Before a family could build a home on the northern bank of the Río Bravo, it had to get there. Possessions could be packed, livestock gathered, and a route chosen, but arrival at the river brought a new uncertainty. Would the water allow a crossing? Could the animals keep their footing? Was a boat available for the children and household goods?
For the colonial pioneers of Nuevo Santander, these were practical questions on which a new beginning could depend.
The settlement effort began in the middle of the eighteenth century, with ranching communities continuing to expand through its later decades. Nuevo Santander encompassed much of present-day Tamaulipas and part of South Texas, reaching north toward the Nueces River. The Río Grande, also known as the Río Bravo del Norte, ran through this colonial region long before it became the international boundary familiar today.
Spain’s concern about French expansion helped give this undertaking urgency. French activity on the Gulf Coast and in Texas had exposed the weakness of imperial claims unsupported by settlements. Establishing families, livestock, and functioning communities offered Spain a way to strengthen its presence. Frontier security, economic development, and the extension of colonial authority over Indigenous peoples also shaped the project.
José de Escandón received his commission to inspect the region in 1746, and organized settlement began in 1748. Many recruits came from neighboring provinces of New Spain, including Nuevo León and Coahuila. They were colonial families seeking land and opportunity, often encouraged by privileges and tax exemptions.
Their destination was already home to Indigenous communities. The expansion of ranching brought competition over land and water, along with trade, negotiation, mission activity, and violence. The pioneers’ hardships belong within that fuller history of a region being transformed.
The landscape itself imposed demanding terms. Settlers faced heat, irregular rainfall, shortages of dependable agricultural water, isolation, and the work of protecting livestock and maintaining supplies. A river that sustained a settlement could also interrupt its connection with neighboring communities.
At Dolores, downstream from present-day Laredo in what is now Zapata County, José Vázquez Borrego developed one of the best-documented early colonial crossing places in this lower-river settlement network. His ranch stood near the meeting of Dolores Creek and the Río Grande, north of present-day San Ygnacio. This was the ranch settlement of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, distinct from the later mining community named Dolores north of Laredo.
Borrego was a rancher from Coahuila who had already extended his operations across the river. In July 1750, he sought to incorporate his settlement into Escandón’s colonization program. On August 22, 1750, Escandón approved the arrangement and granted him fifty sitios of land for small livestock at Nuestra Señora de los Dolores.
What is sometimes called Borrego’s “ferry permit” was part of this broader settlement arrangement. The Texas General Land Office’s account of the grant explains that Borrego and his successors were required to maintain one or two canoes to carry officials, soldiers, travelers, and convoys across the river. Keeping the crossing available was a public obligation attached to the privileges he received.
A second date adds an important distinction. According to historian Carlos E. Castañeda’s account of the colonial records, Borrego reported in 1753 that he had maintained two boats since 1750, providing free service for traffic that included officials, couriers, missionaries, travelers, convoys, and herds. Four workers supported the crossing. Escandón then authorized him to collect a reasonable fee.
Thus, 1750 marks the settlement authorization and documented beginning of the boat service, while 1753 marks permission to charge for it.
Dolores helped connect northeastern New Spain with routes toward San Antonio and La Bahía. Its boats made a difficult stretch of an overland journey more manageable. For families, that could mean keeping household necessities out of the water. For the colony, it meant maintaining communication and movement through a sparsely settled frontier.
Farther downstream lay Revilla, founded on October 10, 1750, and associated with the community later called Guerrero, now Guerrero Viejo. Revilla developed along the Río Salado near its approach to the Río Grande. Its residents eventually extended ranching operations across the larger river. Revilla therefore belongs in the history of early crossing areas, although its town-founding date should not be treated as the opening date of a particular ferry.
Still farther downstream was Reynosa, founded on March 14, 1749. The original settlement occupied a different site from the later city. Its lands and ranching activity extended north of the Río Grande, making movement between the banks part of its development. By 1761, Escandón reported a substantial settlement of Reynosa families on the northern bank, with ranches reaching toward the Nueces.
Dolores, Revilla, and Reynosa help us trace an early colonial river corridor. Indigenous peoples had traveled through the region long before these settlements were founded. The surviving colonial evidence also differs from place to place: a specifically documented boat service at Dolores, and communities whose ranching and travel connected both banks farther downstream.
Every crossing depended on the water.
