The activities of the Spanish government in Texas were from first to last inspired largely by fears of foreign aggression. When these fears slept, Texas was left pretty much to itself, so far as the government was concerned, but when serious rumors of encroaching strangers reached the official cars, there was likely to be vigorous proceedings for a time. The occupation of the lower Trinity River in the middle of the eighteenth century was no exception to this rule. Although settlements had been founded in eastern Texas as early as 1690, the authorities in Mexico, and even in the province of Texas itself, seem to have been almost entirely ignorant of the geography of the lower Trinity and the adjacent country until 1745, when they were called into it by tales of a French establishment somewhere on the coast. One previous official expedition to the locality had been made in 1727, 3 it is true, but it had led to no further steps toward occupation, and given no permanent knowledge of the topography or of the natives of the region.
What stirred the authorities to action in 1745 was a letter reporting the rumors alluded to above, written in July 4 to the viceroy by Don Joaquín de Orobio Bazterra, captain of the presidio of Bahía del Espíritu Santo, but for the time being in Coahuila. In reply to this communication the viceroy ordered Captain Orobio to proceed in all haste to learn the truth about the French settlement, where and when it had been established, if at all, and what and how many Indians there were in the vicinity. If he should find Frenchmen established or intending to settle, he was to order them to leave forthwith. 5
The prevailing ignorance of and lack of communication with the coast country between the Guadalupe and the Trinity rivers at this time is amply illustrated by Orobio's difficulties and uncertainty in getting from La Bahía to his destination. His first efforts were directed toward ascertaining whether the investigation could be made on terra firma by way of Matagorda Bay and the coast. To determine this point he went in October with a squad of men down the banks of the Guadalupe; but, because of high water and the roughness of the country, he decided to build a fleet of canoes and take thirty men on a two months' expedition by water, down the river and along the coast. New discouragements and difficulties led him finally to decide to take the Adaes road to the crossing of the Trinity, a hundred miles or more above its mouth, and descend to the coast from that point. 6 Such an expedition made it necessary to send to San Antonio and Presidio del Rio Grande for more soldiers, in order that La Bahía might not be left unprotected. As a consequence of this and other delays, it was late in December before Orobio was ready to start. 7
From Orobio's diary, which has not hitherto been used, we are able to follow his movements in detail. Setting out on December 20 with twenty-one soldiers, he marched over the camino real to the Trinity, where he arrived on January 9. Failing to learn from the Indians of this locality what he wished to know regarding the country below, he again changed his plan and continued northeast to San Pedro, the Nabedache village near the Neches. Here he saw in the firearms, clothing, and trinkets possessed by the natives—the sight was no new one at San Pedro—abundant signs of French influence. But these things, he was told, had all come from the French of Natchitoches (“Los Canos”), by way of the Cadodacho, and not from the coast. The rumors of the French settlement on the Gulf, however, were confirmed and repeated with exaggeration. But Orobio was informed that the place could be reached only from Nacogdoches, by way of the Bidai trail, “a path which the Vidias have made in going to Nacogdoches.”
Acting on this information, Orobio went on to Nacogdoches. Here a report by the veteran missionary, Father Joseph Calahorra y Saenz, to the effect that fifteen shipwrecked Frenchmen had recently passed that way from the coast, caused him to go on to Los Adaes to consult with the governor, García Larios, before plunging into the unknown south country. The conference over, Orobio returned to Nacogdoches, where he arrived on February 4, and where he secured an Indian guide to conduct him over the Bidai trail to the coast. 8
Since his diary gives us our first intimate account of a large stretch of country and of the earliest Spanish contact with a distinct group of natives in their own home, its contents have unique historical interest, and will, therefore, be still further drawn upon. Leaving Nacogdoches on February 7 and going southwest, on March 6 Orobio was near the Trinity at a place which he called Santa Rosa de Viterbo. Here he found a settlement of Bidai Indians living in seven rancherías 9 of bearskin tents, their regular winter habitations. The presence of Spaniards here, which, we are informed, “had never occurred before,” aroused much interest and comment among the natives, as can be well understood. With the chief Orobio held a long conference, but that over, his stay was brief.
Taking a Bidai guide, he set out across the Trinity, and on March 15 was at Puesto de San Rafael, so-named by himself, thirty leagues west-southwest from Santa Rosa de Viterbo. It will appear later on that San Rafael was in all probability on Spring Creek, west of the San Jacinto River. Here were two Orcoquiza villages, near which Orobio camped. The surprise of these Indians at seeing “Yegsa,” as they called the Spaniards, whom, we are told, they had heard of but never seen, was even greater than that of the Bidai.
Among both the Bidai and the Orcoquiza the rumors of Frenchmen on the coast were confirmed with circumstantial detail. Orobio was informed that men who lived among the Pachina near the Mississippi had for six years been coming by land to the Orcoquiza, while others came annually by water, entering the Neches, Trinity, and Brazos rivers, the implication being that they regularly visited the Bidai as well as the Orcoquiza. As yet there was no regular settlement of Frenchmen, but one had been promised. In the past summer those coming by sea had even chosen a site, and had sent the Orcoquiza to notify the Bidai, Doxsas (Deadoses), and Texas to come next season to this place with their buckskins (gamuzas) and buffalo hides, which the French were accustomed to buy. 10 The site designated for the settlement was described as some distance from the mouth of a river between the Trinity and the Brazos, but a tributary of neither. The stream was obviously the San Jacinto, an inference which is supported by positive evidence which will appear later on. 11 Among the Orcoquiza Orobio learned that some Frenchmen had been lost among the Cujanes, to the southwest, and that the shipwrecked crew who had passed through Nacogdoches were apparently a party who had been to rescue them.
Going toward the coast a distance of fifteen leagues, Orobio reached the place on the San Jacinto designated by the Orcoquiza as the site chosen by the French. The stream Orobio named Nuestra Señora de Aranzazu. Finding no signs of a habitation, and recording the opinion that there was little likelihood that one would be established, 12 since the site was ill fitted for settlement, he struck northwestward to the camino real leading from Nacogdoches, and returned to La Bahía, where he arrived on April 6. On June 25 he sent a report of his reconnaisance to Governor Larios.
This visit of Orobio to the Orcoquiza Indians was the beginning of a quarter of a century of Spanish activity in their country. While among them Orobio talked to them of missions. In a short while, apparently in the same year, he made them another visit and went again to the San Jacinto to look for Frenchmen, though we have not the details of this second expedition. To counteract French influence, one of the Orcoquiza chiefs was ored by being made a “captain,” and during the next few years Spanish agents, in the guise of traders, were regularly sent among both the Orcoquiza and the Bidai. Finally, further encroachments of the French, as we shall see, led to the occupation of the Orcoquiza country by a presidio and a mission. In the course of this contact, a large fund of knowledge regarding the tribe, whose early history has been strangely unknown, was acquired. It was not till 1755-1757 that this information, precious to the ethnologist and the historian, was extensively recorded in the documents at our command, but it will facilitate the remainder of the narrative if these later documents are drawn upon somewhat in advance for a general sketch of the Orcoquiza tribe, who, with their territory, form the chief center of interest in the story.
