Englishmen in South Texas, 1568

Ingram's long walk earned him an audience, then doubt. Landed at Le Havre after his rescue, he was back in England by the end of 1569. In 1582 he told his story to a panel led by Secretary of State Sir Francis Walsingham, gathering what it could about North America for Sir Humphrey Gilbert's planned colony; the account was printed in 1583, and Ingram sailed with Gilbert to Newfoundland that year. Richard Hakluyt reprinted it in 1589 but dropped it from his second edition of 1598-1600 as unreliable, and modern readers think parts were borrowed or invented.

What the plaque says

Englishmen in South Texas, 1568 Fifty-two years before the celebrated landing of English settlers at Plymouth Rock, in what is now Massachusetts, three Englishmen traveled this South Texas area. They were sailors who had gone to sea in 1567 with Sir John Hawkins, an admiral of the fleet of Queen Elizabeth I, on a trading voyage. At Vera Cruz, Mexico, on Sept 26, 1568, Sir John was attacked by the Spanish, losing five of his six ships. Forced by famine and overcrowding to lighten the remaining crippled ship, he put ashore 114 of his men on October 8, 1568, near Tampico. Most went south, only to be captured by the Spanish; 26 went north, had indian fights and other misfortunes. Of the 26, only Richard Browne, David Ingram, and Richard Twide ever reached England again. That Browne, Ingram, and Twide passed through this part of Texas is evident by Ingram's testimony, given to her Majesty's secretary in 1582. He told of cannibal Indians along the Gulf Coast. Described the lush grass at the Rio Grande's mouth and the sandy regions north of that river, told of large "musquetas" and of eating prickly pear fruit. In 11 months of steady walking-- only once resting as long as five days-- they reached Frenchmen in Nova Scotia, and a ship captain took them to Europe. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• King Ranch Visitor Center — 2.2 mi
  The bus-tour gate to a working ranch of about 825,000 acres, founded on Santa Gertrudis Creek in 1853 and worked from the start by the Kineños, families from Cruillas in Tamaulipas.
• Kenedy Ranch Museum of South Texas — 21 mi
  A museum in the Kenedy Pasture Company's 1927 office in Sarita, telling how Mifflin Kenedy and three generations of his family shaped the Wild Horse Desert, with murals and an audio guide.
• Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine — 24 mi
  The grave and shrine of the folk healer of Los Olmos, a place of prayer where South Texans still leave candles and letters for the curandero who took no fee.
• Heritage Museum at Falfurrias — 26 mi
  A free town museum of ranch gear, a Texas Ranger room and 99,000 photo negatives, in the town Edward Lasater built around his railroad and his Jersey cows.

More markers nearby

• Uriah Lott — 0.5 mi
• St. Paul Lutheran Church — 0.5 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Kingsville — 0.6 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Kingsville — 0.7 mi