Om· C at/1olic Heritage in Texas
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to their country. The other two persevered, but only one finally arrived in Mexico, the other having been killed accidentally in Queretaro. ·While waiting on the Rio Grande, Governor Leon wrote a detailed report of the entire expedition, which he dispatched to Mexico on July 12, with Captain Salinas Varona, who took Pierre Meusnier along. 25 In his report to the viceroy, Governor Leon declared that he had accomplished the two purposes of the expedition by establishing the proposed mission and showing that the reports of a new French settle- ment in the country of the Tejas were false. But he urged strongly, however, that the country from Coahuila to the Tejas be occupied by an adequate military force that would make it impossible for foreigners to enter it and would insure the peaceful conversion of the Indians. He pointed out that although the French had not established a new settle- ment, their activity would be a constant menace to Spanish interests, as they had a settlement somewhere to the east which could be used as a base for future encroachments. He closed his report by stating emphat- ically that the numerous nations would never be converted to Christianity until Spani~h settlements and presidios were established among them. 26 Unfortunately his sound recommendations, which, had they been fol- lowed, might have changed the history of our State, were to go unheeded. Effect of De Leon's report. The news of the successful establishment of a mission among the Tejas was the cause of much gratification, but the details of continued French activity again filled officials with uneasi- ness. In their opinion, Governor Leon should have made a more determined effort to ascertain the whereabouts of the French settlement to the east. But what particularly bothered the viceroy and his advisers were the two buoys that had been observed at the entrance to the mouth of the Lavaca and the failure of the expedition to remove these apparent markers. Captain Salinas Varona was questioned personally, as well as the French prisoner, Pierre Meusnier, about the buoys and the alleged French settlement to the east. With regard to the latter, neither one of the two declarants could give much information. As to the buoys and the reason for r.ot removing them, Captain Salinas Varona defended Gov- ernor Leon, declaring that it had been impossible to remove them 25 The facts summarized here are based chiefly on the Testimonio de autos en orden a las dilixs ... previously cited and the secondary accounts of Dunn, Spanish and French Rivalry, 122-124; and Clark, op. cit., 24-27. Z6Le6n to the Viceroy, July 12, 1690, in Testimonio de autos en orden ... in Ibid., pp. 46-53.
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