Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
92
On the 15th, they crossed the Nueces River at about the same place that Ramon did two years before, and that evening a courier, with the detailed instructions already summarized, overtook the governor at his camp, six leagues beyond the passageway. The next day he changed his course in order to go directly to East Texas by way of Espiritu Santo, but he became so tangled with the numerous streams and heavy timber encoun- tered by the new route, that on the 23rd he again changed his course and struck out for the Medina and the San Antonio Rivers. Just where he forded the Medina is not clear, but from that point to Leon Creek the distance was three leagues and from there to the San Antonio River three more. He arrived at the present site of San Antonio on April 25. "There is a spring of water which is about three-quarters of a league from the main stream," declares the chronicler of the expedition, referring to San Pedro Spring. "On the site, where the Villa de Bejar was located, there is opportunity for opening one irrigation ditch with ease and no more. At the head of the said spring there is a thick wood of various kinds of trees, such as elms, poplars, hackberry trees, oaks, and many mulberries, all of them being thickly covered with wild grapevines." Governor Alarcon stayed here for ten days engaged in founding the mission and establishing the location for the new settlement. "The fifth day of May the governor took possession of the site called San Antonio in the name of His Majesty. After the celebration of Mass by the Father Chaplain, he had the royal standard brought forth and placed there with the cor- responding solemnity. It was called Villa be Bejar. From this time the said place was designated as the site where the settlers and soldiers were to be established. At the same time [he chose] a site about three-quarters of a league down the creek, whereat he founded the Mission of San Antonio de Valero." 3 ° From this description it is not clear just where the first site designated for the civil settlement was located. But since the mission stayed at its first location, we know that the chronicler meant river where he says creek. This puts the original location of the tem- porary settlement and first p;esidio three-quarters of a league from the mission, on the west side of the river, and not far from the present site of San Pedro Spring, where it remained until 1722, when the Marquis of Aguayo moved it to a place almost across from the Mission of San 30Diario y derrotero of Alarcon's Expedition, 6 (Alessio Robles Transcript). In all documents of I 7 1 8 and I 7 I 9 the civil settlement is referred to as Villa de Bejar with reference to San Fernando.
Powered by FlippingBook