Alonso de León "El Mozo" (c. 1639–1691) was

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

and governor, who led several expeditions into the area that is now northeastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and southern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Early life

Alonso de León González was born in 1639, in the settlement of Cadereyta, Nuevo León in New Spain. He was the third son of General Alonso De León, a celebrated chronicler, historian and conquistador of the frontier of Nuevo León, and Josefa González.Chipman and Joseph (1999), p. 24. To distinguish him from his father, who was also a prominent leader in the colony, sometimes the phrase, ''El Mozo,'' would later be appended to his name (or its English equivalent, "the younger"). De León trained in Spain for a naval career and joined the Spanish navy in 1657. By 1660 he had returned to Nuevo León. He was frequently appointed to lead exploratory parties, and he became an entrepreneur, most notably in salt mining. De León married Agustina Cantú and had six children with her.

Expeditions

In 1684, French explorer La Salle led an ill-fated expedition which was intended to establish a colony at the mouth of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. Instead, the colonists ended up on the Texas coast, where La Salle established a settlement. When Spanish leaders received word that the French had founded a settlement in the northern portion of their territory, De León was chosen to lead the effort to locate and expel the French colonists. The first two expeditions, in 1686 and 1687, yielded no evidence of the French colony. One Frenchman,

Jean Gery Jean Gery (before 1638 – 1690?) (also spelled Jean Jarry, Yan Jarri or Jean Henri) was a French explorer and a deserter from the La Salle expedition of 1685. After leaving the expedition, Gery became chief of a group of Coahuiltecan Indians, ...

, was captured during the third expedition in 1688. It was during De León's fourth expedition, in 1689, that he finally discovered La Salle's settlement, which had been abandoned by that time.

Political offices and later life

De León served as mayor of Cadereyta from 1667 to 1675. He was governor of Nuevo León from 1682 to 1684. In 1687, he was appointed governor of the region of Coahuila. He was involved in establishing San Francisco de los Tejas in 1690, the first Spanish mission in East Texas. In doing so, he blazed the trail for much of the

Old San Antonio Road The Old San Antonio Road was a historic roadway located in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana. Parts of it were based on traditional Native American trails. Its Texas terminus was about southeast of Eagle Pass at the Rio Grande in Maveri ...

. During his expeditions, he named several Texas rivers, including the San Marcos River, the Guadalupe, the

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...

, the Nueces, and the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

. De León died in Coahuila on March 20, 1691.

Early life

Expeditions

Political offices and later life

Notes

References

Further reading