COLONY OF NUEVO SANTANDER
COAST OF THE GULF OF MEXICO
REPORT - On the sixth of February of 1758, testimony was taken to make it known to his
Majesty.
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TOWN OF SOTO LA MARINE AND HACIENDA
OF SAN JUAN
In the town of Soto la Marina in twenty days of the month of June of 1757 years, the honorable
Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of the New City
of Veracruz and Inspecting Judge for the most excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis of las Amarillas, for
the inspection of the Gulf of Mexico as is evident in his dispatch, given in Mexico on the twenty-ninth of
March of this said present year, which is placed as head of the folder number one of proceedings formed
in this affair, having arrived in this town this morning at ten o'clock after having traveled through the
Hacienda de San Juan, which is situated adjacent to this settlement about two and one-half leagues more
or less, where he acquainted himself of everything consisting of its formation and livestock of which it is
composed, whose proceedings shall follow in these documents for its immutability. [sic] In order not to
be delayed in the others ones which should follow in this settlement, this region being the one in which the
scrutiny of the major assignment should be made in the recognicion of the port and the Barra called
Santander which is situated at six leagues of this settlement, this proceeding needing to start at the river
which passes immediate to it, he ordered that, for this and everything else that might be necessary to
perform in the state of this said settlement and of that related, all the proceedings that might be suitable be
formed and everything be done steadfastly forming the documents needed until arriving in the most
complete inspection if its charges and that, in everything, it be done in the presence of the witnesses who
have been nominated for these proceedings, remembering, other than the questions of the interrogation with
which the witnessed have been examined up to now, to ask also, in the declarations which are to be
executed today, about the circumstances and state of the port, whatever is deemed necessary; and thus he
decreed, ordered, signed it with the witnesses present - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
In the town of Soto la Marina in twenty days of the month of June of 1757 years, the said
honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, desirous of learning as best possible about the state of this town
and the rest which the preceeding document contains, ordered, at the beginning of his proceedings, a letter
of entreaty of request and order be sent to the M.R.F. Fray Luis Mariano Chacón, Apostolic Missionary
and President of this colony, whom he encountered administering upon his arrival, so that he serve to give
certification regarding the questions and chapters which they might find suitable to ask him so that his
answer be had at its continuation. And at the same time an order be dispatched to the captain of this
settlement, Don Juan José Borrego, in whom the political and military jurisdiction is found, so that he
give a detailed list of the settlers, residents, and inhabitants with which it is found, including in a particular
note the officers, corporals, and soldiers enlisted and with salary that there are in this town, expressing
their annual salary, their names, their states, and the names of the wives with the number of children and
families, the state of their goods, haciendas, and livestock distinguishing the species, notice of the service
that the officers and soldiers do, and a report of by whom and in which form they are paid with the aim
that, in conformity with this order, he comply with whatever is ordered and he respond at its continuation,
returning everything original for the necessary documents. And that in order to perform the review which
the said honorable inspector wishes to make of the settlers, residents, and inhabitants, corporals, and
soldiers, the said captain also be prepared so that tomorrow, which is counted as the twenty-first of the
present month, at nine in the morning, he have all those aforesaid present at the plaza of this settlement
so that, with their arms, the formality of this document be executed and, for this his decree, he thus
ordered and signed it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
In the San Juan Hacienda, jurisdiction of the town of Soto la Marina, at nineteen days of the month
of June of 1757 years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Inspecting Judge of the colony of the
Gulf of Mexico, having arrived at this site for its inspection and its state, found its site at the skirts of a hill
at the edge of the Río Purificación composed of various huts and corrals to keep livestock, after having
recognized several major and minor numbers of this species in its camps and wanting to acquaint himself
in the substance of importance of everything, had appear before him the steward of said Hacienda Pedro
José Olvera who took an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth in that which would be asked
and, his having done it and offered it as is required, he was asked to whom the hacienda belonged, what
size its district encompases in length and width, which families live there, and of what type of major and
minor livestock is it composed, he said: That this hacienda belongs to the honorable Don José de
Escandón, that its area from north to south is 14 leagues and five from east to west; that the families of
servants and shephards that are found there are ten of servants from the lands outside, civilized men with
all their arms, five families of shepherds also of lands outside and married, and nine single shephards, all
of which compose fifty-seven persons. And that the major and minor livestock found in it are one thousand
eight hundred heads of cattle, four hundred mares one hundred forty-five horses, twenty-five female
donkeys and twenty thousand nine hundred heads of minor livestock which is all of which this hacienda
is composed without his having anything else to say about this affair. And what he has said he said to be
the truth on the oath he has made and he signed it and said to be of the age of forty years, the said
honorable Don José Tienda de Curevo signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo.
-(rubric) -Pedro José de Olvera -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro.
-(rubric).
REVIEW - In the town of Soto la Marina in twenty-one days of the month of June of 1757 years,
the said honorable José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing his proceedings to acquaint himself as he wishes,
justifiably, with the knowledge of the state of this settlement, provided that they make the review which
was ordered of him in these documents and for it, having received the list of its settlers, citizenry, and
squadron of officers and soldiers which its captain had been ordered to provide in order to formalize it with
all its requirements and to be able to have on hand someone to assist him in this audience, he asked the
M.R.F. Fray Luis Mariano Chacón, apostolic minister of it, that he serve to attend this act to which the
said priest conceded and in these terms the said review was begun calling each one by name, registering
the arms of their use which are composed of a rifle, a sword, a shield, some pistols and blunderbusses and,
posing the suitable questions to them, it was executed in the following manner:
REVIEW
SQUADRON OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS
WITH SALARY
Don José V�zquez Borrego, captain of this settlement with five hundred pesos salary, married to
Doña Francisca de la Riva, has three orphans and one maid with one son and one entrusted (female), all
arms, twelve horses, and nine female breeding donkeys.
José Antonio Mendiola, sergeant, with two hundred fifty pesos per year, married to Quiteria
Treviño, has three children, all arms, and eight horses.
Francisco Domínguez, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, married to Ana María de la
Garza, has three children and one nephew, all arms, and seven horses.
José Antonio de Herrera, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, married to Clemencia
Casta�eda, has one daughter, all arms, and six horses.
Juan Nicol�s de la Madrid, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, married to María
Egipciaca, has all arms, and six horses.
Santiago Cisneros, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, married, has all arms, and eight
horses.
Bartolomé Treviño, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, married, has one daughter, all
arms, and six horses.
Martín Guerrero, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, married, has six children, all arms,
and six horses.
Francisco Salazar, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, bachelor, has all arms and six
horses.
José Miguel de la Garza, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, married to Ana María
Abrego, has all arms and seven horses.
Eugenio de Abrego, soldier with two hundred twenty-five pesos, bachelor, has with him his
mother and a sister, all arms, and six horses.
SETTLERS OF THE FIRST ESTABLISHMENT
WITH FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
José Antonio de la Garza, married to María Polinaria, has five children, two horses, and no
arms.
José Antonio de la Garza, married to María Leonor, without arms and one horse.
Manuel Domínguez, married to Eusebia Lucía Castaño, has all arms and two horses.
Venancio Castaño, married to María Rita, has two children, without arms or horses.
Doña Juana María Delfín, widow.
L�zaro de la Garza, married to María Gertrudis, has three children, without arms or horses.
José Luis de Arellano, widower, has one son.
José de la Garza, bachelor, without arms or horses.
Isabel de la Garza, married to Javier de Montemayor who deserted. Has one daughter.
Juan José S�nchez de Arellano, married to María Teresa Flores, has seven children, all arms
without a sword, and two horses.
Miguel Moreno, absent with permission, married to Manuela de la Encarnación, has three
children, a rifle and a shield, and three horses.
Miguel de la Garza, married to María Josefa de Espejo, has one son and three horses, without
arms.
Nicol�s José de la Garza, married to Josefa de Arellano, has two sons, without arms or horses.
Javier de la Garza, widower, without arms and one horse.
Marcos Pérez, married to María Margarita, has two children, without arms or horses.
Antonio Quintanilla, married to Antonia Cisneros, has four children, a rifle, and two horses.
Luis Pérez, married to Francisca Javiera de la Garza, has one son, all arms, and six horses.
Tom�s Antonio López, married to María Bernarda, has five children, a rifle, a shield, a knife,
and three horses.
María Dolores, married to Agustín Barboa who deserted, has two daughters.
Andrés Isidro Alvarado, married to María de Jesús, has three children, one horse, and no arms.
Marcos Moreno, married to Agustina de Alvarado, has four children, a rifle, a shield, and six
horses.
Doña Mariana Alejandra de los Ríos, widow, has five children and two horses.
Don Nicol�s Antonio Tremiño, married to María Teresa de la Garza, has three children, all
arms, and four horses.
Don Juli�n Treviño, married to doña María de Mendiola, has two children, all arms, and two
horses.
Manuel Mendiola, married to María de Garza, has two children, all arms, and no horses.
Don Melchor Treviño, married to doña Javiera Gutiérrez, has four children, all arms, and seven
horses.
Juan José Castaño, bachelor, has with him his mother, all arms, and no horses.
Francisco de Salazar, married to Juana Casilda Zepeda, has three children, four horses, and no
arms.
José de la Garza, married to María Guadalupe, has two horses and no arms.
REGISTERED RESIDENTS WITHOUT FINANCIAL AID
Jerónimo Cisneros, married to María Guadalupe.
Francisco Javier Cantú, absent with permission, married to doña Ana María de la Garza, has
one daughter, arms, a rifle and a shield, and one horse.
Juan de la Garza, bachelor, with six siblings, all arms, three horses.
Antonio Saldívar, married to Gertrudis de la Cruz, without arms or horses.
José Antonio Garavito, married to Antonia Ventura, has one daughter, all arms and no horses.
José Antonio de Luna, married to María Tomasa, has three children, without arms or horses.
Juana Inés Resendi, widow, has three children and four horses.
Antonio Pizaña, maarried to Josefa Manuela Mendiola, has five children, rifle, and no horses.
Nicol�s de Abrego, married to Ana María de la Garza, all arms and two horses.
Angel Pérez, married to Ana Francisca Cisneros.
Francisco Mendiola, bachelor, all arms and no horses.
Francisco Javier Romero, married to Sebastiana Gertrudis, has one son and without arms or
horses.
Francisco Angel, married to María Leonarda, has one daughter, a rifle and a knife, and without
horses.
Leonardo Antonio, married to María Efigenia, without horses or arms.
Claudio Segura, widower, has six children.
Salvador Segura, married to Maria Isabel, has two children.
Eugenia Rita, wife of Juan Lozano who is in the inquisition for being married twice, has one son.
Toribio de Porras, married to María Antonia Mendiola, has one daughter, a rifle, a sword, and
a knife, and two horses.
That as it is evident and appears of this review, the number of families that there are in this
settlement compose fifty-three with two hundred twenty-one persons in this form: the ten of the squadron
of enlisted officers and soldiers with salary who serve in this settlement, the captain enjoying five hundred
dollars a year and the nine soldiers at two hundred twenty-five; the twenty-six of settlers of the first
establishment, and the seventeen of registered residents who have followed later; and the families' own
goods which exist are one hundred fifty-one heads of breeding horses, twenty-four mules, eight yokes of
oxen, three thousand two hundred thirty-four head of cattle, and nine female donkeys without including
one hundred forty-three horses of the squadron, and its residents have [sic], so it seems from the sections
of this review, in which the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo has found it advisable to make
note that in this settlement at present there is no missionary priest who attends to its doctrine because, the
one who was assigned having died about two months ago, there has been no time for his college to be able
to provide one, in spite of the fact that, so that they not lack spiritual nourishment, the R.F. Fray Luis
Mariano Chacón, president of the missions of this colony resident of Santander, has come to help them
in the interim. And regarding this R.F., his attendance was requested for this act and his having thus
executed it, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo asked him to serve to sign this review in faith
of it to which he complied; and concluded in these terms he order it be put in the folder of documents
formed in this town of Soto la Marina and the said gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Frey Luis Mariano Chacón -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric)
-Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
The captain of this town of Soto la Marina and its Royal Squadron, in completion of the order of
Your Lordship contained in its document which preceeds, delivered a list of the number of settlers who
exist there today, its families, names of their women and children, in which are also added the posts of
which this Royal Squadron is composed, goods which some and others have and their species which are
found in said list, there are no haciendas and ranches established in the environs of this town due to its
extreme poverty caused by its total dejection and carelessness, without applying themselves to any type of
planting nor any other exercise and it is with such an extreme that, the fish being so abundant immediate
to this town, they do not move to get it or to fish at least to eat, even though there is a fishery in the Barra
of this port where there is a watchman or one who serves as such. The salary that this Royal Squadron
earns annually, according to its endowment, is two thousand eight hundred seventy-five pesos in this
manner: five hundred I, said captain, two hundred fifty the sergeant, and two hundred twenty-five each
one of the nine soldiers, for which collection and payment he empowers, at the right moment, the captain
don Agustín Iglesias Cotillo, resident and shopkeeper of the Court of Mexico, who remits whatever the
Royal Squadron needs as he is requested by means of the honorable general don José de Escandón and,
if within the year they need arms, horses, and corn to perform the Royal Service and maintain themselves,
their amount is supplied by means of the said honorable general.
The service which this Royal Squadron performs is that of being continually vigilant and in
constant care of their horses as well as that of this citizenry to free it from the audacity of thefts from the
Indians, always prepared for the marshalling necessary in the persuit of the same Indians, general
dispatching, and the guarding and care of this town, and today of the mission with escort of the people who
work outside or ordinary incursions of the outskirts or whatever is needed or occurs of the Royal Service.
I have prepared this citizenry and Royal Squadron so that a review be made at the time that Your
Lordship has determined, who, if he found anything else necessary other than what I have expressed, I am
ready to execute it. Town of Soto la Marina and June twenty-one of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years.
-Juan José V�zquez Borrego.-(rubric)
PROCEEDING- In the town of Soto la Marina, in twenty-one days of the month of June of
seventeen fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, wishing to acquaint himself about
the state that the Indian assembly of this town has regarding the many he has seen in this village, to see if
he could come to the true knowledge of their number by reviewing them, accustomed to the quibbling of
these and the lack of subjection that they still observe, and the lack of conversion to bell and doctrine, in
spite of their giving good hopes of congregating by their good communication and continual permanency
which they practice in this area, suspended this proceeding in order not to intimidate them or cause them
any problem. Continuing the reports of this affair further, he learned that the ones who are present here
are three tribes called Villegas, Morales, and Aracates which are composed of seventy families with two
hundred persons more or less among adults, women, and young people. And, so that everything concerned
be evident and it become known that for the present there is no formal mission in this settlement, he
ordered it be put in as a proceeding and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo.
-(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Fray Luis Mariano Chacón, of the Regular Observance of Our Seraphic Father San Francisco,
Apostolic Missionary Preacher, Lector of the Holy Theology, Minister of the Mission of Santander,
President in Capite of all this colony subject to el Colegio de Propaganda Fide de Nuestra Señora de
Guadalupe de Zacatecas, and assistant in this town of Soto la Marina.
The honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of
dragoons of the New City of Veracruz and Inspecting Judge for this colony for the most excellent
honorable Marquis of las Amarillas:
Having seen the preceding letter of entreaty, I should say to Your Grace that because of the
preaching priest Fray Joaquín S�enz, minister, owner of this mission having died, I have come to it to
serve and succeed said minister until the one who is assigned arrives. Moreover, it being only four days
since I arrived in this town and it not being quite one month that I entered into this colony with the charge
of president, I cannot see myself sufficiently instructed in all those reports which are so necessary and
indispensable to give to Your Grace complete information of everything that the interrogation states.
Nevertheless, I shall attempt to respond something, basing that which I might judge and say either
on the papers which I have registered or on that which I have seen and heard from trustworthy persons,
since these foundations oblige me to make some judgement, and this can somehow convey the intent of
Your Grace which is to find the truth.
Thus in this supposition I present to Your Grace a register of this year of fifty-seven in which are
expressed the names, number, families, persons, and state of the settlers of this town and of the hacienda
of the honoroble count Don José Escandón, subject to this jurisdiction.
In order to the synod, I say that there is that of three hundred fifty pesos which the King Our Lord
gives assigned to this minister for each year. This is received in Mexico by our apostolic synodal Don
Jacinto Martínez and he, with the intervention of the college, sends it to the minister in proper form. And
in this manner the financial aid was also delivered to him.
From this same aid, I am convinced, the sacred urns and ornaments of this church, which I have
seen to be sufficient and of all colors with the proper decency, had their beginning and their conservation
is at the account of the minister.
Regarding the Indians, according to what I have seen and heard from persons of credit, I am
convinced that, from four months ago to now, three tribes have congregated which they call commonly
the Aracates, Morales, and Villegas who, I believe on the authority of him who assures it, are composed
of seventy families and these of two hundred ten persons according to a probable and credible calculation.
On the same basis I also judge these said Indians to have a suitable place assigned for their territory
at a distance from this town of about two leagues and that they are building there shacks for living quarters
for the minister and for themselves.
The goods that this mission has destined for the maintenance and conservation of said Indians are
the following: 245 cows more or less, 390 minor livestock, 30 breeding horses, 16 harnessed mules, seven
oxen, and ten horses. The mission also has hoes, tillers, axes, and a plowshare for the tilling and other
necessary works.
Besides this the honorable general Don José Escandón has promised me to help with corn and all
he can for the conservation of the Indians and being thus in the completion of his word (from the Divine
Providence) the hope that there is for its growth and conservation is founded now.
According to all that has been said, the concept that I make is that, not lacking the aid of corn at
least for these first two years (because this should be the time the Indians need to be instructed in the work
of planting and afterwards they could maintain themselves) one of the best missions of this colony will
continue establishing and maintaining itself since, for now, the Indians seem to be pacified and inclined
to live rationally, politically, and in a christian manner which leads to hope that their good example attract
many others to live in the same manner and that in this manner the christianization, baptism, and salvation
of many souls and the propagation of Our Holy Faith which is what our Catholic Monarch so zealously
wishes and we all try to obtain.
This is my feeling and, so that it be evident at all times, I give it signed by my hand and name of
this town and port of Soto la Marina in twenty-three days of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. -
Fray Luis Mariano Chacón -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF DON MELCHOR TREVI�O. - In the town of Soto la Marina in twenty-one
days of the month of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo, in order not to delay in the reports in which he wishes to aquaint himself for the inspection and
state of this settlement, went to obtain the necessary information for this justification and, for this, he had
appear before him Don Melchor de Treviño, settler of the first establishment of this area from whom he
received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth in that which would be asked and equally keep
secret in it and his answers and, having done and offered it, as is required, he was asked, according to the
interrogation which is found in the notebook number one for the formation of these documents in the folio
54 in which affair he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that he does not have nor has he had any information of how the
Sierra Gorda or Madre, concerning the settlements, was before the conquest of this colony but that it is
evident, from having traveled it on the north part up to what they call Rusias today, which is the settlement
of Llera, from the Valle del Pilón of el Nuevo Reino de León, that all of that part was inhabited by heathen
Indians who impeded the transit and caused great injuries to all the frontiers, such that these continually
maintained themselves with arms in hand to run them off and to be able to liberate themselves of their
thefts and assaults, which is what he can respond to this question.
To the second question he said: that the settlers of this town proceed from the outskirts of
Monterrey in el Nuevo Reino de León from where, so it seems to him as he remembers, 48 to 50 families
left which would be the ones who came together in the belief that they would situate themselves in the site
of Tetillas, but on the road, by disposition of the captain who had situated them at the Salado River until
having other orders from his general Don José de Escandón, they remained eight months in a site that they
called Nuestra Señora del Refugio, built their shacks and church with this vocation, and they remained
there each buying the foodstuffs which they needed at their own expense to maintain themselves. And the
captain, whose name was Pedro Gónzalez and who lead them, having died at this time and some of those
reported settlers having deserted, the declarant was to be found at his home where he had gone to see his
family with permission of the nominated captain because he had left them on his land with that permit until
having a firm establishment; and, returning to incorporate himself in the said site where his friends were,
he met some discontented ones who were returning to their homeland representing some complaints against
the said honorable general but the declarant, considering what means he could take to bring them into
tranquility, decided to return with them to their homeland where, due to his industrious verbal and juridical
diligence, he was able to attract them to return to the region where the others were situated where they
found the order of the honorable general so that they could elevate their situation of that region and they
come to establish the aforesaid Tetillas; and, having continued his travels to the town of Santander, it was
deliberated again newly by the honorable general that they make the foundation of their establishment in
the region in which they are found today in which they made their seat at a distance of less than one-half
quarter of a league from the edges of the Río Purificación on the west side. And that the aforesaid forty-eight or fifty families, who from the beginning left from the aforesaid Reino de León for this settlement,
had a home, some two hundred pesos financial help for their travel and transportation which was given to
them by Don Roque de la Barrera in the site of el Vallecillo by order of the honorable General Escandón,
although it is true the the entire complement of these settlers did not arrive to this settlement because some
died on the road. And it appears to him that those that situated themselves here were thirty-three to thirty-four and that the means that have favored their subsistance, in the great needs which they have had, have
been the continuous help with corn, meat, and clothing with which the honorable General Escandón has
provided them without ever having charged them anything for what he has given them. And that the
Indians whom they found situated in the environs of these lands, who are the Aracates, Comecamotes,
Villegas, Damiches, and Pasitas, live there; several of their troops entering and exiting this settlement from
the beginning, and especially those called the Villegas have remained in good communication with the
citizenry and have helped against the invasions from the others and have aided this citizenry with pumpkins
and other fruits of their harvest, these being the ones who live and are situated at the coast and site of the
same port of Santander. And that from all these coasts there are several families collected in this settlement
which must be composed of about seventy Indian warriors and a large portion of women, children, and
boys; that he believes that, in all, the number could amount to almost two hundred, which cannot be said
with any certainty because they enter and exit at will, because they do not observe or understand any
obedience and these have also been helped by the honorable General with corn and clothes at various
occasions to make them grateful, and that he cannot give a report regarding the quantity expended for all
of the aids for the several in this settlement, but that of his own the declarant can say that he has been
given, up to the present, eleven measures of corn, cloth for coats, wollen cloth, and other things for
trousers, skirts, linen, and serges to dress their family, that, although he has paid some of this, he is certain
that the major part of the value has been forgiven him and that he has been charged nothing for the corn,
but rather, a few days ago, having needed a load of corn I went to the said honorable general to buy some,
taking four pesos to pay for it, it was not accepted and it was sent to him with no remuneration whatsoever.
And in continuation of the previous, he was asked how many residents have been increased up to
the present, from where they proceed, and whether they have had any financial aid for their establishment,
he said: That the residents increased from the foundation until now would be about eight proceeding from
various marriages that have been made of children of the settlers and other strangers who have come from
lands outside, that these have had no fanancial help for their establishment.
To the third question he said: that in this settlement there are no quarters, shacks, or houses
destined for the habitation of Indians since there is no mission nor formal converted Indian village nor any
christians other than Captain Villegas who is the apostate and lives with them following his own doctrines,
but that at about two leagues distance from this settlement on the road to la Barra in the site that they call
el Ojo de Agua, that region is designated by the honorable General Escandón for a mission and two
soldiers and one resident are kept there to whom some Indians tend to join themselves but, since these
recognize no dominion, they have no set region and they leave when they feel like it and return when they
wish and they remain that way continually vagabonds.
To the fourth question he said: that in this settlement there has been an apostolic minister who has
ministered to the settlers and residents up to two months ago when the one who was here died, the one who
was supposed to continue the doctrine in his place was delayed, but that at present they have gotten for this
purpose the R.F. Fray Luis Mariano Chacón, president of the missionaries of this colony, but that the said
predecesor priests, nor the present one either, have not had any formal possession of sites or lands destined
for them, but that he does know that for their subsistance whenever there is a formalized mission the said
priests have about two hundred head of cattle and a little more than three hundred sheep, and fifteen
harnessed mules, a small herd of breeding mares, some tame horses, plowshares, axes and hoes, and
various other tools for agriculture, and about five yoke of oxen, that all of this to be turned over in
ownership to the resident and soldiers who live in the aforesaid Ojo de Agua. And that about that which
concerns the citizenry and settlers of this town, they have had, up to now, no execution of arrangement
of property and possession of lands, because up to now they have had no designation, because they have
only been told to work and take those they want, each one wherever he prefers and thus they have done
it, making use of the regions that each one has found most suitable within the terminus of this settlement
which extends four leagues to the north, four to the south, four to the east, and four to the west: and that
the lands that are cultivated up to the present in this settlement should be to plant four measures.
To the fifth question he said: that he knows that the Río de la Purificación which flows immediate
to this settlement, begins at the Sierra Madre or Sierra Gorda and enters this colony where it is joined by
several rivers like that of the San Antonio River, that of el Chichimecos, the one of San Pedro, that of
Santa Engracia, that of Caballeros, that of San Felipe, that of la Boca de la Iglesia, el Pilón, and that of
Palmas, and all together and united they form the swift and navigable one from the site of el Potrero de
San José, a distance from this settlement of about five leagues more or less, and from there to la Barra of
the port they call Santander, that he judges there is a distance of about twelve leagues more or less, it is
all deep enough for boat navigation although he does not know from what part because he has no
information in this affair but that, after the overcoming of many inconveniences, which he hears la Barra
into which this river flows has, he has seen that the schooner of the honorable general comes and goes
through the river within the limits he expresses without any problem. And he does not know of others
although he knows that the Río Grande of the North enters in this colony and the river of Conchas and they
end in that part of the north; he does not know their origins.
To the sixth question he said: that he knows that in Santo Domingo de Hoyos, Aguayo, and Llera
there are irrigation canals made from their rivers with which they irrigate and fertilize their lands.
To the seventh question he said: that he knows that Santander has water sources and springs with
which they irrigate and fertilize their lands and obtain the same benefits as those who have them from their
rivers since they fertilize their fields with this one in the same manner.
To the eighth question he said: That the use made of the lands with the benefit of irrigation is to
plant corn, beans, cane, cotton, plants, vegetables, and other fruits whose benefit this settlement does not
have because it has no irrigation canal nor do they believe it can have one in its situation. And that the
most acredited crop wherever there is this commodity, and even those dependent on temporal rains, is corn
since it is the one best cared for in the planting due to the relief of their maintenance depending on it
because of having experienced in various parts of this colony and in that of el Nuevo Reino de León the
inability to grow wheat.
To the ninth question he said: that in the previous years and at the present, even though being a
farmer since he was born and having experience with intelligence, he knows that the few plantings of this
settlement have not surpassed three measures and that in the present year what he will be able to plant will
barely will come to one and one-half measures because, his having experienced since its establishment that
the contingencies of droughts and seasonal storms have made it impossible to harvest anything from those
small amounts that they were able to plant, sometimes due to lack of water and other times because the
Indians of the area have robbed them of their unripe fruits, they have become disenchanted such that no
one has the desire to plant or dedicate himself to the cultivation of the lands because, principally the
freedom and the relaxed fashion with which they tolerate the Indians of the area, who treat this settlement
with a feigned and cautious pretext of peace, is the cause for which they experience the reversals of all this
citizenry since, insensitively, they are destroying their goods and because of that he can give no report of
how many measures of produce they can have per measure of planting because of their never having
verified any in the same manner, their not being enough to maintain themselves from what they have
harvested nor any hope of their being able to reap that necessary for this aim, since to the present time they
have had to buy corn, as they are buying it today to be able to subsist, making use, for this means, of the
trade of a salt mine which is four leagues from this settlement near la Barra of the port called Santander
which is the means of the most help,a product with which they go to the other settlements and to the
borders and bring the corn in its exchange. And that in the year of fifty-three this settlement experienced
the gravest necessity due to the lack of food and corn; it went to the extreme of some people starving to
death and several children dying in the arms of their mothers due to lack of nourishment since in five
months there was nothing else other than roots and grass from the fields after they had consumed all their
livestock without being rescued by anyone because the growths of the rivers were so great and the general
flood was such that it permitted no transit in any direction, and in this manner they remained until, the
weather permitting and the rivers being passable, the honorable General Escandon came and rescued them
with which they alliviated their fatigue. And that at that time no Indian remained in this settlement, except
that those of the Aracates tribe tried to torment this town besieging it night and day in the attempt of
robbing them of the horses that they had for their use, killing some people, as they did it with a son of this
declarant who was fishing at the river and they did the same with another resident who was also fishing,
and the vexations of these would have been much greater had it not been for the divine providence that
those of the Villegas tribe came out with great boldness to rescue them and intimidate [probably the others]
and, afterwards with this same intent, they aided in a friendly manner bringing some food of fruits, which
they pick, to rescue this citizenry and aiding them against the other Indians since these are the ones who,
among the other tribes distinguish themselves in valor and respect.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements in which he has been in this colony are Revilla,
Camargo, Reynosa, San Fernando, Burgos, Santander, Padilla, Aguayo, G�emes, Llera, Santo Domingo
de Hoyos, Escandón, Horcasitas, Altamira, Santillana, and this one of Soto la Marina and that, although
he has heard that there are several other settlements, he has not been in them nor does he know at what
distance they are from the sea because only about this last one does he know that there are six leagues to
la Barra of the port and that he does not know whether there might be another port, bays, or anchorages
into which major and minor boats can enter other than the said Santander.
