<P> News of the destruction of the French fort "created instant optimism and quickened religious fervor" in Mexico City . Spain had learned a great deal about the geography of Texas during the many expeditions in search of Fort Saint Louis . In March 1690, Alonso De León led an expedition to establish a mission in East Texas . Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in late May, and its first mass was conducted on June 1 . </P> <P> On January 23, 1691, Spain appointed the first governor of Texas, General Domingo Terán de los Ríos . On his visit to Mission San Francisco in August, he discovered that the priests had established a second mission nearby, but were having little luck converting the natives to Christianity . The Indians regularly stole the mission cattle and horses and showed little respect to the priests . When Terán left Texas later that year, most of the missionaries chose to return with him, leaving only 3 religious people and 9 soldiers at the missions . The group also left behind a smallpox epidemic . The angry Caddo threatened the remaining Spaniards, who soon abandoned the fledgling missions and returned to Coahuila . For the next 20 years, Spain again ignored Texas . </P> <P> After a failed attempt to convince Spanish authorities to reestablish missions in Texas, in 1711 Franciscan missionary Francisco Hidalgo approached the French governor of Louisiana for help . The French governor sent representatives to meet with Hidalgo . This concerned Spanish authorities, who ordered the reoccupation of Texas as a buffer between New Spain and French settlements in Louisiana . In 1716, four missions and a presidio were established in East Texas . Accompanying the soldiers were the first recorded female settlers in Spanish Texas . </P> <P> The new missions were over 400 miles (644 km) from the nearest Spanish settlement, San Juan Bautista . Martín de Alarcón, who had been appointed governor of Texas in late 1716, wished to establish a way station between the settlements along the Rio Grande and the new missions in East Texas . Alarcón led a group of 72 people, including 10 families, into Texas in April 1718, where they settled along the San Antonio River . Within the next week, the settlers built mission San Antonio de Valero and a presidio, and chartered the municipality of San Antonio de Béxar, now San Antonio, Texas . </P>

Who founded 20 settlements from northern mexico to the san antonio river