The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 214
xiii, 358 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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214
Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
French by the royal alf rez1 Francisco Martinez. Its contents, in
substance, were as follows: that we had been informed of their
escape when some' Christians on the coast had been killed by the
Indians of that vicinity; that they might come with us; that we
would wait for them three or four days in the houses of the village
from which they had set out. This letter was sealed by the gov-
ernor and by our chaplain, Padre Fray Damian Manzanet, reli-
gious of our patron San Francisco. The letter added as a postscript
some lines of Latin, in case any one of the four should be a reli-
gious, exhorting them to come. Putting in paper for a reply, we
dispatched this letter by an Indian carrier who assured us that he
would overtake them. About evening prayer an Indian came from
the North to see the Frenchmen, of whom he must have had news.
When we asked him through the Frenchman whether it was far
from here to the Texas, he replied that it was not many days'
journey and said that it had been three days since the four French-
men had gone on from his rancheria.2
18. Monday, the 18th,8 in view of the harm the camp might
have suffered, even though we had left it well guarded, we set
out in search of it. On the way thither the governor received a
letter stating that the drove of horses had stampeded the night be-
fore, and that a hundred-odd had been lost; that some had been
1For the meaning of this term see TIIE QUARTERLY, VIII 10. The Letter
calls Martinez captain.
"The next morning [after the night near the Toxo and Toao rancher~al
we set out in quest of the said Frenchmen, passing through some very
dense woods; and at about two o'clock in the afternoon we came upon
some 'ranchitos' of Emet Indians. On our inquiring concerning the
Frenchmen these Indians pointed out to us an Indian who had just ar-
rived and who had conducted them (the Frenchmen) as far as the San
Marcos river, and seeing us pass they told us that we should not be able
to cross the said river. We told the Indian that if he would take them
a paper and bring an answer we would give him a horse, and that he
should take the answer to the houses where the Frenchmen had lived.
Capt. Francisco Martinez wrote the letter in the French language because
he was master of it." (Letter.)
8Here, as is the case throughout, the Letter makes no definite statement
as to the time. The paragraph following the account of Martinez's letter
to the Frenchmen begins: "Then we returned where the camp was, five
leagues beyond the Guadalupe river."
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905, periodical, 1905; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101033/m1/221/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.