ince experienced a period of progress and opened up commercial relations with the provinces San Luis Potosi and Nuevo Leon. Upon instituting a vice-royalty in this colony of New Spain, the office of Governor was abolished and a Chief Justice substituted. During the year of 1586, while Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva was Chief Justice, Captain John Hawkins, an English pirate, arrived on his boat with the apparent intention of attacking Tampico for the purpose of ransacking and plundering it. The Chief Justice managed to surprise the sailors and captured Captain Hawkins and fifty-nine of his followers whom he sent to Mexico City. Besides these fifty-nine, there were fifty-five who escaped from the prison and went into th mountains where undoubtedly they must have been devoured by the Tamaulipas Indians as nothing was afterwards heard of them. Carvajal was afterwards appointed Governor of Nuevo Leon and later he and his family were subjects of the inquisition, being accused of being heretics and judizers. They were burned at the stake in Mexico City. 2 Colonization of To the end that they might avoid Indian uprisings, in order to neutralize the propositions of the French colonists of Louisiana, and for the purpose of civilizing the numerous trives of Indians, who in their savage state wandered over Tamaulipas, then called Nueva Santander, the King of Spain finally decided to completely colonize that region. Jose de Escandon was duly appointed on the third day of September, 1746, to undertake the work. On the sixteenth day of November, 1748, with 755 soldiers and nearly 2,515 colonists, Colonel Escandon left Queretaro (about 165 miles north from Mexico City and 650 miles south of Brownsville), bound for the new province, which it was proposed to form in this territory for the purpose of making it a part of New Spain. This great convoy of colonists, soldiers, wagons, stock, loaded donkeys, etc., departed from Queretaro amid great demonstrations of sympathy and enthusiasm. En route they touched at a number of towns in the provinces of Guanajuato, San Luis y Charcas, at which places additional families were added. During the month of January, 1749, Escandon founded, among others, the villages of Guemez, about 20 miles east of Victoria, Mexico, 185 miles southwest of Brownsville; and Padilla, the place where Iturbide was afterwards executed, about 150 miles southwest of Brownsville. In February, 1749, Escandon founded what is now known as Jimenez (125 miles south of Matamoros) which he declared to be the capital of the new province, giving it the name of Nueva Santander. During the month of March, 1749, he founded on the Rio Grande what are now known as the villages of Carmargo (108 miles west of Brownsville) and Reynosa (58 miles west of Brownsville). Santander was named after a Spanish port of the same name, from which Escandon emanated. Carmargo was founded on March 5, 1749, and placed in charge of Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon. Reynosa, which was founded on the fourteenth day of March, was placed in charge of Captain Carlos Cantu who was the Chief Justice and became one of the richest landowners of the frontier. During 1750, Escandon, who had gone back to Queretaro, returned to this province bringing many more colonists with many herds of cattle. During the same year Escandon founded the village of Soto la Marina, 174 miles south of Matamoros, and colonized it with families from Queretaro. During the month of October, 1750, he founded the village of Revilla (now called Guerrero), near the Rio Grande, almost opposite to Zapata, Texas, about 150 miles northwest of Brownsville. During the year of 1752, were founded the villages of Santillana, now called Abasolo, on the Sota la Marina river, 174 miles south of Matamoros. Mier (130 miles northwest of Matamoros), opposite Roma, Texas, was founded in 1753; and Laredo, Texas, on May 17, 1755. Escandon founded twenty towns, fifteen Indian missions with more than 3,000 Christian converts and more than 3,600 Spaniards. During the year of 1768, Attorney Jose Osorio y Ilamas visited these places and made the surveys and subdivisions of the different lands which the king had decided to give to the colonists. These grants are what are today known as "Acts of the General Visita" and consist of porciones or strips with from half a mile to a mile river front and from eleven to sixteen miles depth at right angles from the river. This province of New Santander was embraced in the jurisdiction of the San Luis Potosi intendencia (general land office) in 1786. During the year of 1792, the colonists suffered frequent ivasions from the Apaches, Comanches, Mescaleros, and Kickapoos, especially along the border of the Rio Grande, and as late as 1875, some of these Indians depredated on the Texas border counties. At the end of the eighteenth century, there were 15,000 inhabitants in the province of New Santander which province began at Tampico and followed the coast as far as Corpus Christi, thence northwestardly crossing the Medina river, thence southwardly slightly east of Laredo, and thence along the eastern range of the Sierra Madre Mountains, through Linares to Padilla and from Padilla to Tampico. On August 3, 1767, Sr. Palacio, Knight of the Order of St. James, began the laying out of the towns of Mier, Camargo, and Reynosa. With the church plazas as the center, the towns were laid off in squares of 10,000 varas on each side, or say, four square leagues of 4,428 acres each. Then, fixing them as nearly as possible so that there should be an equal number of an equal size on each side of the towns and on each side of the river, 111 porciones of an average width of 1,500 varas and a depth of from 12,500 varas to 20,000 varas were laid off and allotted to the first settlers of Camargo, and 80 porciones of an average width of 1,250 varas and a depth of from 20,000 to 25,000 varas were laid off and allotted to the first settlers of Reynosa. For some reason the territory adjacent to Matamoros (opposite Brownsville) and up to the east line of the Reynosa porciones was not considered for town settlement, and the lands embraced between what is known as the Olmos Creek (100 miles due north from Brownsville) and the Rio Grande, were allotted to wealthy cattle owners and Spaniards of eliability. Some of these grants, notably, the Espiritu Santo, the San Juan de Carricitos, and the San Salvador del Tule, contained from 250,000 to 500,000 acres each. Brownsille is located on the Espiritu Santo grant. On the Mexican side of the river, a grant containing six undred forty-two leagues, equivalent to 2,850,000 acres, was made to the Count of Cerro Gordo. This was made to the Count in part recompense for the great expenses he had incurred financing Escandon's expedition from Queretaro to the province of Nueva Santander. The Government of Spain had offered him such compensation if he would so colonize Nuevo Santander and would bring to this section priests to teach the gospel of the Holy Cross. This grant embraced about 100 miles river front beginning at the mouth of Rio Grande. In 1784, the Count sold to the first settlers at very moderate prices, $10.00 per league, 112 leagues fronting the Rio Grande on the Mexican side and extending from the east line of the Reynosa porciones to the south of the Rio Grande, or say, to the beach of the Gulf of Mexico. At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards east of the range of mountains which exists about 180 miles southwest from Matamoros, vast herds of wild cattle roamed these prairies and thousands of Indians made these lands their winter camping grounds. Matamoros, known as San Juan de los Esteros, was a congregation as far back as 1765, but was not given a name until 1796, when it was called Congregation del Refugio. In 1821, it was organized as a village and was given the name of Matamoros to commemorate the martyr, the priest, Mariano Matamoros, who had lost his life in Mexico's struggle for independence. Texas * After Mexico attained her independence in 1821, the State of Tamaulipas was formed out of what was known as the Provincio del Nuevo Santander, and, as soon as her congress began its operations, various land laws were enacted to encourage the colonizing of the vast territory. The Provincio of Nuevo Santander extended north of the Rio Grande to the Nueces River, and southward to Tampico, |