A Bad Peace and a Good War Spain and

the Mescalero Apache Uprising of 1795

1799 Mark Santiago
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 A BAD
PEACE
and a
GOOD
WAR
SPA I N A N D T H E
MESCALERO
APACHE
UPRISING
OF 1795---1799

MARK SANTIAGO
A BAD PEACE AND A GOOD WAR
 A BAD
PEACE
AND A
GOOD
WAR
SPAIN AND THE
MESCALERO APACHE
UPRISING OF
1795–1799

MARK SANTIAGO

U NIV ERSIT Y OF OK LAHOM A PR ESS : NOR M AN

 Publication of this book is made possible through
the generosity of Edith Kinney Gaylord.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Santiago, Mark, 1959– author.

Title: A bad peace and a good war : Spain and the Mescalero Uprising of 1795–1799 /
Mark Santiago.
Description: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018013079 | ISBN 978-0-8061-6155-6 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Mescalero Indians—Wars. | Indians of North America—Wars—
1750–1815. | Nava, Pedro de—Military leadership. | Apache Indians—Wars. | Indians
of North America—Wars—Southwest, New. | Mexico—History—Spanish colony,
1540–1810. | Mexico—History—Spanish colony, 1540–1810—Ethnic relations. |
Mexican-American Border Region—History, Military—18th century.
Classification: LCC E99.M45 S35 2018 | DDC 972/.02—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013079

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources, Inc. ∞

Copyright © 2018 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of

the University. Manufactured in the U.S.A.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise—except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the United States
Copyright Act—without the prior written permission of the University of Oklahoma Press.
To request permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, University
of Oklahoma Press, 2800 Venture Drive, Norman OK 73069, or email rights.oupress@ou.edu.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
 To Dawn
Forever and always
 •••

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. A General Irruption. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Origins of Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. War, Peace, War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4. Between Two Fires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5. Forging a Bad Peace. . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6. Threats to Fragile Peace . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7. Sparking the Fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8. Blood and Suffering. . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
9. The Cruel Season . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
10. War in Their Own Lands . . . . . . . . . . 133
11. Invasions Real and Imagined. . . . . . . . 148
12. The Calamities of War. . . . . . . . . . . . 166
13. Chasing the Shadow of Peace. . . . . . . . 184
Epilogue: The Turns of History. . . . . . . 195

Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
 •••

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures
The Ruins of the Church at San Elizario on the Rio Grande. . . . 19
Bernardo de Gálvez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco y Padilla,
second Conde de Revillagigedo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Organ Mountains, New Mexico. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Church at El Paso del Norte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Granite Masses—Waco [Hueco] Mountains, Texas . . . . . . . . 137
The Capture of Trinidad, 17 February 1797. . . . . . . . . . . 149
Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca,
1st Marqués de Branciforte. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Guadalupe Mountains, Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Miguel José de Azanza Alegría, Duke of Santa Fe. . . . . . . 175

Maps
Interior Provinces of New Spain, 1795–1799 . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Mescalero War, Theater of Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

ix
 •••

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am humbled by the inspiration i have received over the years from

the following friends: from the members and committed supporters of the
Tucson Presidio, especially William Islas, Kirk Huelle, Mike Araiza, John
Patla, Rudy Bird, Mike Starace, Tom Preselzki, Eric Thing, and most espe-
cially for the superb embrace of the spirit of historical reenacting from the
inestimable Jeff Coleman. Blood, dirt, flint, and steel shrinks academic falderal
to insignificance.
For not only being instrumental in founding the Tucson Presidio Garrison,
but also shepherding this work to fulfillment, I am eternally indebted to Rick
Collins of Tucson, Arizona, for his unfailing belief, critical eye, and scholarly
insistence on verifiable truth in the presentation of this book. Rick’s input was
supported by his wonderful wife, Barb.
I would also call special attention to the patient and caring tutoring and
mentoring I received for almost seventeen years at the Arizona Historical
Society (AHS) from Pierce A. Chamberlain III, Thomas H. Peterson Jr.,
and Jay Van Orden. There has never been a more significant, impactful, and
lasting legacy at that renowned institution than this magnificent trio of cura-
tors and historians. Yet their efforts would have proven vain if not for the
wisdom and discernment of the late Sidney B. Brinkerhoff, past director of

