MEXICO, NOVEMBER 10, 1772.
[Compendium of all the events which have occurred in the Province of Texas from its conquest, or reduction, to the present date.] 20
Compiled from royal cedulas and orders which I have seen in the Secretaria de Camara of this viceroyalty, and from the bulky volumes (quadernos) of reports 21 which are in the Government Offlce of Don Joseph Gorraez, which likewise I have examined freely.
The Province of Texas. or Nuevas Filipinas, is worthy of the closest attention, equally because of its extensive, rich, and very fertile lands, and of the immense number of warlike nations of heathen Indians who infest it and who may work its ruin and desolation.
At the Medina River, where the government of Coaguila ends, that of Texas begins; it ends at the Presidio 22 of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes. Its length from south to north is estimated as two hundred and forty leagues, and its width from east to west 23 as eighty. To the southeast it borders on the Seno Mexicano [Gulf of Mexico], and to the east-northeast on Luisiana.
All the country is level. It is crossed by twenty-seven rivers and very deep creeks (arroyos) which in their freshets and overflows form many small sreams 24 and lakes.
The rivers abound in fish, and the forests in large and leafy trees, some bearing savory chestnuts, 25 nuts, persimmons, 26 and mulberries; and likewise in buffalo, deer, bears, rabbits, partridges, and other animals.
This very spacious region contains the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, eight leagues 27 distant from the Medina River, and three hundred and seventy from this capital. 27 I has a garrison composed of a captain, a lieutenant, an alférez, 28 a sergeant, two corporals and thirty-nine soldiers. 29 Under its protection are the Villa of San Fernando and five missions, namely (tituladas): San Antonio de Valero, La Purisima Concepcion, Señor San Josef, San Juan Capistrano, and San Francisco de la Espada. 30 Taking a southeasterly course one finds at forty leagues' distance from the said Presidio of Vexar that of Espiritu Santo, with the missions of Nuestra Señora del Rosario and San Bernardo. 31
The Presidio of Orcoquisac used to be situated in the center of the province, and in its immediate neighborhood was the Mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz. 32 Since it is at present abandoned, however, its garrison, composed of a captain, a lieutenant, a sergeant, and twenty-five soldiers, is to be found in San Antonio de Vexar.
At a distance of a little more than a hundred and twenty-six leagues from the above-named Mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz are situated (tienen su establecimiento) those of Nacogdoches and los Ais.
The Presidio of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Ios Adaes is the capital and most remote settlement of the province. It has adjoining it the mission of the same name. It is seven leagues distant from the Presidio of Nachitoches, which belongs to the government of Luisiana, twenty from the Mission of los Ais, forty-seven from that of Nacogdoches, one hundred and fifty from the Presidio of Orcoquisac, two hundred from that la Bahia, two hundred and forty from that of San Antonio de Vexar, 33 and six hundred from this capital. Its force consists of a captain,—the governor of the province holds that office,—a lieutenant, an alférez, a sergeant, six 34 corporals, and forty-one soldiers.
At present, therefore, the the province contains four presidios, one villa, and eleven missions, and has assigned for its defense one hundred and sixty 35 effective troops, including nine officers, whose salary and stipend amount to eighty-eight thousand and ninety-six pesos a year.
In a letter of December 31, 1686, His Excellency the Viceroy, Conde de Monclova, gave to His Majesty, in connection with a statement that Frenchmen had established themselves on the Bay of Espiritu Santo, an account of having ordered the making of two pirogues, which were to go out of Vera Cruz, on the twenty-fifth day of the same [month], to make an investigation of this [matter]. This precautionary measure was approved in royal cédula 36 of April nineteenth of the following year, 1687.
The suspicions were not groundless, inasmuch as Roberto Cavalier de la Sala, a native of Ruan [Rouen], at the time (siendo) a citizen of Canada, had undertaken the discovery of the Misisipi River. When, in the year 1684, he took two Indian chiefs (principales) to Paris, and presented the map 37 and description of the said river to the Most Christian King, the latter gave him the title of marques and a small box of louis d'or, 38 and ordered him to return to take possession of the river (a su conquista) with a ship of fifty guns (cañones), a large pink, 39 a sloop, and a tender (patache); with a troop of infantry, families to settle, seeds, goods for barter, and some Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries. He suffered the ill-fortune, however, of missing the entry into the Misisipi, and landed on our Bay of Espiritu Santo, properly [called Bay of] San Bernardo, which he named [Bay] of San Luis. Here, in the year 1685, he erected a fort of the same name. Leaving it garrisoned, he set out by land with twenty men in search of the Misisipi, went inland as far as the country of Texas, 40 and, in the year 1686, was murdered by an English sailor or soldier 41 whom he had in his company.
