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Tlte Search for La Salle, 1685-1689
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At a Junta General held on July 23, it was unanimously decided to send out an expedition from Coahuila, under the command of the experienced and efficient General Alonso de Leon, early the following year. 31 The capture of the demented Frenchman had at last determined the viceroy to send a formal expedition from the northern frontiers of New Spain to find the elusive French settlement. This expedition was destined to find the colony three months after an epidemic of smallpox and the fierce Karankawas had destroyed all the inhabitants with the exception of a few who were living among the Indians. But before we follow Alonso de Leon to the silent and desolate scene of the unfortunate colony of La Salle, a brief account of an attempt to reach it from Nueva Vizcaya will be related. Tlte searclt from Nue11a Vi::caya, 1688-1689. Before Jean Gery had been captured by De Leon, the governor of Nueva Vizcaya, who was residing at Parral , had not only heard about him, but he had actually been informed more in detail concerning the presence of a foreign settle- ment on the Gulf coast than the viceregal officials in Mexico with all their diligence and industry. The manner in which he obtained this interesting information is a relevant chapter in the history of native communication over the vast expanse of the great plains. It shows that Jong before a route was opened between the frontier of Coahuila and the country of the Tejas, the tribes that lived in the region of La Junta de los Rios had a regular line of communication with the same area. This perhaps was the natural route which the Spaniards should have followed in their advance into Texas, for it was periodically traveled every year by numerous tribes of wandering Indians who traded between the Spanish outposts and the Hasinai Confederacy. It will be remembered that the zealous sons of Saint Francis had established a group of missions among the Jumanos and their neighbors in the region of La Junta de los Rios which had been temporarily aban- doned during the revolt of the Mansos in 1684-85. But as soon as hos- tilities ceased it seems that missionaries from Nueva Vizcaya visited the abandoned missions again and attempted to carry on the work begun with such marked success by Father Nicolas Lopez. Among the various tribes that made up the nation of Jumanos, there were some who were nomads, who in company with the Cibolo tribes were in the habit of
38 Declarazi6n de! franzes ante el virrey, in Ibid., 20-34; Junta General, July 23, I 688, in / hid., 37-40.
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