01'r Catliolic Heritage in T e:xas
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that the people of this remote province had not even heard of the reforms instituted by Charles III in regard to free trade. Bonavia was most interested in these economic reforms, for he had been influential in developing and putting into effect the new liberal policy. He could not understand how a province blessed with so many navigable rivers had been deprived of a seaport for so long. In his opinion, the lack of a port was the factor contributing most to the wretched condition of the people inhabiting a land which possessed every advantage of nature to convert it into the most prosperous region in North America. Bonavia's solution called for the appointment of a commander with complete and independent jurisdiction over all the Eastern Interior Provinces, as had been intended in the time of General Grimarest. Investing this authority in one responsible person would obviate the endless delays caused by the differences of opinion between the officers on the frontier and the distant commandant general of the Interior Provinces. The Texas frontier, at once the most vulnerable area and the most vital to the safety of Spanish interests, should have a com- mander with full power to communicate directly with the highest as well as the lowest Spanish and American officials whenever circumstances demanded. This frank criticism was a direct assault on what Bonavia considered the commandant general's obstructionist policy, which had often been inveighed against by Antonio Cordero, Manuel de Salcedo, and Simon de Herrera. Immigration restrictions Bonavia attacked with the same fearlessness. The frontier commander denounced as fallacious the wishful thinking of those who trusted that the vast, uninhabited areas in Texas consti- tuted an impassable barrier to American advance. The facts disproved that contention. Bonavia drew a sharp distinction between uninhabitable and uninhabited territory. The lands along- the Texas-Louisiana frontier were uninhabited, but their fertility made them anything but uninhab- itable. Failure of the Spaniards to occupy this rich region had not been deterring the Americans from it, but had been extending a most welcome invitation to them to settle in it. He argued logically that the abandon- ment of Nacogdoches or of any other point already occupied would only invite the Americans to push their unchallenged advance into this area also. Consequently. every effort should be made, he contended, to increase the number of settlers all along the frontier and throughout the province, preferably by people from the interior of Mexico. 65
65 Bonavia to N. Salcedo, April 26, 1809. Bezar Archives.
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