76 Mexico: Archivo General 
José Rengel (1784, ad interim), who governed under instructions from the 
audiencia of Guadalajara. In 1785 the authority of the viceroy over the 
Provincias Internas was partially restored, the reason given being the special 
acquaintance of the new viceroy, Conde de Galvez, former governor of Louisi- 
ana, with the affairs of the northern frontier. At the same time the Provincias 
Internas were divided into three military districts. The first, under Juan de 
Ugalde as comandante de armas, included Texas, Coahuila (with Parras and 
Saltillo), Nuevo Leén, and Nuevo Santander ; the second, under José Rengel, 
the comandante inspector, embraced New Mexico and Nueva Viscaya; and 
the third, under the new commandant-general, Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola, to 
whom Rengel and Ugalde were subordinate, consisted of Sinaloa, Sonora, and 
the Californias. It seems that on the death of the Conde de Galvez in 1786 
the commandancy-general again became independent of the viceroy, but in 
March, 1787, the authority of the new viceroy, Flores, over the Provincias 
Internas was declared by royal cédula to be the same as that of his predecessor. 
Later in the same year a real audiencia for the Interior Provinces was pro- 
posed but was not established (see p. 137). 
Matters stood this way but a short time, for by a decree of December 3, 
1787, the three military commands were consolidated into two independent 
jurisdictions, or commandancies-general, according to the original suggestion 
of Croix. These divisions were called the Provincias Internas de Oriente, 
including Texas, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Nuevo Santander, still under 
Ugalde, and the Provincias Internas de Poniente (or de Occidente), including 
the remainder of the Interior Provinces, under Ugarte y Loyola. Over each 
of these commanders the viceroy exercised a limited jurisdiction until 1788, 
when by a cédula of March 11 the full viceregal authority was restored. At 
the same time the office of comandante imspector was abolished. In 1790 
Pedro de Nava became commandant of the Western Provinces, and, on the 
resignation of Ugalde, he became ad interim commander of the Eastern Prov- 
inces also, but was soon replaced in the east by Ramon de Castro. (See Ban- 
croft’s error on this point, op. cit., p. 641.) In 1793 the two commands were 
reunited into one, independent of the viceroy, as when first established, and 
Nava was also made independent of the subdelegate of the Real Hacienda. 
The territory embraced was not the same as formerly, for the Californias, 
Nuevo Ledn, and Nuevo Santander were detached and put under military 
governors directly subject to the viceroy. The Provincias Internas now in- 
cluded, therefore, Sonora, Sinaloa, New Mexico, Nueva Viscaya, Coahuila, 
and Texas. 
This was the last general change in the system until 1804. At that time the 
difficulties of management again led to an order providing for the division of 
the Provincias Internas into two commands (Provincias Internas de Oriente 
and Provincias Internas de Occidente, or de Poniente), the Californias, Nuevo 
Leén, and southern Nuevo Santander being left subject to the viceroy. This 
order, of May 30, 1804, was not carried out until 1812, however, when the 
War of Independence made it a military necessity. Pedro de Nava had been 
replaced as commandant-general in 1804 by Pedro Grimarest, of the third 
Battalion of Estremadura infantry, and he by Nemesio Salcedo y Salcedo. In 
1812 Alejo Garcia Conde, governor of Sonora and Sinaloa, was made com- 
mandant-general of the Provincias de Occidente, and Juan Joaquin Arredondo 
of the Provincias de Oriente.” Garcia Conde was succeeded in the west by 
Bernardo Bonavia, who was in office in 1817-1818 (cf. P. L., vol. 207). 
* Simon de Herrera was offered the place, but he lost his life at Béxar during the 
revolution before taking the office. 
