Alonso de León crosses the Guadalupe River in search of La Salle’s colony (DRAWING BY JACK JACKSON)
TEXAS PATHFINDER
Alonso de León was one of Texas’s great explorers and pathfinders. By traveling across much of what became Spanish Texas in the late 1680s and early 1690s, he helped establish a road that ran from the Río Grande near today’s Eagle Pass to Louisiana. This route was called the Camino Real (King’s Highway). Part of it later became the course of a modern Texas highway.
León is famous for reasons other than just laying out the Camino Real. In 1690 he helped set up San Francisco de los Tejas, the first Spanish mission in East Texas. He also looked for and found several French children who had been kidnapped by Karankawa Indians. All were orphans. Their mothers and fathers had died in a colony set up on the Texas coast in the 1680s by the Frenchman René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
León also served the king of Spain as governor of Nuevo León and Coahuila, two areas that became states in modern Mexico. He was a very able military man who held the rank of general at the time of his death in 1691. As you read about don Alonso, notice that he was lucky enough to get a good education in Spain. His parents sent him across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain when he was only ten years old. These must have been very lonely years for a boy separated from his mother and father by five thousand miles of ocean. But education helped make young León a successful and important man in Texas history.
In 1639 or 1640, Alonso was born as the third son of Alonso de León, who gave his full name to this child. The older Alonso had grown up in Mexico City, where he attended school, and he placed great value on education. When the father moved from the capital to the northern frontier as a rancher in 1635, he worried because there were no schools there for his children. As soon as young Alonso was able to live away from home, he was sent to Spain, where he entered a military academy as a cadet.
Alonso planned a career in the Spanish navy, and he studied toward that goal for five or six years. When he was a fifteen-year-old student, he helped defend Spain when it was attacked by a squadron of English ships in 1655. But it seems the young cadet did not like his prospects in the Spanish navy, because he soon returned to Nuevo León, where he married and began a family. For the rest of his life, Alonso de León lived on the northern frontier of Mexico, close to Texas.
For about twenty years, Alonso de León led groups of men from Nuevo León to search for wealth in nearby unexplored lands. These expeditions discovered some rich salt mines and located two seaports on the northeast coast of Mexico. As he became a more experienced military captain, León also learned about land in Mexico that lay along the south bank of the Río Grande. His successes even led to his appointment as governor of Nuevo León.
By the mid-1680s, León was no longer governor of Nuevo León but was highly respected in the province. At that time, the Spanish believed La Salle had probably established a colony somewhere along the northern Gulf Coast. Spain became very alarmed, and this concern would eventually bring León onto the Texas scene.
The French threat turned out to be a very real one. La Salle had first traveled down the Mississippi River from Canada in 1682. At the mouth of the great river, he claimed the entire area for France. The explorer named it Louisiana to honor his king, Louis XIV. La Salle then returned to Canada and sailed to France. He suggested to his monarch that the French establish a colony at or near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The king liked the idea, for France and Spain were then at war. A French outpost on the Gulf Coast would bring his subjects close to rich Spanish silver mines in northern Mexico.
Louis XIV provided generous support for La Salle’s plans. He gave the French explorer ships that were loaded with supplies, equipment, and cannons for his colony. When the four vessels reached the islands of the Caribbean Sea, one of them was lost to Spanish pirates. The other three ships sailed on toward the mouth of the Mississippi but missed it by four hundred miles. By mistake they landed on the Texas coast at Matagorda Bay.
Perhaps two hundred colonists were unloaded there, and that number included a few women and girls. One of the three remaining vessels was wrecked during the landing, and a second sailed back to France. The remaining ship was named the Belle, but it was soon lost when it ran aground in Matagorda Bay during a storm.
The Spanish were especially concerned about La Salle’s colony, for if successful it would give the French a claim to Texas. To meet this threat, in 1686 the new governor of Nuevo León called on Alonso de León. Don Alonso must find the French outpost and arrest or kill all the colonists. But no Spaniard was familiar with lands along the Gulf Coast, and of course no one knew the exact location of La Salle’s colony. As a result, it would take four expeditions and three years for don Alonso to find it.
