The Nabedache Tribe and the Mission of San
Francisco
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 certain
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 River, 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 León seem to have stated
that the mission was some two leagues from
the Neches;3
while Terán in 1691 reported it to be only a
league and a half from the Mission of
Santíssimo Nombre de Maria, which was
evidently close to the Neches. Jesus Maria
and Espinosa said that the village was about
three leagues from this river, the former
adding that it was right across the stream
from the Neche tribe.4
Joutel and Ramón called the distance from
center to center of the two villages about
five leagues.5
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.6
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,7
and four from the crossing of "the Neches,
passing by the site of the presidio as it
was first established in 1716. Rivera'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 Rio de los Neches. At
more than a league's distance from it I
found some huts where a religious of the
Cross of Querétaro resides, destined to
minister to these Indians with the name of
San Francisco de Nechas," that is, the
mission having this name.8
Soils, going northeast in 1767, tells us
that San Pedro de los Nabedachos was beyond
the San Pedro River. 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.9
Our inference from the diaries would thus be
that the first site of the mission of San
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.10
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.11
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 Nabedache village and the
missions located nearby. The surveys
represent 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.12 The
point corresponds closely to that designated
in the diaries. Near here, quite certainly,
were the Nabedache village and the first
mission of San Francisco, while not far
away, but nearer the Neches, was the second
mission established in that region, that of
El Santíssimo Nombre de Maria, founded about
October 1690.13
1. 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
Quarterly, II, 305.
3. This is an inference from
the instructions given in 1691 to Terán 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. (Ynstrucción dadas, etc., January
23, 1691, in Mem. de Nueva España, XXVII,
19; Ynstrucción 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.)
5. Relation, in Margry,
Découvertes, III, 341-344; Ramon, Derrotero,
op. cit.
6. Terán, Descripción y
Diaria Demarcación. Mem. de Nueva España,
XXVII, 47, 61.
7. Diario, in Mem. de Nueva
España, XXVIII, 34-35. The Italics are mine.
It may be noted that Peña and Rivera give
quite commonly shorter leagues than the
others.
8. 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 España, 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.
10. Ramon, Representaci6n,
in Mem. de Nueva España, XXVII, 159. Ram6n
and Espinosa, Diaries, entries for June
29-30.
11. See Ramon, Derrotero,
and Espinosa, Diario (1716), entries for
June 29-30; Peña, Diario (1721), in Mem. de.
Nueva España, XXVIII, 34; Rivera, Diario
(1727), leg. 2140; Ereción de San Xavier, 5
(1746); De Soto Vermudez, Investigation
(1752); Soils, Diario, in Mem. de Nueva
Espana, XXVII, 279; Mezières, Cartas
(1778-1779), in Mem. de Nueva Espana,
XXVIII, 270; Cordoba to Munoz, December 8,
1793. Béxar 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.
13. This mission was close
to or on the bank of the Neches River.
According to Terán's itinerary (1691) it was
a league up stream from the crossing and a
league and a half northeast of the mission
of San Francisco (Descripción, in Mem. de
Nueva España, 45, 47, 61; Jesus Maria said
that it was on the bank of the river
(Relación, 104).
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The Native Tribes About The East Texas Mission's, Quarterly of the Texas
State Historical Association, By Herbert E. Bolton, April 1908
