The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 15, July 1911 - April, 1912 Page: 58
382 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly
expedition turned southeast three leagues, and arrived at the "pre-
sidio of Nuestra Sefiora de Loreto," March 24, 1722. Apparently
it was considered already founded by the garrison.
Illness of the Marquis prevented active measures until the 6th
of April, when the lines were begun for the fortification "on the
spot where the French had one constructed from 84 to. 90." The
excavations for the presidio enclosed the spot in which the surviv-
ing Frenchmen had buried their artillery, and nails, pieces of gun
locks, and other remnants of French goods were dug up. The pre-
sidio was in the shape of an octagon, with a moat, four bastions
and a tower. Domingo Ram6n' with ninety men was left in
charge.
After drawing the lines of the presidio, Aguayo made the formal
grant of the mission of Espiritu Santo de Zufiiga, to the padre
Augustine Patr6n, of the College of Zacatecas. The mission was
founded for three tribes of Indians, but from the beginning was
ill-fated. "Father Pefia, a member of Aguayo's expedition, re-
corded at the time in his diary that 'it was seen that they [these
three tribes] were very docile and would enter readily upon the
work of cultivating the earth and their own souls, the more be-
cause they live in greater misery than the other tribes, since they
subsist altogether upon fish and go entirely without clothing.' By
this utterance Pefia proved himself either ignorant or defiant of
history, a bad sociologist, and a worse prophet."2
(c) The Location of the Presidio.-Attention has been called
to the fact that it is customary, erroneously, to place Fort St.
Louis, and consequently the Spanish presidio, on the east side of
the Lavaca River.3 In support of the conclusion that the fort
lay, not on the east, but on the west side of the river, Joutel's
Carte Nouvelle and Siguenza's map have been cited, and the state-
1"Pefia's diary of the Aguayo expedition calls him Jose Ram6n, but
authentic 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)." Bolton, "The Founding of Mission Rosario," in
THE QUARTERLY, X, 116. He has consequently been called Domingo
Ram6n in this paper.
2Bolton, "The Founding of Mission Rosario," in THE QUARTERLY, X,
116-117.
3Bolton, "Notes on Clark's The Beginnings of Texas," in TIE QUAR-
TERLY, XII, 148.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 15, July 1911 - April, 1912, periodical, 1912; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101056/m1/63/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.