Manuscript Spanish Colonial Document Signed by the First Texan, 1663

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Manuscript Spanish Colonial Document Signed by the First Texan, 1663

About the Item

De León, Alonso (circa 1639-1691). Alonso De León, the younger Spanish explorer and governor, third son of Alonso De León and Josefa Gonzalez, was born in Cadereyta, Nuevo León in 1639 or 1640. At the age of ten, he was sent to Spain where he enrolled in school and prepared for a naval career. He joined the Spanish nave in 1657, but his services as a naval cadet was brief, for he had returned to Nuevo Leon by 1660. Over the next two decades he led a series of entradas that traversed the northeast coast of New Spain as well as the banks of the Rio de San Juan. By the 1680s, De Leon had become a seasoned frontiersman and successful entrepreneur. In 1682, he petitioned the viceroy of New Spain for a franchise to work salt deposits along the Rio de San Juan, open trade with neighboring settlements, and search for mines. Those efforts netted a fifteen-year concession. When news that the French had founded a settlement on the northern Gulf Coast reached New Spain in the mid-1680s, De Leon was a logical choice to lead overland efforts aimed at finding the foreign interlopers and extirpating their colony. In all, he led four expeditions between 1686 and 1689. His initial reconnaissance followed the Río de San Juan to its confluence with the Rio Grande. After striking the larger river, Don Alonso marched along the right bank to the coast and then turned southward toward the Rio de Las Palmas (the Rio Soto la Marina). This effort yielding no conclusive evidence that Frenchmen had visited the region. His second expedition set out in February 1687. This entrada forded the Rio Grand, probably near the site of present Roma-Los Saenz, and followed the left bank ot the coast. De León then marched up the Texas coast to the environs of Baffin Bay but again found no evidence of Frenchmen. The fourth expedition left Coahuila on March 27, 1689 with a force of 114 men including chaplain Damian Massanet, soldiers, servants, muleteers, and the French prisoner, Jarry. On April 22, De León and his party discovered the ruins of the French settlement, Fort St. Louis, on the banks of Garcitas Creek. In 1687, De León became governor of Coahuila. Three years later, he and Massanet cooperated in founding the first Spanish Mission in East Texas, San Francisco de los Tejas, at a site in the environs of present Augusta, Texas. De León, an honest soldier and an early pathfinder in Spanish Texas, left the future Lone Star State for the last time in July 1690. He is credited with being an early advocate for the establishment of missions along the frontier, and he blazed much of the Old San Antonio Road on his expeditions. He returned to Coahuila and died there on March 20, 1691. His survivors included his wife, Agustina Cantú, four sons and two daughters. His descendents still reside in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. Bibliography: Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 (New York: Scribner, 1908; rpt., New York: Barnes and Noble, 1959). Robert S. Weddle, The French Thorn: Rival Explorers in the Spanish Sea, 1682-1762 (College Station : Texas A&M University Press, 1991). Robert S. Weddle, Wilderness Manhunt: The Spanish Search for La Salle (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973).

Creator:
Alonso de León 1 (Author)
Dimensions:
Height: 12.25 in (31.12 cm)Width: 8.25 in (20.96 cm)Depth: 0.2 in (5.08 mm)
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
Mid-17th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1663
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Houston, TX
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU129322912343