San Antonio de Valero and Missionary Activity, 1716-1719 85
Alarcon with regard to the soldiers enlisted, a check of the names dis- closes that five of them cannot be considered as such because they had either run away from the presidio established by Domingo Ramon or had overstayed their leave. They had not only taken the best horses, but they owed the royal treasury for the year's pay they had received in advance. These were Juan de Castro, Manuel Maldonado, Domingo Flores, Juan Valdes, and Lazaro Chirino. Furthermore, Francisco Hernandez, the Alferez, who had been sent by Ramon with a message to Alarcon, was still a member of the garrison of the Presidio of los Tejas, and owed Domingo Ramon five hundred twenty-three pesos for advances made to him. 2 ° Consequently only twenty-nine of the men listed were really new enlistments. It is well to keep this in mind to form a correct opinion of the character of the leader of this entrada, who was rightly accused by the missionaries of having violated his trust and of being responsible to a large extent for the failure of the expedition. Although this project cost the royal treasury more than that of Domingo Ramon, it produced much less satisfactory results. Difficulties between Alarcon and Fatlier Olivares. Soon after Alar- con's arrival in the Presidio of San Juan Bautis·ta, Father Olivares went to him and again explained how important it was for him to pro- ceed to the San Antonio River without delay. Three month~ of waiting had naturally made the Padre impatient and he now urged the new gov- ernor to let him have the ten men which the Junta had approved and the viceroy had ordered as a guard for the projected mission. Far from obtaining satisfaction and being allowed to go in advance of the main body to establish the mission which would have been of great service as a halfway station to the expedition, the good Padre was put off with flimsy excuses. As requested, Alarcon had eight men transferred from the Pre- sidio of San Juan Bautista to him, but instead of turning them over to the missionary he gave these men strict orders in writing to take com- mands from no one but himself. "He did not even give them instruc- tions," declares Father Olivares, "to watch the king's property which was in my care at the Mission of San Jose.... During the eight months that this gentleman [Alarcon] was in Coahuila, they [the eight men] did no service for His Majesty. They could have saved the expense of having to hire persons to take care of the stock for the new mission 10 Ram6n to Alarcon, May 21, 1717. A. G. I., Audiencia d4 Mixico, 61-6-35, p. 81 (Dunn Transcripts).
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