Many of the complained of mistreatment by the Spanish and were settled in land grants on the periphery of Spanish settlements in accord with a policy established by the Governors of New Mexico. These settlements became buffer communities for larger Spanish towns in the event of attack by enemy tribes surrounding the province. The in the frontier communities become mediators between the often-hostile Indian tribes surrounding the Spanish settlements and the Spanish authorities. The following description from the 1740s of the Tome-Valencia settlements by a Spanish religious official, Fray Menchero, describes and their settlement on land grants: