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Om· Catltolic H e1·itage in Texas
ranches were allowed one week in which to report and those who failed to register in accord with the new regulations, were to be fined twenty-five pesos and classified as suspicious character. 30 The amount of royal revenue collected in San Antonio was meager indeed. In June, 1809, Erasmo Seguin, collector for the Esta/eta (Royal Revenue Office) reported the total amounts collected from 1804 to 1808, and indicated the annual increase over each previous year. The total revenue for 1804 from sealed paper, tobacco, and other royal imposts was $666.87. It reached $859.50 in 1805, and in the following year, $1,479. The 1807 revenue showed an increase of $475 over the previous year. But the 1808 total of S2,069.37 represented an increase of only $ 115.37. 31 These figures serve as an index of the growth of business in the struggling frontier outpost, but they at the same time reveal how little the community contributed towards the support of the administra- tion and the defence of the province. The revenue from both La Bahia and Nacogdoches could not have been more than that of San Antonio. Ranclies and ltaciendas. As a result of the orders for the registration of foreigners and the taking of a census of the inhabitants and resources of the province, a list was prepared of all the ranches in the vicinity of· San Fernando (San Antonio), their owners, the number of persons and the amount of stock on each, and the general conditions. This docu- ment gives an excellent idea of the rural establishments in 1810. Francisco Montes, a 54-year-old native of San Fernando de Bexar, lived on his ranch, San Juan Bautista del Puente de Piedra, with his family. His 45-year-old wife from San Fernando, Maria Josefa Sam- brano, had borne him three children: Juan, Antonio, and Maria Antonia, aged 12, 8, and 4, respectively. He had two menservants: Apolinar Perez, aged 70, from Punta de Lampazos, whose family was at La Bahia; and bachelor Jose Maria Perez, a 52-year-old native of Bexar. Montes owned 125 milch cows, 53 bulls, 30 yearlings, 132 heifers, 20 tame horses, 24 mares, 11 ponies, 2 mules, 1 stud, 1 jackass, 9 yoke of oxen, and 3 cars. Manuel Rodriguez also lived on this ranch. This married 40-year-old native of San Fernando had 11 horses, 50 cows, 32 bulls, 32 heifers, 10 bullocks, and 2 oxen. The widow of Francisco Perez, Josefa de la Garza, lived on her ranch, Nuestra Senora del Refugio, at Paso de Jose Miguel, with her children: JOM. de Salcedo to the Citizens, December 8, 1810. Nacogdoclies Arcliives, XII, pp. 82-83. 31 Report of Erasmo Seguin, June 25, 1809. Nacogdoclies Arcliives, XV, pp. lO•II.
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