The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 120

LIFE OF GENERAL DON MANUEL
DE MIER Y TERAN
AS IT AFFECTED TEXAS-MEXICAN RELATIONS
OHLAND MORTON
CHAPTER II (Continued)
On April 16, the party crossed the Guadalupe River on a
ferry, while the carriage and wagons forded the stream. Every
stopping place which did not already have a name was given
one by some member of the party. Thus we find in the diaries
such names as Loma Grande, or High Hill, La Rueda, where a
wheel of the instrument wagon was repaired, Los Cedros, which
is self-explanatory, the Camp of the Virgin, where Mier y Teran
observed the pivot star of that constellation on the meridian, and
Campo de SAnchez, where "not knowing what to call this
stopping place, and seeing how unattractive it was I suggested
that they name it after me, and from then on it was for us,
SAnchez' Camp."33 From April 23 to 25, the party camped on
the Colorado River; here Mier y Teran and SAnchez were the
guests of an American from the United States, a Mr. Wis, whose
house was about thirty leagues up the Colorado from the Gulf
of Mexico.
On April 27, the expedition arrived at San Felipe de Austin;
Austin's secretary, Samuel Williams, met the group and con-
ducted them to a house which had been prepared for their use
during their stay; the party remained in Austin's colony from
April 27 until May 10. A few extracts from the various diaries
will serve to illustrate the type of investigation which was car-
ried on by the commission as a whole, as well as to indicate
something of the particular interests of the members. Regard-
ing the settlement, SAnchez wrote:
It consists at present of forty or fifty wooden houses
on the western bank of the large river known as Rio
de los Brazos de Dios, but the houses are not arranged
33C. E. Castafieda, "A Trip to Texas in 1828," in The Southwestern
Historical Quarterly, XXIX, 270.
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