In 1700 there were in Nuevo Leon five ayuntamientos, fourteen alcaldias mayores, and the same number of capitanías. After a season of comparative quiet, affairs were brought to a climax in 1712 by the secularization of the missions and curacies by order of Bishop Diego Camacho y Ávila. In consequence of this impolitic measure the natives rose, and the insurrection assumed such a general character that it spread not only over Nuevo Leon, but over all the neighboring provinces, carrying devastation even far into Querétaro. From 1709 to 1715 the Indians in those regions are said to have killed over a thousand Spanish settlers.[1] It was conceded by this time that the whole system of colonization in Nuevo Leon was a failure.
In 1715 Francisco Barbadillo was appointed governor of the province by Viceroy Linares, and commissioned to investigate the causes of the disturbance. On his arrival at Monterey this officer, who is highly commended by the chroniclers of his time, proceeded to organize a company of mounted militia, for the protection of the settlers.[2] His next step was to strike at the root of the evil by abolishing the congregas, though he was bitterly opposed in this measure by the Spanish settlers; at the same time he founded with some five thousand Indian families from the western sierra of Tamaulipas—to-day known by the name of San Cárlos—independent native settlements and missions.[3] The settlers were provided with cattle, farming
- ↑ In April 1713 Governor Francisco Mier y Torre commissioned the ex-governor, Treviño, to enter into negotiations for peace with the Indians, but while thus engaged his whole party was massacred. More stringent measures were then dictated by a council of war, but they were also ineffectual. Gonzalez, Col. Doc. N. Leon, 38-40.
- ↑ This was a light cavalry troop recruited from among the settlers, and maintained by pro rata contributions of the colonists. This was the first instance in which the settlers were required to pay any tax for the expenses of government. See Prieto, Hist. Tamaul, 85-6.
- ↑ Among them Guadalupe, near Monterey, with 1,000 families; Concepcion and Purificacion on the margins of the Pilon. with 600 families each. A great number of families was also apportioned to the different settlements already established. Gonzalez, Col. Doc. N. Leon, 46-7; Prieto, Hist. Tamaul., 86-7.
