Alonso de León

Alonso de León (Ca 1639 - March 20th 1691), was youngest of the explorers News-Spain then governor of Coahuila, third wire of Alonso De León and Josefa González, was born with Cadereyta, Nuevo León, in 1639 or 1640.

Military career

To the ten years age, it is sent in Spain in a naval college. It joined the Spanish marine in 1657, but its service as a Cadet is short, it returns in Nuevo León towards 1660.

Explorer

During two decades following, it leads a series of explorations through the north-eastern coast of the News-Spain like on the banks of the Río de San Juan. In the years 1680 De León became a senior explorer and an accomplished contractor. In 1682, it writes with the Vice-roi of News-Spain, Tomás Antonio of Cerda, in order to obtain a concession on the salt layers along Río de San Juan, the right to trade with the colonies close and research to mines. These requests succeed and a fifteen years concession is granted to him.

With the research of French

About the middle of the years 1680, news indicates that of French established a colony on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, logically, De León decides to direct research operations aiming to find the intruders and to extirpate their colony there. It carries out in all four forwardings between 1686 and 1689. Its first recognitions follow Río de San Juan to its confluence with the Río Grande. After having reached the river, Don Alonso follows Right Bank to the coast then share towards the south until Río of mow Palmas (today Río Soto the Marina). These efforts do not bring any proof that of French visited the area.

Governor

In 1687 Of Leon governor of Coahuila is named. This same year, in February, it launches its second forwarding. This time it follows left bank of Río Grande to the coast and goes to the coast of the Texas around Baffin Bay but once again, does not find any trace of French.

The third forwarding is launched in May 1688, following information indicating that a white man lives with Indians in their camping in the north of Río Grande. This time it captures a certain Jean Jarry, a French old man with half naked and giving a little confused answers, a deserter of the forwarding of of the Room.

The fourth forwarding leaves Coahuila the March 27th 1689, with a troop of 114 man, including/understanding the chaplain Damián Massanet, of the soldiers, the carriers, the muleteers as well as the French prisoner, Jarry. April 22nd De León and its group discover the ruins of the French colony of Fort Saint-Louis, on banks of the Garcitas Creek. Indians teach him that five men live with a close tribe and seek labor, Leon sends a detachment to capture them. After a few days its men return with two of the French adventurers, Jacques Grollet and Jean the Archbishop, the others escaped. He makes build a Presidio, and returns in Coahuila where he founds Santiago of Monclova, the August 12th 1689. From there it sends two French to Mexico City, from where they will be to send in Spain, it recommends to the Viceroy that measures are taken in order to prohibit the coast with French. A royal order returns, ordering the establishment of more presidios and of missions in Texas.

He dies on March 20th, 1691. He was a good soldier and one of the first explorers of Spanish Texas. One him must have pled for the establishment of missions in Texas and to have traced the Old San Antonio Road (old road of San Antonio) during his forwardings.

See too

Sources

Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 ; Herbert Eugene Bolton, ED., New York; Scribner, 1908; rpt., New York: Noble Barnes and, 1959.
The French Thorn: Explorers rival in the Spanish Sea, 1682-1762 ; Robert S. Weddle, College Station; Texas A&M University Near, 1991.
Wilderness Manhunt: The Spanish Search for the Room ; Robert S. Weddle, Austin: University off Texas Near, 1973.
Historia de Nuevo León, idiot noticias sober Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Texas there Nuevo Mexico City, escrita in el siglo XVII por el Cape. Alonso de León, Juan Bautista Chapa there el Gral. Fernando Sánchez de Zamora . Estudio preliminar noted there of Israel Cavazos Garza. (Biblioteca de Nueva León. 1.) Monterrey, Mexico City (Gobierno del Estado de Nuevo León, Central of Estudios Humanísticos of Universidad de Nuevo León), 1961.

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