LADRÓN DE GUEVARA, ANTONIO (?-?). Antonio Ladrón de Guevara, a resident of Nuevo León, undertook an expedition through Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Texas in the early eighteenth century and wrote his account of the ranches, settlements, missions, and Spanish frontier policy in 1739. The guidebook served in planning defenses on the northern frontier and in changing local administration. Ladrón de Guevara also helped the expedition of José de Escandón^qv for the pacification and settlement of Nuevo Santander, which, together with Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Texas, formed the Provincias Internas^qv de Oriente. Among the Texas sites he described were the presidios of San Juan Bautista^qv and San Antonio de "Vejar." His analysis of the role of Texas in the frontier defensive cordon is of great interest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Antonio Ladrón de Guevara, Noticias de los poblados de que se componen el Nuevo Reyno de León y las provincias de Coahuila, Nueva Extremadura, y Texas, Nuevas Philipinas (1739; rpt., Madrid: J. Porrua Turanzas, 1962).

Jack D. L. Holmes