CHAPTER V EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE Rio GRANDE FROM SAN JUAN BAUTISTA TO EL PASO, 1735-1765 Until recently it had been thought that the vast area from Eagle Pass to El Paso had witnessed little or no Spanish activity. It was not known that Spanish adventurers and explorers, accompanied by the ever faithful Franciscan missionaries and secular Padres had repeatedly crossed and recrossed the Rio Grande at every possible ford along the entire area known today as the Big Bend country. The early explorations and attempts to establish presidios and missions in this region have been recorded in the two preceding volumes up to 1731. 1 But it was during the period covered by the present volume that the careful exploration of this area took place. From 1735 to 1765 more than five different expedi- tions were undertaken from Coahuila, Nueva Vizcaya, Texas, and New Mexico to obtain detailed information concerning the country and the Indians that lived along the Rio Grande from San Juan Bautista (present Eagle Pass) to El Paso in order to establish the necessary presidios and found missions to check the frequent incursions and raids of the Apaches and their allies into the frontier settlements of New Spain. During this time two presidios were actually established in this area, one of them on Texas soil, and several missions were refounded at La Junta de los Rios (the juncture of the Mexican Conchos and the Rio Grande near present day Presidio). Before taking up the events that transpired during the period covered by the present chapter it will be necessary to relate the beginnings of formal missionary activity in the vicinity of present Presidio. After the second volume of this history went to press an important and most significant document giving the details of the reoccupation of La Junta in 1714-1715 was discovered.* It reveals that one year before the Ramon expedition set out from San Juan Bautista, guided by St. Denis, to re- 1 C. E. Castaneda, Tlte Finding of Texas, 1519-1694, Chapters VI and IX; C. E. Castaneda, The Winning of Texas, 1694-1731, Chapter IX. *Auto testimo,iial de las misio,ies de la Junta de los Rios, Arcliivo de San Francisco el Gra,,de, pp. 1 87-214. Copy in the possession of the writer. The account here given of the establishment of missions at La Junta is based in its entirety upon this document, which will be published soon as a Su-p-plemenlarJ Study of the Texas Catholic Historical Society in order to make the full text available. [197]
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