The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906 Page: 78
ix, 294 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
the frontier from Chihuahua to Texas, and the settlements of
Coahuila and Texas in particular, Rubi declared mercy to be ill-
timed, and maintained that since the Comanches came to the set-
tlements only in pursuit of the Apaches, danger from the Co-
manches and their allies would cease as soon as the Apaches should
be exterminated. He recommended, therefore, that Apaches should
no longer be admitted to the shelter of the missions and presidios,
where they would only prove their treachery, but that a vigorous
war should, be waged against them, and that, when conquered,
the tribe should be dissolved and the captives taken to the interior
of Mexico.'
Turning his attention to the Gulf coast policy, he said, contrary
to the opinions of some, that it was impossible, even if necessary, to
occupy the Texas part of that coast by land because of its inac-
cessibility from the Gulf and of its bad climatic conditions. He ad-
vised, therefore, that the presidio of Bahia del Espiritu Santo
should remain where it was, on the San Antonio River, for these
reasons as well as to protect the well-stocked ranches already es-
tablished there and the people whom it was proposed to remove
thither from the eastern frontier.2
Rubi realized that there would be no lack of persons to call him
unpatriotic in suggesting so enormous a diminution of the kings
dominion; but he reminded such that the Spanish hold upon East
Texas was so slight as to be only nominal; that relinquishing this
shadowy grasp would be off-set by a saving of forty-four thousand
pesos a year; and that the spiritual and the political losses would
be slight. On these points he said: "With respect to the conver-
sion of the unfaithful, not a Christian or a neophyte,
will be lost on the day when the four missions are suppressed;
and with respect to the protection of our real dominions, by re-
tiring this figurative frontier of two hundred leagues and more,
we shall substitute for this weak barrier one that is being more
respectably constituted on the Colorado [Red] and Missouri Rivers,
since the present governor of that colony [Louisiana] . .
1Dictamen, section 26; Bonilla, Breve Compendio, 61; Garrison, Texas,
91. A few years after this time, Governor Ripperdit recommended using
the northern nations 'as allies in the war against the Apaches (Bonilla,
Breve Compendio, 66). See also, post, p. 92.
'Dictamen, section 19.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906, periodical, 1906; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101036/m1/82/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.