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. This had been solicited for six years, for neither the heavy expenses which this project demanded, nor the solid arguments with which it was opposed, could dislodge the ideas of the petitioners. Experience afterward justified [these objections]. Grievous events occurred, in which the reputation of many persons suffered, the King's royal treasury paying for it all in such fashion that even to this day the mischief has not been completely undone.
At the close of the year [17]51, Lieutenant-Colonel Don Jacinto de Barrios y Jauregui took possession, by royal appointment, of the government of Texas. It is hard to relate the events that occurred in his term in such a way as not to fall into the error of telling them too early or too late; but, keeping so far as possible to an orderly method, not confusing or complicating the questions in hand, I shall try to elucidate everything with [all] possible distinctness and brevity.
The office of captain of the new Presidio of San Javier was conferred upon Don Felipe Rabago y Teran. As soon as he arrived at his destination, he made [documentary] report that the river had no water to fertilize the lands; that these were sterile; that there were no materials for buildings; that the Mission of San Ildefonso was found deserted; that of la Candelaria with twenty-five persons of both sexes, and that of San Javier with a hundred and nine. He proposed that all should be combined into one and removed to the banks of the San Marcos River, where the presidio should be built.
These propositions, the opposite of those which had occasioned the above-mentioned measures, and the scandals which arose from the fact that the above-mentioned captain and the soldiers were living shamelessly in illicit connections, gave rise to very unfortunate consequences. The father president, Fray Miguel Pinilla exhorted and admonished the soldiers; the captain issued an auto that the religious should refrain from rebuking his soldiers publicly, since this course of action was resulting in the publicity of the excesses, and in discord and jealousy between several married couples; but the father excommunicated them all, posting edicts on the doors of the church.
Without delay most opportune measures were passed by this Superior Government to stop these grievous scandals, pregnant with trouble; but they came [too] late to prevent the unfortunate, violent death of the Padre Gonzabal 132 by a wound from an arrow which pierced his heart, and the death of a native who was found taking refuge in the mission, and whose wife was in illicit intercourse with Captain Rabago.
Twenty-four very bulky volumes of autos were written to find out the aggressors in this sacrilegious crime; sundry persons were brought to the prisons of this capital, the above-mentioned captain among them. However, he came off clear from the charge, and was restored to his office; 133 the rest had the same fortune.
While these inquiries were being made, Don Pedro de Rabago Teran, a kinsman of Don Phelipe's, went to command the Presidio of San Xavier. He knew how to make friends with the missionary religious, and the removal of the said presidio to the site of San Savas was agreed upon.
The Padre Fray Mariano de los Dolores, who was the center of all the events which had occurred since the year [17]46, gave report in the year [17]52 134 that the Apaches were anxiously seeking to be brought into missions; and for the purpose he suggested that the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar be removed to a site not far distant, which they call de los Pedernales.
This removal was rendered difficult by the citizens of the Villa of San Fernando, who represented the helpless condition in which they would be left. When the plans of the Padre Fray Mariano were thus frustrated, he took occasion to attribute the frightful condition of the [Presidio] of San Xavier to the violent death of the missionary Padre Gonzabal, saying that since then the territory had been filled with infection, and the rivers dried up; that the pools emitted a foul odor; and that even up to the heavens the punishment of that sacrilegious crime was being announced by portents in no wise common. He asked, finally, that the Presidio of San Xavier be removed to the banks of the Guadalupe River, or of the San Marcos, which on repeated occasions he had spoken of as pernicious and impracticable for this purpose.
The College of the Holy Cross of Queretaro supported these plans, and [so did] Captain Don Pedro de Rabago. The latter expressed the opinion that the Apaches were docile Indians, and capable of being converted; that it would be expedient to gather them into San Sabas as the center of the Apache country; that it was necessary to abandon the site of San Javier, and garrison the new Presidio *of San Savas* with a hundred men; and that the few converted Indians should be brought into the missions contiguous to San Antonio de Vexar.
To make this vast project more feasible, he showed also that the royal treasury would incur no greater expense, since the extra number of men could be taken from such presidios as would not need their full quotas. Finally, he made apparent the advantage of [the fact] that by these means the conversion of the numerous Comanche nation would be accomplished, that communication would be opened with Nuebo Mexico, Coaguila, and Leon, and that all the hostilities of the Indians would stop, the whole country entering upon a tranquil peace. These suggestions had the desired effect, the removal of the Presidio of San Javier to San Sabas being approved in junta de guerra y hacienda, which was held on the 27th day of February, in the year 1756.
By this time Captain Don Pedro Ravago had died, but Colonel Don Diego Ortiz Parilla succeeded him. Instructions for the new establishment were given to this official. It was ordered that he should recruit twenty-seven men, and take twenty-two from San Antonio de Bexar, so that with the troops of the presidio to be removed its garrison should be filled out to the number of a hundred; and that, after all the converted Indians had been transferred with the missionaries from the district of San Xavier to the missions contiguous to Bexar, the said missionaries should go to take charge of others in San Sabas, the government of which was declared independent of that of Texas, Coaguila, and Nuevo Mexico.
When these measures were passed, Don Pedro de Terreros, today Conde de Regla, was allowed to assume the pious obligation, which he had undertaken, of keeping up at his own cost, during the space of three years, all the missions that should be founded north of [the Province of] Coaguila, afterward turning them over with their churches, ornaments, and treasures, to be maintained in the future by the royal treasury.
Due account of all was given under oath to His Majesty by ordinary channels (por el via de consejo) in a letter of November 1, 1756, and by special communication (por la reservada) under date of October 1st [of the same year, His Majesty deigning to approve it in royal cédula and order of the 12th of August and 25th of October, 1758.] Provision was made in the first that he [the King] be informed as to the remuneration considered most appropriate in the case of the aforesaid Don Pedro [de] Terreros.
Colonel Don Diego Ortiz Parilla at once started on his march to the Province of Texas. The Indians of San Javier did not wish to be brought into the missions of the Presidio of San Antonio, and by special permission they remained congregated (congregados) 135 on the banks of the River *Nuestra Señora de* Guadalupe. The Villa of San Fernando opposed the dismemberment of the force of the presidio, but did not then obtain a favorable decision. The recruiting of the twenty-seven men was effected; and finally, Parilla, accompanied by the missionary religious and part of the troops of his command, was transferred to the San Savás River.
Before he arrived at his destination, which was on the 17th of April, 1757, he received information that that point was not suitable for the projected establishment; but when the site had been minutely examined, the presidio was erected, and, at the distance of a league and a half, a mission—without Indians, because the Apaches, after having worn away the time with vain promises, declared themselves openly, saying that they had no desire to become subjects or bind themselves to citizenship and fixed residence in missions; and that it was more agreeable to them to live in their wandering fashion, continuing in mutual good-will and friendship with the Spaniards.
This occurrence might have caused much discouragement, since it left illusory the great, costly preparations which had been made with no other purpose than that of the Apaches' conversion—held so certain that already the delay in the measures had been blamed in dolorous exclamations and lamentations that so many souls steeped in heathenism were being lost. Yet there was continuous protest that once the erection of the presidio had been decided upon, it was necessary to carry it through, because if it were abandoned occasion might be given for the savages, attributing this action to discouragement or cowardice, to despise our arms; that it would be expedient, however, to better the situation of the said presidio, by bringing it nearer to that of San Antonio de Vexar, in order to facilitate prompt aid in case the Indians should attempt to besiege it. Among other arguments, which I omit, so as not to make this paper too diffuse, was added [the statement] that under the generic name Apache thirteen nations inhabited that part of the North, with the family names of Ypandis, Natajes, Mescaleros, etc., and so numerous that they amounted all told to about one hundred thousand persons. 136
These matters were being discussed in the Superior Government, when the news came that the Comanche Indians, the Tuacanes, Taovayases, Vidais, Queisseis, and others, to the number of two thousand, had attacked the Presidio of San Sabas. The governors of Texas and Coaguila believed it entirely destroyed; suspicious that the enemy would continue their inroad within the limits of their respective jurisdictions, 137 they gave report of this occurrence.
In consequence they received orders that, keeping the presidios under their command in a state of defence, and getting ready the men of their garrisons, and the citizens who could equip themselves, they should send all the auxiliaries possible to the captain of San Antonio de Bexar, so that he might go to help the Presidio of San Sabas. Before these measures were put into execution, however, a detailed account was received at the capital of the occurrence which had given occasion for their adoption.
On the 22nd day of March, 1758, the aforesaid Northern Indians dashed boldly upon the Mission of San Sabas; they were all on horseback, armed with guns, sabres, and pikes, painted with various colors, decorated with skins [of beasts.] Their war-whoop (algazara y griteria) terrified the religious, who bolted the door of the mission. Under pretense of peace and friendship, however, they treacherously took it by surprise; the father president, Fray Gerardo de Terreros, Fray Josef de San Estevan, and three soldiers, lost their lives at the cruel hands of the infidels; the rest were freed by a manifestation of the divine mercy. The barbarians sacked the mission, destroyed the images, profaned the sacred vessels, and burned everything in horrible flames.
Well would they have liked to do the same with the presidio, but the commandant had had previous warning of the bad faith with which they had acted in the case of the unfortunate mission; and the fury of the heathen, when they found him prepared, contented itself with setting fire to the outposts of the fort, and carrying off part of the drove of horses. The troops of San Sabas were so demoralized by these events that if their captain had not restrained them they would have deserted him. The request was made that the presidio should again be removed to the Guadalupe River or to the San Marcos. It was proposed, also, that it might well be removed to los Chanas, 138 forty[-nine] leagues from San Antonio de Bexar, or to the adjacent site, which they call los Almagres; that the garrison (dotacion) should be increased to a hundred and forty; and that to punish the arrogance of the Indians a formal expedition should be organized to hunt them in their rancherias.
In the year 1755, Governor Don Jacinto de Barrios gave report that a vein had been discovered in the aforesaid site of los Almagres, which promised abundance of silver ore 139 of good quality. After the report had passed through the regular channels, it was resolved that one Don Bernardo de Miranda should investigate the matter. As a reward for his toils he was promised that, if the facts came up to the expectations, a presidio should be founded there, and he be given the rank of captain.
On the 27th day of June [1758], these points were discussed in junta de guerra y hacienda. It was agreed that the site of the Presidio of San Sabas should not then be changed; that its assignment of troops should remain one hundred; that an attempt should be made to bring in the Apaches; and that, assembled in San Antonio de Bexar the governors of Texas and Coaguila, Col. Don Diego Ortiz Parilla, Don Josef de Eca y Musquis, and other persons of experience and intelligence, should confer and deliberate upon the way and time to make the campaign against the nations of the North, and the number of troops of which the expedition must be composed, and make a careful estimate of the expenses which it would occasion for the royal treasury.
Under date of the 6th of September of the year indicated above, account was given to His Majesty; and in royal decree of March 29 following, he enjoined the greatest circumspection and care lest, the enterprise failing, the danger be incurred that, the barbarians, whom it was not expedient to accustom and train to make war, become more insolent.
When the junta of officers was held, it was decided to make the campaign at the beginning of June, with five hundred men—a hundred and thirty-nine presidial soldiers, two hundred and forty-one militia, thirty Tlascalan Indians, and ninety from the missions; that the first should have their usual salary 140; the second and third a peso a day, and the last four reales [a day]. It was estimated that these expeditures would approximate fifty-three thousand pesos [in four months].
The Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar was chosen as the place of meeting. As the troops had been unable, on account of the distances, to come together at the time appointed, it was not till the first of August that the expedition set out, under orders of Colonel Don Diego Ortiz Parilla, in search of the enemy. They, advised of this occurrence, were awaiting our forces to harass them and defend themselves vigorously.
The above-mentioned colonel traveled one hundred and fifty leagues northward with the troops under his command. He found several rancherias deserted; he took one by surprise, killing fifty-five Indians, and taking a hundred and forty-nine prisoners. When, however, he advanced to the village of the Taovayases he found it fortified with intrenchments, stockades, and ditches; and inside more than six thousand confederated Indians, who with boldness and arrogance were flying a French flag.
