Handicaps to Mission Development, 1731-1750
39
that it would be difficult to enlist citizens (vecinos) for the campaign, because the enslaving of captives had been prohibited.' The matter was referred to Rivera for an opinion. On December 29, the veteran adviser made his recommendations in a long report. In view of the hostilities recently experienced by travelers between San Antonio and the Rio Grande, he advised that the Presidio of La Bahia should be moved to the Medina River to hold the Apaches in check in this quarter. With regard to the campaign being planned, he declared that he had already recommended that it be undertaken, but he pointed out that a large force was not essential to its success, as this depended not so much upon numbers as upon the efficient control of the men. He cited a long list of examples, where a small force under able commanders had obtained brilliant victories in the past. In his opinion one hundred and fifty men, aided by Indian allies, would be more than sufficient. He yielded to the implied demand of Perez de Almazan, however, by saying that the Indian allies should be warned not to kill the captives, and that these should be sent to other provinces that they might be better brought up in the Catholic faith. 9 Although the permission to carry out the campaign against the Apaches was originally granted to Captain Perez de Almazan, the Governor ad interim, Mediavilla y Azcona, asked to be allowed .to lead it. Before he was able to do anything, however, he was succeeded by the newly appointed Governor Bustillo y Ceballos to whose lot it fell to carry out the orders of the viceroy for the campaign, which were officially issued on January 6, 1732. It should be noted that although the orders for the campaign carried also instructions for the removal of La Bahia to the Medina, this part of the viceregal decree was not put into effect. Because of unavoidable delays, the expedition was not ready to start until October 22, 1732. On this date the new governor set out from San Antonio with one hundred fifty-seven Spaniards and sixty mission Indians. In the number of the Spaniards were included thirty-two servants. He carried with him one hundred forty cargas (pack loads) of supplies and nine hundred horses and mules. With the expedition went Father Fray Gabriel Vergara, who from this time on was to become the champion of the Apaches and urge Campaign of Bustillo y Ceballos, 1732. 8 Perez de Almazan to the Viceroy, December 1, 1731, in Pacificacion de Apaches, cited by Dunn, op. cit., Quarterl,y, XIV, 229. 9 Summary of Rivera's Report, December 29, in Ibid., 228-229.
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