Who Abandoned the East Texas Mission San Francisco De Los Tejas but Wanted to Return to Try Again

The Castilian were the first Europeans to enter Deep Eastward Texas when the De Soto Expedition entered the area in 1542 under the command of Luis de Moscoso post-obit Hernando de Soto's death at the Mississippi River. Earlier interpretations of the route of this expedition maintained that this group passed through what is now San Augustine, but most recent interpretations take Moscoso'south road westward of San Augustine, passing through modern day Nacogdoches. Moscoso and his group plant no gilt or silver, and while they left no settlers behind, they did go out Spanish horses, hogs, and diseases. The firsthand bear upon is unknown, but information technology is likely that deadly Old World diseases began spreading amidst the native peoples of East Texas, triggering social changes as Indian groups struggled to cope with population loss.

The French first visited the Cenis (Hasinai Caddo) area of Deep East Texas during the occupation of La Salle's Fort St. Louis (1685-1689) on the Gulf coast, merely similar the early on Castilian explorers, their trails were well to the due west of San Augustine, close to the Neches River.

The Ais Indians occupied the expanse effectually San Augustine but it was the Hasinai to the w who invited the Spanish back into East Texas. La Salle's failed attempt at establishing a fort on the Gulf declension caught the attention of the Castilian, who sent several unsuccessful expeditions to find the French fort. During i of these expeditions the Spanish encountered a group of Hasinai who proclaimed themselves tayshas or allies (a term which became Tejas and then Texas) and asked the Spanish to come up settle in their homeland of East Texas. This invitation prompted the establishment of ii Castilian missions in 1690, San Francisco de los Tejas—located well-nigh mod-day Weches, Texas, and Santísimo Nombre de María, located on the Neches River, five miles to the east of San Francisco. Santísimo Nombre de María was destroyed by a flood in 1692 and San Francisco de los Tejas was abandoned a year later at the insistence of the local Hasinai afterward misbehavior by Spanish soldiers and their cattle. Castilian soldiers were making inappropriate advances to the Hasinai women and Spanish cattle were wrecking havoc on Hasinai gardens.

In the following decades, Male parent Francisco Hidalgo, formerly of Mission San Francisco, was determined to return to E Texas and minister to the Tejas (Caddo) peoples. In 1711 Hidalgo wrote what turned out to be an important alphabetic character to the governor in French Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac. Father Hidalgo was disappointed that the Spanish would non fund his render to Eastward Texas, and he offered to introduce Cadillac to Spanish traders in exchange for French support of his mission in East Texas. Two letters were sent by courier from Presidio San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande and when one arrived in Mobile, it was after the French had been rebuffed in their attempts to establish merchandise relations with the Castilian at Vera Cruz—i French transport loaded with trade goods had been seized by the Castilian on its manner to Vera Cruz and the ship was sent back to Louisiana without its cargo in 1710 because trade between the French and New Espana was forbidden past the Spanish Crown.

Cadillac instructed Louis Juchereau de St. Denis to try to find Father Hidalgo. St. Denis had visited the area of the Natchitoches Indians in 1700 and in 1713 he returned there, established a trading post, and proceeded beyond the land of the Tejas to Presidio San Juan Bautista. In effect, the French had failed to found merchandise relations through the "front door" at Vera Cruz and so they tried once more through the "dorsum door" at San Juan Bautista. St. Denis and his men were arrested at Presidio San Juan Bautista by Commandant Diego Ramon and held nether house abort. It has been suggested that the families of Ramon and St. Denis had previous commercial relations, and these relations were made more personal past Louis Juchereau marrying María Manuella Sánchez de Navarro, the step granddaughter of Diego Ramon. It's not known if St. Denis ever found Male parent Hidalgo, but Hidalgo'south letter and St. Denis'south travels to attempt to find him resulted in the Spanish development of Texas.

The Spanish-French interaction foretold the founding of Mission Dolores. Elsewhere in this website readers can learn more about the Caddo peoples, the most populous and powerful native groups in East Texas by studying the special exhibit, Tejas: Life and Times of the Caddo. More than of the historic background leading to the render of Castilian missionaries and soldiers to the region can be establish in the Cultural Worlds department of the TBH exhibit on Los Adaes.

The route of the De Soto entrada in 1542 through the Caddo Homeland every bit reconstructed by Charles Hudson.

Fort St. Louis on Texas Beyond History.

Artist'south depiction of Franciscan missionary Father Francisco Hidalgo writing a alphabetic character offer to introduce the French governor of Louisiana to Spanish merchants in substitution for the Spanish supporting his unfinished missionary piece of work in east Texas. This letter would ultimately result in the institution of Los Adaes. Epitome courtesy George Avery, original watercolor by Cornial Cox, copyright to Cornial Cox.

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Source: https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/dolores/before.html