xi
xii Acknowledgments

the AHS, gentleman, and scholar, who assembled, led, and supported these
three caballeros in their quests.
In a similar vein, it would be remiss to not recall the friendship, mentoring,
and paternal love showed to me by the late George Allen Brubaker, professor
emeritus from the University of Arizona. He was a remarkable man.
In New Mexico, the guidance and insights of scholars and archaeologists
Karl and Toni Laumbach of Las Cruces were invaluable in determining the
geographical and material world of the indigenous and Hispanic peoples of
the region. I am forever grateful for their friendship.
The love and support given to me by my sons Edward, Alexander, and Justin
Santiago have provided me a wonderful refuge in this pilgrim life for hope in
a future that includes such honorable men. I am especially grateful to Justin
for agreeing to provide the cartography for this book.
Finally, I cannot express my debts for the generosity, scholarly advice, critical
editing, indexing, and ever-knowing rectitude provided by my wife, Dawn
Moore Santiago. All that I am and ever will be owes to her.
•••

MAPS
 Santa Fe

Albuquerque
do N
Presidio

lora
nde
o

Co
G ra
ic
Presidio and Town

Rio
Rio

Rio
ex
G il a

M
City, town, or village

o
Pecos River

v
Tucson

ue
El Paso

N
Tubac del Norte

Santa Cruz San Elizario

Fronteras Janos
Altar Carrizal
Arizpe Bavispe
Bacoachi San
S Buenaventura Tex a s
o Presidio
n Horcasitas N u e v a El Príncipe del Norte
o Vizcaya San Antonio
ra
San Carlos

qui
La Bahia
La Babia

Ya
onchos
Chihuahua San Juan Bautista

Rio
Buenavista la

Rio C
h u i Santa Rosa
Alamos a
o o n Monclova
C
Le
o
Sinaloa ev
Santander

Nu Monterrey

Saltillo
Nuevo

Durango

Zacatecas
San Luis Potosí

Interior Provinces of New Spain, 1795–1799. Cartography by Justin Santiago.

 Pecos R i ver Texas
San Antonio N
Santa Fe
Nuevo
o Mexico
M

De
Albuquerque

vil
’s
R
Sa

Rio
c

ive
r
iver

Bla
ra
Sa sR
N

ck
co

ran
me
u

nA
Pe

Ra
de
e

Sierra

nt o

ndr

ng
M

e
n Blanca
vo

Gu

ts
adalupe Rio Gra
nd
S

es Mnts
Mn
e
ts
a

Ro
Santa Rosa
n

M
bl
e Or
ga Hue Cor vis Mnts San Juan

og
nud Da

do
nM Bautista

ol
as

co
ta

lo
M
Mn Mnts

Rio Grand

n
ts
n

nt
s

M
s
d

Presidio

ou
e

nt
Monclova Nuevo Leon
r

a
Quitman Mnts

ain
s
e M pi m í
d
El Paso San Elizario
del Norte on Coahuila Monterrey
B o ls
Presidio Presidio
del Príncipe del Norte
Saltillo
Nueva
Presidio
Janos Vizcaya Presidio

Con
Presidio and Town

c
Presidio ho
San Carlos sR
City, town, or village
ive
r
Villa de
Chihuahua

Mescalero War, Theater of Operations. Cartography by Justin Santiago.

A BAD PEACE AND A GOOD WAR
 •••

INTRODUCTION

It has long been a standard claim among borderlands historians that

beginning around 1790 and lasting over the following three decades, a period
of general peace emerged between the Spaniards and the many Apache groups
along the northern frontier of New Spain’s Interior Provinces. With the devel-
opment of what some modern historians have labeled establecimentos de paz, or
peace establishments, the long and bloody war between both peoples began
to wind down into one of mutual accommodation. This era of relative peace
has often been attributed to the adoption of new Spanish policies, laid down
by Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez in his Instructions of 1786. In these, Gálvez
annunciated the strategy of alternating constant aggressive warfare against the
Apaches with offers of peaceful coexistence in which the Indians would be
given food and goods at what were essentially reservations, in exchange for their
quiescence. This strategy of holding forth both the mailed fist of war and the
velvet glove of peace was seen as a method of fostering gradual acculturation
among those Apaches who entered the reservations, while continuing to attack
and destroy those who refused.1
Among the many concepts attributed to Gálvez, one is often quoted as
a particularly apt summation of Spanish dealings with the Apaches: “A bad
peace with all the [Indian] nations who may ask for it will be more beneficial
to us than the efforts of a good war.” Within this construct, it was maintained

