DeSoto's Western Trails
by Donald E. SheppardDeSoto's people, led by Luis de Moscoso, entered Texas under the Full Moon of June 27th, 1542. They would leave four months later then return to Texas' Gulf Coast the following Summer.
"From here (Shreveport) we went to another province that is called Aquacay (bounded by the Sabine River in today's Texas). We spent three days' journey getting there, still going straight west (at their marching rate of 15 miles per day through a peopled region; they halted at Hallsville, near the Sabine River). From here the Indians told us that we could not find more villages, but rather that we should descend southwest and south, because there we would find villages and food, and that going the way that we asked about (due west) there were some great stretches of sand, and neither villages nor any food (which, the Spaniards would discover, was said to keep the army out of their villages near Tyler). We had to return (southeast to) where the Indians guided us..."© Univ. of Alabama Press
Another officer says, "On behalf of the chief of Aquacay, before reaching that province (at the Sabine River), 15 Indians came to meet him on the way with a present of skins, fish and venison. The governor reached his town (Carthage) on... July 4th..." eight days after leaving Shreveport. The army had camped at Waskom, Marshall, several at Hallsville while exploring the river near Longview, then several at Tatum while crossing the river's swamps on their way to Carthage. The name "Aquacay" is probably a Spanish conjecture, meaning "island," given that the province was bounded by the Sabine River's incredible swamps. "He found the town abandoned and lodged therein. He (General Moscoso and the army) stayed there for some time, during which he made several inroads, in which many Indians, both men and women, were captured..." from Carthage, Henderson, Kilgore and Tyler; all west of the Sabine River. The new general's deception by the Indians at Hallsville, something his predecessor, Hernando DeSoto, would never have fallen for, stirred resentment toward him among his officers. Their writings would be critical of his choice of trails throughout Texas. "There they heard of the south sea." The Indians were probably referring to the Gulf of Mexico but the Spaniards thought the Indians meant the Pacific Ocean. Since DeSoto had died, however, none of them cared to see it; most just wanted to go home.
"On the day the governor left Aquacay, he went to sleep near a small town (probably Gary, between Marvaul Bayou and Brashy Creek) subject to the lord of that province. The camp was pitched quite near to a salt marsh, and on that evening some salt was made there. Next day he went to sleep between two ridges in a forest of open trees (at Garrison, where the East Texas ridges begin). Next day he reached a small town called Pato (in the flats of the headwaters of Bayous Laco and La Nana, just above today's Nacogdoches). The fourth day after they left Aguacay, he reached the first settlement of the province called Amaye (at Douglass). An Indian was captured there who said that it was a day and a half journey (25 miles) to Naguatex (at Mission Tejas State Park), all of which lay through an inhabited region..." of Alto's incredible plain between the Angelina and Neches Rivers at the Caddoan Mounds State Historical Park, the largest Indian Mound Complex in East Texas. Texas got its name from Tejas, the largest Indian settlement in Texas in 1542.
"Having left the village of Amaye (Douglass), on July 20th, camp was made at midday beside a brook (at Linwood in the bottomlands of Angelina River) in a luxuriant grove between Amaye and Naguatex. Indians were seen there who came to spy on them. Those of horse rushed at them, killing six and capturing two." The captives told the Spaniards (least they be fed to the dogs) that their chief, along with Chief Naguatex, planned to attack that day. They did, but were lanced by horsemen when they turned and fled. General Moscoso sent an Indian, missing his nose and one hand, to Chief Naguatex to tell him that the Spaniards were coming. "That night he slept there and next day reached the village of Naguatex which was very extensive (across the plain of Alto). He asked where the town of the chief was and they (the captives) told him it was on the other side of the (Neches) river which ran through that district. He marched toward it and on reaching it (eight miles down a trail we call the Old San Antonio Road) and on reaching it (Neches River) saw many Indians on the other side (at Mission Tejas State Park) waiting for him, so posted as to forbid his passage (of the river). Since he did not know if the river was fordable, nor where it could be crossed, and since several Christians and horses were wounded, in order that they might have time to recover in the town where he was (Caddoan Mounds State Historical Park), he made up his mind to rest for a few days (before striking Mission Tejas, directly across the river, with intention to strike it on the Full Moon with horsemen on a dawn raid: that moon phase was only a few days off). Because of the great heat, he made camp near the village, a quarter of a league (almost three quarters of a mile) from the river (out of range of Hisanai Caddoan Indian arrows), in an open forest of luxuriant and lofty trees near a brook (which drains today's Sunshine Mountain)."
"He asked them (the captives) whether the river was fordable. They said that it was at times (but not then) at certain places. Ten days later he sent two captains, each with fifteen horse, up and down the river with Indians to show them where they could cross. The Indians opposed the crossing of them both as strongly as possible, but they crossed in spite of them. On the other side they saw a large village and many provisions (food, shelter and animal hides); and returned to camp with the news." They had crossed the Neches River just below Mission Tejas on the flats, that river's fording place, then ridden up Hickery Creek toward Crockett's enormous pastures and the villages scattered along San Pedro Creek.