And bearing in mind that this is the point which is ordered by the first document and head of this
file that that suitable to ask regarding the situation of the port and la Barra be born in mind, he was asked
for the reports that he might have about this affair other than the ones he has given in the fifth [question]
of this statement, to which he said: that what he commonly hears, especially from Claudio Segura,
resident of this settlement who supports himself from fishing and lives permanently at la Barra, is that the
honorable General Escandón is always very deceived and that he is totally badly informed by those who
have informed him that this can be a port because neithe is it one nor can it be one, in respect to its depth
and entrance having no stability at all because there are times that not even a skiff can enter over its large
expanse of sand and that this entrance, even with these difficulties, is not stable since there have been
several mutations which have been verified in up to three places with the difficulties. And that he cannot
give a report of anything else in this affair since he has spent no time in getting information about it.
To the eleventh question he said: that there is no doubt that the land of all this colony with the one
of this settlement is very suitable for the raising and keeping of major and minor livestock and that, of these
species, he knows there is the hacienda called San Juan, property of the honorable General Escandón
already established in the environs of the jurisdiction of this town in which, as in all the rest, they
experience great progress of which the declarant can speak from experience, since in the shortness of its
goods, accredited to it, it has a large growth that this raising produces since in his cows he finds that even
those of two years of age have young, inferring that those that are in this application will have the same
benefit.
To the twelfth question he said: that he knows that el Cerro de Santiago, called by another name
the Real de Borbón which is in the jurisdiction of Villa de Hoyos, has several mines and that in some there
has been proof of its ores but that he does not know whether it was produced by them and that he has heard
there is the same in Aguayo, in la Boca de Caballero, but it is not evident to him that any of these are put
into use or are running in the name of anyone.
To the thirteenth question he said: that at a distance from this settlement of four leagues to the north
there is a salt mine that yields good salt which is enough for this settlement and they get some from it for
their trade and sale and it is the one which furnishes all the needs of this town and, on the other side of the
said sandbank on the south part about at eleven leagues from this settlement, with a few difficult passes for
its transit, there is another abundant salt mine of which on some occasions they make use which has the
name of Morales, and one or another, in the years that they are mined at regular times, they supply enough
to maintain the colony and its frontiers but, since they reap only that which the poor work of this citizenry
can handle in the season in which it is mature, it happens the tides, rains, and floods come and dissolve
them and put them in a state of not producing for another year, which does not occur if in the time of its
harvesting it were stored and removed from these contingencies. And that has heard that in Altamira there
are also salt mines, in San Fernando, and the Río Grande.
To the fourteenth question he said: that the circle that the colony forms, its settlements, assemblies,
and haciendas are peaceful for now and their residents in good correspondence with one another. And that
regarding the obedience and submission of the native Indians, there is no probability that in this settlement
nor in the others any subjection be found in them nor a real peace with security because, most of them and
almost everwhere, they do not come to the settlements for any other reason than to lounge around without
leaving off the stealing of livestock and committing of other various injuries which they cover up with the
cape of their being assembled Indians, pretending that the ones committing them are those of the sierra and
from these proceeds most of the lack of advancement of this settlement and their care, since they are
always in the presence of their company and, it being necessary to manifest affability and friendship, they
are obligated to live day and night in continual fear of their violence and incidents.
To the fifteenth question he said: that he does not know that the Sierra Madre or Sierra Gorda
might have any difference because he has never heard anything about this matter.
And that the Sierra Tamaulipa la Nueva provides the site called el Potrero de las Nueces, very
suitable to be able to place a settlement because of having good lands for planting and pasturing and a good
spring but this, in the time of draught, is so limited that it barely stretches about the shot of a rifle. And
in la Tamaulipa Vieja he does not know what proportions there might be to be able to place settlements
there.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the settlements of the Nuevo Reino de León, borders to this
colony, are Linares at a distance of the confines of this colony of four or five leagues more or less, the
town of Cerralvo of the same Reino at a distance of he does not know how many leagues. And that from
the province of Coahuila the settlement of San Matías is a border to this colony, that the river below is
farther down from the Carrizal de Ramón; that he also does not know how many leagues there might be
and that he knows of no others.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the number of captains, corporals, and
soldiers that the entire colony comprises of those enlisted and with salary but that he does know that in the
town of Soto la Marina there is a captain who, he hears, has a salary of five hundred pesos and nine
soldiers at two hundred twenty-five each and that the manner in which they are satisfed is in materials and
monies by the honorable General Escandón and that the service that they perform is: the captain having
the political and military command of this settlement, the sergeant caring for the soldiers, and these two
caring for the goods of the mission, one being the assistant to the captain, the other as guard in guarding
the town and the others caring for the horses of the residents.
To the eighteenth question of the General Legal Data he said: that they do not concern him in any
way. And it having been read again to him ad verbum all that he has said and declared so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that it be approved: he said that, concerning what is
expressed in the second question regarding when the families of el Nuevo Reino de León left to situate
themselves in the site of Tetillas, it was not like that because the first seating that they made was in the Río
Grande where they remained about one month and that the exactnwaa of their destination, with which they
left to make their settlement, was the Río de las Nueces. And the rest continued in the same terms which
are evident and appear in his declaration in which he needs to add or remove nothing, but instead he is firm
and approves it for it being the truth by the oath he has made and he signed it and stated being of the age
of fifty-six years; the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo with the witnesses in attendance signed
it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Melchor de Treviño. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Three witnesses follow who declare the same as the preceeding one and they are the following:
José S�nchez de Arellano, settler and resident of Soto la Marina, of fifty-four years of age.
Juan José V�zquez Borrego, captain of said settlement, of forty-nine years of age.
Miguel de la Garza, settler and resident of the same, of sixty years of age.
DOCUMENT - In the town of Soto la Marina in twenty-three days of the month of June of 1757
years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings practiced in this town
regarding the inspection of its state, in conformity to the chapters of its instruction, considering them
sufficient for his report, desirous of wasting no time on the others which he should continue to complete
his commission with the most brevity possible and avoid costs that delays could cause the Royal Treasury,
ordered that everything acted upon and corresponding to this settlement be put in a separate folder for its
best information, and thus he provided and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo.
-(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
On the sixth of February of seventeen hundred fifty-eight, testimony was taken to give an
accounting to his Majesty.
DOCUMENTS FORMED REGARDING THE INSPECTION OF THE
RIVER, PORT, AND BARRA OF NUEVO SANTANDER
OF THE COLONY OF THE GULF OF MEXICO.
DOCUMENT - In the town of Soto la Marina a distance of seven leagues from the Barra and Port
of Santander, at one-quarter league from the river that empties into it, in twenty days of the month of June
of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the
Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of the New City of Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the colony
of the Gulf of Mexico named by the most excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis of las Amarillas: having
arrived in this settlement to continue in it the proceedings of his charge, bearing in mind that, other than
these, it is necessary to complete the more serious point of his commission in the inspection of the Port of
Santander, its measurements, and soundings with the attentive consideration that conspires the major care
and vigilance to explain its situation, distance to the seacoast, and to the port of the same name, its entrance
and exit, if it is ravaged or not by one or more winds, with everything else that is considered suitable to
the inspection of the advantages that this settlement and the same port offer either for a suitable and
convenient maritime and interior commerce of the colony and of its borders submitted to the domination
of the King and even of the most educated provinces of the kingdom where these thoughts can be expanded
with probability, and also for the regular and irregular works in which to found its defense and the security
of its conservation, understanding even when that which is known as Puerto de Santander be because of
the river which passes and empties in the gulf near the settlement talked about and that by any chance this
river be recognized immediate to it, making it evident by its three dimensions how far it is discovered to
be navigable from its entrance at the sea, explaining any hinderance or impediment of sandbars or others
it might have at its mouth and extension and the true distances in which it could be found from the
settlement of Santander. As everything is prepared and ordered by the instruction with which it was
commissioned for this end, he ordered that, in conformity to all these points, the proceedings, that they
will be doing for this effect be placed in a separate folder, and that, besides the personal scrutiny, the
reports which are found suitable be received, examining the persons who might be able to give a report
with knowledge so that, with better justification, the knowledge of this truth be guaranteed to which his
zeal aspires so that it abound in the best service of his Majesty and in credit of his obligation the suitable
effects of his obligation result and thus he decreed and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda
de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOONER, DON BERNARDO VIDAL
BUSCARRONS. - In the town of Soto la Marina in twenty-two days of the month of June of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in virtue of that which has been
decreed and ordered of him by the preceeding document regarding the justification which he intends to do
in discussion of the state and circumstances of the port and sandbank that they call Santander, in conformity
to the serious reflection that he is ordered to observe in this affair by chapters thirteen and fourteen of his
instruction and in the others which comprise his commission, finding it suitable to put this practice into
execution from this town before entering into the search and other proceedings which he must do regarding
the same site in order to have the clarifications the might be suitable for the case, had appear before him
don Bernardo Vidal Buscarrons, captain of the schooner called la Conquistadora, property of the colonel
Don José de Escandón, which is found tied and anchored at the moment in this Purificación River, from
whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth in that which would be asked, his
having done and offered it as it is required, he was interrogated to which he responded the following:
Being asked which ports, bays, or anchorages are recommended at the coast of this colony with
security of entrance by major and minor vessels, he said: that there is no port in all this coast for major
vessels because there is only the one called Nuevo Santander into which minor, loaded vessels like brigs,
packet boats, sloops, and schooners can enter in some seasons and weathers but that at other times it is
usually necessary to unload that of this transport before being able to enter, that this is experienced
according in the more or less years of draught or rains and in the more or less northerns that close the
sandbank with the sands.
Being asked in what situation the port called Santander is found and at what distance from the
settlement of the town of Soto la Marina, he said: that it is found in the said Port of Santander situated at
twenty-four and one-half degrees latitude at seven leagues distance of the town of Soto la Marina and that
the coast, from Tamaulipa Vieja, runs south to north vertically without capes and with only one or another
very short, small inlet and that, from the Barra towards the north, the entire coast is steep with sand dunes
following the very threadbare coast without any woods, all of it completely flat. At the distance of one
league from the coast internal to the sea, ten fathoms. At the distance of three leagues, twenty-five fathoms
whose bottom is very fine sand, mud, and slime, this differentiating along the length of the coast in
different areas without their being one with rocks; and that the entire coast, which the witness has
traversed, in more than forty leagues it has no other remarkable site than the one he has cited with the sand
dunes on the north and on the south it is all mountain called la Tamaulipa Vieja up to what they call Barra
de la Trinidad which is a short sandbank with little water into which only some small boats which require
little water can enter. And the same occurs at the one of el Tordo which is immediate to it between this
port and the said sandbank.
Asking what lows [probably tides] it has at its entrance and whether this and its exit are difficult
or not and at what winds, he said: that it has no lows at the entrance or the exit and that its entrance is not
difficult because it can be entered with its northeast, east, southeast, and south winds and not with others
and its exit with the north, northwest, west, and southwest.
Asked what convenience this port offers to the advantages of this settlement for the use and
maritime commerce with the others of the colony and its frontiers and to the others of the internal lands,
he said: that the convenience that it offers this settlement and colony is to be able to easily use it in the
commerce of taking out those goods which are produced up to now which are feed, skins, wool, and salt
and to bring in, with more convenience, those which it needs for its use and conservation of the Port of
Veracruz and of other areas. And that that which in the future can be realized is that of furnishing all
maritime commerce, and that of being able to provide for the frontier provinces and others of the
kingdom; it is almost the same in the traffic of the goods that its country produces and in having those
which they need from outside.
Asked what navigable leagues the river called la Purifacación, which passes immediately by this
town at less then one-half of a quarter league and end at its sandbank, comprises, what depth it has, what
lows, what width or hindrances or found up to its entrance at the sea, he said: that this river from the
sandbank farther up has fifteen to sixteen navigable leagues, these in agreement with the various turns it
takes to traverse it, and that its depth from the Barra to the settlement of Soto la Marina is six fathoms
regularly with very little difference and, from said settlement above until arriving at the dwelling called
San José, where the said sixteen leagues end, the depth continues at seven fathoms, that one or another
subsists in all weathers due to its being the pool in which the entire wealth of this river and the floods of
the sea that enter it through the sandbank are gathered since its tides rise up to one league lower than the
said dwelling of San José at some times of the year and at other occasions it usually does not pass the
Barra. That it has no lows and that its width should be about two hundred fathoms, more or less, since he
has not measured it because of about one league before arriving at the Barra it extends itself in a much
greater scope. And that it has no other hinderances up to its entrance at the sea.
Asked what distance there is from the said Port of Santander to the settlement of the same name,
he said: that, by the line of sight east to west, he has compared it to be around twenty leagues and, by usual
and common road, twenty-five.
Asked what facilities or difficulties are offered for the entrance of the Barra, what depth it has and
of what type the vessels can be that could enter through it at the present, he said: that the entrance of the
Barra, which is from east to west, offers at present no difficulty to the vessels that do not draw more than
eighteen "palmos" of water but that this depth being removable and inconstant by reason of the storms and,
it having no protection, change is often found in its depth and the same in its situation and in the same way
it could be necessary to change the route for its entry.
Asked if the current of the river is sufficient not only in its floods but also in the other times of
serenity to impede the entry of the vessels that can occur in it, he said: that it is evident to him that, the
river having a large flood, no vessel can enter through the Barra due to the great strength of the current
at the flowing out at its mouth, but in its serenity or when it is natural in a regular state there is no
impediment to be found which has been experienced in more than a year.
Asked if, with skill and work, it would be possible to facilitate putting said port into free use and
without hinderance and in this manner subsist for the future, he said: that in this question he cannot affirm
any report for having no information in this matter.
Asked what width the Barra has, whether its banks are rock or beach, what length to the sea, and
what impediments, lows, or reefs there are in its course and of what type of bottom said Barra is
composed, whether of stone or sand, he said: that it must be about 100 fathoms in length and that its banks
are beaches, that from its mouth until passing the bank it is about forty fathoms in width and that its
impediments are one sandbank formed from north to south from its external entrance which should be
about twenty fathoms, more or less, in width, that this is the one which causes its greater or lesser depth,
its length being eighty fathoms, more or less, and that this is the only impediment that the port has, without
other lows or reefs on its coast and that the quality of its bottom at the Barra is sand and at one-quarter
league, more or less, toward the inside it is mud mixed with some oyster, and a little farther it continues
all mud.
Asked what security its coast offers any vessel that, exhausted, takes refuge at it, he said: that it
has no more protection or security than that of its good cables and with them that of its good bottom.
Asked what security the vessels, that might have entered into its river, have and if they are exposed
to any storms once inside the Barra he said: that being inside the river offers the vessels total security but,
if through any contingency of flood or of contrary wind in its ascent it finds itself obligated to remain in
the bay, there could be some damage if it is not well tied down which can be verified by one case.
Asked if the coast provides the convenience of water that the vessels, that happen to ask for it, can
supply themselves with, he said: that in all the coast, at one area or another, there is sweet water provided
forming pools at a short distance from the beach.
All of which he knowst from the experience he has from five or six years that he has traveled and
navigated this coast, entering and exiting at its port with the schooners in his charge. And everything that
he has stated he said was the truth by the oath that he has made in which he affirms and ratifies himself and
he signed it and stated being forty-two years of age; the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed
it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Bernardo Vidal Buscarons [sic]- (rubric)
-Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Two witnesses, who stated the same as the former, follow and they are the following:
Claudio Segura, watchman of the Barra and Puerto de Santander, of forty years of age.
Juan Luis Ballesteros, boatswain of the schooner "La Conquistadora," of thirty-seven years
of age.
PROCEEDING. - In the town of Soto la Marina in twenty-three days of the month of June of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having performed the
previous proceeding in this settlement and not having found other subjects who could give information in
this affair, deliberated putting his trip into practice in order to travel to the Port of Santander and personally
attend, with the honorable lieutenant colonel Don Agustín López de la C�mera Alta, second engineer
appointed for this end, for the inspection, sounding, and measurements of the river, its entry to the sea and
Barra, keeping in mind the chapters of the instruction with which he finds himself commissioned for this
means, which is in folder number one of the proceedings of this charge, from the fourth folio to the eighth
and in particular chapters three and fourteen of it, he went to the site of the port which is situated at a
quarter league from this settlement at its river, la Purificación, where the honorable General Escandon's
schooner was anchored where he prepared and gave all the necessary arrangements so that tomorrow,
which shall be counted as the twenty-fourth of the current, it be prepared in order to carry on with the
execution of everything aforementioned; and in these terms, everything being prepared for this execution,
he ordered that it be placed as a proceeding for the suitable effects, and he signed it with the witnesses
present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de
Haro. -(rubric).
INSPECTION OF EL RIO PURIFICACION. - In the site of the river la Purificación a quarter
league distant from the settlement of Soto la Marina in twenty-four days of the month of June of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable José Tienda de Cuervo, having arrived in this region
accompanied by the honorable engineer Don Agustín López de la Cámara Alta and the attending
witnesses in order to embark onto the schooner called Nuestra Señora de las Caldas, alias "La
Conquistadora," property of the colonel Don José de Escandón, which was found anchored in said river
in the charge of its captain don Bernardo Vidal Buscarons, in order to continue the proceedings that are
ordered of him by the instruction with which he is commissioned, in the inspection, measurement,
sounding, and other dimensions of said river, its entry to the sea, facilities or difficulties with the situation
of the port and sandbank called Santander, it being about ten in the morning of this said day, they began
to navigate through the bend called that of Soto la Marina to the east in tow with the boat by the prow since
the wind was scarce and, before turning, it fell to the northeast and their not being able to get into it they
dropped anchor after one hour of navigation at five-and-one-half fathoms, the bend being east-southeast
and clearly to the east in its circulation; here they remained until six-thirty in the afternoon when, calming
on the southeast, the wind blew softly northeast and, lifting anchor, they continued to navigate, always in
tow, all this way and afterwards to the east and at entering in the bend of Gomeño, they navigated to the
northeast continually the way varying only towards the north with some inclination to the northeast, to the
east to the southeast, and south-southeast, as the turn of the perforated rock required it towards where they
were navigating; and at its extreme the southeast direction was taken over the rock of the Aracates where,
due to their being at a low of three fathoms on the front side of a small, round hill, it was necessary to fall
toward the east and southeast part. Here the canal has a depth of six-and-one-half fathoms and the river
two hundred twenty yards of width; its sections are clean and they have no hinderances nor trees in the
river, as are found in the part of the mooring; and the navigation to here lasting until ten at night, they
anchored, since the tide was rising and the wind having totally died down which hampered the continuance
of the trip even in tow; and in this state, seen by the said gentleman, all that he is reporting, he ordered
that, for whatever suitable effects, they make them evident as a proceeding in this documents in satisfaction
of his commission and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
THE NAVIGATION AND INSPECTION OF THE RIVER FOLLOWS. - In twenty-five days of
the month of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, it being about five o'clock in the morning, the
anchor was raised to continue this trip in tow since there was no wind and the lowering tide permitting it
now, and they traveled to the east-northeast turning the bend of la Peña Agujerada and entering into the
so called Hiladero Grande (whose name comes from a woods opened by hand with a road for the
communication to the seacoast.) they continued to the east where the river is two hundred eight yards wide,
it varied somewhat to the east-southeast and at half a league the said bend turned; and after having traveled
about one-and-one-half hours with the said tow, the wind began to blow, the sails were set out, and they
navigated east-northeast and straight east to go up the bend leaving the little hill of las Salinas at the
northeast; the wind cooled to the west, they sounded and found six-and-one-half fathoms of water and the
river is two hundred twenty-six yards wide here; they continued to the east-southeast and they entered in
the canyon of las Salinas which is almost one straight league and the river, at its extreme, two hundred
thirty yards wide and five-and-one-half fathoms deep; the edges, from the little hill of las Salinas on one
side and the other, are low and although their banks are for to five yards, it is a small woods and in the
most part grass or coarse straw one-and-one-half yards high: following the course to the southeast to turn
the tip of the bend of el Conde in which the river is two hundred fifty yards wide and five-and-one-half in
depth, its edges four yards high, all of them pastures and, in order to take the turn of the bend, they
navigated to the northeast and, the Punta Larga at an end, they traveled to the east, the edges always low,
the width of the river three hundred yards and its depth five fathoms; at a short distance farther down there
is a shoal on the same side as Punta Larga in the same direction. And anchoring, because of there being
no wind at all with which to continue and the tide coming in, they found it suitable to spend the night here,
this site being el Torno de Punta Larga which others with more exactness call it Mosquitos due to their
abundance. In which state, everything related seen by the said gentleman, he ordered it be put in as a
proceeding and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
THE INSPECTION OF THE RIVER FOLLOWS. - In twenty-six days of the month of June of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in order to
materialize the continuation of these proceedings, ordered that the same observance be carried as up to now
in the inspection of this river, its width and depth and of all the other circumstances that concern this intent,
for which the proper care was taken and it was carried out in this manner: at five-thirty in the morning we
weighed anchor and, with a north-northeast wind, we sailed to the southeast with five-and-one-half fathoms
in depth, the river widened to four hundred thirty yards from shore to shore but it only allows one hundred
yards of navigable canal, its edges at a height of four yards; la Punta del Torno de Cascabeles turned in
two fathoms of water due to its being a low that extends from this point to that of the embankment, and
the canal goes through the middle in a circular figure; the depth outside of it, where we sailed, is of three
fathoms but said canal remained to the starboard on the west side because it was necessary to make use of
the wind; having fallen into the canal later, we found five fathoms of depth before the rocks of the
embankment, by which it is believed that the entire depth, in that which was not inspected in the interval
of one sounding to the other, would be the same with a small difference as the declarations affirm and it
has been recognized in the rest of the river; this region has been given the name of Muelle because it is
composed of some rocks which are naturally in rows on top of each other with two yard elevation above
the surface of the water and here we put about and sailed to the north in tow due to the calm and, taking
advantage of the ebb, we found four fathoms of water in the canal and then, following a little farther down,
we passed the mouth or canal of the salt mine el Norte, so called because it is situated at this wind and,
entering farther into the bay, we better inspected its Barra or Mouth of the Port, to the east-southeast this
bend widened and was found at seven hundred fifty yards at its widest and this is where it opens to the bay
and, from the point of the said Canal del Muelle at the Mouth of the Port, it is one league in length and
its width to the bay one-quarter league in an oval figure forming the circular at its extremes with low edges
and even more four yards of elevation above sea level; the navigable width of the canal of this so called
Bahía is of one hundred yards, all of it open to all winds and, in this space which encompases from said
Punta del Muelle in the canal to the mouth of the port, it has a depth following to the east-southeast, four-and-one-half fathoms and, continuing its sounding, three-and-one-half, three-and-one-fourth, three, three-and-one-half, three-and-one-half, three-and-one-half, two-and-one-half, three, four, four, three-and-one-half, three-and-one-half, four, four-and-one-half, four-and-one-half. Here now at the mouth we took the
course of northeast and we anchored almost in the front of the watchtower (which is a hill at the edge of
the water of said bay, slightly elevated, in which a man lives in two shacks supporting himself from fishing
and he is given the title of watchman) in a small recess which forms, on two branches of water, the only
shelter from the sea of the outside that the bay has, but whenever the east or the southeast are fresh or
stormy we cannot maintain any vessels because of being exposed to running into the shore; and, it being
about eleven-thirty in the morning when we arrived at this region, we anchored. And to make use of the
afternoon, at about five-thirty, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in the company of the
aforementioned honorable engineer, went to the area of land towards that of the south to inspect the mouth
of the port and coordinate the operations that should be made the following day in the sounding of the
inspection of the Barra to comply with that which has been ordered by chapters thirteen, fourteen, and
twenty-four of the instruction and, having designated the necessary points for this end, they crossed the
bay again to go along a short league of land to inspect the lake of the north; and, having arrived there, it
was found without crystallized salt and, according to the reports that they had, it is due to the early rains
they have had this year for which reason they did not crystallize in the past; its extension was viewed and
the said honorable Don Agustín marked it, in which proceedings and the rest of the aforementioned they
spent the day and the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo ordered that everything observed and
practiced be made evident as a proceeding in these documents for whatever is suitable and he signed it with
the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco
José de Haro. -(rubric).
OPERATIONS IN THE PORT AND BARRA AND THEIR SOUNDING. - In twenty-seven days
of the month of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo, to provide, as it is ordered by the instruction of his commission, the attention and care that is
required in these proceedings, having put into these documents those which, up to now, have been
practiced in order to continue them in the same terms, continued his presence in the operations which will
follow, observing them in these terms: at five-thirty in the morning of this day the said gentleman passed,
in the company of the honorable engineer Don Agustín López de la Cámara Alta, to the inspection of
the Barra, entry to the port of its immediate shore, for which they embarked into the launch of the schooner
and, set on the first point assigned to the mouth of the port, the said honorable Don Agustín ordered a man
to remain at the shore of the sea on the north part and receive the end of the line with which the entrance
was to be measured and, the launch directed with the bow to the shore of the south where the other point
was taking along the rest of the line, they went along sounding this mouth while they took the
measurements and at midchannel they stopped to inspect the third point and they encountered, in their
traverse, that the following depth runs north to south: two feet plus two-and-one-half, four, five, eleven,
seventeen, eighteen, twenty and one-half, twenty-three, eighteen and one-half, eighteen, fifteen, eight, two,
in which they hit against the breakers of the shore of the south and it occurred, in the measurement of the
line, that said mouth in the region in which the operation was made has a width of five hundred yards from
shore to shore but, the two regular sandbanks that come out from each shore with such little depth that they
form breakers on both sides and, measured at its narrowest, they find only three hundred twenty yards.
