Don Pedro de Rábago y Terán (died 1756) was a

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and

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New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

. He was

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Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...

from August 1744 to June 1754. In 1754, Don Pedro de Rábago y Terán was sent by the viceroy of New Spain to find a site for an Apache Mission, named a pass between the hills in Menard County overlooking the San Saba River as Puerto de Baluartes (Port of Bulwarks). The Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission was established three years later on the San Saba River near Menard, Texas. As an explorer in the late 1740s he went on three expeditions to the confluence of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

and the Rio Conchos, known as La Junta de los Rios, in order to establish a

presidio A presidio (''jail, fortification'') was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries in areas under their control or influence. The term is derived from the Latin word ''praesidium'' meaning ''pr ...

or military camp to serve six missions in the area of La Junta, which were being attacked by the

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

. He recommended a site that became the Presidio de la Junta de los Ríos Norte y Conchos near what is now

Presidio, Texas Presidio is a city in Presidio County, Texas, United States. It is situated on the Rio Grande (''Río Bravo del Norte'') River, on the opposite side of the U.S.–Mexico border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The name originates from Spanish and mean ...

. As his term as governor of Coahuila expired he was appointed captain of the Presidio del Santísimo Sacramento del Valle de Santa Rosa, where he dealt with problems at the San Xavier missions near present-day Rockdale, Texas that had been exacerbated by his nephew Felipe de Rábago y Terán. Rábago y Terán explored the area around the Llano and San Saba rivers. Relocating the San Xavier missions to the San Marcos River, he became ill in an epidemic at the missions and died in early 1756. Pedro de Rábago y Terán, commander of the San Xavier Presidio, was sent to explore the San Saba River country in 1754 to look for suitable locations for a presidio-mission complex. After his return to San Xavier he urged removal of the San Xavier complex to the San Saba River. The mission was moved temporarily to the San Marcos River near San Antonio and Rábago died soon afterward. Diego Ortiz Parrilla, named to succeed Rábago y Terán, received instructions on September 1, 1756, to transfer the San Xavier garrison to the San Saba River and to recruit an additional fifty men in San Antonio and the Mexican provinces. The San Sabá presidio thus became the largest in Texas. While a jurisdictional question was being debated over whether the mission lay within the boundaries of Texas or Coahuila, the new post remained under the viceroy. The matter was finally settled in favor of Texas.

References

External links

Rabago y Teran, Pedro de
at the Handbook of Texas Online https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/san-luis-de-las-amarillas-presidio Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann–Jones, 1936–58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). William E. Dunn, "The Apache Mission on the San Saba River: Its Founding and Failure," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 17 (April 1914). Kathleen Gilmore, A Documentary and Archaeological Investigation of Presidio de San Luis de las Amarillas and Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá (Austin: State Building Commission, 1967). Paul D. Nathan, trans., and Lesley Byrd Simpson, ed., The San Sabá Papers (San Francisco: Howell, 1959). Ernest Wallace and David M. Vigness, eds., Documents of Texas History (Austin: Steck, 1963). Robert S. Weddle, The San Sabá Mission (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964). * C. E. Castaneda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, page 371. 1756 deaths Governors of Coahuila People from New Spain Year of birth unknown {{Mexico-mil-bio-stub