It was learned by these traders, explorers, soldiers, and missionaries that the Orcoquiza lived in four (or five) rancherías, or scattered villages, near the lower Trinity and the San Jacinto rivers. The center of their population was a western branch of the San Jacinto, usually called in the eighteenth century the Arroyo de Santa Rosa de Alcázar (the San Rafael of Orobio), which, after a careful study of the evidence, appears to be the Spring Creek of today. 14 Near the junction of the San Jacinto and the Santa Rosa, and within a gunshot of the latter, was the village which became known as that of chief Canos, so-called because of his leaning toward the French. Farther up the Santa Rosa some twenty miles, perhaps, at the junction of two small branches, was the village of El Gordo (the Fat), while “above” this point, perhaps northwest, was that of Mateo. East of the Trinity and some ten or fifteen miles from its mouth was another village, known for a long time as that of Calzones Colorados (Red Breeches). There is some indication that there was another village under the authority of this chief, but just where it was located is not clear. These statements, which rest on unquestioned sources, make it appear that the Orcoquiza lived rather more to the westward than has been supposed, as is true also of the Attacapa. On the east the Orcoquiza divided the country between the Trinity and the Neches with the latter tribe, who had two villages on opposite sides of the Neches near modern Beaumont; on the north the neighbors of the Orcoquiza were the Bidai, and, apparently, the Deadoses (Agdocas, Doxses); on the west, the Cocos; on the west and the southwest, the Carancaguases and the Cujanes. 15 With all of these tribes, except the Carancaguases, the Orcoquiza were generally on good terms, but racially they seem to have been quite distinct from all but the Attacapa, with whom they were considerably mixed. 16
Although they went periodically back and forth, with the changes of seasons, between the coast and the interior, the Orcoquiza lived in relatively fixed villages. If they were like the Bidai, they remained inland during the winter. They practiced agriculture to some extent, raising what was called by Bernardo de Miranda “superfine maize.” But this article seems to have been a minor feature of their subsistence, for they lived to a large extent on a fish diet, supplemented by sylvan fruits and game, among which deer and bear were prominent. It was trade in the skins and the fat of these animals that chiefly attracted the French intruders.
An indication that the tribal organization of the Orcoquiza was loose is the fact that during the clash between the French and the Spaniards in the region, the tribe was divided in its allegiance, Canos, particularly, leaning toward the French. Another indication is the conflicting contemporary statements by different witnesses as to which of the chiefs was “capitan grande,” or head chief of the group. Had there been a conspicuous tribal headship, such a conflict of opinion would not have been likely to occur. At first Canos appears in this light, and is the one to whom Governor Barrios gave the title of captain some time before October, 1754. Indeed, there are some reasons for thinking that he had the best claim to this distinction, but it was assigned also to Mateo and to Calzones Colorados. 17 The last named chief became the one best known to the Spaniards.
Although our data on this point are conflicting, the tribe was evidently small in numbers, even at this early date. Orobio, after his second visit, reported that it was composed of five villages, containing three hundred families, or perhaps twelve hundred souls. It was later claimed that Captain Pacheco “reduced” two villages of four hundred persons each. But compared with other estimates, these numbers appear to be too large. Bernardo de Miranda, for example, on being asked in 1756 what was their number, could not say definitely, but declared that he had seen at the village of Canos more than twenty warriors and their families. If this was the entire village, and if it was representative, the total of the tribe would not have exceeded one hundred men, or five or six hundred persons. An official estimate made in 1778, after a period of great general decrease in the native population of Texas, it is true, put the Orcoquiza fighting strength at only fifty men. 18 It was not, therefor,e in any case, a very large Indian population for which the French and the Spaniards were contending. To either party, the territory involved was far more important.
Soon after the visit of Orobio, it has already been noted, Spanish traders from Los Adaes began to operate in the Indian villages of the lower Trinity. The exact circumstances under which this trade was established are not clear, but it is evident that it fluorished after 1751, and that its chief beneficiary was Governor Jacinto de Barrios y Jáuregui, who went to Texas in that year.
The evidence regarding this trade, which was regarded as contraband, came out in a special investigation made in 1760, after Barrios had departed, and it may well be that it is not altogether trustworthy; but the main allegations seem well established. From the testimony given during the inquiry we learn that between 1751 and 1759 Governor Barrios engaged pretty regularly in commerce with the Bidai, Orcoquiza, and other tribes. The trade was kept a strict monopoly in his hands and carried on by his personal agents, among whom were Marcos Ruíz, Domingo del Rio, Juan Antonio Maldonado, and Jacinto de León. Goods were carried to the tribes in pack-trains, convoyed by small guards of soldiers. The merchandise was procured by the governor at Natchitoches, in open defiance of the law. Among the articles taken to the Indians were French knives, scissors, tobacco, combs, and even firearms, though it was a serious offense to furnish weapons or ammunition to the natives. In exchange the Indians gave horses (stolen usually from the Spanish settlements and missions), corn, and hides of deer and buffalo. The corn and horses were used by the governor at the presidio of Los Adaes; the skins were either sold at Natchitoches, likewise an unlawful proceeding, or were sent to Saltillo. This trade, conducted at first from Los Adaes, was later continued from the presidio of San Agustín, at the mouth of the Trinity. 19
The interest in the lower Trinity aroused by Orobio's visit was crystallized by the arrest in October, 1754, of some Frenchman, caught by Marcos Ruíz among the Orcoquiza Indians. The leader of the French party was Joseph Blancpain, whose name sometimes appears as Lanpen. With him were captured two other Frenchmen, Elías George, and Antonio de la Fars, besides two negroes. Their goods were confiscated and divided among the captors, their huts given to chief Calzones Colorados, their boat left stranded on the river bank, and they, after being questioned as to their purpose, sent to the City of Mexico and imprisoned.
According to Blancpain's own statement he had long been an Indian interpreter in the employ of the government of Louisiana, and had a trading establishment at Natchitoches, but lived on his plantation near the Mississippi, twenty-two leagues from New Orleans. He claimed that, at the time of his arrest, which occurred east of the Trinity at the village of Calzones Colorados, he had been trading for two months with the Attacapa, with whom he had dealt for more than a quarter of a century. The list of goods confiscated by his captors shows that, among other things, he was furnishing the Indians of the locality with a goodly supply of firearms, a proceeding which the Spanish government had always strenuously opposed. He had in his possession a license from the governor of Louisiana authorizing him to go among the Attacapa to trade for horses, as well as instructions to keep a diary, and, if he encountered any strange Indian village, to make friends of the inhabitants and take the chiefs to see the governor at New Orleans. Until shortly before his arrest he had been accompanied by a considerable party.
These instructions the Spaniards regarded as evidence that Blancpain was acting as a government agent to extend French authority over the Indians living in Spanish territory. It was charged against him that he had taken away the Spanish commission of chief Canos and given him a French one. More than this, Barrios reported to the viceroy, on the testimony of the soldiers who made the arrest and who claimed to have their information from the Indians and from Blancpain himself, that the Orcoquiza were expecting from New Orleans fifty families of settlers and a minister, to plant a colony and a mission at El Orcoquizac. But later, when his examination occurred at Mexico in February, 1755, Blancpain with great hardihood it would seem, considering the circumstances, denied having had anything to do with the Orcoquiza or Bidai, and, with greater truthfulness, perhaps, claimed not to know of any plans for a mission or a settlement.
Blancpain died in prison at Mexico, and, after a year's incarceration, his companions, according to the then customary dealing with intruders in Mexico, were deported in La América to Spain, to be disposed of by the Casa de Contratación. Their case brought forth a royal order requiring that if any more Frenchmen should be caught on Spanish territory without license they should be sent to Acapulco and thence to South America, there to be kept on the Isle of San Fernández or at the Presidio of Valdivia 20
As soon as Ruíz, the captor of Blancpain, returned to Los Adaes, Governor Barrios held a council, in which testimony was given to show that the French were clearly intending to establish a colony on the Trinity. In consequence, Barrios reported the danger to the viceroy, and at the same time took measures to provide temporary defense. In his account of the Blancpain affair sent to the viceroy on November 30, 1754, Barrios proposed guarding El Orcoquisac against further intrusion by establishing a presidio and a mission and also a civil settlement strong enough to exist after a few years without the protection of a garrison, suggesting that the families be recruited from Adaes and that they be given the government subsidy usually granted to new colonies. 21 This initiation by Barrios of a plan to colonize the lower Trinity country should be kept in mind for consideration in connection with the governor's later conduct.