Inspected in these terms, this canal or entry of the port measured and sounded, we continued, according
to the operation, to the sandbank or true Barra which is situated at the mouth of said port and extends
outside of these of the north shore to that of the south in the middle of which it has two sand hills which
do not extend out of the water but form, in said Barra, two breakers with eddies which they call bueyes;
one is found east of the mouth of the port and the other southeast. In order to execute this second
operation, the said honorable engineer directing it, he had the launch navigate toward the southern shore
until being outside on the Barra and, tying a line of twenty fathoms at the stern of said launch, he secured
a canoe which continued resolving the checking of the depth at the extension of said line with the aim of
getting a firm measure of the Barra at the time of sounding it in which terms, straightening the launch from
the south shore east toward the closest hill or buey, he encourted, under the related disposition, the
following depth: two feet, plus two, three and one-half, six and one-half, nine and one-half, eleven, eleven,
eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven, eight and, arriving at said head or buey, they found one and one-half feet of water; they decided to pass it on the west side and in it they found three and one-half feed of
depth within the semicircle they navigated until taking the line of south to north which they would follow
to inspect the canal of the Barra between this buey and the other; that, executing it in the proper form the
following depth was found: eleven feet, plus eleven, twelve and one-half, twelve and one-half, twelve and
one-half, fourteen, fourteen, fourteen and one-half, fourteen and one-half, fourteen and one-half, fourteen,
fourteen, fourteen, fourteen, eleven, eleven, eight, five, in which, encountering the second hill situated on
the east of the mouth of the port, we passed this on the east part with three and one-half feet of water and,
on top of it, one and one-half, and the launch was straightened toward the shore of the north taking the
direction of northwest in the same terms to inspect the depth and extension of this third canal which the
Barra forms between this buey and the shore of the north, and we found the following: three and one-half
feet, plus five, eleven, twelve and one-half, twelve and one-half, twelve and one-half, twelve and one-half,
twelve and one-half, twelve and one-half, eleven, eleven and one-half, eight, eight, eight, six, five, five,
two, with which we arrived at the shore of the north. The longitude of these canals that are formed from
shore to shore on the Barra by the bueyes or breakers is the following: from the southern shore to the first
hill there are six hundred yards, from this to the second seven hundred, and from it to the beach of the
north shore eight hundred eight, as the map, which the said honorable engineer should form, will
demonstrate all more clearly; in respect to this report, it is solely founded on the notes that were take of
what was inspected and encountered for the most exact completion of that which is ordered by his most
Excellent Lord Viceroy. And, although on this same day it was attempted to continue the inspection of
the shore to finalize the operations that were to be done, it was not possible to execute it due to the very
strong cooling of the breeze which occurs almost daily from the southeast and, the sea becoming rough,
it did not permit going out in the small launch of the schooner, and thus it was necessary to return on
board; in which terms, so that it be counted in these documents, the said honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo ordered it be put in as a proceeding and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de
Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
PROCEEDING OF THE INSPECTION OF THE SALT MINE OF THE SOUTH. - In twenty-seven days of the month of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, it being about four o'clock in the
afternoon of this day, the said gentlemen Don José Tienda de Cuervo and Don Agustín López de la
Cámara Alta, in order not to waste time in their charges, went from this schooner and embarked on its
launch and, with the intent of inspecting the salt mines called Morales situated to the south of the bay with
the mouth at the west southwest in a small bay, they entered through its canal, that leads to some small salt
marshes or shrimp beds that turn to the southeast, in order to go to its lake by a narrow channel with a
length of one league; said lake or salt pit extends eight leagues to the skirts of Tamaulipa Vieja, leaving
a short space on the shore of about four hundred yards, its width is of one league with different islets in
its center and the salt has not crystallized here either this year nor the last due to the early rains. The land
between the sea and this lake is very low and, from it to the hills or more elevated sites, there are three
leagues, all of it level without any more elevations than some small sand dunes whose level land is the
cause of, in the last flood, this entire area remaining inundated. And this proceeding having been
completed at nightfall, the said gentlemen retired on board the aforesaid schooner and the aforementioned
Don José Tienda de Cuervo ordered that everything related be made evident in these documents and that
that executed be put in them as a proceeding and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda
de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
THE SOUNDING OF THE PORT, CANALS, AND BARRA FOLLOWS.- In twenty-eight days
of the month of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, being in the said Port of Santander, the said
gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing the performance of his commission, it being about five
o'clock in the morning, left in the company of Don Agustín López de la Cámara Alta from aboard the
schooner embarking onto its launch and went to complete the inspection of this port making their entry
through the three canals that the sand bar has to exit to the sea to better mark its coast wherever they could
reach, the said honorable engineer directing the operation in the following manner: he ordered that the
launch go up to the mouth of the harbor and, noting its center at that point, he had them turn the bow
toward the east through the canal that is formed between the two bodies of water to sail, sounding in that
direction for a distance of one league to the sea, which was done, encountering the following depth: four
fathoms, four more, three, three and one-half, three, two and one-half, two and one-half, two and one-half,
two and one-half, two, two, two and one-half, three, three and one-half, three and one-half, four, four and
one-half, four and one-half, five, five and one-half, six, six and one half, six and one-half, eight, nine, ten,
with which depth, considering it at the proposed distance of one league, the bow was turned to the south
sailing a while along the same depth up to being in a position to enter the canal immediate to the south
shore from where the said honorable Don Agustín had them take a southward route to return to the
proposed point of the mouth of the harbor from where they had left and to inspect the entrance from here
to the port; which, put into execution and putting in the sounding line, they found the following depth: ten
fathoms, farther nine, eight, seven and one-half, seven, six and one-half, five and one-half, five, four and
one-half, four and one-half, four, three and one-half, three, three, three, two and one-half, two and one-half, two and one-half, two and one-half, two and one-half, two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two,
three, four, and, arriving here in the middle of the mouth of the harbor, they decided to go to inspect also
the third canal between the north shore and the summit of the hill of the east and the said honorable
engineer ordered them to turn the bow and sail to the east-north-east to go out again the same distance of
one league out to sea where, checking they found this depth: four leagues, farther three, two, two, two,
two, two, two, two, two and one-half, two and one-half, two and one-half, two and one-half, three, three,
three, three and one-half, four, four and one-half, five, five, five and one-half, six, six, six, six and one-half, seven, seven and one-half, eight, nine, and ten in which area, believing again to be at a distance of
one league from the point of the mouth of the harbor from where they had left, the said gentlemen felt they
had inspected the entries and exits of this port with sufficient care and they resolved to consider the
inspection concluded recommending only, so that there be no information left that they might want in this
matter, that from the point of the mouth of the harbor where they performed the operation of this day to
the summit of the hill or spring situated on the east in front of the mouth, there is a distance of one
thousand three hundred thirty rods and from the same point to the other spring of the south-east, that of
two thousand fifty rods and, the said gentlemen returning on board the schooner, the aforesaid Don José
Tienda de Cuervo ordered that they place all things related as a proceeding in these documents, as he has
witnessed it all and personally attended it, so that, with the rest which has been performed in this affair,
it be evident for the suitable documents and he signed it with the witnesses present who also concurred with
these performances. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco
José de Haro. -(rubric).
PROCEEDING. - In the said Port of Santander in twenty-eight days of the month of June of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honoroble Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the
previous proceedings and having recognized that, for their perfection, the other information that might
serve for its best justification and the clarity of its commission should follow these documents, wanting to
extend these with distinct care and minute attention than that which the shortness and obstacles of the vessel
where he finds himself permit, found it suitable to defer explaining his idea at the continuation of these
proceedings until returning to the town of Soto la Marina and not waste time in remaining in this port
making use of the breeze which is entering and is favorble for the rising of the river, for which motives
he resolved, along with the honorable Don Agustín de la Cámara Alta, to make sail with the schooner
where they are on board and he ordered that this deliberation be made evident in these documents putting
it in as a proceeding and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
JUDGEMENT REGARDING THE PROCEEDINGS PERFORMED. - In the town of Soto la
Marina in twenty-nine days of the month of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don
José Tienda de Cuervo, having returned there and examined the statements that he took in this settlement
before going to inspect the river, port, and Barra called Santander with the greatest attention and having
taken charge of that which has resulted from the transactions executed in this affair in the company of the
honorable engineer, finding it necessary for the carrying out of his duties that have been given to him by
the Most Excellent Viceroy (of which the present one is the most important) to give His Excellency all the
reports which he has accepted from the proceedings practiced so that these be coordinated in this same
book and following the others, judged it necessary to extend his idea about this particular and said: that,
of all of them, the following difficulties result for the aforesaid Port of Santander and its river la
Purificación to be able to be navigable to other vessels than those which draw little water and are like the
schooner in which the colonel Don José de Escandón travels it today.
First, that along a distance of one league in which on two occasions he entered into the sea in the
inspection of the entries and exits of this port, as is evident in the prior proceedings, he observed that the
coast on both sides of its mouth is very flat and not steep, as the captain states, as soon as he was able to
obtain the view which, due to the hour and the sun which was rising, was slowly displaying itself more in
respect to how clear the opposite horizon and all the shore were and, therefore, he noted the descerning
of the land being dangerous for large ships because he believes that at a distance of three leagues it can
barely be recognized due to the lack of remarkable points nor can the mouth of the port be well found
before a league and one-half or two from it in which major difficulties will offer themselves if the land is
covered with fog, as it often happens and it regularly occurs by means of the mist which the sun raises
from the large lakes which run along immediate to the shore on either side of the port, and this peculiar
obstacle might occur with any strong wind, since with them, especially on the north, the land is oppressed
and obscured.
Second that if, in a storm made by a wind from the east-north-east or south-east, any vessel,
especially if it arrives fatigued, attempts to put into harbor it shall be necessary, if passing space is lacking,
to run aground at the shore, since it would be rash to try to pass the Barra to enter into the port when the
immense sea on the outside obviously exposes it to getting lost even though being small due to its lack of
depth. And although this contingency can be remote, it is considered necessary to prevent it in case it
would occur in the season of drought when the Barra has less depth than that which has been found as the
statements affirm.
Third, that if a tired vessel comes in the season floods to stop at the port for protection, it will not
be able to attain it because the force of the river waters that exit to the sea through the mouth will impede
it and it will find itself in need of casting anchor outside where the shore does not afford any protection
nor any other security than that of some good cable to tie up if they have any.
Fourth, that even inside the port and in the one called a bay, the security that any vessel has is very
small since it is uncovered on all sides, nor does it have anymore cover than that which a bend in the river
furnishes which is formed in its entrance on the north side in front of the lookout where a boat can tie up
to land in two fathoms of water since the beach is steep there; but even here, if a flood suddenly occurs
it will have no security because the great palisades, which the river has, exposes it to the cutting of its ties
and in a strong storm or hurricane it is imperative that these be strong to hold themselves there.
Fifth, that the variation, evident in the statements, is continually experienced in the depth of the
Barra and the situation of the two summits of the hills or breakers which are there, will obligate all vessels
to lay anchor outside an not enter without first inspecting and sounding the canal that it have enough water
to navigate it, and in droughts in which the sands from outside overload the banks, it will be necessary
most often to lighten [the boat] due to the small amount of water that enters, thus it is necessary that the
vessels be very flat like the schooner of Don José de Escandón so that it does not go beyond nine or ten
"palmos" and, from one statement, it is evident that the Barra has come to have only seven, which could
easily happen again if the draughts last a long time as it has commonly happened in the colony, since
always when the strength of the floods do not cast the sands to the outside, those that the sea hurls collect
at the Barra, whose difference is demonstrated in nothing better than in the one found in the statements and
operations made, the declarants giving as the greatest depths that of eighteen "palmos", they found nearly
twenty, caused without doubt by the flood which brought the copious waters in the middle of last June.
Sixth, that, although the mouth of the port is as wide as has been described, on the north and south
shores there are some low beaches or sandbanks coming out whose breaking waves lessen the navigability
at the entry which can only be managed with ease with the north-east, east, and south-east winds and with
the south wind with some difficulty and the exit with the south-west, west, and north-west with ease and
with the north with care; the circumstance being somewhat the same to go up into the bay to the river in
that, in the entire thing, there is only one navigable canal from east to west which is one hundred rods wide
which cannot allow the vessels, which might go into it to the river, to turn without great difficulty nor the
ones that come down to exit without having favorable winds.
Seventh, that although the river is navigable with sufficient depth, as is noted in the documents,
until arriving at the port Soto la Marina, and farther up, in the area of el Caño de Salina of the north, a
little farther down than the one they call wharf, it diminished to two and one-half fathoms, with whose
depth a stretch continues which makes the going into and coming out of the river difficult for all vessels
which draw more water than corresponds to that which the river has here.
Eighth, that the force of the tides makes the going into and coming out of the river difficult for the
vessels, the wind that is enough to overcome it not being so fresh, such that they will find it necessary to
lay anchor several times as it was experienced with the schooner.
Ninth, that the bends, which the river has, cause the same winds already mentioned that are
favorable to enter or exit to become scarce, especially two to two and one-half leagues before arriving at
the pier of Soto la Marina because from the site called Cerro Gordo the edges begin to rise and to be more
covered with shrubs and trees.
But when these difficulties do not intervene to make the navigation to the port called Santander and
to the Purificación River going into the port of Soto la Marina difficult, it being necessary to consider the
regular or irregular works that might seem suitable to execute, either for the defense of the port or for its
security and conservation, this being one of the essential points that prepares the instruction that was given
to said gentleman by the Most Excellant Viceroy, trying not to lose sight of all that might lead to the best
performance of the confidence he has earned from his Excellency; he also finds it requisite in this matter
to expound his idea but, this reduced only in the light and information that the experience of other areas
administers with some observation and reflection in the matter in which the honorable engineer Don
Agustín de la Cámara Alta might inform, under which response he said:
That it would be necessary for its understanding, from the region they call Wharf and before the
waters of the river enlarge and spread into the bay, to reduce them and restrict their current with thick
walls or dams to bring them with more pressure in alleys for a distance of one league, which is half way
from there to the mouth of the port, so that in this submission it strength be greater and more constant to
remove the sand of the Barra to the outside and to repress those that the sea rushes into it; but this he finds
as irregular as much as inaccessible because he does not think it easy to find a means of restricting and
subjecting the abundance of water that rushes consistantly in the floods of the Purificación River, that its
great space of more than twenty-five leagues not being sufficient, it floods the camps where it travels and
there is still enough, with so much abundance, that there is more than enough to extend itself below,
inundate its bay, fill the great salt mines of its coasts and the flat fields which intervene in the environs of
four leagues, exiting finally with such violence to the sea that it drags and takes the beaches from its mouth
widening it, as a witness states, and it has been verified in reports; which clearly manifests that no works
that could be done in this district could ever be sufficient to contain this force when, before them, it takes
its current through the other plains opening mouths and canals in other parts as has been experienced on
various occasions; and, if these contingencies are present when it freely runs its course, the more reason
to wait if it wants to contract in its extremity.
That due to the strength with which especially the north and the other winds of the sea, east and
south-east, cast the sands onto the coast, in order that the port remain navigable after the proposed works
are done, it would be pertinent to conduct the same thick walls, dams, and locks with which they would
be able to bring the restricted waters up to the sea outside and the one that today is a Barra, so that by this
means it be impossible that they carry the sands and again form a bank in times of drought as it would
infallibly occur without this repair as is seen through experience but, whenever one or another works be
feasible at the increasing sums of money, the said gentleman felt it would not be possible to assure the
expansion of this second one due to believing that one cannot construct a works so solidly that, in an open
coast and unprotected on all sides that runs from north to south, it would withstand the continuous, strong
and even terrible thrusts and agitations of the sea, persuading himself that these would come to destroy it.
What with that explained and expending the high cost which one can recognize, the entry to this
port being assured with a competent canal for all ships to navigate through it, it would lack the fortification
of the mouth and then with other works to insure the security of the bay against invasions from enemies
and, since this is proper and normal, the honorable engineer would make it public with the assurance that
corresponds to his information, it seems to the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo he should
excuse himself in expressing his opinion but not in making it known that he judges that the commerce that
can be provided in the port of Santander is never capable of producing advantages that are equivalent or
counterbalance the greatly enlarged expenditure of wealth that would to be made to make it possible and
to fortify it, the Royal Treasury remaining, after all, burdened with the costs that the maintenance of the
works and the fortification would bring upon it; the competent garrison that would be required to be
maintained for the defense, the salaries of the governor and other officers of the staff of a garrison and the
forming of a tribunal of Royal Treasury with ministers and dependents, outside of the inconvenience that
the deviated distance of twenty-one leagues there are from this port to the settlement of its name offers.
And everything revealed being that which the said gentleman comprehends and he finds it requisite to
satisfy the charges that the instruction in which he has been ordered at this point requires, he ordered that
it be made evident in thos documents putting it at the end of the other proceedings, forming a book separate
from them for the documents that are suitable and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda
de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) - Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
DOCUMENT - In the said town of Soto la Marina in twenty-nine days of the ;month of June of
seventeen huncred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen all the
proceedings that have been performed up to now in the discussion of the state and survey of the river, port,
and Barra de Santander, in conformity to that which is ;ordered by the instruction with which he was
commissioned, said: that for now, lin order not to waste any time in the continuation of his charges, they
remain in this state and they form a separate notebook of all of them for ltheir better information as he has
proposed it in the prior proceedings and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo.
-(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
DOCUMENT - In the town of Laredo, settlement of this colony of the Gulf of Mexico, in twenty-three days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said gentleman Don José
Tienda de Cuervo, having arrived there, continuing the completion of his charges, found that there is as
subject living in this settlement who has sailed as an employee on the schooner of the honorable colonel
Don José de Escandón and has traveled the entry and exit of the Port of Santander and has lived in that
area for about two years occupied in fishing and, taking charge of the knowledge and experience that this
man could have acquired about its Barra and the entry and other circumstances of its river and port, he
ordered that he be made known to present himself before said gentleman and, that being done, they take
his statement in this affair asking him about all the circumstances that might be suitable and, that being
done, it be added at the end of these documents so that it produce the suitable effects on them and, for this
his document, he thus decreed, ordered, and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de
Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
PROCEEDING - In the said town of Laredo on the said twenty-third day of the month of July of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, he left to solicit and seek the subject which the preceding document
contains with the idea of obtaining his statement and, his having been found, it was made known to him
what was ordered so that he present himself before the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo and,
his having done and accomplished it, they took the statement that is ordered which is the one which follows
in these documents at the end of the folio of this proceeding and, so that it be evident, it is placed as
directed for the suitable purposes. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF DOMINGO GARCIA DE NAVEIRA. - In the town of Laredo in twenty-three
days of the month of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo, having met in this site a subject who has sailed as an employee on the schooner of the honorable
colonel Don José de Escandón and has traveled the entry and exit of the Port of Santander and has lived
in that area for about two years occupied in fishing, in regards to the knowledge and experience that he
was able to acquire about its depth at the Barra and the entry, he resolved and ordered said gentleman's
statement be taken in this affair and for it, having had him appear in his presence, he was asked his name,
from where he comes, and the rest about which this document is founded and, their having received an oath
by God and a cross so that he tell the truth about what he would be asked, and his having done it and
presented it as it is required, he was asked about that which relates to it and he said: that his name is
Domingo García de Naveira, that he is a native of the city of Coruña in the Kingdom of Galicia, that he
has served in employment on the schooner of the honorable Colonel Escandón about two months when
he went to make a trip from Veracruz to the port of Nuevo Santander in this colony in company of the
honorable captain Don Bernardo Vidal Bucarrons and that afterwards he remained in the site of that port
fishing, entering, and exiting through the Barra with a canoe that is kept in said site, and that there were
seven men with the witness on it all in the business of fishing and from this time it was understood that at
that time the entry to the Barra was not for the entry of any major vessel because at low tide they found
only six "palmos" of water and at high tide eight or nine and that this is evident to him because he sounded
it enough times for its survey at that related time; and that on the first schooner that the said honorable
colonel had, called la Judía, he knows that the need to unload it occurred because of the inability to enter
because it drew eight "palmos" of water unloaded and twelve loaded, to which it was found suitable to set
it crosswise to remedy these inconveniences and make use of its instruments; and that the other schooner
that exists today, which was the one in which the declarer rode, entered and it enters and exits freely
without any problem because of the small amount of water that it draws; and that, having returned to said
port afterwards, he observed that with the flooding of the river that they had last year, the water in the
Barra and the entry of the port had increased to eighteen "palmos" at which depth he left it without
knowing if any other thing has occurred but that he believes that, with the winds, there are some changes
in the seasons because the sands are carried as the winds blow from north to south and, because of this,
its entry has no security or stability. And that that which he has said is what he has understood in this
affair and he can say under the oath that he has made and he signed it and said he was thirty-three years
of age; the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnessed present. - José Tienda
de Cuervo. -(rubric) Domingo García -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de
Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT. - On the seventeenth of February of seventeen hundred fifty-eight, testimony was taken
from this book to give an account to his Majesty and it was placed in the office of His Excellency's court
secretary.
--------------------
TOWN OF SAN FERNANDO
In the town of San Fernando in four days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven
years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of
Dragoons of the New City of Veracruz and Inspecting Judge by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy
Marquis of las Amarillas for the inspection of the Gulf of Mexico: having arrived in this town today of this
date, found it suitable, in continuation of his charges, to follow the proceedings which should be done here
to acquaint himself in its inspection and state, according to the instruction with he is commissioned and
which is placed in book number one of this affair from folio four to eight and, in virtue of this, he ordered
that those which are conducive follow at the end of this document and that the statements and examinations
of witnesses that are to be made be in compliance with the questionaire which is found in the the mentioned
book number one, folio fifty-four, everything being done with the presence of the witnesses who were
appointed for this aim from the beginning of the proceedings of this commission and, so that all be done
with the required justification, he thus decreed, ordered, and signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
DOCUMENT.- In the town of San Fernando in four days of the month of July of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of
Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of the New City of Veracruz and Inspecting Judge by the Most Excellent
honorable Viceroy Marquis of las Amarillas for the proceedings that he attempts to do in this settlement
in discussion of its state, ordered that they make a general review of its settlers, residents, and inhabitants,
and that this order be made known to the captain Don Francisco S�nchez de Zamora, in whom the
political and military jurisdiction is found, so that he give a detailed list of the settlers, residents, and
inhabitants with which this town and its jurisdication is found including, in particular note, the officers,
overseers, and enlisted soldiers with salary who are there, giving their annual salary, the names of some
and others, those of their wives and the number of children and families, their goods, haciendas and
livestock, of what species they are and of what states some and others are composed, report of the service
that the officers and soldiers do, and information about by whom and in what form they are paid; and at
the same time the declared captain shall give information of the ranches or haciendas that are established
in its jurisdiction and the names of their owners and in which region they are situated and at what distance
to the settlement and of how many heads of cattle they are composed and which fields are placed in
cultivation and what heathen Indians are the most immediate to this town, what they are called and at what
distance they reside and whether they experience any annoyances from them; that a copy everything in this
document be turned over to the captain with the aim that, in conformity to it, he comply with that ordered
and respond at its termination, returning one and another original for whatever is suitable; and that, in
order to perform the act of review, the said captain summon the settlers, residents, and inhabitants,
officers, overseers, and soldiers so that tomorrow, that shall be counted as five [days] of the current
[month] at nine o'clock in the morning, they all present themselves with their arms in the plaza of this
settlement in order to execute it with the necessary formality and, for this its document, he thus decreed,
ordered, and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez
Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW.- In the town of San Fernando in five days of the month of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing his proceedings to inform
himself about the state of this settlement, as he justifiably desires, ordered the expediting of the review
which is ordered in these documents and for it, having received the list of its settlers, residents, and
squadron of officers and soldiers that had been ordered to be given to its captain in order to complete it
with all its requirements, it being the designated time, and the citizenry being present in the plaza, the said
review was begun calling each one by name and registering the arms of his use, which are composed of
a rifle, a sword and a shield, some pistols and blunderbusses; and asking the suitable questions it was
executed in this form:
SQUADRON OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS
WITH SALARY
Captain Don Francisco S�nchez de Zamora, married to Doña María Gertrudis, has five
children, all arms and ten horses, earns five hundred pesos per year.
Sergeant Pedro de los Santos Coy, married to Doña María Josefa de Iglesias, has one daughter,
all arms, twenty horses and three donkeys; earns two hundred-fifty pesos per year.
Pedro de Alc�ntara Villarreal, married to Doña B�rbara Zamora, has two children, all arms,
and six horses; earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Pedro Nolasco, married to Sebastiana de Vega, has all arms, nine horses, and has two children;
detached to Burgos and earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Juan de Mata Gutiérrez, married to María Gallegos, has three children, all arms, five horses;
earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
José Díaz de Lamadrid, [sic] married to Isabel María Treviño, has two children, all arms, six
horses; earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Marcelino Treviño, bachelor, has all arms, eight horses; earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
José Francisco Flores, married to Doña Rosalía López, has two children, all arms, and eight
horses and earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Alejandro López, married to Doña Rosalía López [sic], has all arms, ten horses and one donkey;
earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Francisco de la Garza, married to Antonia Resendi, has one daughter, all arms, and six horses;
earns two hundred twenty-five pesos.
SETTLERS OF THE FIRST ESTABLISHMENT
WITH FINANCIAL AID
Don José Enríquez Merino, married to Doña Josefa de Gracia, has three children, all arms, and
ten horses.
Don Pedro de Gracia, married to Doña María de Iglesias Merino, has four children, all arms,
and fourteen horses.
Don Jerónimo Villarreal, married to Doña María Josefa Lizondo, has one girl, all arms, and two
horses.
Doña María Josefa de la Serna, widow, has two children.
Don Ignacio Javier Galv�n, married to Doña Juana Nicolasa de Villarreal, has seven children,
all arms, and fifteen horses.
Don Joaquín Galv�n, married to Doña Ana María Lizondo, has five children, all arms and six
horses.
Don José Manuel Trimiño, widower, has six children, all arms, six horses and two donkeys.
María Tecla Rodríguez, widow, has one daughter.
José Francisco Palacios, married to Lugarda Treviño, has seven children and one nephew, all
arms and four horses.
Doña María de Cervera, widow, has one daughter and an orphan.
Casimiro López, married to María Rita Resendi, has four children, all arms, and eight horses.
Bartolomé de Alaniz, married to Catarina Capetillo, has nine children, all arms and seven
horses.
Lorenzo Vega, married to Gertrudis Serrano, has one son, all arms, and eight horses.
Miguel de Luna, married to Josefa de Hinojosa, has two children, all arms, and one horse.
José Manuel de Luna, married to María Margarita Zepeda, has five children, all arms, eighteen
horses, and one donkey.
Juan Munguía, married to Doña Isabel Gonz�lez, has eight children, all arms, and three horses.
Salvador de Sosa, married to Ana Josefa Galv�n, has six children, all arms, and six horses.
Miguel de Avila, married to Doña Catarina Gonz�lez, has seven children, all arms, and six
horses.
José Gabriel Medrano, married to Micaela de Vega, has six children, all arms, and ten horses.
Doña Ana María Montemayor, widow, has three children and three horses.
Don Juan Miguel García, deputy justice in this settlement, married to Juana María Gutiérrez,
has six children, all arms, fifteen horses, seven donkeys and fourteen female donkeys.
Gerardo Gutiérrez, married to María Antonia Ahumada, has four children, all arms, eight
horses, and seven female donkeys.
Francisco Gutiérrez, married to María Rufina, has six children, all arms, ten horses, and one
female donkey.
Mateo Cantú, absent with permission, married to María Gutiérrez, has four children, all arms,
and fifteen horses.
María Teresa Hidalgo, widow, has three children, three donkeys, six female donkeys, and twelve
horse.
Miguel Villafranca, married to Doña Josefa Palacios, has five children, all arms, and two horses.
Doña Javiera de Sosa, widow, has one son, all arms, and two horses.
José Ignacio García, bachelor, with five siblings, all arms, five horses, and four female donkeys.
Joaquín García, married to Juana de Hinojosa, has eight children, all arms without a sword, and
six horses.
Francisco García, married to Doña María Josefa Guajardo, has six children, all arms, and five
horses.
Marcos Faz, married to María Andrea de Hinojosa, has two children, arms, a rifle and a shield,
and one horse.
Juan José García, absent with permission, married to Francisca Javiera Salinas, has three
children, all arms, and three horses.
Santiago de la Garza, absent with permission, married to María de la Garza, has one daughter,
all arms, and three horses.
José Hip�lito Gallegos, married to Francisca de la Garza, has three children, all arms, and four
horses.
Juan de la Garza, married to Ana María Gil, has three daughters, all arms, and six horses.
Juan Cayetano de Avila, married to María Munguía, has three children, all arms, and five
horses.
Agustín de Zúña, widower, has five children, all arms, two horses, and is absent with
permission.
Santiago García, absent for medical attention, married to Gertrudis de Escobar, has eight
children, all arms, and two horses.
REGISTERED INHABITANTS WITHOUT FINANCIAL AID
Salvador de Jesús, married to Ana Josefa López, has a rifle, a shield, and four horses.
José Martín, married to Juliana de Castro.
Isabel de la Garza, widow, has three children.
Miguel Leonardo de Hinojosa, married to Ana María de los Ríos, has no arms or horses and
has one daughter.
Santiago de Medina, married to María Catarina Galv�n, has two children, all arms, and nine
horse.
Antonio Gutiérrez, married to Francisca García, has three children, all arms, two horses, and
is absent with permission.
José García de Abrego, married to Doña Josefa Oliva, has two children, all arms, twelve horses,
and four female donkeys.
José Joaquín García, married to Josefa de Sosa, has two children, all arms, and three horses.
Pedro Galv�n, married to Josefa de Medina, has all arms and four horses.
José Medrano, married to Gertrudis Pérez, has two children, one horse and without arms.
Don Juan Ignacio Treviño, married to Doña Josefa Leal, has seven children, all arms without
horses.
Don Nicol�s Merino Iglesias, reformed captain, married to Doña Tomasa Treviño, has two
children, all arms, thirty horses, eight donkeys, and six female donkeys.
Don José Cayetano Caballero, married to Doña Ana María de C�rdenas, has one orphan, three
horses, and without arms.
