The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 77

Bonilla's Brief Compendium.

that a certified copy be sent [to Mexico]. It came on the twenty-
ninth of May, seventeen hundred and forty-two. Therein it ap-
pears that the investigation was made, not in virtue of the dispatch
ordered by the decision cited above, but in conformity with a letter,
a private order of His Excellency the Viceroy, the Duque de la Con-
questta, dated September second, seventeen hundred and forty,
ordering the governor of Texas to ascertain by judicial investiga-
tion what was the distance between the Presidio of los Adays and
the French who had lately moved in from the hither bank of the
river, what fort or what buildings they had, when they made the
move, who was governor of Texas [at that time], what means lie
had taken to prevent this encroachment, [or what] toleration [he
had shown] in the matter of decreasing His Majesty's dominions,
whether he had neglected anything he ought to have done, [if so,]
what were his motives, whether since then there had been free com-
munication between our people and the French, whether there had
been any attempt at contraband trade. Finally, he should give all
information that would serve to throw light upon the matter in
hand, dispatching it by courier with the greatest possible speed.
The governor received the letter in los Adays, on the eighteenth
of November, in the year seventeen hundred and forty. He immedi-
ately examined ex-Lieutenant) Don Juan Anttonio Amorin, Ser-
geant Manuel Anttonio de Losoya, ex-Alferez Don Phelipe Mufios
de Mora, Corporal of Squadron Matheo Anttonio de Ybarbu, private
Phelipe de Sierra, and Alferez Don Joseph Gonzales, all veteran
presidials of los Adays. They testified that the Post of Nachitoos
had been removed to a point reputed to belong to the French, which
was a musket-shot from where it had been before; that the French
had had houses on the hither bank of the Colorado River from
the very first; that the boundary between the two crowns was the
place called la Gran Monttafia, or Arroyo Hondo, which was half-
way between the Presidio of Adays and the Post of Nachittoos;
that [Sandoval] had resisted the removal as has already been de-
scribed; and that there had been no contraband trade.
While Sandoval was serving as captain of one of the companies
in the plains2 of Vera Cruz, where Franquis had also entered the
service, there was a pause, for the time being, in the judgments in
both cases. Franquis asked for a decision on some deferred points
in his case. Your Excellency, by decree of the ninth of December,
seventeen hundred and forty-three, in conformity with the dictamen
of His Honor the Oydor, Don Domingo Trespalacios, dated the fifth
of the same [month], acquitted him on the points in question.
1Theninette reformado.
2Campafias.