Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
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the Tonkawas, called El Mocho (The Mutilated), because he had lost an ear in battle. His real name was Toquet. This Indian was really not a Tonkawa but an Apache, who had been captured while very young and who had risen to the position of the great chief of the Tonkawas through his personal prowess and ability. In vain did Governor Cabello attempt -to dissuade him from becoming an ally of the Apaches. Neither gifts nor threats moved him. The governor repeatedly invited him to come to San Antonio, but fearful of treachery, he as steadfastly refused. In January, 1783, while visiting La Bahia with a group of Apache friends, he became involved in an argument and was killed. His death, which Cabello claimed was not entirely accidental, temporarily checked hostilities. Governor Juan de Ugalde, of Coahuila, had personally taken the field against the Apaches in 1781 and 1782, and he had succeeded in inflicting a series of defeats upon them in northwestern Coahuila and the lower Pecos. These victories brought him considerable renown, but did not put an end to the depredations. An idea of the extent of their marauding activities may be gathered from the fact that in June, 1784, alone, the Apaches killed forty-six persons and took six hundred horses and mules.u Plan conceived b,y Governor Cabello. Viceregal officials were really puzzled by the unsolved problem of the continued hostilities of the A,pacliena in the Interior Provinces. Viceroy Galvez even contemplated the negotiation of peace with the Lipans of Texas and the Mescaleros of, Coahuila in the hope of obtaining a temporary respite. To this proposal Governor Cabello emphatically replied in the negative. To make peace . with the Lipans would be tantamount to opening the door wide to the Apaches and their kinsmen, the Mescaleros, who, feigning friendship, would penetrate the provinces of Coahuila, Nuevo Santander, Nuevo Leon, and Nueva Vizcaya, commit their accustomed depredations with impunity, and discover the poor state of the frontier defences. Such a peace would soon reduce the prosperous establishments of the Interior Provinces to the miserable condition of those of Coahuila and Texas. On the contrary, Cabello argued, the war. against the Apaches and their blood allies should be intensified and no quarter given until "only the memory of their existence in this province remains." In order to carry out this purpose, a number of troops was essential, adequate to prevent these Indians from penetrating from Coahuila and
16 /bia., pp. 135-140.
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