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Show EQUIPMENT OF PROPOSED MISSIONS. 493 POINT VIII. On the Equipment of tive Missions. Since the first time that I was at San Gabriel, and saw the neediness of those missions, I have been pondering the means there may be to equip those of the Rio Colorado, when these shall come to be founded and the presidio that is proposed, inasmuch as always have I found difficulty enough. Leaving now to whomsoever may undertake to do it, to think up a better plan, I will speak my mind. 48 By sea and by land I find that these establishments can be equipped, the country being pacified as I expect it to be, in view of the special providences which give themselves to this end. The route may be that which I indicated above: from Chihuahua to Janos, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz, Rio Gila, thence down river to the Yumas, if not to the [ proposed] Presidio de la Asumpcion and to the Rio de Santa Maria down to the Colorado. But, considering that this road, taken from [ the city of] Mexico, is of more than of 600 leagues; that there are tion of which those times, pregnant though they were with possibility, had not yet quickened. *" Dejando aora a quien toca hazerlo el pensar lo mejor dire mi dictamen "- let he who may devise better means, nevertheless I will give my opinion. |