The seven expeditions of fosé de Escandón and his lieutenants (CENTER FOR MEDIA PRODUCTION, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS)
FATHER OF SOUTH TEXAS
When José de Escandón died in Mexico City in 1770, he was accused of serious offenses. He had faithfully served the king of Spain for many, many years as a successful soldier, explorer, colonizer, and official. So why was he on trial?
It seems that Escandón’s successes made enemies, some of whom were simply jealous of his accomplishments. Those people claimed that don José was guilty of many abuses. He had also made some serious mistakes in his career, which left him open to attack. Escandón worked hard to prove his innocence, but he died before a long legal process was over.
Even after Escandón’s death, his children had to defend their dead father. They wanted to clear his good name, but much more was at stake. If the court decided that don José was guilty, his family could lose the wealth, power, and titles that he had gained.
Did José de Escandón deserve to die in disgrace? Was he found guilty of any of the charges against him? What happened to his family? The answers lie in this chapter. In it, you will learn about the life of this famous Spanish colonizer and Father of South Texas, as well as what happened after his death.
José de Escandón y Elguera was born on May 19, 1700, in Soto la Marina, Santander, Spain. His father was Juan de Escandón; his mother was Francisca de la Elguera. The family was fairly wealthy, so young José had the opportunity to do what he wanted. At age fifteen, he came to America. For six years, he was part of a mounted (on horseback) military unit in Yucatán. Because José was a cadet training to be a soldier, he did not get paid. But the young man so impressed the local governor that he reported favorable things about him to the king in Spain.
In 1721 Escandón was sent to Querétaro, where he served for a number of years—again at his own expense. He helped punish Indians who were attacking Spanish settlers. These Native Americans had been rebelling for a long time, and don José gained fame for his ability to crush their uprisings. At the same time, he also was known for his good treatment of Indian prisoners. With each success, he rose in military rank and power.
One of the areas on the frontier that alarmed Spaniards was named the Costa del Seno Mexicano (Gulf of Mexico). This included part of what is today northern Mexico and South Texas. Indians felt this was their region and raided areas settled by Spaniards. Because of the raids, colonists in New Spain tried to convince the king that the Costa should be explored and the Indians dealt with. A special junta (committee) was formed to decide a course of action for the Costa. But this junta was very slow to make any decisions. In fact, nothing happened for years!
In the meantime, José de Escandón had been busy. He had returned to Spain in the 1720s, where he married Dominga de Pedrajo in 1727. She died in 1736. A year later, don José married Josefa de Llera y Bayas of Querétaro. The couple would have seven children, including a first-born son, Manuel.
Don José became very important in a region to the east of Querétaro known as the Sierra Gorda. It contained rugged mountains that gave shelter to warlike natives. Parts of the Sierra Gorda had never been explored by Spaniards.
Escandón organized and led four expeditions to explore the Sierra Gorda. He helped to pacify (bring peace to) the region. He returned Spaniards to places that had been deserted and helped to settle new areas. He was able to pay for all of these activities with money he made as a merchant, mill owner, and rancher.
Members of the junta in Mexico City and the king in Spain came to value Escandón’s loyalty and ability. These officials were especially impressed that don José had spent so much of his own money to help his country. So they chose José de Escandón as the best person to explore a newly created province in northern Mexico and South Texas. The viceroy agreed. He named don José as the first governor of Nuevo Santander. The name of the province was chosen to honor Escandón’s place of birth in Spain. Nuevo Santander was very large, and it was mostly unknown. The province also was home to Indians who were hostile to Spaniards and did not want them on their lands.
The seven expeditions of fosé de Escandón and his lieutenants (CENTER FOR MEDIA PRODUCTION, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS)
By this time, the mid-1700s, don José was one of the best-organized people in Spanish America. A good planner, he knew how to get things done quickly but effectively. He arranged for seven divisions (groups) to enter Nuevo Santander at the same time. Each would leave from a different place, explore a specific area, and meet in about a month.
