111aria de Agreda, tl,e Jumano, and the Tcjas
215
1676, Father Fray Juan Larios and his companions had spent three years in missionary work in the area of present Eagle Pass and Del Rio, and in their zealous efforts to bring the Indians into the fold of the Church, had penetrated into the country as far as the Nueces River in the vicinity of present Uvalde. This advance, which may be properly said to be the first systematic effort to carry the consolation of religion to the tribes that lived beyond the Rio Grande, will be the subject of the following chapter. It is well to keep in mind, furthermore, that before taking up what has generally been regarded as the beginnings of Texas and discussing the settlement of La Salle and the subsequent occupation of Texas by Alonso de Leon, the establishment of missions by Father Damian Massanet, and the beginnings of formal missionary endeavors, the region of El Paso was permanently settled and occupied by the Spaniards. Little or no attention has been given heretofore to the significant fact that in January, 1684, more than a year before La Salle landed in Matagorda Bay, Mendoza and his companions found an unmistakable French flag, made of white silk taffeta, and bearing two blue crosses- which might have been fleur-de-lis--on the Pecos River, among the Jediondo Indians, not far from present Fort Stockton. 35 It will be neces- sary, therefore, to take up the labors of Fray Juan Larios in the Del Rio-Eagle Pass area, and the establishment of Spanish settlements in the El Paso region, two independent movements, before taking up the work of Alonso de Leon, which was the immediate result of La Salle's attempt to establish a settlement in Texas.
35 For the details of the flag found by the Mendoza expedition, see Volume 11, pp. 321-322.
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