With respect to the temporary defense of El Orcoquisac, the junta recommended sending to the Trinity ten soldiers and ten armed settlers. Failing to find this number of men available at Los Adaes, Barrios at once corresponded with the captains at San Antonio, Bahía, and San Xavier, asking for eighteen men to add to the ten which he proposed to detach from his post; but he did not at first meet with success. 22 Meanwhile Domingo del Rio was sent among the Bidai and Orcoquiza to learn, as Barrios put it, how they reacted toward the arrest of Blancpain. He returned in April bearing a new rumor that the French had settled and fortified El Orcoquisac. Thereupon the governor dispatched him with a squad of soldiers to make another investigation and to bring back a careful report. To strengthen the Spanish hold upon the Indians, Del Rio's party were supplied with abundant merchandise for gifts and for “cambalache,” or barter. In view of the defection of chief Canos to the French, they took for Mateo a commission as captain, a cane, symbol of authority, a jacket, a sombrero, and a shirt, while for Tomás, chief of the Bidai, who already had a commission as captain, they carried a like outfit. When they returned from this journey, which included a visit to the Nabedache, to the Bidai villages of Antonio and Tomás, and to the Orcoquiza village of El Gordo, they were accompanied by Mateo, Tomás and a band of braves, who were duly entertained by the governor, and who repeated former requests for missions. 23
Del Rio had found no French settlement, but he had heard from the Indians, who, as was to be expected, told a good story, that subsequently to the arrest of Blancpain some Frenchmen had been among them, that Mateo and his people (loyal to the Spaniards, of course!) had withdrawn from the coast, but that Canos, Blancpain's proselyte, had been to New Orleans, and, on his return, all decked out in French garb and laden with presents, had tried to win the rest of his tribe to the French cause.
This report evidently caused Barrios to act. Del Rio's return was early in June. Sometime between this date and August 27—probably at least a month before this—the governor sent twenty-eight soldiers recruited from San Xavier, San Antonio, La Bahía, and Adaes, to garrison El Orcoquisac until permanent arrangements should be made by the superior government. 24 The posting of this garrison marks the beginning of the Spanish occupation of El Orcoquisac.
The examination of Blancpain in the royal hall of confessions had occurred in February, 1755. For a year after this nothing was done by the superior government in Mexico but to discuss and refer, a process all too well known to the special student of Spanish-American history. To follow the details of this correspondence would be profitless except as a study in Spanish provincial administration. Viewed from this standpoint, however, it is interesting, as it furnishes a typical example of procedure in the matter of frontier defense, and a suggestion of the baneful effect of long distance legislation upon the missions and colonies, as well as insight into Spanish governmental methods.
A question within this field once brought to the attention of the viceroy ordinarily went from him to the fiscal of the royal Hacienda. If necessary, it went also the auditor of the war department and to a junta de guerra y hacienda, composed of officials from these two branches of the service. On the basis of these opinions of the fiscal and auditor, and the resolution of the junta, the viceroy issued his decrees. To one who studies intimately the viceroy's administration of the provinces it is noticeable how completely he followed the advice of these officials, particularly of the fiscal.
According to this customary routine, Barrios's proposal concerning the defense of the Trinity went, during the spring and summer of 1755, to the auditor, the fiscal, and a junta de guerra y hacienda. But there was so little agreement of opinion that the viceroy could reach no decision. Nominally, the difference was upon the size of the garrison and the question as to whether the proposed settlement should be subsidized or not. One gets the impression, however, that the real reason for delay was lack of interest. The fiscal recommended retaining at El Orcoquisac twenty of the soldiers already placed there by Barrios, and favored establishing one or more missions for the Orcoquiza. But he opposed Barrios's proposal of a subsidized colony, recommending, instead, dependence upon settlers who shold be attracted to the vicinity by lands alone. The six officials of the junta which was called could agree neither with the fiscal nor with each other. While all were of the opinion that El Orcoquisac should be garrisoned, two voted for twenty soldiers aided by the Indians of the locality, two for a larger number of soldiers, and two for ten soldiers and ten citizens.
After receiving Barrios's letter of September 6, 1755, which reported not only that Frenchmen had again been seen on the Trinity, but also that the governor of Louisiana had set up a claim to the territory which he garrisoned, the viceroy asked for a new opinion of the auditor.
Valcarcel, adopting the views that had been expressed by Altamira in his famous dictamen in 1744, and of Escandón, frequently voiced during his long struggle to people the country between the San Antonio River and Tampico, had in his mind the germs of a colonizing policy which might have been successful if really carried out. Reporting on October 11, he opposed the fiscal's plan for an unsubsidized settlement, on the ground that it would be more expensive to maintain a garrison for the long time that would be necessary under that plan, since there was little chance of a pueblo formed without special inducements to settlers, than to equip at once fifty families, withdrawing the garrison within a definite time. Citing Altamira's opinion, he argued with some logic that, in time of peace, on the one hand, good citizens would be more useful than soldiers as agents in winning the Indians, since presidial soldiers were proverbially low characters, and always making trouble; while, in time of war, on the other hand, twenty soldiers would be virtually useless. He advised, therefore, selecting fifty families of good character, attracting them not only by the lands, but also by the usual subsidy given to new colonists, putting them under a governor of their own number, and suppressing the presidio as soon as the civil settlement should be established.
He also made recommendations concerning the choice of a site. First a good location should be selected. He doubted the fitness of El Orcoquisac for the settlement, for lack of wood, and because of the marshiness of the country. Agreeing with the fiscal in this, he recommended ordering the governor to take the president of the eastern Texas missions, go to the Trinity country, and select a site for a town and missions. The town site must be so chosen that it would serve to protect the missions, control the Indians, and keep the French from among them. He advised, also, requiring Barrios to report the necessary supplies to be furnished the families at government expense.
But still the matter dragged on. Further delay was caused by a change of viceroys, and when the new one, the Marqués de las Amarillas, arrived in Mexico, he found the defense of the Trinity one of the questions first demanding attention. Accordingly, on February 4, 1756, he called a junta, whose resolutions, supplemented by the viceroy's decree of February 12, brought the matter to a head. The provisions thus jointly made for the lower Trinity were as follows: (1) For the present a garrison of thirty soldiers and a mission were to be established precisely on the site of Blancpain's arrest. (2) As soon as a suitable permanent site could be selected—it being conceded that El Orcoquisac was unhealthful—a villa of fifty families was to be founded, and to this site the mission and presidio were to be removed. Of these families twenty-five were to be Spaniards and twenty-five Tlascaltecan Indians, both classes to be recruited mainly from Saltillo, and to be aided by a single government subsidy sufficient to transport them and provide them with an outfit for agriculture, the sum to be determined by Barrios. (3) At the end of six years the presidio was to be suppressed, the soldiers becoming citizen colonists. For this reason, as well as for the immediate benefit of the Indians, married men of good character were to be preferred in the selection of the garrison. (4) The mission was to be conducted by two friars from the college of Guadalupe de Zacatecas, on a stipend of four hundred pesos each. (5) Barrios was ordered to report the funds necessary for the subsidy, to proceed at once to establish the presidio and mission on the temporary site, and, assisted by two frairs and by men acquainted with the country, to choose the site for the villa. 25
Bonilla and Bancroft have made it appear that the colony of fifty families provided for was to be identical with the presidio, but from the above it is clear that such was not the case. Morfi states that a presidio of thirty men was at first provided for; that because Barrios reported the original site unsuitable, the garrison was moved to the Springs of Santa Rosa de Alcázar, and that on February 4, 1757, a junta in Mexico decided to establish a new presidio and a colony of fifty Spanish and fifty Tlascaltecan families. The date of the junta was February 4, 1756; it provided for a colony of only fifty families, as has been stated above. It will be seen from what follows that the first garrison was not moved to the Springs of Santa Rosa. 26
This provision regarding the sending of Tlascaltecan families to the Texas frontier is an illustration of the interesting part played by the Tlascaltecan tribe during the whole period of Spanish expansion in New Spain. After their spirited fight with Cortés, resulting in an alliance, they became the most trusted supporters of the Spaniards. After playing an important part in the conquest of the valley of Mexico, they became a regular factor in the extension of Spanish rule over the north country. Thus, when San Luis Potosí and Saltillo had been conquered, colonies of Tlascaltecans were sent to teach the more barbarous Indians of these places both loyalty to the Spaniards and the elements of civilization. In Saltillo a large colony of Tlascaltecans was established by Urdiñola at the end of the sixteenth century, and became the nursery from which numerous offshoots were planted at the new missions and villages further north. At one time one hundred families of Tlascaltecans were ordered sent to Pensacola; we see them figure now in the plans for a colony on the Trinity River; and a few years later it was suggested that a settlement, with these people as a nucleus, be established far to the north, on the upper Red River, among the Taovayas Indians.
