The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 307

Book Reviews

Some of Ximenes' best writing is contained in the chapter
intriguingly entitled, "The White King," which is the story of
one of the survivors of the ill-fated La Salle settlement of the
168o's. Jean Henri was living proof of the oft-repeated assertion
that the French had a remarkable ability to "go native." Henri
not only survived the colony, but made himself the ruler of the
Taboso tribe until he was taken into custody by Captain Alonso
de Leon.
The most outstanding drawback in the work is its lack of bal-
ance. Cabeza de Vaca gets one paragraph; the Bosque-Lrios
entrada of the 167o's gets twenty-four pages.
During the course of his investigation, Ximenes came to
some interesting conclusions which he passed along to his reader.
He contends that the La Salle settlement was actually located on
the Lavaca River six and one-half miles from its mouth, not on
Garcitas Creek as others have declared. Ximenes feels that La
Salle did not mistakenly miss the mouth of the Mississippi; the
French explorer was "deadly serious about invading and conquer-
ing the rich territory across the Rio Grande" and deliberately
founded Fort Saint Louis on the Texas coast. And Ximenes
states that San Antonio was actually founded in 1715, not three
years later as is commonly accepted as the date for the begin-
ning of the villa.
Gallant Outcasts is a readable book, one presenting new in-
terpretations and attempting a synthesis of two centuries of the
Texas epoch. Perhaps it will spur new interest in the early
period of the state's history. ODIE B. FAULK
The University of Arizona
Rebel in Blue: A Novel of the Southwest Frontier, 186-1z864.
By Herman Toepperwein. New York (William Morrow and
Company), 1963. Pp. 378. $4.95-
Fiction is often used to relate history, and this novel by Boerne
Lawyer, Herman Toepperwein, is another attempt. Rebel in
Blue is an account of life in the San Antonio area during the
Civil War. The author creates the hero Alan Barry, an imaginary
family headed by Conrad Ritter, and a host of minor figures.
Then, making liberal use of Robert E. Lee, David Twiggs, Ben

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