by Donald E. SheppardAustin was the end of the westward trail for DeSoto's army. Scouting parties were sent out in several directions to explore during the Full Moon of September 24th, 1542. One went southwest to San Antonio, the other northwest, up the Colorado River as described by Elvas, "Ten of horse, whom the governor had sent on ahead, crossed over to the other side, and went along the road leading (up the Colorado) to the (Llano) river. They came upon an encampment of Indians who were living in very small huts. As soon as they saw them [the Christians], they took to flight, abandoning their possessions, all of which were wretchedness and poverty. The land was so poor that, among them all, they [the Christians] did not find much maize.
"Those of horse captured two Indians and returned with them to the river where the governor was awaiting them (on the Colorado River at Austin). They continued to question them in order to learn from them the population to the westward, but there was no Indian in the camp who understood their (Llano) language. The governor ordered the captains and principal persons summoned, in order to plan what he should do after hearing their opinions. Most of them said that in their opinion they should return to the great river of Guachoya (the Mississippi River in Arkansas), for there was plenty of maize at Anilco and thereabout..."
Inca confirms this, "The governor and his captains, warned by the experiences of hunger and hardship they had passed through in the deserts that were behind them, wished to go no farther than was necessary to find a road that would bring them out into an inhabited country, and they endeavored to take precautions against the inconveniences that they would encounter. Therefore they ordered that three mounted companies (including the one Elvas just described), each with twenty-four horses, should all go toward the west by three routes to find out what there was in that direction.
"They ordered them to go as far as possible into the interior country and bring a report not only of what they should see, but also they were to attempt to find out what was beyond. They gave them Indian interpreters from among those domestics who spoke the best Spanish.
"The seventy-two horsemen left camp with these orders, and within fifteen days (five days) they all came back with nearly the same report. They said that each of the bands had entered more than thirty leagues (80 miles - an easy ride for scouts in two and a half days - one group to San Antonio) and had found a very sterile country with few people, and the farther they went the worse it became. This was what they had seen, and they brought even worse news of what was beyond, because many Indians whom they had captured and others who had received them peacefully had told them that it was true that there were Indians beyond, but they did not inhabit settled pueblos, nor have houses in which to live, nor cultivate their lands. They were a nomadic people who wandered in bands, gathering such fruits, herbs, and roots as the land afforded them of itself, and they supported themselves by hunting and fishing, moving from one place to another according to the advantages the seasons gave them in their fisheries and hunting grounds. All three parties brought this report, differing little from one another."
Likewise, Biedma reports, "There (at Austin) we halted and sent ten men on swift horses to travel eight or nine days, or as many as they were able (with the corn they carried for their horses from and back to Austin), to see if they could find some town in order to replenish the corn so we could continue on our way, and they traveled as far as they could and came upon some poor people who did not have houses... They brought three or four of these Indians. We found no one who could understand the interpreter..."
Scouting parties had gone out and returned while the army pillaged the lands around Austin.
Elvas says, "The governor (Moscoso) ordered the captains and principal persons summoned (once all had reassembled at Austin, five days after having reached that point on the Full Moon of September 24th), in order to plan what he should do after hearing their opinions (perhaps that set the precedent for big decision making in Austin, the Capitol of today's Texas). Most of them said that in their opinion they should return to the great river of Guachoya (the Mississippi River at Lake Village, Arkansas), for there was plenty of corn at Nilco and thereabout (below Arkansas Post). They said that during the winter they would make brigantines and the following summer they would descend the river in them to look for a sea (the Gulf of Mexico), and once having reached the sea, they would coast along it to New Spain (Mexico), which, although it seemed a difficult thing...
"...it was their last resort because they could not travel by land for lack of an interpreter (who could lead them to a place where there was enough food to sustain the army). They maintained that the land beyond the river of Daycao (the Colorado River), where they were, was the land which Cabeza de Vaca said in his relation he had traveled (he actually traveled through San Antonio then west, up the Rio Grande, which DeSoto's people mistook the Colorado River for), and was of Indians who wandered about like Arabs without having a settled abode anywhere, subsisting on prickly pears (cactus buds), the roots of plants and the game they killed. And if that were so, if they entered it and found no food in order to pass the winter, they could not help but perish, for it was ALREADY the beginning of OCTOBER (one week after arriving at Austin); and if they stayed longer, they could not turn back because of the waters and snows, nor could they feed themselves in such a poor land. The governor, who was desirous now of getting a good night's sleep, rather than govern and conquer a land where so many hardships presented themselves to him, at once turned back to the place whence they had come ...it grieved many of them to turn back, for they would rather have risked death in the land of Florida than to leave it poor."
Inca says, "Governor Luis de Moscoso and his captains, having heard this fine report about the road by which they had promised themselves to come out in the territory of Mexico, and having discussed the matter and considered the difficulties of their journey, decided not to go farther in order not to perish of hunger while lost in those deserts, of which they did not know the extent, but to go back in search of the same Rio Grande that they bad left. It now seemed to them that to get out of the kingdom of La Florida (today's America) there was no more certain route than going down the (Mississippi) river and coming out into the North Sea."
Elvas says, "From Daycao (Austin), where they were" at the beginning of October (above) "it was 150 leagues (400 miles, a precise measure) to the great (Mississippi) river, a distance they had marched continually to the westward" given the 10 degree westerly compass declination at that time. The other officer says, "We returned along the same road that we had followed..." which would take less than two months (Inca says one month - by the "end of October") marching back to Arkansas and searching for food at fourty-five different campsites along their way back to that river.
The army timed its departure from Austin to arrive at Naguatex, twenty-one campsites back, during the week of October Harvest Moon on the 23rd, as was the army's habit, for the moonlit safety it afforded in that powerful nation. Some of the men told Inca, "...to avoid the bad country and the uninhabited regions they had passed through when they came, they learned that by returning by a circular route to the right of the one by which they had come, the road they would travel would be shorter... (we call it the Old San Antonio Road) ...they marched in an arc toward the south... and crossed the river before Aays (Centerville), and going down it (the Brazos River) came to a town called Chilano, which they had not seen until then..." today's College Station.
They departed Austin southward, down the Colorado River to Bastrop, gathering what they could along the way. According to Inca, "...it seemed to them that they were going too far down from the province of Guachoya (Lake Village, Arkansas), to which they wished to return, so they turned toward the east, taking care always to ascend somewhat to the north." They followed the (very) Old San Antonio Road from Bastrop to Crockett, then on to Naguatex, which they struck on Full Moon, then on across the Sabine River. That road would become the main entrance road for Texas settlers for centuries.
Elvas says, "On the backward journey, they found corn to eat with great difficulty, for where they had already passed the land was left devastated (Indians had been infected by diseases brought in by DeSoto's army), and any corn which the Indians had, they had hidden. The towns which they had burned in Naguatex, which was now regretted by them, had now been rebuilt and the houses were full of corn." The Hasinai Caddoan people, who lived there, had avoided the Spaniards so they were not as effected by European and African diseases as were other tribes. "This region was very populated and well supplied with food..."