ALLANDE VINDICATED
| Rengel sent Allande's retirement petition
to the king in January, 1786. In late May or early June of that year, Jacobo
Ugarte y Loyola arrived on the northern frontier to replace Rengel. Ugarte,
unlike Rengel, was a strong and outspoken administrator. One of his first
acts was to use the "viceregal powers" Rengel had feared to use,
allowing Allande to retire to Horcasitas to attend to his health until
the king could reassign him. He also vindicated Allande of being solely
responsible for the internal turmoil at Tucson. Perhaps more significantly,
he reveals in his letter to Gálvez, quoted below, the universal
resentment on the frontier of the Caballero de Croix's demand for rigid
discipline. This resentment is seldom if ever reflected in documents of
that era because of Croix's exalted position and favor with the king. At
Tucson, Allande was only following orders. The spit-and-polish officer,
unpopular on the frontier, reappeared again and again a century later as
the United States cavalry fought the same Apache nation.
page 49 Chihuahua City. TO VICEROY BERNARDO DE GALVEZ. Together with his letter of January 28 of the current year, José Antonio Rengel, my predecessor, sent the king a petition of Lieutenant Colonel Pedro de Allande y Saavedra, commander of the Tucson presidio, for promotion to a position of less hardship. Even before I knew about this petition, I had granted Allande interim permission to leave Tucson in an effort to stem the well-known unrest at that presidio. It is all too true that his valiant and violent temperament makes it difficult to serve under him and he has often been corrected for it. However, it is also true that recent attempts to correct abuses, reform practices, and generally improve discipline have been met with unusual resistance by all of our presidios. In all fairness, then, since his service is beyond question and it is also certain that he is suffering from a serious disability, I do hope Your Excellency will support his request and work toward its prompt fulfillment. JACOBO UGARTE Y LOYOLA14 page 50 |
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Desert Documentary by Kieran McCarty - Chapter 11
Tucson, Arizona: Arizona Historical Society, 1976.
© 1976 The Arizona Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.