The designs of Sala could not be found out, despite the efforts 42 made by their Excellencies the Viceroys, the Marques de Laguna and the Conde de Monclova, until, in the year 1689, 43 a Frenchman 44 named Juan Henrique 45 was arrested near Coaguila.
He made known the entry 46 of the French into the Bay of Espiritu Santo, and, by order of His Excellency the Conde de Monclova, Captain Alonzo de Leon, governor of Coaguila, went thither.
He began his expedition with a hundred men on the twenty-third 47 day of March of the said year 1689, taking with him the above-mentioned Frenchman Juan Henrique. On the twenty-second day of April they found the fort which they were seeking dismantled, the buildings sacked, and the Frenchmen dead. On the twenty-third, [Leon] examined the bay, where only small vessels could anchor, and on the twenty-sixth [he explored] the San Marcos River, which has its outlet through the said bay. On the first of May, 48 the chief of the Texas presented himself, bringing in his company two Frenchman, 49 streaked with paint like the Indians. [The Frenchmen] brought news that more than a hundred of their companions had died of small-pox, and that the rest, surprised by the Indians, had miserably perished by stabs and blows. [Alonzo de Leon treated the chief of the Texas kindly. The latter, very much pleased, offered to go with some of his nation to the Province of Coaguila.]
In the year 1690, the aforesaid Alonzo de Leon returned with a hundred and ten soldiers. He rescued two Frenchmen and one Frenchwoman. 50
The feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated among the Texas on the twenty-fifth day of May, in the presence of the [Indian] chief and all his nation. When mass was over, the ceremony of raising the standard in the King's name was gone through with, possession was taken of the country, and the Mission of San Francisco de los Texas was founded. 51
Report was given to His Majesty of these entradas, and of Captain Alonzo de Leon's having disclosed the fertility and abundance of that province, 52 and the anxious desire with which the Texas Indians were beseeching that missionaries be sent to them, for their conversion to our Holy Faith. [The report] set forth (manifestando) that in pursuance of this purpose (con este motivo) extensive neighboring territories would be discovered and reduced to subjection. Finally, the King was informed of the pious tradition that the Texas Indians were some of the fortunate Indians whom the Venerable Sister Maria de Agreda used to visit and teach. 53 On the twenty-seventh of May, 1690, 54 he issued his royal cédula which ordered that His Excellency the Conde de Galve should put this work of conversion (estas conversiones) into the charge of the religious of San Francisco, that some should go from the College of the Holy Cross of Queretaro, and that, in order not to burden the royal treasury, there should be discussed and sought out some ways of meeting the expenses. 55 In another royal cédula of the twelfth of November, 1692, His Majesty ordered that a new exploration be made, by sea and land. 56
For the land expedition Don Domingo Teran de los Rios was commissioned, being appointed governor of Coaguila and Texas, with a salary of two thousand and five hundred pesos a year, and being given the proper instructions. He took in his company fifty soldiers, fourteen Franciscan religious—seven [of them] lay-brothers, [the rest] priests. 57
On the sixteenth day of May, 1691, 58 Teran set out from the Presidio of Coaguila with his men and baggage, travelling in a northerly direction. On the fourth 59 of August following they arrived at the Mission of San Francisco de los Texas, which the first discoverer, Alonzo de Leon, had founded.
On the eighth of September, 60 they met the company (gente) of the captain of the sea-expedition, who had been on land since the twentieth 61 of July preceding, staying at the Bay of Espiritu Santo.
The ill-feeling (disgustos) and the disagreements which arose between the governor and the missionary fathers 62 rendered this expedition ineffectual. The lack of progress of the mission established by Captain Alonzo de Leon, and the severe season, which brought very heavy snows and overflows of rivers, 63 threw the minds of all into consternation; and Governor Teran returned by sea to Vera Cruz from the Bay of Espiritu Santo, or San Bernardo, leaving in charge of [the mission] fifteen religious 64 and one corporal. 65
The only thing accomplished by this entrada was the discovery that the Cadodachos 66 River was navigable; for, although the religious devoted themselves to founding the missions, these were of very short duration, because of the failure of crops, the death of stock, and the disaffection (disgustos) of the Indians, who stoutly held (acerimos en seguir) to their superstitions, believing that the water of baptism caused them to die. 67 To the foregoing [reasons] were added the [facts] that the soldiers caused them [the Indians] many vexations, and that, as a result of the whole [situation], threats had been made against the religious. Dreading death at the hands of the Indians, they left the country in the year 1693, 68 abandoning everything; and the diligent efforts (diligencias] made up to that time with immense expense to the royal treasury, were frustrated. 69
Twenty-two years had passed without their thinking again about the conversion of the Texas, 70 when, in the year seventeen hundred and fifteen, 71 while His Excellency the Duque de Linares was governing this Nueva España, there came in from Luisiana to the Rio Grande del Norte Don Luis de San Denis and Don Medar Jalot with two 72 other Frenchmen. They brought a passport from their governor, Monsieur de la Mota Cadillac, and an order to buy horses, cattle, and other stock from our Texas missions, which they believed to be in existence. 73
San Denis stated (declaró) that he had been summoned by the aforesaid governor for that purpose; that having left Movila [Mobile] with twenty-four Canadian soldiers, he had sailed westward along the Misisipi River, forty leagues to the fort of San Juan, of which he was captain for the Most Christian King 74; that from there he had continued his course to the Roxo [Red] River, forty leagues farther to the north; that eighty leagues to the west he had disembarked among the Nachitoches, a nation that for fourteen years had been trading with the French. 75
From this point he had followed on foot the route to the Texas, where he and his party were well received. When San Denis' intention of coming to our frontiers became known to the Indians, they charged him straitly to ask in their name that missionaries be sent to them, and among these the Padre Fray Francisco Hidalgo de la Cruz of Queretaro, and a Viscayan named Captain Urrutia, whom they had known since the establishment of the old, abandoned missions, [both of whom] were most acceptable to them. 76
Accompanied by twenty-five Texas with their aged chief, Bernardino 77 and three Frenchmen, 77 leaving the rest at that place, 78 San Denis set out in search of the Presidio of San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande.
