011,r Catholic Heritage m Texas
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Rivera's opinion of tl1e exploration and l1is co11clttsions. The report and diaries of the expedition were immediately transmitted to the viceroy who, on July 28, 1729, referred them to BPigadier Rivera for his inspec- tion and opinion. With characteristic promptness, the old inspector replied on September 9. 42 It was evident, he declared, that Captain Berroteran had not exerted himself as became an officer of the king to carry out the implicit orders and instructions of His Excellency in the conduct of the expedition, which had failed miserably in attaining the end desired. Proof of the reluctance with which this officer had proceeded in the entire expedition was the fact that he made up his mind before he started that the undertaking was impracticable and impossible. In this state of mind, it was only natural that he should be inclined to prove by the actual failure of the expedition the futility of the project. He had gone from Mapimi to the Presidio of Coahuila, over an uninhabited region, much against his will. To have called a council at this presidio to determine the route and policy to be followed in exploring an unknown area, showed lack of judgment, or an evident unwillingness to follow the simple instruc- tions given him for the expedition. Rivera very logically stated that an expedition undertaken to explore an undiscovered territory must follow a route which is unknown. If the way was known it would obviate the necessity of finding a route. In the case of the expedition entrusted to Berroteran, all he had to do was to follow the river. He needed no other direction or guide. Having had considerable experience in traveling long distances over the dry and arid regions of the frontiers of New Spain during his inspec- tion of the presidios, Rivera pointed out that the difficulties which such arid country offered and which were considered unsurmountable by Ber- roteran, were easily overcome by traveling early in the morning until noon, resting during the hot part of the day, and resuming the march in the cool of the evening. He declared that he had covered many leagues of arid territory without water during his inspection of the presidios of Nueva Vizcaya and New Mexico. The council which 0 Berroteran called on April 28, on the Rio Grande, was equally useless he said. There was then, as in the beginning, only one thing for him to have done, to follow Margenes del Rio del Norte, en el afio de 1729, A. G. I., A11di,mcia de Guadala- jara, 104-6-1 5, and from the documents concerning this expedition found in A. G. N., Historia, Vol. 52. ,:The Viceroy to Rivera, July 28, 1729. A. G. I., Audi,mcia de G11adalajara, 104-6-15; also Rivera to the Viceroy in Ibid.
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