"What a terrible place, Texas, has been cut off from civilization for too long." In late June 1677, Fernández Vajen, a Texas general under the Viceroy of New Spain, who had previously been complained about by Sumo and others, got off a ship and said to himself.

The sailors began to unload some supplies with great energy, mainly wheat, corn, cured meat, cheese and other ordinary foods, but also a lot of cane sugar, tobacco, coffee, tequila and other goods for the enjoyment of the people, and of course, weapons, ammunition, rain gear, tents and other materials necessary for survival in the wilderness.

Clearly, these people were there to explore or colonize, not to transport supplies to a settlement. It is not difficult to come to such a conclusion, because as far as the eye can see, there is a barren landscape nearby, with rivers, forests, lakes, and grasslands, but there are no villages, no farmland, and no people.

Of course, such desolate scenes abound in Texas. Because both the Comanches and the Apache are Indian races with a relatively low level of civilization, and they are more than fierce, but that's all, they are not even as experienced as the Pueblos in construction.

Although the Spaniards have not yet established a fixed colonial institution in the vast Texas, they still know about these aborigines, after all, so many years of expeditions, trade teams, missionaries and the close communication between the aborigines is not in vain, and the archives of the Mexican Prosecutor's Court District record a lot of valuable information that people in other countries do not know, which have been accumulated little by little by countless Spanish colonists and explorers with countless energy and costs in the past two hundred years. This includes the complex, friend or foe relationships they have established with Indians everywhere.

Yes, the relationship between the Spaniards and the Indians was complicated, and it was probably okay in normal times, everyone was at peace, and the Indians were used to Spanish rule. However, when the colonial officials were more greedy, the Indians became more irritable because of the deeper exploitation they suffered, as can be seen in the undercurrent of the Pueblo populated area in the northern part of the Mexican Prosecutor's Court.

However, in the three-level administrative area of the General Jurisdiction of Texas (the Viceroyalty of New Spain - the Mexican Prosecutor's District - the General District of Texas), the relationship between the Spaniards and the local Indians was not well maintained. They have no irresolvable enmity with the local Apache and Comanches, and can even influence them through proselytizing, trade, etc., to control them implicitly, and trick them into serving the Spanish crown (and this is the main reason why the Spaniards openly claim Texas as their territory), which is generally quite good.

Of course, an important reason for the maintenance of this relationship is probably that the Apache and Comanches benefited from their dealings with the Spaniards, or at least did not suffer too much, and the existence of the glue of the missionaries naturally made the relationship between the two sides passable. It's just that this time the Spaniards came directly to Texas to establish a colony, and to put it mildly, they directly grabbed territory with the Comanches, and I don't know how the relationship between the two sides will get along in the future, and it doesn't seem impossible to turn around.

"Let's set up a makeshift camp first, and we'll look around in a few days before we finally choose a site for this outpost town." General Joaquín, who was a little tired, waved his hand and motioned for his men to go to work, while he himself sat down on a powder keg, took some papers from his pocket and read them.

This is the coastal area near the city of Corpus Christi in the United States, the mouth of the Nueses River, there is a calm bay in front of the wind and waves, mooring boats, and there is a river leading to the inland area, the climate is mild, the water source is abundant, the nearby land is fertile, the bison herd is a good colony, a little transformation is a good colony.

As a Texas general appointed by Viceroy Juan Francisco Trivino (now Viceroy of New Spain), Fernández Joaquin, a minor nobleman from the Toledo countryside, has also recently become a little unable to sit still and is beginning to feel great pressure from above. The main reason is that in the last year, a number of expeditions active east of the Sierra Madre have reported to the Mexican magistrate that a group of colonists from outside the long Texas coastline has begun to settle down and seem to be staying for a long time, which quickly alarmed them.

Earlier this year, a missionary wrote back that the colonists who had settled somewhere off the coast of Texas were a group of pirates, murderous and cunning, who had destroyed "at least three" missionary tribes founded by Santo Dominican monks on the grounds of property disputes over land, cattle and the like.

This news even alarmed the governor of New Spain, Trivino, who was also stationed in Mexico City, because he had recently received complaints from many coastal towns in the Mexican Prosecutor's Court District that a large number of elusive pirates coveted their property, and had repeatedly gone ashore to plunder, looting property, livestock, food, and even women.

After analysis, Governor Trivino concluded that the pirates who attacked the nearby coast were likely to be some of the same pirates who had previously been on Tortuga Island, and that they had scattered all over the country after their lair was wiped out by the Caribbean detachment of the Windward Fleet and the East Coasters. Some went to the Bahamas, some to Jamaica (the British really sheltered pirates...... Some went offshore Florida, but now it appears that at least a large part of them have made it to Texas and hidden, waiting for an opportunity to attack sea carriers and even coastal towns.

It's worth it!

Governor Trivino, who had learned that a pirate had arrived, panicked at once, and immediately summoned the president of the Mexican Prosecutor's Court, the judges, the prosecutors, the district generals, the parish bishops, and the officials of the important municipalities, intending to concentrate on the matter first.

Joaquin, as the largest official in the jurisdiction of the Mexican prosecutorial court, naturally also participated in this meeting. All he remembered was that Governor Trivino had asked him to "move forward," "to the east of the Sierra Madre," to "real Texas," and then to find out "where those damn pirates were" and eliminate the danger once and for all.

Admiral Joaquín argued a few words at the time, believing that finding people was not his forte, and that the Windward fleet should do the work. But this incident brought him nothing but the wrath of Governor Trivino, and he was ordered to pack his bags within a month, and then go to Texas with his men to establish a real rule for King Carlos in the region - the meaning of this sentence is actually very clear, that is, let Joaquin, the Texas general, go there as quickly as possible to establish a colonial town, so as to make himself worthy of the name, after all, how can an official who spends all day in Mexico City being called "General Texas". Isn't that funny?

