Father francisco hidalgo biography

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St. Denis and his men were arrested at Presidio San Juan Bautista by Commandant Diego Ramon and held under house arrest. Circumstantial evidence suggests that he was orphaned early. The tension grew worse as droughts and floods ruined the mission's crops. Disputes arose between the two men creating tension between the missionaries and the government.

Arriving in the land of the Tejas, the Spanish claimed the region for their king. Santísimo Nombre de María was destroyed by a flood in 1692 and San Francisco de los Tejas was abandoned a year later at the insistence of the local Hasinai after misbehavior by Spanish soldiers and their cattle. The Spanish set to work building a mission.

During one of these expeditions the Spanish encountered a group of Hasinai who proclaimed themselves tayshas or allies (a term which became Tejas and then Texas) and asked the Spanish to come settle in their homeland of East Texas. More of the historic background leading to the return of Spanish missionaries and soldiers to the region can be found in the Cultural Worlds section of the TBH exhibit on Los Adaes.

The route of the De Soto entrada in 1542 through the Caddo Homeland as reconstructed by Charles Hudson.

He began establishing towns south of the Rio Grande in 1749, founding the towns of Camargo, Reynosa, and Revilla. After only a few days, the finished building the first mission in East Texas, Mission San Francisco de los Tejas. In 1688 he and two companions left for missionary work in the environs of Saltillo, Villa de la Monclova, and a mining camp known as Boca de Leones.

Both the Tejas and the missionaries were hopeful about the mission's future.

In 1691 Father Massanet returned to the mission with Domingo Teran de los Rios, the first governor of Spanish Texas. After an outbreak of disease, the Tejas turned on the Spanish, blaming them for bringing the deadly disease. The governor saw that the missions could bring French trade to the Caddos.

Fort St. Louis was discovered in 1689, and missions were founded among the Tejas Indians the following year, but Hidalgo did not enter Texas on that occasion.

Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online

Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.

After the failure of the missions of the late 1600s, Spanish activity in East Texas was very quiet for 20 years.

Mission life was difficult in East Texas and the mission's location was far from the settlements in Mexico. These missions were called Nuestra Señora de los Dolores and San Miguel de los Adaes, also known as Los Adaes (los ah-dah-ehs). They buried the mission bells and fled to Mexico.