Juan de Medina, married to María Josefa Cantú, has two children and one orphan, all arms and
fifteen horses.
Francisco Mancilla, married to Eusebia García, has two children, two donkeys, five female
donkeys, without arms or horses.
José Antonio Tijerina, married to María de Castro.
Antonio Dami�n de Casas, married to Antonia García, has all arms, four horses, one donkey,
and one female donkey.
Pedro Mascorro, married to Rosalía García, has two children, all arms, and fourteen horses.
Joaquin García, married to Doña Juana Treviño, has one daughter, all arms, and two horses.
Hip�lito García, married to María Antonia de la Garza, has one daughter, all arms, six horses,
one donkey, and two female donkeys.
Lorenzo García, married to María de Jesús Medrano, has all arms and eight horses.
Juli�n de Hinojosa, married to Francisca Treviño, all arms and two horses.
Antonio de Luna, married to Mariana de Avila, has one daughter, without arms or horses.
José de Luna, married to María Olalla de la Garza, all arms, and three horses.
Antonio de Lerma, married to María García, has seven horses and without arms.
Manuel Pulgar, married to María Magdalena Galv�n, has one son, seven horses, and without
arms.
Juan de Dios de la Garza, married to María Guadalupe, has all arms and six horses.
José Clemente Treviño, married to Ana Gertrudis de Sosa, has two children, all arms, six
horses, one donkey and two female donkeys.
Juan Portante, married to María Josefa de la Garza, has one daughter, all arms, anf four tame
mares.
INHABITANTS NOT REGISTERED
Nicol�s de Guzm�n, married to María Tomasa del Puerto.
Pedro Arache, married to María Antonia Catache.
Juan José de Torres, bachelor.
Miguel de Torres, married to Juana Gómez.
Luis de Jesús Herrera, married to Juana Josefa de la Garza.
Isidro Martínez, married to Teresa de Jesús, has four children.
That, as it is evident and it appears from this review, the number of families in this settlement is
composed of seventy-six with three hundred ninety-three persons in this form: the nine of the squadron of
officers and soldiers enlisted and with salary who reside in this settlement, the captain enjoying five
hundred pesos per year, the sergeant two hundred fifty and the eight soldiers at two hundred twenty-five,
the thirty-eight [families] of settlers with financial aid and the twenty-nine registered without costs,
increased afterwards to this citizenry; and the personal, existing goods of these families are four thousand
five hundred seventy-eight head of equine breading beasts, one hundred ninety-one mules, thirty-three yoke
of oxen, eleven thousand six hundred ten head of minor livestock, one thousand four hundred four head
of bovine livestock, and one hundred eighty male and female donkeys, without including four hundred
ninety-nine horses that the squadron and its residents have for their use, according to all appearances from
the sections of this review, the one in which the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo has found
it suitable to recommend that, the missionary priest which there is in this settlement not having attended
it, is due to his having the defect of being totally deaf and, for which reason not even the residents
themselves have been able to comply with the ecclesiastical order this year; and executed in these terms,
he ordered it to be placed in the folder of documents formed in this town and he signed it with the
witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco
José de Haro. -(rubric).
PROCEEDING.- In the said town of San Fernando in six days of the month of July of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, for the complete justification
of his intentions to become acquainted with everything possible regarding the state of this settlement,
having a report that two synods are assigned to it which add up to seven hundred pesos annually paid by
his Majesty for the upkeeeep of the religious missionaries who should live there, finding that there is not
more than one and that he is as unqualified as he is totally deaf without being able to attend to the
fulfillment of his order or his administration of the citizenry, since in this present year in this settlement
they have not complied with the ecclesiastical mandate in order to better approve this information, had
appear before him the captain Don Francisco S�nchez de Zamora who has the command of this settlement
so that he might relate what occurred in this case, and he responded that this settlement has the assignation
of two religious apostolic missionaries for its support and that of its mission for which end his Majesty pays
seven hundred pesos annually, and that in this supposition they have come and aided frequently, only
missing a few times, since there was one occasion in which only one came after almost a year's absence
and at the present time, since the month of January of this year when Fray Joaquín García left, there has
been no other to return and they have maintained themselves thus only with the one who is at the mission
with the defect of deafness, the reason for which they have not confessed this year; and, the said gentleman
having seen that these reasons justified the information he had and have been expressed, he ordered the
said captain to sign it and the said gentleman did theame for whatever documents they might be suitable,
for which it is put in as a proceeding. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Francisco S�nchez de Zamora.
-(rubic) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW OF THE INDIANS.- In the town of San Fernando in six days of the month of July of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in continuation of
the proceedings which he is attempting to perform in this settlement, went to the site in where the mission,
the priest's home, the Indian shacks, and the its chapel are today at a distance from this town of one quarter
league and, the Indians having been brought together in the best manner that they were able to draw them
up in order to count them, the two Pintos and Quinicuanes tribes placed in groups, each one by itself, and
the women and children apart; the said gentleman, counting them in the best way he could, found that of
the Pintos there were from thirty-six to thirty-eight Indians warriors and of the Quinicuanes from twenty-five to twenty-seven. And, having gone to the group where the women and children were, he noticed that
the women were about eighty of one and another tribe and about thirty young people of both; and it
appearing to him that the number of women was excessive, asking about the reason, he was told that it
consisted in that many Indians died in an epidemic which they had suffered. These two tribes are governed
in the mission by one principal captain called Don Marcos de Villanueva, an Indian who has a formal
office from Escandón and certification from don Antonio Ladrón de Guevara from various services
which he has done whose contracts he presented to the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo
manifesting being of the Pinto tribe, reared in the San Crist�bal Mission of the Nuevo Reino de León
where he was baptised, and being married by the church in whose recognition he lives, which the
missionary priest confirmed as being correct; and there is another captain from the same Pintos called
Salvador, an Indian of favorable inclinations and loyal who also was from the said San Crist�bal Mission,
baptised, somewhat applied to the doctrine but not very well instructed, notwithstanding being always ready
to confess and to receive the sacraments so the priest reports; there is another captain from the Quinicuanes
known by the name of Isidoro but this one is a heathen; and the missionary priest has another christian
Indian from the San Crist�bal Mission, married by the church, son-in-law of the said captain Don Marcos
called Bautista, who is dedicated to teaching the doctrine to the other Indians which the said gentleman
Don José saw with great joy that he prayed before the other Indians, the others repeating what Bautista was
saying, in which view the said gentleman conjectured that these two tribes could be reputed to be
congregated and subjected to the doctrine by their continuous attendance in the mission and their not
leaving it unless the lack of food obliges them on the occasions that the priest has nothing to give them to
eat, in which case they use their permission and that of the captain of the town; all of which was informed
to the said gentleman by the missionary priest and by the captain of the said mission also assuring that this
has not happened in a long time since, although the crop has not produced enough corn for their support,
sometimes they have bought it in exchange for salt and other from fish which the same Indians catch, with
which he has been helping them, utilizing also the herd of the mission so that they do not lack; and, said
gentleman wanting to inform himself also from the said missionary priest about the number of baptised
Indians there were, it was made evident of there being twelve among adults and children from the two
tribes besides the captains and that there were none married by the church, adding that at the time of death
is when they are normally baptised conditionally or according to its importunity, and that seventy-nine
Pintos and fifty-four Quinicueños have died thus in the epidemic that they suffered with the benefit. And
being in this proceeding, another captain called Hilario arrived in the said site of the mission with the
Indians from his hamlet who are Querejenos, who live on the banks of the lakes or salt fields which are
on the coast at eight to ten leagues distance from this site and, having presented himself before the said
gentleman with a few words which in some way he explained in the Spanish language and afterwards,
through an interpreter, it was found out that the said Indian Hilario was from the San Crist�bal Mission,
baptised there but that he did not live like a christian in any manner nor did any of the others recognize
a subjection to the doctrine because they only entered and exited the town doing no damage whatsoever,
communicating peacefulness and, their number being noted, they found them to be about twenty-three
Indians warriors and fifty women and children, having learned from these same people that there are other
hamlets of Comecrudos located on the shores of the same lakes and shores already mentioned with their
captain whom they call Joaquín, all of them heathens, that they also enter and exit causing no problems.
And, having concluded this proceeding in these terms, the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo
ordered that it be recorded in the documents and be made evident, as it expressed, for the suitable
documents, that which is accomplished as it was ordered and the said gentleman signed it with the
witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) --Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco
José de Haro. -(rubric).
Don Francisco S�nchez de Zamora, captain of this town and its royal squadron, in complying
with the order of Your Lordship which precedes, presented a list which contains the settlers of this said
town and its royal squadron with the declaration and circumstances of which I am advised.
As to the other points referred to, I say about the first that this royal squadron is composed today
of eight posts of soldiers, two of them are detached to the town of Burgos, two aid at the mission to assure
the permanence of the Indians congregated there; from the other four, there are three who are stationed
in charge of the horses of the post and many times there are only two due to the need of taking the other
one for things that occur in the royal service. The sergeant goes daily to visit and check said horses. The
remaining soldier is continually present on horseback in this town to serve as sentry there and for other
necessities that might occur and, whenever it is necessary to have a fishing expedition or go out to till the
earth, I go, with the appointed lieutenant of this aforesaid town who serves at his expense without salary,
along with the required settlers who do the royal service with pleasure.
For the perception of the annual salary that is due annually, he empowers the captain Don Agustín
de Iglesias Cotillo, resident and warehouse keeper of the Court of Mexico who remits the documents that
they need by means of the honorable general Don José Escandón and his Lordship directs them to the
captains for the payment of salaries to its respective squadrons and, if within the year they need corn for
their support, some reales, arms, and horses, they are requested by means of said honorable general.
Within the confines of this town there are ten ranches for planting and livestock raising begun by
several settlers, one by the reformed captain Don Nicol�s Merino in the region they call el Grullo, a
distance of four leagues from it; another by Doña Gertrudis Selvera, widow of Don José López, in
partnership with her children, in the region that they call la Loma de los Bueyes at a distance of one league;
another one begun by me called San Isidro at the same distance; the one of San Bartolomé de Alanis in the
region of el Zapote at a distance of two leagues; Joaquín García has his contiguous to mine; the one of
José Treviño at a distance of four and one-half leagues; in the region of León is Manuel de Luna with
another four residents at a distance of about four leagues; Salvador de Sosa has his in company with Don
Joaquín Galv�n at a distance of three-fourths of a league and they have called it San Antonio de la Pila;
José Salinas has one with Don Jerónimo de Villarreal in the region of La Joya at a distance of about one-half league; José García de Abrego in el Potrero de las Animas at a distance of about two leagues and
one-half.
The heathen Indians, that are immediate to this town who enter and exit and are not congregated
in the mission, are of the Tedejeños and Comecrudos tribes, living together at the shores of the lake of la
Barra and where this river enters into them at a distance of about ten leagues; they support themselves
without causing any problems, so docile that, were there no lack of corn they would be able to be
congregated in this mission. I have settlers and soldiers at the ready as it is arranged for me by Your
Lordship.
It seems to me that I have complied with that which I have stated, by the order of Your Lordship
who, if he were to need anything else, should be served to advise me since I am ready to execute it. Town
of San Fernando and July fifth of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. - Francisco S�nchez de Zamora. -
(rubric)
Fray Buenaventura de Rivera Bern�rdez, apostolic preacher of el Colegio de Nuestra Señora
de Guadalupe de Zacatecas, minister of la Misión de Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Cabezón de la Sal and
town of San Fernando, in virtue of the plea and charge which preceeds, I tell the truth as I should and it
is permited of me in view of the short time since I received said mission which is from the twenty-first of
January of this present year, regarding the points expressed in the following manner:
For that which says: How many were the first settlers of this town? I do not know it due to the
short time that I have practiced the ministry in which I find myself.
Item: That I give a register of the settlers, etc.? I do it in the same manner that it is requested of
me, naming persons, families, and their state.
Item: information about the families and persons of which the mission is composed and the Indian
congregation, their tribes, etc.? I say: that within the parish, present every day for the christian doctrine
and for the work from the time of the cited day that I took over the mission, I have only seen and had
under instruction two tribes and these have remained here: one of them is of los Pintos which is composed
of eighty-nine persons, men, women, young and old; the other is composed of eighty-four (these are called
Quinicuanes) in all of all types, there are forty-two warriors, twenty-one of each one, they are all attending
christian doctrine in a most docile manner, dedicated to the work, very attentive, and subjected to the
priests. From one and the other tribe they have baptised in artículo mortis seventy-nine Pintos, fifty-four
Quinicuanes, and twelve who are baptized and alive, and the captain of the Pinto tribe, married by the
church, Marcos de Villanueva. They all know how to pray very well, further I do not know the motive
that my predecessors might have had in not baptizing them; I have not done it in the short time since the
mission was turned over to me due to my being engaged in its fabrication in the region that they requested
of the honorable colonel, I have completed the church and a poor and religious convent but better and more
decent then that which they have had up to now and, if God be served, it shall all be built of stone; the
mission is found placed on a small hill surrounded by good fields at a distance of one-half league from the
presidio.
Being added to this mission are other tribes which have not come for some time; one of them is
of the Quedejeños which are composed of seventy-three persons in all, this one is found here today; the
other one is of the Comecrudos, these I have not seen since I have been here but they were here when the
R. F. President Fray Dimas Chacón came and I saw them at that time; I do not know their number.
Item: Who financed the transportation at the first encouragement, etc.? One and another clause
of this point I totally do not know.
Item: What measures have favored the subsistance of this town and whether the Indians, etc.?
About the first I know nothing. From the sons I know that the prior priest Rada was rescued by the
honorable colonel on various occasions with sufficient corn, about four hundred "fanegas", the same priest
told me.
Item: What synod is assigned to O.F., etc? I say that in this mission there have always been two
priests and the synod is of three hundred fifty pesos for each one, with this His Majesty helps us, God
keep Him, it seems to me it is paid by our brother Aguirre, syndic of Mexico. Within it are clothes,
chocolate, soap, blankets, cloth, etc. I do not know if my predecessors received any financial aid, they
have not even offered it to me nor have I asked for it nor has it been given to me, outside of the honorable
colonel who remedies my needs when I have any. May God repay him.
Item: the holy vessels, ornaments, and I add it to this which his Majesty gave as a commission, still
exist, the priests placing all efforts in their conservation; the value which it had and that it has I do not
know.
Item: all the sons are found collected, congregated, and converted, they all attend daily christian
indoctrination with much attention and devotion. They have not built their shacks due to their working in
the fields, the church, and the convent; they live in their "toritos" and most of them are building shacks
at a distance of one-half league from the settlers and town and, from a petition of the sons, the mission is
found in the present region. I know that their lands have been given to the mission but I do not know how
many, where, nor if they have yet been distributed; the fields that are planted are worked by the sons with
aid of the priest and peons. The goods that the mission has are sixteen harnessed mules, three flocks of
mares with some little mules, twenty-four tamed horses, about seventy cows, about eight equipped yokes
of oxen, four hundred fifty-two heads of minor livestock, forty-three "fanegas" of corn, eight loads of salt,
twenty "arrobas" of fish, and these are the mines that maintain this mission.
Item: How long has it been since the Indian congregation was established, etc.? This I do not
know; what I do know and I have seen is that they maintain themselves in this mission going out to
"trinear" at la Chorrera and Capote, borders contiguous to this mission. The hope that I have of its
continuation and growth is that the mission has its goods and with the salt and fish, it seems to me it can
and, in fact, maintains itself. They may tell me that the salt stops when it rains, as it happens now, it is
thus true but a good sign, there shall be corn if they put all the effort in the planting rather than in the salt;
in the same case that it rains there shall be no salt, that is the way it is but, by the same token (if they plant)
they shall have corn. These foresights and means are the ones that I have taken although in such a short
and bad time but, thanks to Him most high whose help is superior to all, this mission neither needs
anything nor covets any other one of the colony.
Item: How long has it been since this town was established, etc.? I do not know all that has to do
with this point because I first saw it in this region with the appellation of San Fernando and I have not seen
any change in it or the name.
Item: How many measures of corn are sown, etc.? In this I have no experience and, although I
know that the captain and some of the residents have planted, I do not know how much nor how much they
harvest. I have twenty-two "almudes" planted and it is very beautiful, God willing it will be fruitful.
There is no irrigation canal but God Our Lord rewards us with copious rains and if these are lacking there
will be much salt and fish and the citizenry makes use of these and they are doing very will with it; the
little they have they owe to this.
Item: If the land is healthy, etc? From the experience I have I say, yes, and it is very suitable for
the settlers; the soil is good for planting corn, vegetables, etc, that everything, although with some work
due to the lack of water, but in various parts they have rivers from which they provide themselves even
for drinking, for raising livestock and horses, so the honorable residents say, since some had nothing and
now they all have [something].
Item: this town and mission enjoy much peace and tranquility, of the others I do not know the
truth.
Item: Whether I know if the provincial borders have experienced any injury, etc.? About all that
this point expresses I know nothing.
And, finally, about the hope I conceive of the conversion of the Indians, etc., I defer myself to that
which I have related on the other side above because the children crave to be in the mission that might be
and, having to support them making use of those means which I relate there, in a short time, God willing,
they shall be christians, his Majesty permitting so that the infinite price of his blood not be ill used. Amen.
This is the truth about that which is ordered of me in the letter of entreaty and, it being thus, he
signed in this mission of Nuestro Señor del Rosario on the sixth of June of seventeen hundred fifty-seven
years. - Fray Buenaventura de Rivera - (rubric)
DOCUMENT. - In the town of San Fernando in six days of the month of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo said: that having found it suitable not to
waste the time that the missionary father used in responding to the letter of entreaty sent to him, he
practiced, in the meantime, the proceedings of taking the necessary statements with which to inform himself
about the state of this settlement to avoid the delays and expenses which would result for the Royal
Treasury and, in order not to be discordant in the placement of the dates of these documents outside of the
proper order, he ordered that, this declaration being made in them for his information, the said declarations
be put at this continuation for the necessary documents and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF DON NICOLAS DE IGLESIAS MERINO. - In the town of San Fernando
in four days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable don José Tienda
de Cuervo, in continuation of the proceedings which he intends doing in this settlement to inform himself
as to its state had, appear before him Don Nicol�s de Iglesias Merino. reformed captain, old setter of it
in whose charge those of the first establishment came, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross
so that he tell the truth in what would be asked of him and equally that he keep secret regarding it and his
answer and, his having done it and offered it, as is required, he was interrogated according to the
questionnaire from the folder number one of these proceedings to which questions he responded the
following:
To the first question he said: that before the conquest of this colony he had not traveled through
the Sierra Gorda nor had he any information of its state nor whether it had settlements or converted Indian
villages but that at the present he knows that Palmillas, el Jaumave, and el Real de los Infantes are
settlements that are situated in it and that he has known that before the conquest these same ones were
already established and that el Jaumave had converted Indian villages and, regarding the rest, he does not
know whether they existed; that he does not know the number of settlers of which they are composed but
that he has heard they have grown in their citizenry from that time to now and that he has also heard that
El Jaumave had a Franciscan minister for its assistance.
To the second question he said: that the first settlers of this town, whom the declarant led, proceed
from Nuevo Reino de León, from the town of Cadereyta, and other parts of the same kingdom; that there
were forty-three of the first establishment with financial help, the thirty-seven with one hundred pesos each,
and six at fifty. And that the means which have favored the support of these [settlers] have been two
hundred "fanegas" of corn which the honorable general gave to distribute to the citizenry of which Don
Antonio de Guevara took twenty of them for the town of Santander leaving only one hundred eighty in
this town; and also given by said honorable general were twenty loads of flour that were distributed by the
hand of the declarant to the residents and soldiers of this settlement due to there not being any corn, none
of which has been paid at all. And that the congregated Indians that were there at that time he knows were
given some aid of corn, blankets, cloth, and printed cotton which, figuring it at three and one-half pesos
a measure of corn and eighteen pesos a load of flour, which is what it cost at that time, it would come to
nine hundred ninety pesos. And, although he cannot make an accurate account of how much the value
might be of what has been given to the Indians, nevertheless, it seems to him it could be about two hundred
pesos more or less.
And following the preceding he was asked how many settlers or residents have increased up to the
present, from where they have come, and how they have been financed for their trip and their
establishment, he said; that to that first establishment of forty-three settlers whom he brought for the
encouragement of this settlement he also brought twelve families more without financial aid who came
voluntarily with only a little help of beasts for their transport in which the declarant helped them, and that
afterwards they have increased in children of residents who have married and others came from outside,
that he cannot report the number that they might be but that it is evident that none of these have had any
financial help for their establishment.
To the third question he said: that at a distance of one league from this settlement, more or less,
is the area for a mission and a civilized Indian congregation in which site the same Indians, who are found
congregated there, have built their shacks in which they live separate from this citizenry.
To the fourth question he said: that he knows that although the apostolic father minister has not
been given possession of the lands and sites upon which the Indians should found their subsistance, he is
transferred in that site and lands and, thus, he has cultivated them and he cultivates not only these but any
others that he wishes in the boundries of this jurisdiction which he improves, cultivates, and plants with
the same Indians who also care for the other goods which are dedicated to this mission composed of four
or five yokes of oxen, sixty or seventy breeding horses, about twenty or thirty cows, some horses, some
mules, about four hundred heads of minor livestock "de lana y pelo," and agricultural equipment and the
other provisions for farming. And regarding the settlers, they have not been given possession of those
lands they were offered because they are only farming in common from the whole of the boundary, each
one however many he has been able to, chosen in those areas which they have found as most suitable.
To the fifth question he said: that he knows that the river called Conchas which begins in the los
Bernalejos Lake at the point of the Sierra Tamaulipa la Nueva, jurisdiction of Linares of the Nuevo Reino
de León, passes through this town and continues on until ending in some bays at the seacoast on the east
side at about fourteen or fifteen leagues from this town. He knows there is another river called Río Grande
or Bravo del Norte which, although he does not know its origin, his not having seen it, he has heard that
it begins at the Laguna de Chapala of Nuevo México and that, combined with many other streams, it enters
into this colony, passes through the settlement of Dolores, continues immediate to the town of Mier, and
also passes near Camargo and more closely to the town of Reynosa and, from there, it continues in a
straight line until ending at the sea, dividing itself prior to that into two branches, the one ends in the bays
and the other heads straight ahead toward it [obviously the town], and that he does not know about any
other in this part of the north.
To the sixth question he said: that he knows that in Hoyos, Aguayo, and Llera, there are irrigation
canals taken from their rivers with whose benefit they are able to irrigate and fertilize their lands and that
he also knows that in G�emes, Escandon, Padilla, and Horcasitas they have tried on various occasions to
obtain it from its rivers and that they have not been able to manage it and that the same has happened in
this settlement of San Fernando which has not been able to build one.
To the seventh question he said: that he knows that in Santander there is an irrigation canal
proceeding from a spring or water source and that he does not know that there might be another settlement
that has the same comfort in this colony.
To the eighth question he said: that the use made of these benefits of irrigation is to be able to have
early crops on these lands and be able to plant corn, cane, cotton, and other seeds, vegetables, and plants
and that the most accredited of the crops is corn, it being the produce that is worked with the most
enthusiasm and application. And the lands which at present would be put into production and cultivation
would be, more or less, enough to plant six measures.
To the ninth question he said: that the number of measures of corn that have been planted this
present year by the residents and the mission would be about six measures more or less, although in others
years the planting has been more because the mission has had more planting and major economy and
application and that these they have experienced in the crops when the years have been happy ones, that
they have produced up to one hundred measures for each one planted, but this has only been experienced
in the crops of the mission since, in that which has to do with the citizenry, they have not formally reaped
any profit upon which to found this account since sometimes, due to the misfortune of season and others
because of the risk of the livestock, the plantings have not been varified because of those made being so
short due to the lack of provisions and the poverty that this citizenry has since, in the eight or nine years
that they have been established here, they have not been able to get on their feet in this exercise, the most
urgent being the depending of all the sustenance on it and there being no other recourse in consideration
of that in spite of their not having had experience here in the planting of wheat, it is evident to him because
of his having seen it, that in Santander by the order of the honorable general, they planted twelve
"cargas" and a few less of barley and some were lost due to the soil not having produced them and he
is sure that the same would occur in this area due to the very different climates that this planting needs,
the much heat and the strong and dry winds not giving much room for such seeds to be able to produce;
and that the corn harvests that they have had in this settlement and they expect to have from the planting
made this year have not been sufficient nor can they be for their maintenance since it has been necessary
to buy that which they have needed, and he shall have to do the same, from the immediate settlements and
the borders utilizing, in order to buy it, the exchange of salt that they harvest from the lakes that crystallize
in the parts of the coast in the jurisdiction of this settlement, but this has not been able to be verified in
order to have this assistance in this last year due to the inundations and floods that occur nor at the present
due to the early rains for which reason they find themselves in grave apprehension to be able to remedy
their needs, and they shall be able to withstand it, as they have been doing it, at the cost of diminishing
their livestock and goods exposed to the contingencies of having to transport them to the borders along the
bad roads and risks of the Indians.
To the tenth question he said: that he knows, from having seen them, that the settlements situated
at the coast of the Gulf of Mexico are Altamira, Escandón, Santa B�rbara, Llera, Aguayo, Hoyos, G�emes,
Padilla, Santander, Santillana, Soto la Marina, Burgos, Reynosa, and this one of San Fernando that,
although he does not know exactly at what distance they are from the sea from this last one up to the Barra
that they call San Fernando which is the area where the salt mines are to which he referred in the previous
question, there should be from eight to nine leagues. And that, although he has heard that there are other
settlements and he knows the sites where they are, he has not been in them since they were founded. And
that he does not know whether there are a port, bays, or anchorages in all of this coast in which major or
minor vessels could enter other than that which they call Santander and that, his having been in it the first
time that he sailed the schooner of the honorable General Escandón, he heard talk of the entry being
narrower before and that it was wider now because the flood had opened it and that all the coast is low and
even without sand dunes, hills, or mountains.
To the eleventh question he said: that all the land of this colony is suitable for the raising of major
and minor livestock and that in the limits of this settlement there are two or three ranches already
established; that one belongs to the declarer at a distance of about four leagues from this town up from the
river its site called el Grullo, which is composed of one hundred heads of cattle, three hundred breeding
horses, two thousand heads of sheep, and one thousand head of "pelo" and some lands cultivated for
farming; another one in the site or road that goes to Monterrey up toward the river, property of Gertrudis
de Cervera, widow, which is also composed of major and minor livestock, and another one which is being
set up by somebody Luna, resident of this settlement, at about four leagues from it also of the said species;
and he also knows that immediate to this Bartolo de Alanís has another ranch with the same species of
livestock, and all of them experience very good progress in their growth.
To the twelfth question he said: that he knows that in the mountain called Bercebú in la Tamaulipa
Nueva at the place that makes the center of the mountain, among Libre de Oro, el Diente, las Nueces, and
Potrero de Flechadores, there is a mine with four openings, that he does not know what beginning they had
nor whether they are running in anyone's name at present but that it has been a little more than three years
that the declarant went into that site on the order of its General Escandón and brought two loads of ores
of which they made an assay on a little more than one pound from which they drew a small quantity of
silver and that he knows of no others.
To the thirteenth question he said: that in the Port of Santander on the south part there is a salt mine
that they call Morales that crystallizes good salt in abundance and another one in the part of the north of
the same port which, he has heard, have not crystallized in the last year nor in this one; and that in this
settlement on its seacoast, eight leagues from this town, there are several lakes that crystallize in abundance
and that on the other side of the Río Grande, at its end at the seacoast, there are several lakes that
crystallize rock salt very abundantly in years of draught and much sun; that, this occurring, from one and
another he can expect such abundant harvests that they can maintain this colony, its borders, and many
other parts.