The first definite clue that there were French colonists on the Gulf Coast came in June 1686. At that time, an Indian brought news to Monterrey in Nuevo León that white men lived in a settlement to the north. León’s first attempt to locate those foreigners did not include crossing the Río Grande. He marched along its right bank to the Gulf and then turned south. Along the coast, don Alonso found items from a wrecked vessel and a bottle containing a little spoiled wine, but he found nothing else.
A second effort by León came in February 1687, and on this occasion he did cross the Río Grande into Texas. He traveled along the river’s left bank to the Gulf and then turned north and went perhaps as far as the coast near modern Kingsville. On this march, he found absolutely nothing to indicate that there were Frenchmen in the area. His second expedition was as unsuccessful as the first.
While León was leading overland marches in search of the French, Spanish officials in Mexico also sent out two searches by sea. These efforts likewise found no evidence of La Salle or his colony. Then came news from Europe that was really encouraging. Spaniards learned from secret information picked up by a Spanish official in England that the French colony had probably failed. The report indicated that La Salle’s followers suffered from diseases and were threatened by hostile Karankawa Indians. This optimistic news was soon shattered, however, by clear evidence that Frenchmen were living among the Indian tribes of Texas.
This bad news for the Spanish came from two Indians who traveled from Texas to Coahuila. One of these natives claimed to have been “in the very houses of the French.” At about the same time, León had assumed the governorship of Coahuila. So he faced more responsibilities than just checking out the presence of unwelcome foreigners to the north of the Río Grande.
As governor of Coahuila, don Alonso had to deal with one Indian revolt after another. In fighting Indians he came to distrust even those natives who had accepted mission life under Spanish control. León believed that these mission neophytes were guilty of “bad faith,” because they were in constant communication with those who had rebelled against the Spanish. In November 1687, his own son had been wounded in Indian wars, and this incident also hardened don Alonso’s attitude toward Native Americans.
During Indian wars in Coahuila, León captured a famous rebel chieftain named Little Geronimo. Don Alonso sentenced the chief to death, placed a rope around his neck, and hanged him until he “died naturally.” León justified the execution because it “served as an example to other Indians of these parts.” It is clear that don Alonso viewed Native Americans like most military men. He did not trust them under any circumstances. As we shall see, his suspicious view of all Indians would soon place him at odds with missionaries in Texas.
When he was finally able to investigate the presence of foreigners north of the Río Grande, León led a small group of soldiers on a difficult march. At the end of it, he found a large settlement of Indians who honored a naked and tattooed Frenchman named Jean Jarry as their great chief. Don Alonso arrested Jarry, returned him to Coahuila, and then sent him to Mexico City to be questioned by high officials in the government.
The fact that a Frenchman had been found among the Indians of Texas was cause for alarm in the capital. The leaders of government there sent Jarry under guard back to Coahuila. They also ordered Alonso de León to carry out a fourth expedition, with Jarry acting as his guide.
This time the Spanish were determined to find the French colony. In early April 1689, don Alonso led a huge expedition containing 114 men, including Father Damián Massanet, soldiers, servants, and the Frenchman Jarry. Father Massanet, a Franciscan priest, would become the first important missionary in Spanish Texas.
León kept an official diary that contains information about his search for La Salle’s colony, as do letters written by Father Massanet. From these accounts, we have interesting details about South Texas—the first since Cabeza de Vaca’s The Account, written 150 years before.
Don Alonso commented on great patches of prickly pear cactus that extended as far as the eye could see and on thick groves of mesquite trees. Two weeks into the march, León and his men came upon the first buffalo they had seen and killed six of them for food.
The León expedition of 1689 crossed several major rivers in Texas before it came to the Guadalupe, near present-day Victoria, Texas. From this location, don Alonso began a march down Garcitas Creek toward the Gulf Coast. On April 20 he and his men finally found the object of a search that had gone on by land and sea for three years. At the remains of La Salle’s fort, they saw the terrible results of a Karankawa Indian attack that had taken place at Christmastime in the previous year.
