The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907 Page: 116
ix, 354 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
with their barbarity. Such Indians as these could hardly be called
inviting material for the missionary.
2. Failure of Early Spanish Efforts Among the Karankawan
Tribes.
Although the Karankawan tribes were among the very earliest of
the Texas natives to come to the notice of the Spaniards, and were
visited by them again during the first attempts at actual occupa-
tion of the country, efforts to control them were for some
time delayed. The Caoques, or Capoques, met by Cabeza de Vaca
on the Texas coast (1528-1534) are thought to have been identical
with the Cocos of later times.' After this adventurer, their next
white visitors were the French. La Salle's unfortunate colony
(1685-9) on the Lavaca River had some of these tribes for neigh-
bors, and was destroyed by them. It was among the Caocosi, the
Cocos, very probably, that De Le6n in 1690 rescued some captive
survivors of this French colony.2 Again, in 1721, the hostility of
apparently the same tribes caused La Harpe to abandon his project
of occupying the Bay of St. Bernard for France, and thus put an
end to French attempts to control this coast.3
Up to this time the Spaniards had seen but little of the Karan-
kawan Indians since the first entradas from Mexico more than a
quarter of a century before, and had made no attempt to subdue
them. But in 1722 the Marqu6s de Aguayo established on the very
site of La Salle's fort the presidio of Nuestra Sefiora de Loreto,
more commonly called Bahia, and founded near by for the Cujanes,
Guapites, and Carancaguases the mission of Espiritu Santo de
Zufiiga. The presidio was left in charge of Captain Domingo
Ram6n, perhaps the same Ram6n who had founded the second
group of East Texas missions in 1716. Father Pefia,' a member
1Bandelier, The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (Barnes land
Co. 1905), 72; Gatschet, The Karankaa Indians, 34; Hand-book of the
Indians (Bureau of American Ethnology), I, 315.
2Velasco, Dfctamen Fiscal, Nov. 30, 1716, in Memorias de Nueva Espana,
XXVII, 182. This statement is made by Velasco on the basis of De Le6n's
own report. See Carta de Damian Manzanet (THE QUARTERLY, II, 301),
and De Leon, Derrotero, 1690.
SMargry, Dcouvertes et Etablissements, VI, 354.
4Pefia's diary of the Aguayo expedition calls him Jos6 Ram6n, but au-
thentic documents written at Loreto at the time of Ram6n's death call
him Domingo Ram6n (Autos fechos en la Bahia de el espiritu Santo
sobre. . . . muertes, 1723-1724. Original MS. Archivo General.116
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907, periodical, 1907; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101040/m1/136/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.