In well concerted sallies they attacked our troops; and, increasing their outposts and detachments, they tried to cut off the retreat, so as to entrap their enemies and leave them no other alternative than death or surrender.
This mode of warfare, never [before] experienced among the Indians—in which they not only used a regular military discipline, but also dextrously inflicted injuries with the musket, saber, and lance, throwing aside the bows, arrows, and macanas, the arms peculiar to their ancient usage—so astounded Parilla's troops that this officer's ardor, good example, and persuasions were of no avail. They retreated, leaving behind all the baggage-train, and the six field-pieces; and the memory of this [event] remains to this day on the Taovoyases frontier, as a disgrace [to the Spaniards].
Such was the end of the much-talked-of expedition against the nations of the North, which cost the king's treasury, in less than two months, more than sixty thousand pesos. I am impelled to say, however, in the interest of the truth, that the leader of it would have been successful in his operations with troops of another sort, more obedient and better trained, than these, whose conduct would have endangered his reputation had he not [already] been tried in his [long-continued] services and achievements in Europe and America.
Becoming insolent, the enemy pressed the rear-guard closely as far as San Sabas, but without doing further damage. Since that time they have continued their hostilities, never forgetting the glorious day of their victories; nevertheless, however much one might wish to be convinced of the valor, intrepidity, boldness, and constancy of the Indians, they gave little evidence of these qualities, allowing a frightened troop, who were thinking only of refuge and security, to retreat over more than a hundred and fifty leagues.
The disputes over boundaries between French and Spanish territory, and the erection of the abandoned Presidio of San Agustin de Ahumada, 141 are alone lacking to complete the narrative of the events which occurred in the governorship of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Jacinto Barrios y Jauregui.
In regard to the first [matter] it seems to me profitless, for the reasons which I mentioned in the twelfth chapter of this compendium, 142 to rehearse the various measures enacted by this captain-generalship. They appear in bulky volumes of reports, which I have seen in different representations made to His Majesty by their Excellencies the Marques de los Amarillas, and the Marques de Cruyllas, and in repeated royal orders, giving direction that the French be not permitted to make an entry into the Province of Texas.
If I had to tell anew all the occurrences in connection with the second [matter] I should fill more paper than was used [to relate] those of San Sabas.
In the time of Governor Orobio it was proposed to found a presidio on the Santissmia Trinidad River, to prevent the trade and settlement of the French. In the year 1757 there were arrested, by order of Don Jacinto Barrios, an old Frenchman named Blanc Pain, two others of the same nation whom I knew in Cadiz, and two negroes; they were brought as prisoners to this capital, where the first died.
These persons lived in a hut or cabin on the banks of the said river, and carried on trade with the heathen. That post [on the Trinity] was garrisoned with a lieutenant and thirty men; as it was marshy and uninhabitable, the troops were removed to the springs of Santa Rosa de Alcazar; there the presidio was to be founded, with fifty families, twenty-five [of] Spaniards, and twenty-five [of] Tlascalan Indians; this second site, however, was likewise defective. At last it was established at los Horconsitas, the site of the Mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz; with the subsequent misfortune that the presidio was fired by the Spaniards who by order of the Governor Don Angel Martos came to arrest Captain Don Rafael Martinez Pacheco (as shall be told in its place) and that the mission was abandoned.
Three juntas de guerra y hacienda were held in regard to these removals—on February 4, [17]57, and December 9, [17]62. Account of all these was given to the King, and the resolutions passed at the first of these juntas was approved in royal order of August 13, 1766.
Although the naval lieutenant (teniente de navio) Don Angel de Martos y Navarrete came to this kingdom in the year 1756, he did not enter upon the government of Texas till the year [17]57, because his predecessor was engaged in the establishment of the Presidio of San Agustin de Ahumada, the measure for which was approved in royal order of February 13, 1758.
The events which occurred in the term of this governor are many, and very complicated. Under the pretext that the Carancaguazes Indians were asking to be brought into missions, allowances for ten soldiers were added to the Presidio of la Bahia del Espiritu Santo, in the year 1758; yet even to this day they abide in their heathenism, becoming apostates when the inclination siezes them.
In the year 1760 the nations of the North, Tuacanes, Taovayases, Maquies, Queitseis, etc., who had attacked the Presidio of San Savas, asked, through the agency of Padre Fray Josef Calahorra, for peace and for the foundation of a mission within their territory.
The aforesaid religious went to visit them in their pueblo, where he stayed eight days, very obsequiously treated by the heathen, who, with sincere demonstrations, gave assurance of the good faith of their actions.
From this resulted the proposition that the Presidio of San Sabas be removed to the center of the country inhabited by the above-mentioned nations. It had no effect, however, because in imagination the Lipan Apaches had then been gathered into the Missions of the Cañon, and because the fruitless expenditures which they had occasioned and the amount of trouble which these removals had caused, were kept in mind.
The Northern Indians, whether moved by their natural fickleness, or by resentment at seeing their plans miscarry, showed such hostility in the neighborhood of San Antonio de Bexar, the Villa of San Fernando, and the missions, that it was necessary to garrison the region with auxiliary troops.
The Apaches did not fail to make cautious use of their tricks in stealing as much as they could. At the same time the nations of the North kept attacking the Presidio of San Sabas, which Captain Don Felipe de Rabago 143 had had under his command since the 1st of October, in the year [17]60; these inroads, however, were not dealt with successfully until Lieutenant Colonel Don Hugo de Oconor came to govern the Province of Texas ad interim.
It would now be the time to treat of the public scandals of the burning of the Presidio of San Agustin de Ahumada, the attempted imprisonment of its captain, [Don Rafael] Martinez Pacheco, his vigorous defence, the removal of Don Angel Martos from the governorship, and the investigation which Lieutenant-Colonel Oconor made of the whole matter; but the documents bearing on the matter are at present in the possession of the Señor Auditor; I can not say more, therefore, than that after an examination into the conduct of Captain *Don Rafael Martinez* Pacheco, the latter was exonerated from all his charges and restored to the command of his company.
The numerous appeals and repeated reports in regard to the deplorable state of the Provincias Internas which came to the sovereign notice of His Majesty, moved his august mind to dispatch sundry royal orders and cédulas, from the year 1753 on, ordering their excellencies the viceroys to turn their attention to the regulation of those rich, valuable frontiers. The vast responsibilities of this government, however, the long distances, and the variety of dictamens, impeded progress, and rendered measures timid.
To remedy this mischievous inaction, the king deigned to charge the Marques de Ruby 144 with the important and serious duty of the revista of presidios; and in royal order of the 7th of August, 1756, he ordered that the appropriate papers and documents be given over to the Marques, and that the aids which he might need be put at his disposal.
In the month of March, 1766, His Excellency *the Marquez de Ruby* set out from this capital, directing his course toward Durango, whence he began his revistas. Having inspected the provinces of la Nueba Vizcaya, Sonora, Sinaloa, Coaguila, and Nuevo Mexico, he came to that of Texas by August, 1767.
The fearful plight in which the presidios of San Antonio de Bejar, Adaes, Bahia del Espiritu Santo, and Orcoquisac were found, because of the private aims of their respective commandants, are very clearly shown in the documents relating to the revista, as [are] the real troubles which have to this day afficted the Provincias Internas, and which forbode their impending ruin; but as to whatever makes for the remedy for such inveterate evils, the dictamen, or plan, which embraces the essentials of all the revistas, gives as full information as could be desired.
It is a paper truly worthy [and characteristic] of the lofty, distinguished, and very subtle talents of its most excellent author. It cannot be represented by extracts, because taken as a whole it is an [admirable] compendium of important information, logical, [prudent] considerations, and safe expedients, on the practice of which depends the good fortune of those unhappy provinces.
When he comes to treat of the [affairs] of Coaguila and Texas, he describes with inimitable accuracy the perfidious, brutal character of the horribly vile Lipan Apache nation. After setting forth the very grave perils which, under cover of pretended peace, they have caused in the territories of both jurisdictions, 145 he shows that the ill-timed mercy displayed in protecting these domestic enemies, has furnished the reason why the irreconcilable hatred with which the innumerable nations of the north regard the Apaches is causing trouble on our frontiers.
How well, therefore, he sets forth in detail the way to put an end to his evils! 146 He proposes, then, that the false promises of friendship be disregarded, and that cruel war be waged against the Apaches, so that, driven to extremities by the arms of the King, or by those of their enemies, the Northern [Indians], they may see themselves under the strait necessity of submitting themselves to the law which it is desired to put over them, and may [thus] realize if they are capable of it, the kindnesses which up to the present they have spurned.
From this proposal alone one may judge of the strength, intelligence, circumspection, and insight, with which His Excellency the Marques de Ruby framed all those which are embraced in his very judicious plan. Even yet, however, the second point of the said proposal is undecided, the gist of which is that the Apaches be not admitted to the shelter of our missions and presidios, if they are conquered; that they be divided and transferred to the interior of this kingdom; in a word, that this detestable nation be exterminated.
All who have treated of the nations inhabiting the spacious regions of the North, agree in testifying to their good disposition, and His Excellency the Marques is of the same opinion. They had not dared to attack the dominions of our sovereign until the Apaches had with infamous treachery forced them to leave their lands; [and then only] to take just revenge on those common enemies. From this one infers that if these [Apaches] be exterminated or destroyed, we can promise ourselves, if not a tranquil peace in the Provincias Internas, at least the satisfaction that their citizens will gain relief and that conquests will be more feasible.
The cordon of presidios proposed in the above-mentioned dictamen, approved in junta, de guerra y hacienda, and set forth in the new ordinances framed by His Excellency the Marques de Croix in the past year 1771, appears to be the only expedient which will restrain the incursions of the Indians; and it will make easier of realization the advantages offered.
In the part treating of the Province of Texas it is proposed to abandon the Presidio of los Adaes, and that of Orcoquisac, which is now [1772] abandoned; with their garrisons that of San Antonio de Bejar is to reinforced, to the number of eighty troops, twenty being ordered to the Arroyo del Cibolo; and that of la Bahia del Espiritu Santo, with which the proposed cordon ends, is to remain as it is.
The Presidio of Adaes, as I have already stated, was established in the reconquest effected by the Marques de San Miguel [de] Aguayo, to serve as a barrier to the French; it has never been attacked by the Indians; and if the colony of la Luisiana had been subject to Spanish rule when the Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera made his revista, his opinion, I believe, would have been in no wise Different from that of the Lieutenant-General Marques de Ruby, for he reduced the excess in its garrison, although he could not reorganize it as he did that of la Bahia. Moreover, it even appears that he let that of la Bahia remain [merely] because he foresaw the use which it is [now] intended to make of it, although he considered it useless [at the time].
The clauses which adorn the dictamen of *His Excellency the Marques de* Ruby demonstrate the uselessness of the expenditures incurred in maintaining the presidios of los Adaes and Orcoquisac, and those 147 of certain missions of los Ays and Nacogdoches; the little or nothing to be lost in abandoning the unpeopled territories which extend from Espiritu Santo Bay to the above mentioned Presidio of Los Adaes; the better opportunity which remains to us for defending our [present] conquests and those which time may give us the opportunity to effect.
I do not stop to give at length the other very cogent arguments with which His Excellency the Marques de Ruby supported his dictamen, because it is a document hard to make extracts from. In any other resolution whatsoever this dictamen must be kept in view.
When Lieutenant-Colonel Don Hugo de Oconor came to take possession ad interim of the government of the province, which was in the middle of the year 1767, he found it in consternation and in the deepest dejection. On account of the continued hostilities of the Northern Indians, and the crafty tricks of the Apaches, it was considered necessary to reinforce the Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar. But Oconor attained the glorious distinction of leaving an immortal name in the province. He attested his valor, disinterested conduct, and military policy, he preserved peace in the land, and he made himself an object of fear to the savages, who know him by the name of el Captain Colorado [the Red Captain].
