R etum of Rabago a11d t/1e F 01111di11g of C mion iltfissions
I 53
swagger, had a superstitious fear of being trapped by their relentless foes, the Comanches and their allies. Rabago y Teran visited the ruins. The location was well chosen. The unfinished irrigation ditch stood silent, waiting for the helping hand of the kindly Padres and the neophytes to carry the life-giving water from the limpid stream of the river to the thirsting fields. A few Apaches followed silently and stood mute with an inscrutable look on their expressionless faces. No Padres had come since the fatal destruction of the mission, but they were ready and anxious to return and labor with undaunted faith, if the worthless Apaches would agree to congregate. The captain had written his friend Fray Jimenez. He dared not appeal to those in San Antonio. He assured the Indians he would protect them and bring back the brown-robed men of God to minister to the wants of their body and soul. 10 In his report to the viceroy, Rabago y Teran declared that the Presidio of San Luis de las Amarillas was the bulwark of four provinces: Texas, New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Coahuila. From San Saba to Los Adaes there were two hundred and twenty-five leagues. The capital of Texas, where the governor resided, was to the northeast. To San Antonio it was seventy leagues southeast. The old Presidio of San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande was to the south, almost one hundred twenty leagues. Sacramento in Coahuila was thirty leagues farther to the southwest. The new presidio at La Junta (present Presidio) where the Mexican Conchos River joined the Rio Grande was one hundred and fifty leagues northwest. There the new Captain Alonzo Vitores Rubin de Celis was in command. New Mexico lay to the north, but Rabago y Teran did not know how far. No one knew at this time. Exploration of tlie sm·ro1mdi11g country. He retold how he had spent much time in exploring the country while at San Xavier and at Sacramento. He had penetrated deep into the land of all the Apache nations, going two hundred leagues north and west to a large river of brackish water that flowed almost due north and south. On either bank were wide plains that sloped gently like the vast undulations of a becalmed sea. It was on these interminable plains that the Apache Lipans, the Mescaleros, and the Faraones (Pharos) lived and roamed, dragging behind them their portable tents that blossomed into flitting ranc/1erias over the immense prairie as the tribes followed the restless buffalo. He had explored the Rio Florido (Texas Concho) from its source to where it entered the Colorado, perhaps following the same route of the daring Mendoza expedition, which first penetrated the land
10 , bid., pp. I 5-2 5.
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