RAMÍREZ DE LA PISCINA, MANUEL (?-1767). Manuel Ramírez de la Piscina (Piszina) was the commander of La Bahía del Espíritu Santo Presidio from 1750 to 1767. He succeeded Capt. Joaquín de Orobio y Basterra, who tendered his resignation while building the new presidio at its third and final site, near the site of present Goliad in Goliad County. Ramírez received the viceroy's appointment on November 8, 1749, and arrived at Presidio La Bahía to take command on February 1, 1750. Under his seventeen-year administration, the presidio grew into one of the important forts along the northern frontier of New Spain. Captain Ramírez owned and operated the store at La Bahía and was able to amass a considerable fortune and to acquire a large ranch called El Rancho del Capitán along the west bank of the San Antonio River four leagues above La Bahía. He supervised the building of Nuestra Señora del Rosario Mission 1 ½ leagues up from the presidio. A generally quiet and harmonious administration came to an end with his death on July 25, 1767. He was buried at Mission Rosario, for which he had great affection. He bequeathed his ranch to that mission and was succeeded by Francisco de Tovar.^qv

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bexar Archives, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Jack Jackson, Los Mesteños: Spanish Ranching in Texas, 1721-1821 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986). William H. Oberste, Remember Goliad (1949). Kathryn Stoner O'Connor, The Presidio La Bahía del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga, 1721 to 1846 (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1966). Robert S. Weddle and Robert H. Thonhoff, Drama and Conflict: The Texas Saga of 1776 (Austin: Madrona, 1976).

Robert H. Thonhoff