León and Massanet recorded these words: “We found six houses, not very large, built with poles plastered with mud, and roofed with buffalo hides, another house where pigs were fattened, and a wooden fort built from the hulk [wood] of a wrecked vessel.” All of the houses had been robbed and the furniture broken into pieces. More than two hundred books had been ripped apart and their “rotten leaves scattered through the patios.” Among this devastation were the remains of three bodies, one with a dress clinging to the bones. All of the supplies had been spilled from kegs, with other items such as nails and tools thrown here and there. According to don Alonso, La Salle’s fort contained absolutely nothing of value.
What León and Father Massanet did not know is that La Salle himself had been murdered in East Texas some two years earlier by his own men. In fact, the French commander had died at the very time don Alonso was exploring the Texas coast in 1687. But the task at hand in 1689 was to say Mass over the three bodies and bury them.
León then began to explore the region around the ruined fort and look for possible French survivors. On his march toward the French colony, don Alonso had left a letter with Indians, who were told to deliver it to any white people they found living in the wilds of Texas. The letter contained an invitation for foreigners to surrender and return to a life among Christians. When León returned to the French fort, he found waiting there a reply from two Frenchmen.
The two men agreed to surrender and expressed their desire to return to the world of Christians. Two years earlier, these same Frenchmen had written a pitiful message, which they gave to Indians. Their hope was that the natives could somehow find white people and give it to them. León, however, never saw this first letter. But the words of one of the Frenchmen, who had played a major part in La Salle’s murder, show how much he hated living away from other Europeans. “I do not know what sort of people you are. We are French. We are among the savages. We would very much like to be among Christians such as we are. We know well that you are Spaniards. We do not know whether you will attack us. [But we are unhappy] to be among the beasts like these [Indians] who believe neither in God nor in anything. Gentlemen, if you are willing to take us away … we will deliver ourselves up to you.”
Traveling to the north for about sixty-five miles, León came upon the two Frenchmen and arrested them. Eight Tejas Indians from East Texas and a chieftain were also present. In talking to these natives and learning about their homeland, Father Massanet became excited about the possibility of establishing a mission among them. He told the chief and his followers that they should accept Christianity and that he would visit their land in the following spring when they would be planting corn.
The two Frenchmen were questioned by León and provided news of what had happened at the French colony. Disease, Karankawa arrows, and rattlesnake bites had caused the death of some colonists. Others simply wandered away and were lost in the woods. On three occasions, La Salle had led expeditions in search of the Mississippi River, while leaving several colonists behind to guard the fort.
As time passed, many at the French colony began to dislike their commander, because La Salle was not a easy person to get along with. He was a suspicious leader who never trusted anyone or shared his thoughts with them. People who do not respect others or are unable to admit mistakes can expect very little consideration in return. Anger over La Salle’s leadership on the part of some of his followers turned to hatred. Somewhere in East Texas on his third attempt to find the Mississippi River, La Salle was shot in the head by one of the colonists. His body was left in tall weeds for coyotes and vultures.
In the meantime, word spread from one Indian tribe to another that the great French commander was dead. This news eventually reached the Karankawas. Those natives realized that the French colonists were without a strong leader and began to plan their murder.
At Christmastime in 1688, five Indians approached the colony and pretended to be friends. Other natives soon appeared, and they too were friendly. As these Karankawas hugged the French, a large war party armed with sharp sticks and clubs crawled forward. With a shout, the Indians turned on the colonists and killed all of the adults, including several women and three priests. A three-month-old infant, the first European child born in Texas, died when a Karankawa warrior “held it by a foot and bashed its head against a tree.” But seven older children were saved from death by the kindness of Karankawa women, who grabbed them and took them to their village. Five of the French children were later rescued by Alonso de León. Two more were later freed by a lieutenant of don Alonso.
When León and Massanet returned to Coahuila, they brought news of the disaster at La Salle’s colony. They also carried information about the Tejas Indians in East Texas, although they had not visited the villages of these natives. Don Alonso and Father Massanet reported that the Tejas lived in nine settlements with wooden houses. These natives in East Texas also farmed fields of corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupe.
Because the Tejas were much more advanced than the hunting and gathering tribes of northern Mexico, they were looked upon as ideal subjects for conversion to Christianity. Father Massanet was especially enthusiastic about setting up missions for these Native Americans. He traveled all the way to Mexico City, where he presented his plans to Spanish officials there. The viceroy, who was the head of government, gave his support to the project.
At this point, important differences between León and Massanet began to appear. Those disagreements would only get worse as time went by. As mentioned earlier, Leon’s long experience as a military captain and governor made him distrust all Indians. Don Alonso wanted army outposts, called presidios, to be set up in East Texas. This, he said, must be done before there was any attempt to convert the Tejas to Christianity. Presenting a different view, Father Massanet believed that the missions would be more successful if no soldiers were stationed nearby. He argued that armed soldiers would frighten the natives and make them less likely to trust the priests.
Government officials in Mexico City agreed with Massanet. Peaceful approaches to the natives were better. It was also less expensive if soldiers did not have to be stationed in East Texas. As we shall see, it was Alonso de León who was correct, and it was Father Damián Massanet who was wrong.
In the immediate future, the French threat in Texas could not be ignored. Officials in the capital told León to recruit just enough soldiers to help the priests set up a mission and protect them from Indians and the French. Don Alonso believed that one hundred soldiers were necessary for the task. Father Massanet objected to such a large number. León had his way, although Massanet continued to question the need for so many soldiers.
The Franciscans decided to send six missionaries to Texas. This number included Father Francisco Hidalgo, who would make conversion of the Tejas Indians to Christianity his lifelong interest. Hidalgo, however, did not go to Texas at this time. He remained at a mission in northern Mexico.
On April 6, 1690, the León-Massanet expedition crossed the Río Grande and set out for East Texas. Along the way, León met Indians who told him that they knew of Frenchmen in the area. León wisely gave gifts of tobacco and biscuits to these natives, who promised to keep him informed of any foreigners living in the woods.
Near the end of April, León and Massanet again visited the remains of La Salle’s colony. They looked through the crude buildings to see if anything had changed. Finding things the same as before, they then burned the French fort.
Continuing on toward their destination in East Texas, León learned that there were French children living as captives among the Indians. Don Alonso chose eight soldiers and passed through “a forest of oaks and grapevines.” After marching about fifteen miles, the Spaniards found Pierre Talon, who was fourteen years of age. They gave some gifts to the natives in exchange for young Pierre, who was covered with tattoos in the manner of most Texas Indians. Two days later, León recovered Pierre Meunier, another French youth who had been tattooed.
The full expedition then continued on to East Texas. León was much impressed with the Tejas Indians’ cultivated fields, which contained corn and beans. Their villages “had very clean houses and high beds in which to sleep.” On this occasion, León met the governor, or high chief, of the Tejas. The governor took don Alonso to his home, gave him a bench to sit on, and fed him “a luncheon of corn tamales … all very clean.”
Over the next several days, León and Massanet looked for an ideal location for the first Spanish mission in East Texas. They chose a site on May 27, and spent the next five days building a residence for the priests and a chapel for the Indians.
Before leaving on the return march to Coahuila, León offered to leave fifty soldiers at the mission. Massanet insisted that only a few troops be left as guards for Mission San Francisco de los Tejas. Despite Leon’s protests, the Franciscan priest would not change his mind. So when Father Massanet and General León headed home on June 1, only three soldiers remained behind. Massanet said he felt no need to have more soldiers because the high chief of the Tejas had promised not to mistreat the missionaries. Unfortunately, as we shall see in the next chapter, his promise was not kept for very long.
As León and Massanet marched homeward toward Coahuila, they learned near the Guadalupe River of still more French youths living among the Indians. Once again, don Alonso separated a few men from his command and set out to find the kidnapped children. The thought of Christian boys and girls held captive by Native Americans greatly troubled León, and he was determined to rescue them at any cost.
After three days of searching, don Alonso came upon Indians who held a sister and a brother of Pierre Talon. Both children were covered with tattoos and painted from head to foot. Marie-Madeleine Talon was then sixteen. Her brother, Robert, was only five years old. León had to arrange ransom for the Talons, and he quickly agreed to the price asked by the Indians.
The natives noticed that León had not argued over the terms of freedom for the children, which led them to think that they had not asked a high enough price. So the Indians changed their minds and refused to release the Talons unless they were given all of don Alonso’s horses. In Leon’s words, the Indians wanted to collect “even the clothing which we wore upon on backs.” As a military man, don Alonso’s distrust and anger toward Indians rose to a dangerous level.