Governor Escandón led the main group himself. It left Querétaro in January 1747. Later that same month, the other expeditions left from Texas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León, as well as from towns in the south of Mexico. All were to meet at the mouth of the Río Grande in late February.
As Escandón’s group moved toward the coast, other Spaniards and a few Indians joined him. He made his main camp at the Río de las Palmas in northern Mexico. Then, with a smaller band, he reached the Río Grande near the sea in late February. He found that one of his captains, Blas María de la Garza Falcón, had already arrived there a few days earlier.
With two dozen men, don José did more exploring and also learned about the region from natives. Among the Indians don José met were the Comecrudos, or raw-meat eaters. They had never seen Spaniards before but were friendly.
Even though the governor was a careful planner, not all of the seven divisions were able to meet as he had hoped. For example, one group of Spaniards exploring along the north bank of the Río Grande had problems caused by snow and then lack of drinking water. With their leader, Miguel de la Garza Falcón, they returned to Mexico without making contact with Escandón.
Of the seven expeditions, twenty-five soldiers from the presidio (fort) at Los Adaes in East Texas made the longest trip. Led by Captain Joaquín Orobio Basterra, they were joined by another twenty-five soldiers from La Bahía on the coast. This division explored along the San Antonio River. Escandón hoped that this river would become the northern border of his province.
Orobio Basterra’s men suffered greatly during their journey. If Indian guides had not helped them, they probably would have died from thirst. When they reached the south bank of the Río Grande, the Texas soldiers got orders from Escandón to return to their forts. Based on what they had been through, Orobio Basterra declared that South Texas had “little promise for settlement.”
In early March, Escandón went back to his main camp at the Río de las Palmas. He named the place where the river entered a large inland bay La Ría del Nuevo Santander. Then, as he made the return trip to Querétaro, the governor explored frontier areas along the Sierra Gorda. Upon reaching his home base, he released his troops. Once again, the new governor had paid the entire cost of the seven expeditions. Thanks to good planning and good luck, all of don José’s men came back alive.
After his journey, Escandón drew a map of his new province and set down a plan for colonizing the area. He wanted to found fourteen settlements with missions. But to do this, he had to get the approval of officials in Mexico City. Don José said that he could attract colonists by offering them one hundred to two hundred pesos in cash. Also, they would not have to pay taxes for ten years. At first, land would be shared in common, rather than divided among the settlers.
Soldiers would be placed in the new towns to protect them, but only for the first few years. After that, the civilians should be able to take care of themselves. Missionaries would minister to both Spaniards and Indians.
A junta in Mexico City looked at Escandón’s plan and approved it. In May 1748, the viceroy officially named José de Escandón to pacify and settle Nuevo Santander. Once again the governor acted carefully but quickly. He spread the news of his project and had little trouble recruiting settlers. They were attracted by the rewards being offered. Some were ranchers with many cattle in northern Mexico, and they needed more land for their herds. Others simply wanted a fresh start.
A new life awaited settlers willing to face the dangers of the northern frontier, but they had confidence in Escandón’s ability to make the Nuevo Santander project a success. When he again left Querétaro in December 1748, José de Escandón led one of the largest expeditions ever sent to settle the frontier of New Spain. As the body traveled along, the governor founded many towns and missions in his province.
Escandón shows his map to Spanish officials (DRAWING BY JACK JACKSON)
The first, Santa María de Llera, was set up on Christmas Day with forty-four Spanish families, several Indians, and eleven soldiers. Mission Peña del Castillo was begun close by. Then the governor placed forty families at San Fernando de Güemes and thirty at San Antonio de Padilla.
Problems slowed Escandón’s progress, however. The main camp was hit by illnesses, probably caused by bad water. Things were so terrible that the settlers called the campsite “hell.” They had to move to another place, but it was not much better. The natives were also a threat. One group visited the camp and acted friendly. However, they later attacked at night and killed several horses.
Escandón did not let diseases or Indians stop him. In February 1749, he founded his capital, Villa de Nuevo Santander, with more than four hundred people present. Along with successes came some failures. Natives hostile to Spaniards moving onto their lands killed a missionary and eight soldiers who were taking some settlers to the Nueces River area in Texas. The surviving Spaniards had to wait eight months for don José to decide where they should go. Finally, he sent them to Soto la Marina. Led by Juan José Vázquez Borrego, they settled in the town named for the governor’s place of birth.
