of the Texas State Teachers
Association. This does not mean that history is not still taught
in Texas, but it does mean a tremendous shift in emphasis,
and if there is not a reversal of the present tendency, the teach-
ing of history will gradually die out. It is quite probable that
most of the colleges in Texas still require history as an en-
trance unit, and therefore hold up enrollment. There is no
doubt, however, that many of the public schools are exerting
pressure to have the requirement relaxed.
It is a well known fact that Texas history is taught in only
a few Texas schools. It is an optional subject, carrying one-
half unit credit. In some of the colleges excellent courses in
Texas history are offered to undergraduates. The University
of Texas does not yet offer a course on Texas history to under-
graduates. The University of Texas should offer such a course
as an obligation and an opportunity.
As will be obvious from the Strickland, Williams, and Woldert
articles herein, this issue of The
Quarterly
appears on the
Cuarto-Centennial of the entry of the Moscoso expedition into
Texas. Three articles dealing with the route of Moscoso in
Texas are here presented, and each article suggests a trail for
Moscoso different from the other two. With such wide differ-
ences of opinion, some may question the advisability of trying
to discover just what part of the Texas terrain was covered
by these 1542 conquistadores.
It should not be lost sight of,
however, that each and every one of these studies attempts to
relate Texas of today to Texas four hundred years ago. Whether
or not the job is completely done may not be highly important,
if through such studies we are enabled to learn more about
present day Texas.
Let us take one example. The article written by J. W. Wil-
liams may or may not be a correct representation of the Moscoso
Trail, but no person can read Williams' study without coming
to some greater knowledge of the fundamental nature of Texas
--of what has inhered in our land.
Further interesting comment upon the Trail is furnished by
Rex Strickland, who writes as follows:
The Moscoso is finished and should reach you Tues-
day or Wednesday. I wish that I might have had a
map to accompany the text, but I have not the time in
which to prepare it. However, I feel I have written the
account of the itinerary as I understand it, in such a
way that the reader can follow the trail without diffi-
culty.
You will note I have not spoken ipse
dixit.
I have
suggested a route which I believe is as near the way
followed by the conquistadores
as one can reconstruct
with the meager evidence. Many will disagree. Expo-
nents of the Chamber of Commerce attitude can take
whatever comfort in wishful thinking that they want.
I have worked sincerely, and I have not been guided
by preconceived ideas. If I had followed my own feel-
ings in the matter, I should have routed Moscoso up
Red River, past my own birthplace in the Iron Knobs
of Grayson County. But the data point in another
direction, and there I have carried the Spaniards.
Samuel Wood Geiser of Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, who is known throughout Texas for the exactness of
his historical and scientific researches, writes to correct bio-
graphical statements made concerning John Allen Veatch in
the Biographical
Directory
of
the
Texan
Conventions
and
Con
-
gresses,
1882-18
45.
Dr. John Allen Veatch on the Sabine in early Texas
is not to be confused with John Alexander Veitch of
Nacogdoches (see Veatch's letter to the Land Commis-
sioner of Texas, 13 Jan., 1839). John Allen Veatch
was born in Kentucky (place not known), 5 March,
1808. He was the son of Isaac Veatch (1786-1833), a
Baptist preacher, and his wife, Lucinda Ramsay. He
was the first of 8 children (6 sons and 2 daughters)
of Isaac and Lucinda Veatch. J. A. V.'s mother died in
1822, when he was 14 years old. In a few months, his
father married again, and by this marriage had 7
children: 3 sons and 4 daughters. Of his full brothers,
J. A. V.'s most distinguished one was Gen. Jas. Clifford
Veatch, of Civil War fame, who was the seventh child
of Isaac and Lucinda Veatch. In 1811, James Allen
Veatch went (apparently from Knox County, Ken-
tucky) to present Harrison County, Indiana, with his
family. There his father farmed and preached until
1820. In 1820, Isaac Veatch moved back to Kentucky,
to Meade County. J. A. V.'s mother died Sept. 29,
1822; in that year the family left Kentucky and moved
back to Indiana (Luce Township, Spencer County).
In 1827 Isaac Veatch, father of J. A. V., was elected
to the Indiana Legislature from Spencer County, and
took his seat in December. During the years 1827-29,
J. A. V. studied medicine (apparently by the precep-
torial method). Apparently he joined (about 1829)
Philanthropic Lodge No. 36, A. F. & A. M., at Mount
Vernon, Posey County, Indiana. In 1840 Veatch at-
tended the Masonic Grand Lodge of Texas as a mem-
ber of that lodge (which had demised five years be-
fore, in 1835).
John A. Veatch was a teacher in Louisiana, about
1830-34. He married, sometime in this period, Char-
lotte Sheridan of Louisiana. Scanty and conflicting
records seem to indicate that he had, in order, three
wives. Of his first marriage there were several chil-
dren. Andrew Allen Veatch and Samuel M. Veatch in
later years were with their father in geological work
in California and Nevada; and a son of Andrew Allen
Veatch, John Allen Veatch (b. 1868) was a distin-
guished consulting mining engineer. Among the scat-
tered family records I find that Isaac Veatch and his
son, Ellis (John A. Veatch's brother) went, in 1830, to
New Orleans to visit J. A. V., and Ellis remained with
him until the spring of 1832. In 1831 Isaac Veatch moved
to New Albany, Indiana, and in 1832 to Clarke County,
Indiana, where he resided until his death. John Allen
Veatch seems to have come to Texas sometime in 1834,
for on September 23, 1834, Benjamin Lindsey, alcalde
at San Augustine, wrote a recommendation of him as
a colonist in Vehlein's Grant. He said that Veatch at
this time had a "family of four persons." In 1835
Veatch was a delegate from the jurisdiction of Bevil
to the General Consultation. He did much surveying
in De Zavala's Grant, and received as fees some ten
leagues and twenty-four labors. Charles Wright, com-
ing to Zavala in 1837, was for some time a surveyor
under Veatch; and they were life-time friends. Of
Veatch's early children, those born before
1840,
seem
to have been born in Louisiana; Kate (born in 1840)
seems to have been the first one born in Texas.
In September, 1840, Dr. M. C. Leavenworth, U. S.
Army surgeon, interested in botany, visited Veatch at
his home, "about forty miles west of the Sabine River."
Sam Houston, president of Texas, nominated J. A. V.
as notary public for Liberty County, but on December
12, 1840, the senate rejected the nomination.
Charles Wright left East Texas in the summer of
1845, to become vice-principal of the male department
of Rutersville College, and Veatch thereafter had to
continue his botanical studies alone. In 1846 and 1847,
Veatch was first lieutenant in Lamar's Independent
Volunteer Company. He was captain in the regiment
of Texas Mounted Volunteers for frontier defense
(P. H. Bell, colonel) from September, 1847, to Sep-
tember, 1848. The Lamar
Papers
have several letters
and references to Veatch. On October 10, 1847, he was
with his company at Wolf Creek; and on October 24,
1847, he was "shoeing horses and getting ready." On
February 23, 1848, he was at Presidio del Rio Grande,
and on May 26 at Eagle Pass. In a letter to Lamar
on that date he says that he is studying botany and
mineralogy, and is getting ready for some mineral
analyses. He is hourly expecting the arrival of Charles
Wright. Veatch was back at San Antonio on Decem-
ber 17, 1848. He bought land in the neighborhood of
San Antonio (v., the Lamar
Papers).
The Census Schedules for 1850 list his family of five
children, and his wife, "Ann M. Veatch" (born 1808) ;
his children were Alfred, Ada, Kate, Fanny, and James.
Ann Veatch is said to have been born in Virginia.
Veatch seems to have soon after gone to California in
the "Gold Rush." On April 15, 1851, Bishop George W.
