TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 269 



Mexican Settlements and Early Days Reminiscenses 

 of Old San Antonio 



(Photo Illustrated By The Writer) 



Besides the Sian Pedro and 

 Alazan creeks, from their upper 

 sources near the San Pedro 

 Springs Lake and the West End 

 Lake down to the San Antonio 

 river along its serpentine wind- 

 ings, large rows of Mexican 

 dwellings existed in olden times, 

 and many today yet, along 

 these and other rivulets, and in 

 particular also west of the Mis- 

 sion "Concepcion de Aguna," 

 two miles below the present 



with raw hides, buffalo skins» 

 and miostly with man-high 

 reeds or tule then and now 

 yet growing along the ro- 

 mantic river bank of the forest 

 bottoms. A few remnants of 

 such huts can be seen today yet 

 around the Missions "San Juan," 

 "San Jose," "Espada" and 

 others, surrounded with the usual 

 "corral," and numbers of dogs 

 and cats, burros, mocking bird 

 cages, and other more or less 



Mission "Concepcion" Near San Antonio 

 {By the Writer, in 1886) 



metropolis of San Antonio, the 

 Mexican settlements being nam- 

 ed : "Nogalitos" — perhaps from 

 the luxuriant trees, mostly pe- 

 ca,n, walnut, tooxelder, willow, 

 poplars, huisache and other 

 typical native trees and shrub- 

 bery surrounding both sides of 

 the riviultes. There also exist- 

 ed in olden days many ancient 

 Mexican and Indian jacals 

 — mere plastered mudhouses 

 and sheds prepared from 

 mesquite wood and covered 



typical Mexican paraphernalia ;^^ 

 and they are also seen 

 around tha first Mission 

 "Concepcion" — a photo view 

 of which the visiter prepared 

 many years ago in a sur- 

 rounding pasture northeast, 

 of this Mission. The sur- 

 roundings of this old Mission — a 

 masterpiece of ancient architec- 

 ture, after nearly two hundred 

 years can be seen there today yet 

 in as erect and massive structure 

 as when it was first built by the 



