The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928 Page: 12
390 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern IHistorical Quarterly
Mexico, extending to within fifteen leagues of the seashore. His
conclusion that the Rio Grande is the only river which represents
the description of De Vaca, seems conclusive, when considered
with reference to its width and depth, the ebony nuts, mesquite,
and other growths of the lower valley.
Mr. James Newton Baskett next discusses these routes of Cabeza
de Vaca very thoroughly and interestingly, using with effect, not
only the Naufragios, but the joint letter written by De Vaca and
his three companions while in the City of Mexico to the Royal
Audiencia at Santo Domingo and cited by Oviedo (X, 246, 308).
His general method is to first fix the most important points, and
connect them. He adopts Galveston Island as Mal-Hado, and ap-
proves the reasoning of Brownie Ponton and Bates McFarland in
its establishment and the four rivers crossed down the coast, but
extends their journey to Corpus Christi instead of stopping at the
mouth of the Colorado. He fixes the Guadalupe as the "River
of Nuts," the sojourn on St. Joseph Island as claimed by Coop-
wood, the abundant tunas in Nueces county and the final start
on the Aransas River in San Patricio county. Thence they pro-
ceeded northwest, crossing Frio River in central Frio county.
Here he finds the place "of the hundred ranches just beyond the
river", from which they travelled twenty leagues to a point twenty
miles west of Uvalde, where they began to see the mountains.
Thence around the edge of the Balcones Escarpment to the Llano
or Blanco iron region; thence turning west the wanderers reached
the Rio Grande near the mouth of the Conchas; and thence
traveled up the former river.
As an illustration of how history grows and feeds on itself with
the increase of knowledge and the establishment of facts, it is
interesting to read "The First European in Texas, 1528-1536," by
Harbert Davenport and Joseph K. Wells (XXII, 111, 205).
Messrs. Davenport and Wells freely use and give credit to the
authors just mentioned and agree with each in an important part
of the narrative. To this advantage, they added intimate personal
knowledge of the terrain of the route of De Vaca, and topographi-
cal surveys made by the officials of the United States and Mexico.
They were likewise assisted by information about the Indian tribes
in this region, through the more recent work of Dr. Herbert E.
Bolton and associates. They adopt the objections and criticisms
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928, periodical, 1928; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101088/m1/18/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.