3
 A Bad Peace and a Good War

that the Spaniards were willing to accept low levels of Apache raiding and
concomitant violence because the costs, both in lives and property, were less
than waging a full-scale war.2
Yet, was that aphorism really true? Was a bad peace really better than a
good war? In one major instance it is clear that the answer was no. Beginning
in August 1795 and lasting at least until the end of 1799, there was a general and
sustained surge in violence between the Mescalero Apaches and the Spaniards
of such a large extent that it can be fairly categorized as a particular war. The
area of hostilities stretched across the central and eastern Interior Provinces,
including Nueva Vizcaya, New Mexico, Coahuila, Texas, Nuevo León, and
Nuevo Santander. In addition, warfare extended beyond the Spanish frontier
line into the Mescalero homelands in what is now central and eastern New
Mexico and West Texas.3
How could it be that in the midst of success in bringing the Apaches into
the peace establishments, there was such a long-lasting and destructive war?
Part of the answer may lie in the nature of the conflict itself and the way in
which it was recorded. With only a few exceptions, the Mescalero war was
waged beyond the Spanish frontier in the lands of the Apaches themselves.
Thus the written reports, complaints, and demands that were produced by
exasperated Spanish civil and military officials when the Apaches raided their
lands, and that fill so many volumes in archives in Spain and Mexico, were
simply not created.
In addition, at the same time the Mescaleros were fighting the Spaniards,
most other Apache groups were maintaining the peace. For example, the
Chiricahua Apaches to the west were for the most part relatively tranquil, with
substantial numbers actively residing outside several peace establishments. Of
these, the establishment at Janos has been the most studied and detailed as a
result of the survival of that presidio’s official archives. The abundant historical
records for Janos show a situation among the Apaches de paz (peaceful Apaches)
there and at other associated posts reflecting a fair amount of stability and
implicit success, as far as the Spaniards’ overall goals for the peace establish-
ments were concerned. The condition of the establishments at the presidios of
Tucson and Bacoachi in Sonora appeared to be similar, although admittedly
with far less historical documentation.4
In the same fashion, along the eastern portion of the Interior Provinces,
a general movement toward peace was also identifiable. There, significant
numbers of Lipan Apaches were actively attempting to make peace with the
 Introduction 5

Spanish authorities, especially in the Provinces of Texas, Nuevo León, and

Nuevo Santander. Indeed, several Lipan bands concluded formal peace treaties
in all three provinces during the 1790s at the exact same time the Mescalero
war was raging. Although these Lipans do not appear to have congregated into
formal peace establishments, many of them did gather regularly within easy
reach of several Spanish towns and presidios that came to be seen as within
their “home” range.5
Thus, it was the Mescalero Apaches in the middle of the frontier who
were the holdouts. During a period that witnessed an acceleration of the
accommodation between Spaniards and Apaches elsewhere, many Mescaleros
were instead engaged in open warfare. In addition, those Mescaleros who
actually did gather around Spanish peace establishments have been the least
documented, as records about them are relatively scarce. Immediately prior
to the conflict, as many as nine hundred Mescaleros may have been affiliated
with the peace establishment at Presidio del Norte. Yet the Spaniards never
seem to have conducted a detailed survey and accounting of these Indians, or
if they did do so, the documents have not come to light. The similarly scarce
records for another peace establishment, affiliated with the Presidio of San
Elizario, did include numbers of Mescaleros actually residing about twenty
miles upstream at El Paso del Norte. This imprecision probably caused no
small amount of confusion for both Spanish officials at the time and modern
historians afterward.6
The scarcity of Spanish documents may be the reason the war waged between
the Mescaleros and Spaniards has been largely obscured and forgotten. How-
ever, a study of the available records reveals a scale of violence between the
two peoples from 1795 to 1799 that calls into question the accuracy of previous
historical portrayals of a prolonged period of general peace following the
implementation of Gálvez’s policies. Accordingly, a reevaluation of the nature
and overall extent of the general peace is called for.
In piecing together the story of this conflict, I have taken several approaches.
The first is that I have designated this as a separate and discernible war. This
recognition stands in contrast to the usual categorization of Spanish-Apache
conflict as part of a continuous, longer, and broader war that unfolded over
centuries. Indeed, the Spaniards themselves when describing this specific
conflict used words such as “revolt,” “uprising,” and “irruption.” However,
these terms clearly indicate a particular point of view—namely, to paint
the Mescaleros as having rebelled against a legitimate sovereignty they had
6 A Bad Peace and a Good War

