Plans for tlee Reorganization of tlte Frontier
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Bahia, the line of communication of the Spaniards was menaced chiefly by these supposedly friendly Indians, who committed depredations as far south as Sabina and Nadaores in Coahuila and Nue\'O Leon. They were led by numerous petty chiefs such as Boruca (Chatter Box), Zapato Bordado ( Embroidered Slipper), Casaca colorada (Red Coat), Cabez6n (Big Head), and Canos. Their chief occupation was to rob the unwary travelers and steal everything from the missions and settlements under guise of friendship. They were a depraved nation who preferred horse flesh to all other meat. They were hated by every other nation. For years they had been slowly driven from their northern haunts, in the vicinity of the place now occupied by the Taovayas, two hundred leagues or more southward. They had found a temporary r~spite from the relentless per- secution of their enemies bent upon their destruction in the refuge offered them by Spanish presidios and missions. But while enjoying their hos- pitality and protection they continued to prey upon their defenders and friends and to antagonize their enemies. In their retreat they had brought down upon the Spaniards the enmity of the northern Indians who pursued them relentlessly. Chief among these were the Comanches, the Iscanis, the Tawakonis, and the Taovayas. These Indians attacked San Saba and destroyed its mission, continuing their attacks on this presidio and penetrating as far as the more recently established missions of EI Canon, not because they hated the Spaniards, but because they desired to exterminate the Lipan-Apaches. San Antonio itself might be their next objective. Even now the northern nations were beginning to settle along the Guadalupe, the San Saba, and their tributaries. This evil which had become like an ulcer upon the Spanish frontier would require a radical remedy. Although it might be shocking to the Christian spirit of the king and the missionaries, a firm policy must be adopted in dealing with the Apaches, who had proved themselves unworthy. Rubi recommended that in spite of its apparent harshness, the first step was to drive the Apaches out of every Spanish mission, presidio, and settlement on the frontier along the line suggested for the reorgani- zation of its defense. The immediate effect would be to place this treach- erous nation outside the protection of Spanish arms and to throw them upon their merciless enemies. Without a place of refuge they would either be exterminated by their enemies or they would be forced to seek with sincere humility admission into the missions. When they did, they were not to be allowed to enter the missions along the frontier, but they must be
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