I I l I
Our Catnolic Heritage in TexM
He was fully aware of the shortage of funds and of the great demands that were being made constantly upon the royal treasury to meet emer- gencies. He felt, nevertheless, that if the militia were not paid the same salary as the other troops, the present tranquility in Texas would not long endure, and all would be lost. He ventured the opinion that the troops would be more content were they to receive the same base pay as the auxiliaries and regulars even if they had to go without pay whenever funds were unavailable than to continue the existing inequitable scales. This measure would assure the loyalty of the militia and would enable the troops in Texas to hold in check the enemy-as many as six thousand- until reinforcements could be rushed from the adjoining provinces.11 The appeal, however, went unheeded. Within less than three months Texas was invaded and the dire predictions of the Governor turned into grim reality. A brief note from the Viceroy, sent late in March of the following year, gave Salcedo little comfort. The grave difficulties con- fronted by the central administration in trying to stamp out the spreading revolt in southern Mexico made it impossible for him to send either men or money, but he had empowered Colonel Simon Herrera, just appointed commandant general of the Interior Provinces, to take any action he might deem advisable.u Embittered, Don Manuel must have reflected on the irony of fate. His friends, whose merit he was the first to recognize, had been again promoted, while he hjmself went unrewarded and was left to face a hopeless fight. His was to prove a struggle ending in tragedy. Between Nacogdoches in Texas and Natchitoches in Louisiana and from the Sabine to the Arroyo Hondo lay the Neutral Ground. This no man's land periodically became a para- dise for bandits, criminals, and refugees from justice, as neither Spain nor the United States exercised jurisdiction. Every man was a law unto him- self. Established in 1806 by an agreement between General Winkinson and Colonel Herrera,u it had become a haven for desperados. From time to time a joint expedition of American and Spanish troops entered the territory to drive out the squatters and arrest highwaymen who interfered with the peaceful intercourse between Louisiana and Texas. Conditions in the Neutral Ground. Just as flies are attracted to honey, so thieves and robbers were drawn to 11Manuel Salcedo to the Commandant General, San Fernando de Bejar, June 26, 1811, Naeogdodies A,-cl,ives, XVII. uvi~roy to Manuel Salcedo, Governor of Texas, March 3 I, I 8 I 3, B istor'i4, O,;e,-ac"',us de G"erra, vol. I, pt. 1, A.G.N. llFor a detailed account of the Neutral Ground Agreement see Gastaiieda, Ot1r Calnolie Htrilage ;,, Teras, 1780-1810, vol. V, 260-273,
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