The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 139
294 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Route of Cabeza de Vaca.
139
pears as if the stream on the west of Pamoranes mountain also
flows in that direction; but it flows southward and empties into the
Rio Conchas, near the southern end of the mountain. This little
river is called San Lorenzo, and is the one where Cabeza remained
over a day. Taking the plain from there to where he struck the Con-
chas and then went up it, he speaks of it being down the river to the
houses from where the Indians turned back that day. But he says:
"We went along the plain near the mountains," and it was very nat-
ural for him to think, when he struck the Conchas and found he was
going up stream, that it was the same river; and practical experi-
ence has taught this lesson to more than one American in modern
times. Indeed, it required two examinations to give the writer a
satisfactory idea of the directions in which the two streams flow, it
being clearly presented by a view of the junction near Mendez, for-
merly la Laja.
Now we have Cabeza and his comrades on the Rio Conchas, above
the mouth of San Lorenzo, and, for convenience of description, a
reference stake will be set here, say at Nogales, and marked G, to
identify the point to which the route is deemed to have been shown
with suffiicient certainty to exclude the necessity of examining any
other back of it to Mal-Hado.
Now how does Cabeza's statement of the route from where he
found the Indians whiter than any he had seen before, to the place
of twenty houses, correspond with the facts on the ground here from
Bravo to Nogales ? Let the latter be the position from which to take
the view. Looking to the northeast, the southern end of Sierra de
Pamoranes is seen, standing within fifteen leagues of the gulf coast.
On the hither side of the point of the mountain, one sees the San
Lorenzo and Conchas coming together and flowing easterly, on the
south of the mountain, to the Laguna Madre. On it was the village
of Borrados or Blancos under the "indio de razon," Captain Marcos,
when Escandon examined this section in 1750, and around the
mountain there were settlements of these Indians. Looking up the
San Lorenzo, we see the place where the Spaniards spent a day with
these Indians; and turning the eye to the northwest, away across the
plain, the San Juan river is seen where Bravo now stands. Between
it and the mountain is the plain, or Llano de Flores, extending
south to the Conchas-the same prairie on which Escandon found
the shepherd who guided him to Camargo in 1750. Back of Bravo
three days' journey, beyond Pefiablanca and Mier, is the Jamaica
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900, periodical, 1900; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101015/m1/147/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.