OROBIO Y BASTERRA, PRUDENCIO DE (?-?). Making use of the faculty granted to him, Governor José Fernández de Jáuregui y Urrutia^qv of Nuevo León, the investigator of the botched administration of Governor Carlos B. Franquis de Lugo,^qv appointed Prudencio de Orobio y Basterra governor of the Province of Texas. Prudencio, governor from 1737 to 1740/41, must be distinguished from Joaquín de Orobio y Basterra, successor of Captain Costales as commander of Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio at La Bahía.^qv Prudencio, a merchant of Saltillo, had been alcalde mayor of Parras, an office to which he had been named by the governor of Nueva Vizcaya; and he proved to be a good choice. He tried to undo the harm done to the missions by Franquis. After suffering another severe setback by reason of the virulent epidemic of 1739, the missions of San Antonio entered upon their most flourishing period and began to construct their first buildings of stone.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas (2 vols., San Francisco: History Company, 1886, 1889). Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936-58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Elizabeth Howard West, trans., "Bonilla's Brief Compendium of the History of Texas, 1772," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 8 (July 1904).

Marion A. Habig, O.F.M.