USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 3
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The colonization of the province being as much a part of the royal plan as its military occupation and the conversion of the Indians, the au- thorities soon found that emigration to this point did not proceed with satisfactory volume. As a result, in 1722 a royal decree directed that four hundred families from the Canary Islands should be brought to Texas
* Mr. I. J. Cox, "The Early Settlers of San Fernando, " in Tex. Hist. Assn, Quarterly, Vol. V.
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
as settlers. None came in obedience to this order, and in 1729 it was decreed that every vessel leaving the Canaries for Havana should carry ten or twelve families to be sent on to Texas. The company of between fifty and sixty persons that left Teneriffe in the following year became the "Canary Islands" settlement of San Fernando, whose members and descendants have since occupied so prominent a place in San Antonio history.
Some information about San Antonio as it was just before the com- ing of the Canary Islanders is supplied in the instructions to the governor, Don Juan Antonio Bustillo. He was instructed "to go, as soon as the families shall arrive, taking such persons of intelligence as may be available, to examine the site a gunshot's distance to the western side of the presidio, where there is a slight elevation forming a plateau suitable for founding a very fine settlement. On account of its location it will have the purest air, and the freshest of waters flowing from two springs or natural fountains situated on a small hill a short distance northeast from the presidio of Bexar. From these are formed, on the east, the San Antonio river, and, on the west, the small river called the Arroya .... Between these two streams the presidio is built. East of the river is the mission of San Antonio [the Alamo] ; while to the west of it is the mis- sion of San Joseph, from which one can go to the presidio without cross- ing the river, and since there is a church at the presidio which they can visit for that purpose, until a church is built for them, these families may attend the mass and other Catholic services [at that place] without the trouble of crossing the river."
The colony arrived at Vera Cruz in June, 1730, and by slow stages proceeded northward, arriving in San Antonio de Bexar, March 9, 1731. All the expense of this long journey was borne by the royal treasury, and the colony was supported for a year after its arrival. The experiment was a costly one, and was not repeated by the government. And instead of four hundred families proposed by the royal decree for the colonization of the province, only sixteen actually came.
It is evident that by no means all the old families of San Antonio trace their ancestry back to the Canary Islanders. The latter class, be- cause of their importation as crown colonists, considered themselves the aristocracy of the villa, but their claims to being "first settlers," and their many pretentions to superior influence and rights in the colony, were vigorously disputed. Discord soon appeared between the "hidalgos"
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from the Canary Islands and the other citizens of San Fernando, nor were the relations of villa, presidio and mission always harmonious .*
The villa of San Fernando was located between the San Antonio and the San Pedro, the building lots being grouped for the most part around the plaza just east of the presidial or military plaza; in other words, the "Main Plaza," as known today, was the central point of old Fernando villa. Besides a lot assigned for residence to each family, there were common pasture lands and a labor for cultivation, irrigated from the waters of the San Antonio or San Pedro. The pasture land lay both north and south of the villa, between the two streams.
The San Fernando settlers, according to the testimony of De Croix in 1778, "live miserably because of their laziness, captiousness and lack of means of subsistence, which defects show themselves at first sight." Much was due to the environment and the conditions under which the settle- ment had been founded. There were no attempts at public education, and there were no representatives of the learned professions, not even a physician. The parish church, however, had been demanded almost at the beginning. although the mission chapels were conveniently close to the villa. The corner-stone of the San Fernando church was laid May 8, 1744, and was built largely by contributions from the royal treasury. The church was used for a century and a quarter.
* In the dispute as to priority of settlement, a petition was presented to the governor in 1787, which is of special interest because of the claim made that the settlement of San Antonio was begun in 1715, or three years before the founding of the presidio and mission. A part of the petition reads as follows: "It is certainly evident and clear that the settlement of this province of Texas was begun in the year 15 of our present century. The province was given this name by the captains who made various expeditions into it in times past in obedience to superior orders. In these [expeditions] they had only the satisfaction of reconnoitering the province, but never the pleasure of settling it till the above mentioned year. Then, some bold citizens, from the two neighboring provinces which were at that time the
last and frontier provin es of Nueva España, desirous of renown or wishing to advance their own private interests, had well authenticated and individual informa- tion that the many gentile nations living in these two provinces and in their principal districts about this time were at peace. .
. conceived the idea [of settling in Texas], and with manly courage set out to seek the famous and much lauded river of San Antonio, on whose banks they formed a settlement very near the point at which our villa San Fernando is planted today. They brought with them not only their wives and children, but all their goods, cattle, horses, goats, sheep, and such other things as they thought necessary for their sustenance, returning from time to time to the presidio of San Juan Bauptista del Rio Grande for the comforts of religion. They had no troops for their defense except the guard they themselves formed from their own number. There remains at this time only the memory of their coming, of the names of the most prominent men among them, . . of the survival and increase of the cattle they brought. This memory exists in and the minds of their descendant3-our relatives, but it is not such as those men deserve as first settlers."
CHAPTER V
TEXAS DURING THE LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
It required only a few brief paragraphs for Bonilla, whose Brief Compendium is dated 1772, to describe the province of Texas and the status of its settlement at that time. The following is his "brief de- scription of the province":
"At the Medina river, where the government of Coaguila ends, that of Texas begins; it ends at the presidio of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes. Its length from south to north is estimated at two hun- dred and forty leagues, and its width from east to west as eighty. To the southeast it borders on the Gulf of Mexico, and to the east-northeast on Luisiana.
"This very spacious region contains the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, eight leagues distant from the Medina river and three hundred and seventy from this capital [ Mexico]. It has a garrison composed of a captain, a lieutenant, an alferes, a sergeant, two corporals and thirty- nine soldiers. Under its protection are the Villa of San Fernando and five missions, namely : San Antonio de Valero, La Purisima Concepcion, Señor San Josef, San Juan Capistrano, and San Francisco de la Espada. 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.
"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 [the latter having been founded on the lower Trinity, about 1756]. 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 those of Nacogdoches and los Ais.
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"The Presidio of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes is the 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 of la Bahia, two hundred and forty from that of San Antonio de Vexar, and six hundred from this capital. Its force consists of a captain,-the governor of the province holds that office,-a lieutenant, an alferes, a sergeant, six corporals, and forty-one soldiers.
"At present, therefore, the province contains four presidios, one villa, and eleven missions, and has assigned for its defense one hundred and sixty effective troops, including nine officers, whose salary and sti- pend amount to eighty-eight thousand and ninety-six pesos a year."
These results seem very small when we consider the sacrifices of blood, treasure and missionary zeal during the century since La Salle arrived on Matagorda bay. From all the mass of details concerning expe- ditions, Indian difficulties and changes of government administrations, the fact of most importance is the obvious concentration of population, missions and government at San Antonio. By the close of the century, San Antonio was Texas, almost literally. It was the capital of the province, contained most of the population, and possessed the only Span- ish civilization that was destined to endure during the revolutionary. . changes of the following century.
In 1763 the treaty of Paris, following what is known in America as the French and Indian war, had some important results on Texas. France by that treaty surrendered all its territory east of the Mississippi- to England; all on the west, including Louisiana, was given to Spain. The Mississippi was now the eastern boundary of the Spanish provinces, instead of the Sabine, and the fear of aggression from the French of Louisiana was removed. This fear had been the originating cause in the colonizing efforts in Texas which have already been described. It was now allayed, and instead of being a "buffer" province, to be garri- soned against foreign invasion, Texas was now practically interior and remote from encroachment. The English settlements were as yet far east of the Mississippi, and the government anticipated no danger from that source in the near future.
