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.1 Truly an unfortunate establishment was that of San Agustín.

THE ABANDONMENT OF EL ORCOQUISAC

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

contra

Testimonio de Autos fhos Pacheco. B. A., San Agustín de Ahumada; Testimonio de la Declaracion que hicieron los principales Indios de la Nacion Orcoquisa ante Don Marcos Ruiz 1765, L. P. no. 25; Testimonio de la Dilixencia practicada por el Sargento Maior Dn Hugo Oconor sobre la remision del theniente don Marcos Ruiz al Precidio de los Adaes 1765 B. MSS.

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.1

'References to the events of the last days of the establishment are made in Test. del Expediente, 132-134; Thobar to Pacheco, June 12, 1770; certificate by Ripperda, July 3, 1770, to the effect that Pacheco had aided in an Indian campaign.

CAUSES AND ORIGIN OF THE DECREE OF APRIL

6, 18301

ALLEINE HOWREN

I. INTRODUCTION

1. Mexico, 1823-1833.-To appreciate the significance of any measure of the Mexican federal government, with regard to Texas, during the years 1820-1836 it is necessary to have a knowledge of conditions in Mexico during that time, as well as some understanding of the feeling of the Mexican people toward their neighbors of the north, the people of the United States. This is possibly more true of the decree of April 6, 1830, than of any other political measure passed by the Mexican government, with reference to Texas, during the whole period of Anglo-American colonization. Therefore, before taking up a study of the decree, it will be well to review rapidly the salient facts in Mexico's history during the decade 1823-1833.

After a struggle of eleven years, Mexico succeeded, in 1821, in freeing herself from the yoke of Spain. During the next three years she went through a restless period of governmental experiments, the boldest of which was the adoption in 1824 of a constitution and a republican form of government. It seemed for a while as if this radical step was to prove successful. The first president, Guadalupe Victoria, was a fairly able executive, and piloted the war-worn nation safely through the first three and a half years of his administration. But the presidential campaign of 1828 was a sharp contest between two strong candidates, Gomez Pedraza and Vicente Guerrero. Pedraza was declared elected, but Guerrero charged unfairness in the election and took up arms in support of his claim. He was a popular military leader and suc

The manuscript materials used in the preparation of this paper are found in the Austin Papers at the University of Texas, and in the transcripts which the University has made from the Mexican archives. The transcripts here used are from the Archivo de Guerra y Marina, Operaciones Militares, Fracción 1. Each document will be referred to by Legajo and date.

ceeded in establishing himself in the presidential chair at the beginning of the new term, April 1, 1829. In the summer of 1829, the nation was thrown into excitement over an attempt of Spain to invade her former possession with a view to reconquest. The Spanish troops were easily repelled by Generals Terán and Santa Anna, but during the crisis President Guerrero had been invested with dictatorial powers, and his exercise of the extraordinary authority afforded political agitators an opportunity to raise the cry of tyranny. Anastasio Bustamante, who had been elected vice-president on the ticket with Pedraza, easily "assumed the role, which is always open to the demagogue, of preserver of the constitution and liberator of the people," and incited a revolt against Guerrero, who fled from the capital, leaving his rival in possession. Bustamante assumed the chair and held it until he in turn was driven out by the ambitious Santa Anna in November, 1832. Pedraza was now installed to fill out his unexpired term, and on April 1, 1833, Santa Anna himself became president. The turbulent history of the next few years does not directly concern the subject of the decree of April 6, 1830.

2. The Anglo-American Colonization of Texas.-During the years while Mexico was effecting the outward metamorphosis into a full-fledged republic, she took a step which seemed at the time not only justifiable but commendably progressive, but one which shortly proved to have been a serious political blunder. This was nothing less than the opening of her doors to foreign immigration. It is true that the first concession in this direction was made under Spanish authority to Moses Austin of Missouri, in 1821, but the grant was reaffirmed by the various succeeding governments, and in August, 1824, the new republic promulgated a general colonization law2 most generous in its provisions. The intent of the law seems to have been a deliberate bid for colonization from the English-speaking states of the north. The reason back of this was doubtless in some degree an impulsive feeling of fellowship on the part of the newly born Mexican republic for the strong and successful sister republic whose boundaries touched her own. She was grateful for the sympathy extended by the people of the United

'Garrison, Texas, 104.

Dublan y Lozano, Legislación Mexicana, I, 712.

States during her struggle with Spain, and for the prompt official recognition of her independent government in 1822. It can be regarded as but natural if she saw in the future a welding of interests and population at the inland borders of the two nations. Mexican statesmen were fully cognizant of the impulse of westward expansion in the United States, and they gladly threw open before it the fertile lands of Texas. As before stated, the step seemed both justifiable and progressive. The mistake lay in the fact that Mexico was ignorant of the nature of the people whom she was inviting within her borders. Without imputing blame or making comparisons disparaging to either people, it may be categorically stated that amalgamation, or even understanding, was essentially impossible between the representatives of the two races who came in contact with each other in Texas. By race, tradition, and education the two peoples were separated by an impassable gulf. But the business of colonizing Texas was undoubtedly taken up in good faith on both sides; the friction, easily as it developed, was neither sought nor welcomed by either; it was simply inevitable.

2

One of the first notes of alarm to sound in Mexico's ears was the amazing success of her proposition. In three hundred years, Spain had managed to people Texas with some four thousand souls,1 while in one decade, 1820-1830, under the new colonization scheme, the civilized population increased to five times that number, of whom the English-speaking inhabitants were in a large majority. This rapid immigration would possibly have resulted under any conditions by which Texas might have been opened to Anglo-American settlement, but it was peculiarly facilitated by the colonization scheme adopted by the state legislature of Coahuila-Texas in 1825.4 Under this law, certain persons designated as empresarios could contract with the state government to settle a number of families on vacant lands in the state, the head of each family receiving from the government one league of grazing land or one labor of agricultural land, or both, and the

1Garrison, Texas, 124.

Ibid., 156.

"Terán to Guadalupe Victoria, June 30, 1828. Transcript. Legago 7, 1836.

'Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 99-106.

"Ibid., Art. 14.