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Our Catlt0lic Heritage in Texas
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cited a sworn statement by Fray Francisco Sanchez of Guadalupe mission endorsing his views. 21 In his report to the viceroy on February 12, 1748, he declared he had fulfilled his instructions faithfully, exploring the country carefully from Santa Rosa and Sacramento to La Junta, where he had remained for eleven days. He repeated his views concerning the advisability of estab- lishing the new presidio at La Junta and pointed out how it would afford protection to the missionaries there. He said that Fathers Fray Lorenzo de Saavedra and Fray Francisco Sanchez were both in favor of its immediate establishment. The presidio at this point, preferably on the north or east bank of the Rio Grande, would put a stop to the illicit trade of the semi-congregated Indians of La Junta with the Apaches, Zumas, Natages, Colomes, and others who preyed upon the frontier outposts of Nueva Vizcaya and Coahuila, knowing they could dispose of their booty with safety. With regard. to the removal of Presidio del Sacramento to the hanks of the Rio Grande he remonstrated that it would be unwise. He sug- gested that it would be better to found a new one at or near San Felipe River (at present Del Rio) about six leagues beyond, on the east or north side of the Rio Grande. 22 Almost at the same time that Rabago y Teran set out from Monclova, Captain Fermin Vidaurre, from the Presidio of Mapimi, in Durango, undertook a similar expedition in accord with the general instructions from the viceroy. With thirty- three soldiers and fifty-eight Indian allies, he started from Mapimi on November 12, 1747. He took a mule train of sixty-two mules loaded with flour, pinole, and meat, sufficient for four months. He made his way first to Parras, Coahuila, where he was joined by fifteen volunteers from that town and fifteen men who had come from Saltillo, thus raising his force to sixty-three Spaniards. From here he followed a general northeastern course until November 27, when he reached the Rio Grande at a point about twenty leagues above present Del Rio, probably opposite present Langtry. Here the river ran through a narrow pass with steep banks. Unable to cross, he changed his course to the northwest and continued Exploration of Fermin de Vidaurre, r747. 21Rabago y Teran to Captain Idoyaga, January 1 '. 17 ~8; Certificaci6n de Fray Francisco Sanchez, December 28, 1747. A. G. M., H,stor,a, v. 5 2 , PP• 1 96- 1 99. 21Rabago y Teran to the Viceroy, February 12, 17 48. A. G. I., Historia, v. 52, pp. 207-2 I 6,
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