On the banks of the San Marcos River, they met about two hundred Indians on the warpath (of course they must have been Apaches), enemies of the Texas; and, after waging a bloody combat, the latter were victorious. At once, however, they concluded a peace, or truce, twenty-one of those [Indians] who were accompanying San Denis returning from the said river. With the four remaining, and his three Frenchmen, he came at last to the Presidio of San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande, a year and nine months after his departure from Movila. 79
Report was given to His Excellency the Viceroy of the entry of these foreigners. In consequence of his orders they were taken to Mexico, where they arrived in the month of June, in the year seventeen hundred and fifteen. Their reports and declarations being ratified, the fourth entrada into the Province of the Texas was decided upon, in junta de guerra y hacienda. 80
The alférez Domingo Ramon was appointed head of this enterprize, with an annual salary of five hundred pesos. Don Luis de San Denis was given the title of conductor de viveres 81 with an equal salary (assignacion). Four hundred pesos were assigned to each of the twenty-five soldiers. This small body (numero) of troops, with their commandant and conductor, five missionary religious from the College of the Holy Cross of Queretaro, four from the [College] of Zacatecas, and three lay-brothers, 82 set out from the Presidio of San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande del Norte on the twenty-fourth 83 day of April in the year seventeen hundred and sixteen. On the eighteenth of June following they came to the river which they named Corpus Christi, not very far from the village (poblacion) of the Texas.
There they were received by the Indians with unspeakable kindness and special demonstrations of good faith (sincero animo). Accompanied by these and by other new friends who had joined them from time to time, they continued their march.
The conductor, Don Luis de San Denis, had gone ahead to let the chief of the Texas know about the entrance (entrada) of the Spanish into his territory. He accomplished the mission very quickly. Having sent a son of the leader, Domingo Ramon, to carry back news of this, he presented himself [in camp] on the twenty-sixth day of June, with five captains, and twenty-nine Indians. 84
These came on horseback, some armed with French guns; they followed San Denis in single file; as soon, however, as they came to the camp of the Spaniards, they dismounted, leaving their horses to other Indians, [who were] on foot (peones). Still in single file (baxo del mismo orden), they approached our men, who were waiting for them drawn up in two lines, between which were (cuyo centro ocupaban) Captain Domingo Ramon and the missionary religious. 85
All in turn embraced one another, with especial marks of love and friendship. After a salute of musketry, they betook themselves to a hut [covered] with leafy boughs, which the Spaniards had prepared for their reception. There, when all were seated according to their rank, the Indians gave the sign of peace, using the [accustomed] ceremony. Their chief commander (capitan comandante) took out a pipe, much adorned with white feathers, filled it with tobacco, and, lighting it, smoked it first, and obliged everybody to do the same. All responded with like demonstrations on their part. 86 This act was finished with a serious harangue delivered by the Indian [chief in which] according to the interpretation of San Denis, who understood perfectly the language and vernacular of that nation, he manifested his pleasure that the Spanish were settling his country. Afterward various chiefs and families of Indians joined the party, and all with demonstrations of rejoicing submitted themselves to the dominions of our King and Lord and became his vassals.