previously acknowledged and agreed to accept. Furthermore, characterizing

the conflict as an uprising allowed the Spaniards to paint themselves as the
aggrieved party, victims of a surprise attack launched by foes whom they had
treated humanely and who now treacherously returned evil for good. Finally,
casting the conflict in this manner gave the Spaniards a clear legal license to
undertake their operations under the guise of what they understood as the
rules governing a just war. In fact, the Mescaleros had started the war and
initiated hostilities. They did violate the mutual understandings at the peace
establishments to which at least some of their leaders had agreed. That the
Mescaleros, from their own historical and cultural perspective, may have had
perfectly understandable and perhaps justifiable reasons for their actions was
for the Spaniards entirely irrelevant.7
In addition, I have consciously attempted to write a “military history.”
The fact is that the mechanisms of war necessarily involve logistics, marches,
tactics, combats, and body counts. To some, these details may obscure the “real”
causes of conflict or may “glorify” the brutality and horror of war. However,
these small, common, everyday things that occur in war constitute the very
narratives that bring the tragic humanity of it to the forefront.
Knowing that Spanish soldiers or Mescalero Apache warriors moved along
the same mountains and deserts we now drive and hike along helps form a
human bond between past lives and our own. Further, the history of the
northern frontier of New Spain between 1765 and 1821 is most particularly a
military history. While many scholars seek to highlight the cultural and social
complexities of the Spanish Borderlands, it was first and foremost a zone of
active or potential warfare. The clearest indicator of this is the obvious fact
that the Interior Provinces were made a separate military command under
a military commandant general. Therefore, the military aspect is in many
ways as important as or at least equal to investigations into other facets of the
region’s history.
This war against the Mescaleros came to my attention in a quite offhand
manner. A noted translation of a Franciscan priest’s critique of the Spanish
peace policies during the 1790s contained a curt reference to the uprising of
Mescaleros that killed almost sixty soldiers and officers outside the peace
establishments at Presidio del Norte. While the author used this incident to
justify his own arguments as to how the establishments should actually be
operated, a telling detail was how casual, how routine, the reference was. But
viewed from a military perspective, this was far from routine. The loss of so
 Introduction 7

many troops in one fell swoop would have represented a major defeat of Span-
ish arms; indeed, it would rank as one of the largest single losses of military
personnel within the Interior Provinces in the entire eighteenth century. Surely,
there must be more to this story than indicated by this passing reference.8
Further research demonstrated that other, secondary sources maintained the
characterization of this event as a transitory affair that only briefly interrupted
the Spanish drive toward reaching a peaceful détente with the Apaches at the
end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. Yet from
a military perspective, Spain (or any other nation-state) would have seen the
“uprising,” by contemporary standards, as intolerable. Clearly something was
missing. However, by delving deeper into the primary records of the period, it
soon became obvious that the Spaniards under the leadership of Commandant
General Pedro de Nava y Porlier had indeed waged an impressively large-scale
and coordinated campaign over several years against the Mescalero Apaches
in retaliation for the original outbreak. Indeed, Nava’s operations constituted
one of the largest and arguably the most sustained Spanish military operations
along the northern frontier throughout the entire eighteenth century.9
That Pedro de Nava was able to marshal this effort is evidence of the culmi-
nation of the Spanish military policies that had originated in the 1760s and had
been tested, reformed, and redoubled over the following decades. Gradually,
the Spaniards had honed their ability to launch large-scale campaigns across
the frontier and coordinate them with smaller, more localized expeditions.
Alongside the mailed fist that these operations represented, the Spaniards
began after 1786 to employ the velvet glove of the peace establishments, albeit
with several fits and starts. Thus, Nava and his military commanders had
available to them a wide variety of tools and tactics to deal with the Apaches,
many of which they were able to unleash upon the Mescaleros when war
unexpectedly broke out in 1795.10
Yet, while the war demonstrated the high level of efficiency the military
apparatus had achieved, even in the midst of the conflict, Spain’s Achilles heel
in the Interior Provinces was laid bare. Its constant involvement in European
wars with Great Britain and France, plus the increasing danger presented by the
emerging United States, made the efforts to deal with the Mescaleros and other
Native peoples along the northern frontier increasingly problematic. Events in
Europe, the Caribbean, and elsewhere dominated Spanish strategic policy to
such an extent that Pedro de Nava and his forces were increasingly called upon
to consider in their calculations the potential of British or American invasions.
8 A Bad Peace and a Good War

