Otn- C at/10lic Heritage in Texas
if that garrison was not used to establish a new post between San Antonio and La Bahia. In connection with the increase of its garrison and in view that Los Adaes, long the official residence of the governor, was likely to be aban- doned or incorporated in Louisiana, Rubi suggested that it would be well to make San Antonio the capital of the province. The residence of the governor in this settlement would "strengthen its defense, increase its commerce, and stimulate the circulation and consumption of goods and money." The abandonment of east Texas and the elevation of San Antonio to the capital of the province might make it advisable also to extend the jurisdiction of the governor beyond the Nueces to include San Juan Bautista, withdrawing it from Coahuila. It was possible that the governor might decide to remove this presidio, bringing it closer to San Antonio, if it was under his jurisdiction. This matter should be left entirely to his discretion. There were political considerations, why the governor should come to reside in San Antonio. Let Rubi, in his own words explain. "Let us suppose now," he says, "that the attitude of the Comanches and other northern tribes, who today are attacking only San Saba, which they consider a perfidious ally of the Lipan-Apaches, should change, and they should decide to attack other Spanish posts-a design which I cannot believe them capable of-and supposing, letting our imagination run. that aided or encouraged by other European nations, those closer to us, a _thing to which I have never been able to bring myself to believe ... they should undertake a formal attack upon the dominions of the king, in either case San Antonio, our foremost and principal settlement, would be the first objective. But for the same reasons it should likewise be the rallying and concentration point for the troops intended to repel the attack. Within the two hundred fifty leagues between Los Adaes and San Antonio it is impossible to offer stout resistance, because of the difficulties of mobilizing and maintaining an adequate force in uninhabited country. It would be best to leave these difficulties to bother the enemy, whose troops, weakened by their long march and an unprotected line of com- munication, would be more effectively checked by the force gathered in San Antonio in the meantime and the successive reenforcements called out by the governor." 61 It was this suggestion of Rubi, made at this time, that caused San Antonio to be designated the capital officially four yean later.
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61Rubi, Digt/amen, pp. 29-33.
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