Captain Ramon distributed lavishly among the Indians the presents which he was bringing for them. He appointed as captain-general of those nations a son of the chief [of the Texas]; he appointed also the alcaldes and fiscals of each village. Finally, there were founded the four missions of San Francisco, la Purisima Concepcion, San Josef, and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, where more than five thousand persons of the same vernacular were congregated. The most remote of these missions was situated seven leagues from Nachitoches. As early as the year 1716, the French erected (havian erigido) there a post of the same name, and established themselves among the Cadodaches. 87
The conversion of the heathen of the North would have been completely accomplished had not Don Luis de San Denis fallen into misfortune. This man, worthy of eternal remembrance, facilitated the entrada of the Spanish into Texas; his kindly manner rendered the Indians docile, and he gave the most consistent proofs of his fidelity.
He had married a niece of the Commandant Domingo Ramon, and, with a view to becoming a citizen in the Spanish dominions, he went to Mobila to get his goods, which he transported in fourteen packs.
Accusation was made against this unfortunate man that he had brought in through the Rio de Nachitoches, or Colorado, 88 four frigates laden with contraband goods. It was charged against him that he held familiar intercourse with the Indians, 89 that they loved him dearly, and that he knew their vernacular.
These calumnies found support in the information given by the Governor of Pansacola, Don Gregorio Salinas, that some Frenchmen 90 had come to his presidio, with much stock, publishing [the fact] that they had penetrated to Coaguila. As a result of all this, His Excellency the Viceroy, the Marques de Valero, who had just taken charge of Nueva España, ordered San Denis brought a prisoner to this capital; but after a searching inquiry [into his proceedings], they found only the above-mentioned fourteen bales.
Report of this occurrence was made to the King, and in a royal cédula of the thirtieth of January, seventeen hundred and nineteen, his Majesty ordered, in the case of San Denis, that his goods be returned to him, and that he be compelled to establish himself with his wife in Guatemala; in the case of his uncle Ramon, that he be removed from the Presidio of San Juan Bautista [del Rio Grande], and be given another place (destino) far away from possibility of communication with the French; the latter, however, died a natural death in the said Presidio of San Juan Bautista *del Rio Grande* in the year seventeen hundred and twenty-four; and after all we shall see Mr. de San Denis commandant of the Post of Nachitoches in the year seventeen hundred and nineteen. 91
The missionaries kept anxiously begging for San Denis, with a view to the subjection of the Indians, and clamoring for a reinforcement of people helpful in promoting their stability. 92 But His Excellency the Marques de Valero gave the appointment of governor of Coaguila and Texas to Don Martin de Alarcon of the order of Santiago, 93 with a salary of two thousand and five hundred pesos a year.
He had been, at the beginning of the century, an adventurero 94 in the royal navy (armada), a distinguished soldier in Oran; captain of [a company of] infantry in the kingdom of Valencia, with a title granted by the Conde de Cifuentes; alcalde mayor of the Villa of Tacoma y Zamora, by appointment of the viceroy, Conde de Galve; and last, sergeant-major (sargento mayor) of the militia of Guadalaxara.
This new governor was under orders to carry fifty married soldiers, three master-carpenters, a blacksmith, and a stone-mason, 95 to teach the Indians and put the settlement on a firm basis, each one, like the soldiers, drawing a yearly salary of four hundred pesos. These measures were approved in royal cédula of the 11th of June, 1718.
A year's salary was advanced to Alarcon, and at the beginning of [17] 18 he entered the Province of Texas. But, although he founded the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, the missionary fathers at once made complaint that he had not brought the master mechanics, or filled out the number of the [fifty] soldiers, and [that] those [he did bring were] idle fellows, and very hurtful, on account of belonging, for the greater part, to the most corrupt and worthless classes in all Nueva España; and, finally, that his irregular measures endangered success in the reduction of the heathen. 96
Alarcon asked at the same time for an increase of troops and other auxiliariies. 97 On being refused everything, he tendered his resignation of the governorship, which was accepted. In a royal cédula of the 31st of October, 1719, however, orders were given that he be thanked for his zeal and painstaking.
War having broken out between Spain and France during the regency of the Duque de Orleans, the French invaded the Presidio of Panzacola, on the 19th of May, 1719; and on the same day in the month of June following Don Luis de San Denis took the opportunity to relieve his outraged feelings, by attacking, with the aid of the Indians of the North, 98 the missions of los Adaes and Texas and compelling their inhabitants to retreat post-haste to the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar. 99
He would have succeeded in dislodging our Spaniards from all the province, had not His Excellency the Viceroy, Marques de Valero, accepted the worthy and laudable proposition which the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo made him, in offering his fortune and his person to carry on the war against the French.
