Victoria County was briefly inhabited by adventurer Cabeza de Vaca in the 1530s and French explorer La Salle in the 1680s. It was the site of Mission Espiritu Santo de Zuniga in 1720, where friars sent to Christianize and civilize the Karankawa Indians laid the foundation for the Texas cattle industry as their stray stock formed the nucleus of later vast herds of wild cattle. Presidio La Bahia, founded in 1721 within present Victoria County, was later restored at a different site in Goliad. Civilian settlement began in 1824 with Martin de Leon's grant from the Mexican government to plant a colony on the Guadalupe River. Placido Benavides, de Leon's son-in-law, commanded the Victoria militia, which as part of Gen. Sam Houston's army opposed Mexican countrymen during the Texas Revolution. After the establishment of the Republic of Texas, Victoria County was officially organized in 1837. Many settlers from the Old South immigrated to the area. Navigation on the Guadalupe River began in 1854 with a line of steamers between Victoria and Indianola, and Kemper's Bluff became the principal cotton loading point. Known as the Cradle of the Cattle Industry in Texas, the county remained principally agricultural and ranching country until oil was discovered in the late 1930s.