At that moment, other Indians showed up with still another Talon child named Lucien. He, like his sister and brother, was covered with tattoos and paint. Once again, León and the Indians had to settle on a ransom. And, in arguing, both sides became angrier and angrier. Finally, according to don Alonso, the Indians began waving bows and arrows and screaming that they “would have to shoot and kill us all.”
Almost immediately, León ordered his soldiers to open fire with their muskets. In a short time, four Indians lay dead and several others were wounded. Don Alonso felt justified in his actions. Father Massanet did not see the incident that way. The priest claimed that León was too hot-headed, that he did not have good control over his soldiers, and that Indian lives were needlessly lost.
The Talon children, four boys and a girl, were returned to life among Christians. Many years later they told of what had happened to them as a family. When they first arrived in Texas with La Salle, they were a family of eight. There were six children, ranging in age from a few months to twelve years. The youngest, Robert, had been born at sea on one of La Salle’s ships as it sailed from France to the Texas coast.
Shortly after the Talons landed at Matagorda Bay, the father had wandered into the woods. Perhaps he was looking for food, but he never returned and the children never knew what happened to him. Then one of the two Talon girls died of an illness. She was probably thirteen years of age. In a short time, Mrs. Talon had lost her husband and a daughter. Soon, she would also experience the loss of a son.
When La Salle left on his third and final attempt to find the Mississippi River, he forced young Pierre Talon to go with him. Against the wishes of his mother, the boy was to be left with the Tejas Indians to learn their language and help the French deal with them. La Salle’s plans ended abruptly when he was murdered by his own men. The French boy witnessed that bloody event just one day before his eleventh birthday. Pierre then found himself abandoned by his countrymen and adopted by Indians.
But the worst was yet to happen. When the Karankawas attacked the French colony at Christmastime in 1688, the remaining four Talon children lost their mother. She was clubbed to death by a Karankawa warrior.
León and Massanet never heard or read the awful story that was later told by the Talon children. After the rescue of Marie-Madeleine, Robert, and Lucien from the wilds of Texas, there is again clear evidence that Massanet and León did not look on Indians in the same way. As a priest, Massanet could not accept shedding human blood. He thought if León had been more patient, he could have won the cooperation of Native Americans through peaceful means.
Later, León and Massanet would both be called upon to report to the viceroy what had happened on the 1690 expedition. Yes, it had resulted in the founding of Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, the first Spanish mission in East Texas. Yes, it had located five French children held by Indians, and they had been set free. Yes, it had resulted in the death of four Indians. Yes, Spanish knowledge of Texas and its Indian population had been increased. The two agreed on these facts but on little else.
Father Massanet believed that the Tejas were glad to have a Spanish mission among them and become Christians. He saw no need to keep more than three soldiers to protect the Franciscan missionaries. Massanet also believed that a fair price could have been arranged for the three children, and that no one needed to be killed in setting them free.
León, on the other hand, was much more experienced in dealing with Indians. Again, he had fought a long series of Indian wars in Nuevo León and Coahuila. His view that all Native Americans were alike and not to be trusted was wrong—just as all Spaniards were not the same. In this case, León came closer to being right about the problems of unprotected missions in Texas than did Massanet.
In his letters to the viceroy, don Alonso gave a highly favorable report on some aspects of the Tejas Indians. He pointed out that they lived in clean houses and slept in bunk beds above the ground. They raised good crops of beans, corn, watermelons, and cantaloupe. The Tejas were such good planners that they always kept seeds for the next year’s planting. In fact, they were so careful that they kept enough seed to see them through two crop failures in a row.
Father Massanet assured the viceroy that no more soldiers were needed to guard the one mission for the Tejas. Instead, he urged that carpenters be sent to build living quarters for the priests and their helpers. He also suggested that Indian children from Mexico who had been baptized as Christians be sent to Texas. These youngsters were to serve as good role models for Tejas children.
Massanet did request fourteen more priests and seven religious helpers for East Texas. He believed all the Indians there to be good prospects for conversion to Christianity. In all, the Franciscan priest asked the Spanish crown to set up eight new missions. And the viceroy agreed to this request.
