The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 30, July 1926 - April, 1927 Page: 206

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE TEJAS OR ASINAI INDIANS,
1691-17221
TRANSLATED FROM TIIE SPANISH BY
MATTIE AUSTIN HATCHER
As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken,
and their springs are dried up; their cabins are in the dust. Their
council fires have long since gone out on the shore, and their war-cry is
fast dying out to the untrodden west. Slowly and sadly they climb the
mountains and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking
before the mighty tide which is pressing them away; they must soon hear
the roar of the last wave that will settle over them forever. Ages hence,
the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some growing city, will ponder
on the structure of their disturbed remains and wonder to what manner
of person they belonged. They will live only in the songs and chronicles
of their exterminators. Let these be faithful to their rude virtues as
men, and pay tribute to their unhappy fate as a people.-Sam Houston,
Speech in the United States Senate.
I
FRAY FRANCISCO CASANAS DE JESUS MARIA TO THE VICEROY OF
MEXICO'
August 15, 1691.
Most Excellent Sir,
Because of the many reports I have received of the zeal that
warms your Excellency's Christian and Catholic heart, I am in-
duced to write these few lines- as, owing to my duties, I have
had no time in which to finish a long report which I am engaged
1The documents here presented were written by Fray Francisco Casafias
de Jesfis Maria, August 15, 1691; by Fray Francisco Hidalgo, November
4, 1716; and by Fray Isidro Felis de Espinosa, in 1722.
2The main points in the history of the transfer of the autographed
original used in this translation from its place in the archives in Mexico
to Texas are given in a note bound with the document, as follows:
This Manuscript
was secured for the A. and M. College of Texas by F. W. Christern of
New York, on the order of the President, Jno. G. James, from the follow-
ing Catalogue: "No. 46. London, July 26, 1880. A Rough List of Rare
Works relating to North and South America chiefly from the Library of
the late Senor Don Jose Fernandez Ramirez President of the late
Emperor Maximillian's First Ministry of Mexico, offered for sale by
Bernard Quaritch, 15 Picadilly, W."
Indexed in said catalogue as follows: "310. Texas. Informe de Fr.

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