Our Catlwlic Heritage in T eza.s
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rallying point for die-hard Royalists. He was very anxious, therefore, to dispatch them to Jimenez or to anybody else to dispose of them. 24 His anxiety was at last relieved by an order from Brigadier General Pedro Aranda, revolutionary governor of Coahuila, to send the prisoners under guard to Presidio de Rio Grande. On February 12 Vicente Flores set out from Bexar with thirty men to escort the fourteen military prisoners: Governor D. Manuel Salcedo, Lieutenant Colonel D. Simon de Herrera, Captains D. Geronimo de Herrera, Juan Martin Echevarria, Jose Goseascochea, Miguel de Arcos, Joaquin de Ugarte, Francisco Pereira, Juan Ignacio Arrambides, Lieutenants Juan de Castaneda, Gregorio Amador, Jose Montero, Miguel Serrano and Jose Elguezabal. Governor Salcedo and Captain Arcos, who were considered the most dangerous, were put in heavy chains. The others, excepting Lieutenant · Elguezabal, were securely handcuffed. The instructions were to keep the caravan constantly on the move and to try to ~ake the fifty-one leagues to Presidio de Rio Grande in three and one-half days. The miserably wretched prisoners took seven days to reach their destination without a moment's rest. Casas was at last rid of them. 25 Texas was freed of Spaniards. Before long Casas was to regret his action. Significance of Casal success. In two short weeks the people of Texas had overthrown the royal authority of Spain. They proudly called them- selves Americans, and congratulated themselves on having established a government of Americans for Americans. They despised the Spaniards as much as they hated the French, but they felt a common bond between themselves and the people of the United States. The Insurgents through- out the Interior Provinces of New Spain looked to the United States as a natural ally in their struggle for freedom and independence. Texas was the open road through which essential aid could come. It was of the utmost importance for them, therefore, to control Texas if they were to be successful. But the Royalists in Mexico also realized that control of Texas was essential to crushing the Revolution. Texas, thus, became the prize sought by both Revolutionists and Royalists. The news of the success of Casas and the Revolution was received with enthusiasm and rejoicing by the people of Natchitoches, for an independent Texas would mean free commerce with Nacogdoches and the rest of Mexico, and would bring prosperity and good will. The "Casas to Jimenez, February 3, and 4, 1811, in Chabot, o-j. cit., 80-81. lSList of Europeans who were taken by order of Pedro de Aranda to the Presidio de Rio Grande published by Chabot, Teras in 1811, 82-83; Garrett, Grun Flag, 44-45.
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