The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 64

64 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
2d. The second proposition was likewise rejected, in view of
the meager results obtained from the investigation made in the
hill-country of los Almagres by Don Bernardo Miranda, notwith-
standing the rewards which had been offered him, and which are
stated in chapter 21.
3d. The third proposition was likewise rejected, in considera-
tion of the fact that the villa and presidio are obliged to construct
and keep in repair such stockade and fortification as shall be con-
sidered necessary.
[First Measures carried into Effect by Capt. Don Atanacio Deme-
ciers to reduce the Indians of the North.]
From the end of the year 1770 on, the Captain of Infantry Don
Atanasio Demeciers, lieutenant-governor of the Presidio of Nachi-
toches, was engaged in subjugating and conciliating the nations of
the North. He took infinite pains, searching them out in their
own countries. Before his plans had been completely successful, a
heated disagreement sprang up between Demeciers and a certain
missionary religious; so that it was necessary for the latter to make
a sort of apology to the former.
[Information communicated by Baron de Ripperd to his Excel-
lency the present Viceroy.]
When this quarrel was settled, Captain Demeciers continued his
efforts (solicitud) with the Indians. On the sixteenth of June of
the current year he presented himself to the governor, Baron de
Ripperd', accompanied by various chiefs of the nations of the
North, who, being received with benevolent kindness, agreed upon
a treaty of peace, confirming it by means of the ceremony which
they call the feather dance, with mutual promises to declare war on
any who should perfidiously violate the promised friendship. For
all that, however, the Indians did not fail to carry off more than
a hundred head of cattle.
A detachment sent out found the aggressors, who were Coman-
ches. Although their chief (capitan) asked that they be punished
with death, the rest interceded for their pardon, which was granted
-though, to be sure, the infliction of that punishment would not be
strange or new, since to make reparation for the murder of a soldier