San Agustín de Ahumada
Barrios promptly set about establishing the presidio, which was evidently founded late in May or June, 1756. 27 It was certainly established by July 14. In compliment to the viceroy, the name given it, San Agustín de Ahumada, like that of the presidio of San Luís de las Amarillas, established a year later at San Sabá, was borrowed from that official's generous title. 28 The site was fixed according to the instructions, at El Orcoquisac, the place where Blancpain had been arrested. This was near a lagoon a short distance east of the left bank of the Trinity some two leagues from the head of the Bay, or near the north line of present Chambers county. 29 It is easy to explain Bancroft's mistake of supposing that El Orcoquisac and Los Horconsitos, which will appear later in the narrative, were identical, but it is difficult to understand how he came to place San Agustín de Ahumada on his map more than one hundred miles up the river instead of near its mouth. 30 Marcos Ruíz was made recruiting officer for the garrison; Domingo del Rio's skill as an Indian agent was recognized by his appointment as lieutenant ad interim in command, while Cristobal de Córdoba was made sergeant. On June 12, 1757, it was reported that the presidio, church, granary and corrals were all completed, and that fields and gardens had been prepared. We learn little about the structure of the presidio except that it was good. It was undoubtedly an unpretentious affair, and perhaps not very different from that soon ordered substituted for it when a change of site was being planned. The latter was to be a wooden stockade, triangular in shape, with three bulwarks, six curtains, one gate near the barracks, and a plaza de armas in the center. As a temporary part of the equipment of the presidio, two swivel guns were sent from Los Adaes, to remain until other provisions could be made. 31
The new establishment on the Trinity served to keep Barrios in Texas nearly three additional years. On August 21, 1756, by royal order, he was appointed governor of Coahuila and Don Angel Martos y Navarrete named in his place. But in view of the Orcoquisac enterprise just begun, the viceroy requested that Martos be sent temporarily to Coahuila in Barrios's place. The request was granted, and Barrios continued in office until 1759. 32
Nuestra Señora de la Luz
The mission established in the neighborhood of San Agustín was called Nuestra Señora de la Luz (Our Lady of Light), with the addition, sometimes of “del Orcoquisac.” Before the arrival of the regular missionaries, Father Romero, of the Ais mission, went among the Orcoquiza and secured promises that they would receive instruction, with the result that, in July, 1756, Barrios was able to report that even Canos, the French partisan, had become “reduced” to mission life, whatever this may have meant, in the absence of a mission. He had probably consented to enter one. At this time Barrios talked hopefully of even three missions instead of one. 33
The first missionaries sent were Fr. Bruno Chavira and Fr. Marcos Satereyn. Just when they arrived is not clear, but it was evidently after August, 1756, and certainly before the end of January, 1757. 34 Barrios soon complained that these missionaries were unsuited for their task, one because he was very young, and the other, Fr. Chavira, because he was old and violent in his manner. Moreover, he said, though the Indians were docile and anxious to live at the mission, the padres had brought nothing to support them. He carried his complaint to President Vallejo, who promised to have the College recall these two missionaries and send others. 35
Chavira's removal, however, was by a more powerful hand, for on June 27, he succumbed to the unhealthfulness of the country and died. Fr. Chavira's companion remained for some time and was approved by the governor. 36
In January, 1757, as we shall see, the viceroy ordered the missionaries to transfer their mission to Santa Rosa, and to “reduce” there at El Gordo's village, all four of the Orcoquiza bands and the Bidai tribe as well. This plan does not exactly harmonize with the decision of the junta of March 3 that efforts should be made to keep the different bands hostile toward each other. The Indians, however, opposed the transfer, and, to meet this difficulty, Barrios suggested dividing the missionary forces, leaving one friar at El Orcoquisac, with a small guard of soldiers, the other going to Santa Rosa. 37
As was usually the case in the initial stages of founding a mission, the Orcoquiza (especially the band of Calzones Colorados) were at first very tractable and friendly. They professed anxiety to enter upon mission life, built a house for the missionaries, and the first spring planted for them six almudes of corn, something “never before seen in these natives.” 38
The church, reported by Barrios as already complete in June, was evidently a very temporary structure, which was supplanted afterwards by a somewhat better one, itself miserable enough. A complaint made two years later by Fr. Abad de Jesus María, who was then head minister at the place, to the effect that he could not get help from the soldiers to complete the mission, reveals to us the site and the nature of the newer building. He writes: “Fearful of what might result, I had to set about the mentioned material establishment. . . . The two ministers, having explored and examined the territory with all care and exactitude, we did not find any place more suitable or nearer the presidio than a hill, something less than a fourth of a league's distance to the east from the latter and on the same bank of the lagoon. This place, Excellent Sir, because of its elevation, commands a view of the whole site of the presidio and of a circumference to the west and south, where this River Trinity turns, as far as the eye can reach. Towards the east the land is a little less elevated. At a distance of a league enough corn might be planted to supply a large population. . . . All these advantages being seen, the mission was erected on this site. It is made of wood, all hewn (labrada), and beaten clay mixed with moss, and has four arched portals (portales en círculo). This building, because of its strength and arrangement, is the most pleasing in all those lands of the Spanish and the French—or it would be if your Excellency should be pleased to have completed its construction, which for the present has been suspended.” 39
Such are some of the glimpses which we are able to get of the new mission and presidio.
To select a site for the colony, Barrios commissioned Lieutenant Del Rio and Don Bernardo de Miranda, the latter known for his recent explorations of the Los Almagres mineral vein, each to make an independent survey, which they did in the mid-summer of 1756. When, on August 26, 1756, they and their assistants gave their reports before Governor Barrios and Father Romero, all agreed as to the most desirable location. Above the presidio, within a space of six leagues, they reported three arroyos, on the middle one of which was the village of Calzones Colorados. These arroyos, they thought, would afford moderate facilities for a town site. But much better was the country along the arroyo of Santa Rosa del Alcázar, mentioned before as in the center of the Orcoquiza tribe. 40
Pleased with the glowing description of Santa Rosa, as it came to be called commonly, Barrios next had it surveyed by two surveyors named Morales 41 and Hernández. In October these men reported favorably upon three sites, but most favorably on that near El Gordo's village at the junction of two small branches joining the Santa Rosa, about ten leagues or perhaps twenty miles west of the San Jacinto—apparently Mill Creek and Spring Creek. 42 Barrios required the surveyors to prepare estimates of the cost of building the necessary dams and acequias, and in November reported to the viceroy in favor of Santa Rosa (as Miranda had already done in October), recommending three missions instead of one. On January 7 this site was approved by a junta de guerra y hacienda, and shortly afterward the viceroy ordered the presidio moved thither, with the condition that each week a squad of soldiers must be sent to reconnoiter El Orcoquisac to look for Frenchmen.
The missionaries were required, likewise, to transfer the mission with the people of Calzones Colorados and Canos (assumed by the authorities, from previous reports, to be in the mission), to El Gordo's village, and to strive to attract thither the people of Mateo and also those of the Bidai tribe. Thus was it planned to gather all of the Orcoquiza and Bidai into one settlement. 43
In March and April the central government proceeded in good faith to provide 30,000 pesos, the sum asked for by Barrios, for equipping and transporting the settlers, and ordered three swivel guns to San Agustín, to take the place of the cannon brought from Los Adaes. The details of recruiting the families were left to Barrios, but he was ordered to take from Saltillo fifty saddle horses, fifty brood mares, twenty-five cows, nine thousand one hundred and twenty-five sheep, and six yoke of oxen. Other necessary stock was to be purchased in Los Adaes. Each family was to be supplied with a limited outfit for engaging in agriculture, and a gun and a sabre for defence, while, during the journey, each member of the Spanish families was to be allowed three reals a day, and each member of the Tlascaltecan families two reals. The actual work of recruiting, equipping and transporting the families was entrusted by Barrios, some time later, to a Frenchman named Diego Giraud. 44
To this point prospects seemed good for the beginning in Texas of a new civil settlement, the element most lacking, and want of which meant ultimate failure. But now ensued a period of disheartening inactivity, flimsy excuse-making, and pernicious quarreling, that shatters the reader's patience, and that resulted in killing the projected settlement.
