Gateway to Texas: The History of Orange and Orange County Page: 21
viii, 261 p. : ill. ; 24 x 29 cm. 2nd edition.View a full description of this book.
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2
THE YEARS OF CONTENTION: SPAIN AND FRANCE VIE FOR EAST TEXAS
l 1 l l l i l l 1 1 1 1 1 l ._But as he was a man in s7, his boyhood, youth, and early manhood must have been spent in
one of the most wonderful periods of time-the age in which the Old World found the New, the
age in which the warm southern blood of Italy, Spain and France, as well as the cold northern
blood of England, was being intoxicated with the love of adventure, with the dream of untold
wealth.
-CABEZA DE VACA: PONTON AND FARLAND
Texas Historical Association Quarterly.D U RING much of the eighteenth century
and even into the nineteenth century, both
Spain and France claimed ownership of East
Texas. Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish explorer, had
traveled along the Texas coast in I528; the Han
Indians he mentions are thought to have been
the Attakapan Orcoquisas. Spain's claim was fur-
ther strengthened through the efforts of an expe-
dition that was originally led by Hernando de
Soto in I543.
France based its claim on the travels of Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, and on those of Louis
Juchereau de Saint Denis.
The Spaniards were the first Europeans to see
the Texas shore. In 151g Alvarez de Pineda mapped
the Gulf Coast from Florida to Vera Cruz. But it
was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his ship-
wrecked crewmates, washed ashore on Galveston
Island, who actually lived in Texas. They were
members of the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition,
which had received a grant from the King of
Spain to conquer and colonize the New Worldbetween Florida and the Rio de las Palmas (Rio
Grande). They left Spain in June, 1527, with six
hundred men. After many misfortunes, includ-
ing hurricanes, the loss of their big boats, hun-
ger, sickness, and many deaths, Cabeza de Vaca
and the men in his remaining, crude, raft-like
boat were cast ashore in November, ISz8, on an
island they called Malhado (Misfortune).
De Vaca later wrote, "Because of winter and
its inclemency and many days we have suffered
hunger, and the heavy beating of the waves, the
people began ... to despire (sic) in such a man-
ner that when the sun sank, all who were in my
boat were fallen one on another, so near to death
that there were few among them in a state of sen-
sibility." The Indians befriended this pitiful
group of men and took them to their village,
where they lived in a miserable existence with
their hosts. Hunger and disease swept the vil-
lage, killing both Indians and Spaniards. Instead
of being put to death for bringing the disease,
the Spaniards became virtual medicine men tothe tribe. Nearly six torturous years were spent
traveling about the island and the mainland, in a
condition not far removed from slavery. Ulti-
mately, Cabeza de Vaca and his three surviving
companions made their escape, setting out on
a journey that subsequently took them across
much of Texas and Mexico.
In 1685, French nobleman and explorer Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, overshot the Missis-
sippi River and became stranded at Matagorda
Bay. There he built a long stockade, calling it
Fort St. Louis. Desperate to escape from what
was clearly the homeland of the fierce Karankawa
Indians, La Salle and most of his able-bodied
men soon abandoned their newly constructed
fort, striking out for more familiar turf. Even-
tually they wandered into a Tejas Indian village,
where they were greeted with many signs of
friendship, as well as with food and gifts. (Nota-
bly, "Tejas" is an Indian greeting meaning friend;
Texas got its name from this word.) When La
Salle became ill, his men pressed on in search of
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Williams, Howard C. Gateway to Texas: The History of Orange and Orange County, book, 1988; Orange, Tex.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39146/m1/39/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .