Okay, everyone, hold the door. Best map I've found in ages!!!
Province of Texas, Mexican map, 1818. National Archives:
Finding Mexican maps of Texas is rare, and this one is a real rarity. Although the scale is off, the detail is outstanding. This Province of Texas map by Mexico was drawn and colored in 1818. The locations of roads and villages are what makes this map amazing!
1) Mexico always claimed that the border between the Province and Nuevo Laredo (here, Nuevo Santander) was the Nueces River, not the Rio Grande. It's one of the reasons for declaring the Mexican American war. This map demonstrates this!
2) Way far up north along the Red River is Punto Pecon. Pecan Point, Red River County, Texas/ McCurtain County, Oklahoma! It shows Pecan Point on the Mexican side of the river. The American settlers kept waffling, depending on which way the wind blew; apparently in 1818, they were good with being in Mexico. American maps show the settlement on the Indian Territory side (in 1818, this was still Missouri Territory!!!! It wouldn't become Arkansas Territory until 1819 and wouldn't become Indian Territory until 1834-ish).
3) Notice the road that goes west from Pecan Point? That's not Trammel's Trace. This might be the "Great Spanish Road" that connected Natchitoches to Santa Fe, documented by Pedro Vial (Pierre Vial) in the 1780s. In 1852, Randolph B. Marcy noticed traces of it. Later, bits of it would become the "California Road" through Grayson County.
4) I think this may depict a Pawnee Village...This might be the old Taovayan village that is now Spanish Fort in Montague County (some of the old village lies in Jefferson County, Oklahoma). In 1759, this was the location of the Spanish defeat in North Texas.
5) Okay, y'all, do y'all see the settlement of "Texas?" I'm sure that's a Caddoan village (no, this is not Los Adaes that was once, briefly, the seat of Spanish Texas). Apparently, there was an actual village with the name of Texas from which the province derived its name. Off the top of your head, do you know which river it might be next to? Neches?
6) Check out the Rio de Comanches. A trading route/raiding route used by the Lords of the Plains. Much of their trade was human, actually. It seemed to go into New Mexico.
7) The Quichies on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River is the village of the Keechies, the tribe that killed John B. Denton in the Battle of Village Creek (today's Arlington, Tarrant County, TX) in 1841.
8 ) I have not heard of the Mecos, but the Tabacanes and Tovacis are most likely Wichita villages of Tawakonis and Taovayans.
9) Salcedo is the Spanish settlement of Trinidad near today's Madisonville, Madison County, Texas. This is where I visited my very first Bucee's. That's why Mexico immortalized it on this map, ha ha.
