Near Paso Tomas on the Trinity stood the Spanish town of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Bucareli from 1774 to 1779. After Indian troubles caused Spain to move Louisiana colonists to Bexar (San Antonio), these settlers pleaded to return to East Texas and gained the consent of Viceroy Antonio Maria Bucareli. Led by Gil Y’Barbo (1729-1809), they built a church, plaza, and wooden houses at the Trinity crossing, and the settlement grew to 345 people. Ill luck with crops, a few Comanche raids, and river floods then pushed the settlers farther east, where under Y’Barbo’s leadership they rebuilt the old town of Nacogdoches in 1779.