The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 59

Bonilla's Brief Compendium.

XXIII.
[Revistas and Visitas executed by His Excellency the Marques de
Ruby.]
The numerous appeals and repeated reports in regard to the de-
plorable state of the Provincias Internas which came to the sover-
eign notice of His Majesty, moved his august mind to dispatch
sundry royal orders and cedulas, from the year 1753 on, ordering
their excellencies the viceroys to turn their attention to the regula-
tion of those rich, valuable frontiers. The vast responsibilities of
this government, however, the long distances, and the variety of
dictamens, impeded progress, and rendered measures timid.
To remedy this mischievous inaction, the king deigned to charge
the Marques de Rubyl with the important and serious duty of the
revista of presidios; and in royal order of the 7th of August, 1756,
he ordered that the appropriate papers and documents be given over
to the Marques, and that the aids which he might need be put at his
disposal.
In the month of March, 1766, His Excellency *the Marquez de
Ruby* set out from this capital, directing his course toward Du-
rango, whence he began his revistas. Having inspected the prov-
inces of la Nueba Vizcaya, Sonora, Sinaloa, Coaguila, and Nuevo
Mexico, he came to that of Texas by August, 1767.
The fearful plight in which the presidios of San Antonio de
Bejar, Adaes, Bahia del Espiritu Santo, and Orcoquisac were
found, because of the private aims of their respective commandants,
are very clearly shown in the documents relating to the revista,
as [are] the real troubles which have to this day afflicted the Prov-
incias Internas, and which forbode their impending ruin; but as
to whatever makes for the remedy for such inveterate evils, the
dictamen, or plan, which embraces the essentials of all the revistas,
gives as full information as could be desired.
It is a paper truly worthy [and characteristic] of the lofty, dis-
tinguished, and very subtle talents of its most excellent author. It
cannot be represented by extracts, because taken as a whole it is an
[admirable] compendium of important information, logical, [pru-

'Rubi (M).