BY 
 
 HERBERT E. BOLTON, Ph. D. 
 
 Adjunct Professor of History in the University of Texas 
 
 Reprinted from the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, 
 Vol. XI, No. 4 (April, 1908) 
 
 AUSTIN, TEXAS 
 
Reprinted from the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, 
 Vol. XI, No. '4, pp. 249-276 (April, 1908). 
 
 THE NATIVE TEIBES ABOUT THE EAST TEXAS 
 MISSION'S. 
 
 HERBERT E. BOLTON. 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The history of the Spanish regime in the Southwest is very 
 largely the history of an Indian policy in its military, political, 
 and religious phases, and to understand it aright it is manifestly 
 necessary to know something of the people over whom the Spaniards 
 extended their authority and upon whom they tried to impose their 
 faith and their civilization. 
 
 The purpose of this paper is to furnish a partial introduction 
 to the early history of the Spaniards in eastern Texas the scene 
 of their first systematic activities between the Mississippi and the 
 upper Eio Grande by presenting some of the main features of 
 the organization of the compact group of tribes living in the upper 
 ISTeches and the Angelina Eiver valleys, the first and the most 
 important group with which they came into intimate contact. 
 These tribes furnished the early field of labor especially for the 
 Franciscans of the College of Santa Cruz de Queretaro, who worked 
 for fifteen years in the region and founded in it five missions, 
 while one was founded there and maintained for more than half a 
 century by the College of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Zaca- 
 tecas. It is hoped that this paper will throw new light on the all 
 too obscure history of these interesting establishments, particularly 
 with respect to their locations. 1 
 
 The Names "Texas" and "Hasinai." 
 
 The tribes in question commonly have been called the Texas, 
 but more properly the Hasinai. Concerning the meaning and 
 
 l The authoritative presentation of the general history of the beginnings 
 of these establishments is that contained in the excellent articles by Dr. 
 R. C. Clark, published in this journal, Vol. V, 171-205, and Vol. VI, 1-26. 
 In their bearings upon Indian organization and tribal names they are 
 marred to some extent by the use of corrupt copies of the sources instead 
 of the originals, as will be seen by comparing them with what follows. It 
 is but fair to state that in the revision and extension of these articles, 
 about to appear as a Bulletin of the University of Texas, Mr. Clark has 
 corrected some of the errors. 
 
 For facts concerning the individual tribes mentioned in the course of 
 this article, see the Handbook of American Indians, edited by F. W. 
 Hodge (Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, No. 30, Part I, 
 1907; Part II in press). 
 
250 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 usage of these terms I shall only present here somewhat dogmati- 
 cally part of the results of a rather extended study which I have 
 made of these points and which I hope soon to publish. 1 
 
 The testimony of the sources warrants the conclusion that before 
 the coming of the Spaniards the word Texas, variously spelled by 
 the early writers, had wide currency among the tribes of eastern 
 Texas and perhaps over a larger area; that its usual meaning was 
 "friends," or more technically, "allies" ; and that it was used by the 
 tribes about the early missions, at least, to whom especially it 
 later became attached as a group name, to designate a large num- 
 ber of tribes who were customarily allied against the Apaches. 
 In this sense, the Texas included tribes who spoke different lan- 
 guages and who were as widely separated as the Bed Elver and the 
 Eio Grande. It seems that the Neches-Angelina tribes designated 
 did not apply the term restrictively to themselves as a name, but 
 that they did use it in a very untechnical way as a form of greeting, 
 like "hello, friend," with which they even saluted Spaniards after 
 their advent. I may say, in this connection, that the meanings 
 "land of flowers," "tiled roofs," "paradise," etc., sometimes given 
 for the name Texas, I have never seen even suggested by early 
 observers, or by anyone on the basis of trustworthy evidence. 
 
 The name Texas has been variously applied by writers, but it 
 was most commonly used by the Spaniards, from whom the French 
 and the English borrowed it, to designate those tribes of the upper 
 Neches and the Angelina valleys, and this in spite of their know- 
 ing full well that among the natives the word had the wider appli- 
 cation that has been indicated. There are many variations from 
 this usage in Spanish writings, it is true, but this, nevertheless, is 
 the ordinary one. As a tribal name the term was sometimes still 
 further narrowed to apply to a single tribe. When this occurred, 
 it was most commonly used to designate the Hainai, the head tribe 
 of the group in question, but sometimes it was applied to the Nabe- 
 dache tribe. As a geographical term, the name Texas was first ex- 
 tended from these Neches-Angelina tribes to their immediate coun- 
 try. Thus for the first quarter of a century of Spanish occupation, 
 the phrase "the Province of Texas" referred only to the country 
 east of the Trinity Eiver ; but with the founding of the San Antonio 
 settlements the term was extended westward, more in harmony 
 
 1 The present paper embodies some of the results of an investigation of 
 the history of the Texas tribes which the writer is making for the Bureau 
 of American Ethnology. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 251 
 
 with its native meaning, to the Medina Eiver, and then gradually 
 to all of the territory included within the present State of Texas. 
 
 While the name Texas, as .used by the tribes in the eastern por- 
 tion of the State, was thus evidently a broad and indefinite term 
 applied to many and unrelated tribes occupying a wide area, it is 
 clear that the native group name for most of the tribes about 
 the missions in the ISTeches and Angelina valleys was Hasinai, or 
 Asinai. 1 Today the term Hasinai is used by the Caddoans on the 
 reservations to include not only the survivors of these Neches- 
 Angelina tribes, but also the survivors of the tribes of the Sabine 
 and Eed Eiver country. It seems from the sources, however, that 
 in the early days the term was more properly limited to the former 
 group. In strictest usage, indeed, the earliest writers did not in- 
 clude all of these. A study of contemporary evidence shows that 
 at the first contact of Europeans with these tribes and for a long 
 time thereafter writers quite generally made a distinction between 
 the Hasinai (Asinai, Cenis, etc.) and the Kadohadacho 2 (Cad- 
 dodacho) group; these confederacies, for such they were in the 
 Indian sense of the term, were separated by a wide stretch of unin- 
 habited territory extending between the upper Angelina and the 
 Eed Eiver in the neighborhood of Texarkana; their separateness 
 of organization was positively affirmed, and the details of the inner 
 constitution of both groups were more or less fully described; 
 while in their relations with the Europeans they were for nearly 
 a century dealt with as separate units. Nevertheless, because of 
 the present native use of the term and some early testimony that 
 can not be disregarded, I would not at present assert unreservedly 
 that the term formerly was applied by the natives only to the 
 Neches-Angelina group. If, as seems highly probable, this was 
 the case, in order to preserve the native usage we should call these 
 tribes the Hasinai; if not, then the Southern Hasinai. 
 
 The name Hasinai, like Texas, was sometimes narrowed in its 
 application to one tribe, usually the Hainai. But occasionally the 
 notion appears that there was an Hasinai tribe distinct from the 
 
 'The Spaniards ordinarily spelled this name Asinai or Asinay, and the 
 French writers Cenis. Mooney, the ethnologist, who knows intimately the 
 survivors of these people living on the reservations, writes the name by 
 which they now call themselves Hasinai., or Hasini, preferably the former. 
 His spelling has been adopted as the standard one by the Bureau of 
 American Ethnology. See the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau 
 of American Ethnology, 1092 (1896). 
 
 2 I use here also the spelling adopted by the Bureau of American Eth- 
 nology. 
 
252 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 Hainai. This, however, does not seem to have been the case. As 
 now used by the surviving Hasinai and Caddos, Hasinai means 
 "our own folk," or, in another sense, "Indians." 1 
 
 Ethnological Relations: Historical Importance. 
 
