The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 30

30 Tewas Historical Association Quarterly.
The missionaries kept anxiously begging for San Denis, with a
view to the subjection of the Indians, and clamoring for a reinforce-
ment of people helpful in promoting their stability.' But His Ex-
cellency the Marques de Valero gave the appointment of governor of
Coaguila and Texas to Don Martin de Alarcon of the order of San-
tiago,2 with a salary of two thousand and five hundred pesos a year.
He had been, at the beginning of the century, an adventureros
in the royal navy (armada), a distinguished soldier in Oran; cap-
tain of [a company of] infantry in the kingdom of Valencia, with
a title granted by the Conde de Cifuentes; alcalde mayor of the
Villa of Tacoma y Zamora, by appointment of the viceroy, Conde
de Galve; and last, sergeant-major (sargento mayor) of the militia
of Guadalaxara.
This new governor was under orders to carry fifty married sol-
diers, three master-carpenters, a blacksmith, and a stone-mason,' to
teach the Indians and put the settlement on a firm basis, each one,
like the soldiers, drawing a yearly salary of four hundred pesos.
These measures were approved in royal cedula of the 11th of June,
1718.
A year's salary was advanced to Alarcon, and at the beginning of
[17] 18 he entered the Province of Texas. But, although he founded
the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, the missionary fathers
date, it will be remembered, is 1744, speaks of him as being at that time
in command at Natchitoches, thus-"Don Luis de San Denis, who was
(and is today) commandant of the said French Post of San Juan Baupt-
tista de Nochittoos."
1Gente util para su sustencia. The idea is probably "helpful toward
developing in them steady habits and settled mode of living"; sustencia,
however, may mean subsistence.
2Caballero del orden de Santiago (Test., Sec. 30).
8There seems to be no exact English equivalent for this word; the near-
est, perhaps, is the expression "soldier of fortune."
"That he go with fifty soldiers, master-carpenters, -stone-masons, and
-blacksmiths, stock, and everything else needful to settle in the said Prov-
ince of Texas" (Test., Sec. 30).
According to the Historia (Secs. 19-21), the plans of the government in-
eluded settlements along the San Antonio and the Guadalupe, and also
in the intervening country.