The plan for a colony had originated with Barrios, and hitherto he had acted with reasonable promptitude in carrying it out. As late as June, 1757, his attitude was favorable, for then, when reporting that the Indians at El Orcoquisac might oppose moving to Santa Rosa, he had suggested that this difficulty might be overcome by leaving one missionary at El Orcoquisac, protected by a small garrison, and establishing the other at Santa Rosa. 45 But from now on he seems to have entirely changed his mind. It may have been sincere conviction that there was no suitable site—he could not foresee the building in the vicinity of a great city like Houston—or it may have been some unexplained influence that caused him to positively oppose the town. A suggestion of jealousy of Miranda appears in the documents, but one is not warranted in accepting this suggestion as conclusive.
Whatever the cause, his subsequent conduct is most exasperating. In October he reported that he had been deceived by Miranda's report and that a personal examination made in October by himself and President Vallejo proved that Santa Rosa was unfit for a settlement, 46 but that a place called “El Atascosito” or “El Atascoso y Los Tranquillos” on the Trinity, some nineteen leagues above the presidio, was a suitable location. 47
While the viceroy was putting Barrios's suggestion through the usual deliberate legislative routine, 48 the governor was forced into temporary activity by the missionary then at Nuestra Señora de la Luz, Fray Joseph Francisco Caro. This friar wrote in February, 1758, to his superior at Adaes, Father Vallejo, a mournful tale about the physical miseries of life at his swampy, malarial, mosquito-infested post. Father Chavira had died, he said, from the unhealthfulness of the place; his companion, Fray Marcos Satereyn, and all the soldiers, were sick from dysentery, due to bad water, excessive humidity, and putrid lagoons nearby. He requested, therefore, that the presidio and mission be moved at once to another site, preferably El Atascosito. If this could not be done, he begged leave either to move the mission with a small guard of soldiers to the place designated or to abandon his post. Vallejo reported the complaint to Barrios and requested that one of the alternatives be granted, preferably that looking to the transfer of the presidio as well as the mission to El Atascosito; he closed with a threat that unless something were done, he would order Father Caro to retire and, acting in the name of his College, would renounce the mission. 49
In response to this threat Barrios went in April to San Agustín, selected a site within two gunshots of El Atascosito, ordered crops sown, and instructed Lieut. Del Rio, as soon as the sowing should be completed, to build there a new triangular stockade, and to transfer the garrison and the mission. 50 To offset this apparent compliance, however, Barrios gave the idea of a colony a serious blow by declaring that neither El Atascosito, the place he had himself proposed as a substitute for Santa Rosa, nor any of the several others that had been considered, would support a settlement of fifty families, and recommended accordingly that Giraud, his agent sent to Saltillo to recruit families, should be repaid for his trouble and expense, and, it is inferred, relieved of his commission. 51
On March 4, 1758, and again on March 13, Barrios was ordered to make another search for a town site, or at least a site to which the mission might be removed. But after all the delays and failures recounted above, one will hardly be surprised that these renewed orders were not obeyed. The reason, if the reader were to require a specific one, does not appear, for it happens that in our sources there is a gap, so far as events in Texas go, between April, 1758, and October, 1759. Before that time Governor Barrios had gone to his new post in Coahuila, leaving half done the task to accomplish which, because of his supposed special fitness for it, his transfer had been indefinitely suspended. His successor proved to be no more efficient than he, so far as our present interest is concerned.
When the curtain again rises after the year and a half of darkness the tables are turned. The mission and presidio are still at El Orcoquisac, but the new missionary, Fray Joseph Abad de Jesus María, is in dispute with the new governor, Don Angel Martos y Navarrete, over the question of removal to a new site, Los Horconsitos, three or four leagues up the river. But this time it is the missionary who opposes the transfer.
Don Angel began his administration on February 6, 1759, 52 and after attending to matters of most pressing moment he took up the question of locating the proposed villa and transferring the mission and presidio from El Orcoquisac. In October he visited Santa Rosa and decided against it. 53 On November 4, in company with Del Rio and Father Abad, he visited El Atascosito, and decided against it also. But farther south he found a place called Los Horconsitos (Little Forks) three and one-half leagues above El Orcoquisac, and a league north of this, a juniper covered arroyo called Los Piélagos, either of which he regarded suitable for a town, as well as for the presidio and mission. 54
But Father Abad opposed the governor's suggestion. He argued, and with reason, that the trouble with the presidio and the mission was one of laziness rather than one of faults of the site; that DeI Rio, being a common soldier, was unfit to be a commander; that the Indians objected to leaving their native soil; that the buildings and crops, secured at the cost of great labor, should not be abandoned; and that new rumors of the French made removal unwise. In spite of Father Abad's opinion, on December 12 Martos reported favorably on Los Horconsitos, and on March 15 the viceroy ordered the removal made to that point. But instead of complying with the order, in May Martos took more testimony, which added a “Place on the Trinity” to the list of sites suitable for a town and for the transfer in question, but declared against El Atascosito and El Orcoquisac. 55 After recommending to the viceroy, on May 30, the three places named, Martos inquired of Father Vallejo if the removal was imperative. First referring the matter to Father Romero, the missionary from Los Adaes who had been at San Agustín, the president replied in the affirmative, and with emphasis. 56 Thus Father Abad was now opposed by Fathers Vallejo and Romero, while the governor stood between them.
Meanwhile Martos had added his opposition to the project of a villa. On December 16, ten days after recommending El Atascosito and Los Piélagos as suitable for such a purpose, he asked the viceroy to relieve him of responsibility for founding the town. What his reason was is not clear, but it may have been his unwillingness to oppose Father Abad. 57 At any rate, on March 6, 1760, his request was granted provisionally, until the site should be determined. As this never occurred, the plan for the villa was never again taken up in Mexico, and it never was founded. 58
If it were not for the fact that Bonilla, and those who have followed him, had made the fundamental error of saying that the presidio and mission were moved one or more times, finally to Los Horconsitos (which Bancroft confuses with Orcoquisac), the reader might be spared the pain of following further such frivolous excuse-making and disgusting inactivity. Since, however, such errors have been made, it is necessary to show that, excepting, perhaps, a removal to a site a quarter of a league away, the transfer had not been effected down to 1767, when steps for final abandonment of the place were begun, and after which, of course, no further effort was likely to be made. 59
A year and a half passed after the events related above had occurred, when a junta de guerra held in Mexico December 9, 1762, again approved Los Horconsitos, and, on December 22, Martos was again ordered to move the presidio and mission thither and to do it at once. It is clear from what follows, however, that the order was not carried out.
In November, 1763, the presidio was put under the command of a captain, Den Rafael Martinez Pacheco, whereupon Martos, resenting the change, became anxious to do what for five years he had neglected. In June, 1764, therefore, he went to the presidio in company with Father Calahorra to effect the transfer, but the Indians, bribed by Pacheco, as it later appeared, opposed the change, and, though the governor remained on the ground a month, the object was not accomplished. 60 Martos reported his failure to the viceroy, and on August 12, 1764, the command to remove the establishment to Los Horconsitos was repeated. 61 In the course of the ensuing trouble with Pacheco the presidio was partially burned. Subsequently, in the administration of Afan de Rivera, temporary repairs were made on the partly destroyed establishment, which indicates that no removal had been made. In 1766 a storm damaged the presidio and mission, and a new clamor was made for a transfer, there being some evidence that the presidio was moved in consequence to higher ground a quarter of a league away. 62 Finally, in October, 1767, when the Marqués de Rubí inspected the place, he found the presidio at or near the original site, for in his diary describing the journey to the coast La Fora records passing El Atascosita and Los Horconsitos, and proceeding south from this point to the presidio. His entry makes it clear that the presidio and mission were still at El Orcoquisac. He says: “We traveled . . . four leagues to a small ranch at the place called El Atascoso, where we camped.” On the next day “we traveled ten leagues, generally south, although the road forms a semicircle, to escape the lagoon formed by the Rio de la Trinidad, which during the whole day we kept at our right and two leagues away. After going four leagues over level country . . . we crossed the Arroyo de Calzones, which runs west and empties into the Trinity, and leaving behind the Paraje de los Horconsitos we forded that of El Piélago, . . . which flows in the same direction and, like that of Calzones, empties into said river, both overflowing in rainy seasons and flooding the six leagues between this place [evidently Los Horconsitos] and the Presidio of San Luis de Ahumada, commonly called El Orcoquisac.” 63
It is clear, then, that down to October, 1767, no material change of site had been made. Rubí recommended that the establishment, like the rest of those in eastern Texas, be abandoned. This suggestion was soon acted upon, and if any transfer was ever effected (of which there is no evidence), it was between 1767 and 1771, a period when the affairs of the place were going from bad to worse.
