CHAPTER IX
EARLY EXPLORATION OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY FROM EL PASO TO SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, 1683-1731 Most historians of Texas have consistently ignored the vast area that lies between the old Presidio of San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande, in the neighborhood of present day Eagle Pass, and the Presidio del Paso del Norte, better known today as Juarez. More than five hundred miles of almost impassable hills and mountains separated the two outposts on the Rio Grande, one on the road that connected the new Province of Texas to the settled regions of New Spain, and the other on the highway to the Province of New Mexico. About half way between the two presidios, at La Junta de los Rios, where the Conchos joins the Rio Grande, a series of six missions was established mainly on the west or south side of the river about the close of the seventeenth century. Before the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, however, strenuous efforts were being made to find a route that would connect both San Juan Bautista and El Paso del Norte with the new establishments at La Junta de los Rios. The chief interest of Spanish officials in this vast region was not gold, or treasures, or mythical kingdoms, but the more practical purpose of putting a stop to the frequent incursions of the numerous savage tribes that lived in this area, who preyed habitually upon the frontier settlements of Coahuila, Nuevo Reyno de Leon, and Chihuahua,. It will be seen in the course of this chapter, that the officials of New Spain fully realized the strategic importance of extending their influence over this region, while the missionaries saw, in the numerous tribes that lived here, a chosen field for their zealous Christian endeavors. It is true that the area between the Junta de los Rios and the Presidio del Paso del Norte has not generally been considered by historians of the Spanish Southwest to be a part of Texas. This accounts for their neglect of its history. But since it is a part of the State today, it is unfair to con- tinue to ignore it. Generally associated with the Province of New Mexico, it has received little or no attention up to the present, although the curtain of history rises in this region long before it does in the lower Rio Grande in the vicinity of San Juan Bautista. As early as 1683, a formal attempt to explore a portion of this country was undertaken as the result of the request of the Jumano and Tejas Indians for missionaries to instruct them in the faith. [ 311]
Powered by FlippingBook