The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 201

                                
De Leon's Expedition of 1689.                   201
temporary account I have had access to, except the Letter of
Manzanet.1    There is, however, a letter, which Bancroft ascribes
to Le6n, cited by Bancroft and by Parkman;2 and there are still
other documents in the Archivo General de Indias. So far as I
know, no copies of the latter have yet been made for American
libraries. The map of which a facsimile is here given, showing
the route taken by the Spaniards in the expedition, is found in
connection with some of these Sevilla manuscripts. It is presum-
ably the work of Don Carlos de Sigiienza y G6ngora,4 as it bears
company throughout, and the document was signed by De Le6n; the writer
never uses the first person, however, except in the plural, but refers to De
Le6n in the third person, usually as el Gobernador; and there is no dis-
tinct statement that he is the author; the evidence in favor of his author-
ship, therefore, is not conclusive.
'Carta de Don Damian Maneanet d Don Carlos de Sigiienza y G6ngora
sobre el descubrimiento de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo. See THE QUAR-
TERLY, II 253-312, for fac-simile and translation. My references to the
Letter are to this translation, by Professor Lilia M. Casts, of the Uni-
versity of Texas.
'See Bancroft, North American States and Texas, 1 400, 401; Parkman,
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, 373, 444. The title of the
document is: Carta en que se da noticia de un Viaje hecho a la Bahia de
Espiritu Santo. Parkman says that it was written by some one in the
party, but evidently by another hand than De Le6n's; and that it follows
closely the account given in the Itinerary. Parkman and Bancroft both
had access to it in Florida, Gol. Doc., 25.
'Listed as No. 86 in Lanzas under the title, Mapa del camino que el aiio
de 1689 hizo el Gobernador Alonzo de Leon desde Cuahuila (Nueva Es-
pana hasta hallar cercea del lago de San Bernado el lugar donde havian
pobtado tranceses. It is referred to in the notes as the Map. Parkman,
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, 442, note 2, cites a French
map with the title Route que firent les Espagnols pour venir enlever les
Frangais restez a la Baye St. Bernard ou St. Louis, aprds la perte du vais-
seau de Mr. de la Salle, en 1689, which he says is a part of Margry's manu-
script collection; it is not included in the Dcouvertes et 6tablissements
des Frangais dans les Pays d'Outre-Mer. It is possible that this is a copy
the one from the Sevilla archives (No. 86), though nothing positive on
this point can now be asserted. A tracing of the Map, made under the
direction of the jefe del archivo, Senor Lanzas, in 1903, is now in the
library of the University of Texas.
4Don Carlos de Sigiienza y Gngora was born of Spanish parents in Mex-
ico, in 1645, and died in 1700. Educated as an ecclesiastic, he was a poet,
a scientist, a historian, and a public official. He was honored by the Span-