Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
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the east, 31 and that the French lived among them. The Indians described the forts built by the French by saying that they had large houses with only one door and with guns on the roofs. They said the men dressed generally in red and that their women wore white. Valverde asked them if they had observed these things with their own eyes. To this the Indians replied that they had not seen them, but that their squaws, who had been prisoners of the Pananas, had be.held them and had told them. 32 Immediately upon his return, early in 1720, Governor Valverde had communicated the additional information he had obtained to the viceroy and offered to 1ead an expedition to the land of the Pananas, if His Excellency-desired it. As a result of the information given to the viceroy, he ordered the governor to set out with a competent number of men and to go to the Jesus Maria River to find out the truth of the stories told by the Indians. By the time this order came, it seemed that hostilities among the Comanches had again broken out. Instead of proceeding to the execution of the instructions for a visit to the Pananas, in person, as he had promised, the governor ordered his lieutenant, Captain Pedro de Villasur, to take charge of the expedition. Unfortunately, this officer was surprised by the Pananas and he suffered a severe defeat for which the governor was held responsible. When Rivera made his inspection of the presidios in 1726, he was ordered to hold an investigation into the whole matter to determine the guilt of Governor Valverde, who was now Captain of the Presidio of Nuestra Senora del Pilar y Senor San Jose del Paso del Norte. Although this incident may be considered at first as unrelated to the history of Texas, its significance lies in the fact that the expedition to the Pananas, undertaken in 1720, passed through a portion of North Texas, at least, being one of the first to traverse the region of the Panhandle in the vicinity of Amarillo. But more significant than this fact is the possi- bility that Jesus Maria may be either the present day Red River or the Arkansas. 33 It is for this reason that the details of this incident are given in this chapter. atrt is of interest to note the Apaches said Pananas lived to the east. If so they were not on the Platte River. 3%Confesi6n de! Governador y Capitan General de la Provincia de la Nuevo Mexico, July 5 1 1726. A. G. N., Provi11cias lnternas, Vol. 37, Pt. 2. 33The Pananas ranged the country between the Red River and the Platte. They are mentioned as one of the tribes that Jived in this region. Hackett, Pichardo: Limits of Louisiana and Texas, I, 72 .
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