 The Hasinai belonged to the Caddoan linguistic stock. .This 
 family, which was a large one, was divided into three principal 
 geographic groups of tribes: the northern, represented by the 
 Arikara in North Dakota; the middle, comprising the Pawnee 
 confederacy, formerly living on the Platte River, Nebraska, and to 
 the west and southwest thereof; and the southern, including most 
 of the tribes of eastern Texas, together with many of those of 
 western Louisiana and of southern Oklahoma. 2 Of this southern 
 group the tribes about the Queretaran missions were one of the 
 most important subdivisions. They, together with the related 
 Caddo tribes to the north, represented the highest form of 
 native society between the Red and the upper Rio Grande rivers, 
 a stretch of nearly a thousand miles. This fact gave them from 
 the outset a relatively large political importance. While it has 
 been clearly shown by writers that the immediate motive to plant- 
 ing the first Spanish establishment within this area was French 
 encroachment, little note has been made of the fame and the rela- 
 tive advancement of the Hasinai Indians as factors in deter- 
 mining the choice of the location. LaSalle's colony, which first 
 brought the Spaniards to Texas to settle, was established on the 
 Gulf coast; and had the natives of this region been as well or- 
 ganized and as influential among the tribes as the Hasinai, and, 
 therefore, as likely to become the theater of another French in- 
 trusion, the logical procedure for the Spaniards would have been 
 to establish themselves on the ground where the first intrusion 
 had occurred, and within relatively easy reach from Mexico both 
 by water and by land. But the Karankawan tribes of the coast 
 proved hostile to the French and Spaniards alike, and, while their 
 savage life and inhospitable country offered little to attract the 
 missionary, their small influence over the other groups of natives 
 rendered them relatively useless as a basis for extending Spanish 
 political authority. These considerations entered prominently into 
 
 J See Mooney, op. cit. 
 
 "Powell, "Indian Linguistic Families," in the Seventh Annual Report of 
 the Bureau of American Ethnology, with map; Handbook of American 
 Indians (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bui. No. 30), 182. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 253 
 
 the Spaniards' decision to establish their first Texas missions far 
 in the interior, at a point difficult to reach from Mexico by land 
 and wholly inaccessible by water. Events justified their estimate 
 of the importance of the Hasinai as a base of political operations. 
 But, while the control of these tribes and their Caddo neighbors 
 remained for a century or more a cardinal point in the politics of 
 the Texas-Louisiana frontier, it was soon learned that the less 
 advanced and weaker tribes of the San Antonio region, nearer 
 Mexico and farther removed from the contrary influence of the 
 French, afforded a better field for missionary labors. 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL TRIBES. 
 
 Since Indian political organization was at best but loose and 
 shifting and was strongly dominated by ideas of independence, 
 and since writers were frequently indefinite in their use of terms, 
 it would not be easy to determine with strict accuracy the con- 
 stituent elements of this Neches-Angelina confederacy at different 
 times. However, a few of the leading tribes those of greatest 
 historical interest stand out with distinctness and can be followed 
 for considerable periods of time. 
 
 De Leon learned in 1689 from the chief of the Nabedache tribe, 
 the westernmost of the group, that his people had nine settle- 
 ments. 1 Francisco de Jesus Maria Casanas, writing in 1691 near 
 the Nabedache village after fifteen months' residence there, re- 
 ported that the "province of Aseney" comprised nine tribes 
 (naciones) living in the Neches-Angelina valleys within a district 
 about thirty-five leagues long. It would seem altogether prob- 
 able that these reports referred to the same nine tribes. Those 
 named by Jesus Maria, giving his different spellings, were the 
 Nabadacho or Yneci (Nabaydacho), Necha (Neita), Kechaui, Na- 
 cono, Nacachau, Nazadachotzi, Cachae (Cataye), Nabiti, and Na- 
 sayaya (JSTasayaha). 1 The location of these tribes Jesus Maria 
 points out with some definiteness, and six of them at least we are 
 able to identify in later times without question. Moreover, his 
 description of their governmental organization is so minute that 
 one feels that he must have had pretty accurate information. The 
 testimony of a number of other witnesses who wrote between 1687 
 
 ^Poblaciones." Letter of May 18, 1689, printed in Buckingham Smith's 
 Documentos para, la Historia de la Florida; evidently that cited by 
 Velasco, in Memorias de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 179. Concerning the 
 Memorias, see note 3, p. 256. 
 
 2 Relaci6n, August 15, 1691, MS., 107, 108, 112. 
 
254 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 and 1692 in the main corroborates that of Jesus Maria, particu- 
 larly in the important matter of not including the Nasoni tribe 
 within the Hasinai. 1 
 
 It so happens that after 1692 we get little intimate knowledge of 
 the Hasinai until 1715. When light again dawns there appear 
 in common usage one or two additions to Jesus Maria's list. 
 Whether they represent an oversight on his part or subsequent 
 accretions to the group we can not certainly say. Of those in his 
 list six, the Nabadacho, Neche, Nacogdoche, Nacachau, Nacono, 
 and Nabiti are mentioned under the same names by other writers. 
 Cachae is evidently Jesus Maria's name for the well known Hainai, 
 as will appear later, while the Nabiti seem to be San Denis's 
 Nabiri and may be Joutel's Noadiche (Nahordike). For the 
 Nechaui we can well afford to accept Jesus Maria's explicit state- 
 ment. Besides these nine, the Spaniards after 1716 always treated 
 as within the Hasinai group the Nasoni, Nadaco, and the Nacao. 
 Judging from the localities occupied and some other circumstances, 
 it is not altogether improbable that two of these may be old tribes 
 under new names, as seems to be clearly the case with the Hainai^ 
 The Nasayaya, named by Jesus Maria, may answer to the Nasoni, 
 well known after 1716, 2 and the Nabiti may possibly be the Nadaco, 
 also well known after that date. If both of these surmises be true, 
 we must add to Jesus Maria's list at least the Nacao, making ten 
 tribes in all; if not, there were at least eleven or twelve. Putting 
 first the best known and the most important, they were: the 
 Hainai, Nabedache, Nacogdoche, Nasoni, Nadaco, Neche, Nacono, 
 Nechaui, Nacao, and, perhaps, the Nabiti and the Nasayaya. This 
 is not intended as a definitive list of the Hasinai at any one time, 
 
 ^ee Joutel, in Margry, Decouvertes, III, 341, 344, et seq. (French's 
 version of Joutel's Journal, printed in the Historical Collections of 
 Louisiana, is very corrupt, and must be used with the greatest care) ; 
 Teran, Descripcifin, in Mem. de Nucva Espana, XXVII, 48, et seq. 
 
 2 The Nasayaya are placed by Jesus Maria in a location corresponding 
 very closely to that later occupied by the Nasoni. Yet, the facts that 
 though Jesus Maria named the Nasoni he did not include them in the 
 Hasinai group while he did include the Nasayaya, and that Teran ex- 
 plicitly excludes the Nasoni from the Hasinai, make it seem probable thai 
 the Nasoni and the Nasayaya were distinct. The strongest ground for 
 rejecting this conclusion is the fact that the latter tribe never appears 
 again under a recognizable name, unless they are the Nacaxe, who later 
 appear on the Sabine. The Nabiti might possibly be the Nadaco, but 
 this does not seem likely, for the locations do not correspond very closely, 
 while as late as 1715 San Denis gave the Nabiri and Nadoco as two 
 separate tribes. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 255 
 
 but it does include those known to have been within the com- 
 pact area about the Queretaran missions and commonly treated 
 as within the Hasinai group. By following the footnotes below it 
 will be seen that "Nacoches," "Noaches," and "Asinay," which 
 have been given, with resulting confusion, as names of tribes where 
 early missions were established, are simply corruptions of "Neche," 
 "Nasoni," and "Ainai," as the forms appear in the original manu- 
 scripts, whose whereabouts are now known. 
 
 The Ais, or Eyeish, a neighbor tribe living beyong the Arroyo 
 Attoyac, at whose village a Zacatecan mission was founded in 1717, 
 seem to have fallen outside the Hasinai confederacy. Only re- 
 cently have they been included by ethnologists in the Caddoan 
 stock, and, although they are now regarded as Caddoan, there are 
 indications that their dialect was quite different from that of their 
 western neighbors, while their manners and customs were always 
 regarded as inferior to those of these other tribes. 1 Moreover, 
 there is some evidence that they were generally regarded as aliens, 
 and that they were sometimes even positively hostile to the Hasi- 
 nai. Thus Jesus Maria includes them in his list of the enemies 
 of the Hasinai; Espinosa, a quarter of a century after Jesus 
 Maria wrote, speaks of them as friendly toward the "Assi- 
 nay," from which by implication he excludes them, but says 
 that the Hasinai medicine men "make all the tribes believe that 
 disease originates in the bewitchment which the neighboring In- 
 dians, the Bidnis, Ays, and Yacdocas, cause them," a belief that 
 clearly implies hostility between the tribes concerned, 2 while Me- 
 zieres wrote in 1779 that the Ais were hated alike by their Spanish 
 and their Indian neighbors. 8 
 
 The Adaes, or Adai, in whose midst the mission of Nuestra 
 Senora de los Dolores was founded in 1717, lived beyond the 
 Sabine, and belonged to the Red Eiver group of Caddoans, or the 
 Caddo. They, therefore, do not fall within the scope of this paper. 
 
