.,. -:,
Tlie Begi1111i11gs of Prese11t Nacogdoc/1es
3
expeditions to the coast and praised the services rendered by Ibarbo and the settlers of Bucareli. He recommended that the brick be given to the settlers to help them build their homes; that the Yessel be examined and if not completely destroyed, an effort should be made to float it again, to repair it, and to use it in the exploration of the bays and inlets along the coast. Croix approYed the suggestions, but it does not seem that any effort was made to carry them out.so Bucareli's legal status. The establishment of the settlement at Paso Tomas on the Trinity had not received official sanction in 1778. Oconor had objected to it from the beginning, as a violation of the 'king's New Reg11latio11s of Presidios of I 772. He had broadly hinted, furthermore, that the real motive of Ibarbo and his companions in choosing the site, had been to engage in prohibited trade and smuggling. Officials in Mexico had conceived a deep-rooted distrust as the result of the report of Captain Luis Cazorla of La Bahia, made on l\fay 14, 1775, concerning the intro- duction of French tobacco and other goods through Bucareli.st On the advice of Areche, Ripperda had been requested to make an investigation and he was given authority to remove the settlers without further notice, if he deemed it advisable. During the next three years, however, up to the time of his withdrawal from Texas, Governor Ripperda staunchly defended and supported the unauthorized settlement. In one of his last letters from San Antonio he urged and suggested that the remaining A daesanos in San Antonio should be sent to reenforce Bucareli instead of trying to settle them in Bejar, the Cibolo, the Guadalupe or the San Marcos as was being discussed at that time.s! In spite of Ripperda's support Bucareli would ha\·e been suppressed before this, had it not been that the obdurate Oconor was too much occupied elsewhere to attend to the matter personally, so that before he took definite action he was replaced early in I 777 by the Caballero de Croix, who was appointed Com111a11da11-le General of the Interior Pro\·inces. The new officer was a man of great administrative ability, who in January, 1778, visited Texas in company with Father Fray Juan Agustin :\lorfi. In his new position he was practically independent of the viceroy, and not being in sympathy with the order for the withdrawal from East Texas, looked s 0 Pedro Galindo Navarro to Teodoro de Croix, June 8, 1779. A.G. JI/. Historia, Vol. SI, pp. 377-384. st Luis Cazorla to the Viceroy, May 14, 1775. A. G. Al. Historia, Vol. 51, pp. 3 I 7·320. S!Ripperda to Croix, January 11, 1778. Bejar Arcl,ives.
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