The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-08-06
EARLY 1xEAs HISTORY.

me april Quarterly OF the Texas Historic,
/ association. published at Austin. wa. ,,,,.
some weeks ago It contains much ms,,ar ,
interest In connection with early Texa. h,s
tory The principal feature OF the ru,ho
is the rae simile Of the letter OF Padre No.
1anet 70 Don Carols do siguenza ' oonora
SWING an account OF four expeditions mad. y,
.ne spanish into the Texas country hs,waa,
Tue years 1885 and 1890. The fac SINH. c,var
."enV seven pages of the Quarterly. Thu
me'noa OF publishing the sources OF bistor,
~, vi course. costly. but wherever II is pos
s'oie u 10 the most satisfactory, for the re,
sun tnat 1t comes nearest to presenting ~.
documents In their original form Tho ,n,rr
script SO given In this case is Of csnec,., In
teiest, because It is one OF the MOS, ,r,nor,.a,
OF the few contemporaneous with ths h.r,n
nings OF Spanish Texas and relative thsra,o
nanuscrlpt is accompanied by a trans
.,... .na. brings the story. in almost lts ma
simplicity IN reach of the reader who
sa nol understand the Spanish. The no,e.
VI the translator. Miss L. NJ. CASTS. now sd.
!unct professor OF Spanish in the Univers,tv
ieSas' are OF great assistance In enabling
ono 10 FOLLOW the naive story of the padre
WIN It's frequent confusing digressions
inree or the four expeditions Of which
azure Manzanet tells were undertaken hy or-
aer OF the viceroy in Mexico for IN. nrrno.s
Vi nnaing the French settlement witch =
a'e haa established on the La vaca in 1855
"' nise TWO seem to have despaired of And
ns Tue settlement. or perhaps they grew
weary OF seeking 1t. At any rate, they were
irui'iess. The third reached II and found 1,
ALREADY deserted by the French. Tho fourth
expedition was undertaken for the nprno.o =,
lorestailing further efforts at coIonizst,o, -,
the part OF the French BY occunvinv tho
country. It resulted In the estab,,shue,.
sho mission San Francisco de 10. Teies Tho
80. planted by the Spanish within the pres
ent limits of the State
All OF these four expeditions were led nv
captain Alfonso de Leon. Padre Manzonet
ACCOMPANIED the third and fourth In the
tnird his main purpose seems to have been
" spy out the land In order to ascertain
what might be done to Christiapize the In
dians' but he went on the fourth with com.
mission to set up an establishment for that
purpose. and thus he was in sense one
or the leaders of the expedition. He appears
TO have been conscious that he was not
without authority In the premises. and now |
and then no ventures to give de Leon |
piece Of his mind as to the conduct of the |
expedition,
or the last two expeditions there are two
original accounts: one the report of do Leon.
IN which Bancroft bases his resume North
Mexican States and Texas. vol i. 1893 402),
ne other that of Padre Maazanet. which Is
dven In the April number OF the Quarterly.
mere Is no CODY Of de Leon's report In Texas.
tut 1t Will probably be obtained from the
rchives IN Mexico by and by. The Man
anet manuscript. as is shown by the IN
roductory note preceding the fac slmile in
he Quarterly, belongs to the Agricultural
nd Mechanical college OF Texas having bnen
urchased by President James from Bernard
in 1881. Il is not quoted by Ban
roft. and was probably not used by him
t ALL The interest and value of this manu-
cript to the historian must be apparent. 1t
J one OF the two main original narratives of
he earliest effort OF the Spanish TO establish
mission In what is now Texas and II gives '
information as to the Inflated 5
rench settlement OF Fort st. Louis. San {
rancisco de los TEXAS was soon abandoned G
nd 1t was a quarter OF century later be- !
ire the mission settlements Of the Spanish S
acame permanent: but the Spanish colonizing t
oyement, so far as II can properly be thus e
ssignated. begins with the work OF Padre c
anzanet, and from that time the name b
exas (of which. by the way. we have the C
,planation in this story comes into view. d