To the fourteenth question he said: that the settlements that are comprised in this circle of this
colony, its haciendas, settlers, and residents remain quiet and in good communication and that, regarding
the congregation of Indians, he believes that in all parts of this colony they lack encouragement and
cultivation since, from those of this settlement, it is judged in the variety that is found in them of subsisting
in subjection due to the lack of the more or less zeal that is put into this, since he finds that in nothing are
they subjected to obedience nor indoctrination since only those that have remained here from the beginning
of the settlement are those called Pintos and these have been permanent since it is their own land upon
which the mission lies and they attend it and because of the fidelity with which an old Indian, one of their
captains, subdues them; that these should comprise the number of twenty families and in them about eighty
people of both sexes of which, it seems to him, there might be only one or two christians, this sad lack
depending on the fact that the priests do not put in the enthusiasm these need, and the present state credits
it to the fact that there is a missionary priest here so totally deaf that even the settlers and residents have
spent this year without having complied with the mandate of the church which can be evidence of the
gravity of this defect to be able to understand these said Indians or to make oneself understood with them;
and thus it is seen that in the rest of the Pamoranos, Quinicuanes, Querejeños, Comecrudos,
Paniaquiapenes, who are the ones who frequently enter and exit in this settlement, observe no obedience,
subjection, nor stability but rather this results in thefts and injuries to the citizenry without there being any
remedy used, by which it is believed that these will be maintained tenaciously until with other measures
time will convert them.
To the fifteenth question he said: that the Sierra Madre or Sierra Gorda he considers the same one,
that it is the one that divides this colony from its borders; and that the Sierra Tamaulipa la Nueva is in the
site called el Diente immediate to Baratillo, that it furnished a region suitable to place a settlement with a
very good spring and land, that he believes could serve as much relief and benefit for the other settlements
of the plains in the contention with the Indians by placing a good captain who would perform his obligation
in subduing them.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the borders of el Nuevo Reino de León to this colony are
the town of Linares at six leagues and the town of Cerralvo at ten leagues, more or less, and that he knows
of no others. And that he is sure that the benefit that the borders have received since the conquest of this
colony is great because they no longer experience those very frequent annoyances with which the Indians
bothered them before.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the total number of enlisted captains,
corporals, and soldiers with salary that there are in all this colony but that he does know that in this town
there is a captain with a salary of five hundred pesos, a sergeant with two hundred fifty, and six soldiers
at two hundred twenty-five and that the method in which they are satisfied is by the honorable general who
places in the power of the captain the commodities with which he is supposed to satisfy them and that he
knows that no one is paid in reales and that the directions of their service in this settlement are: the captain
to have the political and military command of the settlement, the sergeant is the one who works in the
excursions and in whatever is needed, and of the soldiers, two are present at the mission caring for the
needs of the priest and caring for the goods that he has there, another two are in continuous aide to the
captain and the other two guarding (and the sergeant with them) the horses of the citizenry, theirs, and of
the other officials, and that the soldiers who are at the mission and those who are with the horses are used
for nothing else even if they might need to make any excursions because, in whatever emergency, the ones
who are ready are the residents making, at their own costs, the excursions and campaigns necessary in the
persuit of the hostile Indians and in the assistance of the immediate settlements.
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data he said: that they do not concern him in
anything. And it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said and declared, so that he
say whether he needs to add or remove anything or that he approve it, he said: that what he has said is the
truth by the oath that he has made, and that he affirms and approves it without needing to change or
remove anything, but rather if it be necessary, he would say it anew, and he signed it and stated being of
the age of fifty-five years; the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses
present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Nicol�s de Iglesias Merino - (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez
Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF JOSE CAYETANO CABALLERO. - In the town of San Fernando in five
days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable don José Tienda de
Cuervo, continuing these proceedings, had appear before him José Cayetano Caballero, voluntary settler
without financial aid of the first establishment of this town, from whom he received an oath by God and
a cross so that he tell the truth in what would be asked of him, and his having done it and offered it, as is
required, he was interrogated according to the questionnaire and he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that he does not know in what state the Sierra Gorda was before the
conquest but that he has heard that el Jaumave, Pamillas, and Tula were already settlements before but that
he does not know of what citizenry they were composed nor by what missions or apostolic missionaries
they were assisted.
To the second question he said: that he does not know exactly how many first settlers there were
who, with financial aid, came to this establishment but he does know that these proceed from el Nuevo
Reino de León and that each family had one hundred pesos of financial aid for their establishment; and that
the means that have been most favorable for the subsistance of this citizenry have been an aid of corn
which the honorable General Escandón gave at the beginning of this establishment, that he cannot say
exactly how many measures they might have been and that also the Indians, who found themselves
congregated in that season, were given some corn and clothes, that he cannot calculate the amount of any
of it.
And at the continuation of the aforesaid, he was asked how many settlers or residents have
increased up to the present, from where they have come, and how they have been financed for their
establishment, he said: that he does not have it before him nor can he give the exact information of the
increase of residents but that he does know that there are several more who have come voluntarily from
several parts and others from children of the residents who have married, ones who have had no financial
aid to establish themselves.
To the third question he said: that at a distance of one league, more or less, from this settlement
is the site which, from the beginning of this settlement, was assigned for the mission with lands for farming
in which the Indians should place themselves, where they built no quarters or shacks in which they could
live because it was left to their discretion that they would begin building them themselves but from two or
three months ago until today, the present missionary priest has moved closer to this settlement with his
fields and goods, electing a site of lands a quarter of a league from this town where he has placed his goods
and himself, building shacks for their habitation and for a chapel followed by the Pinto Indians and some
Pamoranos who also have built their shacks in that site but without subjugation to christian indoctrination
since they barely subsist with giving them what to eat and, this ceasing, they go to the woods from where
they do not return until they have word of having that with which they can be maintained, and that these,
it appears to him, compose the number of forty or fifty families with one hundred fifty persons, more or
less, of which there are a few christian fugitives who live in the same way as the others without observing
any ministries or rites of Our Holy Faith and, although among these there are two who act as captains and
another who always maintain themselves on hand and are the ones who alone contain the others observing
christianity, they have not been able to convert the others to this.
To the fourth question he said: that he does not know whether, in the name of the converted and
congregated Indians, they might have given possession to the apostolic ministers of the lands and sites in
which they are found at the present time, but he has heard that they have had permission from the
honorable General Escandón to come to the region where they are found at present; and that the settlers
have not had possession of the lands up to now because they are simply utilizing those that each one can
and wants to farm wherever he finds best in the five leagues north, south, east, and west, that comprises
its jurisdiction for which reason there are only very few lands placed into cultivation.
To the fifth question he said: that the river called Conchas, which begins at the Sierra Gorda, enters
into this colony through the border of el Nuevo Reino de León and passes near the settlement of Burgos
and, continuing, it becomes the one which serves this settlement and goes to end in some extended lakes
that end at the coast of the sea on the east side; another river called San Juan, which begins in the Sierra
Gorda, passes through Camargo, and ends at the Río Grande del Norte; another named el Río Grande del
Norte called el Bravo, whose origin he does not know, which passes through Reynosa and on the eastern
part it continues in two branches, one of which shrinks or distributes itself in one of the lakes toward the
coast and the other one ends directly to the sea; another river called el Salado which begins from the area
of the borders of el vo Reino de León whose origin he does not know exactly, that passs through la Revilla
and continues on to end in the Río Grande, and that he knows of no others.
To the sixth question he said: that he knows that in Aguayo there is an irrigation canal taken from
the San Marcos River from which that settlement is able to irrigate and fertilize their lands and that he has
heard that in Santo Domingo de Hoyos and in Llera they enjoy this same benefit and that he does not know
if in other areas they might have this same convenience and that he knows that in the settlements of
Escandón, G�emes, Padilla, and this one of San Fernando they have worked very hard to have this benefit
and they have not been able to acomplish it.
To the seventh question he said: that he knows that in Santander there is an irrigation canal
proceeding from a spring and that he does now know whether there is any other settlement which might
have the same convenience.
To the eighth question he said: that the use made of irrigation is to obtain the early crops of corn,
beans, cane, and other seeds and to have vegetables and other plants and that it seems to him that the lands
that are cultivated at present are enough to plant about eight or nine measures.
To the ninth question he said: that the number of measures of corn that he believes could be planted
this year would be from five to six between the residents and the missionary priest and that these, from the
experience they have from some short plantings that have been made of "almudes," can be regulated up
to one hundred twenty measures for each one planted in the good years, without bad weather, benefited
by the rains since there is no irrigation here; and it is true that with these crops, although they be obtained
totally prefectly (which they have never obtained), it would not be enough for the support of this settlement
due to their not having any other production of grains of which to make use and, therefore, it is necessary
for all of them to make use of buying it in the immediate settlements and at the borders, availing themselves
to this end of the occasions that the salt mines crystallize the salt they produce to have the corn in exchange
for it, but they have not had this aid in the last year because the floods did not allow it, the same happening
at the present due to some early rains having occurred and therefore it is necessary to avail themselves of
the goods and livestock in order to have it.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements that he knows there are in this colony, since he
has been in them, are Camargo, Reynosa, Burgos, Santander, Santillana, Soto la Marina, Padilla, G�emes,
Aguayo, and Santa B�rbara, that he does not know at what distance they are from the sea and that,
although he has heard that there are others, he has not been in them but that from this town of San
Fernando to the sea there are about eight to ten leagues and that he does not know nor has he heard that
there might any other port, bays, or anchorages into which ships can enter other than the one called
Santander, that he know that is where the schooners of the honorable Colonel Escandón enter.
To the eleven question he said: that all the land of this colony is very suitable for the raising and
conservation of major and minor livestock of which species there are already several ranches established
in this jurisdiction; and this settlement, although earlier it has had two mutations since its first foundation,
was in the site in which it is designated and where the mission is situated today from where it was
transplanted to the hills that are at the other part of the river where, having experienced a great flood which
destroyed the shacks and a large part of their goods, they decided to situate themselves where they are
found today, where they are eager to remain due to experiencing that, as far as the raising of livestock is
concerned, they have good growth.
To the twelfth question he said: that he knows that in the site called Bercebú, of la Tamaulipa
Nueva, there are four or five mouths of open mines from which they have drawn some ores, where the
declarant went to be present at this proceeding, those which were sent to its General Escandón in
Santander and he heard that they had made an assay of them and that they had found some silver, but that
these mines have no owner who can improve them nor anyone in whose name they are run and that he
knows of no others.
To the thirteenth question he said: that, although he has heard that in the Port of Santander and on
the other side of the Río Grande there are several salt mines, he has not been in them but that it is evident
to him that at eight to ten leagues of this settlement there are several lakes at the coast of the sea that
crystallize good salt whose abundance, in the years that it crystallizes, is sufficient to maintain this colony
and its borders and other parts if it were harvested in the regular seasons of draught.
To the fourteenth question he said: that the settlements of this colony and their haciendas maintain
good peace, the Indians that are congregated in the settlements also subsisting pacified, but since these are
not totally subdued nor obedient to the doctrine nor to the justice of the settlement, because their presence
is maintained only while they are given something to eat, they have experienced that their comings and
goings have resulted in some thefts, something which has been verified in apprehending their effects and
depriving them of them and, although it is true that the previous missionary priests tried to convert them
and the present one has tried the same, they have not been successful and it is believed that today it could
be done with less effect due to the grave defect of deafness which is found in the missionary priest that they
have today, from which originates that neither the settlers nor the residents and families have complied with
the church in this year; and that the idea that is formed about everything is that, until they take other
measures in this affair, they will have no other effects.
To the fifteenth question he said: that he does not know if there is any difference in the Sierra
Gorda and the Sierra Madre because he has not been there but that he knows that the Sierra Tamaulipa
furnishes the site called el Potrero de las Nueces with good springs and lands in which one can place a
settlement, that he considers it very suitable for the aid of the rest of this colony and the containing of the
Indians.
To the sixteenth question he said: that he knows that the settlements of el Nuevo Reino de León
and the other border provinces have had a great benefit from the settlement of this colony since it has
resulted in the relief of the annoyances that they frequently suffered from the Indians.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the number of captains, corporals, and
soldiers enlisted and with salary of which this colony is composed but that this settlement has a captain with
five hundred pesos salary per year, a sergeant with two hundred fifty, and eight soldiers at two hundred
twenty-five, and that the way of satisfying their salaries is in goods of merchandise, corn, arms, and horses
which are sent by the honorable General Escandón to the captain so that he distribute it and that he also
knows that they are giveen some reales and that the services that these perform are: the captain has the
political and military command of the settlement, the sergeant aids in the charge of seeing that the soldiers
care for the horses, and the soldiers, two are detached in Burgos who alternately replace each other,
another two are in the assistance of the missionary priest, three who aid in the care of the horses, and the
other one in the aid of the captain for whatever he needs; and that in everything else that is needed in the
uprising or problems with the Indians, the residents serve at all occurrances at their own cost and expense.
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data he said: that they do not concern him in
anyway and, it having been read again to him ad verbum all that he has said and declared so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that he approve it, he said that he observes that the distance
that there is from this settlement to the sea are about fourteen or fifteen leagues since the eight or ten he
mentioned are only to the salt mines. And, regarding everything else he has said, he need not change or
remove anything and that he affirms and approves it and, if it be necessary, he would say it anew since it
is the truth by the oath that he has made and he signed it and stated being of the age of thirty-nine years;
the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de
Cuervo. -(rubric) - José Cayetano Caballero de los Olivos - (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric)
-Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
-------------------------
TOWN OF REYNOSA
In the town of Reynosa in nine days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years,
the honorable José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of the
New City of Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable
Viceroy Marquis of las Amarillas. Having arrived in this town today of this date in continuation of his
charges, he found it suitable to continue the proceedings that should be done here in order to set upon the
survey according to the instruction with which he is commissioned, which is found in the file number one
of these proceedings carried out in this affair from folio four to eight and, in virtue of this, he ordered that
those documents conducive follow at the end of this document and that the statements and examinations
to be received be persuant to the questionaire that is found in the aforesaid file number one, folio fifty-four,
everything being done in the presence of the witnesses who are nominated for this end at the beginning of
the proceedings of this commission; and, so that everything be done with the required justification, he thus
decreed, ordered, and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW - In the town of Reynosa in ten days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing his proceedings in order to acquaint
himself in a justifiable manner, as he wishes it, in the knowledge of the state of this settlement, provided
that they make a review which has been ordered of him in these proceedings and for it, having received
the list of its settlers, citizenry, and squadron of officers and soldiers that its captain has provided, to
formalize it in all its requirements, went to the plaza where all those aforesaid were together and drawn
up, began this document calling each one by name, registering their arms of their own use which are
composed of a rifle, a sword, a shield, and some pistols and blunderbusses and, posing the questions that
they found suitable, it was executed in the following manner:
SQUADRON OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS
WITH SALARY
Captain Don Pedro de Estrada, married to Doña Josefa V�zquez Borrego, all arms, twelve
horses, eleven donkeys, and twenty female donkeys, enjoys five hundred pesos salary per year.
Sergeant Miguel de Santa María, bachelor, all arms and six horses, enjoys two hundred fifty
pesos.
José Francisco Cavazos, married to Doña Josefa Cantú, has three children, all arms, and nine
horses, enjoys a salary of two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Juan Antonio Cavazos, married to Doña Margarita Villarreal, has two children, all arms, eight
horses, enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Pedro José Cavazos, married to Felipa Rodríguez, all arms, nine horses, enjoys two hundred
twenty-five pesos.
José Antonio Cavazos, married to Doña Gertrudis Cantú, has all arms, six horses, enjoys two
hundred twenty-five pesos.
Domingo Martínez, married to María Casilda de Lerma, has four children, all arms, six horses,
enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Pedro José de la Cerda, married to María Gertrudis V�zquez, has four children, all arms, six
horses, enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
José Miguel de la Garza, married to Antonio Gertrudis Cano, has three children, all arms, six
horses, enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
José Manuel Bocanegra, married to María Celedonia Tijerina, has one son, all arms, six horses,
enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
José Javier de la Garza, married, has one son, all arms, six horses, enjoyes two hundred twenty-five pesos.
REGISTERED RESIDENTS WITHOUT FINANCIAL AID
José Onofre Cavazos, married to Doña María Gertrudis de la Garza, has seven children, all
arms and six horses.
Juan Antonio Vallin, married to Doña Francisca Villarreal, has three children, all arms, and two
horses.
Crist�bal Cano, widower, has four children, all arms, and twelve horses.
Ignacio de la Garza, married to Doña María Fern�ndez, has five children, all arms, and five
horses.
Antonio Alejandro Fern�ndez, ill, married to María Barbosa, has no arms or horses.
José Eugenio Fern�ndez, married to Doña Nicolasa Treviño, has two children, all arms, ten
horses and one donkey.
José Matías Tijerina, married to María Antonia Fern�ndez, has three children, two horses, and
without arms.
Cayetano Tijerina, bachelor, without arms, and has one horse.
José Barrera, married to Magdalena Tijerina, has two children, three horses, and without arms.
Pedro Torres, bachelor.
L�zaro Flores, married to Margarita Villarreal, has three children, arms, knife, shield, and two
horses.
Joaquín Galv�n, married to María Luisa, has one daughter, all arms, and two horses.
José de Jasso, married to María Zaragoza, has four children, a rifle, a shield, and two horses.
Nicol�s Zamora, married to Inés Munguía, has eight children, all arms, eleven horses, and one
donkey.
Pedro José Flores, married to María de Abrego, has five children, without arms, and two horses.
Francisco Ramírez, married to Alfonsa Fajardo, has eight children, all arms, twenty horses, and
one donkey.
Santiago de Torres, married to María Cano, has three children, arms, a sword, a shield, and four
horses.
Andrés Villarreal, married to Francisca de los Santos, has five children, four horses, and without
arms; absent with permission.
Esteban de la Garza, married to María Luna, has six children, all arms, and four horses.
Nicol�s de Flores, married to María de San Miguel, has three children, arms, a rifle, and two
horses.
Juan Guzm�n, married to María de Flores, has five children, all arms, and six horses.
Crist�bal de los Santos, married to María de los Santos, has four children, without arms or
horses.
Juan de Dios de los Santos, married to María de los Ríos, all arms and five horses.
Micaela de la Garza, widow, has one son, arms, a knife, a shield, and two horses.
María de los Santos, widow, has six children.
Doña Jacoba Galv�n, widow, has one son, arms, a sword and a knife, and six horses.
Don Juan Cavazos, married to Doña Hermenegilda de Ochoa, has one daughter, all arms, and
three horses.
Miguel Tangumba, absent with permission, married to Pascuala Hern�ndez, has three children,
all arms, and two horses.
REGISTERED RESIDENTS WITHOUT FINANCIAL AID
Don Carlos Cantú, reformed captain of this town, married to Doña Ana Gertrudis Cavazos, has
two children, all arms, and six horses. This one did not receive financial aid when he came; he was elected
captain for the first settlement and led the families and fomented this establishment and now they have tried
to register him against his will, about which he manifests and asks that he be allowed to be free to be able
to go with his family wherever it might be more fruitful.
Marcos Gonz�lez, married to Catarina, has six children, all arms, and two horses.
Francisco de la Garza, married to María Candelaria, has five children, all arms, fourteen horses,
and seven donkeys.
Francisco Cano, married to Josefa Galv�n, has five children, all arms, fifteen horses, and seven
donkeys.
Toribio Zamora, married to Clara Fern�ndez, has three children, all arms, and four horses.
Juan de Vega, married to Rosa Teresa Cano, has three children, all arms, nine horses, and three
donkeys.
Javier Zamora, married to María Jacinta, has six children, all arms, seven horses, and one
donkey.
Don Diego de la Garza, absent with permission, married to Doña María Victoria, has four
children, sixteen horses, and seven donkeys.
Domingo Guillermo, married to María Gonz�lez, has three children, a blunderbuss, a knife, and
three horses.
Diego Longoria, married to María Rita, has one daughter, all arms, and six horses.
Gabriel Munguía, married to Manuela de la Garza, has three children, all arms, and two horses.
Francisco Bocanegra, married to Rosa de Vargas, has one daughter, all arms, and seven horses.
Javier Peña de León, married to Catarina Cano, has six children, all arms, and ten horses.
José Rodríguez, married to Antonia Rodríguez, has two children, a knife, and two horses.
Don José Carlos Cantú, married to Juana Rosa Longo, has one son, all arms, and ten horses.
This is the son of the reformed captain and came as son of the family with his father with no financial aid
and now manifests that they have forced him to register; he asks to be permitted the freedom of being able
to leave with his family wherever he finds more fruitful.
José Martín de Sosa, married to María García, has one son, without arms or horses.
Miguel Cano, married to C�ndida Ramírez, has two children, all arms, six horses, three female
donkeys, and one male donkey.
Nicol�s Bocanegra, married to Ana María has two children, without arms or horses.
Francisco Rodríguez Quiroga, married to María Rita, without arms and two horses.
José Eusebio Gonz�lez, absent with permission, married to Juana Gonz�lez, has one daughter,
without arms or horses.
Pedro Alc�ntara, ill, married to María Josefa, without arms or horses.
Pedro José de la Garza, married to María Guadalupe, has three children, two horses, and
without arms.
José Segundo, bachelor, has all arms and six horses.
That as it appears from this review, the number of families that are in this settlement compose fifty-eight; the ten of the squadron of officers and soldiers enlisted and with salary who serve in this settlement,
the captain enjoying five hundred pesos per year, the sergeant two hundred fifty, and the nine soldiers at
two hundred twenty-five; the twenty-six [families] of first settlers with financial aid and the twenty-two of
registered residents without financial aid, all of which compose two hundred eighty-nine persons and the
goods that exist belonging to the families are two thousand five hundred fifty-six equine beasts, seventy-one
mules, six yokes of oxen, twelve thousand seven hundred heads of minor livestock, and one thousand one
hundred thirty-six bovine livestock, and thirty-one male and female donkeys, without including three
hundred sixteen horses that the squadron and the residents have for their use, so it all appears from the
parts of this said review, to which the R. Missionary F. Fray Agustín Fragoso has not been able to concur
since he is ill, in view of this having been executed in the aforesaid terms, the said honorable Don José
Tienda de Cuervo ordered it be put in these documents for its evidence and he signed it with the witnesses
present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de
Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW OF INDIANS - In the town of Reynosa in ten days of the month of July of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in the continuation of
acquainting himself of the state in which the assembled or congregated Indians in thie mission of this town
are found, ordered they be reviewed in order to be able to obtain the most accurate information about them
and, in fact, it being about nine in the morning of this day, they all presented themselves, of all ages and
both sexes and, after having concluded the review of the previous settlers and the residents, they executed
this and the following was found: having information about their docility and that this presention would
cause no problem, it was performed and, formed with their wives and children, taking into consideration
the information that the captain of this settlement had communicated regarding the tribes or castes of which
they are composed since the missionary priest had not yet responded to the request that had been delivered
to him about this and the other affairs, the said gentleman had them separated and, counting them, he found
that those of the Naza tribe are composed of eight Indian warriors and that, with women and children, they
compose thirty-six persons, that all of them are baptized, so they themselves inform us, except for two or
three of the old ones and those younger ones who should be another four or six, from which information
it was determined that these came from the town of Pilon of el Nuevo Reino de León where they were
already christians and they complain that, because of the missionary priest, they had left again and that
now, with the news they had that a visiting one would come, they returned again thinking they might be
better attended; and having passed to review those of the Nariz tribe, he found that all of them are six,
christians so they confess, and that they have no wives or children and there is only an old lady with them,
they being also from el Nuevo Reino without subjection to a mission. And afterwards, having reviewed
and examined the Comecrudos who are the heathens of this colony who were established in the region they
call Las Lomas next to this town and are now congregated in the mission and are thirty-three warriors and,
in all, there are more then ninety including women and children of whom only the young ones are baptized,
the older one complaining that the priest does not want to baptize them, which could be, since they are not
instructed in the doctrine and that due to the distrust they could return to the woods although, at the
present, they are known to be docile and inclined to the religion and some have been seen to cross
themselves when saying the Lord's Prayer, the tribe which has a governor with the name of Santiago and
a captain with that of Agustín. And having passed finally to review those called Tejones, who are native
to this land in which the settlement is situated, they found that these are seventeen warriors and they have
six to eight women, because the others died in the measles outbreak, with more than ten or twelve children
of whom there are eight baptized and they have a captain called Antonio Francisco, and they all want to
be baptized but they manifest that the priest does not want it and some of them lament having no one to
instruct them in the doctrine because there is only one boy, son of a settler, who is dedicated to teaching
it to them but that, as a boy, his does not have the constancy and explanation that is required. These last
two tribes explained also how much they wished to have another missionary priest to attend to them with
more charity that the one now and how much they longed for them to replace Don Carlos Cantú as captain
of the settlement whom the colonel Don José de Escandón removed from this employ about two months
ago, placing another one who does not see them with the affection the other one did since the said Cantú
speaks their language and attends to them and helps them in their needs. And, the honorable Don José
Tienda de Cuervo, seeing that his powers did not permit nor give him the liberty to take any measures
or to remedy anything, comforted them with courteousness and good reason and encouraged them to the
best subjection and love of the missionary priest and to the respect that they should have for the captain
of the town, persuading them that they wish for their well being and for their being christians, learning the
doctrine first of all and that then they would be better attended, that they apply themselves to farming so
that the most excellent, honorable Viceroy being informed, give the most merciful provisions for their
relief, which they understood very well because many of them speak Spanish and they explained this
reasoning to their companions who showed signs of having understood it and were happy; from all of
which is inferred that these four tribes are congregated to the doctrine and that they should be estimated
as such since they comply while they do not lack food and necessity does not obligate them to leave in
search of it in the fields, which they do with the permision of the missionary priest and the captain; but at
the same time these last two tribes should be seen as newly converted after the establishment of this colony
and, although heathens, the older ones still promise their conversion and the greater part is assured of their
innocence and they demonstrate well their permanency and reliance that others will collect with time. And
having concluded this proceeding on these terms, the said gentleman ordered it be placed at the end of
these documents for the necessary purposes and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de
Cuervo. -(rubric) - -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
In completion of the order of Your Lordship which preceeds, I deliver the list of settlers of this
town of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Reynosa with a declaration of the goods of each one and their
types which also contains the subjects who serve the posts of which this royal squadron in my charge is
composed and, giving information regarding the other points that are related in said order, I say: that this
said Royal Squadron is composed of eleven posts, that of captain which I have, a sergeant and nine
soldiers; the service that these perform is to go out to review the land, guard the town at night and guard
the horses of the post, guarding against damages that the barbarian heathens could cause, road escorts,
continuous reconnaissances, and everything else that comes up in the royal service. This is done by the
eight soldiers and the sergeant because one is on duty at the mission and I, the captain, attend to ministering
all the official orders of this service, the attention and distribution of justice of the affairs of these residents
and soldiers that occur, and also in personally making the reconnaissances of major gravity that are needed
for the best pacification and that the arms remain visable and, in view of this continuous exercise, the
barbarians do not dare become bold and these settlers will be able to obtain possession of the lands
peacefully and increase their goods and I also practice everything else that is needed having to do with
complaints and corrections of vices.
The salary that is due annually is obtained from the Royal Treasury by the captain Don Agustín
de Iglesias Cotillo, resident and warehouse-keeper from the Court of Mexico, in whom power for it is
conferred with consent of the officers and soldiers and he remits the goods requested, by the hand of the
honorable general Don José de Escandón and your Lordship directs them to the captains for the payment
of their respective squadrons and, when they have need to purchase corn, arms, and horses as is needed
during the year, it is supplied by means of the same honorable general.
In the confines of this town six ranches have been put in by some of the their residents such as Don
Diego de la Garza in the region called San Juan at a distance of two leagues, Francisco Ramírez in la
Loma de Pajaritos at a distance of about five leagues, Juan Rosas Longoria has his in the region of
Dolores at a distance of about six leagues, the reformed captain Don Carlos Cantú has it at a distance of
three leagues which they call Las Lomas, Marcos Gonz�lez at a distance of two and one-half leagues in
the region called Las Lomas; in them they each maintain all the livestock which they have, whose numbers
and species are expressed in the respective items of each one of these settlers; one of them, who is Marcos
Gonz�lez, other than maintaining his livestock there, has opened a small field into which a half measure
of corn probably fit, and has also planted cantelopes, watermelons, and squash which grow in abundance.
As to fields, there is only the one which has been mentioned; another one similar in its smallness
that Nicol�s Zamora has opened next to this town; the one that the mission has opened at a distance of
about six leagues in which a little more than six measures of planted corn should fit; up to now they have
not been able to make a judgement of how much each measure will produce since the plantings they have
made have not come to fruition, some years because of the lack of seasonal rains and others because of the
abundance of them with which they have become "aguachinado" for which reason, and also that these
settlers are not normally inclined to farming, they have not applied themselves to opening more fields
although the land is suitable for it when the weather cooperates.
