The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 216
xiii, 358 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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216 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
east-by-north. Our line of march lay through some wide plains
which for long stretches were treeless. At the end of eight leagues
we came to a creek of good water. Here the Indian guide told us
that the settlement was on the bank of this creek and in its vicin-
ity.1 The land was all very pleasing; and we came across many
buffalo.
22. Friday ,the 22nd, as we were near the settlement, our
party set out (salimos con el real), though the day dawned rainy.
Three leagues down the creek we found it. Having halted with
the forces (con el real) about an arquebus-shot away, we went to
see it, and found all the houses sacked, all the chests, bottle-cases
(frasqueras), and all the rest of the settler's furniture broken;
apparently more than two hundred books, torn apart, and with the
rotten leaves scattered through the patios-all in French. We
noted that the perpetrators (agresores) of this massacre had pulled
everything [the colonists] had out of their chests, and divided the
booty among themselves; and that what they had not cared for
they had torn to pieces, making a frightful sack of all the French
possessed (todo cuanto [los Franceses] tenian) ; for besides the
evidence involved in our finding everything in this condition, fur-
ther proof was found in the fact that in the rancherias through
which we had passed before our arrival at the settlement, we had
found in the possession of the Indians some French books in very
good condition, with other articles of very little value. These
1"On the following day [after the soldier's return] we left for the French
settlement, and when we were about three leagues from it there came out
some twenty-five Indians. Now the old Frenchman who accompanied us
took occasion to say that the French settlement was not in the place to
which the Indian guides were taking us. On the way this Frenchman tried
several times, by means of an Indian of the Cavas nation whom he had
with him, to make our two Indians desert us, or say that it was very far,
and that we should not be able to cross the rivers which were on the way.
I was so sorry that the Frenchman should be given occasion to speak that
I grew annoyed, and Capt. Alonso de Leon said to me 'Father, we are going
where I wish to go.' We continued following the two guides quite three
leagues; we arrived at a stream of very good drinking-water, and the two
Indians said to me: 'Lower down on the bank of this stream are the
houses of the French, which must be about three leagues off.' Then the old
Frenchman saw that there was no help, and that we were certain to come
upon the village. He then said: 'Sir, now I knew very well, yea, very
well, that the houses are on this little river.' " (Letter.)
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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/m1/223/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.