This officer complied faithfully with his charge to investigate that notorious incident, the burning of Orcoquisac; he reduced to order the company of the Presidio of los Adaes; he often inspected the province from north to south, and from east to west; and he returned to this capital in the year [17]70 with general regret on the part of officers, soldiers, and citizens.
Colonel Varon de Ripperdá succeeded Don Hugo de Oconor. The laborious task which I have undertaken in this paper has had no other object than to summarize all the events which have occurred in the Province of Texas, so that, keeping them in view, one may, in the well-considered, prudent, and serious deliberation of a junta de guerra y hacienda, investigate and decide upon what is expedient in regard to the last proposals of the Varon de Ripperdá. I shall therefore now state those which he made in the time of His Excellency the Marquez de Croix, trying [meanwhile] to bring this compendium to a speedy close, so as not to render it too tiresome.
PROPOSITIONS MADE BY COLONEL VARON DE RIPPERDÁ, GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MARQUES DE CROIX.
1st.That authority should be given to recruit in Luisiana three hundred French chasseurs, who, formed into one or two companies, should be employed in the war against the Indians of the North, being assigned the same pay [as that] which the soldiers of the presidio receive.
2d.That in the hill country of los Almagres a presidio should be erected with two hundred men as a garrison, so that under its protection the precious metal might be taken from a gold mine, 148 which, abounding in numerous very rich veins, offers profits for more than four hundred owners.
3d.That the sum of eight or ten thousand pesos should be appropriated, with the order that the citizens of the Villa of San Fernando should assist in the building of a fortification in the Presidio of Vexar, capable of mounting from twelve to fourteen cannon, at least four-pounders.
RESOLUTIONS. 149
1st.These deliberations were passed to the knowledge of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Hugo de Oconor. After the consideration of his dictamen, the proposed recruit of Frenchmen was not considered expedient; however, to the end of restraining the savages who were engaging in hostilities against the Villa of San Fernando and the Presidio of Bexar, order was given to reorganize this [presidio] with fifty men from los Adaes, an equal number from San Sabas, thirty-one from Orcoquisac, and fifty Indians from the missions. These are all still in that post [Bexar] today, with the exception of the twenty-nine men who were withdrawn to San Sabas, by order of His Excellency the present viceroy.
2d.The second proposition was likewise rejected, in view of the meager results obtained from the investigation made in the hill-country of los Almagres by Don Bernardo Miranda, notwithstanding the rewards which had been offered him, and which are stated in chapter 21.
3d.The third proposition was likewise rejected, in consideration of the fact that the villa and presidio are obliged to construct and keep in repair such stockade and fortification as shall be considered necessary.
[First Measures carried into Effect by Capt. Don Atanacio Demeciers to reduce the Indians of the North.]
From the end of the year 1770 on, the Captain of Infantry Don Atanasio Demeciers, lieutenant-governor of the Presidio of Nachitoches, was engaged in subjugating and conciliating the nations of the North. He took infinite pains, searching them out in their own countries. Before his plans had been completely successful, a heated disagreement sprang up between Demeciers and a certain missionary religious; so that it was necessary for the latter to make a sort of apology to the former.
[Information communicated by Baron de Ripperdá to his Excellency the present Viceroy.]
When this quarrel was settled, Captain Demeciers continued his efforts (solicitud) with the Indians. On the sixteenth of June of the current year he presented himself to the governor, Baron de Ripperdá, accompanied by various chiefs of the nations of the North, who, being received with benevolent kindness, agreed upon a treaty of peace, confirming it by means of the ceremony which they call the feather dance, with mutual promises to declare war on any who should perfidiously violate the promised friendship. For all that, however, the Indians did not fail to carry off more than a hundred head of cattle.
A detachment sent out found the aggressors, who were Comanches. Although their chief (capitan) asked that they be punished with death, the rest interceded for their pardon, which was granted—though, to be sure, the infliction of that punishment would not be strange or new, since to make reparation for the murder of a soldier of los Adaes by an Indian of these nations, his own tribesmen put him to death 150 in the sight of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Hugo de Oconor, while he was governor of the province.
When peace had been made on the terms desired, Don Atanasio Demeciers set out with the Padre Ministro of the Mission del Rosario, in search of forty-odd Xaramanes families, apostates from the said mission, and of the Vidaes and the Texas, having as his object to reduce the first, and to dissolve the cowardly alliance of the second with their enemies, the Apaches. The propositions made by the reverend missionary were with arrogance refused, and he could not secure the desired result of his labors.
The points referred to are the principal ones that are embraced in the representations of the Varon de Ripperdá, for, although they include various others, these must be regarded as incidental, and it seems to me profitless to recall them, because His Excellency the Viceroy, in view of the dictamen of the Honorable Fiscal, has seen fit to issue his decree that an extract be formed from the said representations, by the office of the Superior Government to which that duty belongs, and that when it is finished a junta be summoned. Under this consideration, therefore, I shall state only what the governor proposes, and what in substance is contained in a report of Captain Demeciers.
PROPOSITIONS OF THE GOVERNOR BARON DE RIPPERDÁ TO HIS EXCEL- LENCY DON ANTONIO MARIA BUCARELY Y URSUA.
1st.That in the territories inhabited by the nations of the North a presidio be erected, and that the contiguous missions of los Ais and Nacogdoches be removed and reduced to one.
2d.That Demeciers select the site and lay out the [new] settlement, and make a map of all the province, which he shall have the honor of presenting to His Excellency the Viceroy; and that thirty or forty families of the Adaes be placed as citizens in the said settlement.
3d.That the command of the presidio be conferred on Don Luis de San Denis. 151
4th.That the friendly Indians be established in villages (pueblos) under the protection of the presidio and mission.
5th.That a campaign be made against the Apaches, with the aid of the Northern nations, whom Demeciers offers to equip with munitions of war, provided that they be maintained at his Majesty's expense, and that the captives they have taken be ransomed. The governor adds that if this permission is granted he will set out with two hundred men, to attack the enemy in another quarter.
6th.That the said Indians of the North be allowed to trade for guns, powder, and balls.
EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF CAPTAIN DON ATANACIO DEMECIERS.
In the preface he proposes as a result of the investigations which he has just made in the territories inhabited by the nations of the North, to give information about those countries, about the characteristics of the Indians, about their number, wars, alliances, commerce, and the way in which he considers it necessary to assure the peace and tranquillity of the province.
The nations are called Quitsies, Yscanis, Tuacanas, Tancagues, Yacovanes, Macheyes, Xaramanes, Ovedsitas, Taovayases, Comanches, Osages, and Vidais.
He says that the Quitsies are twenty families, composed of eighty men, for the most part young; that they are in alliance with the Cadodachos [and Texas] and are irreconcilable enemies of the Osages and Apaches; that the women cultivate the fields, build the houses, and tan the hides; that the men devote themselves wholly to war and the chase; that they trade in buffalo and deer skins, in exchange for guns, powder, and balls; that they are ministered to from the Presidio of Nachitoches, by order of his Excellency the Conde de Oreylli; that they are not very friendly to the English; that they are the ones who have shown the least hostility on our frontiers; that they live in a regular village (pueblo formado), from which they absent 152 themselves in cold weather and that they are full of superstition.
That the Yscanes are only sixty men, and that in their customs and in other respects they are like the Queitseis, the only difference being that they are divided into numerous little rancherias.
That the Tuacanes occupy two settlements, the one composed of a hundred and twenty men, the other of thirty families; that these Indians, the Yscanes, Ovedsitas, and Taovayases, are considered as one and the same nation; that all solicit the establishment of the proposed presidio in their country to submit their differences to those in charge of it; and that the second of these settlements appears to him very well adapted to the erection of the stronghold.
That the Tancagues, Yacovanes, and Macheyes have an alliance with the preceding [tribes], but are despised as vagabonds; [that they are] inclined to thievery, and fickle in their promises; and that they are apostates from the Mission of San Xavier.
That the Xaramanes are likewise apostates—from the mission of Espiritu Santo; that their number is reduced to forty-six men; and that they have done much injury through their relations (conocimiento) with our territories.
That the Ovedsitas and Taovayases nations are composed of six hundred 153 men; that they live in villages; that they have a religion; that they observe its rites; that they acknowledge the Creator; that they believe there is an eternity, reward for the good, and punishment for the evil; that in their territories are found the cannon which [Colonel] Don Diego Ortiz Parilla abandoned, when he made a formal expedition against the Indians; that they solicit with anxiety the establishment of the proposed presidio and that in the said lands there is abundance of very choice salt and minerals.
That the Comanche nation has a great many people, and that they are divided into small divisions (quadrillas); that they live scattered about and in nomad fashion; that they recognize as their superiors the `Taovayases and `Tuacanas; that he considers their reduction easy, if they are brought into fixed habitations (pueblos fixos) and are given farming implements in exchange for their buffalo hides.
He sets forth in detail the good characteristics of the Indians, and gives assurance of the advantages which will accrue if their conversion is brought about.
He states that all the requests of the above-mentioned Indians are reducible to the petition that the presidio be established, they promising a perpetual peace, friendship, and subjection.
Giving his ideas at length, he shows the expediency of persecuting and exterminating the perfidious Apaches, who infest our frontiers, and the Osages, who are enemies of Luisiana.
He says that Señor O-Reylli left presents of muskets and powder and balls, intended for sundry nations, and that they have been disposed of accordingly. That if these munitions are not given to them, they can provide themselves from the English colonies, since experience has shown that they supply them with much pleasure, trying to make friends with them.
He describes the situation of the English, and the ease with which they can insinuate themselves into the dominions of our Sovereign, unless they are prevented by [our] making friends with the nations of Indians who can oppose them. [He shows also] the consequent impossibility of reducing those who live on the banks of the Misuris [Missouri]. The source if this is unknown, though, because of the discovery of a quantity of ivory and elephants' bones made in the course of an expedition in which Demeciers took part, it is believed to be on the border of Asia.
In conclusion he treats of the populous Osage nation. [They are] faithless, [very fierce], and hostile to the Indians who have just made peace, and who restrain them from introducing themselves into our territories; and he treats likewise of the Vidais, whom he counts as enemies because they furnish to the Apaches arms and munitions.
CONCLUSION.
Here ends the compendium of the events most worthy [of attention] which have occurred in the Province [of Texas] from its conquest to the last proposals of its present governor. Yet, since the desire to prove my love for the service of God and the King has induced me to examine for fifteen working days—not without risk of getting beyond the narrow range of my limited talents—more than a hundred autos, forty bulky volumes of royal orders, and various valuable papers bearing on the matter in hand, I may be granted the privilege of making some remarks, which are not to be looked upon as recommendations (dictamens), for I dare not give one in a matter of so grave moment, especially since I have not seen the country.
In the year 1760, the same solicitation was made that the Baron de Ripperdá presents in his first proposition; and if the circumstances preceding them were not identical, they differ very little in essence. At that time the requested removal of the Presidio of San Sabas to the line of villages inhabited by the Indians of the North, could not be put into effect; but the new orders issued by His Excellency the Marques de Croix station the presidio in question on the bank of the Rio del Norte, and Lieutenant-Colonel Don Hugo Oconor is engaged in this removal.
The war against the Lipan Apaches, who are the troublers of Texas, His Excellency the Marques de Ruby considers indispensable; the governor of Coaguila has lately asked for it, and the said Oconor is waging it.
The furnishing of firearms, powder, and balls, with which the Indians of the North are provided to their satisfaction, is a noteworthy paradox. The Spanish blame the French, they the English, who have no need to protest innocence; but there are more than enough books of reports which involve the first nation in that business, and, extra-judicially, nobody is ignorant that many have increased their capital by its means.
While the colony of Luisiana belonged to the French, they could not be kept from intercourse with the Indians; and even today, according to [a report of] Demeciers, they continue the furnishing of guns, powder, and balls, in virtue of superior orders.