 THEIR LOCATION. 
 
 For determining the location of these tribes our chief materials 
 are the Journal of Joutel (1687), the Eelacion of Francisco de 
 
 ^n the subjects of their languages see the Handbook of the American 
 Indians, under "Eyeish." 
 2 Cr6nica Apostdlica, 428. 
 *Expedici6n, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 240. 
 
256 
 
 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 Jesus Maria Casanas (1691), De Leon's diary of the expedition of 
 1690, Teran's for that of 1691-2, those of Ramon and Espinosa 
 for the expedition of 1716, Pena's for that of Aguayo (1721), 
 Rivera's for his visita of 1727, Solis's for that made by him in 
 1767-8, and Mezieres's accounts of his tours among the Indians 
 in 1772, 1778, and 1779. Two only of these are in print, while 
 two of them have not before been used. 1 Besides these and 
 numerous supplementing documentary sources, there are (1) the 
 
 HASiNAi VLLAGES, 
 
 early surveys showing the Camino Real, or Old San Antonio Road, 
 whose windings in eastern Texas were determined mainly by the 
 
 'Of the diaries of De Le6n and Espinosa I cite only the manuscripts in 
 the Archivo General y Publico, Mexico. These, I believe, are not other- 
 wise available, and have not before been used except by Mr. R. C. Clark, 
 who has recently had access to my transcripts. Of Jesus Maria's Relaci6n 
 I follow an autograph manuscript, which, however, appears to be a copy 
 instead of the original. Of the diaries of Teran and Ram6n I have had 
 access to the originals, and of the Mezieres manuscripts either to the orig- 
 inals or to certified official copies. My copy of the Rivera diary is from 
 the edition printed in 1736. For the Pefla and Soils diaries I have had 
 to depend upon the copies in the Memorias. On comparing Memorias 
 transcripts, in general, with the originals I have found that they are very 
 corrupt and that numerous mistakes have resulted from their use. But 
 in cases where there are no essential differences, I cite the Memorias 
 copies, because they are more generally accessible; otherwise I cite the 
 originals. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 257 
 
 location of the principal Indian villages where the Spaniards had 
 settlements, (2) certain unmistakable topographical features, 
 such as the principal rivers and the Neche Indian mounds, and 
 (3) geographical names that have come down to us from the 
 period of Spanish occupation. 
 
 It will be interesting, before studying the location of each one of 
 the tribes separately, to read the general description of the group 
 given by Jesus Maria in 1691. Speaking of the Great Xinesi, he 
 said, "To him are subject all of these nine tribes : The Nabadacho, 
 which, for another name, is called Yneci. Within this tribe are 
 founded the mission of Nuestro Padre San Francisco and the 
 one which I have founded in Your Excellency's name, that of 
 El Santissimo Nombre de Maria. The second tribe is that of the 
 Necha. It is separated from the former by the Rio del Arcangel 
 San Miguel [the Neches]. Both are between north and east. 1 
 At one side of these two, looking south, between south and east, 
 is the tribe of the Nechaui, and half a league from the last, 
 another, called the Nacono. Toward the north, where the above- 
 mentioned Necha tribe ends, is the tribe called Nacachau. Be- 
 tween this tribe and another called Nazadachotzi, which is toward 
 the east, in the direction of the house of the Great Xinesi, which 
 is about . . . half way between these two tribes, 2 comes 
 another, which begins at the house of the Great Xinesi, between 
 north and east, and which is called Cachae. At the end of this 
 tribe, looking toward the north, is another tribe called Nabiti, 
 and east of this a tribe called the Nasayaha. These nine tribes 
 embrace an extent of about thirty-five leagues and are all subject 
 to this Great Xinesi." 3 This description will be convenient for 
 reference as we proceed. 
 
 It may be noted here that the average league of the old Spanish 
 diaries of expeditions into Texas was about two miles. This should 
 be kept in mind when reading the data hereafter presented. 
 
 leaning north and east of the point where he was writing, near San 
 Pedro Creek, Houston County, as will appear below. 
 
 *My text (see note 3, p. 256) may be correct here. It reads "q esta, 
 Como almediodia y enel Medio de las dos N'aciones." It is possible that 
 the copyist first wrote almediodia by mistake for enel Medio de and then 
 wrote the latter correctly, but neglected to erase the words written by 
 mistake. Other data seem to bear out this supposition. 
 
 'Relaci6n, 107-108. 
 
258 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 The Nacogdoche Tribe and the Mission of Guadalupe. 
 
 A starting point or base from which to determine the location of 
 most of the tribes is the founding of the mission of Nuestra Senora 
 de Guadalupe at the main village of the Nacogdoches in 1716, 
 for it can be shown that this mission remained on the same site 
 until it was abandoned in 1773; that the modern city of Nacog- 
 doches was built at the old mission site; and, therefore, that the 
 location of this city represents the location of the principal Na- 
 cogdoche village. The evidence briefly stated is as follows: 
 Ramon, whose expedition founded this mission, wrote in has 
 Derrotero that nine leagues east-southeast of the principal Hasinai 
 village (the Hainai), on the Angelina Eiver, he arrived at the 
 "village of the Nacogdoches," and that on the next day he 
 "set out from this mission," implying clearly that the mission 
 was located where he was writing, at the Nacogdoche village. 1 
 As is well known, all of the missions of this section were aban- 
 doned in 1719 because of fear of a French invasion. Pena reports in 
 his diary of the Aguayo expedition of 1721 that Aguayo, who rebuilt 
 the abandoned missions, entered "the place where stood the mission 
 of N. S. de Guadalupe de Nacodoches," and rebuilt the church. 
 The inference is that the site was the old one, more especially 
 since in one instance in the same connection where a mission site 
 was changed Pena mentions the fact. 2 This mission was continued 
 without any known change till 1773, when it was abandoned. 
 But when in 1779 (not 1778, as is commonly stated) Antonio Gil 
 Ybarbo laid the foundations of modern Nacogdoches with his 
 band of refugees from the Trinity Eiver settlement of Bucareli, 
 he found the Nacogdoches mission buildings still standing, settled 
 his colony near them, and apparently reoccupied some of them. 3 
 Hence it is clear that the city of Nacogdoches represents very 
 closely, perhaps exactly, the site of the main village of the Nacog- 
 doche tribe at the opening of the eighteenth century. If more 
 
 1 Derrotero, original in the Archive General y Publico, Mexico. The 
 copy in Mem. de Nueva Espana, Vol. XXVII, is very corrupt. At this 
 point a generous addition is made by the copist. See folio 158. 
 
 2 Pefia, Diario, op. cit., XXVIII, 40, 43, 44. 
 
 'Antonio Gil Ybarbo to Croix, May 13, 1779, MS. See Bolton in THE 
 QUARTERLY, IX, No. 2, for the story of the beginning of modern Nac- 
 ojjdoches. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texag Missions. 259 
 
 evidence were necessary, the presence within the city of Nacog- 
 doches till recent times of four ancient Indian mounds would 
 strengthen the conclusion. 1 With this as a starting point, it is 
 not difficult to indicate the approximate location of the most 
 prominent of the remaining tribes. Starting with the Nacogdoche 
 involves the disadvantage of reading the diaries backwards, it is 
 true, but has the great advantage of enabling us to proceed from 
 a well-established point. 
 
 The Hainai Tribe and the Mission of Conc&pdon. 
 
 On the east bank of the Angelina River, a little north of a 
 direct west line from the Nacogdoche village, was that of the 
 Hainai. 2 This tribe, whose lands lay on both sides of the Ange- 
 lina, 3 was the head of the Hasinai confederacy, and for that 
 reason was sometimes called Hasinai. It is to this tribe, also, that 
 the name Texas was usually applied when it was restricted to a 
 single one. Within its territory was the chief temple of the group, 
 presided over by the great Xinesi, or high priest. 4 At its main 
 village the mission of La Purissima Concepcion was founded in 
 1716. 
 
