Occupation of the Trinity River, Ii./6-177.?
95
doom of the Presidio de San Agustin and the Mission de Nuestra Senora de la Luz is written. The report of Rubi was to extinguish the flickering light of this distant outpost of Spanish culture and Christian faith founded at the mouth of the Trinity. "This presidio is in the country of the Orcoquisac nation," says La Fora. "The distance to the gulf coast due east is one league or five leagues due south. The Trinity River, which empties into the gulf, passes a quarter of a league west of the presidio. The river is very wide and deep, and the water forms pools because of its low banks and a sand dune which blocks its mouth and checks its course. Because of this natural dam, the whole country is full of lagoons. This makes it difficult to explore the coast. The lagoons are chiefly ·to the east and make it necessary to take a detour of ten leagues in order to reach the sea, a feat which is accomplished with great difficulty and the loss of many horses. It is said that the nature of the whole coast to La Balise, in Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi, is the same, which makes it impassable. "The garrison of the presidio consists of a company of cavalry of thirty-one men, including a captain, a lieutenant, and a sergeant. Its annual allowance amounts to thirteen thousand two hundred forty-five pesos, in addition to the stipend for two religious of St. Francis who minister to the soldiers and the Mission of Nuestra Senora de la Luz." The diarist then affirms that little or nothing was accomplished here by either the presidio or the mission. "I, therefore, consider this presidio useless," says La Fora, speaking for the Marques de Rubi. "for it does not serve to support the missions, useless because of the slight inclination of the natives to embrace our sacred religion, a fact well demonstrated since the year 1758, when the first and only mission [in this region] was founded. It has not accomplished in all this time the formal reduction of a single Indian." The Marques de Rubi then explained that the presidio could serve no purpose of defense in a country which was uninhabitable and whose very nature made it proof against foreign attempts at coloniza- tion. The country was marshy, full of lagoons, unhealthy, and inaccessible. "Here," he exclaims, "because of an ill-advised decision, the unfortunate garrison with a few stragglers and the missionaries are forced to subsist the greater part of the year on a wild root called camote ( sweet potato), on persimmons, nuts, cherries, wild chestnuts, smaller than those of Spain, and other equally wild foods." 77 Rubi strongly urged that both the presidio and the mission on the Trinity should be immediately
77 La Fora, Nicolas, Relacion del viaje.
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