40 miles west of Lake Charles one crosses the Sabine River from Louisiana into Texas, "the Lone Star state.” The earliest explorations of Texas were made by the Spaniards, Cabeza de Vaca, 152S-36. and Francisco Vas-quez de Coronado 1540-42. There were many other Spanish expeditions in the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century which entered or crossed portions of the state. In 1727, the territory, with vaguely defined limits was formed into a province and named Tejas or Texas after the Confederacy of Tejas Indians. For more than a century the conditions were favorable for colonization. The French in Louisiana proved peaceable neighbors and that province both under French (to 1763) and under Spanish rule (1763-1803) served as a protection agamst the English. Spain failed to take advantage of this favorable period, and had no other opportunity after the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803.
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