As a result of this treaty a new policy was soon inaugurated in Texas occupation. A report, sent to the viceroy in 1767, by Marques
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
de Rubi, contended that Spain was spreading her forces of occupation over too much ground, and thereby weakening the entire frontier. It recommended a contraction of the line of defense and the forming of a strong cordon of presidios across the northern border from the Gulf of California on the west to the Bay of Espiritu Santo on the east. As no further danger was apprehended from Louisiana, the presidios in East Texas should be abandoned and their soldiers added to the other garrisons. At that time the missions in this quarter were practically without converts, and hence little reason to continue their support. The settlers on the ranchos about the presidios should be removed within the line of defense, and given homes at the villa of San Fernando or in the neighborhood of some other presidio.
The plan here recommended received the approval of the king and a royal order was issued in 1772 for the abandonment of the presidios, missions and settlements north and east of Bahia and Bexar, and their transfer within the new line of defense. The Presidio of Orcoquisac and its neighboring mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz (at the present site of Liberty) had already been abandoned. In all the wide country north and east of San Antonio and Bahia there was only the little group of missions and presidio and ranches about Nacogdoches to be affected by this order from the king.
Near the Presidio of Pilar de los Adaes was a considerable settle- ment, composed of Spanish, Indians and French, who protested against being removed to Bexar. The most influential man among them was Gil Ybarbo, a shrewd and energetic leader, whose rancho was a principal center of the settlements in this part of Texas. He was suspected, and his subsequent activities justified the suspicion, of being in league with the French traders of Louisiana, whose smuggling operations continued throughout the years of this century, despite the laws for suppressing this traffic. The opportunities of trade on the Louisiana border were among the chief attractions of residence about Nacogdoches, and the settlers were distressed no less by the thought of abandoning the profits of this trade than by the loss of the homes where they had lived so long. It is'necessary to explain, in this connection, that while Louisiana was now a Spanish province, its inhabitants were French, and the restrictions on trade intercourse between the adjacent countries were as rigid as they had been before 1763. However, an illicit trade had been carried on over the border ever since St. Denis had made his notable excursion. There were consequently a number of persons, on both sides of the frontier,
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interested in this business, and they were very loath to obey the king's order to remove to San Antonio.
However, the removal was made, enforced by the military guard, and a company of over two hundred made the long pilgrimage to Bexar, their numbers being constantly thinned by desertions and by sickness and deaths caused by the hardships of the way. Some contrived to remain behind, so that this portion of Texas was never entirely depopulated.
After arriving at San Antonio, the enterprising Ybarbo at once undertook the task of gaining permission to reoccupy that part of the province. He finally succeeded in obtaining authority to establish a set- tlement not nearer than one hundred leagues of Natchitoches, and with many of his former companions found a new home on the banks of the Trinity river. In honor of the viceroy the settlement was called Bucareli, and was situated near the present site of Randolph (in Madison county) .* Ybarbo and his followers again resumed their relation with the French traders of Louisiana. Bucareli had a brief existence, however. It was raided by the Comanches on several occasions, and early in 1779 a flood from the river caused the inhabitants to abandon the site. From Bucareli the refugees, led by Ybarbo, returned to their former homes in the spring of 1779. Instead of settling near the old Presidio of del Pilar, they chose to locate at Nacogdoches. Their arrival there marks the beginning of the history of the modern Nacogdoches. The removal to Nacogdoches, though contrary to the royal orders of 1772, went unrebuked, and the settlement continued to increase in importance until it attained a strategic position as a Spanish outpost hardly second to the capital at San Antonio. Ybarbo was given the official title of lieutenant-governor of the Pueblo of Nacogdoches, and was the most influential Spaniard of that vicinity, both among Indians and whites.
One of the principal reasons for the policy adopted in 1772 was the increasing hostility of the Indians. These enemies became especially active about the middle of the century, and constituted a graver source of danger to the provinces than any that could come from foreign inva- sion. The Apaches and the Comanches, from the north and northwest, were a constant terror to both the settlers and the more peaceable natives. One attempt was made to found a mission (San Saba) among the Apaches, but the enterprise came to a disastrous end. The principal wealth of the settlements consisted in the droves of stock, pastured on
* H. E. Bolton, "Spanish Abandonment and Reoccupation of East Texas," in Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. IX.
