The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 112
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112 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
bay a league wide; and from the Aransas to the reef crossing, where
the San Antonio and Aransas Pass railway now crosses the ancon
between Nueces and Corpus C'hristi bays, is about ten leagues. So
these facts meet and satisfy the description given by Cabeza, who,
in speaking of Oviedo, says :9
"Each year he delayed me, saying the next we should go. At last,
however, I got him out and passed him over the ancon and four
rivers there are along the coast, because he did not know how to
swim; and thus we went on with some Indians until we arrived at
an ancon a league across and everywhere deep; and from what
appeared to us therefrom and what we saw, it is the one they call
del Espiritu Santo."
In his translation of Cabeza's relation, Buckingham Smith gives,
in an addendum under chapter XVII, an extract from the letter
contained in Oviedo's Historia de las Indias, as follows:
"The Christians traveled thence" [meaning from where they
reached the main from Mal-Hado] "two leagues to a large river that
was beginning to swell from freshets and rain, where they made
rafts on which they crossed with much difficulty, there being few
swimmers. Three leagues further they came to another river, run-
ning powerfully from the same cause, and with so much impetuosity
that the fresh water for a time extended a good way into the
sea. * * *
The ten were now joined by another Christian, and after going
four leagues came to a river, where they found a boat which was
recognized to be that of the Comptroller, Alonso Enriquez, and the
Commissary, but nothing could be seen of the people. Having
walked five or six leagues more, they arrived at another large river,1o
9 "Cada afio me detenia diciendo que el otro siguiente nos iriamos. En
fin, al cabo lo sacqu6 y le pas6 el ancon y cuatro rios que hay por la costa,
porque 61 no sabia nadar, y ansi fuimos con algunos Indios adelante hasta
que llegamos ' un ancon que tiene una legua de trav6s y es por todas partes
hondo; y por lo que de 61 nos paresci6 y vimos, es el que llaman del Espf-
ritu Santo." Naufragios, Cap. XVI.
10 The last of the four is the largest, the Aransas, and if these are the
four rivers referred to by Mr. Bandelier, in his note on page 33, it will be
seen that he departs widely from the description here given. He says:
" It will be seen further on that they crossed four rivers, and that these
were the Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, and Rio Grande; hence the meeting
must have taken place west of the Sabine and east of the Trinity, or in
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900, periodical, 1900; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101015/m1/120/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.