The Indian attack on the San Sabá mission in 1758 came as a surprise and posed a significant treat to the Spanish authorities. They had never before seen such a large group of so-called Norteños, with firearms. A year later, a punitive expedition to punish the perpetrators of the mission massacre was led by San Sabá presidial commander Diego Ortiz Parrilla. They traveled to the Red River and fought a bloody but indecisive battle at the village fort of Tayovayas who, with allied Comanches, were the largest of the Norteño tribal groups. A diary of this expedition was found in 1979 by Texas historian Robert Weddle while researching in the archives at Seville, Spain. The document below describes in detail the entire route of the Parrilla expedition, and identifies for the first time the location of a Tonkawa village at a great lake (Wichita Falls and Lake Wichita) which was the first casualty of the Spanish army before the main battle on the Red River.