The arrest of Blancpain brought forth a protest from Kerlérec, the new governor of Louisiana, who claimed that the trader had been arrested on French territory. 64 He added that only with difficulty had he been able to restrain the Attacapa Indians from destroying the Spanish establishment, on account of their anger at the expulsion of the French. On September 11, 1756, he proposed to Barrios that a joint commission be appointed to examine the site of San Agustín to determine the question of ownership, and named Athanase de Mézières to serve as the French representative. Barrios refused the proffered aid and expressed to his government the fear that Kerlérec intended to found a presidio near that of San Agustín.
In spite of the arrest and the harsh treatment of Blanepain and his party, fear of the Spaniards was not so great as to keep away all Frenchmen. Domingo del Rio reported in the summer of 1755, after his visit to El Orcoquisac, that since the arrest of Blancpain four Frenchmen had been there on horseback. Scarcely had the new presidio been established when a Frenchman presented a petition to the viceroy through Barrios asking permission to settle at El Orcoquisac. The petitioner, M. Massé, a stock raiser who lived in the Attacapa region, was evidently well known to Governor Barrios, for when the latter went to establish the presidio he asked permission to go by way of M. Massé's hacienda among the Attacapa, but his request was refused. In his petition Massé enlarged upon his distinguished birth and his attainments, and explained that he was led to make the request by his desire to emancipate his slaves, which was not possible in Louisiana. As arguments in his favor, he referred to his large herds of stock, which would be at the disposal of the new establishment; to the increase of population which would result from the settlement of his numerous slaves; and to the important service he would be able to perform among the Indians. In this connection, he promised to secure the allegiance of the Attacapa, as well as the friendship of the northern nations, the Taovayases, the “Letas” (Comanche) “Patoca” (Comanche) the “Icara” and the “Pares” (Panis). He did not speak for himself alone, but also for his partner, the Abbé Disdier, whose loyalty he was ready to guarantee. On July 22, Governor Barrios forwarded the petition, and added the information that Massé was a chancellor of Grenoble, of good standing among the French, absolute master of the Attacapa and the northern Indians, owner of twenty negroes, seven hundred head of cattle, and one hundred horses, all of which he was willing to contribute to the support of the town. When we learn that for many years after this date Monsieur Massé was a contraband trader on the Gulf Coast, and that Barrios also was engaged in this enterprise, we are inclined to suspect something besides generosity in Massé's request.
The viceroy in Mexico regarded the petition as a part of a plan to establish a French settlement on soil claimed by Spain, and the answer was the only one which could be expected. Barrios was instructed to inform Massé and Disdier that it would be contrary to law for them to even enter the Spanish province, and that if they did so their goods would be confiscated and they sent prisoners to Spain. He was further instructed to ascertain why the Frenchmen had wished to settle in Texas; and to find out if the Abbé, during his stay at Los Adaes, had caused any desertions.
In the course of the correspondence which ensued it was stated that Disdier had come to New Orleans as chaplain of a vessel; had been made chaplain of a seminary in New Orleans; had been ejected by Kerlérec because of trouble with the boys; had gone to the establishment of M. Massé, thence to Natchitoches, and thence to Los Adaes, where he had served for two months as tutor for the governor's sons. Regarding Massé it was stated that he was a military officer who had been engaged in secret trade among the Attacapa. In June, 1757, Barrios reported that Disdier had left Texas on the pretext of going to Mexico to visit the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, but instead had gone to El Orcoquisac to persuade the missionaries there to desert to Lousiana and Europe. Barrios professed to refuse to believe that he was a priest, but regarded him as a fraud, and mentioned a correspondence that he had carried on with De Mézières. 65
Kerlérec did not confine his protests to those made to Barrios, but wrote to his home government on the matter, addressing his complaint to the Minister of Marine. This correspondence was reported to the viceroy of Mexico on March 9, 1757, by the governor of Havana. Writing of the matter to the king on April 18, the viceroy suggested the erection of a presidio on the bank of the Mississippi River opposite New Orleans “to protect the boundaries” and so that this establishment, the new presidio of San Agustín, and that of La Bahía, might defend the coast “and in future prevent any introduction whatever.” With the dispatch he sent a map made by Bernardo de Miranda, the surveyor of Santa Rosa, who happened to be in Mexico, and a report on the French border by the same individual. The map which, as the viceroy remarked, is not “subject to the rules of geography,” shows Texas as extending to the Mississippi. 66
Frenchmen continued to operate among the Indians in the neighborhood of San Agustín, and to cause trouble for the small garrison. Sometime in 1759, for example, two Frenchmen entered the Orcoquiza country with a band of one hundred Indians and were expelled by Del Rio and ten soldiers, after some show of resistance. It later was charged that they were connected with a plot to destroy the Spanish settlement. In November of the same year eight Spanish soldiers were sent to the Brazos to reconnoiter a place where Frenchmen had encamped among the Karankawa, promising to return to build a town. 67
Allusion has just been made to a French plot to destroy the settlement at San Agustín. In January, 1760, Del Rio wrote to Governor Martos that Luis de St. Denis (son of the famour Luis Juchereau de St. Denis so long commander of Natchitoches) had sent an Adaes Indian among the Orcoquiza and Bidai tribes to bribe them to destroy the presidio of San Agustín. Barrios at once protested to Governor Kerlérec, and added that he believed that the destruction of San Sabá in the preceding year had been accomplished by French weapons. Kerlérec replied on March 13 in great indignation, demanding that Martos produce evidence to support the charge against St. Denis, and threatening to complain to the Spanish king. 68 Martos sent his correspondence with Del Rio and Kerlérec to Mexico, whereupon a secret investigation of the charges was ordered, and special care enjoined to discover, whenever an Indian outbreak should occur, whether it was due to French intrigue. 69
The testimony presented in the investigation which followed was not altogether conclusive, but was nevertheless significant. Calzones Colorados testified that early in 1760 two Bidai Indians had brought a message from St. Denis, inviting his tribe to go to Natchitoches to secure ammunition with which to return and kill all the Spaniards at El Orcoquisac; that he had refused to listen (of course); that the emissaries had gone to make the same proposal to Canos and Tomás; and that later one of them had returned saying that the offer had been made by St. Denis merely to test their loyalty to the Spaniards.
Canos, well known to be a partisan of the French, as his name implied, could not be secured as a witness, for he had escaped to the Attacapa; El Gordo denied having been offered bribes, but declared that during a visit to Calzones Colorados he had heard of the proposal. Tamages, another chief, corroborated the story as told by Calzones Colorados; Boca Floja, another, testified that the two Frenchmen who had been expelled by Del Rio had come with one hundred Attacapa to induce them to aid in killing all the Spaniards and running off the stock. The conference had been broken up by the opportune arrival of Del Rio and ten soldiers. The Bidai chiefs, on the other hand, claimed that, so far as they were concerned, no bribes had been offered them. 70
This testimony, considering the circumstances under which it was given, is not conclusive, but taken in connection with Kerlérec's avowed design of enroaching upon western Texas, his protests against the settlement at San Agustín, his recent proposal of a joint commission, and the contemporary Indian attack on San Sabá, in which French influence was clearly seen, the evidence is not to be rejected altogether.
