Fort St. Louis
Inez, Victoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Thirteen miles southeast of Inez is located the site of Fort St. Louis. First French settlement in Texas attempted by Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle in 1685. Devastated by the Karankawa Indians, burned by members of the Alonso De Leon Expedition in 1689. On its remains the Spaniards constructed Presidio de Nuestra Senora de la Bahia del Espirtu Santo, Marquis of Aguayo and Father Fray Agustin Patron, O.F. M. In 1722 as a protection for the mission of Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga for the civilizing and christianizing of the Indian tribes of the vicintiy moved to Mission Valley on the Guadalupe River near the present Victoria in 1726; moved finally to Santa Dorotea in Goliad near the San Antonio River in 1749.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1685 the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, planted the first European settlement in Texas near here, only to have it collapse under hardship and attacks by the Karankawa people; a Spanish expedition under Alonso de León burned its ruins in 1689. On the same ground the Spanish later raised Presidio La Bahía to guard Mission Espíritu Santo, part of a mission-presidio system that moved twice more before settling at Goliad in 1749. The site witnessed the collision of French ambition, Spanish empire, and Native power on the Gulf coast.
Why it matters
La Salle's doomed colony triggered the Spanish push to fortify Texas, making this ground a pivot point in the imperial contest for North America.
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Related people
- · René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
- · Alonso de León
Related events
- · De León Expedition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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This stretch of the Guadalupe River country carries an unusually deep layer of Texas history, brushed by the wandering Cabeza de Vaca in the 1530s and by La Salle's ill-fated French venture in the 1680s. Spanish friars founded Mission Espíritu Santo here in 1720 to reach the Karankawa, and the stray longhorns from their herds seeded what became a legendary cattle economy. Martín de León's 1824 Mexican land grant planted the town of Victoria, whose militia later fought for Texas independence, and the county organized under the Republic in 1837.
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