Return of Rabago and the Founding of Cation ,1-lissions
193
location was as ill-suited for the establishment of a prcsidio as that originally chosen on the San Saba River where it now stood. The chief enemies were the Tawakonis, the Taovayas, and the Comanches. These Indians were not in fact hostile to the Spaniards. Thcy were mcrcly seeking- the destruction of their lifelong enemies, the Apaches. It was because of these faithless Indians that the northern tribes had recently attacked the Presidio of San Saba with unusual vigor. The Marques de Rubi went on to explain that the hope that had been held out for the settlement of the interYening country from the Rio Grande to the San Saba by Spanish families was unfounded. During his recent inspection from San Juan Bautista to San Saba he had not seen a single place worthy of being settled. Most of the country was grazing land unfit for cultivation unless it could be irrigated. But the difficulties which irrigation presented in this area were beyond the strength of the scanty and wretched settlers available for the purpose to effect. The hope that the Lipans would ever congregate and come to live in formal missions was equally a vain effort. They had never intended to give up their roaming. thieving life. They had led the Spaniards to establish a presidio at San Saba to protect them against the Comanches only in order to continue to prey surreptitiously upon the Spanish frontier without being in turn despoiled of the booty by their enemies. After the destruction of the mission at San Saba in 1758, they had lost faith in the ability of the Spaniards to protect them and had fallen back on their traditional means of defense, seeking refuge behind the hills and placing as much distance !Jetween them and their enemies as possible. This was the reason for the selection of a temporary refuge in the Valle de San Jose. But of late they had retreated further south and were now roaming in the vicinity of San Juan Bautista and were even found near the mouth of the Rio Grande. Sa11 Saba slwuld be abandoned and San A 11to11-io recnforced. In the opinion of the Marques de Rubi the Presidio of San Saba should be razed to the ground, the entire fortification destroyed, the garrison discharged, and the few settlers moved to San Antonio de Bejar. This small village was in fact the only permanent settlement of Spanish families in Texas. The abandonment of San Saba would very likely bring the Comanches to its walls in their raiding expeditions. Because of this fact. the small military detachment stationed at Bejar should be reenforced at all costs, even if the men had to be taken from La Bahia and the Presidio of San Agustin at Orcoquisac. The wretched and struggling little settlement represented the only real Spanish outpost in the entire Province of Texas
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