It is difficult to keep the English from this traffic, for, as the Misuris is navigable, they come without opposition into the lands of the Indians, as Don Hugo de Oconor affirms.
In regard to [the statement] that the French have induced the savages to attack our frontiers, I am inclined to the opinion (dictamen) of his Excellency the Marques [de] Ruby, who does not give credence to it, and [who thinks that] the only thing to believe is, that some deserters or irresponsible individuals of that nation, have given cause for the formation of this opinion.
The hold which Demeciers and San Denis have secured upon the Indians is not strange. Both were reared in the Presidio of Nachitoches; the father of the first was greatly beloved by all the nations of the North; and [the father] of the second [was] the celebrated Don Luis de San Denis who brought the Spaniards into Texas. It cannot be denied that in Demeciers are combined aptness, training, and good education, as his writings show. But what room is there for doubt that the French are pleasing to the Indians? “While the soldiers,” (this is the phraseology of the letter of a missionary priest written in the year 1718) “mestizos, half-breeds, mulattoes, and full-bloods, are engaged in vexing the Indians, and co-operating in their thieveries and evil deeds, your Frenchman will take off his shirt to give to them and to hold them to their allegiance.” And I have read many reports of this same kind.
The concentration of forces in San Antonio de Bexar, the abandonment of the Adaes and Orcoquisac presidios, and all the measures which his Excellency the Marques de Ruby proposes, make for the benefit of the Province of Texas.
If the clamors, the importunities, the representations, and the appeals which have been made without ceasing by the governors of the Provincias Internas, the captains of presidios, the reverend missionary fathers, and the citizens, had been listened to, each province would have an army and each commandant a mine of gold.
The arguments of expediency with which they have always supported their individual plans, have taken the form of warnings of the impending desolation of these dominions if troops and missionaries are not increased in number, new presidios created, families and settlers sent out, war made on the heathen—and, finally, unless the whole treasury of the King is put at their disposal, although, burdened as it is with liabilities, its receipts do not in reality suffice for necessary expenditures.
The Presidio of San Sabas has suffered two removals, and if attention had been paid to the requests it would be necessary now to remove it from the San Marcos River to the [Rio] del Norte. That of San Agustin de Ahumada, up to the time when it disappeared in the ruins of its conflagration, a period of a little more than nine years, had not attained a fixed location.
I transcribe literally the very sagacious expressions which are contained in dictamens given by His Excellency the Marques de Altamira in regard to the request of the Padre Fray Mariano de los Dolores that the Presidio of San Xavier be garrisoned with ninety troops:
“But now at the close of this document it is stated, that for the said protection eighty or ninety soldiers are needed, and, in another document, that eight or nine hundred are needed,” (and he concludes) “there is probably not a Catholic who would not wish to see brought into the bosom of our Holy Faith the very bounteous harvest of the empires of the great Tibet, China, Japon, Tartaria, Mogol, Persia, Otomano, and Moscovita and restored from captivity among infidels every Christian whose faith is in peril; but it is needful to proportion one's desires to the resources, the capital, and other necessaries which God gives and dispenses, whenever His inscrutable will so decrees.”
When the Roman Empire was at its greatest extent in the three parts of the world, Europe, Africa, and Asia, it protected its frontiers with thirteen presidios; and today our Monarch has twenty-four in this Nueva España alone; and they would be a hundred, and would be transferred from one place to another every day, if one yielded easily to those who think only of their own interests, and who know nothing about the needs of other people. With this it seems to me that it is now time to conclude this paper.
[Mexico, November 10, 1772.]
*NOTE OF THE FATHER COLLECTOR.
The preceding extract from the events in the history of Texas is one of the most valuable documents to be found in this collection. 154 The Reverend Padre Morfi, author of Las Memorias para la Historia de Texas, took pains to combat some points of this compendium; yet we must confess that his allegations were equally unjust and importunate.
It would have been very easy for the Señor Bonilla to dispel the unfounded objections of the author of Las Memorias; he could have replied satisfactorily by presenting to the view of his opponent the original documents from the office of the Secretaria de Camara and from the office of the Superior Government, from which he drew with exactness and fidelity the information contained in his extract; his illustrious pen could have produced some papers that would have vindicated his veracity, by demonstrating the insubstantial character of those contradictions. But principles of moderation, religious considerations as to the sacred character of his opponent, and above all the feeling of delicacy respecting the friendship which had always united his heart to that of the Reverend Morfi impelled him to sacrifice to silence the victory which must have been assured him by the well-known advantages of his knowledge of facts and of his position.
Nevertheless, what the Señor Bonilla would not do, is done by the greater part of the documents comprehended in this and in the following volume; 155 many of its acts and instructions are documents which in clear and positive fashion manifest and sustain the value of the information in the compedium; they argue in favor of its author's veracity and prove that the doubts and contradictions resulting from the impulsive disposition of the Reverend Padre Morfi, must be of no consequence as against the author or his extract.
Finally, we must say in the interests of the truth, that we have seen in the office of the Secretaria de Camara the document from which was taken the notice about the little chest of louis d'or, of which the Señor Bonilla speaks in the third section of his extract; 156 and on which the author of Las Memorias opened such a fire.*
THE SANDOVAL CASE. 157
After the resignation of [Bustillo y Cevallos] Captain Don Manuel de Sandoval, who had come to this kingdom as governor of Coahuila, and had just finished his term of office, entered upon the government of Texas. He had come to this kingdom in the year seventeen hundred and twenty-eight, after having served in the royal armies twenty years and seven months, as cadet, subaltern, and lieutenant acting as captain of grenadiers. He entered upon the government in the beginning of seventeen hundred and thirtyfour, and resided most of the time in the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, according to the order of His Excellency the Viceroy, Marques de Cassafuertte, the better to resist the frequent hostilities of the intrepid barbarian Apaches.
As early as the year seventeen hundred and sixteen the French had placed their post of Nachittoos on this side the Colorado [Red] River on an island formed only when an arm of the river overflows. On this side the arm the French had also from the beginning some houses, ranches, orchards, and crops, and a corral for the drove of horses belonging to the commandant, Don Luis de Sandenis. Their possessions extended to the Arroyo Hondo and to the place called la Gran Montaña, which divides in half the seven leagues between the Presidios of Adays and Nachittoos. Because the island became marshy and subject to inundation, or because [they were actuated] by other purposes and motives, the French began, toward the close of seventeen hundred and thirtyfive, to change their post to the site occupied before by a house belonging to one of the Frenchmen, a musket-shot from the island, according to the witnesses, or a third of a league, according to the same French commandant, [as he states] in his official replies which are extant in autos.
The French carried on the removal energetically, saying that it was by order of the court of Paris given to the governor of Luiciana, Don Juan Baupttistta Biembille. Sandoval was at that time in the Presidio of San Antonio de Vejar, two hundred and forty leagues this side of the frontier of los Adays. He had there as his substitute in command (theniente general) the subaltern (alferez) Don Joseph Gonzales, who in a letter of November 12 of the year already mentioned [1735], advised him of all the occurrences narrated above. Sandoval answered that he must oppose the removal, making the demand three times of the French commandant, Sandenis, to whom he sent a letter [through Gonzales] in regard to the matter. The demands and the replies kept on till the last of August, seventeen hundred and thirty-six.
Sandoval had no documents bearing on these boundaries, and the preceding expeditions already mentioned, and so he argued, only upon the basis of verbal statements, that Alonzo de Leon, Don Domingo Theran, and Domingo Ramon had preceded the French in the occupation of that country; that since then and ever after the Colorado [Red] River had been held as the dividing line between the two crowns, that of Spain possessing all on this side, as had been verified in some express occurrences; that in case of any doubt account ought to be given to the sovereigns. Pending their decision the French should suspend operations; if not, they would meet with armed resistance.
The French commandant, Don Luis de Sandenis, Cavalier of the order of San Luis, argued on the contrary, that the French were the first discoverers, in the year sixteen hundred and eighty-five; that the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo had erected our Presidio of los Adays in the [year] seventeen hundred and twenty-one, while the French had their [post] much earlier on the island, and houses, corrals, and other possessions on this side; that the Marques had made no objection, nor [had] his successors; that in the year seventeen hundred and eighteen Ramon was in the Post of Nachitoos and got help from it; that to Sandenis himself the Spaniards owed their subsequent occupation of los Adays, and the foundation of their missions; that the French represented in that dominion the Nachittoos, who possessed lands not only on the other side of the Colorado River, but also on this side, without contradiction on the part of the Adays Indians, whose successors were the Spaniards; that the seven leagues between the two presidios had not been divided, nor was there any reason why the Spaniards should appropriate them all; that he was acting in virtue of orders from his superiors, and that he could not suspend [operations]; and that if he should be attacked with arms he would defend himself by force of arms, and the consequences would be at the offender's cost.
Sandoval was ordered by the Superior Government to watch the French closely, and to prevent them by all possible means from exceeding their limits, but not to break with them without first giving a report. He carried out [these orders], sending a copy of the replies of the French commandant Sandenis. By official order all communication with the French was forbidden at los Adays; not even the usual seed and provisions were to be bought from them. The French nevertheless continued the removal of their fort, which is built of stakes. They put up their church there, and about fourteen houses for their priest (ministro ecclesiastico), for some persons belonging to the presidio (presidiales), and for some citizens.
About this time Don Carlos de Franquis came from Spain with the title of colonel, and the promise of the government of Tlaxcala, which he found previously occupied. His Excellency the Archbishop Viceroy conferred upon him, ad interim, that of Texas. He began his term of office in September, seventeen hundred and thirty-six. His stormy, petulant, and precipitant temper manifested itself at once and brought about complaints of rash and scandalous insults offered by him to the missionary religious. He seized and opened letters and packets which they were sending out of this province. He had his predecessor, Sandoval, placed in the stocks with two pair of fetters, in the capital of los Adaes, though he was not [Sandoval's] judge of residencia. He took Sandoval's papers away from him, and afterward instituted criminal process against him for his unwarranted requisition of some presidials, and for the removal of the French post. This [last offence] he exaggerated without limit. The governor of the New Kingdom of Leon went to Texas with a dispatch from this captain-generalship dated July ninth, seventeen hundred and thirty-seven, and gave Franquis an examination (pesquiso), first retiring him to the Presidio of San Juan Baupttistta del Rio Grande. He left this place and came to this capital. The governor [of Leon] remitted the report of the examination. As Franquis had not the means to pay the three thousand four hundred-odd pesos fees and costs, they were required of Sandoval before the decision was reached in the examination.
In the year seventeen hundred and thirty-eight Sandoval gave his residencia [rendered official account of his administration] in view of the charges brought against him by Franquis. Without making any decision, the judge sent it to this captain-generalship. After an expression of opinion by the fiscal, a decision as to the seven charges against him was given on the twenty-eighth of March, seventeen hundred and forty-one. He was acquitted of the third, fourth, fifth, and seventh; and was fined five hundred pesos on the first and second, [which alleged] that he had not resided in los Adays and had not recorded in the royal army register the muster-roll and the changes in the service there (altas y bajas), notwithstanding the fact that Sandoval asserted that he had resided in Bejar because of the frequent hostilities of the Apaches; that at that distance (desde alli) he could not record in the register at los Adays the muster-roll and the changes, which was two hundred and forty leagues away, but that he had kept a record in reports, which he showed, and according to which the royal treasury was his debtor to the amount of three hundred and forty-nine pesos which had not been paid him.
On the sixth charge, as to the removal of the French Post of Nachittoos, the decision ordered that investigations should be made in this capital and in los Adays as to whether or not the site to which the French had moved their post belonged to them, and that the decision in regard to the charge should be postponed till the result should be known. Sandoval paid into the royal treasury his fine of five hundred pesos. On the eighteenth day of July of the same year, seventeen hundred and forty, the order was dispatched that the governor of Texas should get the required information in los Adays.