 After the Relacion of Jesus Maria, our first sources of 
 specific information on the location of this village are the diaries. 
 Ramon tells us that he entered the "Pueblo de los Ainai" just 
 east of the Angelina River, and that nine leagues east-south-east 
 of this village he reached the "Pueblo de los Nacogdoches." 5 The 
 
 information furnished in 1907 by Dr. J. E. Mayfield, of Nacogdoches. 
 He writes: "Four similar mounds once existed at Nacogdoches, located 
 upon a beautiful site about three hundred yards northeast of the old 
 stone 'fort or stone house that has recently been removed from the main 
 city plaza. . . . These have been razed and almost obliterated. To 
 the east of them is a hole or excavation from which the earth may have 
 been taken for the construction of these mounds." 
 
 2 I follow the spelling of Mooney. which has been adopted by the Bureau 
 of American Ethnology. The more common Spanish forms were Aynay 
 and Ainai. English writers frequently spell it loni. 
 
 'Espinosa, Crdnica Apostdlica, 425; Diario, 1716; MS. entry for July 
 12; Mezi&res, Carta, Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 241. 
 
 Mesus Maria, Relaci&n; Espinosa, Crdnica Apostdlica, 423. 
 
 6 Derrotero, entries for July 7 and 8. Original in the Archive General 
 y Publico, Mexico. The copy in Hemorias de Nueva Espana (XXVII, 
 157-8) changes "Ainai" to "Asinay" and "Nacogdoches" to "Nacodoches." 
 It is such errors as the former, evidently, that gave rise to the idea that 
 
260 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 missionary fathers who accompanied Ramon, in their Representa- 
 tion made at the same time reported the distance as eight leagues 
 east-south-east. Pena (1721) says the distance was eight leagues 
 east-north-east from the presidio founded near the mission, and 
 nine from the mission. Rivera (1727) found the mission just 
 east of the "Rio de los Aynays," or the Angelina, and nine leagues 
 west of the Nacogdoches mission. 1 These witnesses tally in the 
 main with each other and also, be it noted, with the testimony of 
 the San Antonio Road, as its route is now identified in the old 
 surveys. According to the best information obtainable it ran from 
 Nacogdoches a little north of west to the Angelina, passing it 
 about at Linwood Crossing. 2 Espinosa tells us that he founded 
 the mission of Concepcion a mile or two east of the place where 
 the highway crossed the Angelina, near two springs, in the middle 
 of the Hainai village. This site could not have been far from 
 Linwood Crossing. 3 
 
 This Hainai tribe, as has been stated, was evidently the one 
 which Jesus Maria called the Cachae or Cataye. He said that be- 
 tween the Nacachau and the Nacogdoche, about midway, was the 
 lodge of the Great Xinesi, and if we get his meaning here 
 that immediately northeast of this lodge was the Cachae tribe. 
 From other data we learn that the Xinesi's house was within or on 
 the borders of the Hainai territory, aobut three leagues from the 
 Concepcion mission, and apparently west of the Angelina. 4 The 
 Cachae thus correspond, in location and relations, to the Hainai, 
 while, moreover, the latter are the only tribe that appear in 
 this locality after 1716. Considering with these facts the proba- 
 bility that Jesus Maria would hardly have left the head tribe un- 
 mentioned in so formal a description as is his, and the fact that 
 
 there was an Asinay tribe. Similarly, the Memorias copy of the Repre- 
 sentaci6n of the "Padres Misioneros"' dated July 22, 1716 (Vol. XXVII, 
 163) states that the mission of Concepci6n was founded for the "Asinays," 
 whereas the original of that document, as of Espinosa's diary, reads 
 "Ainai." This error has been copied and popularized. 
 
 'Ramtin, Derrotero, in Memorias de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 158; the 
 "Padres Misioneros," Representaci6n, Ibid., 163; Pefia, Diario, Ibid., 
 XXVIII, 43-44; Rivera, Diario, leg. 2142. 
 
 "Maps of Cherokee and Nacogdoches counties (1879), by I. C. Walsh, 
 Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas, compiled from official 
 data. 
 
 'Espinosa, Diario, entries for July 6 and 7; RamGn, Derrotero, op. cit. 
 
 4 Espinosa, Crdnica Apost6Hca, 424 ; Morff , Mem. Hist. Texas, Bk. II, MS. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 261 
 
 the Hainai is clearly the head tribe, it seems reasonably certain 
 that the Cachae and the Hainai were identical. 
 
 The Neche Tribe and the Mission of San Francisco (Second Site). 
 
 Southwest of the Hainai village, nearly straight west of the 
 Nacogdoche, was the Neche village, near the east bank of the 
 Neches River, and near the crossing of the Camino Real. The 
 diaries usually represent the distance from the Neche to the 
 Hainai as about the same as that from the Hainai to the Nacog- 
 doche some eight or nine leagues. 1 The air line distance was 
 evidently somewhat less in the former case than in the latter, but 
 the route was less direct, since between the Neches and the Ange- 
 lina rivers the road bowed quite decidedly to the north. The 
 usual crossing of this highway at the Neches, as now identified, 
 was at Williams's Ferry, below the mouth of San Pedro Creek. 2 
 Archaeological remains help us to identify this crossing and give 
 certainty to the approximate correctness of our conclusions. These 
 remains are the Indian mounds east of the Neches River. The 
 first mention of them that I have seen is that by Mezieres, in 1779. 
 His record is important. Passing along the Camino Real on his 
 way to the Nabedache, he noted the large mound near the Neches 
 River, raised, he said, by the ancestors of the natives of the lo- 
 cality "in order to build on its top a temple, which overlooked the 
 pueblo near by, and in which they worshiped their gods a monu- 
 ment rather to their great numbers than to the industry of their 
 individuals." 3 This mound and its two less conspicuous compan- 
 ions still stand in Cherokee County about a mile and a half from 
 
 VEspinosa tells us that the mission was near a spring and also near 
 an arroyo that flowed from the northeast. He gave the distance from the 
 mission from the camp near the Neches River as one league, and that to 
 the mission of Concepci6n, east of the Angelina, eight leagues, going 
 northeast by east, then east (Diario, entries for July 2 and 6). Ram6n 
 gave the distance to the mission of Concepcifln, from the camp near the 
 Neches apparently, but possibly from the mission, as nine leagues east- 
 northeast (Derrotero, in Mem. de Niieva Espana, XXVII, 157-158). 
 
 2 See maps cited above, and also the Map of Houston County, copied 
 from a map by Geo. Aldrich, by H. S. Upshur, Draughtsman in the Gen- 
 eral Land Office, 1841. 
 
 "Letter to Croix, August 16, 1779, .MS., in the Archivo General y 
 Pfiblico, Mexico. This letter was written at the "Village of Sn. Pedro 
 de los Navedaehos," just after Mezi&res passed the mounds. The Memorias 
 copy of the letter gives the name of the place, erroneously, San Pedro 
 Nevadachos" (Vol. XXVIII, 241). 
 
262 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 the river and five miles southwest of Alto, in a plain known to 
 some as Mound Prairie, undoubtedly the true Mound Prairie 
 whose whereabouts has been debated. They are on land now the 
 property of the Morrill Orchard Company, once a part of the 
 original grant made to the romantic Pedro Ellis Bean. The Old 
 San Antonio Eoad, as identified in the' oldest surveys, ran about 
 three hundred yards north of the largest, which is also the north- 
 ernmost mound. 1 This mound, standing by the old highway, is an 
 important western landmark for the location of the early tribes 
 and missions, just as the site of Nacogdoches is an important 
 eastern landmark. With the evidence of these mounds, the name 
 San Pedro attached to the creek joining the Neches just above the 
 crossing, and the early maps of the Camino Eeal, there is no 
 doubt as to> the approximate location of the old crossing, and, con- 
 sequently, of the sites of the Neche and the Nabedache villages, 
 with their respective missions, on opposite sides of the river. 
 
