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Description:
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The 1690 expedition led by Alonso de León into present day Texas proved to be
a pivotal journey that had lasting effects on the development of Spain's land north of the
Rio Grande . This expedition established the first Catholic mission in the area . Also , La
Salle's abandoned settlement was burned , and several Frenchmen living among the
Indians were captured and returned with the expedition party to Mexico . The bartering
for the release of some of these Frenchmen resulted in a skirmish in which four native
Indians were killed . In addition , De León chronicled a great amount of information
about the land through which he traveled , leaving a lasting diary recording his
experiences as well as offering a glimpse into the then unsettled lands in present day
eastern Texas .
The 1690 expedition diary exists in the form of six manuscripts , and their
analysis is the focus of this thesis . No scholar has ever taken into consideration all six
manuscripts when conducting research regarding this expedition , and therefore research
conducted thus far is not thorough . A comparative analysis of these six manuscripts is
undertaken in this thesis , and the manuscripts are classified as revised or unrevised . Foster (1997 ) was the first scholar to classify manuscripts of the 1690 expedition as
unrevised and revised . He classified only the Beinecke manuscript as revised , but this
thesis also incorporates two other revised manuscripts unknown to Foster , the Gilcrease
67 .1 and Gilcrease 67 .2 . The unrevised manuscripts included in this study are the AGI ,
AGN , and BNMex manuscripts .
Three semi -paleographic transcriptions of manuscripts of Alonso de León's 1690
expedition diary are also presented . The AGI and Beinecke manuscripts are transcribed
and an in -depth comparative analysis of the unrevised and revised manuscripts is
completed . This analysis presents the numerous discrepancies that exist between the two
families of manuscripts . Also , a transcription of the Gilcrease 67 .1 manuscript is
included to present a document previously unknown to scholars . The findings of this
thesis should be of interest to scholars in many different fields of study who have interest
in this time period and this region of the U .S . Southwest . |