The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 59
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
P;inuco River, in 1522, the Spaniards made no sustained effort to
reduce the territory lying between the Pdnuco River in Mexico
to the San Antonio River in Texas, until about the year 1746.
Meanwhile the aborigines of the area, who, in the part between
the PAnuco and Rio Bravo were known as the Huaxtecas de
Tamaulipas, held solitary sway under their ancient chiefs, as their
archaeological remains attest. Between 1528 and 1536 Cabeza de
Vaca and the survivors of the shipwrecked Narv;iez expedition,
traversed Texas. According to Bethel Coopwood, the Malhado
of Cabeza was none other than St. Joseph's Island, and the can-
nibalistic eating of one another by the Dorantes party took place
on Live Oak peninsula, and the reunion of Cabeza and Dorantes
took place on a site in the present city of Corpus Christi, about
where the Hotel Robert Driscoll now stands. (All of this belongs
to the Tamaulipecan background.) The Karankawa Indians with
whom the Spaniards lived, roamed alike from Louisiana through
Nuevo Santander, to south of the Rio Bravo, and it was near this
rugged old river they were finally exterminated. (The Carrizo
Indians were autochthonous to the trans-Nueces and the Rio
Grande.) There were numerous Spanish naval explorations of
our section of the Texas coast between 1522 and 1821, and these
will form interesting and valuable subjects for our members.
The La Salle episode affects our study-territory, as the chevalier
undoubtedly explored west of the Guadalupe-San Antonio, and
the various expeditions which resulted from the advent of the
heroic Frenchman concern us.
In the mid-eighteenth century the Huaxtecan autonomy came
to an end, and a glamorous and important era within our purview
was ushered in. In 1746 Colonel Jos6 de Escand6n was commis-
sioned by the viceroy to inspect the area between the Pdnuco and
the San Antonio rivers, then known as Seno Mexicano. Although
he entered the territory with large armies, he accomplished the
astounding feat of reducing the inhabitants with hardly any loss
of blood, and, after being made governor and captain-general
of Nuevo Santander (or Huaxteca de Tamaulipas, as the area
was called), he succeeded in colonizing it for the most part with
veteran soldier families. From 1749 to 1755, Escand6n founded
scores of towns, including Refugio (Matamoros), Reynosa,
Camargo, Dolores, Revilla (Guerrero), Mier, and Laredo. In
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/71/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.