The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999 Page: 30
559 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Joseph de Cardenas y Magaia would accompany the party to make a de-
tailed map of the bay and its rivers. Specifically, Captain Salinas was to
go to Fort St. Louis, which had been burned by Massanet in April, and
take out the artillery that De Le6n had buried in 1689. If the place was
suitable for fortification, he would leave the eight cannons in place so
they could be used there, but if the place was not suitable for a presidio,
he was to bring the cannons to Vera Cruz.4
A field party under Salinas reached the site of the French fort on No-
vember 2, 1690. Salinas wrote:
We continued up the river until we spotted some huts on the highest part of the
flat land along the river. Because of the form of the huts, we decided that they
had not been made by Indians, so we got out of the boat, and having climbed
the bank, we found the ruined village of La Salle. ... There was an enclosure of
a stronghouse or the earthwork for a battery of cannons, and about io to 12
huts, not counting that many more that were already destroyed.25
The detailed map drawn by Cardenas is highly accurate and resembles
a modern map of Matagorda Bay and its rivers. The location of the
French fort is shown accurately on the map, so the expedition obviously
visited the site. It is difficult to know how they could have counted ten or
twelve extant huts and that many more in ruins at the settlement, when
De Le6n and Massanet carefully described only seven or eight structures
total. The Cirdenas description of an enclosure for the stronghouse,
which Massanet had burned, or an earthwork for a battery of cannons al-
so does not agree with the De Le6n account of the fort layout. Perhaps
Cirdenas did not actually visit the fort with Salinas but remained on
board ship, depending on secondhand accounts at a later date.
The Salinas crew again visited the fort on November 5. Salinas said, "we
continued to the French village, and we examined the artillery that was
buried there. It consisted of 8 cannons and 2 cast-iron pedreros. They were
new and in good condition."26 The accuracy of the Cirdenas diary is again
questionable, since De Le6n says that he left only one pedrero, or swivel
gun for firing stone balls, at the fort. However, the number and condi-
tion of the cannons was accurate as described by Cirdenas. Considering
the amount of reconnaissance and sounding that the party did on No-
vember 5, it seems likely that they had time only for the most superficial
examination of the cannons nestled in their clay pit, and then left them
as they lay. The swivel gun that De Le6n left at the fort and two such guns
that Salinas mentioned were not buried with the eight cannons, and
2' Manuel Joseph de Cardenas y Magana, Diary, 1690, AGI, Mexico, 617, p. 360.
25 Ibid., 310 (quotation), 369.
26 Ibid., 312 (quotation), 371.July
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999, periodical, 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101219/m1/55/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.