438 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



84, Mendoza traversed the region of the middle Concho River to its 

 junction with the Nueces and farther eastward to the Colorado River 

 near its junction with the main Concho River. lie mentions seeing 

 walnut trees (nogales) which Professor Bolton thinks were in all 

 probability pecans, and which he calls such in his translation. These 

 trees are described as occurring along watercourses (p. 334) "the 

 bottoms have many groves of them." In another place "were several 

 great groves of very tall pecan and live oak trees" (p. 335). Many 

 other references to these luxuriant growths occur in this account. 



De Leon, who visited Texas in 1689 on his march into Texas from 

 Mexico, refers repeatedly to some form of walnut (nogales) called 

 in the translation pecans. 1 The Xueces River, Atascosa Creek, and 

 Medina River are identified by Miss West 2 among the streams said 

 by De Leon to be bordered by pecans, frequently accompanied by 

 oaks, and sometimes b} r grapevines (p. 209). Miss West also renders 

 nogal as pecan, Avhich was probably the predominant species seen 

 by the explorer. 



To follow the pecan through early Spanish literature would lead 

 us be}'ond the limits of these notes. One other Spanish explorer, 

 who came at a much later date and who penetrated into the river 

 valleys tributary to the Mississippi, must, however, be referred to in 

 connection with the discussion of another phase of pecan history. 



DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 



It would be expected that the later exploration and exploitation 

 of the pecan country, a large part of which was covered by the early 

 territorial claims of the French, would have produced important 

 additions to the information given by De Soto. A thorough canvass 

 of the accounts of the early French voyageurs has not been attempted 

 but a number of early references to the pecan have come to my 

 attention. 3 



It is highly probable that La Salle and other explorers of the 

 lower Mississippi and of its tributaries encountered the pecan. So 

 abundant and so acceptable a food product could hardly have been 

 neglected by travelers finding it when ripe. The earliest reference 

 seen, however, is by Penicaut, who, in 1704, proceeding from the 

 south where the main expedition under De Bienville had entered the 

 mouth of the Mississippi, ascended to the village of Natchez. He 

 devoted a chapter in his account of this journe}' to a description of 

 the place, its inhabitants, and its products. As reprinted in his old- 

 time French he gives, perhaps, the earliest French description of the 



1 Bolton, H. E., ibid., pp. 391, 393. 



2 West, Elizabeth Howard, De Ltkm's Expedition of 1689. An annotated translation. 

 Quart. Texas State Hist. Assoc. 8 : 199-224. 1905. 



3 I am indebted to Dr. C. S. Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum for helpful suggestions 

 in connection with certain of the early French explorations. 



