Fort St. Louis

The site of Fort St. Louis, thirteen miles southeast of Inez, was the location of the first French settlement attempted in Texas by Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle in 1685. It was devastated by the Karankawa Indians and burned by members of the Alonso de Leon Expedition in 1689. On its remains, the Spaniards constructed Presidio de Nuestra Senora de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo, established in 1722 by Joseph de Azlor, Marquis of Aguayo, and Father Fray Agustin Patron, O.F.M., to protect the mission of Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga for the civilizing and christianizing of nearby Indian tribes. The presidio moved to Mission Valley on the Guadalupe River near present Victoria in 1726 and finally to Santa Dorotea, now Goliad, near the San Antonio River in 1749.

Inez, Texas · United States