 The mission of San Francisco de los Texas, reestablished in 
 1716 at the Neche village, 2 appears from the diaries to have been 
 some one or two leagues from two to four miles from the cross- 
 ing. Peiia's diary puts it at two leagues. The entry in his diary 
 for August 3, 1721, is as follows : "The bridge [over the Neches] 
 having been completed, all the people, the equipage, and the drove, 
 crossed in good order, taking the direction of east-northeast, and 
 camp was made near the mission of San Francisco, where the 
 presidio was placed the second time it was moved in 1716. The 
 march was only two leagues." 3 Eivera gives the distance from the 
 crossing as more than a league. 4 The other diaries are indefinite on 
 this point, but the conclusion is plain that the mission and the 
 
 information furnished by Dr. J. -E. Mayfield, of N'acogdoches. The 
 original Austin map (1829) in the Secretarfa de Fomento, Mexico, shows 
 the mound on the north side of the road. 
 
 2 On the authority of the corrupt copy of Ram6n's itinerary in the 
 Memorias (XXVII, 157) it has been stated that this mission was founded 
 at the "Nacoches" village, a tribal name nowhere else encountered. The 
 original of the itinerary, however, gives the name "N'aiches," thus agree- 
 ing with the other original reports and clearing up a troublesome uncer- 
 tainty. The official name of the mission was San Francisco de los Texas, 
 but, because of its location at the Neche village, it came to be called, 
 popularly, San Francisco de los Neches. 
 
 "Diary, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVTII, 38. The presidio had been 
 temporarily placed in 1716 on the west side of the Neches, near a small 
 lake, and then moved across the river. 
 
 4 Rivera, Diario, 1727, leg. 2140. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 263 
 
 Neehe village were close to the mounds, the mission, at least, being 
 apparently farther from the river. 
 
 The Nabedache Tribe and the Mission of San Francisco (First 
 
 Site). 
 
 The westernmost tribe of the group was the Nabedache. The 
 main village was a short distance perhaps six miles west of the 
 Neches River, above the crossing, near a stream that early became 
 known as San Pedro, and at a site that took the name San 
 Pedro de los Nabedachos. It is this name San Pedro, in part, 
 that has caused some persons to think, groundlessly, that the first 
 mission of San Francisco was founded at San Antonio. 
 
 The exact point at which the main Nabedache village stood I 
 can not say, not having examined the locality in person, but cer- 
 tain data enable us to approximate its location pretty closely. 
 
 First is the testimony of the diaries and other early documents. 
 De Leon reported in his itinerary (1690) that from the camp half 
 a league from the Nabedache chief's house to the Neches Eiver, 
 going northeast, it was three leagues. 1 The site examined on the 
 river at this point was deemed unsuitable for the mission be- 
 cause it was so far out of the way of the Indians"; consequently 
 the mission was established close to the camp "in the middle" of 
 the village. 2 In their reports to the home government Massanet 
 and De Leon seem to have stated that the mission was some two 
 leagues from the Neches; 3 while Teran in 1691 reported it to be 
 only a league and a half from the Mission of Santissimo Nombre 
 de Maria, which was evidently close to the Neches. 4 Jesus Maria 
 and Espinosa said that the village was about three leagues from 
 
 *Entry for May 26. He recorded the distance going and coming as six 
 leagues. 
 
 2 De Leon, Derrotero, entry for May 27; Massanet, Letter, in THE QUAR- 
 TERLY, II, 305. 
 
 'This is an inference from the instructions given in 1691 to Teran and 
 Salinas, which required them to examine the large stream two leagues, 
 more or less, from the village where the mission of San Francisco had 
 been established the year before. ( Ynstrucciones dadas, etc., January 23, 
 1691, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 19; Ynstrucci6n que ban de 
 observar el Capp. D. Gregorio Salinas, etc., April 13, 1691. Archive 
 General, Provincias Internas, Vol. 182. This document has not before 
 been used.) 
 
 *See note 2, page 266. 
 
264 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 this river, the former adding that it was right across the stream 
 from the Neche tribe. 1 Joutel and Eamon called the distance 
 from center to center of the two villages about five leagues. 2 
 In comparing these estimates with those that follow we must 
 remember that it was somewhat further from the village to the 
 crossing of the river than to the river at its nearest point, 
 for as early as 1691 it was found that the best crossing was 
 down stream a league or more. 3 Keeping these things in 
 mind, it may be noted that Pena's diary makes the distance 
 from San Pedro to the crossing four leagues. In his entry 
 for July 27, 1721, he says, "The Father President F. Ysidro 
 Felix de Espinosa went ahead with the chief of the texas, who 
 wished to go to arrange beforehand the reception in the place 
 where the first mission had been" In his entry for the next day 
 he says, "Following the same direction of east-northeast, the 
 journey was continued to the place of S. Pedro . . . where the 
 Presidio and Mission had been placed (for the Spaniards did not 
 go beyond this point) in the year '90." Here the reception was 
 held, and presents were made to Aguayo by the Indians of the 
 "ranches which are near by," the point being, according to Pena's 
 diary, fifteen leagues northeast from the crossing of the Trinity, 4 
 and four from the crossing of "the Neches, passing by the site of 
 the presidio as it was first established in 1716. Eivera's diary 
 makes the distance from San Pedro to the crossing something over 
 four leagues, or six to the mission on the other side. His record 
 is interesting. He writes, on August 5, "I camped this day near a 
 prairie which they call San Pedro de los Nabidachos, formerly 
 occupied by Indians of the tribe of this name, but at present by 
 the Neches tribe, of the group of the Aynays, head tribe of the 
 Province of Texas." His next entry begins, "This day, the sixth, 
 . . . continuing the march in the same direction [east-one- 
 fourth-northeast] I traveled six leagues, crossing the Eio de los 
 
 , 2, 6. 
 
 "Relation, in Margry, Decouvertes, III, 341-344; Ram6n, Derrotero, 
 op. cit. 
 
 Teran, Descripci6n y Diaria Demarcaci6n. Mem. de Nueva Espana, 
 XXVII, 47, 61. 
 
 Diario, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 34-35. The Italics are 
 mine. It may be noted that Pefia and Rivera give quite commonly shorter 
 leagues than the others. 
 
The Native^ Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 265 
 
 Neches. At more than a league's distance from it I found some 
 huts where a religious of the Cross of Queretaro resides, destined 
 ... to minister to these Indians . . . with the name of San Fran- 
 cisco de Nechas," that is, the mission having this name. 1 Soils, 
 going northeast in 1767, tells us that San Pedro de los Nabe- 
 dachos was beyond the San Pedro Kiver. He may possibly have 
 meant that it was on the north side, but I am inclined to think 
 that he meant that it was east of one of the southern branches. 2 
 
 Our inference from the diaries would thus be that the first site 
 of the mission of Sa'n Francisco, in the village of the Nabedache, 
 was from one and a half to three leagues from three to six miles 
 distant from the Neches River at its nearest point, a league or more 
 farther from the crossing, and still another league in all some ten 
 miles from the Neches village on the other side of the river. 
 
 The information of the diaries is here supplemented by geo- 
 graphical names and the old surveys of the Camino Real or the 
 San Antonio Road. San Pedro Creek, which joins the Neches 
 River in the northern part of Houston County still bears the 
 name that was early given to the vicinity of the Nabedache village 
 and the first mission of San Francisco. This occurred as early 
 as 1716 from the fact that Espinosa and Ramon celebrated the 
 feast of San Pedro there. The celebration took place at a 
 spot which, according to both Ramon and Espinosa was thirteen 
 leagues northeast of the crossing of the Trinity. 8 That the name 
 was continuously applied to the place until after the middle of 
 the eighteenth century is sufficiently established by the citations 
 already made. To show its continued use thereafter there is 
 an abundance of evidence. 4 
 
 1 Rivera, Diario, leg. 2140. Ramon's Derrotero makes the distance four 
 leagues from San Pedro to his camp near the Neches or to the mission 
 site across the river, but it is not clear which, although the former is 
 probably his meaning. (Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 155-157.) 
 Ram6n's Representaci6n makes the distance between the first mission of 
 San Francisco, and the second of this name, at the Neche village, five 
 leagues. Ibid., 159. 
 
 'Diario, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 279. 
 
 'Ramon, Representaci6n, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 159. 
 Ram6n and Espinosa, Diaries, entries for June 29-30. 
 
