The story of Red Feather is delightfully recounted by Miss Adina de Zavala, of San Antonio, Texas, in her “Origin of the Red Bird.” Red Feather taught his people the gentle arts of husbandry—the cultivation of Indian corn, beans, peas, melons and pumpkins; taught the women to make preserves of the fruit of the persimmon tree, and to store the fruits of the soil and the chase in their homes for winter. Great was the mourning when Chief Red Feather died; while his subjects reverently laid his body to rest on the chief mound in Nacogdoches, his spirit soared upward on the crimson wings of the first red bird, and hovered in the majestic trees above the mounds, as if guarding his people from danger. Less than fifty years after Columbus sighted America, Hernando De Soto, in the winter of 1541-42, penetrated as far west as Nacogdoches, where he spent the winter, sending out scouting parties further west in search for the seven cities of the Cibolo. He remained in Nacogdoches because he found here a well-settled, hospitable Indian town, with an agricultural population, having well-built homes, provided with comfortable furnishings. Nearly eighty years after De Soto’s visit, on the borderline between tradition and history, came the ministration of Mother Maria de Jesus de Agreda, “the angel in blue,” teaching the Tejas tribes the Christian religion, in 1620. So great was the influence of this saintly woman that in 1690 the chief of the Tejas told Massanet that they wished to do as she had done, and even wanted to be buried in blue garments. The first definite description of Nacogdoches and its aboriginal population is in the account of LaSalle’s visit here in 1685. On this visit Robert Sieur de LaSalle became desperately ill and remained in Nacogdoches for a month, recuperating from disease. Here the Frenchman received such hospitable treatment at the hands of the natives that four of his men deserted and remained here when LaSalle started back to Fort St. Louis. LaSalle found numerous evidences of prior contact with both French and Spanish here. Perhaps the Indian traditions pointed to the presence here of DeSoto and Coronado, and the traditional appearances of Mother Maria de Agreda, already referred to.