Meanwhile, a site down the Río Grande from Camargo was granted to Carlos Cantú. He had brought families and soldiers from Nuevo León in northern Mexico. The villa (town) they started is present-day Reynosa, Tamaulipas, which is across the river from McAllen, Texas.
Escandón had to spend time visiting the new towns near his capital. He also started another town, Villa Altamira, in May 1749. However, he could not devote himself just to colonizing. Hostile Huastec Indians were a threat to Spaniards in the province. So don José launched military action against those natives. Despite this problem, in the same month the governor founded Santa Bárbara on the eastern slope of the Sierra Gorda. With this, Escandón felt a sense of pride at having settled so much of Nuevo Santander.
In June 1749, don José wrote the viceroy of his activities in the southern Sierra Gorda. Thirteen towns had been created, and hundreds of Spaniards and friendly Indians lived in or near them. There were also troops nearby for protection. Ninety thousand pesos had been spent to do all of this. It had cost more than the governor had expected, but a lot had been accomplished.
King Ferdinand VI was pleased with don José’s efforts. The king granted him the titles of Count of Sierra Gorda and Viscount of the House of Escandón. Ferdinand VI wanted to honor the governor for stopping warlike Indians, exploring the Costa, and colonizing Nuevo Santander.
As mentioned earlier, Escandón had enemies. Not everyone approved of his methods of settling the province. For example, two different groups of Catholic friars (priests) wanted control of the missions in Nuevo Santander, and they did not always agree with Governor Escandón’s decisions.
The count was lucky, however, because he had supporters too. An important official came to his defense. This man, the Marqués de Altamira, insisted that Escandón was a good colonizer. He claimed that don José had done “more in one year than could have been done in a hundred years” by anyone else. So no action was taken against him.
The governor spent a lot of time visiting his existing towns, while starting new settlements. Two of these outposts were placed north of the Río Grande in what is today Texas. They were Nuestra Señora de Dolores in 1750 and Villa Laredo in 1755. The first of these came about because José Vázquez Borrego needed more land for his cattle and horses. He offered to settle Dolores at no cost to the crown. Five years later, Tomás Sánchez started Laredo, also at his own cost. Dolores did not prove permanent, but Laredo is still an important border town in Texas.
Founding settlements did not mean, of course, that they would succeed. Many problems hit the colonists, and they looked to Escandón for help. During the early years, there was drought or lack of rainfall. This hurt crops and made the price of seed corn very high. Then, when the drought ended, some places flooded because of too much rain.
Even greater danger came from the natives, some of whom were hostile to the colonists. The governor knew that one of his jobs in Nuevo Santander was to control the Indians, to civilize them, and to make them Catholics. He tried to do this peacefully when possible.
When don José moved with his family to Villa de Nuevo Santander, he needed workers to build his house and tend his livestock. So he moved thirty families of Pame Indians from Río Verde in Mexico to his lands in Nuevo Santander. Each Pame family head was paid four pesos a month and received some maize (corn). The governor also put five of these families in the nearby mission to serve as good examples for less civilized Indians.
Don José was pleased that some Indian nations, such as the Comecrudos, were choosing on their own to come to Spanish missions. But he knew that they probably came to get gifts of tobacco and clothing, rather than from a sincere desire to become Christians.
When he had to do so, Escandón made war against Native Americans who were hostile to the Spaniards. For example, Indians of Mission Ygollo in Santa Bárbara rebelled in the early 1750s, so don José sent armed men against them. In cases like this, he punished the natives harshly to make an example of them.
In addition to the threat of hostile Indians, the governor had other concerns as well. The Spanish government was very demanding. On behalf of the king, the viceroy required long reports about everything going on in Nuevo Santander. The crown would not keep paying its share of the costs for the province unless the governor could prove that the money was well spent.
