740 



TEXAS 



[B. A. E. 



Texas or Texias seems to be essentially 

 correct, for it is supported by an abun- 

 dance of both positive and negative testi- 

 mony and is contradicted by little or none. 

 Only a small portion of this testimony can 

 be included here. 



To begin with, it is significant that the 

 several chroniclers of the La Salle ex- 

 peditions to the tribes in question did not 

 once, so far as is known, use the name 

 Texas in their voluminous reports, but 

 called the two main Caddoan groups 

 which they encountered the Cenis (Hasi- 

 nai) and Cadodaquious. This difference 

 from the reports of Massanet and De 

 Leon is attributed to the fact that the La 

 Salle party were ignorant of the Mexican 

 rumors about the "Gran Reyno de los 

 Texas." Of the French explorers who 

 reported on the Indians of n. e. Texas 

 after La Salle's expeditions and before 

 St Denis went to Mexico (1715), none, it 

 is believed, used the name Texas for the 

 Hasinai. The list includes Tonti, the 

 Talons left by Joutel, Iberville, Bien- 

 ville, and Penicaut (Tonti in French, 

 Hist. Coll. La., i, 74, 1846; the Talons 

 in Margry, Dec, in, 610-21, 1878; Iber- 

 ville and Bienville, ibid., iv, 331, 336, 

 401, 432-34, 1880; Penicaut, ibid., v, 499- 

 502, 1883). 



Returning to positive evidence, Terd,n, 

 who led the first Spanish expedition after 

 that of De Leon, set out, as he said, to 

 explore further the "kingdom of Texas," 

 but before he returned he abandoned the 

 name Texas, except as an alternative, or 

 as an official designation fixed by his in- 

 structions. As he approached the fron- 

 tier of the Hasinai country he considered 

 it necessary to explain that "this nation 

 is called by the natives Asinay, and 

 Texia, which in their language means 

 friends"; and after reaching the Neches 

 he at least eight times refers to the im- 

 mediate group of tril)es as Asinay, but 

 not once does he call them Texas (De- 

 scripcion y Diaria Demarcacion, in Mem. 

 de Nueva P^spaila, xxvii, 21-71, passim). 

 This is enough to show that after he 

 reached the ground his conversion from 

 "Texas" to "Hasinai" was complete. 

 But there is still stronger evidence. All 

 through the voluminous autos of the 

 Terdn expedition, "Hasinai" is used to 

 the exclusion of Texas as a tribal name. 

 Once the usage of Texas is explained. 

 Here several of the companions of Tentn 

 give, under oath, the opinion that the 

 "Nation Asinay" cannot be the king- 

 dom of Texas told of by the venerable 

 Maria de Jesus de Agreda. That king- 

 dom must be sought farther n. , beyond the 

 Kadohadacho. As to the name Texas, 

 they declare that "the said nation As- 

 inay in their own language call one an- 

 other, and even us, Texas, which means 



'friends.' The name of the nation ia 

 Asinay. All these nations commonly use 

 the same word to call each other friends. 

 This is so well understood from having 

 seen it and experienced it when, talking 

 with them, they wished to salute" 

 (Autos of the Teran expedition, op. cit.). 



One other explanation of what is ap- 

 parently the same word, Texas, deserves 

 especially to be noted, because it makes 

 clearer its more technical usage in the 

 sense of "allies," and also reveals the 

 persistence of its usage in this sense by 

 the natives during a century of contact 

 with French and Spaniards. In 1778 

 Atanacio de Mezieres, in his day and sec- 

 tion the dean of Indian agents, wrote 

 that the best way to bring the Comanche 

 to Spanish allegiance would be to attach 

 them, in the honorable position of allies, 

 to a campaign which he was proposing to 

 make against the Apache in company 

 with the principal tribes of n. e. Texas; 

 "because," he explained, "from such a 

 custom comes the name of Techdn among 

 the natives, which suggests [ahide d] that 

 oi commilito [companion in arms], with 

 which the Romans flattered themselves, 

 and which results among the Indiana in 

 a close bond of friendship between those 

 who call themselves by it, and in the 

 vulgar opinion that no one may break it 

 without fearing and incurring the pen- 

 alty which perjurers merit" (Letter to 

 Croix, Feb. 20, 1778, in Mem. de Nueva 

 Espana, xxviii, 235). Mezieres' custom- 

 ary use of accent marks makes it seem 

 probable that the one he puts in Techdn 

 is to indicate the quality of the vowel, 

 and not stress of voice. 



That the name locally applied to the 

 Neches-Angelina group of tribes was 

 Hasinai, or Asinai, there seems little 

 room for doubt; and the above explana- 

 tions of the meaning and usages of Texas, 

 given by our best qualified witnesses, 

 are, to say the least, probably the most 

 satisfactory we are likely to have. The 

 meanings 'land of flowers', 'paradise', 

 'tiled roofs', etc., sometimes given for 

 the word, have never been even sug- 

 gested, so far as known, by first-hand 

 observers. They seem to be fictions of 

 recent date. 



Through an erroneous preconception, 

 Texas became the official Spanish desig- 

 nation of the Hasinai people and their 

 country. While eyewitnesses continued 

 to insist that Hasinai was the correct 

 name, the authorities in Mexico con- 

 tinued to designate them as the Texas, 

 narrowing the name commonly to the 

 Neches-Angelina: group, whose most 

 prominent tribes were the Nabedache, 

 Nacogdoche, Neche, Hainai, Nasoni, and 

 Nadaco (q. v.). Owing to the fact that 

 the Hainai were the head tribe of the con- 



