DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker near the Colorado River tells it, here's how I see what happened. Picture Texas in 1709 — a land Spain had been claiming for a hundred and ninety years, but claiming and holding are two very different things, and Spain knew it. She'd already shuttered her east Texas missions, and then word came down that France had been running a trading visit right there in Texas, back in 1707.
That'll put a government on edge in a hurry. So Spain did what uneasy empires do: she sent a delegation. A good will trip, the records call it, which is a polite way of sayin' the whole journey was one long diplomatic poker face.
Captain Pedro de Aguirre rode out with fourteen soldiers, and in his care he carried two padres — Father Isidro de Espinosa and Father Antonio de San Buenaventura Olivares — escorted all the way from a mission on the Rio Grande. Now here's where the story gets interesting. The whole point of pushing this far was to find the Tejas.
They weren't there. Not in this vicinity, not where anyone expected them to be. And then Captain Aguirre looked at the Colorado River and faced a fact that stopped him cold: he had no order to cross it.
No order. The river might as well have been a stone wall. So the padres did what they could — they sent the east Texas Indians an invitation to come visit them back on the Rio Grande — and then this whole expedition, soldiers and priests and good intentions alike, turned around right here and went home.
Sometimes in Texas, the river you can't cross is the whole story.
What the marker says
Approximate Site Reached by the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre Expedition. A good will trip made in 1709, when Spain was uneasy about her 190-year-old claim to Texas. (She had closed east Texas missions, then had learned of a French trading visit to Texas, 1707.) Capt. Pedro de Aguirre and 14 soldiers escorted from a mission on the Rio Grande, Father Isidro De Espinosa and Father Antonio de San Beneventura Olivares. The Tejas were not in this vicinity as expected. Capt. Aguirre had no order to cross the Colorado River. So the padres sent the east Texas Indians an invitation to visit them on the Rio Grande, and turned back here. (1966)