Texas on tl,e Eve of tl,e iltf e:xican Revoltttion
The old tribe of the Nacogdoches had its rancheria about fi,·e leagues above the city of the same name. Only fifty warriors and their families remained. They lived on the products of the chase and did little or no planting. On the Sabine, two leagues above the village of the Nacogdochitos was the pueblo of the Nadacos, now reduced to about one hundred persons in all. They planted corn and raised good crops. The Cadodachos were also on the east bank of the Sabine, some nineteen or twenty leagues above the pueblo of the Nadacos. This tribe still num- bered over two hundred braves. They planted some corn and lived from the products of the chase. 3 The various tribes listed by Davenport, which lived and roamed from the Red River west to the San Antonio and south to the Gulf coast, could muster 2,250 warriors. This number does not include the Lipan- Apaches or the Comanches. The first of these were not numerous in Texas, but their kindred tribes ranging over the plains of \.Vest Texas into Coahuila and north into New Mexico constituted a potential danger to Spanish settlements. The Comanches were by far the most numerous, but they had no fixed habitat and they ranged in their constant wan- derings and foraging expeditions from the Red to the San Antonio and even as far west as the upper Nueces. Although these nations or tribes were all nominally at peace with the Spaniards, they constantly harassed the settlers by petty thie\"ery on their visits and not infrequently by open raids. Villa de Salcedo was seriously threatened by the Indians of the north, who seem to have resented the establishment of this settlement in their hunting grounds. The Tonkawas were responsible for the repeated attacks on the struggling settlers of the Villa de San Marcos. So grave were the depredations committed that the abandonment of the villa was contemplated as early as 1810. In spite of remonstrances and threats, the Indians continued to prey upon the cattle of the new settlers and to raid the village until its final abandonment four years later. Even San Antonio was frequently raided by roving bands. \-Vhen the chiefs of the respective tribes were asked to explain these raids, they generally declared that the young men had gone on the warpath without 3 Noticias de las Naciones Yndias de la Prova. de Texas que me dio Don Samuel Davinport en Nacogdoches desde cuyo punto se han de consiclcrar sus situacioncs y distancias. Dispatches with a letter of M. de Salcedo, April ::q, 1809. i \'11cogtfoclres Archives, Vol. I 1, pp. 254-2 57.
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