Our Cat/1olic Heritage in Texas
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and that the governors of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon should be instructed to give him any aid he might need in carrying out his plan. So successful were his activities that when on July 10, 1739, the king issued a royal cedula referring the matter to the attention of the viceroy, Guevara was actually granted five hundred pesos by the king for the expenses of his return trip to Mexico where he was to present his plan again. 4 Clzoosing a colonizer. To those inclined to believe that the King of Spain and the Council of the Indies often acted arbitrarily and without discretion in matters pertaining to affairs in America, the steps taken before the actual attempts of conquest and settlement of the Gulf coast region from Panuco to the San Antonio River will show the care and judgment exercised in such cases. The plans of Barquin de Montecuesta and Joseph Fernandez de Jauregui originally presented to the viceroy were submitted to the Council of the Indies and when Ladr6n de Guevara went to Spain in the fall of 1738, his proposals and those of the two former petitioners were discussed in detail in two meetings of the Council held on August 9 and December 2, 1738, respectively. Although most of the members were impressed with the advantages which the plan of Ladr6n de Guevara offered, they did not recommend its unconditional approval, which would have forced the viceroy to authorize it and would have ignored his more advantageous position to judge of the advisability of the plan. The Council merely endorsed the plan, but suggested that the matter should be referred to the viceroy and his special advisers, who were more closely in touch with conditions in New Spain. The recommendations were incorporated in full in the royal cedula of July 10, 1739. The king requested the viceroy to call a meeting of the members of the A 11diencia and such other officials and persons as were acquainted with the problems of the conquest and settlement of the area proposed. He was to find out from them the means most appropriate to carry out the enterprise to a successful realization without undue expense to the royal treasury, "in order," said the king, "that a way be found to make God known to the Indians and that He may be worshipped by them." Referring to the various plans submitted and their relative merits, the sovereign declared that in spirit they were one and the same, but that the one of Ladr6n de Guevara seemed to involve the least cost to the crown, for which reason he particularly recommended it to the consid- eration of the meeting and requested that he be heard. Copies of the three proposals were transmitted for the information of the Junta and
•Royal Chiu/a of July 10, 1739. A.G. Al., Provincias /nlernas, vol. 174, p. 8.
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