This was a prospect for which Nava’s men were singularly unprepared and
unsuited, as they had been engaged exclusively in war against Native peoples.
Thus, throughout this period, Nava found himself beset by financial constraints
and strategic demands from Madrid that predictably subordinated the “minor”
conflict with the Mescaleros to the greater demands of imperial defense.11
Still, from Nava’s perspective the war against the Mescaleros was anything
but minor. To allow the initial attacks to go unanswered would have threatened
the entire construct of Spanish military superiority over the Apaches, even if
that superiority was more perception than reality. If the Mescaleros were not
punished severely, other Apaches at other peace establishments might also rise
up to disrupt the fragile accommodation for which Nava and so many other
Spanish officials had labored so long and so hard. As a result, Nava tenaciously
continued hostilities, even in the face of calls from his superiors to focus on
threats from Great Britain or the United States.
In the end, after almost four years, the Spaniards succeeded in killing,
capturing, and deporting approximately 750 Mescalero men, women, and
children, representing in all a high percentage of the overall tribal population.
Faced with such losses, many Mescaleros returned to seeking accommoda-
tion outside the peace establishments, while others remained independent
but generally quiescent in the hinterlands beyond. Nevertheless, raids and
counterraids by both peoples continued to plague the region until Mexico’s
independence in 1821.
The story of the Mescalero war of 1795–99 may be seen, then, as a culmina-
tion of decades of Spanish effort to defeat or at least contain Apache aggression.
As such, it represents an important moment in the evolution of Spanish-Apache
relations: confirmation in the most brutal terms that this relationship had
always been grounded, at least from the Spanish perspective, in the naked use
of military power. And while it is from the Spanish perspective that much of
this story is told, there are opportunities to see things from the Mescaleros’
point of view as well. Unfortunately, most of the latter must of necessity be
filtered through the prism of Spanish reports and documents, as there simply
are no contemporary Mescalero accounts directly relating to this particular
period. Although oral histories and tribal traditions do give perspective to the
Mescalero worldview and their interrelationships with the Spaniards and other
peoples, these are often of a general nature and do not touch upon particular
events, such as the war that began in 1795. Still, the identities and roles of
individual Mescaleros do appear with enough frequency in Spanish reports
 Introduction 9

that it is possible to at least recognize that their actions were formed out of the
milieu of their own independent volition and societal beliefs, even if these are
ignored, obscured, or forgotten in the primary sources. I have attempted to
include as many of these individuals as possible within this story and to bring
forth the ideas and environments that impacted the course of their actions.
In a similar fashion, I have also attempted to flesh out the personalities and
actions of the Spanish participants in these events. The latter has proven a
much easier task, in that many of the officers and not a few of the common
soldiers left service records that provide personal details.
Both the detailed records of the Spaniards and the correspondingly sparse
references to the Mescaleros have, for me at least, been a vehicle through which
the terrible face of war, even one so little understood and so long forgotten
as this, could be distilled to a recognizable, if elemental, humanity. This in
itself is what makes the story of the Mescalero war and the recollection of its
participants worth telling.
 1
•••

A GENERAL IRRUPTION

The summer of 1795 found Pedro de Nava a very concerned man. As the
commandant general of the Interior Provinces of New Spain, Nava was respon-
sible for the security of the northern frontier of Spain’s vast imperial holdings,
stretching from the Gulf of California in the west to the Gulf coast of Texas
in the east. Into this region the complexities of Spain’s international rivalries
had increasingly escalated. Looking east beyond the great Mississippi River,
Spanish officials were genuinely alarmed by the rapidly burgeoning power of the
land-hungry United States of America. Spain’s perennial enemy Great Britain
was locked in a worldwide struggle against revolutionary France, and Spain had
formed an unnatural and uneasy alliance with the British. In addition to open
warfare in the Caribbean, the conflict had seen an influx of French revolutionary
ideas and propaganda calling for the liberation of Spanish America and seeking
to spark nascent independence movements in Spain’s colonies. In the face of
these threats, the last thing Pedro de Nava needed were problems within the
frontier areas under his control.1
Luckily for Nava, the Interior Provinces had been relatively calm for several
years. Decades of warfare between the Spanish and numerous indigenous peoples
of the region, especially the Apaches, had finally abated to something resembling
peace. Across the wide expanse of the northern frontier, eight reservations had
been set up for several Apache groups in an attempt to induce them to curtail