The heathen Indians that are most immediate to this town are of the Pinto and the Alapagueme
tribes, these last ones have their homes on this side of the immediate Río del Norte and the others at that
side of it; they have not experienced any damage or hostility since I obtained the employment of captain
and some of them come to this town to trade skins.
The borders of this town, according to the assignation of lands that has been done, are six leagues
on each side of the three winds, east, west, and south, and on the north that which comprises fifty sites
which in this direction are assigned to the other bank of this immediate river of the same name. I have
prepared the settlers and squadron so that your Lordship may make a review of them as I am prepared in
your cited order with which, I believe, I have complied in that which I have expressed. If any other
information is needed I am ready to execute it. Town of Reynosa the tenth of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years. -Pedro de Estrada - (rubric).
Fray Agustín Fragoso, apostolic preacher of the family of el Colegio Apost�lico de Nuestra Señora
de Guadalupe de Zacatecas and minister in la Misión de Señor San Joaquín del Monte in the town of
Reynosa, coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
Having seen the letter of entreaty that precedes made by the honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of the City of Veracruz and Inspecting
Judge of the Colony of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis of this Nueva
España, obeying his superior mandate I say: that I put into execution responding with the major frankness
and truth that I owe to his entreaty conforming to the interrogatory order contained in it.
On the first point I say: that the first settlers with financial aid who founded this town of Nuestra
Señora de Guadalupe de Reynosa were forty residents and the others who have increased and registered
voluntarily up to the present come to the number of seventeen among married and bachelors who are
already at present married to daughters of settlers.
To the second I say: that the tribes that compose this mission are four, they are known as the tribe
of the Comecrudos, this is composed of thirty-three families with ninety-five persons; the tribe of the
Nazas eight families with thirty-six persons; the tribe of the Narices with six families with fifteen persons
and the tribe of the Tejones seventeen families with forty-two persons. Those baptized existing, children
who have been baptized in this mission, are fifty-one from the four tribes. The adults are three. The other
Indians have not obtained this benefit because of not having them in congregation except for the times when
I have had supplies to feed them; I speak with regard to the children, in regard to the adults, because of
not recognizing a resigned will to receive the catholic law. [sic]
To the fourth point I say: that the means that have favored the subsistence of the congregated
Indians is the assistance of corn with which the honorable general Don José de Escandón has aided them.
The annual synod assigned to the minister of this mission is four hundred pesos and it is received
by the general treasury of el Colegio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas which resides in the
city of Mexico which makes the entire payment. The financial aid that this mission had for its
establishment was fifty measures of corn, eight loads of beans, ten yokes of oxen, six plowshares, six hoes,
six axes, two adzes, two brushes, four chisels, two saws, two augers, two copper pots, two medium kettles,
one big one, fifteen loads of sacks, three loads of tobacco, one hundred twenty rods of sackcloth, twenty-five dozen heavy knives, six dozen hats, all of which was given on the order of his Majesty for this
mission.
The ornaments and sacred urns that were given for this mission from the account of his Majesty
are very decent and made at all cost and are very sufficient for the holy worship. I do not know the cost
of them. I, the present minister, received them and I attend to their conservation and they exist without
any deterioration.
The Indians to whom I minister congregate in this mission; they are subject to bell and doctrine,
subjected and submitted to my obedience and to the Royal Justice. At present they do not have quarters
for living since they were ruined due to their absence in this mission of longer that one year due to their
not having food in the mission. They maintain themselves on lands that are assigned in common to the
town because, although they have assignation of lands with title of possession, those experience great floods
from the Río Grande del Norte with damage to the goods and seeds, for which reason, at present, they
maintain themselves in a region that is a distance of about three-fourths of a league, more or less, in which
they have opened a field for six or seven measures of corn, a region in which they also maintain three
hundred fifty head of sheep, eighty heads of major livestock, fifteen fit mules, and ten horses, all belonging
to the mission.
The lands of this jurisdiction which are annexed are six leagues to each side; the settlers enjoy them
still in common since they have not been distributed.
The time, since the first establishment of this town was made, is eight years going on nine and it
has been that long that the Indians have been congregated at this mission.
The only hope I conceive of its growth and conversion is that they are able to harvest abundant
crops of grains at the mission which they have not yet been able to obtain due to the lack of rain which is
not at an opportune time in this country for planting and their not being any irrigation canals nor hopes of
any.
The land of this settlement is adaptable to the common health but not at all suitable for crops due
to the expressed reason.
The measures of corn that are expected to be planted this present year at the mission, with the
weather permitting, are six, those which are already planted are three; among the residents of the town they
have not even made a serious planting since the settlement does not have an irrigation canal with which
to water their lands, nor hopes of getting one, although they have dedicated themselves [to it] with attention
and they have not been able to obtain it.
In the past years they have not harvested a crop in this town for which reason they have found it
necessary always to go to the borders of this colony for the purchase of corn which they have done
annually in exchange for salt which an abundant salt mine on the other bank of the Río del Norte offers
at a distance of about twenty-five leagues from this town, the one which is appropriated for the aid of this
town and mission.
From other seeds that are not corn they have made no trial on the land of this jurisdiction for which
reason I cannot assure whether the land is suitable to grow other seeds.
Since the foundation of this settlement they have had no disturbance and [only] good
communication with the congregation [of Indians] causing no damage to the borders. I understand that the
bordering provinces from where the families have been taken to settle this colony have not had any
affliction nor notable losses, instead they have had the benefit of not experiencing the hostilities of the
enemy Indians which they frequently suffered in the goods of the camp which have not been so continuous
as before the foundation of this colony.
To the last question I say: that the hope that I see of the conversion of these Indians is in having
abundant food and clothing since they are by nature very docile and loving of the Spandiards and they are
only obliged to leave the mission when they cannot see sufficient supplies and I am informed that in having
these it would have so many Indians that this coast offers in congregation to the mission that they would
need new missions to be able to educate them.
And everything responded to the preceding entreaty being thus true, I signed it at la Misión de
Señor San Joaquín del Monte at eleven days of the month of July of the year of seventeen hundred fifty-seven. - Fray Agustín Fragoso. - (rubric).
STATEMENT OF THE REFORMED CAPTAIN DON CARLOS CANTU. - In the town of
Reynosa in nine days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José
Tienda de Cuervo, continuing the examination and state of this settlement according to his instruction and
to that which the interrogatory contains which, from one and another, is found in the file number one of
these proceedings, had appear before him the reformed captain Don Carlos Cantú, settler of the first
establishment and resident of this town, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell
the truth in that which would be asked and also keep it and his responses secret, and his having done and
offered it as is required, he was asked according to the expressed interrogatory and he responded the
follplanting:
To the first question he said: that he does not know in what state the Sierra Gorda was before its
conquest nor what settlements or converted Indian villages it had or could have at the present because he
has not traveled those regions.
To the second question he said: that the first settlers who came to establish this settlement were
forty, all proceeding from jurisdictions of el Nuevo Reino de León like Cadereyta, el Pilón, Sabinos,
Pesquería Grande and that these came assisted by one hundred pesos in financial aid to each family for their
travel and establishment, quantities that Don Roque de la Barrera delivered by the order of the honorable
Colonel Escandón; and that the means that have favored their subsistance have been, in the second year
of their having been founded in this situation where they are found today, eighty measures of corn which
the said honorable colonel remitted to the declarant as captain, which he was at that time, so that he would
distribute at two measures to each settler; that each measure then place here was worth thirteen pesos and
that afterwards, this settlement, having tried to build an irrigation canal from its river called the one of the
North and having worked with enough earnestness, was unable to obtain it although the said honorable
Escandón contributed thirteen hoes, five iron levers, one axe, and six "coas" for it, that he cannot
calculate what this could be worth and that a little later after the declarant formed this establishment as the
conductor that he was of these settlers, he tried to attract the heathen Indians of the immediate lands and,
in fact, with several other ones that he brought with him from el Reino de León and, among them about
eight or ten christians, he was able to amass about three hundred for whose aid the honorable colonel gave
one hundred fifty measures of corn and one hundred pesos to buy them meat which the declarant
distributed among the said Indians until the one and another was finished; and that afterwards, on some
occasions when the honorable colonel has come to this settlement, he has given these said Indians some
blankets, small wares, and tobacco, that he also does not know what the value of these supplies would be.
At the continuation of the preceding he was asked how many residents or settlers have increased
to the present, from where they have come, and how they have been financed, he said: that the residents,
increased and registered, would be about up to twenty more or less, that some proceed from el Reino de
León and the others from children of residents and settlers who have married, the ones who have had no
financial help to establish themselves because they have come voluntarily.
To the third question he said: that from the beginning that this settlement was begun, the declarant
supported the Indians, whom he has said he brought with him and those who collected here, with the
hundred fifty measures of corn that the honorable Escandón had given him and afterwards, he knows, the
missionary priest having come to attend to their care, that the honorable colonel gave him two hundred
seventy-five measures of corn, twenty-five for the support of said priest and the two hundred fifty to be
distributed and to maintain the Indians with them and that these were assigned a mission area immediate
to this settlement and, following that, land for their farming whose nearness was considered as suitable for
it to be so close so that with the communication they would begin to become docile and they would be more
subjected and that said Indians built their shacks there in which they had their residence and thus they
subsisted, subject to bell and doctrine as long as they were able to give them something for their
maintenance with the two hundred fifty measures of corn, all the children being baptised at this time which
he believes might have been seventy who received this benefit.
To the fourth question he said: that he does not know that the apostolic missionary priest who
ministers to this settlement has been given possession of land in the name of the Indians because, materially
it should not be understood that there is such a conversion or congregation of Indians because, although
at that beginning, as he has said, they were subjected to bell and doctrine, that subjection lasted only until
they finished the corn with which they were being maintained, and afterwards they left again as they are
doing it on all occasions that this supply, of having something to give them, is lacking; and that from fifteen
to twenty days to today the said missionary priest has made the deliberation of leaving with his said mission
to a side of the region they call el Desierto toward the south side at about three-fourths of a league from
this settlement with the end of finding some better lands in which to be able to place his plantings and there
he has collected the Indians, who are converted today, that he does not know the number they might be
but that they are composed of a group of tribes or castes called Nazas, Narices, Comecrudos, Pintos, and
Tejones, that he figures that, of one or the other sex, those that live in that region could be somewhat more
than three hundred without including many others who are dispersed throughout the fields and that, of those
that he has stated are in the mission, they are usually maintained in submission as long as they are
continually aided with corn as they are being conserved today with fifty measures of corn that the
honorable general has given recently and, when that is finished, it is necessary to make use of their
freedom and they leave to search the wherewithal with which to maintain themselves from that which the
countryside and fields afford since, up to now, there are no established lands or those put into cultivation
that could be fruitful to support them and, even though they might have them, the lands promise little hope
since there is no irrigation and the rainy seasons offer many contingencies and that, regarding the settlers
and residents, up to now they have not been given any possession of lands on which property to farm or
cultivate because they have only made one regulation of assigning six leagues to each side of common
border for all this settlement of which they are making use generally for the support of their livestock and
to have each one elect that which he can farm wherever he finds most suitable; and that the lands in these
boundries that are put into cultivation are so few that they deserve no estimation to be called measures of
plantings, in respect to the sterility of the country having everyone discouraged in the farming of the lands
due to having experienced not having harvested any crop since they have been here, proceeded from the
continuous the continuous droughts and that, lacking water, nothing can be harvested in the land because
it is only good for the raising of livestock.
To the fifth question he said: that the river that passes through this settlement is the one called Río
Grande del Norte that others call el Bravo, that they do not know its origin but it is known that it comes
through the area of el Nuevo México, enters into this colony, passes through the settlements of Laredo,
Dolores, near Camargo, and from this town of Reynosa traveling along to the sea and, at a distance of
about fifteen leagues from this settlement, it divides into three different branches or streams, that the one
goes to form some lakes and the other two follow different routes and, finally, all three go to the sea, each
one on its own, at about a distance of twenty-five leagues from this town such that their currents are
distinguishable through the sea for some leagues, and when there are floods, before reaching the sea they
form some very large inundations such that, in that region, another lake is formed with the abundance of
its waters in such a way that in many leagues of its land nothing is left without being covered by water;
he has information that there is another river called that of las Nueces, of which he has only heard, that
passes through this colony and ends at the sea between Dolores and la Bahía del Espíritu Santo; another
river he has heard that enters into this colony called San Antonio of which he does not know the origin and
that it is commonly said that it goes to end at the sea; he has heard that there is another river called el
Salado of which he also does not know the origin but it is understood that, below Dolores, it enters into
el Río Grande del Norte; another river called San Juan that has its origin in el Nuevo Reino de León and,
united with other several streams that come into it, enters into this colony and passes through the settlement
of Camargo and, at a short distance, enters into el Río Grande del Norte.
To the sixth question he said: that the little travel that he has had through the settlements of this
colony causes him not to know what irrigation canals there are in them and, therefore, he does not know
which regions fertilize with them but that in this settlement they have tried, as he has said, to build one
from its river, since they have understood that they cannot support themselves without it, and they have
had no success.
To the seventh question he said: that he knows that in Santander there is a spring or source of water
with which they are able to irrigate the lands and that the regions they cultivate with this method is that of
its level land.
To the eighth question he said: that the uses made in the lands where they have irrigation is for the
planting of corn, cane, cotton, and other plantings of vegetables and seeds, none of which is put into use
or application in this settlement because of not having this benefit and, therefore, there are none accredited
for crops.
To the ninth question he said: that in this town, although in the preceding years they have tried to
plant some corn and especially the declarant, since they have not been able to harvest any crop due to the
droughts that they experience, he cannot calculate how much each measure of planting can produce and,
therefore, it is known that the crops have not been enough nor is there hope that they will be enough for
this settlement to support itself, for which reason they have always had to buy the corn, bringing it from
el Nuevo Reino de León, and they find it necessary to continue the same, buying it in exchange for their
livestock and goods and especially the salt that they harvest from the immediate salt mines in the years that
there is crystallization since, although it is always permanent, last year and the present one they have
flooded such that they have not been able to make use of it.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements, that he knows are situated in the true coast of
the Gulf of Mexico, are San Fernando, Santander, Camargo, and this one of Reynosa and, although he has
heard that there are several others, he has not been in them nor does he know their distances to the sea,
only does he know from this last one there should be about twenty-five leagues and that he has not heard
nor knows what ports, bays, or anchorages there might be into which major or minor ships can enter.
To the eleventh question he said: that all the land of this colony is very useful for the raising and
conservation of major and minor livestock and that, in the confines of this town, there are several already
established ranches of this type in which they experience many increases and good progress since,
concerning the land of this settlement for this end, the declarant is certain it is one of the best and also,
concerning health in general, its climate is very appropriate because up to now they have experienced no
grievous accidents nor fatalities but its situation is not appropriate to maintain itself where it is due to its
exposure to the fatality of flooding of its immediate river, not less considerable being the inability of
putting in an irrigation canal due to whose lack the citizenry is found with the impossibility of maintaining
itself with the grains and seeds of their labour because of finding themselves totally without hope of any
crop, for which reason the declarant on his own, having been made in charge of these informations, had
considered the means of preventing these inconveniences and, in fact, he had dealt with his residents at the
time that he was captain about their leaving to some hills that were immediate to this area and that they
could serve the somewhat more extensive part of its river by building wells from which would result a tank
or pool of water with which the settlement could make use of and they could have irrigation, but this
thought has had no effect because, the greater part of said residents having changed, it has remained
without consequence and the declarant has suspended talking to them again about this affair; and that,
besides this, the one who declares being desirous that it be known that he has no feeling about having
proposed the said site for the moving of this settlement, he finds that for the same end of security and
freedom from the contingencies of floods, a site of hills below the river about five fourths of a league from
this town affords itself in which to be able to put it with sufficient fitness for its citizenry which is called
La Boca del Potreto de la Caballada, having the river at the shot of a rifle but, concerning the commodity
of irrigation canals, he does not consider it accessible in all the shore below.
To the twelfth question he said: that he knows of no mines and he has only commonly heard that
in la Tamaulipa la Nueva there are some ores.
To the thirteenth question he said: that at twenty-five leagues from this settlement at the eastern
part of the other bank of el Río Grande there is a very large lake that crystallizes good and abundant salt
like stone and at fifteen leagues from this same settlement on the same ridge of mountains there is another
salt mine that crystallizes salt of the same quality and that at about thirty leagues from this said town there
is another large salt mine that crystallizes common salt and it is between el Río de San Fernando and el Río
Grande on the south part and some and the others are so abundant that in the years, when it does not flood
or that the rains do not come early, they can supply themselves however much they want.
To the fourteenth question he said: that the settlements that are situated in the circle of the colony
are found with their haciendas and congregations in complete peace and their settlers in good
communication one with the other and that, concerning that of the heathen Indians of that unconquered,
they do not fear, at the moment, any problem since all are maintained in peace and that that enter and exit
in this settlement give no problem or cause no destruction; and from these heathens they have recognized,
and the declarant has seen it, that on a strip that is in the middle of the three arms into which the Río
Grande divides before emptying into the sea, twenty-five leagues from this settlement on the west part,
there is a tribe of Negros Lobos that they know have mixed with the Indians and that from this it can result
in this second tribe, the ones who have formed their hamlets of regular dwellings put in order; that this
declarant was able to see some of the said Negros as close as a shot of a pistol and he gave them a bundle
of tobacco leaving it within their sight on some grasses, which they later came to collect and, after a short
while of their coming, the declarant, leaving with his companions, saw a very large multitude of Indians
that he believes are all mixed with the said Negros and, of these last ones they have no more information
of their origin than that which some old Indians give that they proceed from a ship that carried them and
he does not know with what accident they came to stop at that region.
To the fifteenth question he said: that the Sierra Madre is the one that he has heard commonly
called divider of this colony and that he has no other information about it nor of the Sierra Gorda; and that
the Sierra Tamaulipa la Nueva he does not know would provide a region suitable to be able to place a
settlement because el Potrero de la Nueces has little water and its lands are very limited and, although there
are places, the same occurs.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the town of Linares of el Nuevo Reino de León is a border
of this colony, that he does not know the distance and that Cerralvo of the same Reino is one also and, that
about the other provinces he does not know what settlement might be borders; and that he knows for
certain that the said settlements, since this colony was established, feel a great benefit in relation to the
offences they suffered earlier from the heathen Indians.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the number of captains, lieutenants, and
soldiers that all this colony has enlisted and with salary but that he does know that in this settlement there
is a captain with five hundred pesos salary, a sergeant with two hundred fifty and nine soldiers at two
hundred twenty-five pesos each; that these are paid in comodities of trade and of the country, also they
usually give them some reales when they request them, which satisfaction is done by the honorable Colonel
Escandón; and that the service done is: the captain has the political and military command, the sergeant
attends to the horses and to the orders of the captain, and the soldiers, what they do is: one is dedicated
to the mission to serve the missionary priest, three aid with the horses, and the rest [are] at the orders of
the captain for whatever he might order, the ones who alternate with those of the horses, leaving from
fifteen in fifteen days.[sic]
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data he said: that they do not concern him in
anything. And it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said and declared, so that he
can approve it he stated that what he has said is the truth by the oath that he has made and that he affirms
and approves it without needing to change or remove anything because rather, if it be necessary, he would
say it anew, and he signed it and is of the age of forty-nine years; the said gentleman Don José Tienda de
Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Carlos Cantú - (rubric)
-Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Following are the witnesses who declared the same as the antecedent and they are the following:
Don Juan Cavazos, resident and settler of the town of Reynosa, of seventy-seven years of age.
Francisco Cano, resident of said town, of forty-one years of age.
DOCUMENT - In the town of Reynosa in eleven days of the month of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings performed in
this town regarding the survey of its state according to the chapters of its instruction, considering them as
sufficient for his report, desirous of not wasting time on the others that should continue to complete his
commission with the most brevity possible, and to avoid the costs that the delays could cause the Royal
Treasury, ordered that everything performed and corresponding to this settlement be put in the file
separately for better information and thus he decreed and signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
INFORMATION - On the 16th of February of 1758, testimony was taken from this file to inform
his Majesty and was put in the Secretariat of his Majesty.
_________________________
TOWN OF CAMARGO
In the town of Camargo in twelve days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years,
the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of
la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable
Viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas. Having arrived in this town today of this date in continuation of his
charges, found it suitable to to continue the proceedings that should be done in it to inform himself of it
and its state according to the instructions with which he is commissioned which are found in the file number
one of the proceedings performed in this affair from folio four to eight and, in virtue of this, he ordered
that those that are conducive be place at the end of this document and that the statements and examinations
that might be received be persuant to the questionaire that is found in the aforesaid file number one, folio
forty-four, it being performed in the presence of the witnesses who were nominated since the first
proceedings of this commission for this end and, so that everything be done with the required justification,
he thus decreed and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW - In the town of Camargo in thirteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, to inform himself about the state of this
settlement as he wishes, ordered the making of the review which is ordered of him in these documents and,
for it, having had the list that the captain gave of its squadron, settlers, and residents, in order to formilize
it and have the information that could serve in it for its better justification, ordered that they send a note
to the missionary priest Fray Juan Bautista García Resu�rez, minister of this mission and its settlement,
so that he serve to be present at this act with the said honorable inspector to be able to have from him the
information that can justify the truth and, the supplication having been sent to him, the said R.F. accepted
it and in fact, in concurrence came with said gentleman to said review and, having gone to the plaza where
all those aforesaid were collected and formed, theybegan the act of calling each one by name, registering
the arms of their use composed of a rifle, a sword, a shield, some pistols, knives, and blunderbusses and,
posing the questions that they found suitable, it was executed int the following manner:
SQUADRON OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS
WITH SALARY
Captain Don Blas María de la Garza Falcón, married to Doña María Josefa de los Santos Coy,
has two children, all arms, one hundred fifty horses, forty-five male donkeys, fifty-five female donkeys,
and enjoys five hundred pesos salary per year; he has one hundred three servants of both sexes.
Sergeant Joaquín de la Garza, married to Doña Ignacia Villarreal, all arms, six horses, two
donkeys, two servants, and enjoys two hundred fifty pesos per year.
Ildefonso de la Garza, soldier, married to María Magdalena Villarreal, all arms, and six horses;
he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Pedro Gonz�lez Paredes, married to Doña Isabel Villarreal, has five children, all arms, eight
horses, two donkeys; he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Nicol�s Zapata, soldier, married to María Manuela Hern�ndez, four children, all arms, six
horses; he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Juan de Vargas, soldier, married to María Antonia de la Garza, has one son, all arms, six
horses; he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Luis de Olivares, soldier, married to María Rosalía de Hinojosa, has two children, all arms, six
horses; enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
José Antonio Gonz�lez, soldier, married to Juana María Rendón, all arms, six horses; he enjoys
two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Antonio Hilario Altamirano, soldier, married to María Dionisia Vallín, has all arms, six horses,
enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Tom�s S�nchez, soldier, bachelor, all arms, six horses; he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Jacinto Escamilla, soldier, married to Josefa Gutiérrez, has two children, all arms, six horses;
he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Tom�s de la Garza, soldier, bachelor, all arms, six horses; he enjoys two hundred twenty-five
pesos.
Juan José de la Rosa, soldier, married to B�rbara de Salazar, has two children and six horses;
he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
SETTLERS WITH FINANCIAL AID
Antonio de la Garza, married to Josefa de Villarreal, has eight children, all arms, and six horses.
Antonio Montalvo, married to Gregoria Flores, has four children, four horses, and has no arms.
Tom�s Guajardo, married to María Ignacia Villarreal, all arms and two horses.
Teresa de Villarreal, widow with two grandchildren.
Gertrudis Longoria. widow, has four children.
Juan Bautista García, married to María Rodríguez, has six children, all arms, fifteen horses,
two donkeys, and five servants.
Antonio de Olivares, ill, married to Doña María Catalina de Hinojosa, has five step-children
and three children, all arms and two horses.
Juan José López de Jaén, married to Isabel María S�nchez, has four children, all arms. twenty
horses, and one donkey.
Juan Ramón de Quintanilla, married to María Antonia Flores, has two children, arms, a rifle,
and a shield, without horses.
Juan de los Santos García, married to Catarina Treviño, has one son, all arms, and four horses.
Lucas Gonz�lez, married to Ana María de la Garza, has five children, four horses, and without
arms.
Josefa Benavidez, widow.
Javier Gonz�lez, married to María de Olivares, has three children, all arms, and four horses.
Matías Longoria, ill, married to Margarita de Hinojosa, has five children, all arms, and ten
horses.
Domingo Vela, married to María de Casas, has five children, all arms, and three horses.
Juan Javier Rodríguez, married to Juana María Barrera, has six step-children and one son, all
arms, and two horses.
Francisco de la Garza, married to Josefa Guajardo, has six children, all arms, and eight horses.
Juan José Hinojosa, married to Antonia Benavidez, has six chidlren, all arms, fifty horses, five
male donkeys, and ten female donkeys
Ana María de Hinojosa, widow, has one daughter.
María Vela, widow, has one son with all arms and eight horses.
Antonio Longoria, widower, has one brother, with all arms, and nine horses.
Francisco López de Jaén, married to María de Longoria, has ten children, all arms, twenty
horses, and one donkey.
Salvador Vela, married to Agueda Longoria, has seven children, all arms, seven horses, and one
donkey.
Crist�bal Gutiérrez, married to Josefa Cavazos, has two children, all arms, and six horses.
Diego García, married to María Vela, has five children, all arms, and two horses.
Ignacio Quintanilla, married to María Salinas, all arms and nine horses.
Juan Antonio de Flores, married to Leonor Cantú, without arms or horses, is a servant.
Bartolomé Treviño, married to Ana María García, has nine children, seven servants, all arms,
twenty horses, two male donkeys, and two female donkeys.
Francisco García, married to María Gertrudis Guajardo, has two horses and without arms.
Bernardo de Hinojosa, married to Nicolasa Rendón, has one orphan, all arms, fourteen horses,
and one donkey.
RESIDENTS WITHOUT FINANCIAL AID
Margarita Gonz�lez, widow, has four children, without arms, fifteen horses, and two donkeys.
Don Nicol�s de los Santos Coy, married to Doña Ana María Guerra, has twenty-nine servants
of both sexes, all arms, eighty horses, twenty-one male donkeys, six female donkeys
Francisco Javier de Sosa, ill, married to Pascuala de los Reyes, has all arms, fifteen horses, three
male donkeys, and two female donkeys, and he aids in his home a son who has eight children.
José Vela, absent with permission, married to Felipa Selvera, has four children, all arms, twelve
horses, one male donkey and one female donkey.
Ignacio Contreras, married to Rita S�nchez, has three children, and is a servant.
Bernabé de la Garza, bachelor, is a servant.
José de Olivares, married to María de Jesús Guajardo, has six children, all arms, ten horses,
and one female donkey.
Don José de Hinojosa, married to Rosa S�nchez de Zamora, has seven children, all arms, thirty
horses, and one donkey.
Diego de Flores, married to María Luisa de Hinojosa, has three children, all arms, and six
horses.
Pedro Cantú, married to Juana Gonz�lez, has ten children, all arms, seventy horses, seven male
donkeys, six female donkeys, and three servants, married, with twelve persons.
Cayetano Peña, married to María Rosa García, has two orphans, all arms. ten horses, is absent
with premission.
José Laureano de la Garza, absent with permission, married to Josefa Pérez, has two children,
all arms, four horses, and one female donkey.
Javier García, married to María Rita Hinojosa, has one son, all arms, and three horses.
Bartolomé García, married to Juana María de la Garza, has two children, all arms, eight horses,
and two donkeys.
Marcelo de Olivares, married to María Lugarda Gonz�lez, has four children, is a servant.
L�zaro de la Garza, married to Antonia Josefa Olivares, is a servant.
José Francisco de la Garza, married to María Rita de Hinojosa, has four children, all arms, ten
horses, one male donkey, and one female donkey.
Pedro José Gómez, married to María de la Garza, has eight children, all arms, and six horses.
Juan José Jiménez de Cisneros, married to María Antonia Guajardo, has five children, all arms,
twenty horses, and one donkey.
Felipe Treviño, married to Beatriz de los Reyes, has nine children, all arms, and six horses.
Juan Crist�bal Martínez, married to María Josefa García, has four children, all arms, eight
horses, and one donkey.
Cosme de la Garza, married to Andrea Cosme de la Garza, [sic] has two children, three horses,
and without arms.
José Servín, married to María Claudia Rendón, has two children.
