319
Early Exploration of Big Bend Country, I683-173I
expedition must have now reached a place somewhere in the neighborhood of present day Sanderson or Fort Stockton. The description of the country fits either place. Since it is essential to try to find accurately the location of this site it will be well to quote the exact description given in the diary by Mendoza. "On the seventh day of said month and year (January 7, 1684) we halted at this place which we called San Pedro de Alcantara. It is six leagues, more or less, from the camping place of Los Reyes. vVe stayed here at the request of the Indians of the Jumano nation and others who came with them, constrained to do so by the absolute lack of supplies with which to feed [the men]. It was decided to hunt deer and such other game as abounds in this region to replenish our exhausted supply of food. The said site had a beautiful plain which extends to the west. To the north there are some mountains without trees. From the side of one of these, a beautiful spring flows, in the vicinity of which there are excellent black lands. There are no trees." 11 If Mendoza followed a more easterly course, he must have been at this time in the vicinity of present day Sanderson, but if he inclined more to the north in his march from the Rio Grande he must have been near present day Fort Stockton. Continuing his march, evidently almost due east from this point, he traveled twelve leagues during the next two days without finding water or wood. It was not until January 10 that they came upon a spring which flowed from a round hill to the north of the spot selected for a camp. It was here that they discovered the first tracks of buffalo. There were mesquite trees and fairly good pasturage. Anxious to kill a buffalo, Mendoza dispatched a number of hunters to follow the tracks, but they returned without meat. The next day they reached a beautiful plain where they camped for the night. There were four mesas, or plateaus, around it. From the lowest of the four, which was to the north, flowed a spring, with five others a short distance from the first. The water from these springs joined to form a beautiful stream of clear water less than half a league from the springs, but without trees along its banks. The water was slightly alkali, but drinkable, and there was an abundance of fish. It was here that the expedition killed its first three buffaloes, which helped greatly to replenish their almost exhausted supply of meat.
11 / bid. Entry for January 7, I 684.
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