Destmction of tl1e Sau Xavier ilfissions
JII
decree official!y declaring the Real Presidio de San Xavier established and erected. This was to be built on such a site as was chosen by the missionaries and the captain after his arri\'al in San Xavier. The captain was instructed to proceed to erect the presidio with the help of the soldiers and the friendly Indians now congregated in the missions without delay. A formal fortification was to be constructed for the garrison and similar defences around the presidia! chapel, which was to have a plazuela (small square). It was to be understood that the location was not permanent and that the presidio could be moved should circumstances require it. This provision was most unfortunate, for it reopened the whole question as to location. which had just been finally decided by the Junta after almost fi\'e years of seemingly endless controversy. The garrison was to consist of fifty men, in which number were to be included all the subordinate officers, as explained subsequently. The men were to receive four hundred pesos a year and the captain six hundred. Rabago y Teran was empowered to recruit the soldiers and voluntary settlers by public proclamation. But he was warned to enlist as soldiers only those of good moral character and who were skilled in the use of arms. Both to the soldiers and the civil settlers he was to grant so/ares (house lots) as well as lands and water in order that the soldiers might be able to engage in agriculture, when not otherwise employed. The best lands in the immediate vicinity of the presidio were to be reserved for the horses of the garrison. The new presidio was to be considered as being under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Texas, but this official was to have no other prerog- ative than that of hearing the complaints of the soldiers and of correcting rampant abuses. The captain was to collect the pay of the garrison from the royal treasury and to purchase and dispense such supplies as were needed. "Thus the captain," observes Bolton wisely, "was made, in effect, company contractor and given an unusual opportunity for what in this day we call graft." The price of the commodities consumed by the soldiers, however, was to be fixed by the Reglamento prepared for all frontier presidios in the time of Viceroy Casafuerte and all goods sold at San Xavier were to be charged at the prices current in San Antonio. The captain was particularly enjoined to exercise the greatest care in seeing that the soldiers were adequately and properly equipped for service in any emergency. He and the garrison were to cooperate at all times with the missionaries in the reduction of the Indians to the faith and to the habits and customs of civilized life "as the principal concern,
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