With the appointment of the governor and captain-general of las Nuevas Filipinas and Nueva Estremadura, 100 approved by His Majesty in Royal cédula of the 6th of May, 1721, the aforesaid Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo started on his march to Texas in the year 1719, 101 with five hundred dragoons which he had levied at his own cost, and two companies of cavalry, 102 paying all expenses 103 occasioned by this expedition. He came without opposition to the Adaes country, as the French had retreated to their posts of Candodachos and Nachitoches, and the general convocation of the Indians which San Denis had assembled, had disappeared. 104
The King, being notified that this expedition had been prepared, ordered in the above-cited royal cédula of the sixth of May, 1721, that when the Province of Texas was once recovered, steps should be taken to fortify it, and that war should not be waged against the French. 105 Accordingly, all acts of hostility were suspended.
The Marquez de Aguayo re-established the old missions, founded the rest which are now in existence, and the presidios of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes, Loreto, or Bahia del Espiritu Santo, on the same site where Roberto Cavalier de la Sala had put his fort, and that of los Dolores, which today is the site of the abandoned Orcoquisac; he found a better site for San Antonio de Vexar, locating it between the rivers San Antonio and San Pedro; and finally, left the province garrisoned with two hundred and seventy-eight soldiers, 106 a hundred at los Adaes, ninety at la Bahia, twenty-five at los Dolores, and fifty-three at San Antonio, taking eighteen 107 months for the expedition. 108
When the province was reduced to peace, re-established, and augmented, the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo requested the sending of two hundred Tlascalan families, and the same number from Galicia or from the Canaries. His Majesty, however, ordered that the [whole] four hundred should come as volunteers from those islands, and ordered in royal cédulas of the 10th of May, 1723, 109 and the 14th of February, [17] 29, that they should be promptly helped on their way, so that they should be given no reason for turning aside from their destination. The outcome of this measure will be given in its place. 110
When the Marquez de San Miguel de Aguayo retired from the Province of Texas, his lieutenant general, Don Fernando Peres de Almazan, stayed as governor. In the time of the former the attacks (insultos) of the common and the most perfidious enemy of the Internal Provinces, the Apache tribe, had begun to be experienced, [and] afterward they were so often repeated and so cruel that they compelled the governor [Almazan] to ask for permission to wage a vigorous war against the tribe if they did not consummate the peace which they had promised.
This representation was not favorably received by the Superior Government. There had not been time for them to find out the character of that perfidious nation; they believed that those [Indians] who were professing friendship in Nuevo Mexico and Coaguila would maintain it in Texas. But since the remote distances at which these territories are situated, have (as might be expected) always made [the authorities] cautious in their decisions, the procedure in this instance was left to the judgment of the Governor, though not with such unlimited authority that he was left free from responsibility as to the results.
Information was received that the Apaches were trading with the French in Nachitoches, and that the latter were giving them arms, offensive and defensive. While these Indians were soliciting peace, their enemies, those of the North, were doing likewise. At last peace was consummated with the former, after the latter had murdered Captain Diego Ramon in his own presidio of la Bahia del Espiritu Santo—although, to be sure, the negligence, laziness, harshness, and cruel dealing of this officer occasioned his unfortunate death.
Governor Don Fernando Perez de Almazan was succeeded by Don Melchor de Media Villa y Ascona. In the month of September, 1727, the Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera began the revistas 111 of the presidios of Texas.
He reduced the garrison of los Adaes to sixty 112 troops, that of la Bahia del Espiritu Santo to forty, and that of San Antonio de Vexar to forty-three; and he suppressed (reformando) that of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores; so that the strength of these companies, 113 which had consisted of two hundred and sixty-eight 114 men, remained as a result of this revista, one hundred and forty-three. Even this number of troops seemed to him too large, for he states in his plan that the soldiers would live in tranquillity, without being discommoded by the hardships of the service. 115
To each captain he left a short ordinance or instruction for the government of his presidio; he corrected some abuses, among them the oppressive practice of furnishing to the soldiers the goods and effects which they needed, at exorbitant prices.
He found the Mission of San Miguel de los Adaes without a single Indian; that of Nuestra Señora de los [Dolores de los] Ais with only one small rancheria, 116 and not a single Christian; that of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Nacodoches with many Indians, all heathen, though of good disposition and industrious; these three missions are those which the Religious of Zacatecas serve[d] but have given up in the present year. 117
Contiguous to the Presidio of la Bahia del Espiritu Santo was found [at that time] only the mission of this name, in which were eight families of the Tancames, though [they were] not Christians; and the Religious of the aforesaid college were trying to convert the Xaramanes.
Next to the Presidio of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, he inspected the establishment of the missions of Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion de los Asinais, San Francisco de los Neches, San Josef de los Nazones; all without Indians, and the missionaries with little hopes of collecting them. These missions, however, were afterward removed to the vicinity of San Antonio de Vexar. 118
In connection with this presidio [San Antonio de Valero] were situated the [Mission] of San Antonio de Valero, and that of San Juan Capistrano with a sufficient number of Indians already converted.
