132 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
They were also found in immense herds on the coast of Texas, at the 
Bay of St. Bernard (Matagorda Bay), and on the lower part of the Colorado 
(Rio Grande, according to some authorities), by La Salle, in 1685, and thence 
northward across the Colorado, Brazos, and Trinity Rivers. Joutel says that 
when in latitude 28° 51’, “the sight of abundance of goats and bullocks, 
differing in shape from ours, and running along the coast, heightened our 
earnestness to be ashore.”* They afterwards landed in St. Louis Bay (now 
called Matagorda Bay), where they found buffaloes in such numbers on the 
Colorado River that they called it La Riviére aux Boeufs. “These bul- 
locks,” says the account, “are very like ours; there are thousands of them, 
but instead of hair they have a very long curled sort of wool.” ¢ 
In describing the country about their establishment at St. Louis, at the 
mouth of the Riviére aux Boeufs, M. Joutel says: “We were in about the 
27th degree of north latitude,t two leagues up the country, near the bay of 
St. Louis,§ and the bank of the Riviére aux Boeufs, on a little hillock, whence 
we discovered vast and beautiful plains, extending very far westward, all 
level, and full of greens, which afford pasture to an infinite number of beeves 
and other creatures.” ||. Setting.out from St. Louis the 12th of January, 
1687, they crossed a succession of rivers, between which were “spacious 
plains” covered with “a multitude of beeves and wild fowl.” In crossing 
_ the streams, they were often guided by the buffalo paths to the best fords. 
They crossed the Colorado, called by them La Mahgne, probably near the 
present site of Austin, and the Brazos probably somewhat below Fort Gra- 
ham. Before they reached the Trinity, the country had become more bar- 
ren, and buffaloes had become scarcer. Here M. de la Salle was assassinated, 
and a portion of his party under M. Cavelier, his brother, continued their 
northward march, soon reaching the Trinity River. From the Trinity they 
took a northeasterly course, crossing the Red River near the mouth of the 
Sulphur Fork, and bore thence more easterly, crossing the Wachita and 
reaching the Arkansas, which they struck near its mouth. During this 
journey from the Trinity to the mouth of the Arkansas, they seem to have 
* Joutel’s Historical Journal of Monsieur de Ja Salle’s last voyage to discover the Mississippi River, 
French’s Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Part I, p. 98. 
+ Ibid, p. 116. 
t The latitude here given is obviously erroneous, as the context and subsequent account of their jour- 
ney northward clearly shows. The latitude must have been nearly 29° instead of 27°. 
§ Later called Bay of St. Bernard, which is the same as the present Matagorda Bay. 
|| Joutel’s Journal, French’s Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Part I, pp. 120, 121. 