Again in November, 1763, after the Louisiana cession, but before it was generally known in Texas and Louisiana, a lively dispute over boundaries arose between Governor Martos and Cavalier Macarty, commander at Natchitoches. The precise point at issue was not the ownership of the lower Trinity, but in the course of the correspondence Macarty laid claim, on the basis of La Salle's colony, to the Bay of Espíritu Santo, saying: “This being granted you cannot fail to be convinced both of our rights to the Bay of San Luis (Espíritu Santo), and that if from there we draw a line running straight north, the lands lying to the east thereof belong to the Most Christian dominions.” 71
After the occupation of Louisana by Spain the question of the boundary ceased to have political significance, and troubles arising over the French contraband traders on the border were matters of internal concern only.
Regarding progress and events at the mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz, which had the misfortune to be placed amidst a multitude of discordant and hostile elements, natural, moral, and political, we have only incomplete data. Nevertheless, here and there we get glimpses of occurrences and personalities.
Father Chavira's place was filled by Fray Francisco Caro, formerly of the mission of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Ais, who was at the Trinity mission in February, 1758. The most notable event recorded of his administration was his denunciation of the climate, swamps, and insect pests at the site, and his strenuous fight to have the mission removed to El Atascosito. In 1759 and 1760, as we have already seen, the superior of the mission was Father Abad de Jesus María. He opposed the removal of the mission as strenuously as Father Caro had favored it. It is from him that we get the description already given of the second church, which was being built in 1759.
The Indians of the place were not always docile, and there is little evidence that they actually entered the mission and submitted to its discipline. In 1759, during some trouble, the Attacapa joined the Orcoquiza in an outbreak, and in order to pacify them it was necessary to shoot a soldier. The trouble was evidently caused by one of the ever recurring instances of misconduct on the part of the presidial guards. 72
Slight as is our information before 1760, we have even less for the period between that time and the coming of Captain Pacheco, in 1764. But the occurrences at the time of his advent indicate that few Indians were living in the mission before that date, and that the mission building was in a state of decay when he arrived.
The coming of Captain Pacheco was followed by a temporary revival at the mission under Fathers Salvino and Aristorena, aided by the new captain. Pacheco arrived on May 13, 1764, and on the next day he began his reforms. Calling an assembly of the one hundred and fifty Orcoquiza living about the place, he passed them in review, and addressed them in the presence of the missionaries, urging them to settle in the mission at once. A peace pipe was passed, dances were performed, and the Indians declared themselves eager to enter a mission for which they had waited three years. Del Rio, the interpreter, informed them of the duties of neophytes, telling them that they must obey the king, his officers, and the missionaries, throw away their idols, attend prayers, work in the field for the fathers, remain always in the mission enclosure, and defend the place against the French or hostile tribes. In return, Del Rio assured them of four rations of food a week and clothing when necessary. 73 The Orcoquiza agreed. Gifts and feasting followed, and the next day the heathen idols and ornaments were solemnly turned over to the missionaries.
The new zeal extended to other villages besides that of Calzones. On May 31, Chief Canos and his band, now mainly of Attacapa, it seems, came, flying a French flag, to consider entering the mission. The same ceremony was performed, and after a day's deliberation Canos declared himself willing to part with the French emblem and the native idols, and to enter a mission, providing it were separate from that of Calzones. On June 6 the Bidai chief, Tomás, came with forty-eight of his tribe, participated in the same ceremonies, and promised to enter a mission if it were established in his own country—his people had already tried one in foreign lands, at San Xavier—and also to persuade the northern tribes to do likewise.
On June 14, Captain Pacheco sent to Mexico an account of all that had been done, and requested funds to rebuild the mission and the presidio, both of which were in a state of decay; to furnish supplies for the Indians; and to found missions for the villages of Tomás and Canos. He asked, besides, for permission to go with Chief Tomás on a missionary and diplomatic trip among the northern tribes. Pacheco assisted further in the missionary work by furnishing supplies, and within a short time he was reported to have furnished the Indians with clothing to the value of 1079 pesos, and with tools and implements for agriculture. Calzones' village was supplied with two beeves and five fanegas of corn a week, and that of Canos with half as much. 74
This, however, was but a temporary wave of enthusiasm, lasting but a few months. The scandalous quarrel which ensued before the year was over, between Pacheco and Governor Barrios, resulting in the flight of the former and his absence during the next five years, removed the best support of the missionaries, and there was a recurrence of former conditions at Nuestra Señora de la Luz, which the Marqués de Rubí, after a visit in 1767, referred to as “an imaginary mission.” 75
Nevertheless, the missionaries continued their work, and in the course of the next six years effected the “perfect conversion” of thirty Indians, mainly adults. Pacheco was welcomed back in the fall of 1769 by both missionaries and Indians, and his return was followed by another revival. The missionaries whose names appear are Fathers Luis Salvino and Bernardino Aristorena, in 1764-1766; Fray Bernardo de Silva (?), 1766; Fray Joseph Marenti, 1767; Fray Ignacio María Laba, 1768-1771; Fray Anselmo Garcia, 1770; and Fray Joseph del Rosario Soto, 1770. Presidents Vallejo and Calahorra each visited the place once in the course of its existence, but Father Solís, who in 1766 came all the way from Zacatecas to visit the missions, slighted this one, and caused complaint thereby. Missionary supplies were continued with some regularity during the administration of Afan de Rivera at San Agustín, between 1765 and 1769, who spent for the Indians 2724 pesos; and Pacheco, during his stay of a year after he returned in the fall of 1769, spent 2496 pesos for the Orcoquiza, Attacapa, Bidai, and “Asinaio,” tribes “resident on this frontier.” The Asinai had by this time acquired the custom of coming to the post for regalos. At least one missionary expedition was made by a padre among the Bidai, and in all probability more than one. And after the garrison of the presidio was removed in 1771, the missionaries, Fray Ignacio Laba and his companion, were the last to leave the place. 76
Up to 1764 the presidio of San Agustín was commanded by Domingo del Rio, who was responsible to Governor Martos. But in 1763 Del Rio wrote to the viceroy complaining of the lack of flour and clothing, and even of ammunition, charging Governor Martos with neglect, and recommending that the post be taken out of the governor's hands and put under the command of a captain directly responsible to the viceroy. On November 23, the viceroy acted upon this recommendation (though it seems that the change was already under contemplation) and appointed to the new office Rafael Martínez Pacheco. 77 The first result of the change was the promising wave of missionary activity and general prosperity which we have already recounted. But this was soon followed by one of the disgraceful quarrels which so often marred the success of frontier Spanish administration.
Pacheco was charged by his troops with arrogance, ill temper, harshness, and avarice. By June 24 his soldiers had planned a general mutiny, which was temporarily checked by a visit of Governor Martos and President Calahorra, who came to attend to moving the presidio and mission. The governor's stay of a month did not help matters—perhaps the contrary—and in a short time the plan to desert was carried out. One by one the garrison slipped away to Natchitoches, and before August, eighteen had sought French protection, while two took refuge at the Mission of San Miguel, only five, among whom was Domingo del Rio, remaining at the presidio.
Hearing of the event, Governor Martos sent a squad of soldiers to the provincial boundary to overtake the deserters, if possible. In this he failed, and a few days later Périère, commander at Natchitoches, forwarded to Martos a petition of the deserters, who told of their wrongs, but professed a willingness to return if they were put under another commander. 78
Martos proceeded, in the usual way, to take depositions, and in consequence, on September 12, he formally suspended Pacheco and promised the deserters pardon. He then sent Marcos Ruíz at the head of the band of twenty deserters to arrest Pacheco and to restore peace and order, two entirely incompatible aims, it proved. Arriving there on October 7, Ruíz proceeded to arrest Pacheco. But this doughty warrior barricaded himself and a handful of servants and adherents in his presidio, trained two cannon on the arresting party, and opened fire.