General Moscoso sent word to Chief Naguatex that if he came in peace all would be forgiven; if not, he would be hunted down by the horsemen. "They all came after this manner: one ahead of the other in double file, leaving a line in the middle through which the chief came. They reached the place where the governor was, all weeping after the manner of Tula (their Caddo speaking cousins in Northwestern Arkansas) which lay to the east not far from that place. The chief paid his respects... the governor answered him saying that he pardoned him for the past, that thenceforth he should do as he ought (to do) and that he would consider him friend and protect him in all his affairs. Four days later (the Spaniards) departed, but on reaching the (Neches) river (about 3 miles south of there camp near Caddo Mounds) could not cross, as it had swollen greatly. This appeared a wonderful phenomenon because of the season and because it had not rained for more than a month..." The Neches River drains Tyler, 50 miles upstream of Mission Tejas. Rains there effected everyone downstream. The Indians told the Spaniards that it flooded often there so the Spaniards conjectured "that it might be the sea which came up through the river. It was learned (by horsemen over the next week) that the increase (in flow) always came from above (Tyler), and that the Indians of that land had no knowledge of the sea (the Gulf of Mexico). The governor returned to the place where he had been during the preceding days. A week later, hearing that the river could be crossed (on the Full Moon of August 25th, 1542), he passed to the other side and found a village without any people (food or supplies; the Indians had fled with everything). He lodged in the open field..." of Crockett, where the Spaniards wrecked havoc on the Tejas villages from there to San Pedro Creek. "The chief, on beholding the damage that his land was receiving, sent six of his principal man and three Indians with them as guides who knew the (Tonkawan) language of the region ahead where the governor was about to go. He immediately left Naguatex and after marching three days (to the Trinity River) reached a town of four or five houses (on the river's flats where Highway 7 crosses it today), belonging to the chief of that miserable province called Nisohone." The army entered Tonkawan Indian country, although inhabited at places by Caddoan hunters and traders.
"It was a poorly populated region and had little maize (Tonkawans did not farm). Two days later (at Centerville), the guides who were guiding the governor guided them toward the east if they had to go toward the west, and sometimes they went through dense forests, wandering off the road (around Centerville; that land is the same today; high and dry and broken; Interstate 48 runs through there from Houston to Dallas). The governor ordered them hanged from a tree, and an Indian woman, who had been captured at Nisohone (Centerville), guided him, and he went back to look for the road."
Some of the men reported to an historian of their time about the Indian who had led them astray, "The governor, being angered by this and at seeing his army in such want through the Indian's malice, ordered that he (a Caddoan guide) be tied to a tree and that the dogs be loosed upon him. One of them shook and dragged him badly... this was the revenge our Christians took on the poor Indian who had led them off the road, as if it were any satisfaction for past hardships or remedy for present evils." Once back to Centerville, they set out in the direction the Indian told them to go before he died, "This was that they should march toward the west without turning to one side or the other." Had the Spaniards taken that advice it would have saved them much future hardship, but they would chose otherwise just down the road.
The officer continued, "Two days later (at Navasota River, west of Centerville on highway 7) he reached another wretched land called Lacone. There he captured an Indian who said that the land of Nondacao (Waco's name, to Caddoan linguists) was a very populous region and the houses scattered about one from another as is customary in mountains (the ridges west of Waco around the giant Fort Hood Military Reservation), and that there was abundance of corn..." beyond the Brazos River, the next provincial border. The Spaniards had been chasing legends of gold, reported to lie just over the next horizon, during the preceding three years in North America. The Texas Indians perceived that and sent the Spaniards searching for corn, this time, just over the next horizon.
The men said, "They sighted inhabited country from the tops of some hills through which they were going..." just inside of Lacone Province on the hills overlooking Bald Prairie. "This gave them relief that can be imagined, though on reaching the settlements (of today's Headsville, Harmony and Kosse) they found that the Indians had gone to the woods and that the land was poor and sterile (in Tonkawan Indian Country). The villages were not like the others they had seen, but the houses were scattered through the fields in groups of four or five, badly built and worse arraigned... On the second day of their march through that sterile and poorly inhabited province... they encamped on a plain (the land flattens beyond Kosse)... three days after... they saw coming across a beautiful plain (the Brazos River Valley below Waco) two Indian Nobles (of Nondacao). They were decked out in long plumes with their bows in their hands and their arrows in quivers on their backs." The Spaniards proceeded up the Brazos River flats, northwestward, against the advice of the dying Caddoan Indian guide... "and they saw (the following week) that there were large mountain ranges and forests to the west...(at Fort Hood)."
The officer concluded this chapter of his report with the following remark; "The chief (of Nondacao at Waco) and his Indians came weeping like those of Naguatex (the Indians of Mission Tejas), that being their custom in token of obedience." The chief brought "a great quantity of fish" and provided a guide to Soacatino (Killeen)." The army would not stay for want of corn for the horses.