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this bold step had been repeatedly transmitted to the viceroy. In the first place, the continuous hostility of the Comanches and the northern tribes had made the acquisition of supplies at San Saba more and more difficult every day, until the garrison was on the point of starvation. \,Vhen the Marques de Rubi visited the presidio. Rabago had explained to him in detail the advisability of moving to the Valle de San Jose and the inspector general had seemed to acquiesce in the proposal. Rut lastly the epidemic, which had greatly reduced the garrison, had made the removal imperative. He concluded his report by expressing the hope that His Excellency would approve a measure which had been dictated by dire necessity. The removal was, of course. provisional and subject to the viceroy's ultimate disposition. 60 The report of the unauthorized removal reached the viceroy with unusual promptness. By August 19, he had written to Rabago concerning the matter. He had no words strong enough to express his disapproval and to condemn the unsoldierly conduct of the commander of San Saba. A military post should never be abandoned by anyone in charge except when driven from it by force of arms. Was the presiclio simply vacated and left standing? This was the question that loomed largest in the mind of the viceroy. He hoped that Rabago had had the presence of mind to destroy completely the fortifications and raze the presidio to the ground before abandoning it. Otherwise it might be occupied by the enemy in his absence and become a strong outpost in their power. Such a risk should never have been taken. He should repair to the presidio on the San Saba at once and reoccupy it while there was still time. Furthermore, he was to hold it at all costs and remain there until otherwise instructed. 61 Rabago removed from command. The breach between the viceroy and Rabago y Teran was widening. Winter slowly came and went and the commander at San Saba received no moral or material support, nor was formal approval given to the two missions on the upper Nueces, which were likewise slowly languishing. Early in the spring of Ii69, Rabago was ordered by the viceroy to dispatch twenty-one men from his garrison to the Presidio de San Antonio de Bejar to reenforce that post. He knew full well that this order was the beginning of the end of San Saba. The twenty-one men detached to San Antonio were the same who had been taken from that post in 1756 to found San Saba, and although the order did not say that the transfer of the men was to be permanent, he knew
60Rabago to the Viceroy, July Io, 1768. A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 94, pt. 2, pp. 6-9. 61Viceroy to Rabago y Teran, August I9, I 768. In Ibid., I 0-11.
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