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Our Catleolic Heritage in T ezas
the Trinity and suggested plans, which in a few years were to result in the Presidio of San Agustin and the missions for the Orcoquisacs. The marvel is that viceregal authorities were able to meet the unprecented calls made on them by the advance of the northeastern frontier with such slender resources as they had at their command, and that in this surge of expansion the ever faithful missionaries took the lead and pointed the way. In the first official reports of the Fiscal and Auditor made in April, 1746, the former favored the immediate establishment of the m1ss1ons, the suppression of the detachments stationed at Boca de Leones and Cerralvo, and the transfer of the garrison of Sacramento to the San Xavier River. But the Auditor, who was inclined to look at things in a broader sense and to consider their interrelations, objected to such sweeping changes. To follow the advice of the Fiscal would weaken the entire line of defence along the northern frontier at three points. The garrison placed at the proposed site on the San Xavier would not and could not afford adequate protection to the points left exposed by the change. He wisely observed that the nations to be congregated at San Xavier were in the main from the coast region. These had never been known to have raided the area protected by Presidio del Sacramento. It was the Apaches who menaced this point and against which the garrison was supposed to operate. If this was placed on the San Xavier it would be some one hundred and eighty leagues east of Santa Rosa, the entire distance lying in the land of the Apaches. In its new location, it would afford little or no protection to the Sacramento area. He further explained that the Presidio del Sacramento had been placed at its present location after mature consideration in 1738 or 1739, at which time it was finally erected in the Valle de Santa Rosa. Since then a prosperous settlement had grown in its vicinity. It had proved its worth in restraining the Apaches from entering Nuevo Leon, Nueva Vizcaya, and Coahuila. It would be unwise to remove or abolish it. If a presidio was needed for the new missions the matter should be taken up in a formal Junta de Guerra y Hacienda. 16 The opinion of the Auditor was referred to the Fiscal, who made his recommendations on October 28, 1746. He politely declared that in his previous report made in April, he had favored the transfer of the garrison of the Presidio of Sacramento to San Xavier and he was still of the ~ecer del Auditor Marques de Altamira to the Viceroy, September 24, 1746 San Francisco 1l Grandi Arcliiv4, vol. I 9, PP· 7 2 -7 5.
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