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Source:
San Antonio de Bexar
Historical, Traditional, Legendary.
An Epitome of Early Texas History
by Mrs. S. J. Wright
Past-President Texas Federation of Women's Clubs
Illustrated With Drawings by J. M. Longmire
from Rare Photographs.
Publ. by
Morgan Printing Co., Austin, Texas
Copyright 1916

CHAPTER I

Spanish Expeditions to the Land of the Tejas
p. 1

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SPANISH EXPEDITIONS TO THE LAND OF THE TEJAS.

The Site of La Salle's Colony - Origin of the Name "Texas" - Father Massanet - Founding of the First Texas Mission - French Enterprise and Agression - Discovery of the Source of the San Antonio River - A New Objective Point of Occupancy.

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     A people resembling the Spaniards in color, had landed in the year 1684 on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the Rio Grande:  This information was gained by Fray Damian Massanet,* a Franciscan missionary lately come out from Spain and residing in the mission of Caldera in Coahuila, from an Indian of the Quems nation.  By him it was conveyed to Don Alonzo de Leon commandant of the Presidio of Coahuila, who made it known to the County of Monclova, Spanish Viceroy of Mexico.
     In obedience to a decree of Philip of Spain that no foreigners should enter the waters of the gulf on pain of death, orders were given at once to DeLeon

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     *Or Manzanet.

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to penetrate the country with such troops as he could gather from the garrisons of Monclova and Saltillo, and drive out whatever foreigners he might find, taking with him Fray Massanet as chaplain.
    De Leon, under orders from Marquis de Aguayo, governor of the new kingdom of Leon, had already made two unsuccessful expeditions to find the Bay of Espiritu Santo (Matagorda Bay) and its rumored colonists.  This time his efforts were more effectual.  Leaving Monclova, March 23rd, 1689, accompanied by a party of about eighty, with the Quems Indian as guide, they crossed the Rio Grande and passed over broad stretches of prairie broken with occasional hills and varied with dense thickets of mesquite and thorny shrubs.  Continuing on their way they crossed and named the rivers Nueces, Sarco (Frio), Hondo, Medina and Leon (San Antonio).  On April 22nd, they reached the village and fort of Saint Louis,* on the Garcitas River near the shore of Lavaca Bay where La Salle had attempted to plant his colony.  The place was deserted and presented a scene of devastation - the work of Indians less than three months before.  De Leon's task was already performed - the settlement had been destroyed, the bay discovered.
     De Leon and Massanet then went as far east as the Colorado River where they were met by the chief of

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     *"In the discovery of lost sites, I count as my cardinal joy the identification of the location of La Salle's fort, on the Garcitas River, near the shores of Lavaca Bay," - Bolton, in the Preface of "Texas in the Middle 18th Century."

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the Nabedache, the westernmost of the Hasinai, or Texas* tribes.  After a short conference, they arranged to return the following year to found a mission for his people.  True to this promise, and with the co-operation of the government, they returned in 1690 with a party, going still further eastward until the nearest village of the Texas (Hasinai) confederacy, near the Neches River, was reached.  In the middle of this Nabedache village, surrounded by a savage wilderness and three hundred miles from any settlement, they founded the first mission in Spanish Texas, naming it San Francisco de los Tejas.  Nearer the Neches, but not far distant, was established later in the year by the friars left at the first mission, the second mission of that region, El Santisimo Nombre de Maria.
     The successful establishment by Fray Massanet of a mission among the Tejas tribes, stimulated both the political and spiritual authorities of Mexico, to renewed enterprise.   A third expedition much more

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     * From this Indian tribe the name of our State of Texas is derived.  This word, variously spelled by the early writers, had wide currency among the tribes of Eastern Texas, and perhaps over a large area; its usual meaning was "friends", or more technically, "allies".  The Texas included tribes who spoke different languages and were widely separated.  Some of these tribes did not apply the term restrictively to themselves as a name, but used it as a form of greeting, like "Hello, friend," with which they even saluted Spaniards after their advent . . . I may say in this connection, that the meanings, "land of flowers", "tiled roofs," "presidio," etc., sometimes given for the name Texas, I have never seen suggested by early observers, or by any one on the basis of trustworthy evidence.   - Bolton, in "Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions".
     El Paso being in what was then New Mexico. - Bolton.
    
For the exact location of the missions referred to in this chapter, see Chapter XVII.

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extensive was planned for the following year to be commanded by Don Domingo Teran de los Rios, governor of Coahuila and Texas.  After reaching the Tejas village with his soldiers, flocks, herds, and supplies brought for the support of the mission, and delivering presents and messages from the viceroy to the governor and captain of the nation, Teran proceeded with due formality to constitute out of the lands of the Tejas tribes, the New Kingdom of Nueva Montafia de Santander y Santillana.  But Teran 's expedition failed to accomplish the primary purpose for which it set out - the general occupation by Spain of the lands toward the northeast through the establishment of missions.  The practical obstacles in the way of carrying out the missionary enterprise, together with the lack of harmony between the spiritual and military leaders of the expedition, prevented the establishment of even one of the eight missions contemplated.  Massanet and the missionaries left with him, continued their efforts at San Francisco and Santa Maria, but the work did not prosper.
     There being no longer any political reason for maintaining settlements beyond the Rio Grande - the alarm of a French occupation having passed, and the reports
of Fray Massanet indicating the difficulties of his situation, the Spanish government instructed the priests to retire from the missions.  Fray Massanet and a few padres and soldiers, after burying their swivel guns, the bells, and other iron implements, abandoned

