Our Catlt0lic Ht!ritage in Te:i:as
rest of the crew returned, but search as they would the Spaniards could find no trace of them. lbarbo now turned back in order to investigate the rumor concerning the ship on the Trinity. This proYed to be false. Determined to examine the entire coast to the mouth of the Colorado, he continued west towards the Brazos along the shore. Slightly more than half way he came upon an Englishman dressed in skins like the natiYes, who told him his name was Bautista Miller, that he came from Jamaica and was on the way to the lVI ississippi with a cargo of coffee, firewater, and five negro slaves. Miller said he had boarded a ship in Jamaica belonging to Captain Jose David, who, on reaching the vicinity of the coast, had set him adrift in a canoe to rob him of his goods. He said that he was fifty-four years of age, married, and had eight children. He had been living on the coast for se,·en months and was on the point of starvation. The statement made by Miller and the declarations of the Orcoquisacs, although indefinite as to the identity and purpose of the English incursions, clearly reveal the frequency of the visits. Ibarbo turned back before reaching the Brazos and after his arrival in Bucareli, immediately reported the result of his exploration and asked what disposition should be made of the brick and the Englishman he had brought back. !\'I illcr would haYe been sent to San Antonio had he not fallen seriously ill with malaria. Ibarbo had spent twenty-two days on the expedition. He accompanied his report with a rudely drawn map showing the coastline from Sabine Pass to a point some distance west of the Trinity. 41 Go\"ernor Ripperda, alarmed by the report, ordered a new expedition to reconnoiter the entire coastline from the Brazos to the San Jacinto and the Colorado. A sergeant and nineteen men set out immediately for Bucareli, where they were to be joined by thirty militiamen. The party left Bucareli on July I 1, but by August 30, Ii77, it had not returned. Unfortunately the repeated requests of Croix for a report on the result of this second expedition were unheeded. 49 Croix consulted Galindo Navarra, the Ass~ssor General, concerning the disposition of the brick. Galindo Navarra pointed out the value of frequent 48 A tracing of this map is in the Archives Division of the University of Texas. It was partly reproduced by Bolton in Texas in tl,e Middle Eighte,mth Century, opposite page 422. 49 The account of the expedition to the coast is based on the report of Ripperda to Croix, August 30, 1777, and the Diet amen of Galindo Navarro, Assessor c·eneral, June 8, I7i9. A.G. Al. Historia, Vol. 51, pp. 372-376; 377-384.
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