Ottr Catliolic Heritage in T e:ras
316
Nuestra Senora del Rosario. It was a short distance from here that the expe- dition finally crossed the Rio Grande and entered Texas. It had traveled eighty-four leagues, or approximately two hundred and fifty-two miles since it left San Lorenzo. When they set out from Nuestra Senora de Belen, they went over a mountain pass on the summit of a range, about half a league beyond the camp. The pass, Mendoza declared, resembled a window and opened upon a beautiful valley which had the shape of an 0, surrounded by hills and a heavy grove of trees, evidently along the river. 7 It is not only important, but essential to try to determine in a definite manner the exact spot where the expedition crossed the Rio Grande in order to determine from this point the course followed by the expedition on the way to the Rio de las Perlas or San Pedro, as Mendoza called it, where he turned back. Taking into consideration the circuitous route that had to be followed to this point, and allowing for the fact that a league is slightly less than three miles, it is safe to assume that the expedition had traveled in a straight southeasterly course approximately three-fourths or two-thirds of the distance indicated. This is equivalent to about one hundred and eighty miles, more or less. If we take a modern map we will find that Mendoza and his men had reached a point on the Rio Grande somewhere in the vicinity of present day Ruidosa, perhaps opposite the Chinati Mountains, which rise to a height of about seven thousand seven hundred feet. There is a pass in this vicinity, on the west side of the river, which may be made to fit the description given by Mendoza. It is approximately forty miles from Ruidosa to modern Presidio, which is·opposite Ojinaga, It is at this point that the Conchos enters the Rio Grande and it was here that Mendoza and his men recrossed the river on the return march at a point lower down than where they had passed before.• It is safe to assume, then, that it was somewhere in the vicinity of Ruidosa and the Chinati Mountains that Mendoza and his men crossed the Rio Grande into present day Texas, about twenty or thirty miles to the northeast of Presidio. Route followed after crossing tlie Rio Grande. On Christmas day, the expedition continued its march east-southeast, keeping in sight of the 7Diario y derrotcro .• . de j\fendoza. A. G. N., Provincias lnternas, Vol. 37, Pt. 2. In the preceding pages, this diary has been followed closely and will be continued in all references to this expedition. According to Bolton, the expedition was still on the south side of the river. Bolton, o,P. &it., 324. Hackett in Pi&/1ardo: Limits of Louisiana and Te:i:as places the party on the north side. •Diario y derrotero ... de Mendoza. Entry for May 22, 1684. In Ibid.
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