Per;nanent Occupation of Texas, 1715-1716
trade, can do us a bad turn, without showing their face, merely by insti- gating the Indians ... But if Urrutia goes, nothing can be done or planned either by the French or the Indians which the Tejas will not communicate to him. If the French, because of their following, can raise a thousand [men], Urrutia can raise ten thousand." The viceroy trans- mitted this letter to the Fiscal for his opinion, who promptly returned it to His Excellency on April 23, with a strong recommendation that orders be issued to Urrutia to go with Ramon. The viceroy now turned both the original letter of Father Margil and the recommendation of the Fiscal to Francisco Barbadillo, Alcalde of the Real Camara del Crimen, who had recently been entrusted with the paci- fication of the Indians in Nuevo Leon. On May 19, he replied that Urrutia had been appointed protector of the Indians in Nuevo Leon in view of his great experience in dealing with them; that the work of pacification having just been started, to relieve him from this post in order to allow him to go to Texas would be highly detrimental; and that at the present time there was no other man who could take his place. Considering all these facts, the viceroy, on May 25, decided it was better to keep Urrutia in Nuevo Leon than to send him to Texas.n Need for reiinforcements and more ·missions. But let us return to Ramon and the missionaries in East Texas. The magnitude of the task dawned immediately upon them. What could a handful of soldiers and nine missionaries do, more than three hundred leagues from the nearest outpost of New Spain, surrounded by several thousand Indians, who although friendly enough now, might be turned against them at any moment by the enterprising French, and threatened by the fearless and barbarous nations of the north who were the enemies of the Asinai and their friends? Fully conscious of their precarious position and the need for immediate remedy, they wrote to the viceroy on July 22, 1716, frankly pointing out their needs and holding out the possibilities for unprecedented achievement if the proper means were furnished. Ramon explained that a line of missions had been established extending from the Neches River east for a distance of eighteen leagues, the last mission being twenty-three leagues farther inland than the one estab- 55 Letter of Father Margil to the Viceroy, February 26, 1716. Pro·vincias /11- ternas, Vol. 181, pp. 46-49. In the letter Father Margi! also declares that Joseph Ramon, brother of Capt. Domingo Ramon, before two brothers-in-law and his own mother, told him that it was essential that Captain Urrutia should accompany the expedition.
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