Destruction of tlze San Xavier 111issions 3 1 3 del Barrio had been senring ad interim. In the winter of 1750 there arrived in Mexico Jacinto de Barrios y Jauregui, former lieutenant colonel in his majesty's armies, with a royal appointment as Governor of Texas. He promptly presented his credentials and on assuming his office, he wrote, on December 31, 1750, a long and detailed petition to the viceroy requesting the immediate restoration of the seventeen men stationed at San Xavier to Los Adaes. He stated that before leaving Spain the Marques de la Ensenada, one of the trusted ministers of the king, had instructed him to place this frontier outpost in first-class order for any eventuality with the French. Barrios y Jauregui gives too many intimate details for a total stranger on the eve of his departure to a new post. to leave any doubt that he had had long conferences with ex-governors of Texas in Mexico. 31 The viceroy granted the request and authorized the new governor to withdraw the seventeen men on February 10, 17 5 1, since they had been temporarily detailed until the question of the erection of a formal presidio was decided, which now had practically been done. But until the new garrison was established, Governor Barrios y Jauregui was to replace the seventeen men of Los Ada.es with an equal number of soldiers either drawn from other presidios or with fresh recrui ts. 32 The action of Barrios y Jauregui in connection with the guards from Los Adaes at San Xavier is illustrative of his attitude towards the long-standing dispute. "The controversy between the missionaries and Don Pedro del Barrio had been too loud for the new governor to ignore it," says Morfi, "and from the moment he set out from Queretaro, he manifested his aversion for the friars without reserve." 33 Upon his arrival in San Antonio in May, he publicly slighted the missionaries and made violent threats that he had private instructions to settle many abuses and to place the mission Indians to work for the Canary Islanders. After a brief stay, he set out for the San Xavier, where he arrived on June 22. On the following day he served public notice to the missionaries and garrison of his order for the immediate restoration of seventeen men to Los Adaes, and followed it by the actual withdrawal of this force, lIBarrios y Jauregui to the Viceroy, December 31, 1750. Cited in Decreto del Virrey concediendo peticion . . . February 1o, 17 51. San Francisco el Grande Archives, Vol. 14, pp. 65-79. l2Decreto de! Virrey ... February 10, 1751. In Ibid., 65-79. Bolton found copies of this decree in Testimonio de autos de Pesquisa sobre comercio Ylicito, Adaes, 17 5 1, in Bexar Archi11es, 33Castafieda, Morft's History of T,u:as, pt. 2, pp. 328-329.
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