In February and May of 1753, the Count of the Sierra Gorda sent the viceroy “reports on the condition of the twenty new towns in the Colony of the Seno Mexicano.” He bragged about his province and told of the many cattle, horses, and mules there. He also wrote of progress with the Indians.
In his reports, don José was surprisingly honest. Although he stressed his successes, he did admit to some failures. He noted that the settlement of Camargo had to be moved because of flooding. He also said that there were still many “pagan [non-Christian] Indians” in Nuevo Santander. Because of this, some of his new settlements had to be set up to help protect others from the natives. And he admitted that the missionaries did not have enough money or supplies.
Unfortunately, when don José wrote about matters in Nuevo Santander, he did not send any proof to support his claims of success. He thought that his word was good enough. This made government officials in Mexico City most unhappy with him. So the viceroy ordered Escandón to prepare another report on his province. This time he must prove what he claimed.
The governor finished the report in 1755 and came to Mexico City to present it in person. As before, he bragged about the good land, abundant crops, and great number of livestock in Nuevo Santander. He also described many hardships, ranging from natural disasters to warlike natives.
Despite this, Escandón declared that three thousand natives had been “settled in missions” and introduced to Christianity. Even so, the governor was sad to report that other Indians had been turned away because of the lack of missionaries and supplies.
In his report, don José also talked about his belief that it was better for the colonists to share land than to divide it among them. This manner of ownership kept them from being jealous of each other. It also made them live and work together.
Escandón reported that twenty sites had been settled in Nuevo Santander with a total of 1,389 families. He said that his only goal in doing this had been to serve the crown. While declaring the conquest to be basically concluded, don José also advised that more remained to be done. To protect the new towns and colonists, other areas had to be populated. Care must be taken to prevent Indian rebellions.
Because the king was far away in Spain, he could not be sure that Escandón was making honest reports about Nuevo Santander. Remember that his enemies were saying bad things about him. So the crown wanted to know more about the “progress and present state” of the province. Specially appointed, trustworthy officials must be sent to find out the truth about Escandón’s claims.
Acting on instructions from Spain, the viceroy ordered an inspection tour of Nuevo Santander. Captain José Tienda de Cuervo was named judge-inspector. Agustín López de la Cámara Alta, an engineer and army officer, was to help him. The two men had a list of questions to ask the colonists in order to gather information. They were also supposed to see for themselves what was happening in Nuevo Santander.
The inspectors traveled through the province and then reported back to the viceroy. They told of the twenty settlements in Nuevo Santander and gave detailed facts about the number of colonists and livestock there. The two officials confirmed that some of the towns and missions were promising, while others faced serious problems.
Tienda de Cuervo and López de la Cámara Alta said that much more needed to be done with the Native Americans. At some missions, not even one baptism had taken place. They believed that this was because missionaries were living in the towns with the Spaniards. The friars ought to be living among the Indians instead.
The inspectors also found fault with Escandón’s policy about land ownership, because the colonists were unhappy about having to share land with others. They advised that land grants should be given to individual settlers. The two inspectors also reported that the crown was spending too much money on Nuevo Santander. They likewise came up with ideas for cutting costs, such as reducing military expenses, and made other suggestions for the province.
In the ten years following the inspection tour—from 1757 to 1767—José de Escandón was busy meeting the needs of his growing province. He was involved with a flood-control project, building a road, and moving some towns. The count also arranged for Fray Vicente de Santa María to write a history of Nuevo Santander.
Don José was allowed to found three more settlements from 1765–1770, but he refused to give individual land grants to the colonists. If they got their own lands, he thought that they would move into the country and desert the towns. He insisted that it was better for the colonists to share land and live together in towns for their safety.
Years earlier, as noted, the two inspectors had advised the crown to save money by cutting the number of soldiers and the pay of officers in Nuevo Santander. By 1763 the government had finally decided to make some of those changes. This upset don José. He opposed the proposed changes, because he felt they placed the province in danger. To save money in this way “sounds good,” he admitted. But there were still many warlike natives in Nuevo Santander. Spain must be careful or she could lose “in a few months that which had been achieved in so many years, … only to save money.”
