The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, July 1918 - April, 1919 Page: 97

Booke Reviews

izerl for the subject. Dr. Dunn repaired to them, and with ad-
mirable skill and energy in sixteen months made a comprehensive
gathering of the rich materials which they contain. These docu-
ments supplement in important ways those formerly assembled,
particularly since the Spanish archives contain the proceedings of
the Council of the Indies, which reveal the larger relations of epi-
sodes which, the Mexican and provincial archives often present as
local problems.
Dr. Dunn's feat of gathering alone has been one of the note-
worthy recent achievements in Southwestern history. But it is
only half of his work. With all this large body of data old and
new, and with a larger outlook than those who had gone before.
Dr. Dunn proceeded to analyze de novo his entire fund of archive
material. He has assembled the scattered episodes, turned fresh
light upon them, given them new interpretation here and there,
and woven them into a more symmetrical and comprelrensive
whole.
The s(ope of his book can best be gleaned from its table of con-
tents. In eight chapters he treats "Early Phases, 1678-1685";
"La Salle's Colony, 1685-1686"; "Spanish Diplomacy in Eng ind,
(1686"; "The Spanish Search for La S alle's Colony, 1686-1687":
'"The Outcome of the Search, 1687-1689"; "The First Defensive
Move of Spain: The Founding of Missions among the 'Texas'
Indians, 1689-1694"; "The Second Defensive Move of Spain: The
Ocenpation of Pensacola Bay, 1689-1698"; "'The French Coloniza-
tio of Loulisiana, and the Impotence of Spain, 1698-1'70?."
Dr. Dnnn's most important general contribution has been to
show more fully and clearly than has been done before that the
first occupation of Texas was hbt an incident in the international
contest for the control of the entire Gulf area, more particularly
of the northern Gulf coast from the Florida Peninsula westward,
and that while the Spanish occupation of Pensacola was another
incident in the same series, it occurred in 1698 and as, a proxi-
mate result of the second French menace, rather than in 1696
and as a. direct result of the La Salle incident, as some writers
(Morfi, for example) have assumed.
Lesser contributions are numerous throughout the book. The
author gives a fuller statement than his predecessors of Echagaray's