In the 1500s, European explorers arrived in Texas in search of gold and glory. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive. Readers get to discover early Texas history in this fascinating nonfiction book that uses colorful images, intriguing facts, supportive text, and an accommodating glossary, index, and table of contents to introduce readers to various explorers such as Christopher Colombus, Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, and La Salle. Children will be excited and engaged as they read through to also learn about the many American Indian tribes of the past. From the Caddo to the Apache, the Comanche to the Karankawa, readers will be captivated from beginning to end!

In the 1500s, European explorers arrived in Texas in search of gold and glory. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive. Readers get to discover early Texas history in this fascinating nonfiction book that uses colorful images, intriguing facts, supportive text, and an accommodating glossary, index, and table of contents to introduce readers to various explorers such as Christopher Colombus, Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, and La Salle. Children will be excited and engaged as they read through to also learn about the many American Indian tribes of the past. From the Caddo to the Apache, the Comanche to the Karankawa, readers will be captivated from beginning to end!

The extraordinary tale of a shipwrecked Spaniard who walked across America in the sixteenth century In 1527, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: delayed by a hurricane and knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the three hundred men who had embarked, only four survived--three Spaniards and an African slave. This tiny band endured a horrific march through Florida, a harrowing raft passage across the Louisiana coast, and years of enslavement in the American Southwest. They journeyed for almost ten years in search of the Pacific Ocean that would guide them home, seeing lands, peoples, plants, and animals that no outsider had before. In this enthralling tale of four castaways wandering in an unknown land, Andrés Reséndez brings to life the vast, dynamic world of North America just a few years before European settlers would transform it forever.

In the late seventeenth century, General Alonso de León led five military expeditions from northern New Spain into what is now Texas in search of French intruders who had settled on lands claimed by the Spanish crown. Lola Orellano Norris has identified sixteen manuscript copies of de León’s meticulously kept expedition diaries. These documents hold major importance for early Texas scholarship. Some of these early manuscripts have been known to historians, but never before have all sixteen manuscripts been studied. In this interdisciplinary study, Norris transcribes, translates, and analyzes the diaries from two different perspectives. The historical analysis reveals that frequent misinterpretations of the Spanish source documents have led to substantial factual errors that have persisted in historical interpretation for more than a century. General Alonso de León’s Expeditions into Texas is the first presentation of these important early documents and provides new vistas on Spanish Texas.

Provides biographical sketches of the men and women who discovered, explored, and settled Spanish Texas from 1528 to 1821, including profiles of religious figures, governors, pioneers, Indian agents, and army captains.

By the 1800s, Mexican and American settlers were starting colonies throughout Texas. After Mexico won its independence from Spain, the real fight for Texas began. Through supportive text, vivid images, a helpful glossary, index, table of contents, and engaging sidebars and facts, readers will learn about Texas history, Texas colonization, the missions in Texas, Stephen F. Austin, and The Alamo.

This is a true story of discovery and discoverers in what was the northern frontier region of Mexico in the years before the Mexican War. In 1826, when the story begins, the region was claimed by both Mexico and the United States. Neither country knew much about the lands crossed by such rivers as the Guadalupe, Brazos, Nueces, Trinity, and Rio Grande. Jean Louis Berlandier, a French naturalist, was part of a team sent out by the Mexican Boundary Commission to explore the area. His role was to collect specimens of flora and fauna and to record detailed observations of the landscapes and peoples through which the exploring party traveled. His observations, including sketches and paintings of plants, landmarks, and American Indians, were the first compendium of scientific observations of the region to be collected and eventually published. Here, historian Russell Lawson tells the story of this multinational expedition, using Berlandier's copious records as a way of conveying his view of the natural environment. Lawson's narrative allows us to peer over Berlandier's shoulder as he traveled and recorded his experiences. Berlandier and Lawson show us an America that no longer exists.

Vol. 3: A supplement, edited by Eldon Stephen Branda. Includes bibliographical references.