The Beginnings of Present Nacogdoc/1cs
the tithes could not legally be collected. 46 Agreeable to the advice of the Assessor General, Croix requested the Bishop of Guadalajara and the C abildo of the cathedral to grant an exemption from tithes to the settlers of Bucareli. The request was granted on September 4, 1778. 47 The founder of the determined settlement of Bucareli found time not only to look after the several duties of its establishment and progress, but to make frequent expeditions to the neighboring tribes and to explore the coast to discover the activities of foreign traders. During the four years at Paso Tomas on the Trinity, he made several expeditions to the coast, but the most noteworthy of these was the one undertaken in the summer of 1777. I barbo's exploration of tl1e coast. Early in June a trader stationed among the Orcoquisac Indians reported that he had learned that there was an English vessel stranded at the mouth of the Neches River with a cargo of brick. The English had gh·en the bricks to the Opelousas and Attacapas with whom they traded and who lived nearby. There was another vessel similarly wrecked at the mouth of the Trinity. Disturbed by the news, Ibarbo immediately called thirty volunteers and set out to investigate. He first went to the Pueblo of the Orcoquisacs. From these Indians he learned the details of the stranded vessel at the mouth of the Neches. It seems the pilot missed the channel and ran the ship against a bank. The accident occurred in May. The crew had departed shortly after, telling the Indians that they would come back. Upon being questioned, the Orcoquisacs explained that the English came frequently to the coast and entered the riYers to trade with the natives. As a matter of fact, they had stayed long enough to sow and reap a crop during the summer of 1777. Ibarbo scolded the Indians for not having reported the recently wrecked boat more promptly and for not acquainting him with the activities of the English along the coast. Taking two paid guides and ten men he proceeded to the coast. Going east, he came upon the remains of the stranded Yessel in the Yicinity of present Sabine Lake. The ship had been completely dismantled and nothing was left in it except the bricks. But there were numerous cYiclences of the rest of its cargo among the Attacapas who lh·ed nearby. From them lbarbo learned that a party of three men had been left on board until the
46 Galindo Navarro to Croix, July 24, 1778. In lbitl., pp. 464-4;0. 41 A. G. M. Hisloria, Vol. 51, pp. 472-476.
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