Texas and Northeastern Mexico 1630-1690

<p><b>An English translation of Chapa's Historia de Nuevo León the first history of the region that eventually became Texas and northeastern Mexico.<br> <br> Winner Presidio La Bahía Award Sons of the Republic of Texas</b></p> <p>In the seventeenth century South Texas and Northeastern Mexico formed El Nuevo Reino de León a frontier province of New Spain. In 1690 Juan Bautista Chapa penned a richly detailed history of Nuevo León for the years 1630 to 1690. Although his <i>Historia de Nuevo León</i> was not published until 1909 it has since been acclaimed as the key contemporary document for any historical study of Spanish colonial Texas.</p> <p>This book offers the only accurate and annotated English translation of Chapa's <i>Historia</i>. In addition to the translation William C. Foster also summarizes the <i>Discourses</i> of Alonso de León (the elder) which cover the years 1580 to 1649. In the appendix Foster includes a translation of Alonso (the younger) de León's previously unpublished revised diary of the 1690 expedition to East Texas and an alphabetical listing of over 80 Indian tribes identified in this book.</p> <p>Chapa was also an authority on the local Indians and his <i>Historia</i> lists 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.</p>