In the opinion of the Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera, the character of the Northern Indians is fickle, like that of all the other Indians, but more docile, less turbulent, and more loyal. They use firearms with dexterity, but they revere the Spanish, and they follow the natural instinct of self-defense [only] when they feel themselves harassed or persecuted. From this [opinion] originated the idea of the aforesaid brigadier, in regard to reducing the strength of the garrisons of the province; for he did not consider them necessary for its defence, or for restraining the French, although, being then in possession of the territories of Luisiana, they gave occasion for suspicion. This suspicion no longer exists since the cession of those dominions to our Catholic Monarch. I shall not linger, therefore, to set forth the various measures which have been taken at different times to prevent illicit commerce, to define and contest the limits [of the possessions] of both crowns.
When Don Pedro de Rivera came to Texas there were no other enemies but the Apaches; these have been, are, and always will be enemies (lo) of the Spaniards and of every rational being. To confirm me in this opinion, which I have been caused to form by the numerous books of autos, ancient and modern, which I have read—now to get myself into the merits of the immense, incomprehensible [mass of] business of the Provincias Internas, now to work up this brief compendium, and again to dispatch the reports of the day,—the only thing that I lack is a sight of those countries; although, to be sure, I believe that I am not in error, since the acts of inhumanity, the intrigues, the perfidies of that savage nation, charged with numberless shameful deeds, sadden the heart, stir the passions, and make the name of Apache abhorrent.
When his revista was over, the above-mentioned Don Pedro de Rivera returned to Mexico; his arrangements were approved, and the ordinances were drawn up in the year 1729. The missionary fathers of Texas not only made representation against suppressing (la providencia de reformar) the Presidio of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, but also petitioned that its former force and that of the Presidio of los Adaes should be doubled, and that, in case their request should not be granted, the captains of the Presidios should place at their disposal competent guards for the missions and for separating the apostate Indians from among the heathen.
The Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera refuted these propositions in a well written dictamen 119; and the father president, 120 Fray Miguel Sevillano, since he could not carry out his ideas, appealed to His Majesty, complaining of the measures of the government.
His Excellency the Marques de Casafuerte was asked in royal cédula of the 7th of June, 1730, for his report; Don Pedro de Rivera repeated his, with even more solid, and [well] established arguments than before. Testimony was taken, and sent to His Majesty, who deigned to dispatch another royal cédula, of July 3, 1733, approving the viceroy's action.
The governor, Don Melchor de Media Villa, was not free from responsibility (no dexó de tener parte) for the representations which the Padre Sevillano had made. Suspicions of this, his appeals, full of vain fears, and the fact that the term of his governorship was ended, furnished reasons for removing him therefrom.
At the suggestion of the Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera, Don Juan Bustillo y Zavallos, Captain of the Presidio of la Bahia, entered upon the government of the province at the beginning of the year 1731.
In this term was founded the villa which is next to the Presidio of Vexar; the Señor Casafuerte would not have it given his name, but [favored giving it] that of San Fernando in honor of His Serene Highness the Prince of Asturias. From the Canaries came only sixteen families, at immense cost; with them and others from this Nueva España was made the only settlement of Spaniards that is [now] to be found in the spacious, fertile, beautiful Province of los Texas. 121
At the end of the year 1730, 122 the drove of horses of the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar was attacked (se insultaron) by five hundred Apache Indians. Captain Antonio Perez went out to defend it with twenty-five men; a bloody battle was fought, lasting two hours. The Indians retreated, though many of their number were killed, carrying off with them more than seventy head of cattle, and leaving two [of the] presidial soldiers dead and thirteen wounded.
To punish and restrain the arrogance of the Apaches, a formal expedition was organized by order of His Excellency the Marques de Casafuerte, in accordance with a dictamen of the Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera. The expedition was placed (pusose) in charge of the governor of the province, and, with a hundred and sixty men and sixty Indian auxiliaries, it sought the enemy in their rancherias. [The party] went about seventy leagues to the banks of a swollen river whither the Spaniards had never penetrated before. They found encamped in four hundred tents, which spread over more than half a league of ground, these tribes, the Apaches, Sandis, Pandis, and Chenis, to the number of seven hundred. They fought a bloody contest for five hours; two hundred Indians fell in the battle; the rest fled. The Spaniards took away from them more than seven hundred head of cattle, and captured more than thirty persons of both sexes, without loss to their little camp other than seven wounded, one of whom died.
Who would not believe that this ill-starred event would have served as a warning to the Apaches? Far from it, they gave the most consistent proofs of their perfidy; they solicited peace, and when the time came to consummate it, after they had been regaled and treated with the utmost kindness, they committed the atrocious crime of murdering the alférez and two soldiers of the presidio, who, satisfied of the good faith in which they had presented themselves, were convoying two Indians of that tribe, to put them into a place where they might make use of their liberty. Not only did they pay for this kindness with their lives, [but on their dead bodies] one saw with horror the [marks of] the fury, the impiety, and the cruelty of the heathen.
