Ayish

The Ais, also recorded as Ayish or Eyeish, were a Caddo-speaking people of eastern Texas. Their settlements lay along Ayish Bayou, among neighbouring Caddo villages. Franciscans from Zacatecas and Querétaro founded Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Ais in 1716–1717 as one of six missions on New Spain's northeastern frontier. The mission was abandoned in 1719 when hostilities broke out between Spain and France, and the Aguayo expedition restored it in August 1722. Missionaries moved it a short distance to a higher site beside a stream, but the creek could not supply enough water for irrigation, and the mission remained poor. In 1744 an inspector found two priests and two soldiers there but no Indian residents. The mission was finally abandoned in 1773.