Ottr Catlzolic Heri tage in Texas
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Garcia de Sepulveda and his men crossed into Texas somewhere in the vicinity of Mier and Rio Grande City and marched for a few days down as far as Brownsville perhaps, before returning to Cerralvo. Alonso de Leon, senior, explores Rfo de las Palmas. Interest in the region of the Rio Grande, still called Rio de las Palmas at times, con- tinued to attract the captains of the frontier. Having placed a permanent garrison of twelve men at Cerralvo and eight at Cadereyta (Nuevo Leon), "It was decided," says the anonymous historian, "after holding a consultation, to send an expedition from this kingdom to discover the Rio de las Palmas, which enters the sea of the north [the Gulf of Mexico], not so much because of the advantages that would accrue to His Majesty, but rather to discover new lands and territories for the future." 26 In view of this determination, the governor of Nuevo Leon appointed Captain Alonso de Leon in 1653 to undertake this exped ition with thirty men. Unfortunately the details of the exploration undertaken are not given in the only account as yet available of this enterprise. According to De Leon, however, the expedition set out from Cadereyta, east of Monterrey. From here the little band seems to have marched to the Rio Grande, which they reached in four days, and hence down this stream to its mouth without having encountered much difficulty. They declared that the country traversed was fertile, that much fi sh was found in the river, and that along the stream they met many Indian nations, all of whom proved to be gentle and friendly, showing signs of being partly civilized. "These Indians," declares the narrator, " doubtless did not inherit the bad habits of their forebears, who killed a large number of the Spaniards who attempted to settle in that country." From this remark, it seems that the anonymous historian of this expedition knew of the fruitless attempts made by Camargo, Pineda, and Caniedo more than a century before, as previously related. 27 De Leon reported that the mouth of the river was in twenty-four degrees of latitude. This is evidently an error, as the narrator of the expedition adds that the latitude of the mouth of the river was the same as that of Cadereyta, which implies it was almost twenty-six degrees. If such was the case, then there is little doubt that the river explored by Alonso de Leon at this time was the Rio Grande. It has been suggested that 26"Historia de! Nuevo Reino de Leon, desde 1650 hasta 1690, por un autor An6nimo" in Genaro Garcia, Docume11tos /11editos, XXV, 203-206. 27See Chapter I, supra.
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