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the missions and returned to Coahuila.  Thus the Province of Nueva Montana was left for twenty years to the undisturbed possession of the Indian tribes, to await until another and more serious menace to their authority in the lands east of the Rio Grande, should stimulate the rulers of New Spain to a saner and more determined effort to make good their title to that region by the fact of actual occupation.
     In 1715, however, a new condition of affairs presented itself.  For many years the French had concerned themselves but little about the territorial claims of Spain to the Western world, nor was her right disputed to whatever lands she might desire, but finally French enterprise and aggression reached out across the vast wilderness of Texas, and knocking at the barred door of Mexico, aroused the Spaniards from their lethargy and set in motion their friars and soldiers to re-establish their missions among the Tejas Indians, and to make a permanent occupation of their lands in the New Philippines.*
     In September, 1712, the Sieur Antoine Crozat received from his king, Louis XIV, a grant of a monopoly of the trade of Louisiana for a period of fifteen
years.  This document attempted for the first time to define the limits of Louisiana, - the country watered by the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and included between the English of Carolina on the

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     * A name given in honor of Philip of Spain, but the name Texas had become sofirmly fixed in the Spanish mind that Nuevas Philippinas soonfell into disuse. - Fulmore, "History and Geography of Texas as Told in County Names."

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east and New Mexico on the west.  As a result, Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis, French trader, with twenty-four men, and as many Indians as necessary,
was dispatched to Mexico City seeking to open the way for a profitable traffic in French merchandise with the markets of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon.  Experiencing many thrilling adventures, he passed through the land of the Tejas and crossed the San Antonio River, that brave stream on whose banks so much of the early history of the Province was soon to be enacted.  Here he found an Indian village and remarking the spot, observed it was very suitable for a village and worthy a good presidio.
     Finally in June, 1715, Saint-Denis arrived with his valet de chamhre at the City of Mexico from Monclova, conducted thither by a detachment of soldiers
under orders from the government of Coahuila.  As a result of the audiencies to which he was called by the viceroy, it was determined by the council, which met in August, that because of this French incursion the commerce of the north was threatened with destruction, and valuable mines were liable to immediate danger of being possessed by the encroaching French.  Here was an emergency that demanded imperative action, and aroused the government of Mexico to set in motion its slow, cumbrous mission-presidio process of occupation and colonization.
     On Feb. 17th, 1716, Don Domingo Ramon, captain of the soldiers and leader of the new expedition,

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set out from the villa de Saltillo with Saint-Denis, who had evidently made a favorable impression, chief guide and interpreter.  In addition to the military and religious contingencies, there were two men with families, also some unmarried men and women, and others, constituting a total of sixty-five persons.  On April 27th, they left the Rio Grande and were conducted by Saint-Denis over a more northern route than any previously taken, which led them on the 14th of May to some springs at the source of the San Antonio River to which they gave the name of San Pedro.  Captain Ramon noted the spot as one most suitable for the building of a city, and Fray Espinosa, president of the Queretaro Missions around San Juan on the Rio Grande, who was accompanying the friars, saw in it a suitable site for a mission.  The San Zavier River (San Gabriel of today), was visited and named on June 1st; Brushy Creek, its principal tributary was twice crossed and given the name of Arroya de las Benditas Animas (Creek of the Blessed Souls), which it bore almost continuously throughout Spanish days.*
     On June 20th they came to the Hasinai village where the first mission of San Francisco de los Tejas had been built; a spot four leagues! further inland was selected by the Indians themselves for the location of the new mission, San Francisco de los Neches.  Other missions were soon established, three on the

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     * "It will be seen that this expedition, led by Saint Denis, did notby any means follow the 'Old San Antonio Road' of later days." - Bolton
     † One Spanish league equivalent to two miles.

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road by which the French had made their incursions into Texas. Of these established by the Zacatecan friars, with that of Concepcion nominated the capital, Fray Antonio Margil* de Jesus was made president, with Fray Isidore Felix de Espinosa president of the Queretaran missions, among them that of San Jose.  It was agreed between the two presidents, that each religious fraternity should draw its converts from the tribes in its own immediate territory, that there might be no conflicts.
     The expedition of Ramon, having found the rivals of Spain settled upon Red River and facing aggressively westward, showed the Spanish government that to withdraw again meant to abandon Texas to the French.  But to make permanent the missions established among the Tejas tribes it was necessary to go farther, to extend the sphere of occupation, and to make a greater show of strength.  To this end and chief in the plans of Spain, was the early establishment of a mission and presidio on the San Antonio River, a half-way house between the remote settlements on the Neches and Sabine and the outlying settlements of Mexico.
     There must now be no retreat; that spot at the head of the San Antonio River, which had been observed so commendingly by Saint-Denis, Don Ramon, and Espinosa was soon to be the objective point of a new expedition.

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     * Padre Margil joined the expedition after it left the Rio Grande, he being too ill at the time to accompany it. - Clark

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