Vera Cruz, Isla del Cármen, Acapulco, and San Blas, to check smuggling, and for defence against piratical assaults. Other forces were specially organized and employed in guarding the northern frontier against the Chichimecs.[1] Through the regions occupied by those wild tribes was the highway to Nueva Galicia, Nueva Vizcaya, and the other districts operated on by the Spanish trading expeditions. The Chichimecs often plundered the wagons laden with silver, killing numbers of white persons and their Indian friends. For many years these marauders had carried things with a high hand. To check them a strong force was organized by Viceroy Enriquez and despatched under Alcalde Mayor Juan Torre de Lagunas, and the viceroy in person with another force marched to his assistance. The results of the campaign were wholly satisfactory; the Chichimecs, being routed from their strongholds with heavy casualties, were obliged to seek a refuge in the extensive deserts of the interior. A large number of their children fell into the hands of the victors, and were taken to Mexico and given in charge of families to rear.
Several presidios or military outposts were placed at proper distances on the load northward, so that by 1570 had been established, besides the towns of San Miguel and Lagos, the presidios of Ojuelos, Portezuelo, San Felipe, Jerez, and Celaya, and the formation of settlements round them was encouraged.[2] Enriquez wrote the king[3] that the mode proposed by
- ↑ A royal order of 1574 enjoined that regular accounts should he kept, and no charge made on soldiers' drafts. Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., v. 385-8. Another of 1588, reiterated in 1612, 1618, and 1621, forbade the enlistment or employment in any presidio of men or officers born or residing in the city or town where the presidio was. The number of officers and men to be effective and serviceable. Recop. Ind., i. 599.
- ↑ Unless the Indians were kept in subjection by armed forces the missionaries labored in vain; they either failed or became martyrs; and where they made any progress it was very slow, and amid much hardship and loss of life. Arricivita, Crón. Seráf., 443. The presence of soldiers was to bring the natives together in towns, where they could be taught clearing and irrigating fields, and building. Espinosa, Crón., 459. Arlegui, Chrón. Zac., i. 298, claims truly that the presidios established before 1594 availed but little to protect the road to the Zacatecas mines.
- ↑ Letter of October 31, 1576, in Cartas de Indias, 325-7.
