Juan Bautista Chapa Texas and Northeastern Mexico, 1630-1690

Annotation

This authoritative, annotated translation of the 17th century text is essential reading for historians of New Spain and Spanish Texas.In the seventeenth century, South Texas and Northeastern Mexico formed El Nuevo Reino de Leon, a frontier province of New Spain. In 1690, Juan Bautista Chapa penned a richly detailed history of Nuevo Leon for the years 1630 to 1690. Although hisHistoria de Nuevo Leonwas not published until 1909, it has since been acclaimed as the key contemporary document for any historical study of Spanish colonial Texas.This book offers the only accurate and annotated English translation of ChapasHistoria. In addition to the translation, William C. Foster also summarizes theDiscoursesof Alonso de Leon (the elder), which cover the years 1580 to 1649. The appendix includes a translation of Alonso (the younger) de Leons previously unpublished revised diary of the 1690 expedition to East Texas and an alphabetical listing of over 80 Indian tribes identified in this book. Chapa'sHistorialists the names and locations of over 300 Indian tribes. This information, together with descriptions of the vegetation, wildlife, and climate in seventeenth-century Texas, make this book essential reading for ethnographers, anthropologists, and biogeographers, as well as students and scholars of Spanish borderlands history.