137
Escandon and Settlement of Lower Rio Grande, 1738-1779
Tlie appointment of Jose de Escandon to conquer and settle Seno Mexicano, 1746. It was not until 1746, seven years after the first royal order, that the ltmta in Mexico finally made its choice. During the seven intervening years let it not be thought that the officials in Mexico had been idle. Diligent search for every document bearing on the previous attempts to enter the area under consideration was made and a vast amount of information, fifty large cttadernos (copy books), was assem- bled. The indefatigable Marquis of Altamira carefully studied the data and summarized it in an able report which he rendered to the viceroy on August 21, 1746. He resolutely recommended that the plan of Ladron de Guevara be rejected because of the unworthy character and the lack of ability of the petitioner. But the royal wish to occupy the land should be carried out. For this purpose, the A ieditor Altamira declared that there was but one man in all New Spain, who had shown by his previous record, that he was qualified to be entrusted with the important under- taking. This was Don Jose de Escandon, "Corregidor of Queretaro, a man well known for his integrity, his great services rendered to the government on various occasions, and particularly for the pacification of La Sierra Gorda, which he had carried out successfully in a very short time at his own expense."' Who was Jose de Escandon, who, without having made an effort to be granted permission to undertake the colonization of the last Spanish frontier in the eighteenth century, received the coveted commission? He was the son of Juan de Escandon and Francisca de la Helguera, a dis- tinguished and wealthy family of the old town of Soto la Marina, in Spain, where he was born in the year 1700. While but a youth, he came to America to carve a name for himself in New Spain. Immediately upon his arrival in the old city of Merida, Yucatan, almost in sight of the imposing ruins of the great Maya empire, he enlisted as a cadet in the mounted company of Caballeros Encomenderos (Lordly Knights). For six years he served in this distinguised corps against rebellious Indians and intruding Englishmen, who attempted to gain a foothold in the rich peninsula. After six years of duty in Yucatan, destiny carried him from the southern extremity of Mexico to the northern outpost of Queretaro. His meritorious works had gained for him not only the rank of lieutenant but his transfer to a new field of activity in 1721. Here, as in Merida,
•Gonzalez, Coleccion de Noticias 'Y Documentos, 60; lnstrucciones que los vireyes de Nueva Espana, vol. 1, 552-553; Prieto, n;storia, 108-109; Hill, o;. cit., 58.
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