found! Nor is it likely that the rebellion would have been easily suppressed, or improbable that those provinces would have been lost, had not the Jesuits, who enjoyed considerable influence over the insurgent tribes, devoted themselves, forthwith, to calming the excited bands. Among the foremost of these clerical benefactors of Spain was the noble Milanese Jesuit, Salvatierra, 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 subjecting 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 virtue of new orders received from Charles; and, whilst the preparations 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 consequence, 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.