|  | | | The Presidio | | | The presidio at Los Adaes had three bastions and six walls. There were two cannons in each bastion, each cannon covering one of the walls. When the Spanish soldiers first arrived at the presidio in 1721, they quickly built walls and defensive ditches to protect against French attacks. Some scholars once doubted that the Spanish built the presidio as it was shown on the architect’s plan. Archaeological excavations, however, have shown that it was, indeed, built according to the plan. Archaeologists have excavated two bastions, two walls, and portions of the ditch, or fosa, that was in front of the walls. The excavations revealed that the walls had to be rebuilt every so often. | | | Images | | | | | | | | | | | The presidio on Urrutia's map | | | | | | |
| | | Learn More | | Presidio Location
The following is from Juan Antonio de la Peña’s diary of the expedition: “The Marqués [de Aguayo] immediately set about selecting a site upon which to build the presidio. Although he sent scouts throughout the entire territory and he personally reconnoitered the land, he found no place more suitable or with more advantages than the spot on the camino real where he was camped, seven leagues from Natchitoches” (Hadley, Naylor, and Schuetz-Miller 1997:427). | | | Suggested Reading | | Faulk, Odie B. and Laura E. Faulk 1988 Defenders of the Interior Provinces. Presidial Soldiers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain. The Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico.
Hadley, Diana; Thomas H. Naylor, and Mardith K. Schuetz-Miller, editors 1997 The Presidio and Milita on the Northern Frontier of New Spain. A Documentary History. Volume Two, Part Two, The Central Corridor and the Texas Corridor, 1700-1765. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Moorhead, Max L. 1975 The Presidio: Bastion of the Spanish Borderlands. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. | |
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