OCR Text |
Show EQUIPMENT OF PROPOSED MISSIONS. 495 port, however small may be the bark. And if in this ( plan) there be found inconveniences, it can be ordered that the barks which equip the establishments of Monte- Rey take also the supplies for the presidio and missions of the Colorado as far as the Puerto de San Diego, and here let there be a storehouse in which to keep them in order to carry them afterward on pack- animals by land. For this ( purpose) it would appear fitting that the detachment of troops at San Diego should be under the orders of ( sujeto d) the comandante or captain of the Rio Colorado; in which ( plan) would be found many expediencies: The ist, in that, this detachment being more contiguous to the Rio Colorado than to Monte- Rey, it would be able to give aid more promptly in case of necessity. The 2d, in that, the road from San Diego to the Rio Colorado being safer than that from Monte- Rey, and having missions founded on this river, controlled are all the intermediate nations. The 3d, in that, in view of this arrangement, the soldiers not having to pass from San Diego to Monte- Rey with so great frequency dian establishment, and one which would of course have to be imported at first. The sense of the whole passage is clear: the proposed missions would be self- supporting in a few years, so far as commissary supplies were concerned, and would only require to be furnished with panocha, clothing, and other articles coming under the head of quartermaster stores, all of which could be brought in a comparatively small vessel. |