New Light on Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas [San Sabá]

Abstract

With the collapse of the Second Family Compact during ith the collapse of the Second Family Compact during the reign of Ferdinand VI (1746–1759), Spain’s frontier policy in its North American empire acquired an aggressive, militarized character, especially where French interests were involved. An important manifestation of this new orientation appeared in the Governorship of Texas with the establishment of Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas on the remote San Saba River in 1757. Designed to counter supposed French adventurism, this post represented an ambitious, perhaps misguided, thrust into the far northwest, which would continue into the early years of Charles III (1759–1788).