10
 A General Irruption 11

their raiding activity. Almost two thousand Apaches were now frequenting the
reservations, and a general quiescence had settled upon the area. Despite the
increased costs to maintain these establishments, Nava believed they were vital
to securing the peace and were more economical in the long run than large-scale
military operations. Apaches still engaged in raids, but these were generally
confined both in size and scale to a level Nava’s subordinates could deal with. As
they had for almost a decade, the Spaniards were willing to tolerate the disruptions
of this “bad peace” rather than expend the resources required to decisively crush
the Apaches in a “good war.” Now, in the face of increasingly strident calls for cost
cutting to help defray the expense of the war with France, Nava maintained that
the Interior Provinces of New Spain were functioning peacefully and efficiently.2
A native of the Canary Islands, Nava had enjoyed a long career that had
seen him rise steadily, owing more to his organizational and administrative
abilities than any combat experience. Between 1781 and 1789 he had served with
distinction as garrison commander of the strategic city of Caracas, Venezuela,
where he attained the rank of brigadier general. The following year, he was
promoted to field marshal and named commandant general of the Interior
Provinces. During the next five years, Nava labored long and hard to bring a
semblance of peace with the Apaches, and it appeared he had been successful.3
On August 6, 1795, Nava’s thoughts were centered on far eastern Texas.
He had received reports that a substantial group of Indians from east of the
Mississippi River were seeking to settle in Spanish Texas. They claimed they
were fleeing persecution from the Americans and promised to ally with the
Spaniards in exchange for sanctuary. In writing to his superiors in Madrid,
however, Nava questioned the veracity of these Indians and speculated that
it was all a ruse. Allowing them to cross into Spanish territory might strain
relations with the United States. Furthermore, permitting these Indians to
settle in Texas might encourage others and lead to unforeseen consequences
with Native groups already living in the region. With his eyes firmly fixed to
the east, Nava confidently assured his superiors that he would act to ensure the
continued tranquility of the frontier areas under his command. Unfortunately
for him, on the very day he was writing his report, events were occurring in
far western Texas that would make a mockery of his claims.4

•••
At fifty-one years of age, Josef Urías had served as a soldier for almost three
decades. A native of the old Presidio of Conchos in the Province of Nueva
12 A Bad Peace and a Good War

Vizcaya, Urías had enlisted as a common soldier in 1768 at the age of twenty-
three. Over the next twenty-eight years he rose steadily through the ranks until
commissioned as an officer, becoming alférez, or ensign, of the Primera Com-
pañía Volante, the First Flying Company, in June 1788. The First Volante was
stationed north of the city of Chihuahua, the capital of the Interior Provinces;
but like all of the compañías volantes, the First was designed to be a mobile force
without a permanent base. Thus, they could operate throughout the frontier
region. For the next seven years, Urías served in the First competently, if
unspectacularly, having participated “in twenty campaigns and some corredurías
[pursuits], and in these he had many combats with the enemy and in these he
succeeded in killing two Apaches and recovering 589 animals.” Overall, his
superiors judged Alférez Urías as “a good officer for this war.”5
In late July 1795, Urías found himself in command of a body of troopers from
the First Volante serving on detached duty at the Presidio del Príncipe, located
at the village of Coyamé, some forty miles southwest of the confluence of the
Río Conchos and the Rio Grande. Toward the end of the month, Urías was
informed by the post commander, Captain José de Tovar, that he had received
dispatches that two small groups of Indians had raided Spanish settlements
and were reportedly heading toward Presidio del Príncipe. Captain Tovar
determined that Urías, given his experience, would command a detachment
that would try and locate the raiders.6
The Indians Urías would be searching for had struck their targets several
days earlier, far to the south of the presidio. On July 25, the garrison of the
Presidio of San Carlos, sixty miles southwest of Príncipe, had been alerted that
two parties of Indians, with four to six men each, had carried off twenty head
of livestock from some ranches in the jurisdiction of Ciénega de los Olivos,
more than one hundred miles farther south. Fortunately, the commander at
San Carlos, Captain Antonio García de Texada, had at his disposal not only
the seventy-three men of his own garrison, but also substantial detachments
from the Third and Fourth Compañías Volantes, temporarily stationed at the
presidio. He immediately sent out two separate squadrons in pursuit of the
Indian raiders, one with twenty men from the Third Volante and the second
with forty-four men from San Carlos and the Fourth Volante.7
The latter detachment of troopers, under the command of Alféreces Don
Cayetano Limón and Don Juan Fernández, pursued one group of the Indian
raiders. The tracks they followed initially paralleled the course of the Río
Conchos, to the east of San Carlos, but then began to veer to the northwest,
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