The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 480

Southwestern Tistorical Quarterly

work from that time. After a careful count, I learned that the
Bexar Archives consist of slightly more than 205,000 pages of
manuscripts, including a few printed documents, covering the
history of Texas from 1718 through 1836. Several volumes of
these manuscripts, arranged in chronological order, have been
translated and bound, together with a table of contents and an
index, and are now available for general use in the Archives
Collections department of The University of Texas.
The following translations are the first two documents of the
series selected. Other selections will appear in subsequent issues
of the Quarterly.
NUMBErs 1
The following translation is that of a commission issued by
the Marqu6s de Valero, Viceroy of New Spain, to Don Juan de
Olivdn Rebolledo, auditor, appointing him governor of Texas. The
chief duties of the new governor were (1) to establish friendly
relations with the wild Indians, especially the Apaches, (2) to
ascertain the exact location of the Gran Quivira, and (3) to
identify foreigners trading with the Indians.
All matter contained within brackets was added by the trans-
lator. Aside from such additions, which were made solely for
the purpose of giving more fluent readability to the translation,
no interpretation or comment is given.
Mexico, June 3, 1719
S[ei]or D[o]n Juan de Olivan [de Rebolledo] has been ap-
pointed gov[ern]or and cap[tai]n gen[era]l of the Prov[inc]e
of New Philippines, its present territory and [future] conquests.
Once he establishes his residence within the boundaries of that
territory, and among the wild Indian inhabitants thereof, he may
commence to attract them with tactful prudence to friendly inter-
course with our people. This [procedure] should be followed
especially with regard to the Apaches, who are both warlike and
numerous; their villages and their hunting parties cover the ter-
ritory from the headwaters of the Missouri River and the Red
RIiver of the Caudaches to the mountains of New Mexico; they
wander about along the frontier of the Gran Quivira (which is
said to be somewhere in those mountains), which foreigners are
trying so eagerly to discover and place under the dominion of

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