CHAPTER XI
THE SEARCH FOR LA SALLE, 1685-1689 We have seen how misfortune dogged the steps of the great explorer of the Mississippi from the very moment he landed on the forbidding coast of Texas, in the western extremity of present Matagorda Bay, until his tragic death on the banks of the Brazos. Whatever danger his expedition may have represented to Spanish interests on the Gulf coast, this was neutralized by the massacre of the lonely survivors, who were so brutally put to death by the fierce Karankawa Indians of the region. The only permanent effect of the ambitious plan of La Salle was to establish a dubious claim to Texas and to arouse Spanish authorities, both at home and in New Spain, to the necessity of taking formal pos- session of the eastern limits of that vast area known today as the State of Texas. Ho,u tlie S,pania,-ds first learned of tlee Frencle settlement. A little more than six months elapsed before Spanish officials in Mexico heard of the colony which La Salle had founded on Matagorda Bay. Much confusion exists, however, as to the time and manner in which this infor- mation was obtained. In the summer of 1685, Admiral Gaspar de Palacios, pilot-major of the Indies, who had been on a cruise to South America, suddenly came upon a large fleet of French corsairs off the coast of Yucatan. Putting on all sail , the admiral decided to race to the nearest port. Hotly pursued by the pirates, he succeeded in outdistancing his enemies and escaped to Veracruz, where he immediately notified the viceroy of the danger which threatened the defenceless coast towns. But before measures could be put into effect to prevent the blow, the notorious Grammont entered Campeche on July 6, 1685, and burned and sacked the city. It took the Spaniards two months to prepare an expedition to drive out the intruders. On September 10, 1685,1 after the pirates had been forced to sail away, one of their ships was captured by the Windward 1 It has been erroneously held that the capture occurred in September, 1 684. Cf. Ilancroft, Nort/1 Jlfexican Stales, I, 399; Clark, Tl,e Begi1111i11gs of TerllS, 14; Bolton, "Location of La Sane·s Colony,., The Quarterly, XXVII, 175. The first pointing to the error was Dunn, Sf>a11is/1 a11d Frend, Rivalry, 36.
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