Withdrawing to a safe distance, Ruíz laid siege to the stronghold. For three days the combined effort of Del Rio, Fray Salvino, chief Calzones, and a maiden named Rosa Guerra to communicate with Pacheco proved without avail. At the end of these three days the chief with his braves, who had been neutral or wavering, gave allegiance to Ruíz, and on the 11th the presidio was set on fire, to drive the captain out. In the attendant fight blood was shed and Pacheco, with one faithful adherent, Brioso, escaped through a secret door. Hiding till night in a nearby tule patch, the fugitives crossed the river and fled toward San Antonio. Two days later they were met by teamsters from San Antonio twelve leagues down the road, at Caramanchel. Reaching La Bahía, the captain hid for a day and two nights in the house of Capt. Ramírez de la Pizcina. Going thence to the mission of San José on a horse loaned him by Ramírez and aided by Father Cámbaros, he took refuge at the mission, but was arrested by Captain Manchaca in virtue of a proclamation issued by Ruíz. But in December he was freed, after an attack on one of his guards, and thereafter lived at liberty for several months at the mission of San José, going to San Antonio with entire freedom. 79 Later on he went to Mexico, where he was imprisoned and tried.
After the escape of Pacheco, Ruíz, aided by Fray Salvino, managed affairs at San Agustín for a time in peace, writing reports of the damage done to the presidio and of Pacheco's misdeeds, and making new attempts to reduce the Indians to mission life. It now came out that Calzones had been bribed by Pacheco to oppose the attempts made by Martos in the preceding summer to remove the presidio and mission to Los Horconsitos. This disclosure involved Del Rio, and hastened the appointment of Afan de Rivera as commander. In May, 1765, Rivera arrested Del Rio for his partisanship with Pacheco. In November of the same year Ruíz was arrested by Hugo O'Connor to answer to the charge of burning the presidio. Another man of some prominence to become entangled was Manuel de Soto, who to escape arrest fled to Natchitoches, and lived there for some years a refugee. Finally, in 1767 Martos himself fell, under the charge of burning the presidio, and subsequently underwent a trial that lasted fourteen years and ended with the imposition of a heavy fine upon him. 80 Truly an unfortunate establishment was that of San Agustín.
The remaining five years of the outpost's existence were less eventful. Afan de Rivera, successor to Marcos Ruíz, commanded the garrison till the fall of 1769. At that time Captain Pacheco, who had been tried, exonerated, and reinstated by the government in Mexico, returned to his post, welcomed by both missionaries and Indians, with whom he was a favorite.
The monotony of mere existence at the forlorn place was broken on September 4, 1766, by one of those terrible storms which since the dawn of history there in 1528 have periodically swept the Texas coast. It damaged the buildings, led to more talk of “movings,” and, it appears, actually caused the transfer of the presidio to higher ground a quarter of a league away. In 1767 Marshal Rubí, the distinguished officer from Spain, honored the place with an inspection, but not with his good opinion. In 1769 the monotony was again relieved by the passage that way of a band of shipwrecked Acadians who had been rescued at La Bahía and sent, after being harshly treated, to their compatriots in Louisiana. Another event of these latter years was a three day's campaign against Indian horse thieves.
Rubí had recommended in 1767, since Louisiana no longer belonged to France and the eastern Texas missions were failures, that both the presidios and the missions of that frontier should be suppressed, a measure which was ordered carried in 1772.
But before the order came El Orcoquisac was already abandoned. In June, 1770, the governor of Texas, the Baron de Ripperda, made a call for help against the Apaches. In consequence Captain Pacheco responded in July with a part of his garrison. In February, 1771, the rest of the soldiers, except three, went to San Antonio in answer to another call. The three had remained behind with Father Laba and his companion, whose departure was opposed by their charges. But within a few weeks the missionaries, also, left, and the presidio and mission passed out of existence. 81
3. In 1727, when Rivera inspected the northern establishments of New Spain, he sent Engineer Francisco Alvarez Barreyto from La Bahía eastward with a detachment of twenty soldiers to examine the coast country as far as the Neches. Barreyto spent thirty-five days on the expedition and traveled 363 leagues, but what he recorded in his reports I cannot say, as I have not seen them, though I do know of their whereabouts, and have taken steps toward securing them. See Rivera, Diario, 1727, leg. 2466.)
4. July 2.
5. The viceroy's order was dated July 18 (Diligencias Practicadas por Dn. Joaquin de Orobia Capn. de la Bahía Sobre establecimiento de Franceses. B. A.). Orobio signed his name as above, but, other Spanish officials frequently wrote it “Orobio y Basterra.” The brief form of his name is usually given as Orobio.
6. Lieut. Miguel de Olivares investigated the possibilities of the proposed expedition by water, and reported that the river was obstructed, and, besides, that suitable boats could not be built. Report by Olivares to Orobio, ibid., 2.)
7. Order of Orobio, Oct. 22, 1745; Orobio to Urrutia, Dec. 7, ibid., 2, 4.
8. Diligencias Practicadas, 4-9.
9. It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a rancheria was a small village or a single dwelling. This is one of those cases.
10. Diligencias Practicadas, 11-12.
11. See pages 344-345, post.
12. “I found no habitation whatever, but such a scarcity of lands that in case of wishing to establish a presidio, there are facilities for supporting only five or six families for a short time, because of the small amount of timber and the entire lack of stone on the margin of the river.” Ibid., 12.
13. The form of this word adopted by the Bureau of American Ethnology is “Arkokisa,” but it seems better, historically considered, to use in this article the spelling common in the contemporary sources. If this were not to be done, ethnologists would not get from the article the historical aid which it ought to afford. The usual form of the place where the Orcoquiza tribe lived is “El Orcoquisac” or “Orcoquisac.”
14. This conclusion was reached, after careful study of the documents, before the whereabouts of Miranda's map of April 18, 1757, was learned. The map bears it out. The following are some of the data on which the conclusion was reached independently. Miranda tells us that going ten leagues nearly eastward from the Springs of Santa Rosa, one comes to the San Jacinto; and that from the San Jacinto to the site of El Orcoquisac, just across the Trinity, it was not more than six leagues, by implication in the same general direction. Now, a direct line west from El Orcoquisac would fall between Buffalo Bayou and Spring Creek, while both of these streams run for a stretch of ten leagues almost east into the San Jacinto, leaving little to choose between them, as the claimant to being the Santa Rosa. (Miranda, report of survey, April 26, 1757.) According to the same authority the three western Orcoquiza villages were ranged along the Santa Rosa. But the southernmost village visited by Orobio in 1746 became a landmark in the later descriptions. Orobio tells us that after leaving the two Orcoquiza villages at San Rafael, which, we have positive evidence, was Santa Rosa (N. A., doc. 488, fol. 22), he went fifteen leagues southward to the place designated as that where the French were expected to settle, which was some distance from the mouth of a river called Aranzazu, the stream subsequently called San Jacinto (Diligencias Practicadas, 13-14). The two villages at San Rafael must, therefore, have been at least fifteen leagues or more northward from the mouth of the San Jacinto. In August, 1756, Joseph Valentín testified that he had gone “down the bank of the San Jacinto River to the place reached by Dn. Joaquín de Orobio Basterra,” and that “from this place he returned up the said river to its crossing, near which it joins the spring (or arroyo) of Santa Rosa.” (N. A., doc. 488, ff. 7-8.) Marcos Ruíz gave almost the same testimony. Domingo del Rio, who a year before had passed from the Bidai on Bidai Creek to the western Orcoquiza village, now testified that this arroyo of Santa Rosa appeared to be the same as that which rose near the village of the Bidai chief, Tomás. (Ibid., fol. 3.) This testimony, combined with that of Orobio, seems to make it clear that Santa Rosa could not be Buffalo Bayou. One statement made by Miranda was puzzling until I saw his map. He states that he went west from El Orcoquisac for some twelve leagues, till he reached the San Jacinto, thence south about fifteen leagues to the point reached by Orobio, thence between south and west along the bed of the San Jacinto to its junction with the Santa Rosa. This testimony taken alone would point to Buffalo Bayou as the Santa Rosa, but it directly contradicts the statement of Valentín and Orobio. By changing Miranda's south to north, his statement would agree with the others. The difficulty is partly cleared up by the fact that on his map his south is west and his west north. (Ibid., 10.) The country about the Santa Rosa was described as being marked by beautiful prairies, forest, oak, walnut,