As plans went forward in Mexico City, the viceroy decided that he did not want Alonso de León to return to Texas. He was to stay in Coahuila and give his attention to Indian wars there. In truth, don Alonso had greatly irritated the viceroy and his advisers in the capital. He had not told high officials the kind of news they wanted to hear. His recommendations, if carried out, required spending a lot of money to set up presidios and station soldiers in Texas. León was also the target of bitter complaints by Father Massanet, who accused him of being too harsh in dealing with Indians.
A new governor for Texas was appointed at this time. His name was Domingo Terán de los Ríos. We will learn more about Terán in the following chapter. Note that the new governor was not nearly as able or dedicated as Alonso de León. Note also that León was absolutely correct in his belief that Spanish missions without nearby presidios were bound to fail in Texas.
In all, from 1686 to 1690, Alonso de León carried out five land expeditions, four of which entered Texas. He learned new information about the land and gave names to many Texas rivers, such as the Guadalupe. León also gathered much new information on the native population of Texas. He established a good part of what would become the famous Camino Real that ran from the Río Grande to East Texas. That road was so well traveled in early Texas history that it became the route of modern Texas Highway 21, which starts at San Marcos, south of Austin. It runs through College Station, where Texas A&M University is located, and then on to Nacogdoches and the border of Louisiana.
Alonso de León was of course more than just an early pathfinder in Texas history. His concern for the Talon children, who had seen their mother murdered before their very eyes, is touching. He was absolutely determined that these children be set free and brought up as Christians. In rescuing them, he may have been too short-tempered. Father Massanet always insisted that Leon’s actions had needlessly cost the lives of four Indians. To readers today, Leon’s treatment of Native Americans probably seems heavy-handed. His approach to Indians at this time in history, however, was very similar to that of every other military person who entered Texas.
The Camino Real (King’s Road) running from San Juan Bautista to Los Adaes (CENTER FOR MEDIA PRODUCTION, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, ADAPTED FROM WILLIAM C. FOSTER’S Spanish Expeditions into Texas, 1689–1768)
Alonso de León appears to have been a good man in most respects. True, he made mistakes like all human beings. But one should remember that he helped found the first Spanish mission in East Texas. Also, the fact that he became a general and governor of two provinces in northern Mexico speaks to his talent and loyalty to king and country.
Within two months after he was passed over as governor of Texas in favor of Domingo Terán, Alonso de León died in Monclova, Coahuila. At death, he was only slightly more than fifty years of age. Robert S. Weddle, a historian who has studied the life of don Alonso, believes that his health was ruined by “Coahuila Indian wars and the long marches into Texas.” He was certainly an important man in early Texas history. Unfortunately, his contributions to the future Lone Star State have not always been fully appreciated.
Materials used in preparing this chapter are described below. You can find more information about these sources in the Bibliography at the end of the book.
The best book dealing with Alonso de León is Robert S. Weddle’s The French Thorn: Rival Explorers in the Spanish Sea, 1682–1762. For Leon’s route across Texas in 1689, see William C. Foster’s Spanish Expeditions into Texas, 1689–1768. See also Donald E. Chipman and Harriett Denise Joseph’s Notable Men and Women of Spanish Texas for a more detailed biographical sketch of León.
Quotes in this chapter are from the following sources: Letter of Fray Damián Massanet to Don Carlos de Sigüenza, 1690, in Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706, edited and translated by Herbert E. Bolton; Vito Alessio Robles, Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial; Letter of Fray Damián Massanet and Itinerary of the De León Expedition of 1689, in Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706, edited and translated by Herbert E. Bolton; Robert S. Weddle, Wilderness Manhunt: The Spanish Search for La Salle; and Robert S. Weddle, Mary Christine Morkovsky, and Patricia Galloway, translators and editors, Three Primary Documents: La Salle, the Mississippi, and the Gulf.
The Belle is the sunken vessel that was excavated from a cofferdam in 1996 and 1997. It has yielded thousands of artifacts that are like a time capsule from the late 1600s.
In the following chapter, you will read about the release of the fourth Talon boy, named Jean-Baptiste.