Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 380

Price Realized: $ 40,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
(TEXAS.) Escandón, José de. Detailed plan to colonize Nuevo Santander and Texas. [11] printed pages, 11 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, stitched; dampstaining, moderate water damage and closed tears along top edge without loss of text; manuscript note and signature of Joseph de Gorreaz on final page. Mexico, 13 May and 11 July 1748

Additional Details

José de Escandón (1700-1770) was the colonizer and first governor of the Nuevo Santander colony, which included the lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. In this untitled document, he sets forth his plan "sobre la pacificacion, reduccion y poblazon de mas de cien leguas de sur á norte, y de cinquenta á ochenta de poniente á oriente, costa del seno Mexicano, ocupada por muchas barbaras naciones de enemigos Indios Chichimecos, gentiles, y Apostatas"--"on the pacification, reduction and population of more than one hundred leagues from south to north and from fifty to eighty from west to east, coast of the Seno Mexicano, occupied by many barbarous nations of Indian enemies, the Chichimecos." He describes the boundaries as "rodeada por el Oriente del mar, por el Sur de las Jurisdicciones de Panuco y Tampico, Villa de los Valles, y de otras de la Sierra Gorda, y provincia de la Guasteca, por el poniente de las de San Pedro Guadalcazar, Venado Charcas, governacion, y capitania General del Nuevo Reino de Leon, y parte de la de Coaguila, y por el norte del resto de dicha governacion de Coaguila y principio de la de Tejas." He discusses the dangers from hostile Indians in this territory: "Jurisdicciones frequentemente insultan dichos barbaros con incendios, muertes, robos, y todo genero de inhumanas atrocidades, aniquilando Poblazones, Haziendas, y Estancias, impidiendo los caminos, traficos, y comercios, pervirtiendo a los Yndios ya reducidos y cristianos, que con su desercion devilitan los Pueblos"--"Jurisdictions often struck by such barbarians with fires, deaths, robberies, and all kinds of inhuman atrocities, annihilating populations and haciendas, impeding roads and commerce, perverting the already reduced and evangelized Christian Indians, who with their defections weaken the already populated towns." He also includes his detailed plans for their subjugation. We trace no other copies of this important printed document in OCLC or elsewhere. Part of the text was published in Volume II of Theatro Americano in 1748, pages 316-317, and Rice University holds what is apparently an early manuscript transcript, with the title "Papeles sobre la reduccion del Seno Mexicano, y Sierra Gorda."