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Explorations and Settlements A long tlze Rio Grande
the viceroy appointed Pedro de la Fuente to succeed him. Not until October 14 did he inform the king and ask for his royal approval. Captain Fuente had previously seen service as commander of militia in Chihuahua. The king, however, had received an adverse report of Fuente and rebuked the viceroy for the poor judgment. exercised in filling the vacancy. The viceroy defended his appointee and politely asked His Majesty to reconsider the matter, but the king was not convinced of Fuente's fitness and issued a royal patent to Pedro del Barrio Junco y Espriella on March 27, 1765, who was a distinguished and experienced frontier officer, having served six years as Governor of Nuevo Leon and as Governor ad interim of Texas. He had conducted many campaigns against hostile Indians of the frontier, some at his own expense. Fuente protested in vain and was finally obliged to turn over his post early in 1766. 38 The inspection made by the Marquis of Rubi on July 21, 1765, gives a glimpse of conditions at the Presidio del Paso de! Norte at that time. There were fifty soldiers serving in the garrison. They had two hundred and eighty-two horses, twenty of which were disabled. The settlement owned about four thousand head of cattle which at times were herded by the soldiers. This practice Rubi condemned as being against the regulations. The arms of the soldiers were in rather poor condition. The guns were of different calibers and about half of them were useless. The cannons of the presidio were little less than ornaments. Seven men lacked swords, and the clothes of the entire garrison were in wretched condition, presenting no uniformity. In his report, Rubi protested against the exorbitant prices at which all goods and commodities were sold at this post. Rifles which cost ten pesos were sold to the soldiers and settlers for thirty; swords that cost four and a half pesos were charged at fourteen; hats sold for three pesos and cost seventeen and a half reales. He was particularly disgusted to find that powder puffs (Pafiitos de Polvo) were being sold in fairly large numbers to the soldiers. This, he·declared, was strictly against the regulations. The captain explained that most of the men were married and bought them for their families. The price at which they were sold is not given. Among many other articles cited are chocolate at one and - HThe Vicer~y t? the King, October 8, 1764; same to same, November 15, 1 76s. A. G. /., Aud,enc,a de Guadalajara, I 04-6-1 3, 103-3-28 (Dunn Transcripts, 17 55- 1776 and 17S7-l766), 1-2, 162; A.G. Al., Provincias /niernas, v. 102, pp. 4 8, 50-56, 67-68, 49, 57-60.
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