BULL. 30] 



TEXAS 



739 



in the first place, however, by an appar- 

 ent but unexplained partial narrowing of 

 the term by the Indians of w. Texas from 

 whom they first heard it. 



Just when and how the name Texas first 

 reached the Spaniards is uncertain, but it 

 is known that in the 17th century there 

 grew up in New Spain the notion of a 

 "great kingdom of Texas," coextensive 

 and even associated with that of a " Gran 

 Quivira" {see Quiinra). Passing by ear- 

 lier notices, the idea is well illustrated by 

 a report sent in 1683 to the viceroy of 

 New Spain by the governor of New Mexi- 

 co. Governor Cruzate wrote from El Paso 

 del Norte that a Jumano (Tawehash (?) 

 Indian from the mouth of the Conchos, 

 called Juan Sabeata, had just come and 

 told him of many tribes to the eastward 

 who had sent to ask for missionaries. 

 Among them was the "Gran Reyno de 

 los Texas," situated 15 or 16 days jour- 

 ney from the informant's home. This 

 populous country, which was ruled by a 

 powerful "king," was next-door neigh- 

 bor to Gran Quivira, so close indeed that 

 the people of the two realms visited back 

 and forth almost daily. Cruzate asked 

 permission to embrace this rare oppor- 

 tunity to send an expedition to the inte- 

 rior, adding that he would be highly 

 gratified if, through his efforts, "another 

 New World" should l)e discovered, and 

 "two realms with two more crowns" 

 added to the king's dominions (Cruzate 

 to the Viceroy, Oct. 30, 1683, MS. ) . The 

 desired expedition was sent out in the 

 same year under Domingo de Mendoza, 

 but, although it penetrated far into the 

 interior (reaching the Colorado near 

 Ballinger), it failed to reach the great 

 kingdom of the Texas ( Diary of Mendoza, 

 1683-84, MS.). As conceived of by Juan 

 Sabeata, the Jumano, and by Mendoza, 

 this "kingdom" was aj^parently localized 

 indefinitely to some place e. of that 

 reached by the expedition, and applied 

 to settled Indians who practised agricul- 

 ture extensively. 



Massanet, the father of the Texas mis- 

 sions, tells us that it was the stories of 

 Gran Quivira and of "the kingdoms of 

 Ticlas, Theas, and Caburcol," handed 

 down from the mouth of the venerable 

 Maria de Jesus de Agreda, that attracted 

 him from Spain to the American wilds; 

 and w^hen in 1689 he went with De Leon 

 to find La Salle's establishment he was 

 preoccupied with these names and fabu- 

 lous nations. On the way, while still w. 

 of the Hasinai country, they were greeted 

 by Indians who proclaimed themselves 

 tliecas, 'friends,' as Massanet understood 

 the word, which may or may not be the 

 same as texas. E. of the Colorado they 

 were met by the chief of the Nabedache, 

 the westernmost of the Hasinai tribes, 



and in the next year they established 

 a mission near this chief's village, w. 

 of Neches r. Judging from the reports of 

 the then recent La Salle expedition, and of 

 most subsequent expeditions, they must 

 have heard while there the native group- 

 name Hasinai; but both ]\Ia.ssanet and 

 De Leon, with preconceived notions, it 

 would seem, of a "great kingdom of the 

 Texas," and thinking they had found it, 

 wrote of this chief as the "governor," 

 and of his people as the very Texas who 

 had been visited by the veneral)le Maria 

 de Jesus (Massanet, letter, in Tex. Hist. 

 Quar., II, 282-312; De Leon, Derrotero, 

 1689, MS. in Mem. de Nueva Espaiia, 

 xxviii; Derrotero, 1690, MS. in Archivo 

 Gen.). 



That, from the standpoint of the na- 

 tives whom Massanet had visited, both of 

 these designations were misleading, was 

 soon shown by a careful observer. Fran- 

 cisco de Jesus Maria, a missionary left by 

 Massanet among the Nabedache, wrote, 

 after more than a year's residence at bis 

 mission, his precious report of Aug. 15, 

 1691. In it he emphatically asserted that, 

 contrary to prevailing notions, the Indians 

 about him did not constitute a kingdom, 

 that the chief called "governor" by the 

 Spaniards was not the head chief, and 

 that the correct name of the group of 

 tribes was not Texas. Texias, he ex- 

 plained, means 'friends,' and is a gen- 

 eral name applying to a large group of 

 tribes, some 50 or more in number, who 

 are customarily allied. "The reason 

 why the name is common to all is their 

 long-continued friendship. Hence Texias 

 meant friends." The Texias have no 

 king, and not even a common govern- 

 ment, he continues, but belong to various 

 "provinces" or confederacies, with 4 or 

 5 tribes each. Hereupon he enumerates 

 the tribes comprising the Texias, giving 

 a list (obtained, he says, from the Hasinai 

 and the Kadohadacho) of 48 tribes, ex- 

 clusive of some of the Hasinai. Twenty- 

 one of these were n. and e. of the mission 

 from which he wrote. Five of these 21 

 composed the "very large province" of 

 "los Caddodachos." Eighteen were to 

 the s. w. and 9 to the s. e. One tribe, the 

 Chuman, we recognize as the Jumano, or 

 Jumane, of the Rio Grande country. It 

 would seem from this that the Jumano 

 and the Hasinai, for quite different rea- 

 sons, referred to each other as Texas, al- 

 though neither claimed the name for 

 themselves. Continuing, our author tells 

 us that the correct name of the confeder- 

 acy occupying the valleys of the U])per 

 Nechesand the Angelina, "which in New 

 Spain they call Texias," is "Aseney" or 

 "Asenay." 



This explicit statement by Jesus Maria 

 concerning the Hasinai usage of the term 