After the resignation of Don Juan Antonio Bustillo, the Captain of Infantry Don Manuel de Sandoval entered upon the government of the province. He had been a cadet, sub-lieutenant, and lieutenant, 123 in the Regiment of Santa Fe; and when this body was reorganized, he had passed with promotion to the [Regiment] of Granada, whence he came to this kingdom with the rank of captain and as governor of Coaguila.
He entered upon the government of Texas in the early part of the year 1734, and by order of the Señor Casafuerte took up his abode in San Antonio de Vexar in order [to be on the spot] to meet the hostility which the Apaches were showing.
These continued their double-dealing, presenting themselves time and again in peace, the better to secure their plots against the lives and property of the Spaniards. On one of those occasions, after [the Spaniards] had made them presents of tobacco, piloncillo, 124 and other trifles (maritatas) which are pleasing to them, and had shown a desire for their goodwill in return, consigning to oblivion the crimes up to that time perpetrated, they made return, as they were leaving, with the outrageous deed of surprising two citizens [of the villa], inhumanly cutting them to pieces. The governor, therefore, saw himself compelled to reinforce the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar with twenty-five men from those of La Bahia, Adaes, and San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande, and to fortify it, to keep it safe from an invasion by the enemy in case they were planning one, of which there were more than sufficient indications.
The governor secured little advantage from his zealous measures, not because the Apaches could withstand them, but because the captain of the Presidio of Vexar and the citizens of the villa calumniated him before His Grace 125 Don Juan Antonio de Vizarron, bringing against him the charge, among various others, that he had allowed the French to move the Post of Nachitoches a musketshot further within our territory. This furnished a reason for his being removed from the government of the province, on the ground that he was a traitor to the King.
It happened that at this juncture Colonel Don Carlos Franquis had recently come from Spain with the right of succession to the governorship 126 of Tlascala which he found occupied; and in consideration of this, that of Texas was conferred upon him ad interim by His Illustrious Excellency, the Archbishop Viceroy.
The events (lances) which occurred in the short space of a year, the time that the governorship of Franquis lasted, are as public as [they are] scandalous; he showed plainly his haughty, precipitant, stormy temper in his indiscretions and in the insolence with which he treated the missionary religious, all the inhabitants of the province, and his predecessor, Sandoval.
Without being judge of Sandoval's residencia, 127 he forced the latter to undergo shameful imprisonment in the stocks, with two pair of fetters; and dispossessing him of all his papers, he instistituted ciminal proceedings against him for unwarranted requisition of the troop of the Presidio of los Adaes; and for permitting the removal of the Post of Nachitoches, an offense which Franquis exaggerated terribly. He removed various religious from the missions, and intercepted the despatches and letters which were sent to Mexico. Finally, it was necessary to make him leave the province immediately.
As it is a matter of no importance for the end toward which this paper is directed to detail these clamorous stories, though, having examined more than forty collections of reports 128 in regard to the matter, I could dwell upon them at length, I shall merely state that Don Carlos Franquis and Don Manuel de Sandoval, having been called upon for their residencias, were both acquitted of the charges against them. 129 The former returned to Spain to continue his service in the Regiment of Savoya, and the latter died in this capital, serving in the capacity of sergeant major in the Regimiento Urbano del Comercio.
In the year [17]37, in view of the removal of Franquis, Don Prudencio de Orobio y Basterra entered upon the government ad interim. He had been a trader in the Villa of Saltillo, and alcalde mayor of Parras.
The Apaches, always arrogant, were showing hostility in the environs of the Presidio of Vexar; its captain, Don Josef Urrutia, proposed to undertake at his own cost a campaign against them; but under the express condition that Governor Orobio should have no part in it further than to place at his disposal the auxiliaries for which he should ask. His request [for permission to undertake the campaign] was granted. The result was that, after multiplied hardships and frequent reports, he irritated the enemy more. He also discovered a main range of mountains, which stretches opposite the said presidio, and passes along the banks of the Guadalupe River toward the Apache country (Apacheria), with no other place of entrance, because of its impassable roughness, than a narrow pass, which facilitates the ingress of the Indians. Yet, after all, he claimed that the fruit of his vigilance should be rewarded by the addition of a hundred men to the forty[-four] of whom the garrison of his presidio was composed, thus assuring the re-establishment and good order of the province.
It is true that by the common agreement of all intelligent persons of former and present times, it is in [the Presidio of] *San Antonio* de Vexar that the troops are needed, [and] not in that of los Adaes or La Bahia del Espiritu Santo; for, while the former has always experienced the cruelty of the Apache nation, the latter have enjoyed the greatest tranquillity. The reasons for this notable difference, however, I shall bring to view when I come to treat of the revistas and plans of His Excellency the Marques de Ruby.