The 1760s proved hard for José de Escandón in many ways. His wife, Josefa, died in 1762. She was the mother of his seven children. Also, the governor again found himself under attack by his enemies. Colonists were upset about land grants and other matters. They let the royal officials know that they were unhappy. At the same time, leaders in the Catholic Church blamed Escandón for lack of progress in converting Indians to Christianity.
In 1766 the viceroy ordered the governor to come to Mexico City to discuss these charges and other matters. To gather more information, the viceroy planned for still another inspection, called a pesquisa, of Escandón’s province. Beginning the following year, the head inspector was Juan Fernando Palacio, who was assisted by José de Osorio y Llamas. They were to study the “conduct of Escandón” and find out the true state of affairs in Nuevo Santander.
Palacio was also told to divide the land among the settlers. He first did this with great ceremony at Laredo in May 1767 and then at other towns as the expedition went along. Water was important to settlers in Nuevo Santander. So land grants, called porciones, were made along the Río Grande. These grants bordered the river on one side. Larger amounts of land were given for grazing herds of animals. The officials also provided lands for missions in the province.
When they got back to Mexico City, the two inspectors declared that many of the charges against the count were unfair. They did agree that he had done some things wrong. For example, he should have created more settlements in Nuevo Santander. They seemed to forget that the count had been forced to come to Mexico City to defend himself, which kept him away from his province and prevented him from doing more.
The results of the inspection tour, together with years of complaints by his enemies, caused bad things to happen for José de Escandón. He was charged with thirty-eight separate crimes as governor of Nuevo Santander.
One of the charges was that the count had not fulfilled the goals he had promised to the Spanish crown. Furthermore, he had spent too much of the king’s money in settling Nuevo Santander. Because he desperately wanted to attract colonists, don José had failed to check them out properly, which had allowed evil people to settle in the province. Escandón was also accused of getting wealth and power for himself by cheating the soldiers, settlers, and Indians. And he had ignored requests from the colonists for land grants.
The governor was also said to have abused the Indians. Instead of bringing them to the Christian God, don José had killed or imprisoned them. He was blamed for taking land from the Indians to give to the missionaries. He had also brought Native Americans, such as the Pames, far from their homes to work on his lands. Other natives had been forced to work in obrajes, or sweatshops, where workers were paid low wages and forced to work long hours under poor or dangerous conditions.
The above charges against don José teach us that the king of Spain expected officials in America to be honest in their dealings with settlers and natives alike. Officials were expected to obey and enforce Spanish laws, as well as Christianize the Indians. Failure to do any or all of these things could lead to trial and punishment.
Was don José guilty of the crimes discussed above? He and his family said no. But what would the court decide? It would take a long time to determine the answer to that question.
With the support of his family, the Count of Sierra Gorda worked hard to prove his innocence. He argued that he had spent more than fifty years serving Spain. He had done what he had promised, and much more. Instead of fourteen towns, Nuevo Santander by 1757 had twenty-two settlements with almost thirteen hundred Spanish families. These colonists were like other people in New Spain—some good, some bad.
Escandón’s defense stated that he had worked for the crown for twenty years without pay, “with the sole hope of earning honors.” Yes, he had done business in Nuevo Santander, but this was not illegal. Rather, it was a widely accepted way for officials to make a living, because they did not receive any direct salary from the king. Don José reminded the crown that he had spent much of his own money to explore and settle Nuevo Santander. His house, which his enemies called a palace, had been built at his own expense.
The defense also explained why Escandón had not awarded land titles to the colonists for so many years. He had been busy founding settlements and doing the other tasks of his office. He also feared that dividing the lands would cause unhappiness and jealousy, because not all were of equal value. Equally important, colonists granted lands far from settled areas would be in danger from Indians. So the governor chose to provide enough land for each settler, soldier, and Indian, with ownership in common.
