The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 41, July 1937 - April, 1938 Page: 317
383 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Mezquia Diary of Alarc6n Expedition Into Texas, 1718 317
President12 of the Texas Indians, giving a report of everything
that had happened and directions of the site where the cargoes
had been placed.
On the 22d we stopped at the said place because it had rained
a great deal the preceding afternoon and the road was very heavy.
On the 23d we went as far as the Medina River, and we crossed
it with some difficulty, because it was somewhat flooded. There
was no damage aside from the falling of a cargo of the fathers
of Zacatecas, one tercio"l being of sugar and the other of salt.
All of it would have been lost if help had not been given imme-
diately. The river is thickly overgrown with poplars, elms, pecans,
mulberries, cypress, and hackberries.
On the 25th we arrived at about noon at the first spring'4 of
San Antonio which is about six leagues distant. The road is
rough until arriving at the creek which they call De Le6n, which
is about three leagues from the Medina. Near it is another with
running water, which they say runs abundantly further down-
stream. The rest of the road is very level. This place in which
we find ourselves is pretty because of the trees that it has at its
spring. The water is sweet and very fine. Where the two springs
meet the stream is two varas wide and more than a vara and a
half deep. It is swift, very easy to extract, and leaves the stream
to irrigate good and sufficient lands. The trees which the wood
contains consist of pecans, mulberries, elms, and poplars, and
there are also many grapevines, one of which is larger than
the one on the Frio River.
From this day until the sixth of May, several excursions were
made to examine the land, and nothing of special interest was
found, except that above the ford of the San Antonio River, about
a fourth of a league, near the spring, a place to draw water was
found. From this place the entire river may be drawn out with
ease. It will involve a good deal of work, since the lands are a
12Reference is to Father Isidro Felix de Espinosa, president of the
Querdtaran missions in East Texas at this time with headquarters at
the mission of Concepci6n. See Hoffmann, Diary of the Alarc6n Expedi-
tion, 39, 57.
13A tercio is a "third" of a cargo, the cargo of a pack animal consisting
of the two side packs and one on top, making three, hence the thirds. In
this case there were only two tercios on the animal.
14Evidently San Pedro Springs at present San Antonio.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 41, July 1937 - April, 1938, periodical, 1938; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101103/m1/345/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.