Reorganization and New Policies, 1770-1800 5 "regarding the Apache on the one hand and the nations of the north on the other hand, their divisions, habitat, fighting strength, and depre- dations; the possibility of making an offensive alliance with the Apaches against the other group, or vice versa." The council approved Croix's plan for uniting with the northern Indians against the Apaches and recommended that the details of the proposed campaign be worked out by a council to be held in San Antonio.• Junta lzeld in San Antonio, January 5, 1778. The meeting was presided over by the Caballero de Croix. Governor Ripperda, Captains Rafael Martinez Pacheco, Luis Cazorla, and Domingo Diaz, and the adjutant-inspector and secretary of the commandancy-general, Antonio Bonilla, fully discussed the recommendations of the previous ltmta held in Monclova. They agreed that the peace sworn to by the Apaches had been repeatedly and flagrantly violated; that the enmity of the northern nations was provoked by the friendship of the Spaniards for the Apaches; and that the only remedy for the evils afflicting the Interior Provinces was a war of extermination against the perfidious nation. To that end the plan proposed by Croix was adopted and the council unanimously recommended that De Mezieres, who was now in Louisiana, be trans- ferred to Texas and commissioned to explain the details of the plan to the northern tribes. 9 De Mezieres lost no time in answering the summons. By February 20 he was in San Antonio, where he outlined the essential features of the plan regarding the cooperation of the northern allies. He proposed that one thousand Indians be assembled in the villages of the Taovayas. These he would lead personally to the Colorado, where they were to join three hundred Spanish troops. Their forces having been split into two sections, they were to march west to the Pecos and northern Coahuila, and drive the Apaches before them toward the advancing troops of the Interior Provinces under the command of the Caballero de Croix. Mindful of the ill-treatment accorded to captives, he proposed that all Indians taken prisoner should be bought by the missionaries at a prearranged price to swell the thinning ranks of the neophytes. 10 •Bolton, D11 MhiJr,s, I, 110-1u; II, 147-170. The text of the questions and the deliberations of the Junta held ln Monclova on December 9·II, 1777, are found ln A. G. M., Provincias lnternas, Vol. 64, pp. 58-71. 9 Junta de Guerra, A. G. M., Provin&ias lnt,rnas, Vol. 64, pp. 71-78. 10 Bolton, o-p. &it., II, 172-186.
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