No charge was brought against Sandoval that during his term of office as governor His Majesty was paying for more missionary religious than were actually engaged in spiritual ministrations among the Indians. Franquis made libelous statements to this effect in his letters and papers, but without any formal statement as to [the number] of religious actually there (que havia) or as to [the number] there ought to be. His expressions, therefore, were disregarded as [being] prejudiced against the religious.
In virtue of the decision, six of those who had been in the expedition of the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo or had been afterward at los Adays, were examined there as witnesses. The whole [investigation] proved that the place called la Gran Montaña (midway between the two presidios of Adays and Nachittoos) had always been regarded as the boundary between the two crowns, and not the said Colorado River, on whose hither bank the French had houses and other possessions extending to la Gran Montaña. 158
Later, when his excellency the Duque de la Conquesta became viceroy—on the seventeenth of August, seventeen hundred and forty—Franquis presented a prolix document which served to revive the sixth charge, as to the removal of the presidio. Sandoval was arrested and his papers seized, on the seventeenth of September. He was kept in prison with a guard and a sentinel, who kept him constantly in sight, until the nineteenth of January, seventeen hundred and forty, when he was released under oath, or, rather, on bail, passed upon and granted on account of his being seriously ill. It does not appear that any judicial decision, official or otherwise, was made against him, during or after the time of this imprisonment.
At Sandoval's request, all the reports [in the case] were turned over to him. He then repeated his defence in a long document under date of the twenty-eighth of October, seventeen hundred and forty-one. When the matter was brought to the notice of the present fiscal, Don Pedro de Vedoya y Ossorio, he replied on the twenty-eighth of November of the same year, that Sandoval ought to be declared exempt and free from the deferred charge as to the removal of the French post, since the charge had come out sufficiently weakened by the testimony given by the different witnesses as to the eleventh query in the secret interrogatories in the residencia, and since it was now completely quashed by the information received in this court. He asked for a declaration that there should be no further procedure, that Sandoval should be fully acquitted and declared eligible to military and civil office.
As the testimony taken in los Adays, which the governor was known to have sent, was not at hand, a dispatch was sent asking that a certified copy be sent [to Mexico]. It came on the twenty-ninth of May, seventeen hundred and forty-two. Therein it appears that the investigation was made, not in virtue of the dispatch ordered by the decision cited above, but in conformity with a letter, a private order of His Excellency the Viceroy, the Duque de la Conquestta, dated September second, seventeen hundred and forty, ordering the governor of Texas to ascertain by judicial investigation what was the distance between the Presidio of los Adays and the French who had lately moved in from the hither bank of the river, what fort or what buildings they had, when they made the move, who was governor of Texas [at that time], what means he had taken to prevent this encroachment, [or what] toleration [he had shown] in the matter of decreasing His Majesty's dominions, whether he had neglected anything he ought to have done, [if so,] what were his motives, whether since then there had been free communication between our people and the French, whether there had been any attempt at contraband trade. Finally, he should give all information that would serve to throw light upon the matter in hand, dispatching it by courier with the greatest possible speed.
The governor received the letter in los Adays, on the eighteenth of November, in the year seventeen hundred and forty. He immediately examined ex-Lieutenant 159 Don Juan Anttonio Amorin, Sergeant Manuel Anttonio de Losoya, ex-Alferez Don Phelipe Muños de Mora, Corporal of Squadron Matheo Anttonio de Ybarbu, private Phelipe de Sierra, and Alferez Don Joseph Gonzales, all veteran presidials of los Adays. They testified that the Post of Nachitoos had been removed to a point reputed to belong to the French, which was a musket-shot from where it had been before; that the French had had houses on the hither bank of the Colorado River from the very first; that the boundary between the two crowns was the place called la Gran Monttaña, or Arroyo Hondo, which was halfway between the Presidio of Adays and the Post of Nachittoos; that [Sandoval] had resisted the removal as has already been described; and that there had been no contraband trade.
While Sandoval was serving as captain of one of the companies in the plains 160 of Vera Cruz, where Franquis had also entered the service, there was a pause, for the time being, in the judgments in both cases. Franquis asked for a decision on some deferred points in his case. Your Excellency, by decree of the ninth of December, seventeen hundred and forty-three, in conformity with the dictamen of His Honor the Oydor, Don Domingo Trespalacios, dated the fifth of the same [month], acquitted him on the points in question. Sandoval, according to the above-cited reply of the fiscal, dated November twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and forty-one, was also acquitted, of the deferred charge in regard to the removal of the French post. Franquis, none the less, resisted the acquittal of Sandoval, in a document dated the sixteenth of the same December, and Your Excellency, [acting on] a previous official opinion of Señor Trespalacios, imposed perpetual silence upon Franquis. The latter petitioned on the eighth and the thirteenth of January of this year that a certified copy of the whole process should be given him, and it was ordered by decree of the twenty-ninth of the same [month] that it should be given him, after taking the copy that was to be sent to His Majesty. This [last] was to be made promptly, as had repeatedly been ordered. Not only the thirty volumes bearing on the matter have been used [in making this report], but also more than forty more on the previous happenings (expediciones) in Texas. All has now been completely examined and judged, so that the investigation of the present governor of Texas, Lieutenant-Colonel Don Justo Boneo, 161 appears uncalled for and unnecessary. If, therefore, it be Your Excellency's good will, you will command that information to this effect be communicated to him [Don Justo Boneo], along with a copy of this dictamen and of the last section of that of March sixth of this year, and that the duplicate of the royal cédula which he sent as giving testimony in this case, be returned to him in the original. On this, and on whatever else is incidentally set forth, Your Excellency will order whatever you deem best.
Mexico, June twentieth, seventeen hundred and forty-four.
Moreover, in consideration of the [fact that] the reports in regard to the matter are fairly intelligible, and will be more so in copy, Your Excellency, if it be your will, can order if one has not already been made to send to His Majesty according to orders, that a certified copy of this volume and of the auditor's dictamen dated the second of the past May, be sent to him in the meantime. With these one can reach a reasonable (basttante) understanding of the matter above described.
El Marques de Altamira.
20. Compendio de todas las novedades ôccurids. en la Provincia de Texas desde su conquista, ô reduccn. hasta el dia de la fha. Found in A on p. 1, just before the text.
21. Autos, in the sense of judicial decisions. When used with reference to a decree, or order, the word auto is retained in this translation.
22. English fort, or post. The word presidio is retained when it refers to a Spanish fort, but is translated when it refers to a French fort.
23. “From the west to the Seno Mexicano [Gulf of Mexico]” (Test., Sec. 22).
24. Esteros, here used in reference to a stream produced by an overflow, and disappearing at its subsidence.
25. A has at this point estrañas, M, entrañas, either of which is hard to fit into the connection. The Testimonio has casttañas. Bonilla had no first-hand knowledge of Texas, and was influenced by the Testimonio, as has already been remarked. Casttañas, therefore, is no doubt the true reading, incorrectly copied by the scribe.
26. Nisperos. In Lopes and Bensley, Nuevo Diccionario, nispero is rendered medlar (mespilus germanica). In Spanish North America, it has the meaning given in the translation.
27. The Testimonio (Sec. 19) speaks of this presidio as being six leagues within the province and seventy from San Juan Bautista. The estimates of the length and width are the same in the two documents.
28. A cavalry officer, according to the Diccionario Enciclopédico de la Lengua Castellana, who, in the absence of the lieutenant or of the captain, takes command of the company. He formerly had the additional duty of a standard bearer.
29. A captain and forty-three soldiers (plazas), (Test., Sec. 19).
30. The Testimonio (Sec. 19) states that there are five missions in the province, but does not give their names. It states further that they are ministered to by Franciscan religious of the colleges of Querétaro and Zacatecas.
31. The Testimonio (Sec. 19) mentions one mission and presidio without giving their names.
32. The Testimonio mentions neither presidio nor mission.
33. The Testimonio (Sec. 22) puts los Adaes two hundred and forty-two leagues from San Antonio, six hundred from the City of Mexico, and seven from “San Juan Baupttistta de Nochitos.”
34. One (M).
35. One hundred and seventy (M). In neither M nor A do the figures for the total of the plazas efectivas agree with that obtained by adding the separate lists, as will be seen from the following comparison:
Officers.Soldiers.Total.
AMAMAM
2721148148176169
Deducting the number at Orcoquisac as possibly duplicated in the San Antonio list,2418123123147141
36. The cédula real is a decree issued by the king personally; the terms decreto [decree] or orden [order] have a somewhat broader application. The cédula real is headed “El Rey,” is signed by the king personally, and by the secretary of the appropriate tribunal. The rubrics of several ministers are placed below the secretary's name.
37. Bonilla probably refers here to the Franquelin map of 1684. Thomassy (Cartographie de la Louisiane, p. 2) speaks of this map as being intended to give expression to the geographical knowledge gained in La Salle's voyage down the Mississippi in 1682, and to prepare for the next voyage he wished to make. The exploration of the Mississippi had proved to La Salle's satisfaction that its mouth was farther west than Mobile Bay, where he had thought it emptied. This was a very satisfactory result, because it proved that the country the French claimed was farther from the English country than he had thought, and also because it favored his schemes of Spanish conquest. These schemes constituted so large a part of his plan for the next voyage that he made as much as possible of his late discoveries. Accordingly, in this map, which Franquelin drew in Paris in 1684, no doubt in conjunction with La Salle, the lower course of the Mississippi is placed about as far west as the lower Rio Grande ought to be, while its southernmost western tributary, the Seignelay [Red River] is placed about where the upper course of the Rio Grande belongs.
Margry (Découvertes et Etablissements des Franôais, I xxxii) makes the supposition that the map which he gives in tome III is a copy from an original map of La Salle's. There was a piece torn from the lower part of the original of which this map is a facsimile, so the mouth of the Mississippi is not shown. Now Minet, an engineer, who was with La Salle's expedition, published a map in 1685, giving two drawings of the mouth of the Mississippi. One of these, placed very far west, purported to represent the position La Salle gave it in his map; the other, farther eastward, to give the draughtsman's own idea of the true position, as gained from personal observation of what he thought was the same river. Margry seems to think that the drawing on the piece torn out was probably La Salle's drawing of the river as represented on Minet's map. He does not make any surmise, however, as to who the draughtsman was.
The original of the Franquelin map of 1684, formerly in the Archives du Ministère de la Marine in Paris, is lost. Fortunately, however, a colored facsimile was made before it disappeared. Such a facsimile is found in volume LXIII of the Jesuit Relations. A comparison of this map with the facsimile given by Margry, has convinced me that the two represent the same map. The Margry copy, it should be noted, cuts off part of the original, both north and south; the colored facsimile extends through lat. 18° to 65° N., the sketch in Margry only through 19° to 61°. The title, too, has been changed in the copy. The Franquelin title is as follows: Carte de la Louisiane ou des Voyages du Sr de la Salle les pays qu'il a decouverts depuis la Nouvelle France jusqu'au Golfe Mexique, les annees 1679, 80, 81, 82, par Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin, l'an 1684. Paris. The Margry title reads: Carte de la Louisiane en l'Amerique Septentrionale, depuis la Nouvelle France jusqu'au Golfe de Mexique, ou sont descris les Pays que le Sieur de La Salle a decouverts dans un grand continent compris depuis 50 degr. de l'elevation du Pole jusques a les annees 1679. 80. 81. 82.
38. The whole expression—un cofrecillo de Luices de oro—is underscored in M because of a reference to it in the Nota del Padre Colector, which is appended to the document. A lacks the Nota, and has no underscoring.
39. Pingue, a narrow-sterned vessel.
40. Provincia de Texas. Bonilla here means the comparatively small district in the eastern part of what he elsewhere calls the Provincia de Texas.
41. Vn marinero, o soldado Yngles. Following the punctuation of the Spanish text, the translation would be “a sailor, or English soldier.” The punctuation, however, is so arbitrary as not to be depended upon to help the sense, so the translation given above is probably correct.
The Testimonio (Sec. 23) says merely that in the year 1687 La Salle was murdered by his own companions.
The authoritative account of La Salle's last expedition is the Journal Historique of Henri Joutel, a member of the expedition. In Joutel's story of the murder, Duhaut, a Frenchman, is stated to have been the assassin. Joutel gives 1687 as the date of the murder, thus confirming the Testimonio date.
42. The Testimonio sums up these efforts of the government in the words: “When the various efforts of this government in regard to the designs of Roberto were brought to nothing.”
The Carta of Father Manzanet (Carta de Don Damian Manzanet á Don Carlos de Siguenza sobre el Descubrimiento de la Bahía del Espíritu Santo) does not mention the sea-expedition, but tells of two cavalry expeditions under Alonzo de León sent by Aguayo, governor of León, at the order of Viceroy Laguna (1685-6). These two expeditions were both fruitless. Following the Gulf shore from Tampico northward, they crossed the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo), but were turned back each time by a river which they called Rio Solo, before they had learned anything about the French settlement. A facsimile of the Carta, with a translation by Professor Lilia M. Casis, is found in The Quarterly, II, No. 4. All references in my notes are to this translation.
43. 1688 (Testimonio, Sec. 23).
44. The Historia does not mention Juan Henrique. Its version of the story is that news of the French settlement was given by some heathen Indians to Father Manzanet, who reported to Alonzo de León. The first Spanish entrada into Texas was the result.
Father Manzanet (Carta) also mentions the report of the Indians as to the French settlement. He reported to León, who in the course of his investigations brought “Juan Francisco So-and-So” to Coahuila from an Indian ranchería near by. Juan was a native “by his own account” of Cheblie, New France. The father describes him as “painted like the Indians, old and naked.” “In his testimony,” he concludes, “the said Frenchman always proved himself untruthful.”
45. Enrique (M).
46. Entrada. When used with reference to a Spanish expedition, the word is retained in the translation.
47. 26th (Carta); 24th (Derrotero que hizo el General Alonzo de Leon para el descubrimiento de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo, y Población de Franceses: Año de 1689, in Memorias de Nueva España, XXVII, fols. 1-16).
48. May 2 (Carta). The Derrotero, in this and all other dates for this expedition, except the date of starting, agrees with the Breve Compendio.
49. “They sought out for him two of the five Frenchmen who were staying among the Texas Indians. Returning to Coahuila [Leon] sent them to Mexico, giving valuable information about those regions and about the heathen Indians, with a view to their reduction.” (Test., Sec. 24).
The Carta gives their names as Juan Archebeque [Jean Archevêque] of Bayonne, and Santiago Grollette. It further states that the viceroy sent them to Spain the same year, 1689.
The Derrotero gives their names as Juan Larchieverque of Bayonne, and “Jacome, native of Rochela [Rochelle].”
50. Ten Frenchmen and one Frenchwoman (M).
The Historia gives the names of three French boys, Pedro Talon, Muni, Roberto, and one girl, Magdalena Talon. The Indians who had possession of Magdalena Talon and Roberto gave them up only after being defeated in battle.
The Carta mentions the finding of four boys. Two he mentions by name—Pedro Muni, a Creole from Paris, apparently about twenty years old; and Pedro Talo, a Creole from New France, about eleven or twelve. Later, two others were found among some coast Indians, who readily agreed to give them up, in consideration of a gift of horses and clothing. After fulfilling their promises, however, the Indians grew suspicious of the Spaniards, and began a fight in which four Indians were killed and two wounded.
51. The Testimonio adds the statement that some missionaries were in De León's party. As the license of the soldiers was likely to work disaffection among the Indians, only a small guard was left at the mission.
The Carta and the Historia, while more detailed, agree substantially with the Breve Compendio and the Testimonio.
52. Aquellas Provincias (A).
53. The Testimonio (Sec. 25) sums up the whole report in the words, “His Majesty being informed of the undertaking.”
The Historia mentions Leon's report to the viceroy, and says that the viceroy was influenced by the “fine faces and splendid personal appearance” of three Indians whom León had sent to Mexico, and by the father's [Manzanet's] report toward holding “a junta general upon advice of the king, in which an expedition into Texas by land and sea was decided upon.”
In the concluding paragraph of the Carta, Manzanet tells a story of being asked by the governor of the Tejas for a piece of blue baize to bury his mother in when she died. “I told him that cloth would be more suitable, and he answered that he did not want any color other than blue ..., that they were very fond of that color, particularly for burial clothes, because in times past they had been visted by a very beautiful woman, who used to come down from the hills, dressed in blue garments ..., that it had been before his time, but his mother, who was aged, had seen that woman, as had also the other old people. From this it is easily to be seen that they referred to the Madre María de Jesus de Agreda, who was very frequently in those regions, as she herself acknowledged to the Father Custodian of New Mexico, her last visit having been made in 1631. . . .” See also Rev. E. J. P. Schmitt's article in The Quarterly, I 121-124.
54. Besides this, the Testimonio (Sec. 25) mentions another royal cédula of September 20, 1690.
55. The Testimonio sums up the contents of the cédulas of May 27th and September 20th in the words, “His Majesty ordered ... that the pacification and reduction of that province be pressed, as [being] so important toward the safekeeping of the rest of these dominions.”
56. The Testimonio (Sec. 25) mentions the expedition of Terán just after speaking of the two cédulas (May 27th and September 20th), and then adds, “which was approved afterward in royal cédula of the thirtieth of December, 1692, ordering that the said conversions be continued with all efficacy.”
57. The enumeration, catorce Religiosos Franciscanos Sacerdotes y siete legos, may mean “fourteen Franciscan religious [who were] priests, and seven lay-brothers besides. The Testimonio makes the same enumeration as the Brove Compendio. Manzanet, however, in the Diario que hicieron los Padres Misioneros que principia en 16 de Mayo, y y [sic] finaliza en 2 de Agto. de 1691 (Memorias XXVII, fols. 87-112), mentions by name nine Querétaran priests besides himself, three lay-brothers, and one boy, thus confirming the total, but disagreeing in the division, given by the Breve Compendio and the Testimonio.
The Testimonio adds the statements that each soldier was to get four hundred pesos, and that the object of the expedition was to put three missions among the Texas, four among the Cadodachos, and one on the Guadalupe River.
The account of Terán's expedition given by Espinosa is confused. Talamantes recognizes the confusion, but does not clear it away, except in so far as he shows that there could have been only one expedition under Terán, while Espinosa gives two.
58. June, 1691 (Historia, Sec. 8). The date given in the Breve Compendio is confirmed by the Descripcion y diaria demarcacion executada por el General D. Domingo Teran, principiada en 16 de Mayo de 1691, y finalizada en 15 de Abl. de 1692. Memorias XXVII, fols. 23-74. According to the Diario, the priests started on the same date, from the Mission of San Salvador, and were joined by Terán and the soliders on the 20th.
59. 4th (Descripcion); 2d (Diario, and Historia, Sec. 7).
60. October 26 (Historia, Sec. 7).
61. 2d (Descripcion).
62. The Diario mentions no disagreements. The Descripcion, under date of January 4, 1692, gives an account of Terán's asking the father commissary at the Mission of San Francisco for some horses to continue his journey, since his own were sadly diminished as a result of the severe season. The father refused, though the horses were of little or no use in the mission. Hints are given elsewhere in the document that the feeling between Terán and the religious in his party was not very cordial. The Historia makes no suggestion as to any disagreement.
63. The Descripcion gives a very vivid description of the suffering and the hardships Terán's party experienced on account of the terrible weather of the winter of 1691-'2.
64. Religiosos Misioneros (M).
65. The Testimonio omits all mention of the circumstances noted in this paragraph. The Historia (Sec. 9) gives the same enumeration of troops as does the Breve Compendio.
66. Candadachos (Test., Sec. 26). For an account of the soundings taken in this river, see the Descripcion, November 29— December 4.
67. Possibly there was an epidemic of fever. The Diario, under date of June 18, and August 2, speaks of the great number of deaths among the Tejas Indians during the past year. Father Fortcuberta, too, had died, in February, 1691, of fever.
68. “When the governor was gone, some soldiers were killed. There was disobedience, disorder, and libertinism among the soldiers, who disgusted the Indians by their conduct and excesses, and rendered the efforts of the missionaries useless.” Discouraged at this state of things, fearing another French invasion, and despairing of aid from Mexico, the missionaries buried the bells and what could not be carried with them, and abandoned the country, in October, 1693 (Hist., Sec. 10).
69. “When account of this was given to this Superior Government, it was resolved in a junta of the eleventh of March of [one thousand] six hundred and ninety-four, that there should be a stoppage of measures connected with this pacification until time should offer better opportunity. Account of this was given to His Majesty in the said month of March” (Test., Sec. 26).
70. There was some thought in the course of these twenty-two years of re-entering Texas, but the matter stopped with thinking, so far as any results were concerned. The King issued cédulas in 1700 directing the viceroy, the bishop of Guadalaxara, and the governors of León and Coahuila, to help the missionaries of the College of Querétaro to establish missions in Texas. Four years later, with a view to facilitating missionary enterprise in Texas, he granted permission for the founding of the College of Missions of Zacatecas, on the same plan as the College of Querétaro.
Fray Hidalgo was very active in urging the missionary re-occupation of Texas. The father guardian of the College of Querétaro, while on a visit to the missions of the Rio Grande in 1709, in pursuance of an order of Viceroy Alburquerque, penetrated almost to the Texas country (Hist., Secs. 11, 12).
71. August, 1714 (Test., Sec. 27). The Declaration de D. Luis de San Denis, y D. Medar Naturales de Francia (Memorias, XXVII, fols. 121-126) is dated Mexico, June 22, 1715. The Testimonio, therefore, may be correct, since Pénicaut (Relation, Margry, V 501) says that Saint-Denis was not sent to Mexico until the year following his arrival in Coahuila.
72. Pénicaut (Relation, Margry, V 499) says that Saint-Denis brought twelve Frenchmen with him from the Natchitoches village.
73. “And when, by order of His Excellency the Viceroy, the Duque de Linares, they were taken to Mexico, San Denis showed them a patent from the governor of la Mobila dated in September of the year [seventeen hundred and] thirteen [ordering him] to go with twenty-four men to Texas and buy there cows, horses, and other stock for the Colony of Luiciana, under the impression that our missions were [still] kept up in Texas.” (Test., Sec. 27.)
In the passport (Patente Luisiana y Septe. 12 de 1715, Memorias, XXVII, fol. 120) Antonio de la Mota Cadillac, etc., gives permission to Señor de San Denis and the twenty-four Canadians with him to select as many savages as necessary to go to the Roxo [Red] River and to look for the Mission of Fray Francisco Hidalgo, recollect religious, “according to his letter written to us on the 17th of January, 1711, to buy cows, horses, and other stock for the Province of Luisiana.”
Pénicaut (Margry, V 495) says that Cadillac's plan in sending Saint-Denis to Mexico was to see whether it were possible to establish trade relations between the French and the Spanish colonies.
74. The Declaracion (fols. 121 and 122) divides Saint-Denis's voyage into stages, the first of which was from la Movila to San Juan, “forty leagues along the Misisipi River to the west;” the second, from San Juan to the mouth of the Roxo [Red] River, forty leagues along the Misisipi to the north; the third, along the Roxo to the Nachitoches village, eighty leagues to the west—in all, one hundred and sixty leagues by water. Again, describing the voyage more in detail, it says, “Setting out from Movila, then, in their canoes, they coasted along the shore westward to the mouth of the Misisipi, or Palizada, River, continuing their course to the said Fort of San Juan. ... Coming to this fort, which has a garrison of twenty men, he went on with the men under his command to the north, forty leagues, still in his canoe on the Misisipi River, to the mouth of the River Roxo del Espiritu Santo, which empties into the great river. ... From there, changing his course, he went in his canoe along the said Roxo River eighty leagues to the west.”
