The following legend of the Colorado Valley was related to me years ago
by that reliable gentleman, good citizen, and gallant soldier, George
L. Robertson of Austin.
Mount Bonnell was called by the early settlers of Colorado Valley,
Antonette’s Leap, which name was given to it in consequence of the
self-immolation on that picturesque spot, at an early day, of a most
lovely and accomplished señorita, who came over from Spain at the first
settlement of the mission of San José, San Juan, Espada, and the Alamo.
“The fame of Antonette’s beauty and intellectual charms was spread
abroad through the settlements, and even extended to the hunting ground
and camp fires of the red men of the forest. It came to the ears and
inflamed the passions of Cibolo, the chief of the Comanches, who
selected a band of his favorite warriors, made a raid upon the
settlements, captured the beautiful Antonette, and carried her far away
to his camp in the wilderness, on the headwaters of the Colorado.
“The parents and friends of the unfortunate señorita mourned her as
lost forever, except Don Leal Navarro Rodriguez, her betrothed lover, a
brave and elegantly educated young Spanish caballero, of fine personal
appearance and honorable, as well as brave to a fault, who determined
to follow the murderous Indians to their homes and rescue his beloved
Antonette, or perish in the attempt.
“Don Leal mounted his favorite steed and, well armed, started from the
Alamo alone in pursuit of the Indians, and after many hair-breadth
escapes, undiscovered, descried the camp of the savages. Selecting a
dark night, he entered it, and by imitating the mocking bird, of which
Antonette was very fond, and whose singing they could both imitate to
perfection, he soon discovered at what spot inside the encampment she
was, then came into the very tent which she occupied and found her tied
securely to prevent her escape.
“In an instant the lover severed the bonds which confined the dear idol
of his heart, and with her cautiously returned to where he had left his
horse when he entered the Comanche camp; then quickly mounting and
taking Antonette up behind him, he started to regain the Mission of
Alamo.
“The fury of Cibolo in the morning, when he discovered the escape of
his fascinating captive, knew no bounds. He raved and blasphemed
terribly; then, sounding the alarm, with a hundred chosen warriors, he
hastily started in pursuit, leaving the main body of his tribe to await
his return.
“For several days Don Leal and his beloved Antonette made good speed
toward the settlements, subsisting most bountifully upon game, which
was easily obtained through Don Leal’s rifle, and at night sleeping
under the forest trees; but on the seventh day, leaving the prairie
land, they became tangled in the mountains bordering the Colorado.
Early in the morning of the eighth day the lovers discovered themselves
surrounded upon all sides by the cruel savages. All attempts at further
flight were hopeless.
“The wrathful Cibolo, with cow horns on his head and face horribly
painted, advanced in all pride of power to where they had fled as a
last refuge, but when he was about fifty yards off, Don Leal, who had
firmly resolved to fight and die rather than surrender, raised his
rifle to his shoulder and, taking deliberate aim, fired! In an instant
the savage chief bounded in the air and fell to the ground a corpse;
but in another instant at least twenty arrows pierced Don Leal’s body,
and he, too, fell to the earth and expired without a groan.
“After surveying the situation and revolving in her mind the miserable
fate awaiting her from the merciless Comanches, ... the poor,
unfortunate girl bent over the prostrate and lifeless form of her lover
and kissed his dear lips. Then rising, with her eyes toward heaven, and
murmuring her last prayer to God, she plunged headlong down the
precipice and struck the rocks beneath, mangled, bleeding, and dead!
“For a long time the place where these rare, devoted, but most
unfortunate lovers met their sad and untimely fate was called
‘Antonette’s Leap,’ but years ago a wandering Bohemian, who happened to
pass a few days in Austin ... blotted it out and substituted his own,
and now Antonette’s Leap is Mount Bonnell.”