Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/675

Rh Vera Cruz, Isla del Cármen, Acapulco, and San Blas, to check smuggling, and for defence against piratical assaults. Other forces were specially organized and employed in guarding the northern frontier against the Chichimecs. Through the regions occupied by those wild tribes was the highway to Nueva Galicia, Nueva Vizcaya, and the other districts operated on by the Spanish trading expeditions. The Chichimecs often plundered the wagons laden with silver, killing numbers of white persons and their Indian friends. For many years these marauders had carried things with a high hand. To check them a strong force was organized by Viceroy Enriquez and despatched under Alcalde Mayor Juan Torre de Lagunas, and the viceroy in person with another force marched to his assistance. The results of the campaign were wholly satisfactory; the Chichimecs, being routed from their strongholds with heavy casualties, were obliged to seek a refuge in the extensive deserts of the interior. A large number of their children fell into the hands of the victors, and were taken to Mexico and given in charge of families to rear.

Several presidios or military outposts were placed at proper distances on the load northward, so that by 1570 had been established, besides the towns of San Miguel and Lagos, the presidios of Ojuelos, Portezuelo, San Felipe, Jerez, and Celaya, and the formation of settlements round them was encouraged. Enriquez wrote the king that the mode proposed by