After the 1683 expedition of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza to La Junta de los Rios, Spanish incursions into the Big Bend and La Junta region shifted from the earlier search for gold, property, and converts toward building a defensible frontier and conducting military operations. In 1693 Juan Fernández de Retana led an expedition to protect Jumano Indians from Apache raids at La Junta, and in 1729 Captain José de Berroterán became the first Spaniard to cross the southern Big Bend region while exploring La Junta for a presidio site, though he found no suitable location and encountered no combatants. In 1747 and 1748 Pedro de Rábago y Terán, governor of Coahuila and the first Spaniard to explore the area now known as Big Bend National Park, reached the Rio Grande near present-day Boquillas del Carmen, became the first European to describe Santa Elena Canyon, and recommended a presidio at La Junta, where Presidio del Norte was completed in 1760. Nicolas de Lafora and Jose Ramon de Urrutia completed the first map including the Big Bend region in 1771, and Hugo Oconor led an entrada in 1773 to establish presidios at San Vicente and San Carlos. After the northern states of New Spain were separated from the viceroy in Mexico City, Teodoro de Croix, appointed by Charles III as governor of the Provincias Internas, inspected the frontier in 1777, judged the Rio Grande an artificial boundary that gave little protection to settlers farther south, and recommended moving the San Vicente and San Carlos garrisons closer to population centers while keeping Presidio del Norte in place. Between 1779 and 1783 Juan de Ugalde, governor of Coahuila Province, led campaigns against Lipan and Mescalero Apaches, and his 1782 and 1783 expeditions reached into the Big Bend region; although few Apaches were killed or captured, many sought peace or fled into the Chisos Mountains. A fifth expedition from 1787 to 1788 defeated the Mescalero Apache chief Zapata Tuerta, and in March 1789 several Apache bands agreed to relocate south of the Rio Grande near Ugalde’s Santa Rosa headquarters in Coahuila. Apache arrival from the Great Plains with horses had intensified raiding around La Junta de los Rios, prompting Jumano appeals for protection, and by the end of the eighteenth century only a fragile peace existed between Apaches and Spaniards. Spain found no wealth sufficient to secure this harsh arid country, soon lost its New World empire, and after Mexico achieved independence in 1821 the region remained shaped by the failure to create a secure frontier.