Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
news which Governor Leon immediately transmitted to the viceroy. Th';! Indian told how a number of Frenchmen had come from a great river, shortly after the Spaniards left the country of the Tejas, and had begun to found a settlement near the place where L'Archeveque and Grollet had been captured. They had brought goats with them and two very large guns on wheels. With the aid of the Tejas Indians, the strangers were building houses, having already completed three. The Frenchmen had given the chief of the Tejas two arquebuses and a patent as governor, doing the S.).me with several other chiefs. The newcomers had informed the Indians that on three different occasions they had attempted to settle near the coast but the hostility of the natives had prevented them from doing so. It was for this reason that they were now choosing a site near the Tejas, who were good people. The informant added that although the strangers had tried to disparage the Spaniards, the chief of the Tejas had refused to believe any evil of his new friends and had sent word that he would soon visit Coahuila to secure Padres to teach his people. 9 Alarming as the report was, it took an added significance in view of the renewal of war between France and Spain at this time. The news of the outbreak of hostilities had been received in Mexico only a few days before Governor Leon's report. On May 13, the king had officially notified the Council of the Indies that Louis XIV had finally violated the ill-kept truce of Ratisbon the previous April by declaring war, stating that the threatening attitude of Spain had left him no other recourse. Conse- quently the Council had given formal notice to the viceroy of the existence of war between the two countries on May 14, 1689, recommending that he take all necessary precautions to prevent a surprise by the enemy. 10 Naturally, the viceregal officials thought it was more than a coincidence that the French should have renewed their efforts to enter the limits of New Spain under these circumstances. But the incident reported by Gov- ernor Leon was to have still another far-reaching effect. It was to become· the source of a misunderstanding between Alortso de Leon and Father Massanet. The latter attributed the report of the Governor of Coahuila to a desire to make the expedition a military entrada, in order to subordi- nate the missionary's position in the proposed enterprise. This breach was to grow rapidly and may account in part for the final replacement of De 9Le6n to the Viceroy, August 28, 1689, in Ibid., 33-35; Declaration of the Indian, Joseph, Monclova, same date, in Ibid., 37-40. I0Dunn, Spanish and Frend, Rivalry, 117.
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