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the commons about the missions and presidios, and these were the booty most sought in these depredations. The garrisons were unable to prevent these raids, nor strong enough to conduct a successful pursuit.
The remaining years of the century were a period of stagnation. The colonies barely held their own, while the central government made no serions attempt to extend the frontier beyond the line established early in the century. Says Bancroft: "It was not a period of prosperity for any Texas interests except so far as the officers, soldiers and settlers may be said to have prospered in their great work of living with the least possible exertion. Officials as a rule kept in view their own personal profit in handling the presidio funds, rather than the welfare of the province. The Franciscans were doubtless faithful as missionaries, but their influence, even over the natives, was much less than in other mission fields. The Texans never became neophytes proper in regular mission communities. It is evident that not one of the establishments was at any time prosperous either from a material or a spiritual point of view. At each mission there was a constant struggle to prevent excesses and out- rages by the soldiers, to protect land and water from encroachment by settlers, to guard mission live-stock from Apache raids, to keep the few Indians from running away, and to watch for and counteract ruinous changes projected from time to time by the secular authorities."
The mission Indians became more and more wretched with each year to the close of the century. Finally the royal treasury declined its further support for the missions, and in 1794 the missions were turned over to the secular clergy. The result of this measure was the distribution of the mission lands and dispersion of the Indians, and the end of the labor of the Franciscan friars.
There is no accurate information as to the condition, population and industrial affairs of Texas at the close of the eighteenth century. There were about a dozen missions in existence at the time of their seculariza- tion. Around eight establishments in 1785 there were some four hundred and sixty Indians. In 1782 the soldiers and settlers numbered about twenty-five hundred. The Indians about the pueblos would hardly earn their own subsistence, and the missions, with their beautiful adornments, seemed to belong to a golden age of prosperity long past; the settlers were little more energetic than the natives; and the soldiers were sup- ported by the government.
CHAPTER VI
AMERICAN AND SPANISH CIVILIZATIONS MEET IN LOUISIANA-FIRST STAGES OF THE INEVITABLE CONFLICT
American aggression and advance on Texas involves some of the most interesting and at the same time perplexing features of American history. With the events which open this part of the narrative many familiar names are connected-Thomas Jefferson, the president ; Aaron Burr, a former vice president and a consummate promoter and intriguer ; General Andrew Jackson, already one of the influential figures of the Mississippi valley; General James Wilkinson, commander of the regular army in Louisiana, and many other characters only less well known. Of those named, Wilkinson became the chief actor in the initial disputes between Spain and America on the borderland between Texas and Louis- iana. But the other names indicate the great scope of the movement, which not alone affected Texas, but also the destiny of the American nation.
July 2, 1787, James Wilkinson, an ex-brigadier general, who had fought gallantly in the Revolution, arrived at New Orleans, having come down the river from the Kentucky settlements with flat-boats of tobacco, hemp and other merchandise. A man of restless energy, ambitious for his own advancement and not always scrupulous of means or careful of steadfast loyalty, he was at this time in reduced circumstances, and since his occupation as a soldier in the cause of independence was gone he adventured in the settlements along the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and sought to make his material fortune equal to his reputation as a soldier and standing as a gentleman. With a mind eminently fitted for intrigue, with a military and authoritative bearing, with a winning and convincing address, these qualities were seemingly not combined with the poise of character and stability of high purpose that would have insured him a place of honor among the makers of the nation. Feeling that his advance- ment had not been commensurate with his abilities, he now showed his
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readiness to take part in enterprises of doubtful loyalty. His insight into the future and at times statesmanlike understanding of the western situation became a positive menace to the American republic, which was, at the date mentioned, just being welded into unity by the framers of the constitution. That his activities had a vital bearing on the early American movement to Texas will appear in the course of this narrative.
