Abandollment of East Texas
the horses under heavy guard, Cazorla crossed the river in a canoe with a few men and proceeded to the rancher,a where the trading post was established. He arrived at eight that night and found the natives cele- brating the death of an Apache killed in battle. There were Orcoquisacs, Cocos, Bidais, and Attacapas, all showing signs of abundance of foreign goods and armed with English guns. The anxious inquiry of Cazorla revealed that the origin of this mer- chandise at the ranclieria was due to the operations of French traders, who had a trading post a relatively short distance away, east of the Neches River within the jurisdiction of Louisiana. It was a day and a half from the village to the post. A certain M. Dutrive and his brother were at the post at this time, with four negroes. Questi~ning brought out the fact that the French obtained the guns from the English and sold them to the Indians. An Englishman did visit them once, they told Cazorla, who gavt! them forty lead bullets for one deer skin, but he was taken prisoner by the French and carried to Natchitoches and the Indians had never since seen another English intruder. Cazorla attempted to explore the country by following the east bank of the ri\'er to its mouth, but found the road impassable and rt:turned to where ht! had left his horses and the remainder of the party. From there he set out on September 30, following the regular Orcoquisac road to La Bahia as far as the San Jacinto crossing, where he again halted in order to explore its mouth. Taking only a few men on the best horses he followed the San Jacinto to its mouth, which was about nine leagues distant (some t,venty-four miles). He found it emptied into a bay (present Galveston Bay) which he judged to be six or eight leagues wide (twelve or fifteen miles). There were no signs of foreigners having e\'er been in this area; neither had the natives seen any strangers. Returning to his camp, he resumed his march on October 3. crossing this stream and following the same route as before to the Brazos. where he arrived on October 5, to find the Karankawa Yillage deserted. For two or three days the main party camped on the ri,·cr, while Cazorla tried to reach the mouth first by following the east and then the west bank. He found that the river separated into two branches about three leagues before entering the sea, that the country was heavily wooded. filled with lakes, and extremely marshy. He evidently reconnoitered the vicinity of old Velasco and present Freeport. One of his men, Jose Hidalgo, with a group of four or five soldiers, crossed the west branch and made his way to the seashore where he found the hull of an old ship that had been
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