 *See Ramon, Derrotero, and Espinosa, Diario (1716), entries for June 
 29-30; Pefia, Diario (1721), in Mem. de. Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 34; 
 Rivera, Diario (1727), leg. 2140; Ereci6n de San Xavier, 5 (1746); 
 De Soto Vermudez, Investigation (1752) ; Soils, Diario, in Mem. de Nueva 
 
266 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 Next comes the testimony of the Camino Real, or the Old San 
 Antonio Road. There seems to he no good topographical reason 
 why this old highway should not have run directly from Crockett 
 to the Neches at Williams's Ferry, and the long curve to the north 
 between these points must be explained as a detour to the Nabe- 
 dache village and the missions located nearby. The surveys repre- 
 sent this highway as running always south of San Pedro Creek, 
 never crossing it, but definitely directed toward it at a point some 
 six or eight miles west of the Neches crossing. 1 The point cor- 
 responds closely to that designated in the diaries. Near here, 
 quite certainly, were the Nabedache village and the first mis- 
 sion of San Francisco, while not far away, but nearer the Neches, 
 was the second mission established in that region, that of El San- 
 tissimo Nombre de Maria, founded about October, 1690. 2 
 
 The Nacachau, Nechaui, and Nacono Tribes. 
 
 Across the Neches from the Nabedache, only a few leagues away, 
 and adjoining the Neche tribe on the north, was the relatively little 
 known tribe called by Jesus Maria the Nacachau, and by Hidalgo 
 the Nacachao. We have seen that Jesus Maria described the Neche 
 tribe as being separated from the Nabedache only by the Neches 
 River. Later he says, "Toward the north, where the above-men- 
 tioned Necha tribe ends, is that called the Nacachau." The Neche 
 and Nacachau villages were thus close together. Near them 
 the second mission of San Francisco was founded in 1716. Ramon 
 says that the mission was founded in the village of the Naiches, 
 
 Espana, XXVII, 279; Mezteres, Cartas (1778-1779), in Mem. de Nueva 
 Espana, XXVIII, 270; Cordoba to Munoz, December 8, 1793. BSxar 
 Archives, Nacogdoches, 1758-1793. It may be noted that while the post- 
 office village of San Pedro preserves the name of the general locality, it is 
 too far west to answer to the site of the mission of San Francisco and the 
 Nabedache village. 
 
 J See Upshur's map, cited above. 
 
 2 This mission was close to or on the bank of the Neches River. Accord- 
 ing to Ter&n's itinerary (1691) it was a league up stream from the cross- 
 ing and a league and a half northeast of the mission of San Francisco 
 ( Descripci6n, in Mem. de Nueva Espafia, 45, 47, 61; Jesus Maria said 
 that it was on the bank of the river (Relaci6n, 104). 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 267 
 
 and the "Padres Missioneros" say that it was for the "Naicha, 
 Nabeitdache, Nocono, and Nacachao." 1 
 
 Southeast of the Neche and the Nabedache villages, according to 
 Jesus Maria, were two villages half a league apart, called the 
 Nechaui and the Nacono. Of the Nechaui we do not hear again, 
 but from Pena (1721) we learn that the Nacono village, which 
 he called El Macono, was five leagues below the Neches crossing. 
 This would put the Nechaui and the Nacono villages five leagues 
 down the Neches River, perhaps one on each side. 2 
 
 The Nasoni Tribe and the Mission of San Jose. 
 
 Above the Hainai, on the waters of the Angelina, were the 
 Nasoni. Joutel, in 1687, reached their village after going from 
 the Nabedache twelve leagues eastward, plus an unestimated dis- 
 tance north. Teran, in 1691, found it twelve leagues northeast of 
 the Neche crossing below the Nabedache village. 3 The founding, 
 in 1716, of a mission for this tribe and the Nadaco gives us more 
 definite data for its location. The missionaries who took part in 
 the expedition, in their joint report, called the distance from the 
 Hainai to the Nacogdoche eight leagues east-southeast, and that 
 from the Hainai to the Nasoni mission seven northeast. Pena, 
 who called the former distance nine leagues east-northeast, esti- 
 
 1 Jesus Maria, Relackm, 1691, 107-108; Ram6n, Derrotero (1716), in 
 Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 158; Padres Missioneros, Representa- 
 ci6n (1716), Ibid., 163; Pefia, Diario (1721), Ibid., XXVIII, 38-41; 
 Rivera, Diario (1727), leg., 2140; Bonilla, Breve Compendia, 1772, in THE 
 QUARTERLY, VIII, 35, 38. As I have indicated above, the Memorias copy of 
 Ram6n's itinerary states that the mission was founded in the village of 
 the "Nacoches," a miscopy for "Naiches." The map on page 256 was 
 made before I discovered this error in the copy, which I had first used. 
 My opinion now is that, with this correction, the sources would not be 
 violated by placing the Nacachau tribe somewhat farther north than I 
 have there represented it. 
 
 "Jesus Maria, Relaci6n, 108; Pefla, Diario, op. cit., 36. 
 
 As the Nacono visited Aguayo on the west side of the Neches, I have 
 represented the village on that side in my map. Of course, the reason is 
 a very slight one. 
 
 Espinosa in his diary says that the Nasoni mission was founded for 
 the Nacon6, but this seems to be a form of Nasoni, for by others it 
 is uniformly called the mission of the Nasoni or of the Nadaco, or of 
 both. See, Hidalgo, letter to Mesquia, October 6, 1716, in the Archive 
 General. 
 
 'Joutel, Relation, in Margry, Dtcouvertes III, 337-340; Teran, Descrip- 
 cifin, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 47-48. 
 
268 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 mated this as eight north. Espinosa put it at seven northeast. 1 
 Thirty years later Espinosa said that the mission was founded in 
 the Nasoni tribe and ten leagues from mission Concepcion. 2 This 
 increase in his estimate of the distance may be due to lapse of time 
 and his long absence from the country. 
 
 The direction of the Nasoni mission from that of Concepcion 
 was, therefore, evidently northeast, and the distance about the 
 same, perhaps a trifle less, than that to the Nacogdoche village. 
 
 Espinosa, who in 1716 went over the route from the Hainai 
 to the Nasoni to establish the mission of San Jose recorded in 
 his diary that on the way there were many Indian houses 
 (ranchos), and that the mission was situated "on an arroyo with 
 plentiful water running north." We must look, therefore, for a 
 point some fifteen or more miles northeast of the Hainai on a 
 stream running northward. These conditions would be satis- 
 fied only by one of the southern tributaries of Shawnee Creek, 
 near the north line of Nacogdoches County. In this vicinity, 
 clearly, was the Nasoni settlement in 1716. It seems not to have 
 changed its location essentially since it had been visited by Joutel 
 and Teran, a quarter of a century before, and it remained in the 
 same vicinity another third of a century, for in 1752 De Soto 
 Vermudez found the Nasoni 'village eleven leagues northward 
 from the Nacogdoches mission. 8 The mission of San Jose remained 
 near the Nasoni until 1729, when, like those of San Francisco, at 
 the Neche village, and Concepcion, at the Hainai village, it was 
 removed to San Antonio. 
 
 The Nadaco. 
 
 For the rest of the tribes in this group our information is less 
 definite. The Nadaco, though a prominent tribe, can not be located 
 with certainty until 1787, when they, or at least a part of them, 
 were on the Sabine River, apparently in the northern part of 
 Panola County. 4 But in 1716 they were clearly near the Nasoni, 
 
 J Padres Missioneros, Representaci6n, 1716, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, 
 XXVII, 163; Pefia, Diario, 1721, Ibid., XXVIII, 44; Espinosa, Diario, 
 1716, entry for July 10. 
 
 *CV6mea Apostblica, 418. 
 
 'Investigation, 1752, MS. 
 
