The Displaced (CEC)

When Spain implemented the recommendations of the Marqués de Rubí, hundreds of Spanish settlers in present-day East Texas and Western Louisiana, faced forced relocation.  In 1773 these families, many of who could trace their tenure at places like Los Adaes and Nacogdoches back several generations to 1716, packed up their belongings and reluctantly headed toward San Antonio de Béxar.  The locals, though, were not enthusiastic about accommodating these hundreds of newcomers, and these displaced people faced a marginal existence on the edge of town.

By 1774 the settlers received permission to return to East Texas with the proviso that they could not settle within 100 leagues of Natchitoches, a distance that reached to nearly present-day Austin and San Marcos.

The former Adaeseõs and others fudged as they complied with this directive.  In August 1774 a few hundred settled the town of Bucareli at the Trinity River crossing of the Camino Real that once connected Béxar to Los Adaes.  Flooding and Indian raids convinced many of the inhabitants to move on—without permission—to Nacogdoches.  Colonel Antonio Gil Y’Barbo successfully petitioned for recognition of this settlement as an official town in 1779.