As for the Indians, Escandón insisted that more than one thousand of them in Nuevo Santander had been baptized into the Catholic Church. The count had always used “quiet” or peaceful means in dealing with the natives when this was possible. Escandón insisted that the natives brought from Río Verde to Nuevo Santander were not forced to relocate. They did so willingly and were paid for their labor. As for the Indians who had been forced to work in sweatshops, they were being punished for making war and killing ten soldiers.
The defense also noted that great men were often the target of others who were jealous of them. These people made up lies about successful leaders, such as Escandón. Among these liars was María Bárbara Resendi. She called herself a defender of the Jaumave Indians and claimed that the governor abused them. None of this was true, argued the defense. In fact, doña Bárbara could not be a true protector for the Indians, “because she was a woman.”
José de Escandón hoped to be found innocent of all thirty-eight counts against him, but he did not live to see the results of this massive pesquisa. As stated at the beginning of this chapter, the count died in September 1770 while the trial was still in progress. His death was doubly sad. A man who had spent his adult life capably serving the crown died under a cloud. If he was found guilty, his children might lose everything.
It fell to Escandón’s family to finish the lawsuit. His first-born son, don Manuel, had to defend his father’s name. He also had to convince the king that he should inherit his father’s wealth, titles, and position.
Don Manuel’s supporters said that he was loyal and loved the king. As José de Escandón’s son, he had also served in the military in Nuevo Santander. He was noted for good conduct, military skills, and royal service. Don Manuel had helped to subdue the Indians and was a good choice to continue his father’s work.
Finally, justice was done. In January 1773, a royal decree (formal order) completely cleared José de Escandón. He was found innocent of all charges. The king also named Manuel de Escandón as Count of Sierra Gorda with the right to govern Nuevo Santander.
José de Escandón y Elguera’s province included part of Texas south of the Nueces River, as well as part of the present-day Mexican state of Tamaulipas. He founded twenty-three settlements in Nuevo Santander, and the Franciscans set up fifteen missions there. Two of Escandón’s sites were in the present Lone Star State. The towns he started brought hundreds of colonists and their livestock to both sides of the Río Grande.
In Rio Grande City, Texas, a monument (written memorial) was erected to Escandón in 1936. It says that he was the “greatest colonizer of Northern Mexico” and that he “founded missions, opened roads and established settlers, 1746–1755.”
There are people in South Texas today who belong to a club called the Las Porciones Society. Their ancestors were among the “first families” to come into Nuevo Santander with don José. These true pioneers of the region got land grants along the Río Grande in Starr, Hidalgo, and Cameron Counties.
To be sure, Escandón was not perfect. For years he would not let the early colonists have their own lands, but at the same time he took vast private lands for himself. Even though he had some faults, the count settled the Costa del Seno Mexicano (Gulf of Mexico). This was something that other Spaniards had not been able to do in more than two hundred years. In the process, José de Escandón helped to start both ranching and farming in modern-day South Texas. He died under a cloud of suspicion, but the sun shines today on a region the Father of South Texas helped to settle.
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 account of Escandón and his accomplishments is found in Donald E. Chipman and Harriett Denise Joseph’s Notable Men and Women of Spanish Texas. Also useful are Robert S. Weddle’s The French Thorn: Rival Explorers in the Spanish Sea, 1682–1762 and Lawrence F. Hill’s José de Escandón and the Founding of Nuevo Santander: A Study in Spanish Colonization.
Quotes in this chapter are from the following sources: Robert S. Weddle’s The French Thorn: Rival Explorers in the Spanish Sea, 1682–1762 J. B. Wilkinson, Laredo and the Rio Grande Frontier; Auditor’s Assessment of Escandón’s Report, August 21, 1753, Béxar Archives Translations, Reel 4; Decreto de Agustín de Ahumada, March 29, 1756, and Escandón al Marqués de Cruillas, November 9, 1764, in Estado general de las fundaciones hechas por D. José de Escandón en la colonia de Nuevo Santander; Legal Proceedings Relating to José de Escandón, 1769–1773, and Statement of Domingo Valcarcel to Viceroy Bucareli, October 10, 1774, Center for American History, Austin, Hackett Transcripts; and Hubert J. Miller, José de Escandón: Colonizer of Nuevo Santander.