. opulous nation of people, and so extensive that those who give detailed reports of them do not know where it ends. i'herefwho give the reports) are many, through having communicated with the people of that nation, which they call Texas, and who, they maintain, live under an organized government fan nolicia), congregated in their puehlos, and governed hy a casiqua who is named hy the Great Lord, as they call the one who rules them all, and who, they say, resides in the interior, They have houses made of wood, cultivate the soil, plant maize and other crops, wear clothes, and punish misdemeanors, especially theft. -The Coahuiles do not give more detailed reports of the Texas because, they say, they are allowed to go only to the first pueblos of the border, since the Great Lord of the Texas does not permit foreign nations to enter the interior of his country. There are many of these Coahuiles who give these reports, and who say that they got them through having aided the Texas in their wqrs against the Pauit, another very warlike nation. The Coahuiles once pacified, the Spaniards can reach the land of the Texas without touching the country of enemies.
This account of the Texas is of special interest as being th; earliest extant, so far as is known, although, as we have seen, reports of........
objective points of the Spaniards both of Hew Mexico and Ooahuila was thenceforth the Kingdom of the Texas.
17	Summary---By 1676 some advance had been made into Texas from all
directions. Sixteenth century explorers coninp by way of the Gulf, Florida
and flew Mexico had run its coasts and traversed its southern, northern.
and western borders. In the seventeenth century the continued search for
Gran Quivira had led to further explorations in the west and north; fre-
uent visits to the Juraano country had made better known the country
between Santa Fe and the middle Colorado, while some beginnings had been
made of missionary work and settlement in the lii.o Grande valley between
21 Paso and the mouth of the Conchos r.iver. In addition ' o interest in
Cuivira, the Aixados, the Jumanos, the pearls of the flueces (Colorado),
and trade in peltry and captives on the plains, there had arisen a desire
to reach another land reputed to be rich but as yet untrod, the Great
Kingdom of the Texas. From the south, meanwhile, the frontier had slowly
expanded across the lower Rio Grande through the search for the Oerro de
la Plata, pursuit of hostile Indians, efforts to establish communication
with Florida, and missionary work among the tribes of the Ooahuila frontier In the pursuit of this last object, .interest was aroused, here as in flew