It is evident that these estimates of the distance Saint-Denis traveled by water leave out of consideration the distance from Mobile to the mouth of the Mississippi, which by a rough estimate, not counting the ins and outs of the coast line, would have added at least forty-five leagues to the distance. The Fort of San Juan, therefore, would seem to have been on the Mississippi, about where Saint John the Baptist, Louisiana, is situated today. Pénicaut, however, distinctly states that Saint-Denis was living at Biloxi at the time Cadillac gave him this commission. There is a confusion in the several contemporary accounts of the voyage from Mobile to the mouth of the Red River, which has not yet, to my knowledge, been satisfactorily explained away.
75. The Nachitoches [Natchitoches] and the Cadodachos [Caddo] Indians had first become acquainted with the French about 1700, when Saint-Denis and Bienville, then in command of a fort on the Mississippi, eighteen leagues above its mouth, had made a voyage of exploration up the Red River. About 1708, some of the Natchitoches Indians had taken refuge with Saint-Denis at his fort, and had been placed by him with a tribe living on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. (This fort, it may be stated in passing, was abandoned soon afterward. Saint-Denis then returned to Mobile, afterward to Biloxi, where Pénicaut says he was living when Cadilloc called him to Mobile in 1713.) This detachment of the Natchitoches tribe returned with Saint Denis to their old home on the Red River in 1713, joining him at Biloxi, where he waited for them “some days” on his way from Mobile to the Mississippi.
76. Mr. Clark, “Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis and the Re-establishment of the Tejas Missions” (The Quarterly, VI 1), remarks that in the course of the return of the missionaries and soldiers from Texas in 1693, Captain Urrutia with three other soldiers had deserted and had gone back to live with the Indians. He was among them seven years. “Fray Hidalgo also returned later to live among the Asinais [Texas], where he continued his missionary work for several years, contemporary with Captain Urrutia's stay.” Both these Spaniards had thus greatly endeared themselves to the Indians.
77. See note 4, p. 21.
78. Destino, i. e., among the Texas.
79. The Testimonio (Sec. 27) gives a much briefer report of Saint-Denis' statement. “San Denis stated that they had come in a pirogue from Mobila to Nachittos, where they had disembarked; that when they arrived among the Texas and did not find the Spanish there, the French soldiers returned, only four staying among the Texas; and that with the three he had passed on to the said Presidio del Rio Grande. He stated, moreover, that the Texas Indians desired that the Spanish missionaries should return.”
The Historia (Sec. 13) gives an even briefer account, merely stating that in 1715 two Frenchmen set out from Mobila and came to the Presidio of San Juan Bautista asking for stock and provisions.
80. I. e., a meeting of governmental officers called by the viceroy to decide upon the best course of action for the government to take under the circumstances. The date of this junta, according to the Testimonio (Sec. 28), was August 22, 1715.
81. The nearest English equivalent is commissary. Saint-Denis, however, was more than a mere commissary. He was really in charge of the expedition, though Ramón was the official head.
The Derrotero para los Misiones de los Presidios Ynternos (Memorias, XXVII, fols. 135-159) calls him cabo comboyador.
82. “Some missionaries and all else necessary to re-establish the missions in Texas” (Test., Sec. 28). In the other enumerations, the Testimonio agrees with the Breve Compendio.
The Historia (Sec. 13) mentions by name five religious from Querétaro, and states that their number was increased by other religious who joined them at San Juan Bautista.
The Derrotero names nine religious, without distinction of college.
The permission to establish the Apostolic College of Zacatecas, it will be remembered, was granted by the King of Spain in 1704. See note 2, page 21.
83. 25th and 26th (Historia, Sec. 14). According to the Derrotero, Ramón came on the 18th to the vicinity of the Presidio of San Juan on his march from Saltillo. He stayed in camp near the presidio the next day. On the 20th, he marched two leagues east, taking the stock across the Rio Grande. There, Ramon says, he was delayed four days. He states, however, that he began his march from the Rio Grande on the 27th.
84. According to the Derrotero, Ramón's son came with one Indian on the 26th; Saint-Denis, with more than twenty-five Indians, most of them captains, on the 27th. The Historia (Sec. 14) says that on June 27th they met thirty-four Texas Indians, five of them captains.
85. The Derrotero (Memorias, XXVII, fol. 154) describes the Spanish formation somewhat differently. “I ordered my soldiers to form in line to receive them, and I went forward accompanied by all the religious, with a Holy Christ and Our Lady of Guadalupe as standards.” This does not necessarily contradict the Breve Compendio, however, but may only carry the description further.
86. The Derrotero (fol. 155) gives a more detailed description of the peace-pipe ceremony. “They fetched a large pipe, which they use only for the peace [ceremony], took out some of their tobacco, of which they have much, filled the bowl (chacuaco), and put fire in the middle. The captains smoked first, in this fashion: they blew the first puff toward the sky, the second to the east, the third to the west, the fourth to the north, the fifth to the south, and the sixth toward the earth, which are the signs of true peace. The bowl is decorated with many white feathers. The stem, which is about a yard (mas de una vara) long, [also] has white feathers, from one end to the other. They gave it to me, to smoke in the same way, making the same demonstration of peace. In turn they gave it to every body, including the women. The captains took tobacco out their pouches and made a heap in their midst, and filled the pipe from that. I did the same, giving them some of my tobacco.”
87. The Testimonio (Sec. 28) says: “The missions in Texas were really re-established and others were newly founded among the Adaes, seven leagues this side of Nachitoos. Ramon went thither and saw the fort which the French had on a little island of the Colorado or Roxo [Red] River with thirty men. They were expecting fifty more for that point and for the Candadachos. Among the Texas were found blue cotton cloth, muskets, beads, and other goods, which the Indians had got from the French; and it is a well-known fact (se supo) that the latter, after the year 1716, were already settled among the Candadochos and the Nochittoos.”
The Historia (Sec. 15) says: “Then four missions were founded, and the religious distributed among them. The first mission was that of San Francisco with the same persons who had founded it in [16] 90. Twenty leagues farther on in the Asinais nation Concepcion Mission was founded. Fray Ysidro Espinosa took charge of it on the 7th of the same month. Ten leagues farther on, among the Nacogdoches nation, a place was selected for the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. This belonged to the Zacatecan fathers, who took possession on the 9th. On the 10th, among a portion of the Nasones nations, ten leagues to the north of Concepcion. the fourth mission, called San José, was founded.” The Historia further states (Secs. 17-22) that in 1717 Father Margil came to Texas and founded the Mission of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores among the Ais, and the Mission of San Miguel, in the Adaes country, fifty leagues east of los Dolores, both under the charge of Zacatecan religious. San Miguel is spoken of as being only ten leagues from the French fort at Natchitoches —“nearer the French than any of the other Spanish settlements.” In 1718, Father Fray Antonio de Buenaventura y Olivares, in pursuance of the viceroy's orders, removed “the Xomanes Indians and everything belonging to the Mission of San Francisco Solano,” on the Rio Grande, to the San Antonio River, where he founded the Mission of San Antonio de Valero.
According to Pénicaut (Relation in Margry, V 499) Saint-Denis built two houses on an island between two forks of the Red River, and left twelve soldiers in charge of his goods, while he went on to the Texas country. When he returned to Mobile [August 25, 1716 (Margry, VI 146)], Cadillac determined, in view of his report, to establish a post among the Natchitoches, to prevent the Spanish from encroaching upon French territory. Accordingly, twenty-five soldiers, a sergeant, and M. de Tissenet, their commander, were sent with three canoes of goods and supplies to establish a fort (Margry, V 535-537). These were the troops whom Ramón found there, according to the Testimonio account. Pénicaut mentions a visit of four Franciscans (Cordeliers), who had been sent by the Spanish captain with six cavalrymen to say mass among the Natchitoches, and who informed Tissenet that sixty cavalrymen and a captain had come to the Asinais [Texas]. Tissenet treated the religious kindly, gave them presents, and invited them to come back to say mass. He wrote to Cadillac of the Spanish arrival, and was reinforced by twenty-five men and a sergeant, with four canoes of provisions. Saint-Denis was made commander of this fort in 1721 (Margry, VI 224). His commission calls it “the fort of the Nassitos;” later documents usually refer to it as Saint-Jean, or Saint-Jean Bautiste aux Nachitoches.
88. Red River.
89. “Among whom he had been for periods of time, some of four months” (Test., Sec. 29).
90. “That the Frenchman who had left Mobila in the year seventeen hundred and thirteen had returned thither with much stock, publishing that they had penetrated to Coahuila” (Test., Sec. 29).
91. As has been stated, the true date is 1721. The Rev. Edmond J. P. Schmitt (The Quarterly, I 206) cites a letter of Saint-Denis', written in 1735, reprinted in Margry, VI 238. The Testimonio (Sec. 31), whose date, it will be remembered, is 1744, speaks of him as being at that time in command at Natchitoches, thus—“Don Luis de San Denis, who was (and is today) commandant of the said French Post of San Juan Baupttista de Nochittoos.”
92. Gente util para su sustencia. The idea is probably “helpful toward developing in them steady habits and settled mode of living”; sustencia, however, may mean subsistence.
93. Caballero del orden de Santiago (Test., Sec. 30).
94. There seems to be no exact English equivalent for this word; the nearest, perhaps, is the expression “soldier of fortune.”
95. “That he go with fifty soldiers, master-carpenters, -stone-masons, and -blacksmiths, stock, and everything else needful to settle in the said Province of Texas” (Test., Sec. 30).
According to the Historia (Secs. 19-21), the plans of the government included settlements along the San Antonio and the Guadalupe, and also in the intervening country.
96. Alarcon was so negligent, according to the Historia (Sec. 22), that the only thing he accomplished was to bring a company of soldiers with their families to the banks of the San Antonio River, where the Mission of San Antonio de Valero had already been founded. The missionaries had incurred great danger and many hardships since the founding of the missions, so they sent a delegation to give the viceroy information of the unfortunate state of affairs in Texas. The report of these religious emphasized the danger of French encroachment, especially since the French had put a stronghold among the Cadodachos, and were so continually trading with the Indians.
97. “Alarcon asked for money, supplies, and a hundred and fifty other soldiers” (Test., Sec. 30).
98. Cf. Test., Sec. 31. No mention is there made of Indian aid.
99. According to the Historia (Sec. 24), the presidio and the missions at los Adaes were sacked by the French from Natchitoches. The religious who escaped carried the news to the other missions near by. The soldiers, terrified by a rumor that the French from Pensacola were about to invade the country, overruled “the determination of the missionaries,” and all retreated to San Antonio.
100. The Testimonio (Sec. 31) entitles him merely “governor of that province [Texas] and Coahuila. The Diario del Viaje del Marquéz de San Miguel de Aguayo Escrito por el B. D. Juan Antonio de la Peña, Capellan Mayor del Batallón, de San Miguel de Aragón (Memorias, XXVIII, fols. 1-61) also omits the term captain-general from the title. The names Coahuila and Nueva Estremadura were at that time used interchangeably.
101. Aguayo received his commission in 1719, levied and equipped eightyfour men in Saltillo, and then went to Coahuila, where he continued his preparation for the expedition. Owing to various delays, he did not actually begin the march into Texas until the latter part of 1720 (Diario del Viaje, fols. 2-6).
102. As to the number of troops, and their organization, the Breve Compendio is not supported by the Testimonio or by the Diario del Viaje. The Testimonio (Sec. 31) says he had five hundred mounted troops, divided into eight companies; the Diario del Viaje, as has already been stated, mentions five hundred and eight-four in all. On folio 3 of the Diario del Viaje, the statement is made that Aguayo formed a battalion of mounted infantry, forming the five hundred men into eight companies. On folio 4, mention is made of “the artillery, and all the companies.”