Agustín de la Garza, married to María Antonia Gonz�lez, has three children and two horses.
Luis López, married to Juana de Villarreal, has one son, all arms, six horses, and three donkeys.
José Javier Hinojosa, married to Ana María García, has one son, all arms, and two horses.
Juan José de la Garza, married to María Gerarda, has all arms and six horses.
Ventura Vela, married to María Loreta Guajardo, has one son and is a servant.
Fileto Gonz�lez, married to Javiera de la Garza, has two children and is a servant.
José Salinas, married to Petra Longoria, has three children and five horses.
Lorenzo Serna, married to María Rita Baca, has five children, all arms, and ten horses.
Mateo de Olivares, married to María Quiteria, has one son and three horses, without arms.
Joaquín de la Garza, married to María Ignacia Gonz�lez, all arms and five horses.
Juan de la Garza, married to María Gertrudis, has four children, five horses, and a rifle.
José de la Garza, married to María de la Encarnación, has one son, all arms, and two horses.
Fernando Cantú, married to Doña Apolinaria Pérez, has three children, a rifle and a shield, ten
horses, and two donkeys.
Juan Bautista López, married to Josefa de Jesús Bermúdez, has seven children, all arms, and
ten horses.
José Manuel Sandoval, married to María García, has one son, all arms, and six horses.
Juan Cayetano de Borja, married to Ana Longoria, has a rifle and a shield and three horses, has
the occupation of tailor.
Juaquín Guajardo, married to Lucía Rodríguez, has one son, all arms, sixteen horses, four male
donkeys, and one female donkey.
Juan García, married to C�ndida de Hinojosa, without arms, nine horses, and one donkey.
José Gregorio Villarreal, married to María Olaya Vela, a rifle, a shield, and two horses.
Juan Rodríguez Baca, ill, married to María de Uribe, has a maid with a son, all arms, four
horses, and one donkey.
Juan Bautista Villarreal, married to Ana Josefa de León, without arms and two horses.
Antonio Villarreal, married to María Reyes, has one son and two step-sons, without arms or a
horse.
Vicente Longoria, married to María de la Garza, without arms and two horses.
Juan Ignacio Gonz�lez, ill, married to Felipa Vela, has a female orphan, all arms, twelve horses,
and two donkeys.
José Andrés de Villarreal, married to Anastasia Longoria, one son, all arms and two horses.
José Leal, married to María S�nchez, one son, two horses, and without arms.
Alejandro Casas, married to Margarita Olivares, all arms and three horses.
Juan José de León, absent with permission, married to Francisca García, all arms, two horses,
is a tailor, and has three children.
Francisco León, all arms, three horses, is a tailor.
Javier de León, married to María Vela, one son, without arms, and three horses.
Eduardo Villarreal, married to Mariana Vela, without arms and four horses.
Nicol�s Vela, married to María García, five children, all arms, ten horses, and one donkey.
Gregorio Gómez, married to María García, one son, without arms, and four horses.
Crist�bal García, married to María Guajardo, has two children, all arms, ten horses, and one
donkey.
José Antonio Guajardo, who is imprisoned, married to Ana Gómez, three children, and four
horses.
Don Salvador de la Garza, married to Doña María de la Garza Falcón, has two children, all
arms, twenty horses, two male donkeys, two female donkeys, and three servants.
That, so it appears from this review, the number of families of its squadron and citizenry composes
ninety-seven and that of its persons six hundred thirty-seven in this form: the eleven of the squadron of
officers and soldiers, the twenty nine of settlers with financial aid, and the fifty-seven of registered
residents with no financial aid. These have, as goods, six thousand fifty breeding horses, five hundred
twelve mules, sixty-eight yokes of oxen seventy-one thousand seven hundred seventy heads of minor
livestock, two thousand six hundred twenty-one heads of cattle, and two hundred seven male and female
donkeys, without including nine hundred seventy-eight horses that they have for their use and service as
it is all evident from the same entries of this review. And in regard to its better justification, the missionary
priest of this settlement was asked to be present and, in fact, that is what he did giving the reports that were
needed, he is asked again to concur in signing this document in faith of his concurrence and, having
delivered this second request to the said R. F., he gladly concurred and he signed it with the said honorable
Don José Tienda de Cuervo with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Fray Juan
Bautista García Resu�rez -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Complying with the preceding order of Your Lordship, I deliver the list of the number of settlers
of this town, its families and goods which they have, also that of the officers and soldiers of which this
Royal Squadron of my charge is composed; and having placed myself in charge of the other points that it
contains, I say that the service that is made by its soldiers is to go out frequently on their runs along the
other shore of this Río Grande del Norte and to the eastern part towards the coast, where several tribes of
heathen Indians live, in order to repair the damages that can occur, on which exercise they are always
accompanied by the sergeant and, when some grave thing occurs which is at the distance of this town, I
go personally to accompany them; they also practice the guarding and custody of this town and its mission
and the care of the horses of the area, escorts, and whatever else occurs in the royal service of Your
Majesty.
The salary that falls due annually to the said Royal Squadron, which is composed of thirteen posts
including mine, is received in the Royal Treasury of the Court of Mexico by the captain Don Agustín de
Iglesias Cotillo, resident and warehouse keeper there, in virtue of the power conferred to him who sends
the effects and provisions requested of him directed to me and by my hand the payment of their salary is
done which is the way it has been run since the beinning and they were run before in the town of Cerralvo
from where the said Royal Squadron was removed to this one.
In the confines of this town seventeen ranches and dwellings have been put in by the residents of
this town and they are: on the east side Don Juan de Hinojosa in the region they call Abrevadero de la
Laja at a distance of five leagues of this town; Francisco López in los Puertecitos four leagues; Bernardo
de Hinojosa in el Rincón de el Estero three leagues; Francisco Montalvo and other residents where they
call la Misión two leagues; Antonio de la Garza in the watering place of said mission one league; all in
the same easterly direction. And to the south Juan Rodrigúez in the region that they call San José five
leagues from this town; Juan María Barrera at a short distance from the antecedent and the same distance
from this town in the same region of San José; Francisco Javier Gonz�lez in the region of las Abras two
leagues distance from it. On the west side in the region they call el Paso de la Azúcar of this bank of el
Río de San Juan two leagues distance from this town;[sic] Don Bartolomé Treviño has his a short distance
from the aforesaid ranch: Francisco García in the region of San Pedro at a distance of five leagues;
Domingo Vela in San Simón at a distance of six leagues; Diego Flores that they call el Salto on the other
bank of the river of San Juan at a distance of five leagues; Doña Ana María de Hinojosa, widow, at a
distance of two leagues; José López in what they call la Laguna at a distance of a quarter of a league; Don
Nicol�s de los Santos Coy, in the region they call La Ranchería, has a ranch in which he maintains his
minor livestock, a herd of mares, and his cattle at a distance of three leagues; Francisco de la Garza in
the pass that they call La Mula at a distance of four leagues; on the other bank of the river of el Norte, the
said Don Nicol�s has another ranch in which he maintains the rest of his horses and mules at a distance
of around five leagues from this town in the pass that they call Guardado; I have put mine on the same bank
of said river in the hill they call Carnestolendas. In all of these ranches the residents, who have put them
in, as well as others who have come together with them, maintain their major and minor livestock in which
care they have well applied themselves. What I have expressed, I believe, leads to that which His Lordship
anticipates of me in in his original document, if any more explanation is necessary, I am ready to execute
it. Town of Camargo the thirteenth of July of seventeen hundred fifty-years. Blas María de la Garza
Falcón. - (rubric)
REVIEW OF INDIANS - In the town of Camargo in thirteen days of the month of July of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing the best
discussion of the recognition and state of this town, arranged to become acquainted with the state of its
mission and, for it, he communicated with its missionary apostolic priest whether there might be any
difficulty in reviewing the Indians and, the said priest having manifested his assurance of their subjection
and that there would be no problem in it, he reminded said gentleman that he serve to have them ready at
said mission for tomorrow the fourteenth of the current month, that he would come there to perform this
proceeding and, their agreeing in this endeaver, the said gentleman ordered it put in as a proceeding and
he signed it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José
de Haro. -(rubric).
In the town of Camargo in fourteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-
seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in completion of that which has been ordered
of him regarding making a review of the Indians of the mission of this town, went to the site in which it
is situated which is the southern part of this settlement immediate to it bordering upon its last houses at the
bank of the river of San Juan and, having found all of them together, he had them separate each tribe
together and he recognized that those called Tareguanos are twenty-six warriors and among women and
children they compose the number of seventy-seven, including among them the one who acts as governor
of all the mission called Juan Antonio and a captain of the same tribe called Mateo, all baptised, and those
who are married through the sacrement of the Holy Mother Church with the exeception of six old men who
have not been able to be baptised due to not having been instructed in the doctrine; and among these the
said gentleman also found that two were applied to the work of carpentry and another to the practice of
making soap; and having passed to the separation in which those called Pajaritos were, he counted them
one by one and he encountered nineteen warriors with thirty-seven women and children and in all fifty-six
baptised persons and the married ones as our Holy Mother Church orders, less two old women who have
not been able to learn the doctrine and therefore they have not been able to be baptised, including in this
number a captain of theirs called Francisco Benito of very good intelligence among whom there is also
one applied to the work of mason; and the said gentleman, continuing this proceeding, went to continue
it with the tribe called Venados and, counting them, he found twenty-three warriors, twenty-eight women
and children, and those married by the order of the Holy Church outside of seven old men who subsist as
heathens due to not being able to learn the doctrine, included in this tribe a captain called Juan Grande
and among them there is also a blacksmith; and, continuing with this review to those called Tejones, he
counted them and found fifteen adults and eighteen women and children, in all thirty-three who are still
heathens and there is only one child baptised but all attend the doctrine at the ring of the bell, according
to the reports of the R.P, and they are becoming well accustomed and have their captain. The said
gentleman also continued in this same proceeding with those of the tribe called Cueros Quemados and he
found them to be six adults with seventeen women and children, in all twenty-three heathens, but they
attend at bell and doctrine and have their captain whom they call Juan de Dios. And having concluded
this review in these terms, the missionary priest came and presented to the said honorable Don José Tienda
de Cuervo two women and a breast-feeding baby, heathens who recently came to the mission from those
they call Carvios and, from all this proceeding it resulted in finding two hundred forty-three Indians of both
sexes, young and old and, of those, the one hundred seventy baptised ones; and having passed to inspect
the shacks of their habitation, he found them situated surrounding the house of the priest, formed of adobe
and covered with dried grass or weeds, very close together, and some with their small lots planted with
corn and squash and after the said shacks, the lands continue that they now cultivate and in which they have
their planted fields which are in a good state at present and, the house of the missionary priest also being
inspected, they saw it was of stone and morter, very well constructed, with a flat roof, with arched rooms
and porch and, contiguous to it, the start of the building of the church for said Indians, twenty-five rods
long and seven wide, a work which is still just at the beginning; and after having taken several other
reports of this affair through the communication of said missionary priest about the good subordination that
the said Indians observe and how subjected they remain in this congregation, he concluded this proceeding
asking said missionary priest to serve to concur to sign it since he has been present in all that has been
expressed and, so that it be evident, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, with the said priest
and the witnesses present, signed it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Fray Juan Bautista García
Resu�rez - (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Fray Juan Bautista García Resu�rez, apostolic preacher, minister in that of San Agustín de
Laredo, boundries of the town of Señora Santa Ana de Camargo, in complying with the entreaty that
preceeds, I certify in the manner I am able and should and the law permits, the following: that the families
that were recruited for the foundation of this said town were forty-one, of these, although some have died,
this town finds itself with ninety-five families with which they have increased fifty-four after its foundation.
I certify, as well, having arrived at this said town in the year of fifty and that I tried to christianize the
Indian tribes of Tareguanos, Pajaritos, Venados, Cueros Quemados, and Tejones; that all these tribes
compose the number of two hundred forty-three persons of both sexes, young and old; from these there
are one hundred seventy persons baptised and thirty-three married by the church, the rest have not been
baptised either [sic] due to being very stupid that they cannot finish the instruction in the ministries of our
holy faith and christian prayers.
This mission is at a distance of about five hundred steps from said town in order to make it easier
to minister to its inhabitants. Likewise, I certify that in order to be able to have these Indians subsist, I
have made use of the crops; in this time I have harvested four short crops, the year of fifty General
Escandon gave me thirty measures of corn to aid in their maintenance, the year of fifty-one he gave me
eighty-five, and the year of fifty-three two hundred ten and with this aid and my diligence, going out to
ask for alms in the valleys of Pilón and Mota and causing grplanting dependencies that I have paid with
salt, wool, minor livestock, and with the alms from the masses, they have maintained themselves these
seven years and some months. There has been no forethought about how these Indians could support
themselves; they have left everything to my concern and eagerness. The synod that his Majesty has
assigned me are four hundred pesos, these are charged by our General Treasury of the city of Mexico and
from there they send the very precise small amount of chocolate, some herbs, two tunics of thin fabric, two
pairs of sandles, some minor cloths, wax, wine, and flour to celebrate mass and the rest that is left, in
flannel, sackcloth, and blankets for the Indians. I came to this town one year after its foundation and thus
I do not know how much was given in financial aid nor how it was distributed; it is evident to me that they
bought no livestock of any kind with said financial aid and, although I bought some, it was with alms
acquired from the benefactors. The ornaments and sacred urns that his Majesty gave for the church
services are in my care, everything subsists increased in amices and cordons; I do not know the cost they
had because it ran through the han of the factor of the city of Mexico. The Indians that are congregated
in this mission attend the sacrifice of mass and christian doctrine with great punctuality at the sound of the
bell, so subordinate and subjected to obedience to me that in order to leave said mission they ask my
permission and, when they are found in the fields and might be lost, some settler or resident brings them
to me. They all have their roomy shacks fenced with adobe in the mission site. This mission has not been
given possession of lands, it has no goods more than a herd of forty mares with two asses and sixteen oxen.
The said mission has its field in which they plant and today there are seven measures of corn planted, they
also plant beans, squash, watermelons, and cantelopes, all which is distributed for the support of the
Indians. It has been seven years that these Indians have been congregated and christianized in this mission
without having been absent from it and, if one does it without asking permission, I personally go and fetch
him. The hope there might be for the subsistance and increase of these Indians is in placing both minor
and major livestock here so that they can support themselves with their produce and, likewise, a small
financial aid to put in a trench and lock the water in a glen that I have seen and registered, that with this
and the short rainy season that occurs in some years, assures the support of this mission, that I would have
already done it had I had the strength for it, but I do enough in supporting them and that they do not lack
the sustinance although at the cost of great care. The land of this town if very healthy, few illnesses are
seen, its lands are fine for planting since it produces more than three hundred measures of corn from one;
the vegetables that are planted, although with scant water, produce with luxuriant growth and the last year
of fifty-six I experienced having planted some cabbages and each plant having produced three and four
cabbages. This land is suitable for the raising of major and minor livestock since I have experienced that
the sheep reproduce two or three lambs and the goats three or four. It is also suitable for the raising of
horses since I have seen and experienced that which I had not heard, that one mare would produce two
female mules. This settlement is found very quiet and peaceful; the settlers, among themselves, have a
good brotherhood without having any trouble from the Indians of the mission because, although at the
beginning they caused some damages, with punishment they changed and today, if they encounter a
member of livestock that has been lost in the field, they bring it to me at the mission to be returned to its
owner. I have no report that some border province might have received any injury due to the voluntary
removal that might have occurred from the people they have removed, since, after the first recruiting,
many have come to the large settlements fleeing the extortions they experience in el Nuevo Reino de Léon,
but instead the colony has served as alleviation to many places of the border since, in said settlements they
expend their corn and other fruits that their country produces for them.
I am of the opinion that of the many infidels that there are in the environs of this town, their
christianization shall be obtained with populating the lands and giving them food.
Everything stated I certify in all seriousness and, it being the truth, I signed it in this said mission
in fourteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. - Fray Juan Bautista García
Resu�rez. - (rubric)
STATEMENT OF THE CAPTAIN DON BLAS MARIA DE LA GARZA FALCON. - In the
town of Camargo in thirteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the
honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing these proceedings, had appear before him the captain
of this settlement, Don Blas María de la Garza Falcón, from whom he received an oath by God and a
cross so that he tell the truth regarding what he would be asked and likewise keep secret in it and his
answers and, having done it and offered it as it is required, he was asked regarding that which the
expressed interrogatory contains and he answered the following:
To the first question he said: that by the name of la Sierra Gorda he does not distinguish which one
it could be because the sierra that divides this colony from the rest of the borders is called la Sierra Madre
and it is distinguished in all the Nuevo Reino de León with this name; that he knows that this one, before
the conquest of this colony, was inhabited by Indians and that he also heard that the villages Tula and
Jaumave were there and that every year a priest came to attend to them in the fulfilling the christian
precept; that he does not know what number of settlers it had nor at what footing they were established and
that San Antonio de los Llanos, which is at the terminus of this colony, was also populated and inhabited
with an hacienda of the sergeant-major Don Fernando Zamora and other several residents who were
collected there and that they had a minister of the order of San Francisco who aided and administrated
them, all of which is evident to the declarant since he had come to that site on two occasions with the
squadron in his charge who, payed by the king, aided at the town of Cerralvo, a march he had made in
virtue of the order of his governor to contain the hostile incursions and damages those haciendas and
residents experienced because of that region at that time being in the jurisdiction of el Nuevo Reino de
León and for this reason he remained in that town for some time.
To the second question he said: that the first settlers who came to found the establishment of this
town were forty, coming from el Nuevo Reino de León, with one hundred pesos financial aid for each one
for their trip and conveyance; and that the means that have favored the subsistance of said residents in those
beginnings were the aid of some grains that they brought and the assistance of three hundred measures of
corn that the declarant had with which he sustained the necessities in which he saw them, distributing them
with economy; and that at the same time some Indians began to collect whom it was necessary to support,
for which reason the declarant found himself well fatigued due to having to attend to one and another; and
that, having tried to build an irrigation canal from its river called San Juan with which to be able to have
irrigation for its lands and facilitate the early and happy crops, he put it into use of which, the honorable
Colonel Escandón knplanting about it, he sent three hundred pesos to the power of the declarant to be used
in the purchase of corn and it be distributed among those who were dedicated to this work, settlers and
Indians, and also that some be given to the reverand missionary priests, what he executed and as his
distribution, formed by retail, he passed the account to the said honorable colonel; and that afterwards, he
knows that several portions of corn were remitted to the Indians of the mission by order of said gentleman,
that he does not remember how many measures they were and, that on the occasions that the honorable
General Escandón has been in this settlement, he has given them some clothes and small wares and he has
also paid some notes of obligations contracted by the missionary priest for the support of the Indians, that
he does not know the sum that these expenditures can comprise. And that, having worked in the aforesaid
irrigation canal longer than one year, there was a flood that destroyed everything and made everything that
he had done unfit making the hope of being able to have this benefit impossible. Everything having
happened since the year of fifty forward; and about three years later, the good desire having returned to
encourage the eagerness with which one craves this benefit since all the alleviations of this settlement
consist in it, they again put this same work into operation in another region farther up at a distance of two
leagues from where they had begun it before and, after having spent about six months of work, they
experienced the fruitlessness that could be promised of their success, he ordered that it be suspended; and
in a short time there was another flood that swept away all that had been worked leaving all their hopes
of being able to have this benefit frustrated.
To the third question he said: that the Indians had quarters in this settlement for their congregation
and habitation in the same mission site which are situated on the edges of this town divided from the
settlers, a habitation held as suitable being so close because of there not being a more suitable site in which
to place them, that at present these are composed of the Tareguanos, Pajaritos, Venados, Tejones, and
Cueros Quemados tribes, that he does not know the number of which they are composed but that they are
subject to bell and doctrine and almost all are christians and some are married by the Holy Mother Church,
and there are many who confess and take the sacrament and, among them, some who have dedicated
themselves to occupations.
To the fourth question he said: that he knows that the apostolic ministers have not been given
possession of lands upon which the Indians should found their subsistance because the region has only been
designated where they should farm and cultivate for their plantings; and that the same occurs with the
settlers to whom no property of lands has been given either because they are only cultivating each one
where he best can and he finds most suitable within the confines of this jurisdiction which comprises five
leagues to the east, five to the west, five to the south, and two to the north, that these said two are almost
useless for farming or breeding because it floods and it cannot be used except in the times of dry weather,
a limited term that causes this settlement much affliction since, at present, it is found very fatigued for the
maintaining of their livestock there and it lives with the uneasiness that within a short time it will be
necessary to having the aggravation of having to find and finance regions in which to maintain themselves.
To the fifth question he said: that the river called San Juan, which is the one that passes through
this settlement, begins in el Valle del Huajuco in el Reino de León and, entering in this colony, it continues
until it ends twelve leagues from it at the Río Grande del Norte; another river called El Bravo or Grande
del Norte is the one that passes at two leagues distance of this settlement, that he does not know its origin
and, entering into this colony, it passes through the settlement of Laredo and Dolores and continues to the
east, crosses near Revilla and serves Reynosa and, going towards the sea, before entering into it, it divides
into three branches, that these, contained in planes and beaches of equal level to the sea, their currents are
contained and, making large and extensive lakes, they finally end in the ocean; the transit of this river
through the sea being known, as far as one can see, by the color of the water, that the three branches all
going together, united, from their entry, form a body carrying enough water in which depth no vessels can
enter due to it being all sands and banks of a section of beach and it being believed that in many leagues
within the sea it would be the same; and all that shore is inhabited by Indians who practice seasonal fishing
having their wooden frames to dry the fish like covered huts in which to keep them and, although the
declarant was the one who discovered that shore and has explored it and, before many tribes of Indians of
great multitudes arriving at his position, he was not able to understand or discover the negros that are said
to live in one of the islands that the arm of the middle of the river makes and he has only heard about it;
another river that he knows about called las Nueces he does not know the origin of but it enters into this
colony and, crossing on the south side of the Bahía del Espíritu Santo, known by another name El Presidio
de Santa Dorotea, and continuing to the east, it enters into the sea, even being of light abundance since it
is simply a stream which has sometimes dried, whose regions the declarant believes he is the only one who
can give a report of its transit because of having penetrated and explored it, knplanting for certain that no
one else has done an equal activity; and about that which concerns the rest of the land that continues toward
the area of la Bahía del Espíritu Santo, it has not been explored or traveled nor is it known in what
condition it might be, it is only conjectured that the Indians of the coast occupy it because there are no
other settlements nor do the lands, that the declarant has seen up to the stated river of Nueces, offer
possibility of being able to be populated; another river he knows of called el Salado that begins in the Sierra
de Santa Rosa, jurisdiction of Coahuila and, entering this colony, passes and maintains Revilla and,
continuing there it quickly joins the Río Grande and he knows of no others.
To the sixth question he said that he has heard that in Hoyos, Aguayo, and Llera of this colony
there are irrigation canals from which they can fertilize their lands and that he has also heard that in other
several settlements they have worked to obtain this same benefit but they have not been successful, this
settlement of Camargo included in this same anguish, having put their work and vigilance into it with no
success.
To the seventh question he said: that he has heard that in Santanter they have an irrigation canal
taken from a spring with which they obtain the irrigation of their lands and benefit of their planting.
To the eighth question he said: that the use that is made of the lands with irrigation is to plant corn,
cane, beans, cotton, and other seeds, plants, fruits, and vegetables but that the only aim and principal
urgency from that benefit is to obtain early crops and keep them from the contingencies of storms since
the normal experience is that the settlement which has no irrigation cannot obtain crops with which to
support itself due to the extraordinary accidents that the seasons in this climate offer and, therefore, the
most accredited seeds and into which the most effort is put in the plantings is the corn due to the support
depending on it and that the lands that are benefitted in this town and put into cultivation and farming for
this end should be about forty measures for planting.
To the ninth question he said: that in this present year there are about thirty-two measures of corn
planted in this settlement, exposed to the benefit of the weather and, although in other years they have
planted less quantity, they have not failed to harvest, although with some damages and not with that
perfection that could be promised but, encouraged at present, it looks like they have good hopes from the
good statein which their plantings appear; and, although up to now they have had to buy the corn to have
for their maintainance, bringing it from the borders at the cost of their livestock and goods since the crops
were not sufficient, they have great confidence that, if they do not have any disaster in this present year,
they shall obtain enough to maintain themselves from their crops without having to supply themselves from
other parts.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements where he has been of those situated in this
colony are Reynosa, Mier, Revilla, Dolores, and this one of Camargo from which, up to the sea, there are
more or less thirty leagues and that he does not know whether there might be a port, a bay, or anchorages
in all the coast of this colony into which major or minor vessels could enter except the port they call
Santander, that, although he has not seen it. he hears the schooners of the honorable Colonel Escandón
enter into it.
To the eleventh question he said: that from what he has traversed and seen of this colony, its lands
are suitable for the raising of major and minor livestock and that they experience this benefit especially in
this town, that besides the ranches of this type and dwellings of the same that have been put in by the
residents in the environs of this town, they notice general increases of the said breeding and besides, this
land is healthy and accomodating for the public health without experiencing grievous illnesses or contagious
casualties.
To the twelfth question he said: that he knows of no mines that have been put into use nor has he
understood anything else in this affair other than the common report that there are several mines in las
Tamaulipas.
To the thirteenth question he said: that, at a distance of thirty leagues from this settlement, on the
other side of the Río Grande on the east side, there is a crystallized salt mine of good rock salt that forms
something like large rocks or thin, flat stones, that they need instruments to cut it and be able to place it
in order to carry it, so abundant that it is sufficient to maintain all the provinces of la Nueva España, which
has not been able to be made use of the last year due to its having been inundated because of the many
rains and, at the present because it rained at the beginnings of this year, the same has occurred but, even
with this, that principal crystallization still remains in its hardness at the bottom, expecting that if the
removal still continues this year, they will be able to have a crop from it; and that at four or five leagues
farther down, through the same spillway of this one, there is another salt mine of the same quality and
abundance.
To the fourteenth question he said: that the settlements that are situated in the circle of this colony,
he hears, are all conserved in peace and quiet and that, regarding this town, its residents observe good
communication among themselves and are totally peaceful, the same being obtained in the Indian
congregations without their causing any kind of rudeness, and especially in this settlement where, subdued,
they observe all subordination; and that, regarding the unconquered heathens, at present they cause no
problems and they are found at a distance in their old dwellings without causing any reason for war or
anything that would cause discomfort.
To the fifteenth question he said: that he knows the Sierra Madre by that name and he has heard
it distinguished as the one that divides this colony from its frontiers, running from la Huasteca toward the
west and that, therefore, he does not know what conception is had of what they call Sierra Gorda; and that,
regarding las Tamaulipas in the opportunity of placing settlements, he cannot assure what apparant sites
could offer themselves because he has only traveled through la Nueva and this road he has traveled
sometimes at night and at others hiding to observe the caution of the Indians and their movements for which
reason he does not have the knowledge required for this answer.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the settlements of el Nuevo Reino de León, frontiers to this
colony are Linares, el Pilón, and la Mota, that he does not know how many leagues distance from the limit
there might be and that he does not know that those settlements have felt any known benefits since the
establishment of this colony but, although in the entry they have had some other comfort, since the Indians
retired to those regions, they did not stop bothering them; and that he does not know about the other
provinces whether there might be settlements that can be thought of as frontiers.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the exact number of captains, corporals,
and soldiers, registered and with salary, of which this colony is composed but that in this settlement its
captain is the declarant who earns five hundred pesos salary per year and there is also a sergeant with two
hundred fifty and eleven soldiers at two hundred twenty-five each one and that the way that these salaries
are satisfied is in this manner: the declarant assembles his soldiers and, with their permission, forms his
command that which they send to Mexico to its empowered Don Agustín de Iglesias so that he may collect
from the Royal Treasury that which corresponds to their salaries and, at the same time, they give him an
order to send the provisions and materials that are needed for their distribution and this conveyance,
running in the charge of the declarant, upon arrival he distributes to each one that which corresponds to
the balance of the account they have, giving them said goods at the most reasonable prices without their
experiencing any tyranny because it is furnished at cost and costs. And that, regarding the service they
perform, it is: the declarant as captain of this settlement has the political and military command of it and
is personally present in the excursions that come up to survey the land when the exigencies make it
necessary; the sergeant cares for the performance of the soldiers, that they comply in the service to which
they are designated which is in this form: two of the said soldiers are actually aides at the mission without
performing any other service, that the declarant had and order from his colonel Don José Escandón to
place one of them there and the other with proper reason in representation of the missionary priest he
placed there to assist in his fellowship in whatever he needed; three aid in the care of the horses and these
alternate every fifteen days with the others who aid in the guarding and custody of the town and with these
the sergeant surveys the area and watches the necessary passes; they act as escorts of passengers and they
comply with everything else that occurs in the Royal Service.