Freeman baptized "two children of Mrs. Veatch" at
her home at or near San Antonio. On September 9,
1853, Ann M. Veatch filed, in Béxar County, Texas, a
petition for divorce from J. A. V., on the grounds
of continued abandonment. In the meantime, Veatch
seems to have been active in scientific matters in Cali-
fornia. In 1855, he was elected a corresponding mem-
ber of the California Academy of Sciences, at San
Francisco; in 1856 he discovered the extensive borax
deposits of Lake County, California; he was living in
Red Bluff, California, 1856-7. He visited the mud vol-
canoes of the California desert in July, 1857; and read
a paper on them before the California Academy of
Sciences on December 7 of that year. June 28, 1857,
was published the "Report of Dr. John A. Veatch to
the Borax Company of California"--an English com-
pany that capitalized Veatch's discoveries of the pre-
ceding year. Silliman's Journal
[(II), 27,
288-95] in
1858 published Veatch's paper, "Note of a Visit to the
Mud Volcanies of the California Desert, in the Month
of July, 1857." In 1858, Veatch was elected Curator
of Conchology in the California Academy of Sciences,
and held the place until 1861. In 1859 he read a paper,
(June 17, 1859) on the "Occurrence of Boracic Acid
in the Sea-Water of the Pacific." This paper was pub-
lished with a slightly altered title, in Chemical
News,
4,
1861, 16. About 1858 Veatch explored the Carros
Islands off the coast of Lower California; Dr. A. Kel-
logg published his botanical findings, and Veatch him-
self published an article, "About Carros Island," in
the Hesperian
(San Francisco), v. 3,
1860, 529-34.
San Francisco directories show him there as a physi-
cian or a geologist, 1859-62, and 1867-68. In 1862-64,
he was living in Virginia City, Nevada, evidently in
the practice of medicine, while his son, Andrew Allen
Veatch, was superintendent of the reduction works,
central mill. With his son Samuel, Veatch maintained
an office as consulting geologist at 712 Montgomery
Street, San Francisco, from 1863 to 1866, and at 314
Bush Street, from 1867 to 1869. There is no listing
of "Veatch" in the San Francisco City Directory from
1869 to 1881.
In 1868, J. A. Veatch was living at Port Trinidad,
Humboldt County, California. At this time he pub-
lished "Earthquakes in San Francisco, and Especially
on Their Direction" (Mining
&
Scientific
Press,
March
31, 1868). In the fall of 1868 he went to Salem, Oregon,
to seek at the hands of the State legislature the office
of State Geologist of Oregon; but in this he was un-
successful. He in the meantime studied the gold de-
posits and other mineral resources of Oregon. The
legislature that met that fall was recalcitrant, in re-
bellion against the Governor, and no appointment was
made. Two years later, Professor Thomas Condon
(1822-1907), professor of natural history at the State
University of Oregon, applied for and secured the place.
In 1869, J. A. Veatch secured the position of profes-
sor of chemistry, toxicology, and materia medica in
the Willamette University Medical School (founded a
year before Veatch came to Oregon). His work at the
time appeared to be acceptable, but was done under
pioneer conditions. During the year, his (third?) wife
died. He died in East Portland, a suburb of Portland
(where the medical school was located), of pneumonia,
on the 24th of April, 1870; and was buried with Ma-
sonic ceremonies in Lone Fir Cemetery (south half of
lot 15, block 7) on the following day. Members of the
local groups of Good Templars and Ancient United
Order of Druids (of which Veatch was an officer)
participated in the ceremonies.
Dr. Geiser would like readers of The
Quarterly
to give him
names and addresses of descendants of Dr. John A. Veatch,
substantiated statements as to the names of Veatch's wives,
and any information or suggestions which extend or correct
the above sketch. Dr. Geiser plans to publish an extended ac-
count of Veatch early in 1943.
The
Albany
News
("The Oldest Journalistic Venture West of
the Brazos") for September 10, carried a complete reprint of
Charlie Jeffries' "The Lights of the Alamo," from the July
Quarterly
with the following comment: "This article was handed
The
News
by a local member of the Texas State Historical Asso-
ciation. It proved so timely that it is being here reproduced."
Located in the shadow of old Fort Griffin, The
Albany
News
has long been known to the Association for its sensitiveness to
the history of Texas and its own locale.
Clara H. Lewis of the Bureau of Business Research, The
University of Texas, would like information concerning the
early history of the manufacture of clothing in Texas. Miss
Lewis writes:
The manufacture of clothing in Texas began with
the production of men's work clothing. Of the 312
such factories reported to the Census Bureau in 1939,
43 are located in Texas. Other census reports give the
number of plants in Texas, the earliest mention of
the clothing industry in the State being in the 1890
Census which reported four factories.
We have been asked to furnish some historical data
concerning the clothing industry in the State and
would like to know just when the first plants were
established, where located, what products were manu-
factured and what became of the plants.
It has been suggested that we point out if possible
the economic and social factors which determined or
influenced the location or change of location of the
early factories.
I shall be grateful for any information you may be
able to supply.
The four factories established between 1880 and 1890 should
come within the memory of a number of Texans. Information
should be sent direct to the inquirer at the above address.
The
Junior
Historian
entered its third year of publication in
September. The September number alone would justify the orig-
inal confidence of the Association that the young people of Texas
could and would write well the history of their own communi-
ties if given an outlet for their writings.
The lead article is "Good-bye, Cedar Mills," by Jane Combs
of Whitesboro who, last year for the second time, won a first
place in the writing contest. This is the story of a Grayson
County community now about to be inundated by the waters
of the Denison reservoir.
Bobbe White of Arlington writes on "The Oak Branch Ranch
and Palominos," the story of her ranch home and an intro-
duction to palominos that will warm the heart of any person
who ever liked a horse.
Calvin Ashley of Wichita Falls High School writes an animal
story, "Heaven and Hell in Texas," which should be catalogued
as literature comparable with that which has lived for cen-
turies in The
Arabian
Nights.
In the editorial, Roy Bedichek, Texas naturalist, compares
history to science, while Stanley Vestal, Southwestern writer
and recent author of Big-Foot
Wallace,
contributes a direc-
tional article on "The Qualifications of a Writer." Vestal's
article makes sense--it gives young people the type of direc-
tion they can use and understand.
"In recognition of their interest in the youth of the state,"
the September issue is dedicated to the Daughters of the Re-
public of Texas, who furnished the publication costs for this
number.
The
Junior
Historian
subscription is $1.00 for the school year.
Any member of the Association will enjoy the magazine; the
enterprise is also worthy of substantial support.
The Sons of the Republic of Texas have recently announced
an Historical Essay Writing Contest in which all white Junior
and Senior high school students in Texas are eligible to com-
pete; $175 in prizes are offered for the three best essays on
"The Siege and Fall of the Alamo." The primary purpose of
the essay contest is to promote interest in Texas history. It is
maintained annually with funds donated by George A. Hill, Jr.,
of Houston and is in honor of his grandfather, James Monroe
Hill, a San Jacinto veteran. School officials, teachers, and stu-
dents should address inquiries to Houston Wade, Treasurer of
the Sons of the Republic of Texas, 2314 Morse Street, Houston,
Texas.
Members of the Noah Tevis Chapter of Junior Historians at
Beaumont have been among the prize winners in this contest
for the past three years.
The Sooner Book Award of one thousand dollars offered by
William Morrow and Company, Publishers, through Paul R.
Reynolds and Sons, Literary Agents, 599 Fifth Avenue, New
York City, ought to be mentioned here for the good example
it sets and the inherent possibilities within it which might be
advantageously followed in Texas. The contest is open to all
writers of this region who have satisfactorily completed one
or more of the courses in Professional Writing offered by the
University of Oklahoma, either in residence or by correspond-
ence. The manuscript submitted must be suitable for book pub-
lication and may be fiction or non-fiction. The closing date of
the contest is February 1, 1943. This is a real opportunity
for young Southwestern writers of history, and several younger
members of the Association are known to be contemplating
entries. Those interested should communicate with the literary
agents at the above address. A similar contest sponsored
through Texas institutions might bring forth a number of
distinctive contributions.
Norton McGiffin is proving himself a highly versatile mem-
ber of the Association. The July 27 The
Dallas
Morning
News
announced that McGifnn was inaugurating a new 12:30 p.m.
program, "The Story Behind the Day's News," to be broadcast
daily over WFAA, Dallas; WBAP, Fort Worth; and the Texas
Quality Network stations. McGiffin is also Professor of English
and History at N. T. A. C, Arlington. The use of the trained
historian in analyzing the news is a rapidly developing feature
of American radio, which is honestly trying to meet the present
popular demand for more history. While not before his classes
or the mike, McGiffin manages to further some of his graduate
studies in history, through which he plans a doctoral disserta-
tion on some special phases of the cattle industry in Texas.
