Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, now better known as Presidio of San Sabá, was founded in April 1757 near present-day Menard, Texas, United States to protect the Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá, established at the same time. The presidio and mission were built to secure Spain's claim to the territory. They were part of the treaty recently reached with the Lipan Apaches of the area for mutual aid against enemies. The early functioning of the mission and presidio were undermined by Hasinai, also allied with the Spanish, attacking the Apaches. The mission was located three miles downstream from the presidio by request of the monks at the mission to ensure that the Spanish soldiers would not be a corrupting influence on the Lipan Apaches the monks were trying to convert to Christianity. The original presidio and mission were built out of logs. On March 16, 1758, am army of an estimated 2000 Comanche and Wichita Indians, bitter enemies of the Lipan Apache, attacked Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá. The presidio sent a small force to aid the mission, but the soldiers were driven back. Two of the three priests at the mission were killed and the mission was destroyed. The Indians did not attack the presidio. More than a year later, a force of 600 men from the presidio set out to find and punish the Indians responsible for the attack on the mission. The Spanish force was repulsed with heavy losses and the presidio commander was relieved of command. The new commander replaced the log stockade with a stone compound and was renamed, Presidio de San Saba'. The post was abandoned in 1768, reoccupied briefly in 1770, then permanently abandoned. A portion of the presidio was rebuilt as a Works Progress Administration project for the Texas Centennial in 1936.
History
Foundation In June 1753, Lt. Juan Galvan and Father Miguel de Aranda were sent on an expedition to explore Apacheria, and selected a spot on the San saba river for a mission, marking the spot with a large wooden cross. a subsequent expedition by Pedro de Rabago y Teran and Father Jose Lopes in Dec. 1754 to the same area named the site "Paso de la Santa Cruz", and recommended a stone and mortar fort with four curtains with two guns each. On 18 May 1756, Viceroy Marques de las Amarillas ordered Col. Diego Ortiz Parrilla to assume command of the San Xavier Presidio and transfer it along with the missions there to the San Saba site, the new presidio to be named after the Viceroy. Parilla was to take 50 men at the San Xavier garrison, and augment them with 22 from San Antonio and 27 new recruits. Parilla was the former governor of Sinaloa and Sonora, captain of the Presidio de San Miguel de Horcasitas, and made a colonel in 1755. On 5 April 1775, Parrilla left 39 soldiers in a temporary camp with his livestock and supplies, and marched with 22 soldiers plus 6 Franciscan friars under Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros, for the San Saba site, reaching it on 17 April. After the soldiers and supplies from the temporary camp arrived, the mission and quarters with irrigation ditch, plus barracks and family quarters for the soldiers and their 237 women and children, were built from logs and separated by three miles on opposite sides of the river. In June, a band of 3000 Apaches arrived under the leadership of El Chico and Casablanca passed through on their way to attack the Comanches further north, but did not stay long on their return trip. With no Indians to teach, only the Queretaran Mission was built.
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