The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 36, July 1932 - April, 1933 Page: 22

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

haps the remains of the mission settlement established in the
previous year by Father Larios."58 The fact that the diary makes
no mention of the expedition having come to Santa Rosa shows
that from Guadalupe to San Ildefonso the expedition proceeded
directly north. Bosque had been with Captain Elizondo the year
before and consequently knew the shorter route to the Rio Grande.
Furthermore, it is significant that, after crossing the Rio Grande,
the expedition met only friendly Indians. This seems to indicate
that, beyond the river, they traversed practically the same region
which Brother Manuel had visited twelve months before. In fact,
on one occasion the Indians they met said expressly that they were
waiting for the return of the friars.
On Saturday, May 11, after traveling nineteen leagues since
their departure from San Ildefonso, the expedition "arrived at a
very copious and very wide river, with a current more than four
hundred varas across, which the Indians said was called Rio del
Norte."" They passed up the bank of the stream in search of a
place where they could ford it. Not finding such a place, they
crossed "at a place where the river forms three branches." The
crossing was made very probably a little below Eagle Pass in
Maverick County, Texas. Naming the river Rio de San Buenaven-
tura, Bosque continued northward about four leagues and came
to "an arroyo between hills." Here they met fifty-four Yorica and
Jeapa Indians. These volunteered to conduct the expedition to the
Dacate mountains which Bosque was instructed to visit. After
marching about three leagues farther, they met the chiefs of the
Bibit and the Jume Indians, numbering more than a hundred
persons. The former chief informed the Spaniards that he and
some of his people had been baptized in Saltillo; that the rest of
his people would also have come to Saltillo to receive Baptism, if the
distance were not so great and an epidemic of smallpox had not
reduced them in number. In this same place, which Bosque named
San Vicente, the expedition met six heathen Indians of four differ-
ent tribes, all subject to Don Estevan, captain of the Guyquechales,
whom Larios was doubtless hoping to meet. These Indians assured
Bosque that they were "waiting to be Christians and to live
"fDiary, loc. cit., p. 294, note 3.
"5That is to say, the Indians assured them that this was the river which
the Spaniards in Mexico knew as the Rio del Norte.