The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 41, July 1937 - April, 1938 Page: 213

Locations of Early Spanish Missions

From thence by northeast we entered the plain at the San
Antonio River. At the end of the plain there is a small forest
of sparse mesquites, and some oaks. To it succeeds the water
of the San Pedro; sufficient for a mission. Along the bank of
the latter, which has a thicket of all kinds of wood, and by
an open path we arrived at the River San Antonio. This river
is very desirable [for settlement] and favorable for its pleas-
antness, location, abundance of water, and multitude of fish.
It is surrounded by very tall nopals, poplars, elms, grapevines,
black mulberry trees, laurels, strawberry vines and genuine
fan-palms. There is a great deal of flax and wild hemp, an
abundance of maiden-hair fern and many medicinal herbs.
. . . Its luxuriance is enticing for the founding of missions
and villages, for both its plains and its waters encourage
settlement.*
There is nothing in the above statements to indicate that there
were settlements at San Antonio-either Indian or Spanish.
Again quoting from the first of the above-mentioned diaries,
Captain Ram6n says, with reference to Nacogdoches, under date
of July 8, 1716:
This day I arrived in the town of Nacogdoches. .. ."
I began my search with Mission Guadalupe, which was known
to have stood in the city limits of Nacogdoches until 1800. Its
site was soon located, with the aid of the Spanish records in
Nacogdoches, for several of the grants to town lots between North
Street and Bafiito Creek, refer to that stream as "the Creek of
the Mission." The grant to Juan Jos6 Sanches for his town lot,o
under date of May 14, 1792, says his lot is bounded "on the north
with lands of the mission," while the procurador, in his descrip-
tion of the lot, says it is "bounded on the north with the lot of
the mission," using the word solor, or building lot. This lot, ex-
tending from the lot of of Juan Jos6 Sanches to the northern
limits of the ancient corporation, was never granted to an indi-
vidual, although after the disappearance of the old mission build-
ing, it was occupied by Michel Sacco. This building lot of the
4Gabriel Tous, "Ram6n's Expedition: Espinosa's Diary of 1716," in
Preliminary Studies of the Texas State HIistorical Society, I, No. 4, pp. 9-10.
5Foik, op. cit., p. 22.
6Grant from Governor Salcedo to Juan Jose Sanches. Deed Records of
Nacogdoches County, Texas, Book "D", page 39.

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