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data he said: that they do not concern him in
anything, and it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said, so that he can say if he
needs to add or remove anything or that it be ratified, he said: that what is stated is the same that he has
said without needing to change or remove anything and that he affirms and ratifies it since it is the truth
by the oath that he has made and he signed it and said he was of the age of forty-five years; the said
gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo.
-(rubric) - Blas María de la Garza Falcón - (rubric)-Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José
de Haro. -(rubric).
-------------------------------------
TOWN OF MIER
DOCUMENT - In the town of Mier in fifteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of
Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most
Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas, having arrived in this town today of this date in
continuation of his charges, desirous of acquainting himself in its survey and state according to the
instructions with which he is commissioned, which is found in the file number one of these proceedings
from folio 4 to 8, ordered the ones that will be conducted for this aim to follow at the end of this document
and that the statements that shall be received be according to the interrogation that is found in the aforesaid
file number one, folio fifty-four, all being done with the witnesses who were nominated for this end from
the beginning of the proceedings of this commission and, so that all is done with the best justification
required, he thus decreed and signed it with the witnesses in attendance. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW - In the town of Mier in sixteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, to acquaint himself in the satate of this settlement,
arranged to make a review that has been ordered of him in the previous document and for it, with the list
that he gave the captain, having gone to its plaza where the residents were formed, he began this act calling
each one by name, registering the arms of their use that are composed of a rifle, a sword and a shield,
some pistols, knives, and blunderbusses and, asking them the questions that they found suitable, it was
executed in the following manner:
ESTABLISHED RESIDENTS IN THIS SETTLEMENT
That as it appears from this review, this citizenry is composed of thirty-nine families and two
hundred seventy-four persons who have, as goods, two thousand six hundred ninety-eight heads of horses,
one hundred ninety-five mules, twenty-six yokes of oxen, thirty-eight thousand six hundred fifty-nine heads
of minor livestock, and one thousand fourteen of cattle, fifty donkeys of both sexes, and four hundred
horses for their own use and service as it is all evident from the sections of this review. And so that it be
evident, the said gentleman ordered it be made evident in these documents in the manner that it is formed,
which was done and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
In obedience of the order of Your Majesty, I submit the list that is prepared of the number of
settlers existing and located in this place of Mier, their families, names, and persons they compose, their
cattle with which they are found, noting eaching species as is seen in said list.
I, as the captain that I am of this town in virtue of the title that was conferred to me by the
honorable Don José de Escandón, receive no salary whatsoever, have served and serve his Majesty at my
own cost and the same for the rest of the settlers of this said place, who have gone out with me in all the
occasions that have arisen to inspect the land and on several expeditions, by which means and the kindness
with which we have treated the heathen Indians who live on the other bank of el Río Grande del Norte in
its environs; they are found congregated in this area of whom I will make Your Lordship aware, which
might be about fifty families, so docile and faithful to the Spaniards that they have become enemies
completely with the Indians who live on the coast; those said settlers aid in everything else that occurs in
the Royal Service.
Five ranches have been placed within the limits of this place by five of its residents, the most
distant should be about three leagues and in them, they raise their major and minor livestock and horses,
in two of them they have opened fields in which they have planted their corn.
I already have the residents ready to appear before Your Lordship with the aim of reviewing them
tomorrow at the expressed hour.
It seems to me I have complied with the order of Your Lordship who, if any other information is
necessary, be served to prepare it for me since I am ready to execute it. Place of Mier and July fifteenth
of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. José Florencio de Chapa. - (rubric)
REVIEW OF INDIANS - In the said town of Mier in sixteen days of the month of July of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in the endeavor to
carry on that which is ordered of him to make a review of the Indians collected in this settlement, went to
the plaza where they were found gathered and, having them separate into tribes, found that those called
Garzas are twenty-eight heathen warriors, included in them a captain with the name of Francisco, and from
the same tribe seventy-seven women and children within whom is found one called Margarita, who was
of the Zalayas tribe which became extinct, and is baptized in the Misión de San Nicol�s de Guadaleguas
of el Nuevo Reino de León, who lives as a fugitive among them and is a polyglot widow who knows how
to speak and pray in Spanish and is the one who rules the Indians of this tribe and the captain of this
settlement attends to her in his house in order to better subjugate them, and this person is being
domesticated with the kindness and the good treatment that she experiences; and having continued this
proceeding with the Malag�ecos, he encountered that there were eight warriors and, among them, a captain
named Antonio de la Cruz, of which four are christians, apostates who were baptised in the Hacienda del
Alamo of the said Nuevo Reino, of which there are also nineteen women and children, of which two are
baptised in the mission that the Cantunes tribe had in the Valle de Salinas of the said Nuevo Reino. And
having completed said preceding in these terms and made the resumé of all, the captain of this settlement
being present, they were found to be the comprehensive number in this review of one hundred twenty-two
persons of both sexes, to which the said captain added that there were still another twenty-two more who
were in the field, picking prickley pears with his permission, seventeen of the Garzas tribe and five of the
Malag�ecos and that he was certain that they would return today or tomorrow with which said gentleman
calculated that the total sum of these Indians, including these, is the number of one hundred forty-four and,
this review completed in these terms, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo ordered that
everything, according to its relation, be placed as a proceeding in these documents for the suitable results
and that the captain of this town, since he has been present in everything, sign this proceeding for its best
justification; and said gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -
José Florencio de Chapa. - (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF THE CAPTAIN DON JOSE FLORENCIO DE CHAPA - In the town of
Mier in sixteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don
José Tienda de Cuervo continuing these proceedings, had the captain Don José Florencio de Chapa
appear before him so that he declare what he might know in response to the questions of the interrogatory
that is found in the folio fifty-four of the first folder and, for it, he received an oath by God and a cross
from him so that he tell the truth in what would be asked and, having done and offered it as it is required,
he was interrogated by the expressed questions and he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that he has no information regarding the name of Sierra Gorda, which
region it might be that is distinguished by this title because the one which he hears commonly called Sierra
Madre is the one that divides this colony from its borders; that he does not know if, before the conquest,
there were any settlements established in it but that he does know that in it there were many barbaric
Indians who maintained themselves and lived, who caused many injuries to el Nuevo Reino de León and
other parts.
To the second question he said: that the settlers of this town of Mier mostly come from el Nuevo
Reino de León in the town of Cerralvo which, at present, should be composed of about thirty-eight families
who have established themselves securely in this foundation by the honorable colonel Escandón since the
year of seventeen hundred fifty-three without financial aid, nor have they had any assistance nor alleviation
because they have financed themselves in everything up to now and established themselves at their own
cost but, that the formation of a settlement in the site where this town if found today is older than the
conquest of this colony because, since the year of seventeen hundred thirty-four, Don José Félix de
Almondoz had already established a cattle and horse ranch in this region and later this same ranch passed
into the possession of don Prudencio Vasterra who kept it and several other residents from Cerralvo
joined it, such as Don Manuel de Hinojosa who also formed his livestock and horse ranch, Don Blas
María de la Garza Falcón who was captain of the squadron of soldiers of Cerralvo doing the same; and
after the declarant had also established himself in this same region with his ranch of the same livestock,
the case of the establishment of this colony by the honorable Colonel Escandón came about and, the
foundation of Camargo being made, the aforementioned Don Blas María was placed as captain of that
settelement, for which aim they brought him from Cerralvo with the same squadron of soldiers that he had
and he immediately required the residents found in these ranches to collect and register in that new
settlement because, not doing it, he would remove them from this site, to which resolution they resolved
to join and register themselves in that said town of Camargo maintaining themselves thus indifferently
about a year and remaining in the said area for about another until in that of fifty-three with an arrangement
of the said honorable colonel Escandón this site was formed with the designation of town giving it the
name of Mier, being that the old one it had was el Paso del C�ntaro and its boundary for fields and pastures
was designated which is the one that comprises several areas of lands that belong to some gentlemen from
Mexico which later fell into the hands of Don Manuel de Aldaco to whom, he believes from having heard,
the said honorable colonel has given him others in other regions for them which is evidenced by their not
having any complaint in this matter.
To the third question he said: that the Indians that are found attached to this settlement are of the
Garzas and Malag�ecos tribes and that they must be composed of fifty families with one hundred seventy
persons, more or less, of both sexes who have no quarters, shacks, or houses for their living in this
settlement nor outside of it because there is no mission nor site designated for it because these have lived
under the protection of this citizenry due to their own volition and gentleness and they live contiguous to
it in those grass sheds and transportable mats that they carry with them when they move and they have been
there many years and apply themselves to helping the residents, who hire them, with the work and some
of them support themselves in this manner and others from the fruits of the land and the others planting
which they do in their hamlets; and they are subjected to the obedience and recognition of the declarant
as captain of this settlement such that they do not leave without permission.
To the fourth question he said: that there is no apostolic minister destined for these Indians (nor
for the citizenry), nor has there been, with whom they could have arranged any formality regarding land
for the Indians because there is no mission, nor has there been any disposition in this matter up to the
present; and that, concerning this citizenry, they have also not been given possession of lands which they
can call their property because, they are enjoying all the sites that have been designated as a border in
common and, in these, the area that they have cultivated for the planting of corn should be about enough
to plant six measures.
To the fifth question he said: that the river that passes through this settlement has the name of el
Alamo and begins at the Sierra de Picachos, jurisdiction of el Nuevo Reino de León at the area of a
farming hacienda that they call el Colorado, the one which, following its course to this colony after passing
through this town at a little more than a quarter league, ends in el Río Grande del Norte and this said
Grande, whose origin he does not know, in entering into this said colony passes through the settlements
of Laredo, Dolores, next to this one, through Reynosa and, flowing towards the sea, ends there on the east
part in some large beaches dividing previously into two arms, that from one are formed several lakes, one
of which, it seems to the declarant, enlarges many leagues since one cannot see its end, and it finally ends
at the sea and that he does not know of any others.
To the sixth question he said: that he has not been in the settlements of this colony where there
could be irrigation canals although he has heard there are some in some of them and he has heard that in
others they have tried to build them and they have not succeeded, this same occurring in this town of Mier,
that its citizenry has worked some time to try to gain this benefit from its river and they have not
succeeded, the declarant believing that this comes from the lack of intelligence and strength with which
to support themselves in the cost of this works.
To the seventh question he said: that he has been in Santander and has seen that there is an
irrigation canal taken from a spring that that settlement has and that he does not know if there is another
or others that enjoy the same benefit.
To the eighth question he said: that the use made in the lands with irrigation is for the planting of
corn and other seeds, fruits, and vegetables and that the most creditable of the crops and into which they
put the most work for obtaining it are the plantings of corn since all the food depends on it.
To the ninth question he said: that since last year they began to put the farming of some corn into
practice and, with that intention, they planted about two measures of corn dependant on the weather,
probably more than less, and that in this present year, with the same contingent, there are about three
measures planted that, with the experience of what was harvested the last year, if the seasons offer no
calamities of draughts or other accidents, they can calculate a crop of about one hundred twenty measure
for each one planted; and that, the corn that has been harvested up to now has not been enough for the
support of this settlement, in this present year, if they could happily harvest what he has calculated, he is
certain they would harvest enough to support this town and its citizenry; but at the moment they are still
using the corn that the declarant brings from a farming hacienda that he has in the jurisdiction of Cerralvo
where, with the benefit of an irrigation canal that he has in it, he harvests good crops from which he can
comfortably distribute to the maintenance of this citizenry, taking the produce of their goods that
corresponds to the value of that which he gives them to recompense himself.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements of this colony in which he has been are:
Santander, Burgos, San Fernando, Reynosa, Camargo, Revilla, and this one of Mier, and that although
he has heard that there are several others he has not been in them nor does he know at what distances they
might be from the sea and that he also does not know whether there might be any ports, bays, or
anchorages into which vessels could enter other than the one called Santander into which he has heard
small vessels can enter.
To the eleventh question he said: that the land of all this colony is understood to be very suitable
for the raising of major and minor livestock and that, regarding that which has to do with this town, he has
experience in the increases that are experienced in this breeding and that its citizenry already has
established four ranches in its environs in which they experience good progress.
To the twelfth question he said: that he does not know nor has any information of any mines or
minerals.
To the thirteenth question he said: that, at a day's travel from this settlement on the other side of
the Río Grande between east and north, the declarant discovered a salt mine two years ago that crystallizes
in slabs or good rock which is formed of a slow current which comes in and which crystallizes with the
strength of the sun and it becomes of such quality and strength, of a cream color which resembles a flesh
color, for which they need an auger or other instrument to break it, one which has no contingencies of
flooding nor any more exposure other than rain because it is set between some hills, defended from all
floods and it is permanent and usable in all seasons and its quantity is sufficient to be able to maintain all
this colony and its borders with it and, because in its quality one observes a taste like that of "tequexquite,"
it is used only when the other salt mines do not make it easy to harvest. Another salt mine that he knows
about, following the other bank of the Río Grande towards the east, which is also very abundant in rock
salt to be able to supply many kingdoms, which was flooded last year and this year with the early rains,
they have not been able enjoy it and, although in the same coast down there are other salt mines of this
same quality, so he has heard, he has not been there nor does he know their state at present.
To the fourteenth question he said: that, in that which forms the circle of this colony, he generally
hears that its settlements remain completely peaceful and quiet among themselves, their congregations, and
haciendas and that, concerning this town of Mier, its residents are in good communication without having
any difficulty with the Indians whom they keep united them; and that, concerning the barbaric Indians,
although in the preceding years they have had some thefts in their livestock, from a year ago to now they
have not experienced any damages, on the contrary, they are confident, assured of them because of the
collection of Indians that they have in this settlement since these, as adversaries of the others, avoid their
being able to commit any harm.
To the fifteenth question he said: that he has explained in this, his statement, the Sierra Madre is
the one he knows as divider of this colony and he cannot give any information in what the name Sierra
Gorda consists; and that from the travel that he has made through the Sierra Tamaulipa Nueva, he has
become acquainted with several sites of very good lands and waters to be able to place settlements and that
the most suitable is, in his opinion, the site they call las Chorreras and he thinks that, if they place a
settlement there, they could eventually gain the restraining of the Indians with time and the containing of
them such that they could begin to convert them.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the settlements of the Nuevo Reino de León that are borders
of this colony are Linares and Cerralvo; that this last one is at a distance from the boundry of this colony
of about fifteen leagues, more or less, and that he does not know which other settlements of the other
provinces can be borders of this said colony. And that he knows very well that, since this colony was
populated, the damages that they experienced on their borders from the Indians have begun to lessen since,
although in those beginnings of the first two years they continued causing problems, today they have
become totally tranquil.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the number of captains, corporals, and
soldiers, enlisted and with salary who, at the cost of his Majesty, are maintained in this colony but that,
in the settlements where he has been, he has has found out and he has commonly heard that the captains
earn five hundred pesos a year, the corporals he does not know how much, but the soldiers, he has also
heard enjoy two hundred twenty-five and that he has also heard that the method of payment of these salaries
is with wares that the honorable Colonel Escandón sends for it but that he does not know the regulation
that is observed in this and that, concerning the service that they might have arranged for the destiny of
its soldiers, he cannot state the method of this either because, although he is captain of this settlement, he
has no salary nor does he have corporals or soldiers enlisted under his command, for which reason he has
not followed any regulation in this particular since he is only designated to have the command and justice
of this town where, with its residents financing themselves at their own cost, they concur in the defense
and conservation of this settlement in everything that arises and, besides, they are ready to comply with
whatever orders that they order them to execute.
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data, he said that they do not concern him in
anything. And it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said, in case that he need to add
or remove anything or that it be ratified, he said that what is stated is the same that he has said and he
would say it again if it were necessary without needing to change or remove anything and that he affirms
and ratifies it since it is the truth by the oath that he has made and he signed it and he is of the age of forty-three years; the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - José Florencio de Chapa - (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric)
-Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
DOCUMENT - In the town of Mier in sixteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings practiced in
this town regarding the inspection of the its state, according to the chapters of its instruction, considering
them as adequate for their report, desirous of not wasting time on the rest that he should continue to
complete his commission with the most brevity possible and avoid the costs that the delays could cause the
Royal Treasury, ordered that everything acted upon in this settlement be placed in the separate folder for
its major information and thus he decreed and signed it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT - On the thirteenth of February of seventeen hundred fifty-eight, testimony was taken
from this folder to inform his Majesty and was placed in the Secretariat of his Majesty.
-------------------------------------
TOWN OF REVILLA
In the town of Revilla in seventeen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven
years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of
Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most
Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis of las Amarillas, having arrived in this settlement today of this date
in continuation of his charges, to acquaint himself in its survey and state according to the instructions with
which he is commissioned, which is placed as head of the first folder of documents of these proceedings
from folio 4 to 8, ordered that, following this document, all the ones that are conducive to this intent follow
and that the statements that shall be received be according to the interrogation that is found in the aforesaid
folder number one, folio fifty-four, all being done with the witnesses who were designated for this end
from the beginning of the proceedings of this commission and, so that all is done with the justification
required, he thus decreed and signed it with the witnesses in attendance. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW - In the town of Revilla in eighteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing his reports, ordered a review made
which is ordered in the preceding document and for it, with the list that the captain gave, having gone to
its plaza where its residents were formed, this document was begun with the aid of the missionary priest
whose presence had been requested and, calling each one by name, registering their arms and their use,
composed of a rifle, a sword and a shield, some pistols, knives, and blunderbusses and, asking them the
question that they found suitable, it was executed in the following form:
That as it seems from this review, the number of families of this citizenry is composed of fifty-eight
and their persons three hundred fifty-seven who have, as goods, four thousand two hundred eighty-four
breeding horses, four hundred forty-five mules, seventeen yokes of oxen, forty-four thousand eight hundred
fifty heads of minor livestock, eight hundred one heads of cattle, sixty-four male and female donkeys, and
seven hundred sixty-four horses for their use and service, as it is all evident in the accounts that have been
declared; and, for its evidence, the said gentleman ordered it be placed in these documents in the manner
mentioned and he requested the R. Missionary F. who has been present at everything aforesaid and who
concurred in giving the reports that were necessary for its justification, to sign it, to which he complied
and executed it with said gentleman and the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Fr.
Miguel Santa María de los Dolores. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de
Haro. -(rubric).
In compliance with preceding the order of Your Majesty, I deliver the list that is prepared for me
about the number of settlers of this town, their families, and persons of which they are composed, their
livestock and their species; in the boundries of this town there are twenty-nine ranches placed by me and
other residents in which the major and minor livestock and horses of each one are maintained, which is the
reason for having built them.
I, as captain of this town, receive no salary, serve your Majesty at my own cost and the other
settlers, who shall be ready for the time when Your Lordship prepares to make a review of them, as well;
according to the contents of the cited order, I believe I have complied with the list I deliver and the rest
that I have expressed. - Town of Revilla and July eighteenth of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. - Jose
B�ez Benavidez. - (rubrica)
Fray Miguel Santa María de los Dolores, Apostolic priest of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe of the
city of Zacatecas and minister of this town of Revilla of San Ignacio de Loyola, of the Gulf of Mexico.
Honorable Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz, Don José Tienda de Cuervo,
Gentleman of the Order of Santiago and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico, etc. Attending to that
of Your Lordship and examining the points to which Your Lordship orders me to respond, I say, with the
fidelity that God our Lord orders and my state (although unworthy) orders me, the following: and
beginning with the first point which in his entreaty Your Lordship asks me, I respond that the first settlers
of this town I do not know because of not having come at its first foundation and, thus, I shall only be able
to report regarding those who have been [here] three years before this town moved, since that is the time,
with little difference, that I arrived at said town and shortly after it was moved to where it is found at
present by order of the honorable coloned don José Escandón whose individuality I shall place in the
register of all the residents with which I respond, at the same time, to the second point and pass on to the
third saying that neither did I find any Indians congregated in this mission when I came nor at present do
I have them, not due to a lack of diligence since I have done what I can, contributing to them from the
annual provisions that comes to me as well as my meagre labor or strength reaches with my labor and alms
that I collect with my masses, since they just finish up what little I have and they leave and do not return;
I speak of the tribe that is called el Mal Hombre and the one of the Cueros Quemados which, so I believe
from those that are docile, are composed of fifteen or twenty families for each tribe, these are the ones who
have come continually because although now two years or a year and one-half, another two tribes, whose
titles or names that they were called I do not remember, had come together with these, they lasted a short
time because the reason I heard they had for coming was the seeing themselves "acosijados" on their lands,
no less do I speak of the tribe they call los Carrizos that, I have been told, has been designated by the
honorable colonel because this said tribe I not only have not seen but neither do I know that it has been in
these environs, except now three years ago when I first arrived that, looking after them, I sent a youth to
Dolores and he told me they had already left. I pass to the synod that your Majesty (may God keep him)
has given to this mission and the one which I have received annually since I have been here and is the
quantity of four hundred pesos, which comes to me from my college in the provision which is composed
of flannel, sackcloth, tobacco, and other things of this type, and I have distributed to those same Indians
whom I have mentioned above with the circumstances that I have referred to in order to ingratiate their will
and to be able to congregate them to this mission once in a while, God Our Lord be served, whenever the
water fails or it can be taken out for their maintanance and to have two or three soldiers that could help
me to detain them, as I believe, so necessary as I have recognized in their dispositions, that without this
I believe I will encounter that which we have up to the present.
I pass on to the goods that I received from my predecessor, the R.F. Fray Buenaventura Rivera,
who told me his Majesty had donated them and they are the following:
The following is what the Reverand Father left written:
First of all three strainers and a dozen plates.
Idem six cups, six vessels, and six chocolate cups
Idem two jars and a corn grinder with its pestle.
Idem an iron griddle and a heater.
Idem trays of "Periban" and three earthen jugs
Idem two brass candlesticks and one snuffer.
Idem a wooden candlestick, a pound of copal, an ounce [of] clove and a small canister with an ounce of saffron.
Idem an ounce of coriander and a small copper coal burner.
Idem a dozen pipes and two barrels.
Idem two boxes, one large and one small.
Idem one wooden bed and a mattress.
Idem a small crystal glass.
Idem fifty-seven heads of small goats and sheep, with young and old, some tablecloths, two napkins and two lecterns, a large one and a small one.
Idem a rug.
Idem a rifle, eight loads of sacks, two blankets, three measures of corn and one of salt.
Idem a wire strainer and some balances with four pounds. This is all I received from the said R.F.,
Idem two young bulls that I have for oxen with which to plant and obtain some corn with God's
help and if the water manages to come out and, further, a room that I have built of stone that cost ninety-seven pesos, which I made in which to live and to keep that of the church and mission safe; further, a male
donkey and one female and a load of salt and, further, two candlesticks of metal that I put in the church.
This is all that this mission has and this is all that I am increasing with the aim of converting the Indians
and having something to give them when the time comes in which I have at least two soldiers who can
bring them to me when they leave and help me to detain them which I alone am not capable of doing from
that which I have seen and everyone has told me.
Regarding the lands of the mission, I have not formally received them, although the honorable
captain has told me their being one hundred square rods, which I have not cultivated since I totally have
no way of doing it since we had hopes that the irrigation canal would provide water but at present is has
not been finished.
I pass on to the temperament of this town which I have found to be very healthy although the lands
are quite dry, for which reason I do not think they are good for planting without enough contingencies,
since some that I and some settlers have tried to plant, the short lack of water has caused them to wither
enough that it has dried them. For livestock they appear to me to be very beneficial because of the large
increase that I see, regarding the good communication up to now by the mercy of God our Lord, I have
seen them all very united and contented since, up to now, not even the Indians have done any damage in
the settlement excepting it might be, because none has been put into subjugation, that it is what they flee,
but, rather, they come once in a while, our giving them whatever possible. Regarding the good or injury
to the settlers due to their coming to this settlement, in my judgement, the injury has been so remote that
it has actually helped and eased them since the one who came with nothing already has something and the
one who came with something has increased it.
This is, sir, my feeling and my opinion in all that Your Lordship has proposed to me, completing
everything with the concept that I have aquired of the Indians and, thus, I reiterate that without two soldiers
to help the ministry for its execution, everything will occur, except for the will of God our Lord as, up to
the present, it has occurred since what my feeble strength has been able to do has not been enough in that
which I have given them as well as in kindness and grace with which I have treated them when they have
come once in a while.
Town of Revilla, July eighteenth of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. - Fray Miguel Santa
María de los Dolores. (rubric)
DOCUMENT - In the town of Revilla in nineteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having found it convenient not to waste the
time that it took for the missionary priest of this settlement to respond to the entreaty that was sent to him,
performed, in the meantime, the proceedings of taking the necessary statements to become acquainted with
the state of this town and satisfy the chapter of his instruction in order to avoid the cost which can occur
to the Royal Treasury with any delay; and so that the dates are not discordant in placing them in these
documents following this one, he ordered that this expression be made for its greater information and that
the statements which have been taken be put following this and he signed it with the witness present. -
José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF THE CAPTAIN DON JOSE BAEZ BENAVIDEZ - In the town of Revilla in
eighteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable don José
Tienda de Cuervo, continuing these proceedings, had appear before him Don José B�ez Benavidez,
captain of this settlement, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth in
what would be asked and equally keep secret in it and his response and, having done it as it is required,
he was interrogated according to what the expressed questionnaire contains and he answered the following:
To the first question he said: that he does not know which one the Sierra Gorda is because he does
not know it by that name but that if this is comprised in what is called Sierra Madre before the conquest,
he has had no word that it might have any settlements but that he does know that in that which is a colony
today before the honorable Colonel Escandón entered into it, San Antonio de los Llanos was already
settled, that he knew well its captain Don Fernando Zamora, that it was subject to the jurisdiction of el
Nuevo Reino de León whose governor was continually sending aid of people and detachments to it from
the presidios in order to sustain it against the invasions of the Indians and that he does not know the
standing and rules in which it was maintained.
To the second question he said: that the residents and settlers of this town proceed from el Nuevo
Reino de León and that it must be about twelve years that in this region there was a ranch established by
Nicol�s de la Garza, resident of Monterrey, that it occurred in the year of seven hundred forty-five; and
that in that of forty-seven the declarant established himself with his five brothers at three leagues from
where this settlement is today on the shores of the Río Grande del Norte and that in the year of forty-nine
Antonio Tabares also came to put in a ranch which he situated in the area called el Paso de los Moros at
a distance of nine leagues from where this settlement is today and, some having subsisted in the
conservation of the major and minor livestocks that they had without having brought their families,
harassed by the injuries that the Induans caused them, it happened that Don Vicente Guerra, resident of
the jurisdiction of Coahuila, owner of these summer pastures, knowing that the colonel Don José de
Escandón was found engaged in the populating of this colony went in its concern proposing the transfer
of this land, putting himself in charge through his ministration of seeking families with which to found a
settlement with the condition that he enjoy the same liberties as the others that the said honorable colones
established and nominating him as captain of it, which said honorable colonel conceded, so the declarant
heard, and, in fact, he was able to verify it since he saw that in the year of fifty the said don Vicente came
with some families and situated himself in the region of los Moros and began to place his establishment
there giving the name of Revilla to this beginning of a settlement to which other families began to come
and increase themselves and, having remained in that site about one year, more or less, they moved again
about nine leagues lower to one of the hills contiguous and immediate to where this town is situated today
and, having recognized that even there it was not a region suitable for an establishment, they came to
where it is placed today and they established themselves firmly with a missionary priest for their aid; and
that in the year of fifty-four, Captain Guerra already having died and don Miguel Martínez governing
the citizenry by election of its settlers before moving to the seat of this last area, the honorable Colonel
Escandón came and concurred that the last transplantation be made formal, at which time the declarant
presented himself bidding him to serve to grant him the lands that he had as his own with his five brothers
where he had placed his ranch next to the Río Grande, offering to him that he would register himself along
with his brothers as such
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Names Index Volume 1 GENERAL STATE of the SETTLEMENTS MADE by D. JOSE DE ESCANDON in the COLONY of NUEVO SANTANDER COAST of the GULF of MEXICO