Rivera's Inspection and Removal of Missions to San Antonio 217
fication of the natives. The first year the Indians had been given clothes, tools, seed, grain, and cattle. In the course of a few years they became self-supporting and needed aid no longer. When compared with the suc- cess of the presidios on the northern and eastern frontier, it was shameful to observe how, after all this time, such little progress had been made. Not only had the Indians not been pacified, but their hostility and the extent of their depredations had increased. All this happened because the captains had been satisfied to wage an active campaign for only a few months each year, returning to their presidios without defeating the enemy or making the natives desire peace. He fully agreed that the inspector should be allowed the maximum expenses permitted by the laws of the Indies to insure the success of his mission, and recommended that he be allowed twelve pesos a day for traveling in addition to his regular salary as Brigadier General. 6 The Auditor endorsed the recommendations of the Fiscal and advised that Brigadier General Rivera should set out as soon as possible, as the season was the most favorable to travel north now in the fall, when the torrential rains of early spring and summer had ceased. He called the attention of the viceroy to the fact that the autos concerning the death of Captain Ramon, the inefficiency of his son Diego, and the guard or escort of twelve men kept at Saltillo, were in the archives and suggested that copies of these should be given to Rivera for his information, as well as of others pertaining to various occurrences in the frontier presidios in recent years. The Atuiitor, who was Don Juan de Olivan Rebolledo, had held this position since 1715. He had a personal interest in Texas and the country of the Rio Grande. He now took occasion to exhibit his inti- mate acquaintance with documents describing this region. With pardon- able pride but evident lack of accurate information, however, he offered a number of facts about the Rio Grande for the benefit of Rivera. The Rio Bravo, generally called Rio Grande del Norte, he declared, had its source in a lake about fifty leagues or more to the north of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. Flowing in general from north to south, it emptied in the Gulf of Mexico. Its volume was increased by a number of rivers along its course, the point where the Sacramento (Concho) joined it being known as the Junta de los Rios. The presidio of El Paso del Rio del Norte was located a short distance from the Junta. From this juncture to the Presidio of San Juan Bautista the river flowed from west 6 Respuesta Fiscal, Mexico, September 22, 1724. A. G. I., .Audie~ia de Af ex:ico, 62-1-41.
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