Rivera's Inspection and Removal of Missions to San Antonio 231
If there were errors these were to be attributed to his short understand- ing rather than to partiality or design, he assured the viceroy." Approval of Rivera's report. The report with all its recommenda- tions was, as usual, submitted to the Auditor and the Fiscal for their consideration. The first endorsed all the suggestions made by Rivera on March 21, 1729, and the second enthusiastically urged the immediate execution of all recommendations on March 29. The following day, the viceroy ordered that the corresponding dispatches be drawn to carry out all the changes and measures advocated by the inspector with the amend- ments offered by the Auditor. In the case of the Province of Texas, the final changes were even more radical than those recommended by Rivera. The garrison at Los Adaes was reduced from one hundred men to sixty; the Presidio de Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Tejas was abolished, the force at La Bahiadel Espiritu Santowas reduced from ninety to twenty; the garrision at San Antonio de Bejar was cut from fifty-four soldiers to thirty-eight; the guard of twelve men kept at Saltillo as an escort was discontinued and the garrison at Monclova ordered to perform this serv- ice as recommended by Rivera; and the two soldiers assigned to each of the missions in the vicinity of the Presidios of San Antonio de Bejar and San Juan Bautista were ordered to discontinue this service.:. As a result, the number of soldiers in the entire Province of Texas was r~duced by one hundred fifty-one men, leaving a force of one hundred eighteen men, where there had been two hundred sixty-nine before. The royal treasury was saved over sixty thousand pesos a year by the reduc- tion of the number of soldiers and the pay of those remaining. The sav- ings effected in the rest of the frontier amounted to over one hundred thousand pesos a year. 15 There is no question that from the point of view of increasing the revenue of the king, the visita was a decided success. But although it improved the general condition of many of the garri- sons, the effect in Texas was to retard the general progress of the prov- ince and cause so much dissatisfaction by the exposed condition in which the few settlers and the struggling missions were left, that the best interests of the king suffered to a greater extent than the money saved to the royal treasury. The reforms and changes were put into effect July 23 Rivera to the Viceroy, December 7, 1728. A. G. N., Provincias /nlernas, Vol. 29. HProyecto Mandado hacer.... A. G. N., Provincias lnlernas, Vol. 29. 25 Casafuerte to the King, Mexico, March 2, 1730. A.G. I., Audiencia d11 il/ex~o, 61-2-12 (Dunn Transcripts, 1730-1736).
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