Tlee Beginnings of 1vfissio11ary Activity, r670-r676
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possession of the river which he found "unoccupied and uninhabited," he erected a high cross made of wood and had the Christian doctrine taught to the Indians by the commissary. He named the river, San Antonio. 38 On the eleventh of the same month the expedition appears to have reached the Rio Grande del Norte, which Bosque named San Buenaventura del Norte. The country and place of crossing they describe in these words: "Having travelled northward apparently about three leagues through plains with much mesquite, and with fine pastures of green grass, I arrived at a copious and very wide river, with a current more than four hundred varas across, which the Indians said was called Rio del Norte. I found it unoccupied and uninhabited, with only ra11cherias of Indians, consisting of dwellings of grass huts after their customs. Having passed upstream in search of a ford and not having found one, as it [ the river] is very deep, the said Indians decided to take us across at a place where the river forms three branches. It was necessary to make a raft of poles to cross the middle one, having forded the first, which is more than two hundred varas wide and a vara and a half deep, with the water above the stirrup and near the hind bow of the saddle, with a current the whole width, and with willow and osier brush on a little island which is in the middle. On its banks it is very pleasing and it had many fish, such as catfish, ,piltontes, very large turtles, and eels, all of which were caught in my presence, and which, I certify, I took in my hands. I took royal possession of the river and its territory in the name of His Majesty. It runs, apparently, from west to east. And for said settlement and con- quest I named it San Buenaventura River; and as evidence of possession I made a legal record and ordered a high wooden cross erected ; and religious instruction was given to the Indians by the Father Chaplain." This long quotation gives us an idea of the form used in taking possession and of the type of description that was entered in the diary day by day. The information is very full and is of great value, being one of the first descriptions taken on the ground itself. The Rio Grande, l 8 The Diary of this expedition has been published in full by Dr. Bolton, who made an excellent translation of the original documents found in Saltillo. These same docu- ments were published in Spanish by Portillo, in his A,P1111/es, but as Bolton points out the edition is plagued with serious errors. In the remainder of the summary pre- sented here, Bolton's translation is followed and free use is made of the brief account previously written by the author in "Earliest Catholic Activities," op. cit., 12-18. For Bolton' s translation see his Spa11is/1 Exploration in tl,e S011//1west, 1542-1706, 291-309.
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