The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 14

14 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
and a small box of louis d'or,1 and ordered him to return to take
possession of the river (a su conquista) with a ship of fifty guns
(cajiones), a large pink,2 a sloop, and a tender (putache) ; with a
troop of infantry, families to settle, seeds, goods for barter, and
some Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries. He suffered the ill-fortune,
however, of missing the entry into the Misisipi, and landed on
our Bay of Espiritu Santo, properly [called Bay of] San Bernardo,
which he named [Bay] of San Luis. Here, in the year 1685, he
erected a fort of the same name. Leaving it garrisoned, he set out
by land with twenty men in search of the Misisipi, went inland
as far as the country o Texas,3 and, in the year 1686, was mur-
dered by an English sailor or soldier4 whom he had in his company.
The designs of Sala could not be found out, despite the efforts5
1The whole expression---un cofrecillo de Luices de oro-is underscored
in M because of a reference to it in the Nota del Padre Golector, which is
appended to the document. A lacks the Nota, and has no underscoring.
Pingue, a narrow-sterned vessel.
sProvincia de Texas. Bonilla here means the comparatively small dis-
trict in the eastern part of what he elsewhere calls the Provincia de Texas.
'Vn marinero, o soldado Yngles. Following the punctuation of the
Spanish text, the translation would be "a sailor, or English soldier." The
punctuation, however, is so arbitrary as not to be depended upon to help
the sense, so the translation given above is probably correct.
The Testimonio (See. 23) says merely that in the year 1687 La Salle
was murdered by his own companions.
The authoritative account of La Salle's last expedition is the Journal
Historique of Henri Joutel, a member of the expedition. In Joutel's story
of the murder, Duhaut, a Frenchman, is stated to have been the assassin.
Joutel gives 1687 as the date of the murder, thus confirming the Testi-
monio date.
"The Testimonio sums up these efforts of the government in the words:
"When the various efforts of this government in regard to the designs of
Roberto were brought to nothing."
The Carta of Father Manzanet (Carta de Don Damian Manzanet 4 Don
Carlos de Siguenza sobre el Descubrimiento de la Bahia del Espiritu
Santo) does not mention the sea-expedition, but tells of two cavalry expe-
ditions under Alonzo de Le6n sent by Aguayo, governor of Le6n, at the
order of Viceroy Laguna (1685-6). These two expeditions were both
fruitless. Following the Gulf shore from Tampico northward, they crossed
the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo), but were turned back each time by a river