 'Francisco Xavier Fragoso, Diary, in the General Land Office, Austin, 
 Texas, Records, Vol. 68, p. 174. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 269 
 
 and sometimes the two tribes seem to have been considered as one. 
 Hidalgo, who must have known, for he was on the ground, dis- 
 tinctly states that the mission of San Jose was founded for the 
 Nasoni and the Nadaco. 1 Although the mission was commonly 
 known to the Spaniards as that of the Nasoni, the French writers, 
 in particular, including San Denis, sometimes called it the Nadaco 2 
 mission. Frequent references made by La Harpe in 1719 to the 
 Nadaco show that he is either speaking of the Nasoni or of a 
 tribe in their immediate vicinity, more probably the latter, since 
 in other instances the tribes are so clearly distinguished. For 
 instance, he tells us that when at the Kadohadacho village on the 
 Red Eiver, not far from Texarkana, "they assured me that sixty 
 leagues south was the village of the Nadacos, where the Spaniards 
 had a mission, and that they had another among the Assinais, in 
 the Amediche [Nabedache] tribe, which was seventy leagues south- 
 one-fourth-southwest from the Nassonites [which were near the 
 Kadohadacho]." 3 In 1752 the Nadaco were only a short distance 
 
 oapcrof t Ubrwt 
 
 'Letter to Mesquia, October 6, 1716, in the Archive General de Mexico, 
 MS. The Memories copy of Ram6n's itinerary (XXVII, 158) calls this 
 mission that of the "Noachis," but the original reads plainly "Nasonis." 
 
 "Thus, La Harpe noted in his journal that San Denis, who conducted 
 the expedition of 1716 that founded the missions "proposed, sometime 
 after his arrival, that he should be the conductor of nine missionaries to 
 the tribes of the Adayes, Ayches, Nacocodochy, Inay and Nadaco" (Ex- 
 trait du Journal manuscrit du voyage de la Louisiane par le sieur de La 
 Harpe et de ses dgcouvertes dans la partie de 1'Ouest de cette colonie, in 
 Margry, Decouvertes, VI, 194). San Denis himself regarded the mission 
 as having been founded in the Nadaco tribe. This is the inference from 
 a correspondence carried on in 1735-1736 between him and Sandoval, gov- 
 ernor of Texas. Sandoval wrote to San Denis on March 10, 1736, ac- 
 knowledging a letter of December 2, 1735, in which San Denis outlined the 
 basis of French claims to country west of the Red River. Judging from 
 SandovaFs summary of the letter (I have not seen the letter) he alleged 
 that, with Bienville, he had explored the country as far back as 1702 ; 
 that in 1715 he had journeyed from the "Asinais" to Mexico, seeing on 
 the way only vestiges of the old Spanish settlements; that he conducted 
 Ram6n into the country, "the result of which was the foundation [of 
 missions], which it was requested of your lordship should be established 
 among the Nacogdoches, Nadaco, Ainais, and Naicha, and the subsequent 
 ones among the Ays and Adais, maintaining the ministers of the Gospel 
 at your expense." (Triplicate of Sandoval's letter, in the Archive Gen- 
 eral, Secci6n de Historia, Vol. 524, formerly in Indiferente de Guerra. 
 With this letter there are several original letters of San Denis. 
 
 *La Harpe, Relation du Voyage, in Margry, op. cit., VI 262. See also 
 Ibid., 266. 
 
270 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 northward from the Nasoni, apparently northeast, and the two 
 tribes then had a single chief. 1 
 
 Supposing the Nadaco and the Nasoni to have lived in clearly 
 distinct settlements at the early period, the Nadaco could hardly 
 have been near the highway from the Nasoni to the Kadohadacho, 
 for, as we have seen, the Nasoni always figure as the last station 
 on the way to the Kadohadacho. It seems more probable, con- 
 sidering this last fact with the statements made about the mission 
 of San Jose, that the two tribes lived in a settlement practically 
 continuous, to which sometimes one and sometimes the other 
 name was given. An upper branch of the Angelina is now called 
 Anadarko (Nadaco) Creek, and it is possible, in spite of the above 
 considerations, that this stream was the home of the Nadaco at 
 the coming of the Spaniards and the French, but it seems more 
 probable that it was applied in later times as a result of the removal 
 of the tribe to that neighborhood. 
 
 It is clear, at any rate, that in the early eighteenth century the 
 Nadaco village was very near that of the Nasoni. 
 
 Other Tribes. 
 
 Of the location of remaining tribes we know even less than of 
 the last, and can only record the few statements made of them by 
 the early writers. Three leagues west of the Nasoni Joutel entered 
 the village of the Noadiche (Nahordike) 2 who, he said, were allies 
 of the Cenis, and had the same customs. This location corresponds 
 with that assigned by Jesus Maria to the Nabiti, and the tribes 
 may have been identical. The site designated was apparently west 
 of the Angelina River and near the southwestern corner of Rusk 
 County. Similarly, the Nasayaya, put by Jesus Maria east of the 
 Nabiti, may possibly have been the Nasoni. If they were a separate 
 tribe they must have been in the same neighborhood. If separate, 
 too, they early disappear from notice, unless possibly they may be 
 the Nacaxe, who later are found in the same latitude, but farther 
 east. All that we can say of the location of the Nacao is that 
 they were northward from the Nacogdoche, and probably closer 
 
 "This is on the well-founded assumption that the Nadote discussed by 
 De Soto Vermudez were the same as the Nadaco (De Soto Vermudez, In- 
 vestigation, MS. ) . 
 
 'Relation, in Margry, op. tit., Ill 388. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 271 
 
 to the Nacogdoche than to the Nasoni, since they were attached to 
 the Nacogdoche mission. A reasonable conjecture is that they 
 were in the neighborhood of Nacaniche Creek, in Nacogdoches 
 County. 1 
 
 Thus, with varying degrees of precision and confidence, we are 
 able from a study of the documents to indicate the early homes of 
 the tribes usually included in the Hasinai group. Five of the sites, 
 at least, are reasonably well established, and these are historically 
 the most important, for they were the sites of Spanish establish- 
 ments, while the others were not. I refer, of course, to the villages 
 of the Nabedache, Neche, Hainai, Nacogdoche, and Nasoni. A 
 careful examination of the topography of the country and of 
 the archaeological remains would doubtless enable one to verify 
 some and to modify others of the conclusions here set forth. 
 
 GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 It will be helpful, as a means of conveying an idea of the true 
 nature of the work attempted by the early Spaniards, to present 
 a brief sketch of the general character of these Indian settle- 
 ments and of their numerical strength. 
 
 They were a people living in relatively fixed habitations, and 
 would be classed as sedentary Indians, in contrast with roving 
 tribes, such as the neighboring Tonkawa west of the Trinity. 
 They subsisted to a considerable extent by agriculture, and lived, 
 accordingly, in loosely built agricultural villages, for miles around 
 which were detached houses, located wherever there was a spot 
 favored by water supply and natural or easily made clearings. 
 Their dwellings were large conical grass lodges, which accommo- 
 dated several families. In all of the tribes concerning which we 
 have relatively full data there seems to have been a main village, 
 which the surrounding communal families regarded as their tribal 
 headquarters. It is these central villages that I have represented 
 on the map. 
 
 The arrangement of the settlements may be most safely learned 
 from the accounts of some of the early eye-witnesses. Joutel tells 
 
 1 Jesus Maria puts the Nacogdoche tribe east and the Nacau tribe north- 
 east of his mission. He says in another passage that the N"acao consti- 
 tuted a province distinct from the Aseney and thirty leagues from the 
 Nabedache. 
 
272 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 us, in 1687, that from the edge of the Nabedache village, west of 
 the Neehes Eiver, to the chief's house in the middle of the settle- 
 ment, it was a "large league," and that on the way there were 
 "hamlets" of from seven to fifteen houses each, surrounded by 
 patches of corn. From this village to that of the Neche tribe 
 on the other side of the river it was some five leagues, but in 
 fertile spots between them there were similar "hamlets," sometimes 
 a league apart. So it was with the country to the northeast. When 
 he left the Neches Eiver at a point above the Neche village he 
 wrote, "We pursued our route toward the east, and made about 
 five leagues, finding from time to time cabins in 'hamlets' and 
 'cantons,' for we sometimes made a league and a half without 
 finding one." 1 Between the Trinity Elver and the main Nabe- 
 dache village De Leon, in 1690, encountered only one settlement. 
 It consisted of "four farms (haciendas} of Indians who had planted 
 crops of maize and beans, and very substantially built houses, 
 with high beds to sleep on." 2 On the edge of the Nabedache 
 village he "arrived at a valley occupied by many houses of Texas 
 Indians, around which were large fields of maize, beans, calabashes, 
 and watermelons. . . . Turning to the north by a hill of oaks, 
 about a quarter of a league further on we came to another valley 
 of Texas Indians, with their houses, their governor telling us that 
 his was very near. We pitched our camp on the bank of an 
 arroyo, and named this settlement San Francisco de los Texas." 3 
 The "governor's" house was about half a league from the camp. 
 
