It may not be uninteresting or unprofitable to state in this place some of the efforts at positive settlement in Texas which were made by the Spaniards during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Alarcon, the governor, early in 1718, crossed the Medina, with a large number of soldiers, settlers and mechanics, and founded the town of Bejar, with the fortress of San Antonio, and the mission of San Antonio Valero. Thence he pushed on to the country of the Cenis Indians, where, having strengthened the missionary force, he crossed the river Adayes, which he called the Rio de San Francisco de Sabinas, or the Sabine, and began the foundation of a fortress, within a short distance of the French fort, at Natchitoches, named by him the Presido de San Miguel Arcangel de Linares de Adayes. These establishments were reinforced during the next year, and another stronghold was erected on the Oreoquisas, probably the San Jacinto, emptying into Galveston bay, west of the mouth of the Trinity.