The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 203

Letters and Documents

dering upon Frenchmen, are absolutely necessary for the present.
For the same reason, if each of the presidial [soldiers] of
Galicia and Vizcaya is paid a salary of one peso [per day]
annually, they will have sufficient [funds] to support them-
selves, provided they are paid in cash, and the cash is given
to them personally, as provided by law. The remainder between
the sum of 365 (which is the amount of the salary at this rate)
and 450 [pesos], which is the amount allotted, if Your Ex-
cellency should approve, could be assigned to the soldiers
to be stationed in Texas; or else, in order that the salaries
may be equalized, 400 pesos may be assigned to each enlisted
man every year, and the 50 [pesos], more or less, may be or-
dered deducted and applied to this object or to the expense of
the transportation of families to the provinces of Texas
9a. Whatever the amount of this cost may be, it should be
placed in Zacatecas and liquidated by Don Luis de Ybaiez de
Ozerin, if Your Excellency should be pleased to decide in
this manner.
[This arrangement] seems to be urgent since the Frenchmen
have [achieved] renown among the wild tribes; it is, [there-
fore], necessary to increase the number of soldiers among our
allies in order to make [their friendship more] secure and to
continue holding them at our disposal. To do this without ad-
ditional cost to the royal treasury, it is necessary to defalcate
the salaries of old interior presidios and settlements, which are
today superfluous, in order that those salaries may be paid to
the new [presidios] which are to be established where defense
is so necessary for the protection of these dominions. It is no-
ticeable that neither is the number of soldiers of presidios
which are located in the interior-either without a settlement
or without a neighboring town-diminished, nor are their sal-
aries reduced.
To these presidios of Texas Your Excellency may assign
one captain, together with his standard bearer, one alfirez, one
sergeant, and other officers, either from among those found in
this capital or from any expert persons found in the kingdom
of Le6n, Vizcaya, or Galicia, at whatever salary Your Excel-
lency may deem most suitable.
If Your Excellency should deem it proper, orders should
be given for the 25 dragoons who are ready in Mexico to
go to Texas, together with the officers that Your Excellency

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