218 INDIANS PACIFIED TEXAS HISPANIOLA ATTACKED. 



would have been lost, had not the Jesuits, who enjoyed considera- 

 ble influence over the insurgent tribes, devoted themselves, forth- 

 with, to calming the excited bands. Among the foremost of these 

 clerical benefactors of Spain was the noble Milanese Jesuit, Salva- 

 tierra, whose authority over the Indians was perhaps paramount to 

 all others, and whose successful zeal was acknowledged by a 

 grateful letter from the viceroy. This worthy priest had been one 

 of the ablest missionaries among these warlike tribes. He won 

 their love and confidence whilst endeavoring to diffuse Christianity 

 among them, and the power he obtained through his humanity 

 and unvarying goodness, was now the means of once more subject- 

 ing the revolted Indians to the Spaniards. The cross achieved a 

 victory which they refused to the sword. 



In 1690, another effort was made to populate California, in vir- 

 tue of new orders received from Charles ; and, whilst the prepara- 

 tions were making to carry the royal will into effect, the viceroy 

 commanded the governor of Coahuila to place a garrison at San 

 Bernardo, where the French attempted to build their fort. Orders 

 were also sent about the same time by Galve to extend the Spanish 

 power northward, and, in 1691, the province of Asinais, or Texas, 

 as it was called by the Spaniards, was settled by some emigrants, 

 and visited by fourteen Franciscan monks, who were anxious to 

 devote themselves to the conversion of the Indians. A garrison 

 and a mission were established, at that time, in Texas ; but in con- 

 sequence, not only of an extraordinary drought which occurred two 

 or three years after, destroying the crops and the cattle, but also 

 of a sudden rebellion among the natives against the Spaniards who 

 desired to subject them to the same ignoble toils that were 

 patiently endured by the southern tribes, nearly all the posts and 

 missions were immediately abandoned. 



The year 1690 was signalized in the annals of New Spain by an 

 attack and successful onslaught made by the orders of the viceroy 

 with Creole troops upon the island of Hispaniola, which was occu- 

 pied by the French. Six ships of the line and a frigate, with two 

 thousand seven hundred soldiers, sailed from the port of Vera 

 Cruz, upon this warlike mission ; and after fighting a decisive bat- 

 tle and destroying the settlements upon parts of the island, but 

 without attacking the more thickly peopled and better defended 

 districts of the west, they returned to New Spain with a multitude 

 of prisoners and some booty. 



But the rejoicings to which these victories gave rise were of 

 short duration. The early frosts of 1691 had injured the crops, 



