The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947 Page: 489
582 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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eograplic lotes or Spaish texas
8 Orcoquisac ad Cos Ilorconsitos
HARBERT DAVENPORT
E L ORCOQUISAC, near the mouth of the Trinity, where the
Spaniards established the presidio of San Agustin de
Ahumada and the mission of Sefiora de la Luz in May, 1756,
was near the present site of Wallisville, the former county seat
of Chambers County; and 'Los Horconsitos," much discussed
as an alternative location for these establishments, was either
at, or quite near, Moss' Bluff, in Liberty County.
With reference to the original establishment of the mission
and presidio, Herbert Eugene Bolton says:
The site was fixed according to instructions at El Orcoquisac, the spot
where Blancpain had been arrested. This was near a lagoon, a short
distance east of the left bank of the Trinity, some two leagues from the
head of the bay, or near the north line of the present Chambers County.'
Fr. Abad de Jesds Maria, who rebuilt the mission in 1759,
thus describes its site:
The two ministers having explored and examined the country with all
care and exactitude, we did not find any place more suitable or nearer the
Presidio than a hill, something less than a fourth of a league's distance
to the east from the latter, and on the same bank of the lagoon. This
place, Excellent Sir, because of its elevation, commands a view of the whole
site of the presidio, and of a circumference to the west and south, where
this River Trinity turns, as far as the eye can reach. Toward the east
the land is a little less elevated. At a distance of a league enough corn
might be planted to supply a large population.2
Los Horconsitos was apparently discovered by Governor Angel
Martos y Navarrete, in which connection Dr. Bolton says:
He found a place called Los Horconsitos [Little Forks] three and a
half leagues above El Orcoquisac, and, a league north of this a juniper
covered arroyo called Los Pielagos, either of which he regarded suitable
for a town, as well as for the presidio and mission."
1H. E. Bolton, Texas, in the Middle Eighteenth Century ("University of
California Publications in History," III [Berkeley, 1915]), 346. See also
W. E. Dunn's review of this book in Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
XX, 99.
2Bolton, Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century, 346.
*lbid., 349.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947, periodical, 1947; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101117/m1/599/?rotate=90: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.