French Settlement and Spain's Renewed Interest
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and to burn steadily through the years like a flaming beacon upon the outposts of New Spain. From the missions in Coahuila this remarkable missionary was to watch constantly for an opportunity to return to his beloved Tejas Indians who one day were to come in search of him, even though it should be in company with the traditional and inveterate enemies of Spain, the French. Effect on Spain of Frenclz. Settlements. The time came sooner, perhaps, than the officials anticipated, for French interest in Texas had not died but had merely been temporarily diverted. France, like Spain, was absorbed in the devastating wars that marked the closing years of the reign of the ambitious Louis XIV. But before the close of the century French vessels searched again for the mouth of the Mississippi and Frenchmen succeeded at last in establishing the settlement which the unfortunate La Salle had tried to found. "So close are the events of the history of Louisiana connected with those of Texas that it is not possible to narrate with clearness what took place in the second without giving at least a brief summary of the first." 6 / With these words the ablest Franciscan historian of the eighteenth cen- tury, Father Fray Juan Agustm Morfl, points out why it is necessary to digress in treating of the history of Texas during the first years of the century. It was the successful establishment of the French o'?- the Mississippi that unmistakably led to the reoccupation of Texas by Spain as a defense movement, and this step led to the renewal of missionary activity in this vast field. The conclusion of the Treaty of Ryswick enabled Louis XIV to turn his attention once more to his colonial possessions in America. The grow- ing weakness of Spain, the rapidly failing health of the idiotic Charles II, and the keen rivalry of England and France made it imperative for the French king to take immediate steps to secure the lion's share of the colonial empire of Spain. Serious consideration was given again to the establishment of a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi as attempted by La Salle thirteen years before. Several months' preparations for a new enterprise under royal patronage resulted in the organization of an expedition under the direction of Iberville, a Canadian nobleman.7 Four 6 Castaiieda, C. E., lr/orfi's Histor,, of Texas, 1673-1779. 7Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville had distinguished himself in Hudson Bay against the English. He was the third son of Charles Le Moyne, who migrated to Canada in his early youth and became Sieur de Longueil in 1676, Pierre was born in Mon-
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