The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 44, July 1940 - April, 1941 Page: 233

                                
Letters and Documents

lutions of the general council held on August 22, 1715, and the
measures adopted in consequence thereof.
It was determined, among other things, to establish a pre-
sidio and a mission in conformity with royal cedulas addressed
to the viceroys-predecessors of Y [our] E[xcellency]. This
matter was [amply] discussed, as well as the remedies I had
set forth for confining the French to the eastern banks of
the Mississippi River, which divides this Mexican America
[sic] from north to south, from the Hudson Bay to the Gulf
of Mexico. I wrote a letter for H [is] M[ajesty]; it was signed
by the most excellent Duke of Linares, and he forwarded it
to H [is] M[ajesty], in a dispatch which was sent in that year.
I placed a copy of it in the hands of Y [our] E [xcellency] in
order that, if it pleased [Your Excellency], it might be quoted
with the remark that the province of the Texas [Indians] had
been occupied in the name of H [is] M [ajesty] by a mission and
presidio. [The copy] was forwarded in conformity with the
resolution of the council.
The province of the Nachitoos [Indians] on the Caudaches
river, which joins the Mississippi river and borders on the
[province] of the Texas [Indians], has already been occupied
by the French, as shown by the investigation recently made.
Another province of wild Indians, which is located northeast
of New Mexico, apparently on the Missouri river, which also
empties into the Mississippi, is already occupied by the French,
according to information given me by D [on] Juan Flores, gov-
ernor of New Mexico, who is now residing in this capital.
Mobile, which borders on our port of Panzacola, is a port
which the French also have occupied and in part fortified. Their
conquests extend along the Mississippi, as Y [our] E [xcellency]
may have learned from the two maps which I prepared for that
purpose and which I placed in the hands of Y [our] E [xcellency].
In order that they may not extend their [conquests] to ter-
ritory adjoining ours or occupy the coast of our Gulf of Mexico,
this report has been prepared; [it has not been written] in
order to [protect] the more distant [territory] drained by the
Mississippi. That was the purpose of the [report] which I pre-
pared for H [is] M [ajesty] in the aforesaid letter that I wrote
and which was transmitted to [His Majesty]. No result has
yet been obtained from it, and any [result] that may be ob-
tained can be carried out without obstructing any order that

233