BURIED TREASURE LEGENDS OF COOKE COUNTY
By Lillian Gunter
[In 1759 Parrilla marched from San Antonio with a force of about six hundred men and attacked the Taovayas villages on Red River somewhere in the vicinity of what is now Montague County, Dr. Herbert E. Bolton says near the present Ringgold. Parrilla found the Indians “intrenched behind a strong stockade with breastworks, flying a French flag, and skillfully using French weapons and tactics.” A sanguinary battle followed, resulting in heavy loss on both sides. The Spanish withdrew, leaving “two cannon and extra baggage behind.”[1] Seventeen years later the cannon were recovered.[2] In my mind there is no doubt that the long unexplained “Old Spanish Fort” of Miss Gunter’s legend was the fortification attacked by Parrilla.[3] The source of the relics mentioned by Miss Gunter is accounted for also.
Thus is seen again how legend has preserved in a vague way what history long ignored but eventually established. Comparison should be made with “The San Gabriel Mission in Legend.”[4] Again, “Old Spanish Fort” was [[82]]the name given by Westerners to the ruins of the San Saba presidio before the history of the site became generally known.[5] The deduction need not be made that legend is always correct in anticipating history!—Editor.]