In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

1 ★ Prologue Historians of Spanish Texas As many historians have pointed out, in order to gain insight into the writing of history in any age, one must have some knowledge of the climate of opinion at that time, some understanding of the historical paradigm that influenced the historian. The idea that history should serve some useful purpose predated the nineteenth century. It derived from the philosophy of the Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century, which affected both the style and content of historical writing in Europe and America and, ultimately, in Spanish America. Inevitably, it influenced the writing of Texas history in the nineteenth century as surely as the events of the late eighteenth century affected the unfolding of Texas history in the nineteenth century. When the first formal history of the province as a distinct geographical entity was drafted near the end of the eighteenth century, it had as its inspiration a calculated purpose. The persuasive paradigm, the “myth with a message,” actually originated with the historians of Spanish Texas. They wrote the prologue for nineteenth-century Texas history. On the eve of the nineteenth century, an industrious, devoted, and learned Franciscan missionary, Fray Juan Agustín Morfi, wrote the first comprehensive history of the far northern province of New Spain known as Tejas, which he described as lying  leagues from the city of Mexico, bounded by the Gulf of Mexico and Nuevo Santander (Tamaulipas) on the south, Nuevo Reyno de León and the province of Coahuila on the west, by New Mexico on the north and northwest, and by the English colonies and Louisiana on the east.1 Morfi did not set out to become a historian, much less a Texas historian . In fact, he did not even set out to become a priest. Born in the Spanish province of Asturias, he probably came to America in  or 6. According to records in Mexico, he came as a layman and joined the Franciscan order in Mexico City on May , . Thus, he appears to have come, as did so many others, in search of fame and fortune. Morfi taught theology in the old college of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco under the direction of the Franciscans and wrote treatises on the subject.2 In a short time he made quite a reputation for himself as an orator and lecturer. Morfi developed his deep interest in Texas and the work of missionaries there during his coerced performance as chaplain to Teodoro de Croix on his tour of inspection in . Initially, Morfi assumed the role of collector and compiler. He kept a careful diary that included information he was able to glean from local archives wherever the expedition stopped. After his return from that trip, he began actively to collect all the documents he could find on the provinces he had visited. Over the short space of five years, from  to , Morfi labored tirelessly to assemble the sources for the history of all northern Mexico—more than eight thousand pages on Texas alone—in order to complete the information in the Franciscan archives.3 He made the transition from compiler to historian when his work took on a more specific purpose. Morfi’s impetus came from Antonio Bonilla’s Breve Compendio de la Historia de Texas (), which blamed the missionaries for the failure of the various attempts to colonize Texas.4 Deeply offended by this imputation, Morfi turned to the writing of a history in defense of his Franciscan brethren, who, his travels with Teodoro de Croix had convinced him, were heroic and unselfish . He intended to vindicate them by presenting the facts. He had already compiled his sources and organized them roughly in his Memorias para la Historia de Texas with the express purpose of proving that incompetent officials and flawed government policy, not the missionaries, were to blame for Spain’s failures in Texas.5 From his Memorias, Morfi commenced to write his Historia de Texas, which was later translated and published as the History of Texas, –. Although he adhered generally to a strict chronological arrangement, Morfi began his History with a detailed description of the province of Texas, its location and boundaries, its rivers and creeks, settlements, and native tribes, based on the most authoritative accounts known. Though this detail might well have been reflective of the prevailing Enlightenment interest in natural history, the land he described might easily have been imagined an earthly paradise by his readers: neither too hot nor too cold, seldom a cloudy sky...

Share