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San Antonio is one of the oldest cities in the United States, having been settled in 1718 at approximately the same time as New Orleans. While the French settled New Orleans, the Spanish settled San Antonio.
Though the Spainards were looking for gold, they found a mineral much more valuable in the area where San Antonio now stands--water!! Not only was there a river flowing through the area, there were also natural springs. Naturally that fact had also not eluded the Indians.
The Spanish explorers and conquistadors who followed in the foot steps of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the first Spaniard to pass through the Southwest,  had dreams of gold, of cities full of gold; in fact, they had heard of the fabled Las Siete Cuidades Doradas de Ciblola (Seven Cities of Gold). Though de Vaca had not found the cities, he had been told by the natives that they had heard of them farther to the North.
de Vaca's exact route has been debated for centuries; but, by some accounts, he camped in the bend of the San Antonio River, where he found a friendly reception from the local inhabitants.
The Indian village where de Vaca tarried could well have been the Payaya village of the Yaniguana. At any rate, it was there that Father Damian Masanet said Mass under the cottonwood trees for the newly installed Spanish governor Don Domingo de Teran.Â
He named the spot (and the river) San Antonio de Padua in honor of St. Anthony of Padua, as this mass occurred on June 13, the saint's birthday.
As French activity in Louisanna threatened to intrude upon their claims in the Southwest, the Spanish began to view the area as more than just a pleasant spot.
Suddenly the Spanish could no longer afford to ignore their hardscrabble claims north of "New Spain" (Mexico).
The Spanish Crown decided that a system of forts and missions would be built to blockade the French from the East, to alleviate the threat of Indian attack, and, ultimately to provide the foundations for Spanish colonization of the territory.
Native tribes in the area would be instructed by the friars for conversion to Christianity, making them allies of the Spanish.
San Antonio's original mission was the San Antonio de Valero, which has become known simply as the Alamo.The story of the Alamo tomorrow.
