Jl1aria de Agreda, the /rmzano, and the T ejas
207
destined to lead another expedition thirty years later. The details of his remarkable exploration from present Presidio to the juncture of the Conchos and the Colorado are given in the closing chapter of the second volume of our history. "The significance of these last two expeditions in which no missionaries took part, the only religious element being the Christian Indians taken as guides and interpreters, is the knowledge which was gained of the Jumano country and of the Tejas Indians and their neighbors, all of which was useful in the subsequent efforts of the missionaries to enter this territory. Even the sordid passion for material gain and fortune was to be utilized by the missionaries to arouse interest in taking possession of the land they had so long desired to enter. Thus the religious zeal and fervor did not disdain to use the lure of mythical wealth to secure the material help and support necessary to bring into the fold of the Church the numberless natives that roamed the boundless plains of Texas." 23 Early entradas from Nuevo Leon and Coalmila. The advance into Texas so far outlined has been from New Mexico as a base. By the close of the sixteenth century, however, the northeastern frontier of New Spain had gradually advanced in the direction of the Rio Grande. In I 583, Luis de Carbajal , the Governor of the New Kingdom of Leon, which was granted all the lands north of Panuco for a distance of two hundred leagues, founded the city of Leon, present Cerralvo. This was about forty leagues from the Rio Grande, near historic Mier. Had Carbajal chosen to occupy the farthest limits of his grant, he would have had the right to settle legally as far as the mouth of the present Colorado. In a sense Carbajal exercised technical jurisdiction over a good part of South Texas. A few years later, in I 590, hearing of rich mineral deposits in the northwestern limits of his grant in the district called Coahuila, Carbajal led an expedition from Saltillo and founded the Villa de Almaden, in the locality of present Monclova. This site was destined to be the main post on the road to Texas during the next century. It was from here that the fateful expedition led by Alonso de Leon, which was to discover the ruined fort of La Salle in 1689, started. But it was here also that the unfortunate Carbajal was arrested by the Inquisition on the charge
23 Castaiieda, "Earliest Catholic Activities in Texas." in Texas Catholic Historical Society, Preliminary Studies, I, No. 8, pp. 8-9.
Powered by FlippingBook