Don Thomas Felipe Wintuisen succeeded Orobio ad interim; he governed two years and a half, beginning in the year 1741, without the occurrence of any noteworthy events except that the Apaches with their craftiness kept stealing the droves of horses, and scalping the soldiers and citizens who, through carelessness or overmuch confidence, fell into their treacherous hands.
In this term Urrutia again urged that he be permitted to go out on a campaign against the Apaches, or that, in default of this, a presidio be erected on the banks of the Guadalupe River; both propositions, however, were rejected, and he was urged to stand on the defensive. In the year 1743 was had the first intelligence of the numerous and strong Comanche nation. The Apaches dared to attack them in their own territory, but were valiantly repelled, and from that day to this retain a servile fear of them; for all that, however, they lose no opportunity to inflict upon them what injuries they can, being their irreconcilable enemies.
By royal appointment Lieutenant-Colonel Don Justo Boneo y Morales, Knight of the Order of Santiago, came to serve as governor of Texas. By royal cédula of July 15, 1740, he had been ordered to make an exact report of all that had taken place up to his time in the Province of Texas; he was unable to carry this out, because of his death a little while after his arrival in the Adaes country. The task was accomplished, however, by His Excellency the Marques de Altamira, who undertook the [same] work which I have mapped out, that of examining all the collections of autos, royal cédulas, and various other instructive papers.
At the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Justo Boneo y Morales, Don Francisco Garcia Larios entered upon the governorship ad interim. In his term the commissary, Fray Francisco Ortiz, of the College of Queretaro, represented to the King that several nations of Indians—the Vidaes, Caocos, Lacopseles, Anchoses, and innumerable others—had asked to be brought into the bosom of our Holy Religion, and that the land situated on the banks of the San Xavier River would be very suitable for gathering them into missions. In consequence, His Majesty ordered in royal cédula of the 16th of April, 1748, that if the establishment should be considered useful, it should be effected. The religious had not waited [patiently] for this decision, for since the year [17]46 they had pressed their petition [in this Superior Government]—the Padre Fray Mariano de los Dolores with an especial degree of insistence.
The governor opposed this, setting forth that the region of San Xavier, which had been named, was lacking in the qualities requisite for the foundation, insomuch as the waters of the river, or creek, offered no facilities for irrigating the fields, nor was the land the most fertile, nor the harvest of neophytes so great as the missionaries represented and finally that in case the missions asked for should be established, the site of Orcoquisac seemed to him better.
Sundry reports were required (tomaronse), and, although the disagreement between them made Don Fulano Vedolla and Auditor Marques de Altamira hesitate in their dictamens, His Excellency the Conde de Revilla Gigedo finally ordered, in a decree of the 1st of February of the year [17]47, that three missions be established in San Xavier, and that for their protection and preservation seventeen 130 soldiers be detached from the Presidio of los Adaes and seven from la Bahia. The expenses of establishing them (cuyos gastos) came to about sixteen thousand 131 pesos.
Not content, the missionary religious solicited the erection of a presidio with eighty or ninety troops. Although the official opinions (pareceres) of His Excellency the Auditor, Marquez de Altamira, worthy of eternal remembrance, adduced the most solid arguments against this second request, which was made at the beginning of the year [17]47, it was so insistently repeated, and supported by such favorable representations, that finally an order was issued to the effect that, pending the decision as to the founding of the [proposed] presidio, the missions of San Xavier should be garrisoned with fifty men detached from the presidios of los Adaes, Bahia del Espiritu Santo, [San Juan Bautista del] Rio Grande, and Santa Rosa del Sacramento.
From the year [17]48 on, Don Pedro del Barrio y Espriella was governor ad interim of the province. Since the issue of the day was the much-talked-of establishment of the new presidio and missions, he framed autos in which he demonstrated their uselessness at San Xavier. He brought to view the advantages which the San Marcos River offered for the purpose, equally because of the abundance of its waters, which enrich the surrounding lands, and because of its being the only barrier which impedes the ingress of the Northern Indians into the interior of the province.
The governor exerted himself in vain, since it was alleged against him that, being influenced by mischievous prejudices, he was giving false information. It was necessary, therefore, to adopt the measure of commissioning an impartial person to make inquiry [into the question].
Don Josef de Eca y Musquiz, lieutenant of the Presidio of Santa Rosa del Sacramento, was therefore selected, with an allowance equivalent to one soldier's salary as a gratuity, or an addition to his pay. He discharged his duties with such felicity and satisfaction to the interested parties, that in junta de guerra y hacienda held on the 11th day of March, 1751, the establishment of the presidio, with allowance for fifty troops as its endowment, was decided upon.