4/13/1709: Expedition reaches future site of San Antonio

[Craig Tx]

On this day in 1709, an expedition led by Franciscan fathers Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares and Isidro Félix de Espinosa reached the site of what is now the city of San Antonio and named the nearby springs San Pedro Springs.

Olivares and Espinosa, escorted by Capt. Pedro de Aguirre and fourteen soldiers, had set out from San Juan Bautista on April 5, hoping to befriend the Tejas Indians on what is now the Colorado River. The expedition reached the Colorado on May 19, but discovered that the home of the Tejas was still three days' journey away. Because Aguirre's orders did not authorize them to proceed farther, and because they learned that the Tejas were not well disposed toward the Spanish, the expedition then returned to the Rio Grande.