Texas Almanac, 1941-1942 Page: 41
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HISTORY OF TEXAS. 41
trigued the avaricious Spaniards with
stories of Gran Quivira, land of gold and
silver. Although Coronado found no
Seven Cities of Cibola or Gran Quivira,
other than the grass house villages of
the seminomadic tribes of the prairie
plains, his expedition left its permanent
impression. Other conquistadores were
encouraged to try their luck in search of
the Seven Cities. Out of these expedi-
tions came the eventual establishment in
the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, in
1609, of the second oldest European com-
munity in the United States, Santa Fe.
Among those who headed expeditions
into this territory was Antonio de Espejo,
who explored the Pecos Valley and Big
Bend country in 1582 while on a relief
expedition to some of the missions in
Northern Mexico.
Out of the Coronado expedition, too,
came the first outright attempt at mis-
sionary work among the Indians in the
present confines of the United States.
Cabeza de Vaca, a pious man, had
preached to the Indians, and there had
been some priests among those who
landed on the Texas coast with Narvaez,
but the first priest to attempt to Chris-
tianize Indians north of the Rio Grande
was Fra Juan de Padilla, who accom-
panied Coronado and stayed behind
among the Indians of the Texas plains,
where he suffered martyrdom near pres-
ent Amarillo.
Texas' Oldest Communities.
There were no permanent settlements
in Texas resulting immediately from
these expeditions, though there was a
settlement at El Paso del Norte, now
Juarez, and one at the present com-
munity of Ojinaga, opposite Presidio-or
rather it might be more accurate to state
that the transmutation of long estab-
lished Indian villages at these points into
Spanish communities had begun.
The oldest present-day Texas commu-
nity came later from these early activi-
ties, however. In 1682, the Pueblo revolt
in New Mexico drove out the Spanish
and Indians who remained loyal to the
Spanish. The refugees from two upper
Rio Grande communities, Ysleta and So-
corro, sought safety at the mission at
El Paso del Norte and were settled a
few miles down the river, naming their
new communities Ysleta del Sur (south)
and Socorro del Sur. These places, as
established in 1682, were on the right
(present Mexican) bank of the river,
but a great avulsive change in the chan-
nel in later years left them on the
Texas side.
De Soto's Followers in Texas.
While several expeditions traversed
West Texas in search of the Seven Cities
and Quivlra, the only expedition touch-
ing East Texas soil, other than those al-
ready mentioned, was that of Hernando
de Soto, which pushed westward from the
Mississippi after De Soto's death. It en-
tered Texas at the northeast corner and
proceeded into North Central Texas, and
possibly into Central Texas. This was in
1542 immediately after Coronado tra-versed this region, and it is possible that,
through information from the Indians,
De Soto's followers had heard of the
white men in the west and sought to
make connection with them.
Planting of the French Flag.
The wanderings of these Spanish ad-
venturers had raised above the soil of
Texas the first of the six flags to fly
over it. The second flag, that of France,
came with the landing of Rene Robert
Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, in 1685. Ac-
cording to the announced purpose of La
Salle's expedition, it was to have estab-
lished a French settlement at the mouth
of the Mississippi. Possibly La Salle was
driven on the Texas coast by adverse
winds. There is also evidence that he
sailed past the mouth of the Mississippi
for the deliberate purpose of establishing
a French post within striking distance
of Spanish operations in northern Mex-
ico. He, too, had heard of the Seven
Cities of Cibola.
Landing at the head of Lavaca Bay, La
Salle established Fort Saint Louis from
which he made a number of expeditions,
some to the westward apparently in
search of the gold and silver mines of
the Spaniards, and later to the eastward
in search of the Mississippi. La Salle was
killed by one of his own men during an
expedition in 1687. The place of the
explorer's death is usually fixed at a site
near present Navasota. After the lead-
er's death the colony at Fort Saint Louis
was soon destroyed by disease and In-
dians. Its establishment in Texas thus
came to little direct results. Indirectly
it had a permanent influence on the
chain of historic cause-and-effect, be-
cause it alarmed the Spaniards in Mex-
ico and made them give serious thought
to the matter of establishing settlements
in the great region north of the Rio
Grande.
FOUNDING OF THE MISSIONS AND
SPANISH DOMINION.
Until La Salle's venture into Texas the
Spanish civil and military authorities in
Mexico had directed their northward
expeditions Into the basin of the upper
Rio Grande. It was in this region, ac-
cording to persistent rumor, that the
Seven Cities of Cibola could be \found.
The priesthood, knowing of the great In-
dian population of the Texas coastal re-
gion, had urged that settlements be made
in this area for the purpose of spreading
the Christian religion. The military au-
thorities little heeded these appeals until
La Salle gave them reasons, other than
those offered by the priests, for wanting
to plant Spanish sovereignty firmly in
this territory.
Early East Texas Missions.
In 1689 an expedition by Capt. Alonso
de Leon, Governor of Coahuila, set out
to find and destroy Fort Saint Louis. The
expedition was accompanied by Father
Massanet, whose purpose was to estab-
lish a mission in Texas. The abandoned
Fort Saint Louis was discovered in 1690,
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Texas Almanac, 1941-1942, book, 1941; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117164/m1/43/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.