Proclamation

This facsimile reproduction and translation of Hugo O'Conor's order establishing the Royal Spanish Presidio of San Agustin del Tucson was presented to the members of the Tucson Chorale of the Westerners as a 25th anniversary memento. The original document is located in the Archivo General de la Nacion in Mexico City. The English translation that appears below is by Kieran McCarty,O.F.M., and appears in Desert Documentary: The Spanish years, 1767 -- 1821 (Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1976).

In English

San Xavier del Bac
August 20, 1775 I, Hugo Oconor, knight of the order of Calatrava, colonel of infantry in His Majesty's armies and commandant inspector of the frontier posts of New Spain Certify that having conducted the exploration prescribed in Article three of the New Royal Regulation of Presidios issued by His Majesty on the tenth of September of 1772 for the moving of the company of San Ignacio de Tubac in the Province of Sonora, I selected and marked out in the presence of Father Francisco Garces and Lieutenant Juan de Carmona a place known as San Agustin del Tucson as the new site of the Presidio.  It is situated at a distance of eighteen leagues from Tubac, fulfills the requirements of water, pasture, and wood and effectively closes the Apache frontier.  The designation of the New Presidio becomes official with the signatures of myself, Father Francisco Garces, and Lieutenant Juan de Carmona, at this mission of San Xavier del Bac, on this twentieth day of August of the year 1775.
Hugo Oconor
Fray Francisco Garces
Juan Fernandez Carmona