Joe Frantz, Archivist of the San Jacinto Museum of History,
writes:
Everything is going along fine down here. Our at-
tendance has held up surprisingly well, and the influx
of museum materials has continued unabated. For the
last four weeks I have been inundated by a flood of
old drug store materials--from La Grange and New
Braunfels -- and by several boxes of manuscripts,
scrapbooks, and photographs from a pioneer German
family whose father formerly kept "The Texas Travel-
ling Men's Museum" at La Grange.
Announcement has recently been made that the Mrs. Simon
Baruch University Prize of $1,000, offered by the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, has been awarded to John Stor-
mont, of Schreiner Institute, Kerrville, for his doctoral disserta-
tion, "The Economic Stake of the North in the Preservation
of the Union in 1861." Stormont's thesis was submitted to
The University of Texas in 1941.
Dr. P. I. Nixon of San Antonio, Vice-President of the Asso-
ciation, has become known to a wide audience in Texas through
his researches in medical history and practice in Texas and
through his interest in Texana in general.
Booksellers from Boston to San Francisco are in virtually
unanimous accord that Texas books are more in demand than
those of any other state. It is the laymen rather than the pro-
fessional historians who create this market.
An informal paper presented by Dr. Nixon at a summer
meeting of the San Antonio Historical Association explains so
well the Texana "fever" that it merits being reproduced here
in its entirety.
A book-collector is considered by his acquaintances
as a crank, by his friends as a nuisance, by his family
as a spendthrift, and by the booksellers as a blessing
from heaven. That book-collecting can become a mania,
no one can deny; that it can be a delightful hobby, all
will agree; that fur coats and spring hats are rare in
the families of collectors is obvious to even the casual
observer.
Most collectors of Texana cannot date the beginning
of their interest in Texas books to a definite day or
definite incident. Not so with Mrs. Nixon and me.
Our interest began late one afternoon in June, 1930,
as two boys trundled a wheelbarrow across Courtland
Place. It was summer and Travis School was out. The
boys of the neighborhood were footloose and eager to
spend their pent-up energy, which theoretically had
been applied on their books for nine months, in non-
scholastic directions. Our twin boys, having reached
the age of nine, were deciding that their allowance of
ten cents a week was not carrying them as far as boys
of their mature age should go. So they cast about for
some way to increase their income. They hit on the
plan of collecting old papers and magazines to be sold
to the junk man who conveniently lived a block away.
In their way they were about to become business men.
On the afternoon mentioned, Mrs. Nixon and I were
sitting on the front gallery when we saw these boys
crossing the street with a wheelbarrow full of papers.
Their spirits were high, they were travelling fast,
their shirt-tails were flapping in the wind; they had
at least ten cents worth of goods to be sold to the junk
man. When they proudly poured out the papers on
the ground, they told us they got their load in and
around Mr. Anderson's garbage can. Mrs. Nixon, with
an eye solely to utility, picked out two old books from
the unimposing pile. The backs were off, the paper
was stained, the pages were torn, the map was gone.
She had picked up a copy of George Wilkins Kendall's
Narrative
of
the
Texan
Santa
Fe
Expedition,
edition
of 1858.
Prior to this time we knew next to nothing about
Texas history. We knew that battles had been fought
at Goliad and San Jacinto. We knew that the Alamo
was in San Antonio and not in Dallas. But the Grass
Fight and the Salt War meant nothing to us. We had
heard of Sam Houston and Jim Bowie and Davy
Crockett and Stephen F. Austin. But we had never
heard of Abel Morgan or Amos Pollard or Pamelia
Mann or Juan Cortinas.
A few days after the wheelbarrow incident, I saw
Mrs. Nixon reading the old book. And she read it day
after day. She was so absorbed that for the first time
in her life she neglected her family and her household.
She talked very little. For hours on end she would
be speechless--many husbands would consider this re-
ward enough for any book-collector. When she had
finished the second volume and made her contacts with
the outside world again, she began to insist that I read
the book. I put her off day after day but finally was
forced to make the effort. Mine was a half-hearted,
reluctant approach. I had intended to skim the surface
very superficially. So I read the preface of four pages
and then I too became enthralled. Then it was I who
became uncommunicative and indifferent to the respon-
sibilities of the household.
Our boys rescued George Wilkins Kendall from Mr.
Anderson's garbage can. George Wilkins Kendall res-
cued us from the guilt of being ignorant of the his-
tory of Texas, a state that is unparalleled in her his-
tory, her traditions, her people; a state that is even
now fighting and winning about 50 per cent of the
present war.
From this beginning we gradually at first, rapidly
later, increased our interest in Texas and books about
Texas. We began to look about. We found that we had
Frank Dobie's Vaquero
of
the
Brush
Country
and Dr.
Barker's Life
of
Stephen
F.
Austin,
but had never
read them intelligently. Mrs. Nixon found, at her home
in Mineola, Sweet and Knox's Texas
Sifting
s,
Penny-
backer's History
of
Texas
and Lester's The
Great
Galveston
Disaster.
Not wanting the city of Luling
to be outdone by the town of Mineola, I found in my
father's library copies of Graves' Andrew
Jackson
Potter,
Morrell's Flowers
and
Fruits
in
the
Wilder
-
ness,
Brown's Indian
Wars
and
Pioneers
of
Texas,
and
two histories of Southwest Texas which today might
wrongly be classified as mug-books.
Next we began to frequent the book stores, first in
San Antonio and then in other cities. And where is
human nature so weak as in a bookstore! Dallas,
Houston, Austin, Galveston, New Orleans, Richmond,
Washington, Baltimore, Denver--wherever we went,
we made the rounds of the second-hand bookstores. In
Denver Mrs. Nixon on one of her rounds picked up
for a song two copies of Corner's San
Antonio
de
Béxar,
and back in San Antonio where their true value
was recognized traded them for a beautiful set of
Brown's History
of
Texas.
In Denver; too, I found a
fine copy of Yoakum's History
of
Texas
at Rosenstock's
Bookstore; the price was not cheap, but it would never
be cheaper. It was the day before we were scheduled
to leave for home and our money was running low.
I wanted the Yoakum, but I didn't want to be too
selfish. So I sheepishly asked Mrs. Nixon and the boys
whether they would be willing to start home one day
early. Knowing full well that I would buy the books
anyway, they decided that they would rather be in
San Antonio with food than in Denver without.
The next symptom of our bibliomania developed
from book catalogs. We seemed to have gotten on the
mailing list of every dealer from San Francisco to New
York—Arthur H. Clark, Wright Howes, Smith, Old
Hickory, Argosy, Goodspeed--we heard from all of
them. It is an astounding thing how good a desirable
book can look to a book-collector by merely seeing its
name on a printed page. The Mason and Dixon Line
meant nothing to us. We were not like Dr. J. S. Lank-
ford, whom many of you will recall was never fully
reconstructed. His last years were truly a study in
courage. He had repeated apoplectic strokes but still
he continued to see his patients as he lay bedridden.
One day he was especially cheerful. "Nixon," he said,
"I'm going to walk again. I ordered a contraption--I
am ashamed to admit it--from a damned Yankee out-
fit in New York." The next time I saw him he was
still in bed. When asked about his new walker, he re-
plied, "I sent it back. I couldn't get the thing through
the door."
And then Dudley Dobie got hold of us. That made
our mania complete. One of my medical heroes, Sir
William Osler, has said that a man is sane morally at
thirty, rich mentally at forty and wise spiritually at
fifty, or never. A book-collector is never sane, rich or
wise after Dudley gets through with him. His ap-
proach was so skillful and studied that it is impossible
to state how it began. At first he feigned illness to
gain admittance to my office. He would walk in with
his arm in a sling or grasping his mid-section in des-
perate agony. But as his tentacles enmeshed me and
my immunity to his salesmanship evaporated, he be-
came more bold. He would walk in and greetings would
hardly be over before I would find myself phoning
Mrs. Nixon, "The old biscuit eater is in town."
Dudley is a real book salesman. He knows books
and he loves books. I rarely see him without being
poorer in purse but richer by far in knowledge and
books. But he has other accomplishments. I will put
him against any man his size or any size to hold up
his end of a table loaded with the food he likes and
I have never seen anything he doesn't like. Hot biscuits
and whitebrush honey call forth his best efforts. In
confirmation of his knowledge of the finer points in
Texas history, he delights to demonstrate Dr. Gideon
Lincecum's technique of eating venison and honey:
taking the meat in one hand and dipping it in honey,
he would then grasp the free end of the meat with
his teeth and cut off with his pocketknife a good lib-
eral bite of a most delectable morsel.
With supper over and all appetites satisfied, box
after box of Texas books would be brought in. Dudley
has a way of laying his books out so that they prac-
tically sell themselves. But if you don't begin to lay
aside a few volumes, he will begin by saying that no
Yoakum is complete without a Wooten, that this Ban-
croft would look well beside a Brown on the shelf, that
Bartlett's Personal
Narrative
and Kennedy's Texas
would fill the space between Anson Jones and Henry
Smith, and so on, visit after visit. He has a group of
adjectives which he uses to clinch his sales: "compre-
hensive," "essential," "rare," and "revealing." By the
time he has reached "revealing," you have bought the
book.
All this time Mrs. Nixon's interest and enthusiasm
were developing apace. Her inbred qualms of economy
harassed her at times but these were soon overcome
and books more valuable perhaps than we could afford
were welcomed. Eugene Field has said that in that
section of paradise set aside expressly for book-collec-
tors there will be no women. He is very wrong; there
will be at least one woman there. Indeed, I hope many
women will gain admission; for who will care for the
archives if not Miss Winnie Allen? Who will keep the
records of the Historical Association if admission is
denied to Mrs. Crowther, Mrs. Webb, and Mrs. Morris?
Who will tell the tales of the cowboys of paradise if the
Gage gal doesn't get in? And where would be the
dignity, the culture and the charm of that place with-
out Miss Ruth Coit? So I hope that many women are
admitted to book-lovers' paradise.
Most of our books were acquired by purchase, and
good Texas books are not cheap. A good many were
by gift and a few by lift. There is a special technique
of prompting gift books but lack of time prevents its
description. By lift is meant to tuck a book under your
arm and walk out making the casual statement that
you are taking the book where it will be appreciated
and that the former owner can call for it when he wants
it. He rarely calls.
Our rewards have been many. When the height of
the depression came most men were grieving or drink-
ing or going without sleep. They couldn't forget their
losses. Many nights found me with our books at two
or three in the morning, developing the story of medi-
cine in San Antonio. The feelings which a book-lover
has as he fondles the books he loves at 2 a. m. must
be closely akin to those of the solitary drinker with a
full bottle by his side: both have the makings of a
maniac, both have an intense appetite, each has the
materials to satiate that appetite to the fullest and no
one can say him nay.
On one occasion Isaac Newton was asked to become
a member of the Royal Society. He declined, explain-
ing that he was afraid that such membership might
increase the circle of his friends. We have not per-
mitted our books to isolate us to any such extent; but
many times amidst the superficialities of modern life
we have found ourselves being reproved by the memory
of these words:
Thou fool! to seek companions in a crowd!
Into thy room, and there upon thy knees,
Before they bookshelves, humbly thank thy God,
That thou hast friends like these!
The question of the preservation of the historical marker
for Coffee's Trading House in Preston Bend (mentioned in
this department in July) has been satisfactorily arranged
through the negotiations of L. W. Kemp, President of the
Association. The Texas State Board of Control has authorized
the removal of the marker to a spot about one mile west of its
present location. The War Department will undertake the actual
removal without expense to the state.
Louis Lenz of Shreveport, Louisiana, was among the out-of-
state members attending the annual meeting of the Association.
His geniality and charming stories made him a center of at-
traction in the talk following each formal session.
Born in De Witt County, Mr. Lenz has followed the fortunes
of oil on four continents and in twelve foreign countries, but
his hobby remains Texas. He has a sizable collection of Texas
books and domuments.
In response to the inquiry regarding General Thomas Jeffer-
son Chambers made in this department in the last issue, a de-
scendant of the General, B. M. Saladee, 3414 Bridle Path,
Austin, states that he has accumulated a large amount of bio-
graphical material on his ancestor and would be glad to give
available information to any interested parties.
The part which Texas is taking in the present war almost
staggers the imagination--we have become an armed camp from
Texarkana to El Paso, from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande.
The daily papers are crowded for space to record the part
played by Texas and Texans. "Texas furnishes the only known
twin Brigadier Generals," and "Texas organizes the first com-
mando unit in the nation," and like headlines, are seen daily.
Not even a small fraction of these happenings can be recorded
by the Texas Collection--the history of Texas in World War II
will eventually require many volumes, but at least this one item
ought to be set down here for the historical record.
War in Texas a hundred years ago was total war. The Texas
women loaded muzzle-loaders for the men. Today Texas women
fight again. The first commissioned officer in the WAVES for
the Eighth Naval District was a Texas girl, Virginia A. Hillyard,
a history major and a former student of the University. En-
sign Hillyard now carries on the best traditions of a fighting
Texas navy and of a fighting Texas family.
In the effort to present all available Moscoso material upon
the Cuarto Centennial of the expedition it has been necessary
to postpone the continuation of Ohland Morton's biography of
General Manuel de Mier y Terán to a coming issue.
That we are living in a world of rapid and unexpected
changes is nowhere more forcefully demonstrated for me than
in the announcement which follows.
August 12, I received a cable offering me appointment from
one to five years as Harmsworth Professor in American History
at Oxford. Lord Halifax and others urged acceptance "as a
great public service at the present time." In the face of such
requests and in spite of the fact that my own personal affairs
and those of the Association would have inclined me toward
staying in Texas, I gave a ready acceptance.
It is my hope that I may be able to do something in interpret-
ing America to the English and also, from time to time, send
back reports on English life in war-time. In this way I believe
that I can perhaps render a service in interpreting the two
great English-speaking peoples to each other. If I can do this
I shall fulfill the purpose of the Harmsworth Professorship.
I have been to England before and I came back a Texan;
again I shall return a Texan.
Bailey Carroll will substitute for me in my absence. I leave
many loose ends of things now in progress in the Association
work and ask for him the same full measure of cooperation
which the members of the Association have given me. From
every standpoint the work of the Association is justifiable both
in peace and in war.
BOOK REVIEWS
Biographical
Directory
of
the
Texan
Conventions
and
Con
-
gresses,
1832-18
45.
Austin: Book Exchange, Inc., 1942. Pp. 198.
The same. Huntsville: Prison Print, 1941. Pp. 197.
Members
of
the
Legislature
of
the
State
of
Texas
from
1846
to
1939
was published by the House of the Forty-sixth Legisla-
ture. A note on that volume was printed in The
Quarterly
for
January, 1940 (XLIII, 402-404). What was then said about
the handicap of inexperienced help and lack of time for the
preparation of a work of reference applies in an almost equal
degree to this volume. I say almost, for the House of the Forty-
seventh Legislature profited by the mistakes of its predecessor.
The scope of this book is smaller; the time allowed for its
preparation and printing was longer; and the person selected
to do the work, an expert accountant, has a keen sense for
accuracy.
The work comprises: (1) the names of the presidents, vice-
presidents and cabinet officers, grouped by administration (pp.
8-12). The dates of appointment and confirmation of the latter
are shown. (2) The names of the delegates to each of the con-
ventions, grouped by convention and arranged alphabetically
(pp. 15-24, 41-42). (3) The names of the senators and of the
members of the House of Representatives, set forth for each
congress and arranged alphabetically (pp. 23-40). (4) Biog-
raphies of those in (2) and (3) arranged alphabetically (pp.
43-197).
The need of a reference work of this kind has been keenly
felt for a long time. Five conventions and nine congresses
assembled during the years 1832 to 1845. The names of the
members of these bodies are supposed to be contained in the
official journals. However, not all the journals were printed,
some of those that were printed are very scarce, and not all
the names were printed in full. It is not surprising that errors
have crept into our history because of these defects.
The only compilation of these names heretofore available to
the public is that contained in Year
Book
for
Texas,
1901
. . .,
by C. W. Raines (Austin, 1902), and this list is full of errors.
What have the compilers of the Biographical
Directory
done to
remedy this evil? Their answer is given in the Preface: "Names
of delegates were checked for accuracy in spelling, with the
original signatures found in the Public Debt Papers, the Pen-
sion Papers, and the Comptroller's Civil and Military Service
Records." As a result of careful search we now have an accu-
rate, complete list of the full names of nearly five hundred
pioneer legislators of Texas. But why did not Judge Raines,
State librarian and careful student that he was, prepare an
accurate list? No one could prepare a correct list until the
sources became available that were used by Miss Elizabeth
Jenner. These sources were transferred a few years ago from
the Comptroller's Department to the State Library and have
there been put in order and made available by the archivist,
Miss Harriet Smither, indefatigable scholar and godmother to
this work.
The greater portion of the work is filled with the 483 sketches.
To compile within six months this number of biographies, after
preparing a correct list of the names, gives one some idea of
the task Miss Jenner and her assistants had to face. There
was no time for verifying and not much time for organizing
the material. It was compiled and the sources from which it
was taken are indicated. The careful user will be grateful for
this. As a rule a sketch contains the following facts: date and
place of birth and death, education, occupation, date of emigra-
tion to Texas, and public service before and after coming to
Texas. For him who would like to know what kind of men
made the Republic of Texas this book will serve as a guide.
The University of Texas Library.
E. W. WINKLER.
Texas
Newspapers,
1813-1939:
A
Union
List
of
Newspaper
Files
Available
in
Offices
of
Publishers,
Libraries,
and
a
Num
-
ber
of
Private
Collections.
(San Jacinto Museum of His-
tory Association Publications,
Volume I.) Prepared by
Historical Records Survey Program, Division of Profes-
sional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administra-
tion of Texas.
Houston, Texas: San Jacinto Museum of History Association, 1941.
Pp. xiii, 293.
To copy the foreword of this volume would admirably serve
the purposes of a review. Mr. Ike Moore, who wrote the fore-
word and who has for a number of years been gathering data
on Texas newspapers, gives special recognition to six men who
in 1936 worked on the initial inventory; namely, Charles W.
Hodges, Dr. James Taylor, Thomas Sutherland, Claude Keltner,
Charles Clark, and Joseph Milton Nance. To Mr. Nance credit
is also given for completing the field work and editing the
manuscript during 1939 and 1940.
In the long, or I should say short, span of 125 years 738
Texas towns and cities have seen 3,212 newspapers come into
being. Of these newspapers 830 "are currently published in
541 locations." Texans have been news-minded. Eighty-six
newspapers appeared in the period from 1813 to 1846; from
then until 1859 the number was increased by 154; during the
period of the Civil War and Reconstruction 297 made their ap-
pearance; and from 1877 to 1938 an additional 2,618 news-
papers swelled the total. Of 57 newspapers the dates could
not be determined. The reading public prefers the weekly
and daily newspaper in the ratio of 2,124 weeklies to 356 dailies.
Tri-weeklies, semi-weeklies, semi-monthlies, monthlies, quarter-
lies, and miscellaneous papers complete the list. Files of the
Texas newspapers are to be found in 65 Texas libraries and in
75 libraries outside of Texas.
The ready-reference nature of this volume is seen in the
alphabetical arrangement by towns and the further alphabeti-
cal arrangement thereunder by titles. An alphabetical index
includes all the titles in the volume. An "index of depositories
having files of Texas newspapers published prior to 1877" is
"arranged alphabetically under four chronological groupings."
The great value of this publication is seen further in the fact
that it amplifies the information on newspaper titles found in
the Texas section of the Union
List
of
Newspapers
published
in 1937. The present volume adds 884 place locations of files to
those of the Union
List,
and it supplies place locations for 1,554
files not contained in the Union
List.
The librarian, researcher,
or student who does not have a copy of this book must find
himself greatly handicapped.
The San Jacinto Museum of History Association is to be con-
gratulated for sponsoring this work as Volume I of its Publica
-
tions.
The value of this book, it is to be hoped, presages a long
list of extremely useful works, and I express my own wish and
that of many others, I am sure, that Volume II may soon appear.
The University of Texas.
R. L. BIESELE.
Twentieth Century Texas: An Economic and Social History. By
Ralph W. Steen.
Austin: The Steck Company, Publishers, 1942. Pp. 370. $3.00.
Really, has it been forty-two years since the Galveston flood?
Can it be true that Texas winds have stirred the dust and Texas
rivers have rolled to the sea for forty-two seasons since the
opening of this century? Yes, in respect to time we are further
from the turn of the century than the printing of Henderson
Yoakum's History
of
Texas
was from Jean Lafitte or Austin's
Old Three Hundred. A great deal has taken place in Texas
during these forty-two years. In 1900 Fort Worth had 26,688
inhabitants, a smaller number than Abilene had in 1940. We
have seen the automobile come into popular use, the airplane
become the most destructive implement of war, and stream-
lining applied to everything from vacuum cleaners to skyscrapers.
Since 1900 high-necked cotton nightgowns have been supplanted
by pajamas, the celluloid collar has passed into disuse, and the
lipstick has become respectable. If Yoakum had touched Texas
history after 1815 as lightly as most Texas historians have
touched the events of the twentieth century he would not have
needed a second volume.
In his Twentieth
Century
Texas,
Professor Steen has under-
taken a stupendous task. To say that his book constitutes a
substantial contribution to the history of the state is an under-
statement. His work makes available to the reading public
for the first time a comprehensive and scholarly study on this
period; there is no competing work. The publication is the
product of nearly two decades of research. The author began
his study of the twentieth century by writing a master's thesis
on the gubernatorial administration of James E. Ferguson. This
work was followed by a doctoral dissertation on Twentieth
Century Texas. Five years ago Steen published a comprehen-
sive study of the political history of Texas in the twentieth
century in Volume I of Texas
Democracy
(4 volumes, Austin,
1937), edited by F. C. Adams. Now Twentieth
Century
Texas
completes his history of the state since 1900. In fairness to the
author it should be stated that these publications have been reno-
vated and have lost the thesis odor. Steen is unusually talented
with the ability to select and present details interestingly.
Whether he writes about trusts or taxes, prohibition or peniten-
tiaries, horseshoe pitching or "yo-yo," he is never tedious.
Twentieth
Century
Texas
contains twelve chapters. In "The
Land and the People" the author deals with the population
and such basic forces as religion, prisons, and disasters. There
is a chapter each on farm and ranch, industry, and transpor-
tation. A chapter is devoted to education, another to the wards
of the state, another to amusements, and still another to gov-
ernmental development. Prohibition is discussed in one chap-
ter, and the two twentieth century wars are sketched in another.
Styles of dress, women's organizations, woman suffrage, and
women in the legislature are the topics of the chapter on women
in Texas. In the opinion of the reviewer, the Federal farm
program and social security under the New Deal as applied to
Texas do not receive the space in the book that their impor-
tance warrants; also, under industry, meat packing and lumber
are neglected.
The author has on the whole developed thoroughly the various
topics he has undertaken to discuss; he has used to maximum
advantage a wide range of sources. Reading this book is like
turning the leaves of the family album or looking through the
stereoscope at old familiar scenes. It is more than history; it
is a sketch of our way of life. It will be read with greatest in-
terest by the people of this generation, but more effectively than
any book that has yet appeared it will convey to posterity an
account of Texas as it was when the twentieth century was
young.
Hardin-Simmons University.
Rupert N. Richardson.
Border Boss: Captain John R. Hughes, Texas Ranger. By Jack
Martin.
San Antonio: The Naylor Co., 1942. Pp. 252. Illustrations by Frank
Anthony Stanush. $2.50.
With the publication of Border
Boss,
the author, Jack Martin,
has added another essential volume to the recorded history and
lore of the Texas Rangers, that courageous, renowned organi-
zation for law and order which has the respect of and an un-
usual imaginative appeal for all people throughout the world.
Border
Boss
can be put on the popular reading list of all types
and ages of readers, as it is biography, adventure, romance,
and history enacted upon the large, colorful stage of Texas,
written in an aggressive, smooth flow of language packed with
western action.
This book is another one of those amazing true stories which
will be found to be stranger than fiction. It is rich in incidents
and deeds that have become a part of the history of Texas.
Jack Martin has accurately and sympathetically written the
biography of Captain John R. Hughes, a man long prominently
associated with law enforcement in Texas, a man who has
looked and lived as the world has popularly pictured a typical
Texas Ranger. When they have seen him striding down the
streets of Austin or picturesquely leading a parade in El Paso,
people have often remarked that they wished to know Captain
Hughes well enough to ask him about stories they have heard
about him and so many of his activities that seem humanly
impossible. Captain Hughes has lived along heroic proportions
in any man's language.
The title of this book, Border
Boss,
is one that Captain Hughes
won for himself after a bloody struggle with some of the most
fiendish, bloodthirsty outlaws along the Rio Grande. Cap-
tain Hughes saw to it that this title had a very definite
meaning for a long period of years on this turbulent boundary
line.
While Border
Boss
is primarily the biography of one of many
great Texas Rangers with reminiscences relating to certain of
his contemporaries, the book is a serious contribution to Texas
history and is an excellent supplement to such a book as Dr.
Walter Prescott Webb's The
Texas
Rangers:
A
Century
of
Frontier
Defense.
It portrays an accurate picture of the world-
famous Texas Ranger organization with its interworkings, and
of what its members accomplished in stamping out crime to
smooth the path for frontier development. It introduces many
sidelights which will be valuable in understanding the history
of Texas during the period from 1887 to 1915.
The drawings of Frank Anthony Stanush add concretely to
the attractiveness of this volume and aid the imagination for
details.
Austin, Texas,
Joseph Dixon Matlock,
Mesquite Does Bloom: An Historical Account of the First Fifty
Years of St. Mary's Parish and Community, Windthorst,
Texas,
1892-1942.
By Albert M. Schreiber.
San Antonio: Standard Printing Co., 1942. Pp. 125. Illustrations.
The author of this book is a member of the Order of St.
Benedict to which, supposedly, every priest of St. Mary's Parish
at Windthorst, Texas, has belonged. At any rate, the short bio-
graphical sketches of the five living pastors of the parish show
their membership in the order.
The book, as its subtitle indicates, is an anniversary volume
commemorating fifty years of the history of one of the several
Catholic communities in North Texas. A paragraph in the fore-
word states this point and others so well as to deserve quotation:
The book itself is offered as a modest contribution
to the general history of the Catholic communities of
North Texas that were founded when Windthorst
began its life. But more than that. The story telling
how hardy and upright German Catholic pioneers
worked to achieve what they set out to do, namely,
to found and build a well-organized parish in a well-
organized community, is a memorial to their courage,
and to their perseverance, and to their devotion to God.
It is, moreover, a record of the precious Catholic her-
itage bequeathed to their children, who are now carry-
ing on faithfully for their ancestors.
The fifty-year history of St. Mary's Parish is told in seven
chapters, each of which holds the attention of the reader. One
of the great achievements of the people in Windthorst and the
neighboring community of Scotland was their beginning of the
case, Browning vs. Hooper, better known as the "Archer County
Road Bond Case." In its final style this case was won on an
appeal to the United States Supreme Court by a decision which
that court rendered on January 4, 1926. The people of the two
communities did not oppose good roads in their district, neither
did they oppose additional taxes for good roads. They based
their pleas for relief on the proposition that there was no equity
in taxing their lands in a road district when they themselves
would not get any of the good roads which the district was
planning to build. Today both communities have good roads
just like the other communities of Archer County.
The format of the book is attractive, great care in proof-
reading is in evidence throughout, the style is very easy, and
the story is at all times interesting. The writing of local his-
tory is a commendable work, especially when it is well done,
as in this instance.
The University of Texas.
R. L. BIESELE.
Propaganda and the American Revolution, 1763-1783. By Philip
Davidson.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941. Pp. xvi,
460. $4.00.
Philip Davidson's Propaganda
and
the
American
Revolution
adds another to the numerous and growing list of worthy pub-
lications of the University of North Carolina Press. The author
accepts the definition of propaganda given by Leonard W. Doob
in Propaganda,
Its
Psychology
and
Technique,
"which is simply
an attempt to control the actions of people indirectly by con-
trolling their attitudes." The important contribution of the
volume under review, it seems to me, lies in presenting the
hitherto little known contributions of less important revolu-
tionary leaders and in evaluating the contributions of the va-
rious factors in the broad field.
Leading propagandists, such as the Adamses, Josiah Quincy,
William Livingston, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, and the Lee broth-
ers, are considered, as one would expect, but a great number
of less important and less well known agents of propaganda
are treated. Both the essayists and orators of the "rabble
rouser" type are considered. The great influence of the min-
isters as a class is clearly shown; newspapers, pamphlets, broad-
sides, and magazines, important approximately in the order
listed, are evaluated. Periods of intensity of action are shown
with corresponding reactions at intervals. The period of great-
est activity came immediately preceding the Declaration of In-
dependence, followed by a decided relaxation due to a number
of factors, such as the entry of important leaders into the
Congress or the army, and the attainment of the object of
independence, which gave power to take stronger action against
the loyalists. After a rather long period of mild action, there
was a considerable revival in 1777, followed by some decline,
with a definite renewal of intensity in 1778 at the time of the
French Alliance and the British peace proposals. The lowest
slump came in 1779, followed by a renewal of activity in 1780
at the time of the arrival of the French expeditionary forces
and British successes in the south. This was sustained until
after Yorktown late in 1781.
The importance of newspapers is indicated by giving excerpts
and by showing duration of publication and volume of circula-
tion. Considerable attention is given to pamphlets, which usually
were made up of essays, sermons, reports of the Continental
Congress, and the like. Broadsides supplemented newspapers,
spread late news, and avoided the use of signatures. In the
pre-revolutionary period, the Whigs controlled the legislature,
committees of correspondence, and most newspapers. This en-
abled them to work from within, whereas ordinary revolution-
ary activities have to work from without and are handicapped
by secrecy and lack of adequate means of spreading doctrine.
Thus the revolutionists in America had a decided advantage
which they used most effectively. In building up opposition to
British officials and measures, appeals were made to all types
of interests and fears. Much was made of the danger of losing
religious freedom by the setting up of an American episcopate.
The book is remarkably free of typographical errors, and
the format in general is attractive.
College of Mines.
J. L. Waller.
The Man Who Sold Louisiana. By E. Wilson Lyon.
Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1942. Pp. xix, 240.
Illustrations. $2.75.
This is the somewhat intriguing title of a factual biography
of Francois Barbe-Marbois, born 1745, died 1837. As a young
man, he served ten years in minor diplomatic capacities in
Saxony and Bavaria. In 1778 he came to the United States as
secretary to the French chargé
d'affaires
and succeeded to
that office, in which he served until 1785. He was an able
and intelligent official and was universally liked by leading
American officials with whom he came into contact. From 1785
to 1789 he was the intendant of Haiti, the office being a sort of
combination of minister of finance and interior. He returned
to France at the end of 1789, was appointed by Louis XVI
minister to Austria, but retired to private life after the fall
of the monarchy. In 1797 he was banished by the Directory
to French Guiana, but was released in 1799. Again in France,
he served Napoleon faithfully until his fall, after which he
served equally faithfully the restored Bourbon kings, and man-
aged to survive officially the revolution of 1830 and serve Louis
Philippe. During the many changes following the rise of Na-
poleon his work was chiefly in the realm of public finance.
In spite of his success in holding office, Barbe-Marbois was
not a supple courtier. He certainly retained his own self-
respect, and he holds the respect of students who read this
book. The writer seems to have a comprehensive knowledge
of pertinent bibliography and to have used everything that is
material to his subject. The book is written in straightforward
English and with commendable brevity--commendable because
an interesting book of twice the length might have been written
from the material at the author's finger tips.
The University of Texas.
Eugene C. Barker.
Billy King's Tombstone. By C. L. Sonnichsen.
Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1942. Pp. 233. Illus-
trations. $3.00.
"The Private Life of an Arizona Boom Town" is the explana-
tory subtitle of this addition to the Americana dealing with
the lusty days of the West, and the author has had the rare
sense to live up to the limitations of the title. Perhaps the
most appealing feature of the book is the matter-of-fact sin-
cerity with which men and episodes are treated, with no at-
tempt either to glamorize or to debunk. Spicy, humorous, and
sordid incidents are taken in stride in a style admirably fash-
ioned to keep the subject ever in the foreground, without call-
ing undue attention to the writer.
Thus it is that a colorful, interesting, and singularly dis-
passionate impression is conveyed of Tombstone the town, and
of the principal characters contributing to its reputation. Gam-
blers, prospectors, lawmen, and prostitutes move through the
pages unadorned with authorial embellishment for the most
part; and the result is that Tombstone emerges just about as
it must have appeared to its leading inhabitants--a tough town
beyond a doubt, but a town in which a man could live pretty
much his own style of life, good, bad, or indifferent. Interior
pictures of notorious establishments and a generous number
of authentic portraits of outstanding characters add greatly
to the convincingness of the narrative.
College of Mines.
Robert Avrett.
The Unpublished Letters of Adolphe F. Bandelier: Concerning
the Writing and Publication of The Delight Makers.
With an introduction by Paul Radin. Illustrations by-
Tom Lea. Facsimile.
El Paso: Carl Hertzog, 1942. Pp. xvi, 33. $2.50.
Anything by or about Adolphe F. Bandelier, the initial out-
standing scientist of the Southwest, is bound to command a
fairly wide and respectful audience, for Bandelier's monument
is firmly imbedded in archaeology and rises through the respec-
tive spheres of anthropology, history, and literature. Somehow
this small book of letters to his friend, "Tomasito" Janvier, puts
upon Bandelier's shaft a beacon which throws briefly here and
there a ray of light upon the complex and challenging figure
at work in his beloved Southwest.
Bandelier knew the language, heart, and soul of the sedentary
Indians of the Southwest. He knew them at home, at work, at
play, and in their mysteries which took them into the kivas
where the medicine men communed with the inner guiding
spirits of the earth. The sensitive, shy, prodigious Bandelier
came to know so well the Indian psychology--with its majestic
sweep of sorrow and solitude--that he became Indian in spirit.
Did he possibly also come to possess "great medicine?"
I ask the last question not to elicit an answer but to tell a
story--a story which has to do with "Adolphe's ghost," the
book, and Carl Hertzog the bookmaker and printer. For va-
rious reasons, I tell this story with a great deal of hesitation.
It has no place in an orthodox book review; but the book under
consideration is hardly traditional, so I join in a common hazard
of telling stories about people without their permission.
A kind fortune took me to La Ciudad El Paso del Norte for
the summer of 1941. Having once been a highly unsuccessful
printer and holding in a kind of awe any skilled artisan in the
craft, it was quite natural that I should soon seek out my friend
Carl Hertzog and thereafter be considerably "under feet" about
his shop for the rest of the summer. Hertzog himself, like
Bandelier, is not always in perfect harmony with the rest of
the world, for he is a Texas Gutenberg dreamer—torn between
crass commercial demands and bankruptcy in his art. In other
words, he finds himself frequently in a struggle between his
dreams and frijoles, where only his admirable sense of humor
provides the leavening.
Hertzog's first remark was, "I have something here that will
make your eyes pop," and he placed in my hands the Bandelier
letters which he had received a short time before from Charles
P. Everitt of New York. The letters told of the archaeologist's
experiences in the writing of his novel, The
Delight
Makers—
how the work was first composed in German and then trans-
lated into English, and of the writer's great ambition to present
the real flesh and blood Indian rather than a J. Fenimore Cooper
romanticized version. Further the letters tell of the way Eastern
publishers originally looked with cold and jaundiced eye upon
a piece of writing that has since become a Southwestern classic.
(There was need of a regional press in 1888, as now.) Some
of the letters were holographic; others had been done on the
typewriter. Hertzog had already read everything on Bandelier
in the El Paso libraries and was interested in publishing the
letters in book form although he was assured from the begin-
ning that the enterprise would have no hope of paying for itself.
Soon the query was put to me, "What do you think of Dr.
Radin's introduction that Everitt also sent along?" "Well," I
said, "it doesn't read like a panegyric anyway." Hertzog seemed
to think from what he had learned of Bandelier that he ought
to have a better one--or, at least, "one longer and with more
detail."
Within a few days Tom Lea was called in to do a sketch of
Bandelier for the frontispiece and a "Koshare" for the title
page. The drawings were excellent and were sent to the en-
gravers. But there the ghost of Bandelier put in his first ap-
pearance. The cuts came back wrong; the portrait of Bandelier
was only half-size and the Koshare was twice too large. Next
the text was sent to a commercial linotyper to be done in Caslon
Old Style. Casually the galley proofs looked good, but a critical
examination showed several bad letter combinations which called
for a resetting with special logotypes the lines involving "Fa,"
"Fr," "Ve," etc. Next a bold face stray comma was discovered
to have crept into the mats, and once discovered, about every
fifth or sixth line looked as if its comma had been hit with a
sledge hammer. Tom Lea said, "Bandelier's ghost is plaguing
the whole affair because Radin called him a 'befuddled romantic'
in the introduction." "But," Hertzog pleaded, "I didn't, and
I'm only trying to do him a perfect book."
All the corrections came back and, again, the proofs looked
good, but when the type was locked up in the press it would
not print. The thing looked incredible--nearly supernatural--
at first, but finally it was discovered that the knife had slipped
and trimmed the first slugs on the right end one-thousandth of
an inch too much and then the corrected slugs were trimmed
that amount too much on the left. The "Medicine Men" were
working. In ordinary printing the flaws might have been cor-
rected after a fashion. In fact one of the pressmen, in Hertzog's
absence, made such adjustments and printed about half the
pages; but Hertzog is a perfectionist in his labors of love, and
upon his return threw all the sheets away, discarded the type,
and started all over again.
One of the unwritten laws of a print shop is to follow copy
"if it goes out the window." Hertzog, however, was much dis-
turbed over the appearance of some of Bandelier's letters: some
sentences were started with lower case letters and "You" was
invariably capitalized. For the sake of appearances Hertzog
wanted to correct these things in the printed text, but long
print shop training made him loathe to change the copy with-
out confirmation from Dr. Radin. But he could get no answer
from Dr. Radin, and Tom Lea was certain that Bandelier's
ghost had laid Dr. Radin low. Sure enough after two months
came a letter from Everitt saying, "Radin has been confined
to his bed almost since the writing of the introduction," and
Tom was emphatic, "I knew there was a hoodoo on this job--
I knew it." Hertzog's reply was, "I'll stay with this thing until
I get Adolphe's ghost on my side. I'll work and be humble to
win him over; I'll make him proud of his book."
But still the ghost tried Hertzog's soul. The copy was sent to
San Francisco to be set in monotype Centaur, and when the
proofs came in it developed that Centaur did not have any small
caps. Hertzog would not compromise, and started over with
Garamond, but eventually switched to yet another Caslon face.
When the type finally came in, Hertzog went to work for many
long hours to eliminate the bad spacers. Special cast letters
were inserted by hand, and with jeweler-like precision shoulders
were ground off characters that were then reinserted.
Meanwhile it was decided to present in facsimile the first
holographic Bandelier letter. A special paper, Kenilworth,
dating back to 1888, the time of the original writing, was se-
cured. This was ruled in the original blue and printed in an
oxidized brown, for the original ink had oxidized. When fin-
ished, however, the paper looked too white for the aged appear-
ance of the writing. Then I remembered a story told me by
an archivist in Santa Fe some years ago about a lot of forged
New Mexico documents wherein the paper had been aged with
tobacco juice. I warned that it was all hearsay with me, but
the idea appealed to Hertzog. So we met at the shop early
Sunday morning, Hertzog bringing along a shallow pan. One
of my cigars was sacrificed to the solution and we began dip-
ping. The first few looked good and the bath was administered
to the lot. Every sheet had to be laid out separately so that
the entire floor of the shop had to be covered with clean paper.
In the cold light of Monday morning the blue ink had run and
the pages had streaked. The Indian pressman said tersely,
"Whole job jinxed--ought to have used Tinsley's." Thus all the
facsimiles had to be made over.
Then came troubles with the binding and the jacket. But finally
Hertzog won -- placated the ghost -- and the job was finished.
