Abandonment of East Texas
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viceroy and threatened· the governor with the complete abandonment of the Villa de San Fernando, if they were not accorded better treatment and afforded some relief from the continuous depredations of the Indians.' On July 3, 1770, a sergeant and twenty soldiers arrived from San Fernando de Austria in Coahuila, to relieve an equal number of men, who had been taken from the garrison of the Presidio of San Saba almost a year before, to protect the harassed Presidio of San Antonio. In the meantime San Saba had been abandoned and the garrison had taken refuge at San Fernando de Austria. Governor Ripperda instructed Captain Menchaca to comply with the request. This was the occasion for a spirited protest on the part of the citizens and of the captain. The Cab-ildo of San Fernando remonstrated that the twenty-one men now in San Antonio were in fact a part of its original garrison; that the abandonment of San Saba left San Antonio more exposed than ever and justified keeping the men; that the additional twenty-one soldiers should likewise be kept and sent to establish a post between La Bahia and San Antonio in order to enable the settlers to reoccupy their abandoned ranches and to gather the remnants of their scattered herds; and lastly that the governor should immediately petition the viceroy to order the former garrison of San Sab.i to found a permanent presidio on the San Marcos to protect San Antonio from attack by northern Indians. Captain Luis Antonio Menchaca proved in detail that the twenty- one men brought to San Antonio almost a year before had been formally and officially made a part of its garrison. Having proved this point, he joined the citizens in their petition to keep the new detachment sent to relieve the former one, assigning the men to an advance post. and requesting that the remainder of the San Sab.i garrison be likewi~e sent to Texas where it was needed more than in Coahuila. On July 8, Governor Ripperda reluctantly yielded and countermanded the order issued to Menchaca, informing the Yiceroy of the circumstances that had forced him to disregard his instructions.• Futile attempts of Ripperda to defend tlie province. Aware of the impossibility of raising sufficient troops to inflict exemplary punishment on the bold Indians of the north, the go\'t:rnor proposed the enlistment 'The details o! this incident are found in a long memorial by the citizens of San Antonio, February 7-24, 1771. Nococdocl,es Arcl,ives, Vol. S, pp. 27-46. 5 Ripperda to the Viceroy, July 3, 1 770, Representation of the citizens o! San Antonio, July 7 ; Decreto de! Governador, July 8; Representacion de! Capitan Men- chaca, July 12, Provincias /11ter11as, Vol. 100, pp. 18-57.
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