“We marched one day west from the Rio de Cannis in all this cold country this Wednesday, March 21, 1541, at the end of the day we came to a place called _Toalli_. All the Indians have houses built so, the houses are built of reeds in a manner of tules and daubed with mud which show as a mud wall, they are very clean and have a small door; when you shut it up and build a fire within it is as warm as in a stove.”[1] Don Luis De Moscoso and a scouting party traveled westward over the buffalo trail as far as the Trinity River before returning to the Adais. For the next hundred and forty years this area was devoid of white explorers. By early 1682 Cavalier Robert de LaSalle had begun descending the Mississippi River accompanied by Henri De Tonty, the “Iron Hand”, and a party of other Frenchmen. April 9, 1682, LaSalle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River and established a plaque there, claiming all land drained by this river for the King of France, Louis XIII. He named this land LOUISIANA in honor of King Louis and Queen Anna. Returning up the Mississippi near a location in the Illinois country at Starving Rock in that same year he established Fort St. Louis and left Captain Henri De Tonty in command. LaSalle went to France and received assistance so that he could return and establish a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Through erroneous navigation the expedition missed the mouth of the Mississippi River and traveled westward, landing at Matagorda Bay, and in the Texas country established another Fort St. Louis in 1685. LaSalle, realizing that this area was not suitable for colonization, began land excursions in an attempt to reach Canada. Father Joutel’s diary reveals that in January, 1687, he was with LaSalle, and a scouting party, were among the Nakassa Indians which resided on Nakassa Lake.[2] In 1682 at Quaerataro, Mexico, The College of the Holy Cross was founded by Priests; Father Francois Hidalgo, Father Jose Diaz, Father Felix Isadore Espinosa, Father Nunez, Father Antonio de San Buenaventura Oliverez, Father Francisco Marino, Father Juan Parez, Father DeVaca, Father Salazar, Father Massinettes and Father Margil de Jesus, the last named, Father Margil de Jesus, being chosen as President of the College. These priests, so as to distinguish their work from the work of others called themselves _Zatachinies_, their purpose being to prepare others for frontier missionary duties. By 1684 they had succeeded in establishing missions south of the Rio Grande. The most northern Spanish presidio at that time was Fort San Juan Bautista, located on the south bank of the Rio Grande near present day Eagle Pass, Texas. The land of the Coahuile Indians extended from present day San Antonio southward into the Monte Clova-Saltillo area of Mexico. The Matagordo area on the Gulf Coast was included in the land of the Coahuile.