 Of the country beyond the Neches Teran wrote in 1691, "We 
 continue our march [from the Neches]. ... The country is 
 very rough with frequent open groves, but no openings larger 
 than a short musket shot across. In these openings, some in the 
 lowlands, and some in the sand, their houses are located." 4 Joutel, 
 in describing his passage from the lodge of one Nasoni chief to 
 that of another, says, "Those who had escorted us went ahead and 
 conducted us to his house, about a quarter of a league away, where 
 his cabin was located. Before reaching it we passed several others, 
 and on the way found women and children cultivating their 
 
 'Relation, in Margry, op, cit., 341, 344, 387. 
 
 2 Derrotero, MS., entry for May 20. 
 
 'Ibid., entry for May 22. 
 
 *Descripci6n y Diaria Demarcaci6n, op. cit., 48. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 273 
 
 fields." In 1716 Bamon referred to the Hainai settlement on the 
 Angelina Kiver as the "pueblo of the Ainai, where there is an 
 infinite number of houses (ranchos) with their fields of corn, 
 watermelons, melons, beans, tobacco," etc. As we have already 
 seen, in his passage from the Hainai to the Nasoni in 1716 Espi- 
 nosa noted many houses on the way. 1 
 
 After several years' residence among these tribes, Espinosa, hav- 
 ing in mind the dismal failure to reduce them to civilized life, 
 described the Hasinai settlements in general thus : "These natives 
 do not live in congregations reduced to pueblos, but each of the 
 four principal groups where the missions are located are in ranchos 
 [separate houses], as it were, apart from each other. The chief 
 cause of this is that each household seeks a place suitable for its 
 crops and having a supply of water." 2 In another place he tells 
 us that in their ministerial work among the Indians the padres 
 had to travel six or seven leagues in all directions from each of the 
 four missions. 3 
 
 It is thus evident that the Hasinai settlements by no means 
 corresponded to the Spanish notion of a pueblo, built in close 
 order. To induce the natives to congregate in such pueblos, as a 
 means of civilizing them, was a chief aim of the government and 
 the missionaries, and failure to accomplish this was a primary 
 cause of the abandonment, after fifteen years of effort, of all but 
 one of the missions of the group. 
 
 NUMBERS. 
 
 It is easy to gain an exaggerated notion of the numerical strength 
 of the native tribes. Popular imagination, stimulated by the 
 hyperbole of writers for popular consumption, has peopled the 
 primitive woods and prairies with myriads of savages. Student?, 
 however, have shown that this is an error, and that the Indian 
 population has always been, in historical times, relatively sparse, 
 In their efforts to counteract these exaggerated notions, they, in- 
 deed, have leaned too far in the opposite direction. 
 
 Moutel, in Margry, op. cit., Ill 392; Ramon, Derrotero, in the Archive 
 General y Publico, Mexico, entry for July 7; Espinsoa, Diario, entry for 
 July 10. 
 
 *Cr6nica Apostdlica, 440 (1746). 
 
 "Ibid. 
 
274 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 The Hasinai, apparently one of the most compact native popu- 
 lations within an equal area between the Eed Eiver and the Rio 
 Grande, numbered only a few thousands at the coming of the 
 Europeans. What I have already said about the nature of their 
 villages has, perhaps, prepared the reader to believe this asser- 
 tion. While our statistical information on this point- does not 
 constitute entirely conclusive evidence, it does, nevertheless, give us 
 a basis for plausible conjecture. 
 
 The earliest estimate that might be called general is that con- 
 tained in a memoire of 1699, printed by Margry, and based ap- 
 , parently upon the report of one of the survivors of the La Salle 
 expedition. The memoire states that from "Bay Saint-Louis 
 . f Matagorda Bay] going inland to the north-northwest and the 
 northeast there are a number of different tribes. The most 
 numerous is the Cenys and Asenys, which, according to the 
 opinion of a Canadian who has lived several years among 
 them, form but one village and the same nation. He estimates 
 that they do not exceed six hundred or seven hundred men. The 
 Quelancouchis [Karankawa], who live on the shores of the sea 
 about Bay Saint-Louis, are four hundred men." 1 
 
 It would seem that in this passage the term "Cenys et Asenys" 
 corresponds closely with the term Hasinai as I have used it, unless, 
 as is probable, the Nasoni are excluded; but, since this is not cer- 
 tain, the estimate, though based on long experience, would not be 
 conclusive without corroborating testimony. This we get in 1716. 
 Ramon tells us that the four missions founded by his expeditions, 
 which were within easy reach of all the tribes described, "would 
 comprise from four thousand to five thousand persons of all ages and 
 both sexes." 2 In the same year Espinosa recorded in his diary his 
 opinion that the Indians grouped around the three Quer^taran mis- 
 sions, not including the mission among the Nacogdoche and the 
 Nacao, would number three thousand; and after a residence there 
 of some years he estimated the number of persons within range of 
 each mission at about one thousand. 3 This estimate must have 
 
 l Mmoire de la Coste de la Floride et d'une partie du Mexique, in 
 Margry, op. cit., IV 316. 
 
 Derrotero, in Mem. de ffueva Espana, XXVII, 160. 
 *Cr6nica ApostdUca, 439. 
 
The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions. 275 
 
 had a good f oundation, for we are told that the padres kept lists of 
 all the houses and of the persons in each. 1 
 
 Assuming that the memoire, Kamon, and Espinosa include the 
 same tribes in their estimates, it will be seen that the first is some- 
 what the more conservative. This fact strengthens the probability 
 that, like other early reports, the memoire did not include the 
 Nasoni in the Hasinai. 
 
 So much for general estimates for the whole group. Detailed 
 information concerning some of the individual tribes appears in 
 1721. When Aguayo in that year re-established the missions that 
 had been abandoned some two years before, he made a general 
 distribution of presents and clothing among the Indians at the 
 different villages. At the mission of San Francisco de los Neches 
 he gave the Neche chief the Spanish boston, token of authority, 
 and "clothed entirely one hundred and eighty-eight men, women, 
 and children." Never before had they received "such a general 
 distribution." West of the Neches Aguayo had been visited by 
 a hundred Nacono from down the river. At the mission of Con- 
 cepcion he requested the Hainai chief, Cheocas by name, to collect 
 all his people. This took some time, as they were widely scat- 
 tered, but several days later they were assembled, and Aguayo gave 
 clothing and other presents to four hundred, including, possibly, 
 eighty Kadohadachos, who happened to be there on a visit. Simi- 
 larly, at the Nacogdoche mission he provided clothing "for the 
 chief and all the rest," a total of three hundred and ninety; and 
 at the Nasoni mission for three hundred. 2 This gives us a total of 
 less than fourteen hundred Indians who came to the missions dur- 
 ing Aguayo's entrada to take advantage of the ever welcome pres- 
 ents. This number apparently included the majority of the five 
 most important tribes, and probably included some from the neigh- 
 boring smaller tribes attached to the missions. 
 
 The conclusion is that the estimates of Eamon and Espinosa, 
 which put the total number of inhabitants included in 1716 in the 
 ten or more tribes about the four missions at four or five thousand 
 are sufficiently liberal. If this conclusion is true, the tribes could 
 not have averaged more than three or four hundred persons each. 
 
 *Cr6nica Apostdlica, 439. 
 
 2 Pefia, Diario, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 36, 39, 41, 43, 44. 
 
276 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 
 
 The territory then occupied by perhaps four thousand Indians now 
 supports one hundred thousand people. 1 Kept down by epi- 
 demics, crude means of getting food, and to some extent by war, the 
 number of these natives was small. But few then, they are incom- 
 parably fewer today, for the descendants of all these tribes, now 
 living on the reservations, do not exceed two hundred or three 
 hundred souls. 2 
 
 'The surviving Caddo and Hasinai together numbered 551 persons in 
 1906 (Data given by Dr. Mooney in a communication of April 23, 1908). 
 2 Estimate based on the United States Census for 1900.