The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 213
xiii, 358 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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De Le6n's Expedition of 1689. 213
agasajo') these Indians some tobacco, knives, and other things, to
get them to guide us, which they did. We turned and moved
northward till sunset. Then we found in a thicket a village of
more than two hundred and fifty persons, where we tried to find
the Frenchmen, our French guide alweys serving as interpreter.
They replied that the Frenchmen had gone to the Texas Indians
four days before, and that the rest who had settled on the little
sea (which is the bay), had all died at the hands of the coast
Indians; that the Frenchmen had six houses; and that the event
had occurred three moons2 that is, three months, before; that pre-
vious to this there had been an epidemic of small-pox, of which
the most had died." The main body (el real) travelled east that
day, and halted at the place appointed by the governor, who went
eight leagues northward with the sixty men. 8.
17. Sunday, the 17th, after sleeping close by the Indian village,
we again set out to the north. After travelling five leagues, we
found some ranchos of Indians known to our French prisoner.
We found out from them by minute inquiry the route of the four
Frenchmen who were going to the Texas; we found out, moreover,
that they had passed on horseback four days before. Here a con-
sultation was held as to what decision should be reached, with the
result that it was determined, as the main force was far away and
the country unknown, to write a letter to the Frenchmen and send
it to them by an Indian. Accordingly, the letter was written in
1The noun agasajo and the corresponding verb agasajar are used fre-
quently in the documents bearing on the Spaniards' relations with the
Indians, in reference to gifts bestowed with a view to winning the favor of
the Indians.
2The text has here sumas, no doubt a copyist's error for lunas. The
Letter has dos lunas, two moons.
8"These Indians [the Indians of the 'techas' incident] told how two days
previous the Frenchmen had passed by with the Tejas Indians. That very
afternoon we started in pursuit of those Frenchmen, and at sunset, we
reached the 'rancherfa' of the Toxo and Toao Indians, who told us that
the Frenchmen had passed by with the Tejas, and had been unwilling to re-
main there with them. That night we slept in the neighborhood of the
'rancherla,' and at eight in the evening some Indians came to the place
where we were, one of them dressed after the fashion of the French. And
they brought some French books, and a H1Ioly Bible." (Letter.)
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905, periodical, 1905; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101033/m1/220/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.