The last several posts have concerned the lower Mississippi River Valley. But, as many may know, there have been other posts of other areas of concern for Spanish colonial civil/military officials. Many of these previous posts have concerned events and personalities in the province of New Mexico. This post will move a little further west and examine events and personalities, some familiar from past posts, in the province of Arizona. The scene of activity and interest here lies in what is today extreme southwestern Arizona where the Rio Colorado and Rio Gila flow together and turn south before flowing into modern-day Mexico. I will use the title of Chapter 6 of Dr. Kessels work cited below as the main source of this post. Promise and Default of the Provincias Internas: 1779-1781 The information contained in this post is drawn from: Kessel, John L. Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers: Hispanic Arizona and the Sonora Mission Frontier 1767-1856 (The University of Arizona Press, 1976). The year was 1779 and the Spanish military administration of the Provincias Internas, led by Commandant General Teodoro de Croix, was having troubles of its own. Hostile Apaches, along with some mixed bands of Piagos and Seris, had raided, burned and murdered along the frontier. The Hispanic settlers and Pueblo-dwelling natives of the region should have had faith that the Spanish military would react swiftly and decisively against their tormentors. But, other, more ominous war clouds were looming on the horizon - a Spanish war with England was rapidly approaching. Commandant General de Croix knew, in February 1779, that his long-planned offensive against the Apaches and their allied tribes to his north could be delayed indefinitely if war broke out before he could crush the raiders and despoilers of his frontier. As he was indeed poised to execute his offensive against these native peoples, word reached him through the offices of Jose de Galvez, Minister of the Indies, from the king that friendly persuasion was the new order of relations with the indigenous peoples (Kessel, p. 136). As forces and funds earmarked for his operations were funnelled instead into the coffers of Gen. Bernardo de Galvez in the lower Mississippi River Valley and the northern Gulf Coast, de Croix reviewed his options. Reinforcements simply were not to be had for his offensive and he had to abandon certain presidios and missions so that their garrisons and additional priests could reinforce or supplement the work of others elsewhere. But, he wanted to do something decisive that would bolster the morale of his settlers and native Pueblo-dwelling allies. Commandant General Teodoro de Croix finally decided what he needed to do - he would open a fresh, new region of settlement along the wide, winding Rio Colorado. In reality, what he was proposing was ...two Spanish towns of twenty-five families each set down in the midst of three thousand wrought-up heathens two hundred and fifty miles beyond the last garrison(Kessel, p. 140). It was certainly daring, decisive and audacious on the part of Commandant General de Croix. It was also a formula for disaster and tragedy in the making.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 03:35:16 +0000