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Wrangling Pelicans: Military Life in Texas Presidios
A richly detailed history of daily life for colonial Spanish soldiers surviving on the eighteenth-century Texas Gulf Coast.
In 1775, Spanish King Carlos III ordered the capture of American pelicans for his wildlife park in Madrid. The command went to the only Spanish fort on the Texas coast—Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía in present-day Goliad. But the overworked soldiers stationed at the fort had little interest indulging a king an ocean away. Their days were consumed with guarding their community against powerful Indigenous peoples and managing the demands of frontier life. The royal order went ignored.
Wrangling Pelicans brings to life the world of Presidio La Bahía’s Hispano soldiers, whose duties ranged from heated warfare to high-stakes diplomacy, while their leisure pursuits included courtship, card playing, and cockfighting. It highlights the lives of presidio women and reveals the ways the Spanish legal system was used by and against the soldiers as they continually negotiated their roles within the empire and their community. Although they were agents of the Spanish crown, soldiers at times defied their king and even their captain as they found ways to assert their autonomy. Offering a fresh perspective on colonial Texas, Wrangling Pelicans recreates the complexities of life at the empire’s edge, where survival mattered more than royal decrees.
In 1775, Spanish King Carlos III ordered the capture of American pelicans for his wildlife park in Madrid. The command went to the only Spanish fort on the Texas coast—Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía in present-day Goliad. But the overworked soldiers stationed at the fort had little interest indulging a king an ocean away. Their days were consumed with guarding their community against powerful Indigenous peoples and managing the demands of frontier life. The royal order went ignored.
Wrangling Pelicans brings to life the world of Presidio La Bahía’s Hispano soldiers, whose duties ranged from heated warfare to high-stakes diplomacy, while their leisure pursuits included courtship, card playing, and cockfighting. It highlights the lives of presidio women and reveals the ways the Spanish legal system was used by and against the soldiers as they continually negotiated their roles within the empire and their community. Although they were agents of the Spanish crown, soldiers at times defied their king and even their captain as they found ways to assert their autonomy. Offering a fresh perspective on colonial Texas, Wrangling Pelicans recreates the complexities of life at the empire’s edge, where survival mattered more than royal decrees.
298 pages, Hardcover
Published November 25, 2025
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April 13, 2026
A rich portrait of Presidio life in 18th century Texas. Based on extensive archival research, Seiter draws and teases out the contours of life at the edge of the Spanish Empire as soldiers fought to control their lives in an incredibly difficult and dangerous environment. What becomes clear here is that Spanish authority was limited by distance (the King's order to round-up the Pelicans of the Texas coast fell on deaf ears) and the reality of native power. Spanish Texas never managed to exceed 4,000 people and in this book, that demographic paucity shows as powerful natives like the Karankawa hold the cards and dictate the extent of Spanish success.
This is a very readable and well-reasoned account that helps to understand what life was like during the last 40-50 years of Spanish control and is a good foil to the changes that would take place during the demographic revolution ushered in by Stephen F. Austin in the 1820s and 1830s.
This is a very readable and well-reasoned account that helps to understand what life was like during the last 40-50 years of Spanish control and is a good foil to the changes that would take place during the demographic revolution ushered in by Stephen F. Austin in the 1820s and 1830s.
Displaying 1 of 1 review