Our Catl,olic Heritage in Texas
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and Nuevo Leon. Forty years had elapsed since the indomitable and indefatigable veteran Don Pedro de Rivera had trudged undismayed over the unexplorable frontiers of New Spain with an eye quick to detect abuses and correct irregularities. The Marques de Rubi was a worthy successor. Like his predecessor, he was an uncompromising military man, with a high sense of duty and honesty, with a penetrating mind that took in situations at a glance, a high regard for Spanish tradition, proud, arrogant perhaps, but analytically critical and just in his appraisals. Fearless in his dealings with the viceroy, he was considerate with the commanders of the posts visited, to whom he gave constructive advice while pointing out their shortcomings. A marshal in His Majesty's armies, he had many years of military experience and was naturally shocked with the deplorable conditions he found along Spain's frontier in North America. With soldierly brusque- ness he pointed out the defects he found and wrote with a frankness and directness to which the viceroy was not accustomed. He lacked the diplomatic tact of the trained statesman, but he made a remarkable analysis of conditions in New Spain, outlined the policy which the government should follow in its relations with the native tribes that menaced the frontier, and anticipated De Mezieres by ten years in denouncing the temporizing attitude towards the Apaches and advocating a friendlier attitude towards the more virile and dangerous tribes of the north that were being driven relentlessly upon the Spanish frontier by the Anglo-American advance to the Mississippi. His reports, which he personally sent to Frey Julian de Arriaga, secretary of the king, must have had a profound influence upon the king and his advisers and made them more receptive to the innovations proposed and carried out by Hugo Oconor and the Caballero de Croix during the following ten years. The joint campaign against the Apaches, planned by De Croix in the ltmta held at Monclova in December 1777 is thus explained by Bolton, who declares: "It is seen at a glance that this is only a repetition of the proposals made by Ripperda in 1772, which probably originated with De Mezieres." The action can in reality be traced directly back to the brilliant report of the Marques de Rubi made on April 10, 1768. The significance of this inspection has heretofore been ignored. 46 He turned 4 'Bolton, Atl,anase de Mezie,-es and tlte Louisiana-Te:r:as F,-o,rtie,-, 1768-1780, I, 111 ; Digttamen que de orden de! Exmo. senor Marques de Croix Virrey de este Reyno expone el Mariscal de Campo Marques de Rubi en orden a la mejor Sittuazi6n de los Presidios. Mexico, May 4, 1768. A. G. I. Audiencia de Guadalaja,-n (Dunn Tr. 1767) pp. 31-34.
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