And an admirable job of bookmaking in Texas it is. In fact,
I would not dare to tell the story of the book's trials and tribu-
lations had it not already been commended by persons who
know best--like Mitchell Kennerly, Fannie Ratchford, J. Chris-
tian Bay, R. W. G. Vail, Jerry Bywaters, Marjorie Trumbull,
and Clarence S. Brigham -- all bookish people who know and
appreciate superior printing and good taste in bookmaking.
Only one hundred and forty-five copies were ever available
for sale, and the bulk of the edition is already sold. It somehow
seemed to me that the collectors were entitled to this collector's
story to go along with the book, and that the story ought to
be told this once.
The collectors have their story, but I still have to face Hertzog,
and I can see him trying to be grave saying, "Well, if you can't
keep professional secrets, you'd better turn in your shop pass."
The University of Texas.
H. Bailey Carroll.
BOOK NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The publication of A
History
of
the
United
States,
by Dwight
Lowell Dumond (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1942, pp. viii,
882, $4.00), has added an interesting and serviceable textbook
to the list of survey texts in American history and will evi-
dently meet a need in the conduct of the general survey course.
The story is divided into eight parts, and the distribution of
the pages among these parts is equitable. The book is well
supplied with good maps--fifty in all. The author suggests that
a number of reference works which he actually names should
be "available for use at all times, if library facilities permit;"
and he supplies each of the eight parts with a selected bibli-
ography "for additional reading and reference." The appendix
contains the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of
the United States, and a table showing the admission, popula-
tion, and congressional apportionment of the states by decades.
It is the author's hope that the reader may get "some realiza-
tion of the matchless environment of the American way of life
and the obligations of intelligent citizenship," a hope which
we who teach American history certainly share with the author.
The University of Texas.
With the publication of Western
Civilization:
The
Decline
of
Rome
to
1660
(Chicago: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1942, pp. 783,
map, $3.25) under the editorship of Walter Consuelo Langsam,
the J. B. Lippincott Co. has put out a new textbook on a stand-
ard college course. The authors are Francis J. Tschan of Penn-
sylvania State College, Harold J. Grimm of Ohio State Univer-
sity, and J. Duane Squires of Colby Junior College. The book
is divided into four parts entitled The Early Middle Ages,
Feudal Times, Europe in the Late Middle Ages (1300-1500),
and The Early Modern Era (1500-1660). There are twenty-
five maps, some illustrations, and a considerable number of
reproductions of famous paintings. "The marginal paragraph
headings are intended to indicate the topics developed and to
serve, together with the detailed table of contents, as an out-
line guide for review." A bibliographical list and index com-
prising ninety-three pages complete the book.
R. L. BIESELE.
The University of Texas.
The Texas State Historical Association has received the fol-
lowing publications:
Fundamentos
de
la
Historia
de
América,
compliments of
Señor Edmundo O'Gorman, Archivo General de la Nación,
México, D. F.
University of Montana Publications in the Social Sciences,
No. 1, entitled The
Hogen
Site:
A
Prehistoric
Village
of
the
Lower
Yellowstone,
by William Mulloy.
Proceedings
of
the
Society,
October,
1936-May,
19
41,
by the
Massachusetts Historical Society and issued as Volume 68 of
its publications.
List
of
Books
That
Treat
of
Services
and
Life
in
the
Regular
Army
of
the
United
States
of
America,
compiled by Lt. Col.
C. G. Sturtevant, U.S.A., ret., and sponsored by the San Antonio
Public Library.
The
Administration
of
the
Public
Domain
in
South
Dakota,
offered as a doctoral dissertation by Charles Lowell Green and
published as Volume 20 of the South Dakota Historical Col-
lections.
Coral H. Tullis.
The University of Texas.
From the University of Iowa Press the Quarterly
has received
Abstracts
in
History,
IV. This is No. 293 of the Studies in the
Social Sciences and consists of abstracts from dissertations
accepted by the Department of History of the State University
of lowa in the session of 1938-1939. Of the fourteen articles,
six deal with American topics. The abstracts, "The Rise of the
Legislative Assembly in Provincial Massachusetts," by Dr. Mar-
tin L. Cole of Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
and "John Dickinson, Penman of the American Revolution,
1732-1767," by Dr. John H. Powell, Iowa State College, Ames,
Iowa, proved to be very instructive to me because of my in-
terest in the colonial period of American history.
R. L. Biesele.
The University of Texas.
The Quarterly
acknowledges the receipt of The
Historian
for spring, 1942, the semi-annual publication of Phi Alpha
Theta, the national honorary fraternity in history. The
His
-
torian
is up to its usual high standard of quality. The number
of articles is less, but the articles are longer, the five articles of
this number comprising one hundred pages. F. H. Reisner's
article, "General Muehlenberg's Attempts to Capture Benedict
Arnold," is the only one on an American topic; the others, by
Waldemar B. Campbell, Winston B. Thorson, Outten J. Clinard,
and Tom Carlyle Smith, are on European and related topics.
The News Notes carry information about sixteen chapters of
the fraternity and announce the first issue, in March of this
year, of the Arkansas
Historical
Quarterly
under the editorship
of Dr. D. Y. Thomas, co-founder of Phi Alpha Theta.
The University of Texas.
R. L. Biesele.
R. L. BIESELE.
CONTRIBUTORS
Albert Woldert, "The Expedition of Luís de Moscoso in Texas
in 1542," pp. 158-166, is a native Texan, born in Tyler and a
graduate of The University of Pennsylvania Medical College,
having received his M.D. in the class of 1893. Dr. Woldert was
one of the original research students showing the instrumental-
ity of the mosquito in conveying malarial fever (see Transactions
of the Texas State Medical Association, 1904.) Dr. Woldert is
an authority on the Cherokee Indians of Texas and has written
on that subject in The
Chronicles
of
Oklahoma,
Volume I. He
is also a former contributor to The
Quarterly
in regard to the
location of the Spanish missions of East Texas. Dr. Woldert
recently received first prize for his History
of
Tyler
and
Smith
County,
which was submitted in a contest sponsored by the
Tyler Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
He is a frequent contributor to various medical publications, but
states that he finds himself "more and more interested in his-
tory than in playing golf, hunting, or fishing."
Rex W. Strickland, "Moscoso's Journey Through Texas," pp.
109-137, is a native son of Grayson County, Texas. On all sides
his family goes back to early colonial times, having marched
steadily westward. His grandmother was his first history teach-
er--"a grand old pioneer woman unlearned in books but rich in
the lore of the frontier." Strickland's doctoral dissertation,
"Anglo-American Occupation of Northeastern Texas, 1803-1845,"
was accepted by The University of Texas in 1937. His "History
of Fannin County, 1836-1843" was published in The
Quarterly
in 1930. He has also published in The
Chronicles
of
Oklahoma.
Since 1936 Strickland has been a member of the History De-
partment of the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy. As
a personal characterization, he writes: "Dr. Eugene C. Barker
is my academic hero; Archer Hulbert's Soil
my favorite hand-
book; Evetts Haley and Frank Dobie are tied in my estimation
as raconteurs; and I think Texian preferable to Texan."
J. W. Williams, "Moscoso's Trail in Texas," pp. 138-157, is such
an outstanding amateur historian that perhaps he ought to be
classified as at least semi-professional. Williams is a teacher
in Wichita Falls High School "inhaling chalk dust and exhaling
mathematics." He writes:
By way of diversion, I spent the days of the Burk-
burnett boom as an oil scout, watching plump-muscled
drillers discover a new world seventeen hundred feet
under the ground. It was a half dozen years later be-
fore my partner and I discovered a small fraction of
that sub-surface world for ourselves.
More recently the hobby of hunting old trails over
widely scattered areas of Texas has claimed the part
of my time that can be spared from blackboard and
chalk. The cash dividends are not equal to some that
came from oil, but the thrills and adventures are equal
to the top days of the Burkburnett boom.
Williams believes in intensive field work and nothing pleases
him more than to locate exact camp sites. His "Van Dorn Trails"
appeared in The
Quarterly
of January, 1941. He is a frequent
contributor to The
West
Texas
Historical
Year
Book.
How to cite:
Volume 46, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v046/n2/issue.html
[Accessed Sun Nov 8 17:21:09 CST 2009]