Wilkinson's immediate objects at New Orleans were commercial privileges ; in fact, he made those negotiations a cloak for all his deeper plans while there. To further his interests he took the oath of allegiance to Spain on August 22, 1787.
At the treaty of 1783, the southwestern possessions of the United States were bounded by the Mississippi river on the west and the thirty- first parallel on the south. South of this parallel was the area called West Florida, which was ceded to Spain. Thus the latter nation held both sides of the Mississippi from the mouth of Red river to New Orleans, and absolutely controlled the navigation of that waterway. This was the only outlet for the products of the upper Mississippi and Ohio, and even so early as 1787, as Wilkinson's visit with his flat-boats proves, it had become a matter of pressing importance to the Kentucky settlers that no restrictions should be laid on commerce at New Orleans. But Wilkinson had deeper designs than the privileges of free trade, as is made clear in his memorial to Governor Miro of the province of Louisiana .*
Wilkinson argues that the new American Republic's administration was necessarily weak in the western frontier districts, that the political welfare and commercial interests of Kentucky could not be properly pro- moted by the federal government, and the inevitable result would be a separate confederacy in the west, with the Mississippi river as the outlet of their commerce and means of communication with the world. If this new confederacy could not form an alliance with Spain, it would naturally invite one with Great Britain. This would be clearly injurious to the interests of Spain, if it would not actually threaten the overthrow of Spanish authority west of the Mississippi. Continuing, Wilkinson states that he was urged to go to New Orleans by prominent fellow residents of Kentucky, "in order to develop, if possible, the disposition of Spain toward their country and to discover, if practicable, whether she would be willing to open a negotiation for our admission to her protection as subjects, with certain privileges in religious and political matters. ." Though Kentucky still clings to her original allegiance, he is certain of the estab-
* Documents and discussion by W. R. Shepherd in Amer. Hist. Review, Vol. IX. Vol. 1-3
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lishment of an independent state in the near future, and that this state will apply to Spain for the privileges just mentioned. Should Spain assent to his propositions, he would at once proceed to use his influence to bring about the secession. In case the plan should be rejected by the court, he trusts the minister "to bury these communications in eternal oblivion," which, if divulged, would "destroy my fame and fortune for- ever." That Wilkinson was sincerely committed to his plan, so preju- dicial to the united interests of the colonies, receives strengthening proof in his adroit advice that Spain should close the navigation of the lower Mississippi to Americans, thus giving a powerful lever for the consum- mation of his designs.
The reply from Madrid, though long in coming, was distinctly favor- able to the general outlines of Wilkinson's schemes. But in the mean- time the American states had inaugurated government under the new constitution, with an enthusiasm and general unanimity that augured well for the permanence of the republic. In a second memorial to Governor Miro, dated September 17, 1789, Wilkinson, alluding to the altered state of affairs since his first communication and Kentucky's increased loyalty to the Union and Constitution, expresses his belief that it would be unwise to attempt to win over the people of the west as subjects of Spain. But separation from the Union should be promoted by every means, and, this accomplished, a strong alliance should be cemented between Spain and the new state or confederacy. He advised, in furtherance of this plan, the encouragement of immigration into Louisiana, so that the people and the interests on both sides of the Mississippi should be nearly iden- tical. In order to attract "the interest and regard of the influential men of the principal settlements," the governor should be authorized "to dis- tribute pensions and rewards among the chief men in proportion to their influence, ability or services rendered." This system of bribery would be effective in securing separation when the time came, since such men of influence would direct public opinion to the end sought, or at least would prevent any hostile attitude toward Spain in the Louisiana and Mexican provinces. Twenty or thirty thousand dollars, judiciously distributed annually, might save the crown as many millions and vast territories, by neutralizing the American expansion which Wilkinson saw, or professed to see, would sweep over the Mississippi valley. It is impossible not to admire the shrewdness of his argument, however his motives may be interpreted. He pointed out to the governor that Congress would endeavor to check emigration to Louisiana and attempt to win over the
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