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Tlie Beginning of Formal Colonization
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the settlers with the necessary supplies, and sent a guard to the Nueces to escort the pioneers to their destination. The caravan proceeded by way of San Antonio along the Camino Real to the crossing on the San Marcos River, located a few miles above its confluence with the Guadalupe, probably just below the modern city of San Marcos. Here they began to build the new villa. Governor Cordero proudly reported on January 6, 1808, that Villa de San Marcos de Neve had been established. Lieutenant Juan Ignacio Arrambide, Carrasco's successor in charge of Trinidad de Salcedo, was appointed justicia of the new villa.m According to the census taken the following year, most of the settlers came from Refugio, Nuevo Santander, but there were a few from Mier, Bexar, Nacogdoches, Boca de Leones, and Camargo. The founders of the new villa deserve to be remembered, even though their efforts to hold the settlement permanently soon proved unavailing. The leader of the group, as previously stated, was Felipe Roque de la Portilla, a native of Spain, who was accompanied by his wife, Maria Ignacia de la Garza, a native of Mier, and his seven children: Juan Calixto, Juan, Maria Dolores, Jose Francisco, Maria Tomasa, Luciana, and Maria Monica. He brought 380 cattle, 388 mares, 200 mules, 20 horses (6 tame), and 25 donkeys. Arrambide granted Portilla a 30 by 60 vara lot on the main square and several sitios for a ranch, 12 leagues downstream. Five of his ten herders were married men, but one of them, Manuel Landa, a native of Camargo, left his family at home in Nuevo Santander. Pedro Salazar brought his wife, Maria Ignacia Salinas; Basilio Gomez was accompanied by his wife, Maria Guadalupe; Santos Hernandez took along his wife, Juliana Garcia, and their two children, Jose Sabas and Pedro Jose; and Jesusa Salas came with her husband, Jose Maria Castaneda. The bachelors in the group were Maximo and Estanislao Salazar, Pedro and Francisco Gomez, and Jose Eleuterio. Portilla's party also included two housemaids, Maria Gregoria, a widow, and her daughter, Maria Ignacia. Jesus Solis, a stockman from Refugio, and his herder, Nepomuceno Munguia, left their families in Nuevo Santander, and drove 180 head of cattle, S horses, and 3 mules to San l\farcos de Neve. Solis' failure to bring his family seems to account for his not having been assigned either a lot for a home or lands for a ranch. He appears, however, to 112 Cordero to Felipe Roque de la Portilla, December 16, 1806; Cordero to Salcedo, January 6, 1808. Bexar ArcMves.
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