The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 37

Bonilla's Brief Compendium.

Government. There had not been time for them to find out the
character of that perfidious nation; they believed that those [In-
dians] who were professing friendship in Nuevo Mexico and
Coaguila would maintain it in Texas. But since the remote dis-
tances at which these territories are situated, have (as might be ex-
pected) always made [the authorities] cautious in their decisions,
the procedure in this instance was left to the judgment of the
Governor, though not with such unlimited authority that he was
left free from responsibility as to the results.
Information was received that the Apaches were trading with the
French in Nachitoches, and that the latter were giving them arms,
offensive and defensive. While these Indians were soliciting peace,
their enemies, those of the North, were doing likewise. At last
peace was consummated with the former, after the latter had mur-
dered Captain Diego Ramon in his own presidio of la Bahia del
Espiritu Santo-although, to be sure, the negligence, laziness,
harshness, and cruel dealing of this officer occasioned his unfortu-
nate death.
XII.
[Government of Don Melchor de Media Villa y Ascona; the Revis-
ta made by Brigadier Don Pedro de Riviera.]
Governor Don Fernando Perez de Almazan was succeeded by
Don Melchor de Media Villa y Ascona. In the month of Sep-
tember, 1727, the Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera began the revistas1
of the presidios of Texas.
He reduced the garrison of los Adaes to sixty2 troops, that of la
Bahia del Espiritu Santo to forty, and that of San Antonio de
Vexar to forty-three; and he suppressed (reformando) that of
Nuestra Sefiora de los Dolores; so that the strength of these compa-
nies,3 which had consisted of two hundred and sixty-eight4 men, re-
'The resista was more than a simple inspection, in that the officer mak-
ing it exercised a certain amount of executive authority, making such
changes in local affairs as he saw fit.
2Seventy (Historia, Sec. 28).
3In the whole province. Cf. Sec. 9, last sentence.
'M has two hundred and seventy-eight.