1. The Reason the Spanish FINALLY Began to Colonize Texas
La Salle
The Reason the Spanish FINALLY Began to Colonize Texas

2. La Salle’s Mississippi River Expedition (No Texas)
La Salle’s Mississippi Expedition
La Salle spent a total of about 20 years exploring the New World
He mostly explored what would be the Great Lakes, northeastern US and southeastern Canada

3. The Mississippi River Expedition
In La Salle’s 1682 expedition, he sailed down most of the Mississippi River to it’s end in present-day New Orleans
He then claimed the Mississippi River and all the land it drained for the King of France
French
English
Spanish

4. La Salle’s Unintended Texas Expedition
In 1684, La Salle sailed from France again to create a settlement on the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River
When he set out, Spain and France were at war
He was hoping to set up a fort to help attack Spanish territories in New Spain
This expedition was plagued with trouble with pirates, poor navigation and BAD MAPS
They left France with four ships and 300 colonists
One ship was lost to pirates in the West Indies (Saint Francois)
A second ship, ran aground in Matagorda Bay off the coast of Texas (Aimable)
Frustrated, the crew and many colonists took the third ship and sailed back to France (Joly)
They had one ship left… the La Belle

5. La Salle in Texas
By the time a temporary settlement, called Fort Saint Louis was built on the eastern end of Matagorda Island, there were only 180 colonists left
La Salle believed that the Mississippi River was nearby
La Salle left the colonists to build the settlement and went exploring his surroundings from Oct to March 1686

6. Fort Saint Louis For now…
In the winter of 1686, the colony’s last ship, the La Belle, sank in a storm in Matagorda Bay
The French colonists were stranded!!!
So, La Salle took 17 men and marched east hoping to find one of his other settlements and help for Fort St. Louis
At the settlement, he left about 20 people… mostly women, children, the physically handicapped and others that La Salle didn’t like (from TSHA)
Luckily, the Karankawa were friendly…
For now…

7. La Salle’s Fate
La Salle was travelling east and north in hopes of finding other French settlements to help with Fort Saint Louis
On March 19, 1687, one of the men he had taken with him shot La Salle dead
Of the 17 men that left Fort Saint Louis for help, five of them reached Canada… and eventually France

8. Fort Saint Louis’ Fate
The colonists waited for two years for help to come from La Salle’s “rescue mission”… none came
During the Christmas celebration of , the Karankawa came by the colony, in a guise of friendship…
And proceeded to kill all the colonists, except for the children
They took the children into their families
One group of kids, the Talon children, were later discovered among the Indians by the Spanish and sent to Mexico City to serve as servants in the viceroy’s house
One of the boys served as the only eyewitness account for the attack

9. Spanish Reaction to the French
The first mission built in EAST TEXAS was San Francisco de los Tejas
New Spain
Until 1688, the only part of Texas that Spain cared about was El Paso
Louisiana (French)
First Texas Mission
Mission Ysleta
Alonzo de Leon came upon Ft. St. Louis in April 1689
The Spanish sent out five sea searches and six land marches to try to find the colony and destroy it
De Leon found the bodies of the French colonists…
And went back to Mexico City to tell the viceroy that the French colony had been destroyed
Ft. St. Louis
Alonzo de Leon
They started building Spanish Missions in East Texas in an effort to try to keep the French out of Texas
The Spanish decided it was time to STOP IGNORING Texas and start colonizing
The Spanish government got MAD!!!!!!
However, when captured pirates told the Spanish about the French colony at Matagorda Bay

10. Mission San Francisco de los Tejas

11. Mission Ysleta in El Paso

12. Discovery – the wreckage for the La Belle was found in 1997

14. Fort Saint Louis

19. Map confusion. Early French map showing the charted course of the Mississippi River (denoted here as a blue line) far west of its true course and its actual mouth (outlined in red) near present-day New Orleans, some 400 miles up coast from La Salle’s landing point. La Salle was hampered by inaccurate maps and navigational devices.