The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 15, July 1911 - April, 1912 Page: 36

Texas Historical Association Quarterly

From the Cibola the expedition traveled over plains, which were
described as literally covered with flowers, till on the 17th they
crossed three rivers. The first they call San Pascual Baylon, the
second they identified as the Guadalupe, and the third they named
the San Ybon.3 The one which they identified as the Guada-
lupe was undoubtedly the present Comal River, and their crossing
was very nearly at the spot where New Braunfels now stands; the
reached the Salado River, though not [called that] because it is [salty]"
(no porque to sea). The same river kept that name through all later
Spanish diaries. See Pefia, Derrotero, entry for May 13, 1720; Rivera,
Diario, in B. MS., entry for August 18, 1727; De la Fora, Diario, in B.
MS., entry for August 25, 1767.
Cibola Creek is first found with that name in Spanish documents in the
Pefia Derrotero (entry for May 15, 1720). As near as can be ascertained,
what corresponds to the present CIbola was called by Terfin in 1691 the
San Ygnacio de Loyola (Diario, entry for June 15, Colecci6n de Memorias,
XXVII, 23-74), and by Father Massanet, on the same expedition, Santa
Crecencia (Diario, entry for June 15, in Coleccidn de Memorias, XXVII,
87-111). It is not named at all in the Espinosa Diario of 1716, but the
father describes a river in that locality as stagnant, and the Cibola was
always so described. Ram6n called it the San Xavier (Derrotero, entry
for May 17, in Coleccidn de Memorias, XXVII, 135-162). From Aguayo's
time on it is called the Cibola. Its name probably came from the abund-
ance of buffalo in that neighborhood. See Teran, Demarcacidn, entry for
June 15, in Goleccidn de Memorias, XXVIII. For references in the later
diaries, see Rivera, Diario, entry for August 18, 1727, and De la Fora,
entry for August 26, 1767, in B. MS.
1The name Guadalupe was given this river, though lower in its course,
as far back as 1689 (De Le6n, Diario, entry for April 14, 1689), and was
applied and kept more consistently thereafter than the names given other
rivers. Massanet and Teran recognized it when they crossed it some ten
or twelve miles above where it joins with the San Marcos (Massanet,
Diario, entry for June 19). Teran, given to changing names, renamed it
the San Agustine (Dermarcacidn, entry for June 19, 1791). In 1709
Fathers Espinosa and Olivares called it the Guadalupe, when they crossed
it perhaps a little north of where Teran had done so (Diario, entry for
April 14, 1709). It is interesting to note that the Espinosa Diario and
the Ram6n Derrotero (entries for May 17), like Pefa, called the present
Comal the Guadalupe and the present Guadalupe, the San Ybon. Espinosa
described what they called the Guadalupe, but is the Comal, as having its
sources in three springs. This statement is supplemented by Ram6n, who
says that the source was but a gunshot from their crossing. Both, like
Pefia, state that the sources of the San Ybon were far to the north.
Espinosa says that, though it joins the Guadalupe, it is not a branch of
it, for its sources are very distant, meaning, doubtless, that it was by far
the larger of the two. Though Pena says his expedition named the San
Ybon, it in reality but renamed it. The name Guadalupe still clung to
the Comal in 1727, when Rivera crossed it. He, however, applied the
name to the present Guadalupe. He says that he crossed a "spring of
water [which is equal to a considerable river] which they call the Guada-
lupe, and at a short distance from this I crossed the River of Nuestra
Sefiora de Guadalupe" (Diario, entry for August 19, 1727).