financed an expedition to the region and thus was in a position to choose sites for settlement. He proposed the name Nuevo Santander. He also proposed a budget of 115,000 pesos for the new expedition, plus 500 pesos for each colonist. Upon the acceptance of Escandón's plan, it was advertised in Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Charcas, Huasteca, Nuevo León and Coahuila, and very quickly attracted the intended number of colonists. Between December 25, 1748, the date of the foundation of Llera, and 1755, he founded over twenty towns or villages and a number of missions in the colony, including Santander, Soto la Marina, Güemes, Camargo, Reynosa, Mier, and Revilla south of the Rio Grande, and Laredo and Nuestra Señora de los Dolores hacienda north of the Rio Grande. Escandón is sometimes referred to as the "father of the lower Rio Grande Valley". As governor of Nuevo Santander For his firmness and energy, he was also known as the Exterminator of the Pames of Querétaro. In Nuevo Santander he was accused of murdering the Indians and taking slaves. He faced a court case where he was charged with illegally using Indian labor in his textile mills and using the port of Santander to bring in English contraband. However, in the period 1770-1775 there were more than twice as many deaths among the Indians as in the 22 years he governed. Among his enemies in the region were the Jesuits, the French and the secular clergy. He accumulated vast wealth during his stay in Querétaro, San Miguel and Nuevo Santander from the work of badly paid Indians and slaves, as well as large land grants from the viceroys. The livestock and other products of his lands, as well as what he bought from the colonists, were shipped from the port of Soto la Marina along the coast to Veracruz in a frigate he owned. He was considered one of the great statesmen of New Spain in the eighteenth century, superior to many of the viceroys. He assigned activities and crops to each settlement, stimulated irrigation and constructed roads and bridges. He built a grand mansion in Santander, capital of the colony, known as the Palace of the Count. He also built the church at Santander and a reservoir for drinking water. He brought in masons, carpenters and blacksmiths from Tacubaya and established kilns, sugar mills and flour mills. To reward him for