Texas Backroads: San Augustine

For centuries Native Americans roamed the deep forests of East Texas before Europeans even new the land existed. Predominant was a sect of the Caddoans called Hasinais, with tribes such as the Nacogdoche, Naconish, and the Ais, or Ayish, who settled on a little bayou not far from the Sabine river, the western border of Louisiana. Hasinais tribes shared a greeting: “Tejas!” This greeting would give name to a vast and untamed territory destined to play a major part in world history over the next few centuries. The Ayish settlement had its own destiny. It played a pivotal role in the history of Texas from Spanish conquest to statehood. 

By the mid-1600’s the Spanish New World stretched from the Sabine in the east to beyond the Rio Grande in the west, encompassing all of Texas. Provincial Governor Teran De Los Rios, appointed by the Spanish crown, blazed through Texas in 1691, making way for Spanish missionaries and staking claim to the territory. De Los Rios’ route was called “El Camino Real” (The King’s Highway). It later became known as the Old San Antonio Road. The last stop for De Los Rios was the little tribal settlement on Ayish Bayou. 

Spanish Missionaries mingled with Native Americans beneath a canopy of massive pine and hardwood trees whose seeds sprouted centuries before. Frenchmen ventured into the area from Natchitoches (pronounced Nak-i-tosh), across the river in Louisiana, often on raids which sent native tribes and Spaniards scrambling into the woods. The Mission Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Ais was established in 1717 to validate Spanish claim against French encroachment. Not too many years later Anglo settlers started drifting down the Camino Real, finding their way first to Ayish Bayou and then into the new Promised Land of Texas.