The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 278
334 p. : ill., ports., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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278 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
ney to Mexico upon the final destiny of Texas. Yoakum especial-
ly should not have gone astray in this matter, as he seems to have
had access to reliable sources of information in both Spanish and
French; indeed, he is often on the point of assigning to Saint-
Denis his true place in our history, but the brilliant fiction of
Gayarrb, in the end, proved too fascinating to be omitted; after
reading many pages of interesting matter, truth mingled with fic-
tion, we close Yoakum with an uncomfortable feeling that Saint-
Denis' importance consists in his having laid out the San Antonio
Road.*
In censuring the historians of Texas for accepting this story
on insufficient evidence and for failing to interpret correctly the
larger movement of events during these years, an honorable ex-
ception should be made of the work of H. II. Bancroft. The
materials used by this author so far as concerns the story of Saint-
Denis were mostly Spanish, including a number of documents
which have never been printed. The facts derived by Bancroft from
the Spanish sources are substantially in accord with the statements
of the French writers whom I have followed in this article. There
is no imprisonment of Saint-Denis on his first visit; his love affair
is indeed mentioned, but it is not given more importance than
is accorded to the occupation of Texas by the Spanish; we learn
from Bancroft, too, that the Spanish authorities were aroused to a
better realization of the value of Texas and to a clearer understand-
in of the danger that threatened from Louisiana, and, in conse-
quence, at once bestirred themselves to take possession of the coun-
try. Bancroft also agrees with the French account that Saint-
Denis' arrest occurred on his second trip and for the reason that
the Spanish officials had grown suspicious of his intentions.f
It must be a matter of keen regret to all who feel an interest
in such questions as this that the State of Texas has as yet shown
little interest in collecting the sources of our early history. Docu-
ments in Mexico, in Spain, and in France must be copied and made
* Yoakum, History of Texas, vol. I, pp. 47-52; 65-66. Mrs. Penny-
backer (A New History of Texas, Revised Edition, p. 24) seems to ar-
rive at the same conclusion.
t H. H. Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, vol. I, pp. 609-614.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898, periodical, 1897/1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101009/m1/304/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.