Aftermath uf San Saba t1fassacrc
113
attack on San Saba. It would be well to keep a close watch on the tribes in the vicinity of Los Adaes. Indians, he declared, were like snakes that crouch treacherously in the grass and bite the unsuspecting traveler. They were not brave in open battle, but they constituted a formidable ·enemy in ambush. 11 The governor naturally transmitted the correspondence he had received from Le Blanc to Parrilla at San Antonio. By the time it was received. the Junta was about to convene. This information greatly increased the fears of the assembled commanders and convinced them of the complicity of the French in the hostility of the northern tribes. Activities of tlte cleric Santiago Disdier. Years before, when the question of the establishment of a presidio at Orcoquisac was at its height, Governor Barrios y Jauregui had written a long report to the viceroy concerning this picturesque character, typical of the French adventurer that perturbed the trusting and good-natured Spanish officials along the frontier. In July, 1756, Disdier had appeared in Los Adaes. in the robes of a French cleric, claiming he had lost his way. He solicited the protection of the viceroy and was welcomed for a time by the governor. Little by little the story of his stormy and eventful career leaked out. He had not been lost but had come expressly to Los Adaes as the secret agent of Monsieur Masse, who had a plantation near the mouth of tlv.: Sabine. He had lived for several years in New Orleans and in Natchi- toches but the insistence of his numerous creditors had forced him tu take refuge with M. Masse. He seems, however, to have been unable to get along with anybody for any length of time and he soon fell out with his latest protector. Before coming to Louisiana he had been a prebendary in France. Carthusian chaplain of a regiment, and a parish priest in Guarico. He had entered the Jesuit order, but after a short time, he had abandoned his studies and had gone to New Orleans where he opened a collegiate seminary. The success of the school was short-lived. The parents soon withdrew their children from the new academy, because of the quick and irrational temper of the schoolmaster. He had proposed to the predecessor of Governor Kerlerec to open a new communication between Natchitoches and Santa Fe. It seems that he spent several months in this daring enterprise and perhaps traveled a good part of the way to the coveted Spanish emporium. At any rate.
11 Cesar Le Blanc to the Governor of Texas, August 16, 1758. A. G. I., Audi,mci11 de ,1/e:i:ico (Cunningham Transcript~. 1763), pt. 2, pp. 257-265.
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