The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 39, July 1935 - April, 1936 Page: 328

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

No. 17.
I am enclosing to you quadruplicate lists of the reviews passed
by the company of Bahia during the present month as well as
diaries and duplicate reports of the same company for last month.
June 27, 1817.
No. 18.
I have just received your letter of the 9th of the present month,
from which I learn that you have arranged to have the manager
of the tobacco department at Monterrey send to this province ten
boxes of cigars and also to have the treasurer at Saltillo deliver
to the paymaster, Francisco Collantes, 6,000 pesos for the sup-
port of the troops.
I have also learned that you have arranged to have four boxes
of powder sent to me by relays. I must inform you that, upon
my arrival in this capital, I found debts overbalancing the first
sums I received. These debts were contracted by my predecessor
for food for the troops. I have been able to pay only a very
small part. The settlers who advanced most of it have had only
a small amount of money upon which to operate and this was not
their own. When they were called upon to make an accounting
of their management, they pressed me frequently in spite of their
generosity and patriotism. Therefore, since there is not a single
grain of corn in the warehouse, I am reporting to you that money
alone will not suffice for the maintenance of the troops, for, un-
less these sums are repaid and unless the paymaster secures a
loan of grain, nothing can lessen the suffering I describe, nor
can I fail to repeat my petitions. Yesterday, the troops were
actually on the point of mutiny as they cannot bear the sufferings
they and their families are forced to endure. In spite of the con-
dition they are in, I was compelled to use severity to impress
them. I thereupon called a council of ways and means composed
of certain individuals. They have been able to do nothing more
than make an offer of a few head of stock which a party has gone
out today to round up and make them up into rations. In this
way the citizenship will not perish from hunger. The suffering
has been so great that not a single person has been able to spare
as much as twenty pesos.
Although 1 am not ignorant of the many duties you have, I

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