Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
330
Indians. The landing party had offered the savages bread, honey, and tobacco, but they had thrown everything on the sand with evident signs of anger. The next day two canoes with nine men, all well armed, were sent to ascend the stream as far as possible. For five days they followed the winding course of the river, which they found very low on account of the drought. After going a distance of about thirty-six leagues, or one hundred miles, they turned back and boarded the two vessels that had remained at the mouth. All along the river they had seen numerous Indians but they were all very hostile. Satisfied that there was no set- tlement on this river, the Spaniards hoisted their sails and continued on their way to San Bernardo Bay. The detailed descriptions of their explora- tion of the Rio Grande are the first accounts that have been preserved. Following a northeasterly direction, they arrived at the entrance of the fateful bay, Cavallo Pass, ·on September 12. The next day, they looked for the familiar wreck of the Belle, seen by three of the previous expeditions, but the sea and the wind had at last done their work and had broken the old hull to pieces. All they could find were many boards along the shore and some broken and rusty muskets. During the following eleven days, they explored the bay carefully and found that most of 7e streams that flowed into it had dried up on account of the severe l~ought. Strangely enough, at this very time, less than thirty miles Nay from where the Spaniards were, thirty or forty half-starved and .,,ickly Frenchmen, left in Fort St. Louis, were eking out a miserable existence. Convinced that the place was unfit for settlement, Rivas and Pez, totally unaware of the proximity of the colony, proceeded to look for the Rio de Cibolas, to the northeast along the coast. They found this stream had also dwindled to almost nothing. They tried to communicate with the natives but to no purpose, because they only saw one band of Indians and these had fled into the woods after discharging a shower of arrows upon the strangers as a sign of their hostility. There was no use in spending more time upon the desolate and forbidding coast. On September 25, 1688, the two vessels set sail for Veracruz where they arrived on the 29th. Rivas and Pez were convinced more than ever that there was no settlement along the coast.' 5 When they arrived in Veracruz they met there the Count of Galve, the new viceroy, who had just come from Spain to replace the Count of Monclova, who had been promoted to the viceroyalty of Peru. To this
,sDiario del Viage que se va a ejecutar . . . de horden del . . . Conde de Mon- clova ... A. G. I ., Audiencia de Mexico, 61-6-20 (Dunn Transcripts, 1688-1690).
Powered by FlippingBook