The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907 Page: 249
ix, 354 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A Study of the Route of Cabeza De Vaca.
249
from the mouth of the river at which De Soto died.1 Cabeza notes
that he traded in red ochre, bringing it from the inland to the coast
tribes. Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, of the University of Texas, writes
me that there was a supply of this paint in the neighborhood of
the present town of Nagodoches, Texas, to which the Indians from
great distances formerly resorted. It was doubtless to this, or to
tribes near it, that Cabeza went trading; and east of this, not a
hundred miles, the crosses were found by the men of De Soto.2
The point is almost directly north of Galveston, and nearly within
the reach of the "more than fifty leagues" for which distance in-
land Cabeza gives the customs of the tribes in a manner implying
personal knowledge. It is considerably farther than this from Isle
Dernier.
While there is now on this coast no island which fits the size of
Mal-Hado as given by Cabeza, there are features of topography
mentioned by Oviedo as being near it which cut Isle Dernier out;
and in spite of its present size being doubly too great, these bring
Galveston Island into consideration. We can not say now what the
terrible storms of this coast may have done in nearly three cen-
turies, when we know what they have done in a day; and this island
may be larger now than it then was: but it is not likely that it has
changed its relative position to certain rivers, which Oviedo notes
in their order westward from Mal-Hado, and which can be found in
such order on the real coast of the Gulf at no other place than west
of Galveston Island, as has been admirably set forth by Brownie
Ponton and Bates H. McFarland in TI-IE QUARTERLY for January,
1898.
Westward, toward Pinuco on the Gulf coast of Mexico, was an
anc6n, or inlet, which, Oviedo says, Dorantes passed three times in
wandering forward in search of food, making progress along the
coast proper forty leagues. From certain signs he believed that
this was "that which they called Espiritu Sancto." "He twice re-
'Theodore Irving has erred in interpreting the Inca, as having these
crosses found far westward .on Moscoso's expedition into Texas. The Inca
does not say so, and Miss Grace King has been led astray by Irving. I,
however, have not seen the Spanish original, only the translation into
French by Richelet.
2There is no longer any doubt that De Soto died at the mouth 'of Red
River, not the Arkansas. Proof of this is involved in this paper, fur-
ther on.
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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/m1/277/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.