Fernández Joaquín could not resist the Governor's orders, so he immediately summoned his subordinate officials, who had been with him for several years in Mexico City, to explain the matter to the dejected fellows. Then he went to the treasury and received a consignment of supplies and thirty thousand pesos in cash, and after recruiting a hundred and ten men of military service, he boarded the ship provided by the governor and sailed across the sea to the mouth of the Nueses River, intending to establish the first real colonial town belonging to the Kingdom of Spain, and not such facilities as military posts and trading posts.

To be honest, Joaquín was not confident that he would be able to gain a foothold here, for the 100 so-called military service men he had recruited in Mexico City were quite suspicious of their fighting prowess, and he doubted how long they would be able to hold out in the event of a real conflict with the fierce Indians. But he had no better choice but to trust these people, and pray that the monks of the Holy Church would be strong enough to pour the Comanches with enough ecstasy to make them not think of fighting the Spaniards, and that he would be much better.

The documents he was looking at were reports written by monks about the customs and life of the indigenous people, and removing large passages of praise for the Lord, Joaquín felt that the remainder was still extremely valuable and could help him in his future work.

And while he was looking at the documents, the unloading of the goods was quickly completed. It seemed that the two-masted Galen did not intend to stay long in this pirate-prone area, and their captain sent someone ashore to say hello, and "generously" left two bronze cannons to General Joaquin, and then hoisted the sails and set sail slowly, leaving the crowd on the shore speechless and demoralizing.

Fernández Joaquín saw that this was not going to work, so he encouraged the men, emphasizing that the battle between the Windward Fleet and the French had reached its final stage, that victory was in place, that the island of Hispaniola was within reach, and that they could soon put an end to the troubles at hand and turn to support the efforts of the Wasteland Pioneers in San Joaquin—yes, yes, the somewhat unworthy Texas general had mapped the place where they landed as "San Joaquin", Blatantly putting gold on his face (as a pioneer, he has this power) is also brazen enough.

Of course, Joaquín said that's just that. As a high-ranking official in the Mexican Prosecutor's Court, he was well aware that the Windward fleet was now almost divided into two, one to encircle and blockade the island of Hispaniola to prevent the French army on the island from receiving adequate supplies; The other went to the Windward and Leeward Islands to find and intercept ships traveling between the French colonies and the mainland, and to strike at the French maritime power.

Therefore, Joaquín understood that there was almost no possibility of freeing up ships to protect and support their expansion in Texas. There is no doubt about it, you can see how busy this group is when you see that they don't even have time to control the pirates scattered here and there (and it also shows how weak the Windward fleet is). Even to some extent, Joaquín did not want the Windward Fleet to draw a ship to protect them, because that would be meaningless, and the pirates were not at all afraid of such lone old merchant ships converted into armed ships, and they often worked together in two or three to easily tease the lone unprofessional warship to death, which only weakened the already dwarfed maritime power of the Spaniards in the Caribbean.

"Let's hope the war with the French will end soon, at least in the Caribbean, and as for what happens to Franz Comté and Lorraine, what does it matter to me!" After carefully stuffing the letter in his bag, Fernández Joaquín sighed softly and muttered: "This damned war has been fought for several years, and now the whole Caribbean Sea is not at peace, and the Flota fleet and the Gaia Anes fleet have had to change their itinerary and sail directly from Veracruz to the port of Cádiz (which was supposed to meet in Havana), just because they lack the protection of the Windward fleet." In Florida, New Granada, Panama and other places, piracy is also getting worse, there are many rumors of ransacking towns, the navy of the East Coast is also half-hearted, and the Caribbean shipping company is inextricably linked to pirates, which is really bad. The glorious kingdom of Castile really can't afford to be bogged down in these endless wars that drain the country's strength, and we should have learned from the past failures to avoid wars, but it is clear that we have not done so, and the Caribbean Sea is now slipping into an increasingly dangerous abyss......"

Anyway, General Joaquín really has reason to complain like that. Many years ago, the Caribbean Sea was the exclusive interest of the Kingdom of Spain, and their first court of trial in the New World, Santo Domingo, was built on the island of Hispaniola. However, frequent wars and royal profligacy caused the Spanish kingdom to fall into a very serious financial crisis, and gradually began to be unable to invest and maintain a strong navy, so pirates and merchants from various countries began to erode the interests of the Spaniards in the Caribbean.

The Spaniards claimed sovereignty over the entire Caribbean Sea at the beginning, and all the islands were the territory of the Kingdom of Spain, but later they had to spit out some islands when they were overwhelmed, such as Jamaica Island occupied by the British, half of Hispaniola Island occupied by the French, Tobago Island occupied by the Dutch, etc., but so far only the Jamaica Island of the British and the Trinidad Island from the East Coast have been officially recognized by the British, although the other islands have actually been occupied by other countries and even pirates. Spain was powerless to recover (or to sustain it for a long time), but it never threw in the towel and never recognized the claims of other countries.

General Joaquín pessimistically believed that if the Kingdom of Spain continued to sink into one war after another that had hollowed out its national strength, then in the future more and more islands would be officially recognized by other countries by signing treaties, especially the pagan country on the eastern coast of the Southern New World, which was the most ambitious and worthy of vigilance, and their colonial company was not a good bird, which greatly affected the inherent order of the Caribbean.

General Joaquín even vaguely hoped that the southern governors would be a little tougher than the Peruvian governors, and would resolutely fight back against the shameless encroachment of the people on the east coast on the territory of the Kingdom of Spain, especially their encroachment on the Pampa plain.