The Marqués de Rubí’s Formidable Inspection Tour of New Spain’s Northern Frontier (1766–1768)

June 2008

The fifth and final volume in the Presidio and Militia Series, a set of documentary histories on the civil-military relations on New Spain’s northern frontier, is scheduled to appear next year. The presidio inspection tour of the Marqués de Rubí (1766-1768) was selected as the capstone of the series because of its wide-ranging influence and the rich information it contains. The multi-year project is produced by Documentary Relations of the Southwest (DRSW), under the auspices of Arizona State Museum’s Office of Ethnohistorical Research (OER). This final volume is skillfully edited by Tracy Duvall, PhD.

The presidio system, a Spanish military institution that developed over the 16th and 17th centuries, was intended to protect the empire’s frontiers against raiding Indian groups such as Tobosos, Comanches, Seris, and Apaches. The term presidio is normally used to describe a military garrison, although it sometimes indicates the physical structures associated with the garrison – frequently walled fortress-like adobe compounds, but sometimes little more than corrals with temporary shelters.

The grueling two-year, 7,500 mile tour, conducted between 1766 and 1768 by the Marqués de Rubí, a high-ranking, respected Spanish noble and field marshal, visited all of the presidios of New Spain’s northern frontier and resulted in recommendations for reform that significantly changed Spanish policy in the region and culminated in the Reglamento of 1772—the set of regulations adopted by the Spanish king that guided subsequent military and political policy on this remote periphery of the Spanish empire. The writings that resulted from this endeavor provide researchers with first-hand perspectives on the course of the inspection, the process of presidial reform, and the state of the presidios. The relación also contains much information about other topics, including environmental conditions, economic change, and ethnic relations.

The goals of the presidial inspection focused on reorganization and rationalization of frontier military operations, but also included administrative reform, reduction of corruption, elimination of unnecessary expenditures, improvement of presidio conditions, and the generation of increased revenues for the royal treasury - this last goal perhaps the most important. All goals are discussed in the documents.

A ponderous entourage that included wagons, carriages, military escort, engineers, blacksmiths, cooks and laundresses, a herd of replacement saddle horses, and an on-the-hoof commissary of livestock accompanied the Marqués to each presidio. In addition to visiting presidios, the group inspected many of the government-licensed militia units operated by frontier townspeople. The tour took Rubí across the present states of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Inspections included the presidio in Nayarit; the presidio of Monterrey in Nuevo León; the presidios of San Miguel and Buenavista in Nueva Galicia; Monclava and Santa Rosa del Sacramento in Coahuila; Pasaje, Guajoquilla, El Paso del Río del Norte, San Buenaventura, Cerro Gordo and Janos in Nueva Vizcaya (now in present-day Chihuahua and Durango); Santa Fe in Nuevo México; Altar, Fronteras, Terrenate, and Tubac in Sonora (Tubac is now in Arizona, of course); San Sabá, San Antonio de Béxar, Los Adaes, Orcoquizá, Bahía del Espíritu Santo, and Río Grande in Tejas (present-day Texas and Louisiana). The inspection party penetrated harsh deserts, crossed formidable mountain ranges, forded rivers, and encountered hostile native groups.

The relación describing each presidial inspection begins with Rubí’s travel diary of the trip from the previous presidio, then continues with the testimonies of the soldiers stationed at the presidio, followed by a summary of the findings of Rubí’s inspection, and ends with a discussion of any criminal charges that might be brought against the captain or other personnel at the presidio. In addition to military history, these documents include details concerning the daily living conditions of frontier soldiers and the citizens of nearby towns, abundant ecological and climatological information, ethnographic observations of the Indian nations encountered, reports of complex tribal relations and enmities, information on the intricacies of trade in merchandise and enslaved captives, and insights into the rivalries of international European politics as they played out in the colonies.

An additional feature of the volume is the inclusion of the maps generated during the inspection. Two members of the Royal Corps of Engineers accompanied Rubí’s tour. Engineer Nicolás de Lafora, who figured prominently in the inspection and wrote an excellent journal of the trip, was responsible for mapping the route, measuring the coordinates of each presidio’s position, learning about the local population and ethnic groups, and surveying the presidio’s structures and surrounding landscape. Lafora’s highly skilled draftsman, Joseph Ramón de Urrutia y de las Casas, created a large map of the region and completed a series of 21 maps of the individual presidios to accompany the inspection report. Urrutia’s maps of the presidios are clear, elegant and beautifully drawn and colored. The original Urrutia maps are in the map collection of the British Museum. Copies of them have been purchased through the generosity of the Southwestern Foundation for Historical Preservation and Education and will be an attractive part of this volume.