Petition of Early Spanish Governor of Coahuila and Texas
Marqués de Aguayo, c.1718
AGUAYO, José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, marqués de (1677-1734). Señor. El marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo. Don Joseph de Azlor, puesto a los reales pies de V.M., dize… [Spain?, c.1718.]

Petition by the Marqués de Aguayo, early governor and captain general of Coahuila and Texas, to the King of Spain to secure his family’s land rights in northern Mexico. José de Azlor was a Spanish nobleman who went to New Spain in 1712 to take possession of his family's enormous hacienda, which in the mid-18th century covered 23,000 square miles, almost half of Coahuila Province in northern Mexico. In this petition, he asks King Philip V to confirm his family's title to land and water rights owing to their years of service in northern Mexico and the Texas frontier. The family’s exploits, from the time of Hernán Cortés to the present, are recounted in great detail: discovering the silver mines of Mazapil, colonizing the northern provinces of New Spain, and the introduction in 1717 of 200 head of cattle to the frontier territory of Texas, which was still mostly uncolonized. The undated petition, probably printed around 1718, must have served its purpose: in 1719 the Marqués Aguayo was appointed governor and captain general of Coahuila and Texas and served through 1722, during which time he successfully led a major Spanish expedition into Texas to permanently drive out the French. The Marqués is credited for the beginnings of the colonization of Texas during his short term as governor, which quickly went from one presidio and two missions to four presidios and ten missions. Only two copies of this petition appear in WorldCat (at Yale and John Carter Brown Library); not listed in Alden-Landis, Medina, Palau y Dulcet, or Wagner's Spanish Southwest. See Chipman & Joseph, Spanish Texas, 1519-1821, pp. 119-127; Handbook of Texas Online, "Aguayo, Marques de San Miguel de".

Folio (313 x 210mm). 4 pages, uncut (bookseller marking in pencil on upper corners). Modern marbled paper-covered portfolio (Zambrano library label on back pastedown).