103. Part of the expense, as a matter of fact, was borne by the government. The Diario del Viaje (fol. 2) says that in equipping the eightyfour troops from Saltillo he furnished 9,000 pesos in addition to the 12,000 pesos which the “viceroy had put at his disposal for that purpose.” After arriving at Coahuila, he informed the viceroy of the exposed condition of the country, whereupon His Excellency ordered a recruit of five hundred men, and put at Aguayo's disposal 450 pesos—a year's salary—for each soldier, and 25,000 pesos besides.
104. Before Aguayo had left the Rio Grande a dispatch came from San Antonio de Bexar telling of a report brought by some Samas Indians that Saint-Denis and other Frenchmen were holding a convocation of many Indian tribes, about thirty leagues from the presidio. Aguayo thereupon sent a detachment to protect San Antonio from possible attack. A scouting party sent out soon after the detachment reached San Antonio brought no more definite information than that they had reached the forks of the Brazos, but had been unable to cross; that they had seen smoke on the other side of the river, from which they had inferred that the convocation was being held between the branches of the river, as had been reported by the Indians.
Aguayo afterward got information from an Indian that Saint-Denis had held this convocation with a view to getting possession of Espiritu Santo Bay, and afterward attacking San Antonio de Bexar (Diario del Viaje, in Mem. XXVIII, fols. 6, 7, 40).
Saint-Denis, at his own suggestion, came to see Aguayo after his arrival in Eastern Texas (July 31). The two commanders held an amicable conference (August 1), agreeing that in view of the truce lately effected between Spain and France, Saint-Denis with his men should retire to Natchitoches and leave the Spanish in undisputed possession of the whole province as far as the Adaes country (Diario del Viaje, 35 vuelta, 37).
On the first of September, however, a letter came to Aguayo from Rerenor, commandant at Natchitoches, informing him that Saint-Denis had gone to Mobile immediately after returning from the conference with Aguayo, to report to the governor of Louisiana. The letter further stated that Rerenor had no orders to allow the Spaniards to stay at los Adaes, and that Aguayo must therefore suspend operations pending the governor's decision. Aguayo replied, however, that he intended to hold to his purpose of re-establishing the mission and placing a presidio in that region. Thereupon Rerenor made no further protest, and the Spanish were allowed to go on with their work unmolested (Ibid., 47 vuelta, 48).
105. “His Majesty, being notified that this expedition had been prepared, ordered in royal cédula of the sixth of May, seventeen hundred and twenty-one, that war should not be waged against the French, and that when the Province of Texas was once recovered it should be fortified, and especially Espiritu Santo Bay, with such presidios as [should be found] expedient” (Test., Sec. 32).
On the 18th of November, 1721 (Diario del Viaje, fol. 52), Aguayo received a dispatch from the viceroy, informing him of this royal cédula, in which the King expressed his approbation of the arrangements made for this entrada, “ordering anew that war should be not waged against the French, in recovering this province, . . . ordering also that this province should be fortified with such presidios, on such sites, as should appear expedient, especially at the Bay of Espiritu Santo (which had already been occupied for a year by forty soldiers). The viceroy ordered that the governor should add fifty soldiers to this garrison, selecting the best of those under his command.”
106. A mistake. The number was 268. See below, page 37. The Testimonio also gives 268.
107. Twenty-six (Diario del Viaje, 60). The Breve Compendio counts from November 15, 1720, when Aguayo started the battalion to Texas; the Diario del Viaje probably counts from April 1, 1720, when the five hundred recruits began their march to Coahuila. The expedition formally closed May 31, 1722.
108. The Testimonio (Secs. 32-33) reads: “The Marques re-established the three missions of los Adaes, and erected there the above named Presidio of Nuesttra Señora del Pilar, seven leagues this side of the [Post] of Nachittoos, and on the same road. He located another presidio, and restored three other missions in the region properly called Texas,—the name clings to all the province —; it is about in its center, a hundred and seventy-two leagues beyond San Antonio, seventy leagues this side of the French [Post] of Nachittoos, and thirty from the [Post] of Candadachos, which likewise belongs to the French.
“He established another presidio with the name of Nuestra Señora de Loreto on the said Bahia del Espirittu Santto, or San Bernardo, and on the same site where the French introduced by the said Roberto Cavalier de la Sala had had theirs. The Marques added another mission under the protection of the said presidio, which has already been referred to as having been afterward moved inland to thirty leagues from the [Presidio] of San Antonio de Vejar; and today, for fear of the Apaches, one descends thither to go to los Adays. He improved the site of San Antonio, placing it between the San Antonio and San Pedro Rivers, with its two missions, to which were afterward added [three others] from the Texas region. He left in the said four presidios two hunded and sixty-eight soldiers, a hundred in los Adaes, twenty-five in Texas, ninety in la Bahia, and fifty-three in San Antonio de Bexar. He occupied in all the above-mentioned (not counting the preparations) from November, seventeen hundred and twenty, to May, seventeen hundred and twenty-two.”
The Diario del Viaje, fols. 38-50, gives account of the founding of seven missions, in addition to San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, a mission three leagues from San Antonio, which Aguayo had had founded before leaving Coahuila. The names given to these missions are: “San Francisco de los Nechas, commonly, de los Tejas,” (with a pueblo, San Francisco de Valero), Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion, Santissimo Joseph de los Nazones, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Adais, San Miguel de los Adais, and the Mission of Espiritu Santo de Zuniga (near the Presidio of Bahia del Espiritu Santo. Besides these, whose founding is distinctly described, there are two other names mentioned further on in the narrative, whose reference is not made quite clear. These are the missions of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, and Nuestra Señora de la Assumpcion. On fol. 60, the statement is made that Aguayo founded nine missions anew, in addition to San Antonio de Valero. The presidios whose founding is described are: the Presidio of Texas, with a garrison of twenty-five soldiers, a presidio [los Adaes] seven leagues from Natchitoches, with a garrison of one hundred men; and the Presidio of Bahia del Espiritu Santo, presumably with a garrison of ninety men. (Forty were sent from the Rio Grande in 1720; the viceroy, in 1721, ordered fifty more sent. No statement is made, however, as to whether the order was carried out). This document also mentions Aguayo's fortifying San Antonio de Bexar in a new site, between the San Antonio and the San Pedro rivers (folio 54).
The Historia (Secs. 25-27) says that Father Espinosa went to see the viceroy, and got him to issue an order that the province should be settled with families of married men, in place of the soldiers who had previously been carried out. These men were to draw the salaries of soldiers for two years; their wives, and their children over fifteen, should draw half-pay. Some were to be skilled mechanics and artisans, who were to help build the settlement and teach the young people. On their arrival in Texas, the settlers were to be given lands, which they could dispose of for the benefit of their children and heirs. “In response, some poor families volunteered, but as they were so far away from the place where the orders were to be carried out, recruits were gathered in various cities. People were forced to go, and among the number were many people taken from prison.” Only six missions are mentioned as being restored by Aguayo: San Francisco, Concepcion, San José, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Ays, and Adays. The building of one presidio, among the Adays, is mentioned. This expedition, the author says, was not favorable to the missions, because Aguayo did not leave oxen and other stock for them, or provisions and tools for cultivating the land.
109. 1733 (M).
110. See below, pages 40-41.
111. The revista was more than a simple inspection, in that the officer making it exercised a certain amount of executive authority, making such changes in local affairs as he saw fit.
112. Seventy (Historia, Sec. 28).
113. In the whole province. Cf. Sec. 9, last sentence.
114. M has two hundred and seventy-eight.
115. The Testimonio does not mention this revista.
116. I. e., a collection of huts and cabins; a sort of village.
117. As a result of the revista of the Marquéz de Rubí in 1767 (see below), the Presidios of Pilar and Orcoquisac were abandoned. Thereupon the Zacatecans gave up their three missions, which had been under the protection of those presidios (See Garrison's Texas, 91).
118. The Querétaraans in charge of these three missions were disappointed at finding that their equipment was to be reduced, instead of being increased, as they had hoped, hence they asked that they might move their missions to the vicinity of San Antonio de Bexar. The removal was effected by the close of 1730, and the Zacatecans were for the next forty-two years in sole possession of the field. Talamantes's suggestion that a difference between the two colleges influenced the removal, seems quite plausible, since los Adaes was more strongly garrisoned than San Antonio (See Historia, Secs. 28-30).
119. The dictamen in the technical sense here used was an official document presented in response to the viceroy's order, generally reviewing the facts in the case, and advising the government as to how it should act.
120. The ecclesiastic having general oversight and control of the Texas missions.
121. “By royal cédulas of May 10, 1729 [May 10, 1723, and February 14, 1724 (Puntos del Parecer, Sec. 33)], His Majesty ordered that four hundred families should come from the Canaries (ten or twelve at a time), in register ships to Havana, whence they should be transported by way of Vera Cruz to Texas. There they were to be maintained a year at the expense of the royal treasury. Up to the present time only ten [families] of five persons each have come. These were brought to Texas in June, 1730, with no little expense and trouble. [With them] and other families, added from this country, was founded the Villa of San Fernando, which is the only settlement of Spaniards in such an extensive province and such an excellent frontier” (Test., Sec. 34).
122. This would seem to mean that the attack was made in the latter part of Media Villa's term, and that the Spaniards retaliated in Perez's. The narrative, however, seems to indicate that the whole occurrence was in Perez's term, and that 1730 is a scribal error, probably for 1731.
123. The Testimonio (Sec. 42) reads: “cadette, oficial y Thenientte de Capittan de Granaderos.”
124. Diminutive of pilón, a sugar loaf.
125. “El Ylustrisimo y Exelentisimo Señor.”
126. Con la futura del Govierno.
127. The residencia was an official account of his administration given by the retiring official. The judge of the residencia was the official, sometimes appointed especially for the occasion, whose duty it was to examine the residencia, and decide whether or not it was satisfactory.
128. Piezas de Autos.
129. The Testimonio (Secs. 42-58) details the Sandoval case so much more fully than does the Breve Compendio that it is given in full in the appendix.
130. Sixteen (M).
131. One hundred and sixty (M).
132. Fray Josef Gonzabal (A).
133. In 1760. See p. 58.
134. M has [17] 51.
135. That is, grouped together, apart from a mission, for purposes of instruction (See The Quarterly, VI 191, note.—Editor Quarterly).
136. M has almas.
137. San Savas was independent of Texas and Coahuila. See page 51.
138. Los Chamas (M).
139. Cf. p. 63.
140. El haver correspondiente á sus plazas.
141. Established in 1755 (Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas: I 643); abandoned, 1772 (Ibid., 655-6).
142. That is, that at the time of Bonilla's writing, Louisiana belonged to Spain.
143. Cf. p. 49.
144. Rubi (M).
145. Coahuila and Texas.
146. (Perjuicios).
147. Los. The Spanish may refer either to presidios or gastos.
148. Cf. p. 54, where the los Almagres mine was called a silver mine.
149. I. e., the action taken by the government with reference to Ripperdá's report.
150. Le pasaron por los Armas.
151. A son of Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis. See page 68.
152. A, se ausentan; M. se aumentan.
153. 300 (M).
154. The Memorias de Nueva España.
155. I. e., Memorias, XXVII and XXVIII.
156. See page 14.
157. As presented in the Testimonio de Un Parecer.
158. The Puntos del Parecer ends here.
159. Theninette reformado.
160. Campañas.
161. Bancroft (North Mexican States and Texas, I 621) states that Morales was sent out as governor in 1743, with orders to investigate the French boundary and Sandoval's acts; that after his death, Francisco Garcio Larios ruled ad interim, 1743-8. Cf. Breve Compendio (Sec. 18).
How to cite:
"A BRIEF COMPENDIUM OF THE EVENTS WHICH HAVE OCCURRED IN THE PROVINCE OF TEXAS FROM ITS CONQUEST, OR REDUCTION, TO THE PRESENT DATE ", Volume 008, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 9 - 78. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v008/n1/article_5.html
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