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Our Cat/10/ic Heritage in Texas
settlement of Indians and Spaniards that their service would not longer be required. They could then be moved to some other frontier outpost. But if it was not deemed advisable to leave the Presidio del Sacramento without a garrison, there were other ways in which the same purpose could be accomplished with a relatively moderate expense to the royal treasury. For example, one hundred settlers could be induced to go to the new site on the San Xavier to establish themselves there. These men and their families could be recruited in Coahuila and Nuevo Leon. the same as the settlers proposed by Escandon for the occupation of the Seno Mexicano (Colonia del Nuevo Santander). They could be offered free land and water rights, the honors and privileges of first settlers, implements for the cultivation of the land, arms for their defense, and a reasonable aid to allow them to move to the new center of missionary activity. This could be accomplished by granting each prospective settler from one hundred to two hundred pesos to secure the required implements, arms, and supplies and to defray the expenses of moving, as was proposed for the colonii;ation of Seno Mexicano by Escandon. Then after the first year an annual allowance could be made to them for nine years of about half the amount paid a soldier to each settler. This would be much less expensive than maintaining a regular presidio and would encourage the civil settlement of San Xavier and enable it to develop on a firm base during its early years. It is to be noted that the idea of civil settlements was a hobby of the Auditor, for whose favor Fray Ortiz was making a definite bid. There was another plan that could be adopted, he then suggested. The present garrison at Sacramento or some other presidio could be transferred to the San Xavier with the expressed understanding that at the expiration of a stated period of time the soldiers were to remain there as settlers. They were to begin to cultivate their own lands imme- diately upon arrival and at the expiration of about ten years, they could become permanent settlers. In order to make it possible for the soldiers to provide themselve.s with the means for cultivation and to enable them to move their families, they could be allowed the equivalent of two years' salary in advance and then be paid their regular allowance during the eight succeeding years. By these means a new company could be recruited at the end of the ten years, who could repeat the process at another site,
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