CHAPTER II TEXAS TO THE CLOSE OF THE FREDONIAN WAR TEXAS is the only portion of our territory which has been under six flags-the Spanish, French, Mexican, Texan, Confederate and United States ensigns. "The name of Texas is said by some to have had its origin in the greeting given De Leon by the Indians, who called the Spaniards 'Tejia' or 'Tejas,' meaning friends. On the other hand, the origin of the name has been ascribed by others to the covering of the tents or wigwams of the Indians, which was called Tejia (plural, Tejas). Hence Tejas or Texas-The land of Tents.' A more correct derivation is, perhaps, that which traces the name to the Tejas Indians, a tribe formerly living between the Neches and the Trinity Rivers." 1 1 Seth Shephard: Introduction to A Comprehensive History of Texas. "If the evidence of one of the missionaries can be accepted-and there seems no good reason to the contrary-Tejas was the name, not of a single tribe, but of a confederacy of nearly thirty including nine tribes of the Asinais or Cenis. It was but natural that this name should be extended to the whole region, theretofore without one of its own. Neuvas Filipinas, which was for some time the official designation, was not sufficiently upon the popular tongue, and was at length displaced entirely by Texas." 1 The first European to set foot upon the territory between the Mississippi and the Rio Grande was a Spaniard, Alonzo Alvarez de Piñeda, in 1519. The wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca led him through it in 1528. Vasquez de Coronado crossed it in 1540. Hernando de Soto entered it in 1542, and Franciscan Missions were established among the Indians in 1580-83 by Spanish priests. The first white colony was planted on its shores in Matagorda Bay by the heroic and unfortunate Frenchman, 1 1 American Commonwealths: Texas, by George P. Garrison. |