The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906 Page: 89

Spanish Abandonment and Re-Occupation of East Texas. 89
So far as I have been able to ascertain, some of these people
never left El Lobanillo, although orders were given to remove them,
and Ybarbo did remove some of them. Thus it is possible, and
even probable, that in spite of government commands the frontier
was never wholly abandoned.
IV. THE ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AT LOS AIS.
1. The petition of the Adaesans.-As soon as the Adaesans ar-
rived at Bexar, Ripperda, in accordance with his instructions, pro-
mulgated among them an order to choose anywhere within the
villa of San Fernando such lands as they desired for their building
spots, fields, and pastures, providing that by the choice they should
not interfere with the rights of settlers or of the Indians at
the missions. Thinking that the families who had stopped at
Arroyo del Cibolo could do no better than to settle there, he sent a
lieutenant to that place to lay out lands for them in case they
chose to remain there."
But the Adaesans, both those at Arroyo del Cibolo and those at
B6xar, promptly refused to choose lands or to accept them, for
they wished to return to the eastern frontier;2 and eight days
after arriving, they presented to the governor a petition to
that effect, signed by seventy-five men.3 It stated that the lo-
from a Spaniard who remained behind sick, as well as from one of the
French traders who came with some Indians and reported the fact"
(Quaderno que Corresponde, 8).
"Ripperda to the viceroy, Sept. 28, and Dec. 10, 1773, in Autos, 8, 21;
Ybarbo to Oconor, Jan. 8, 1774, in Quaderno que Corresponde, 8.
'Ripperda to the viceroy, Sept. 28, 1773, in Autos, 21.
'Only seventy-five names appear on the copy of the petition in my
possession, but Ripperda says there were seventy-six (Reply to the peti-
tioners, in Autos, 5). It may be that the original petition contained
seventy-six. Ripperda stated that the families of these petitioners in-
cluded 126 persons, which would make 202 individuals represented by the
petition. In a leter of Dec. 11, 1773, the governor says the petition rep-
resented the majority of the Adaesans. If this be true, his estimate of
the number of persons on the fronties (see page 83) was too large, even if
he meant to include the soldiers who were there. According to Lieuten-
ant Pacheco there were in B~xar in April, 1774, 140 men from Adaes
capable of bearing arms (Expediente sobre la dolosa y fingida paz, 13).