135
Escandon and Settlement of Lower Rio Grande, 1738-1779
full discretion was given to the viceroy and his advisers to select a person to enter and colonize the vast area from Tampico to the mouth of the San Antonio River along the coast extending from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles inland. 5 The royal decree was received in Mexico on June 6, 1740. Discouraged by the preference expressed by the king for the plan of Ladron de Gue,·ara, the other two contestants, Narciso Barquin de Montecuesta and Joseph Fernandez de Jauregui withdrew their petitions, leaving the field to their successful rival. But Ladron de Guevara was doomed to disappoint- ment. The viceroy and his advisers refused to be hurried and went about the investigation of the plans for the conquest and settlement of the Gulf coast region with their accustomed thoroughness and deliberation. Impatient at the delay, Ladron de Guevara resorted to an ingenious device in an effort to impress the officials of New Spain. He brought to Mexico City a number of Indian chiefs to whom he gave military rank and had them testify before the Junta de Guerra, called to consider his plan, that they were his friends, that they wanted the Spaniards to come and live among them, and that they would welcome the missionaries t• instruct them in the faith. The ruse might have proved successful had it not been for the level headed and experienced Auditor de G1,erra, the Marquis of Altamira, the most influential and best informed adviser of the viceroy on matters pertaining to the northern frontier. From the beginning, he had sensed the determination of Ladron de Guevara to extend the congrega system into the new lands. This system, which was nothing short of slavery, had proved most disastrous in Nuevo Leon. Furthermore, it was contrary to every dictate of humanity and every principle of Christianity. In a virile report to the viceroy the Marquis of Altamira recommended that Ladron de Guevara's plan be rejected, because its main purpose was the reduction to slavery of the miserable wretches that had escaped from Nuevo Leon into the last haven of freedom left to them. He brought forth evidence to show that the petitioner was not only a cruel and unscrupulous man. but an actual libertine, who had boasted on many occasions of the number of illegitimate children he had in every Indian village he had visited.' Ladron de Guevara was incensed not only at the failure of his scheme, but at the disclosure of his true character, and he wrote a long and choleric report to the king on July r8, 1742. He complained that the viceroy and
5 1 bid., pp. 7-9. 6Gonzalez, Coleccio11 de Noticias, 60.
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