In his 1795 inspection of Nuevo Santander, Félix Calleja described extreme droughts and rains and reported that the Río Grande generally offered fords only in dry years or at considerable distance from the coast. He also described a broader, higher river from April through October. His observations convey the scale of seasonal change without giving us a dependable calendar or a measured depth for every landing.
Earlier records show what rising water could mean for a household. The 1757 inspection report recalled that flooding at Reynosa in 1751 had isolated residents for approximately two months. Some people who returned to retrieve possessions found themselves unable to rejoin family members already moved to safety. Another dangerous flood followed in 1752.
At suitable low-water passages, cattle and horses could wade. Deeper channels could require swimming, while stronger currents increased the difficulty of controlling animals and reaching the opposite bank. Boats offered a separate means of carrying people and goods.
The practical hazards included current, depth, footing, and the ability to climb out of the water. These are general considerations of moving animals across a river rather than a preserved account of Borrego’s exact handling methods. A record mentioning herds using a crossing does not establish that full-grown cattle were loaded onto its small boats.
For the settlers, the river required patience and judgment. The existence of a familiar crossing place did not guarantee that it would be passable on the day a family or herd arrived.
Our two SouthTexasFineArt river-crossing prints explore these human and working dimensions of the story.
In Dolores Crossing, a family and its possessions occupy a wooden boat near the bank. Behind them, cattle wade through the river with a mounted vaquero following. The dry grasses and low hills frame an imagined passage during favorable water conditions. The composition invites us to consider what migration required: moving a household’s necessities while protecting the animals on which its future might depend.
The vaquero river-crossing print brings the herdsman’s work into the foreground. A rider approaches the water with a dog nearby, while longhorn cattle cross farther upstream and another rider appears across the river. Its lower-river vegetation places the scene within the South Texas and northeastern Mexican landscape. The image emphasizes the judgment and animal-handling skills behind an apparently simple act of crossing.
Both works are contemporary artistic interpretations informed by regional history. Their individual figures, clothing, boats, and arrangements of animals are reconstructed rather than copied from a documented eighteenth-century event. Together, they invite the viewer to linger over a task that official records can reduce to a few lines.
A grant could promise land on the other side. Reaching it still required boats, labor, experience, and a river that would permit the passage.
Explore the two river-crossing prints at SouthTexasFineArt:
https://southtexasfineart.etsy.com/listing/4604265026
https://southtexasfineart.etsy.com/listing/4602787677
Sources and further reading
Texas State Historical Association, “Nuevo Santander.”
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/nuevo-santander
Texas State Historical Association, “Escandón, José de.”
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/escandon-jose-de
Texas State Historical Association, “Nuestra Señora de los Dolores Hacienda.”
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/nuestra-senora-de-los-dolores-hacienda
Texas General Land Office, New Guide to Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in South Texas, printed page 12, discussing Borrego’s proposal and the August 22, 1750 grant.
https://historictexasmaps.com/api/download/83388-new-guide-to-spanish-and-mexican-land-grants-in-south-texas-save-texas-history-collectibles/content/object/type/file
Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, Volume III, printed page 165, discussing Borrego’s boats and the 1753 permission to charge ferry fees.
https://archive.texashistorytrust.org/view/213703329/181/
Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, Volume III, printed page 164, discussing Reynosa’s ranches north of the river and Escandón’s 1761 report.
https://archive.texashistorytrust.org/view/213703329/180/
José Tienda de Cuervo, inspection of 1757 and subsequent report, English translation by Edna Brown, especially the account of Reynosa’s floods.
https://www.stexboat.com/books/Nuevo_Santander/SANTAN2A.HTM
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, “Félix Calleja’s Inspection of Nuevo Santander,” 1795, Borderlands Course Reader, Volume One.
https://pressbooks.utrgv.edu/riograndesourcebook/chapter/felix-callejas-inspection-of-nuevo-santander/
Texas Beyond History, “Falcon Reservoir: Expedition and Settlement.”
https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/falcon/expedition.html
National Park Service, Trevino-Uribe Rancho National Historic Landmark nomination, including the history of Revilla and ranching north of the river.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/63b1c4df-8815-4406-a679-ff18da6fce17
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Refuge on the Rio Grande, discussing early Reynosa and its lands.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_p4502_0058n.pdf
“La pregunta de los 20 000, Los pobladores del Nuevo Santander, 1748–1768,” historical study discussing the settlement program and the background of French activity.
https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?pid=S0185-25232025000200236&script=sci_arttext
Leave a Reply