Gateway to Texas: The History of Orange and Orange County Page: 23
viii, 261 p. : ill. ; 24 x 29 cm. 2nd edition.View a full description of this book.
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SPAIN AN) FRAN(1E VI .OIR LABI IE1XAS
Bitter rivalry developed between Spain and France over the Gulf of Mexico, which both consid-
ered their private ocean. Courtesy Roger HortonThe Spaniards had virtually ignored the lower
Trinity valley and southeast Texas until the
French became active in the area. In 1745, Don
Joaquin de Orobio Bazterra, captain of the pre-
sidio of Bahia del Espiritu Santo, wrote the vice-
roy of rumors of French encroachment along the
lower Trinity River. The viceroy ordered Orobio
to find out when and where the French had
made a settlement, and what and how many In-
dians were in the vicinity. He was to order theFrench to leave at once. Although the order was
dated July i8, it was late December before Oro-
bio set out on his mission. Lack of information
about the area made progress slow. Arriving at
the site of two Orcoquisa villages just west of the
San Jacinto River, he found no Frenchmen, but
was informed that "men who lived near the Mis-
sissippi" had been coming to the Orcoquisas for
six years, and that they came annually up the
Neches, Trinity, and Brazos rivers.Many Indians-Attakapans and others-
claimed that the members of Orobio's expedition
were the first Spaniards they had ever seen, and
despite the efforts of the Spanish to force or
frighten the traders out, by 1751 the French were
even more in command of the area.
In 1754, the Spanish arrested the French trader
Blancpain near El Orcoquisac, a Spanish post lo-
cated west of Jefferson County near the site of
present-day Wallisville. He claimed that he had
been trading with the Indians for more than 25
Scars. He had a license from the French governor
> furnish the Indians with firearms in exchange
tor horses; to make friends of the inhabitants of
any strange villages; and to take the chiefs of
these villages to see the governor in New Or-
leans. The license served him poorly; Blancpain
died in prison.
At about the same time another Frenchman
named De Masse lived on the east side of the Sa-
bine, but in territory claimed by Spain. He op-
erated "rancherias" and owned twenty Negro
slaves, seven hundred head of cattle, and one
hundred horses. Like most of the other French-
men of the time, he was a contraband trader with
the Indians. In July, 1755, he applied to the Span-
ish governor, Don Jacinto de Barrios, for reset-
tlement in Texas. Although his petition was re-
fused, he continued to trade with the Indians
along the coast for many years.
In 1756, the Spanish responded to these in-
creasingly perceived threats by establishing a
mission just south of what is now Liberty, Texas.
It was named Nuestra Sefiora de la Luz.
France's cession of Louisiana to Spain in 1763
following the Seven Years War failed to relax the
tension. Trade was still forbidden between Texas-~mr~ -1Y CRI?.I~~
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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/m1/41/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .