USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume I > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
Friar Hidalgo.
Though the missions among the Tejas were abandoned in 1693, the work of the devoted friars in that quarter was not soon forgotten, nor did the zealous Franciscans cease to project plans for the extension of Christianity among those tribes. A friar of Queretaro, Francisco Hidalgo, who had been with Manzanet among the Asinais, and in the latter years of the century was in charge of the newly established mission
San Juan Bautista.
of San Juan Bautista, between the Sabinas and Rio Grande, through all these years continued his interest in his former charges. But for a long time missionary effort was confined south of the Rio Grande. Finally becoming discouraged, Hidalgo set out alone to the Asinais and for sev- eral years labored among them, hoping that his pioneer efforts would be followed up by substantial aid from the south. Disappointed at Spain's policy of neglect of Texas, he turned to the French of Louisiana.
Commercial Aggression from Louisiana.
At the opening of the 18th century, France had gained a strong foothold at the mouth of the Mississippi, Fort Biloxi having been es- tablished and the country north and along Red river being exploited for trade with the Indians. The extension of French influence was going on rapidly and soon became a real menace to Spanish power in Mexico and in the Floridas. The French were much more enterprising and suc- cessful in the Indian trade than the Spanish, and this politico-commer- cial power of the French was at once recognized as a very dangerous
II
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
factor. In 1712 a monopoly of the Louisiana trade for a period of fif- teen years was granted to Antoine Crozat, and he proceeded with much energy to occupy the field and draw the trade of a broad territory to- ward the Mississippi. To further his commercial schemes, he tried to negotiate some sort of trade agreement with Mexico, but Spanish au- thorities at once took alarm and declared a rigorous policy of "closed door" to all foreign nations. Thus early did Spanish exclusiveness as- sert itself in the conduct of the American colonies.
But the opportunity came to the French from an unlooked for source. His missionary zeal proving stronger than his patriotism, Hidalgo had, in 17II, written a letter to the governor of Louisiana, inviting his co-operation in establishing a mission among the Asinais Indians. Here was a most excellent pretext for extending the trade among the Texas Indian tribes and at the same time coming into relations with the Spanish that might prove profitable from a commercial standpoint.
St. Denis Invades Texas.
The outcome of it all was that an expedition set out from Mobile late in 1713, its objects being stated in the passport dated September 12, 1713, as follows: "The sieur de Saint Denis is to take twenty-four men and as many Indians as necessary and with them go in search of the mission of Fray Francisco Hidalgo in response to his letter of Janu- ary 17, 17II, and there to purchase horses and cattle for the province of Louisiana." Louis Juchereau de Saint Denis, the next important char- acter in this story, was an officer from Louisiana. In 1705 he is said to have traversed the country from the Red river to the Rio Grande, and his long familiarity with the Indian tribes and knowledge of their lan- guage gave him eminent fitness for the leadership of this expedition.
.The cstensible motives of the expedition were thus two-fold, and provided he conformed his actions according to the instructions con- tained in his passport his movements could hardly be interpreted as open hostility against Spanish dominion. Arriving at Natchitoches, the party built store houses and left them under guard as a base of supplies while they set out into Spanish territory. At the village of the Asinais, where the old Spanish mission had been, they halted for six months or more. There they were able to obtain horses and cattle in great abundance, and this being the professed object of the expedition, and not having found Hidalgo and hence unable to effect the restoration of the mission, there was little reason for the continuance of the journey inland. But there was an urgent desire on the part of the Indians that their beloved padre should return to them, and an Indian chief and a party of his followers offering their services as guides to the Spanish settlements, St. Denis and his party finally set out toward the Rio Grande.
First Mention of San Antonio.
It is noteworthy that St. Denis crossed the San Antonio river at a point where an Indian village was located, and that he commented on the eligibility of the site for a settlement and presidio. This is the foun- dation of the opinion that the site of the present San Antonio was cov- ered by an Indian village before the Spanish came, though it is by no means certain that St. Denis crossed the river just at this point.
12
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
The mission and presidio of San Juan Bautista, which was the northernmost Spanish post, located about two leagues south of the Rio Grande, was then commanded by Captain Diego Ramon. Arriving there early in 1715. St. Denis presented the commander his passport with its distinct proposition for trade relations between the French and Spaniards.
The commander of the presidio received St. Denis kindly, but de- tained him till he should receive instructions from the viceroy. In the meantime the Frenchman became enamoured of the commandant's grand- daughter, whom he afterward married. This may have influenced him somewhat in the Spanish behalf, for at any rate he is afterward found acting, apparently, a double part. With complete disinterest for his French employers, he advocated the occupation of Texas and pictured the many advantages which would come to Spain through commerce and agriculture in that region. By the viceroy's orders he was sent to Mexico, where he made a deposition of all his purposes and plans in entering in this bold manner upon Spanish territory.
Captain Ramon.
With the French firmly established on the lower courses of the Mis- sissippi, aggressively reaching out for commercial if not military con- quest, and with one of the advance guards boldly penetrating Mexico and asking for favors that Spanish policy had firmly forbidden, the viceroy and his advisers felt that the need to occupy and protect the northeastern border demanded immediate action. During the summer of 1715 an expedition was organized. Domingo Ramon was appointed its captain, and St. Denis himself was given a salaried position in the company. Only a small body of regular soldiers composed the military strength of the entrada, but to guard against the recurrence of such evils as had undone the former invasions, only men of family were sent along to accompany the priests, and the actual settlers were equipped with agricultural implements and oxen. Padre Hidalgo, who joined the company, now saw his plans of many years about to reach accom- plishment. Early in 1716 the march was begun, and in April the com- pany, consisting of a total of sixty-five persons, with a great amount of baggage and live-stock, left the Rio Grande, and under guidance of St. Denis followed the "Old Presidio Road"1 northeasterly. On May 15th they encamped at some springs to which they gave the name San
"The 'old San Antonio road' for one hundred and fifty years has been the most romantic route upon the western continent. The highway between Texas and Mexico, what expeditions of war, of plunder, of savage revenge, have trav- ersed it! What heroic soldiers of liberty lost their lives upon it. What mean and brutal massacres have been done along its dusty stretches. What ghostly processions of friar and arquebusier, of sandaled Mexican soldier and tawny- painted Comanche; of broad-hatted buckskin-breeched volunteer for Texan liberty ; of gaunt emigrant, or fugitive from justice, with pistols at his belt and a Win- chester at his saddle; of Confederate gray and Union blue, seem to dance before one's eyes as he rides upon it! The romance of the road and all its tributaries is by no means finished; there is every opportunity for the adventurous to throw themselves into the midst of danger even forty miles from 'San Anton ;' and some- times the danger comes galloping, in the shape of mounted Indians into the very suburbs of San Antonio itself."-Edward King, in 1873.
I3
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
San Pedro Springs.
Pedro, and which Captain Ramon noted as a good site for a city. That valiant captain's judgment has long since been affirmed.
In June Captain Ramon arrived at the site of the abandoned mis- sion of San Francisco de los Tejas, and set to work re-establishing the mission. A new site about twelve miles away was selected, and the
Restoration of the Missions.
building of a new mission was soon under way. Serving as the religious center of several tribes, it now became San Francisco de los Neches, with Father Hidalgo in charge. Among the Asinais, nine leagues dis- tant, was founded Purisima Concepcion; and at the village of the Nacogdoches, the mission of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, while some twenty miles away was mission San Joseph. A little later two other mis- sions were established among the Adaes and Aes, nearer Red river.
Thus, as a direct result of the bold incursion of Saint Denis, which was in itself but a part of the energetic movement of the French to occupy Louisiana and extend the limits of New France deep into the western wilderness, the Spaniards, in the year 1716, established a group of mis- sions and military garrisons on the borders of east Texas where for more than a century the French and later the Americans were to con- tend with the Spanish in a vain endeavor to maintain a boundary be- tween two opposed types of civilization. "The real significance of the expedition (of St. Denis) is that it determined the ownership of Texas. The Spanish established, by fact of actual possession, their title to the lands east of the Rio Grande. The entrada of Captain Ramon was fol- lowed by others till a line of missions and presidios was established ex- tending from the lands of the Aes and Adaes to the Rio Grande; and the western limit of Louisiana was fixed at the Sabine. But for the menace of St. Denis' presence to arouse the slow and indifferent Mexi- can government to action, it is probable that the movement to occupy Texas would not have come till much later."1
Mission and Presidio.
The three instruments by which Spain endeavored to hold Texas were the mission, the presidio, and the pueblo. One of the chief objects sought with more or less sincerity in Spanish colonization in America was the Christianizing of the Indians, and the mission worked to this end. The principal figures of the mission were the priests, who en- deavored to instruct the natives in the arts of civilization and the Chris- tian religion. They also tried to induce the Indians to dwell in central communities or villages and depend for existence upon the settled pur- suits of agriculture instead of roving from place to place, which always proved the most embarrassing quality of the Indian character. This settlement of the Indians was known as the pueblo, and both pueblo and mission were composite parts of the general scheme. In addition there was the presidio, or fortified stronghold garrisoned with soldiers, which was especially necessary when the attempt was made to plant the colony
1 R. C. Clark, Texas Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. VI.
I4
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
in a hostile country. Such a military post was usually placed within convenient distance of a group of several missions.
It will be seen that this plan of colonization involved considering the natives as factors and co-operators in the scheme, and the holding of the Indians in such social and administrative restrictions as would form a mixed community of white and of red men. History has shown that this was an impracticable and idealistic undertaking, and proved the weakness of both French and Spanish civilization in America. On the other hand, the English disregarded the red men altogether, and did not admit them into their scheme of society at all; put the red man on the same plane with the beasts of the forest, took his land by treaty or force, and by their own courage and hardihood and colonial enterprise founded a society strong both within and without, and able, after estab- lishing its own boundaries, to push out and permanently conquer the western wilds.
In addition to this vital defect in her plan of Texan occupation. Spain, partly from European wars and consequent weakness at home and abroad, lacked the enterprise necessary to push out into the country northeast of her Mexican empire, and the few attempts she did make during the eighteenth century were so feeble and disjointed from any definite purposes of colonization that they were almost fruitless in re- sults.
CHAPTER IV. SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR, OUTPOST OF THE SPANISH FRONTIER AND CENTER OF MISSIONS.
That the headwaters of the San Antonio river, especially San Pedro springs, were a favorable site for settlement and a military post, was remarked by St. Denis and Captain Ramon. Even before them, the friars had indicated the spot as a proper location for missions. The mis- sionaries were the first to occupy the place, so that in the matter of priority of settlement the church must be given precedence over the military.
For some time the friars had been asking for the establishment of a mission in the territory between the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers, and in 1716 the matter was brought before the viceroy, with the advice that a mission that Padre Olivares had planned to establish on the banks of the San Antonio river was, by all means, to be founded since it could be used to prevent invasion through Bahia del Espiritu Santo, and as a connecting link between this bay, when settled, and the country of the Texas. In pursuance of this advice orders were issued for the establish- ment of one or more missions between the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers. Instructions were given that in locating these missions and the Indian settlements connected with them, space should be left for the founding of two cities or villas which, as time passed, would be needed as capitals of the province.
In May, 1718, Father Fray Antonio de Buenaventura y Olivares, in pursuance of the viceroy's orders, removed "the Xumanes Indians and everything belonging to the Mission of San Francisco Solano," on the Rio Grande, to the San Antonio river, where he founded the Mission of San Antonio de Valero. The mission was located on the right bank of the San Pedro, about three quarters of a mile from the present cathedral of San Fernando. There it remained until 1722, when it was removed, with the presidio, to Military Plaza.1
Here was the mission of San Antonio established on the site that has since become the city of San Antonio. Next came the military garrison and civil settlement. And for a description of this we turn to an ancient chronicle, the Compendium of the History of Texas, written
1This mission had experienced various removals. According to the old church records it was established in 1703 on the banks of the Rio Grande under the title of Mission of San Francisco Solano. It was transferred to the neighborhood of San Yldefonso in 1712. Thence it was moved to San Jose on the Rio Grande in 1713, and finally transported to the San Antonio river. At its new location it was renamed in honor of its patron saint, St. Anthony, and the viceroy, Marquis de Valero.
15
16
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
by Bonilla in 1772:1 "The missionaries kept anxiously begging for San Denis, with a view to the subjection of the Indians, and clamoring for a reinforcement of people helpful in promoting their stability. But his excellency, the Marques de Valero, gave the appointment of governor of Coaguila and Texas to Don Martin de Alarcon of the order of Santiago, with a salary of two thousand and five hundred pesos a year." Alarcon was a soldier of fortune, yet high in favor with the government. His- achievements in Texas hardly justified his previous official record.
"This new governor," continues annalist Bonilla, "was under orders to carry fifty married soldiers, three master-carpenters, a blacksmith, and a stone-mason, to teach the Indians and put the settlement on a firm basis, each one, like the soldiers, drawing a yearly salary of four hundred pesos. These measures were approved in royal cédula of the 11th of June, 1718.
"A year's salary was advanced to Alarcon, and at the beginning of 1718 he entered the province of Texas. But, although he founded the presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, the missionary fathers at once made complaint that he had not brought the master mechanics, or filled out the number of the [fifty] soldiers, and [that] those [he did bring were] idle fellows, and very hurtful, on account of belonging, for the greater part, to the most corrupt and worthless classes in all Nueva España ; and, finally, that his irregular measures endangered success in the reduction of the heathen."
The settlement, of about thirty families, the presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, both founded by Alarcon, and the mission of San Antonio de Valero which had been founded just before by Padre Olivares, were placed near together. 2"Hitherto the Texas country had been the ob- jective point of occupation. Now, Bexar, which was to become the final rallying point of the Spaniards, begins to rise into view ; while the eastern frontier becomes a secondary consideration, and finally relatively unim- portant. Bexar was at first founded to prevent invasion through Bahia. while later the settlement at Bahia (Goliad) was kept up as a means of protecting the more important stronghold on the San Antonio river."
Returning to the quaint commentary of Bonilla, we read: "War having broken out between Spain and France during the regency of the Duque de Orleans, the French invaded the presidio of Panzacola, on the 19th of May, 1719; and on the same day in the month of June following Don Luis de San Denis took the opportunity to relieve his outraged feelings, by attacking, with the aid of the Indians of the north, the mis- sions of los Adaes and Texas and compelling their inhabitants to retreat post-haste to the presidio of San Antonio de Vexar."
This French invasion had the usual effect of stirring the Spaniards to fervid activity. Alarcon having in the meantime resigned, the gov-
1 As translated by Elizabeth Howard West, in Texas Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. VIII.
*It was said that the only thing Alarcon accomplished was to bring a com- pany of soldiers with their families to the banks of the San Antonio river, where the mission had already been founded, in which work the missionaries had already incurred great danger and many hardships.
2Mattie Alice Austin, on the Municipal Government of San Fernando de Bexar, in Texas Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. VIII.
I7
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
ernment of Texas and defense of its borders was intrusted to Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo, who started on his march to Texas in the year 1720 "with five hundred dragoons which he had levied at his own cost, and two companies of cavalry, paying all expenses occasioned by this expedition. He came without opposition to the Adaes country, as the French had retreated to their posts of Candodachos and Nachitoches, and the general convocation of the Indians which San Denis had as- sembled, had disappeared.
"The king, being notified that this expedition had been prepared, ordered that when the Province of Texas was once recovered, steps should be taken to fortify it, and that war should not be waged against the French. Accordingly, all acts of hostility were suspended.
"The Marques de Aguayo re-established the old missions, founded the rest which are now in existence, and the presidios of Nuestra Señora clel Pilar de los Adaes, Loreto, or Bahia del Espiritu Santo, on the same site where Roberto Cavalier de la Sala had put his fort, and that of los Dolores, which today is the site of the abandoned Orcoquisac; he found a better site for San Antonio de Vexar, locating it between the rivers San Antonio and San Pedro; and finally, left the province garrisoned with two hundred and seventy-eight soldiers, a hundred at los Adaes, ninety at la Bahia, twenty-five at los Dolores, and fifty-three at San Antonio, taking eighteen months for the expedition."
Mission San Jose.
Aguayo gave San Antonio another mission. Mission San Jose de Aguayo, the most beautiful of all the missions, even in its present ruined condition, was "erected" (that is, was authorized) in 1720; being de- nominated "de Aguayo" in honor of the governor who came to the prov- ince that year. It was the first of the missions to be finished, on March 5, 1831 ; on the same day the three other missions south of the city were begun.
"When the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo retired from the Province of Texas, in 1722, his lieutenant general, Don Fernando Peres de Almazan, stayed as governor. In the time of the former the attacks of the common and the most perfidious enemy of the Internal Provinces, the Apache tribe, had begun to be experienced; afterward they were so often repeated and so cruel that they compelled the governor to ask for permission to wage a vigorous war against the tribe if they did not consummate the peace which they had promised."
Meanwhile the padres prosecuted their labors under many disad- vantages. Their requests for a larger number of actual settlers, whose example would be beneficial to their protéges, met no response. In fact, when, in 1727, Rivera made a general inspection of the province, "he reduced the garrison of los Adaes to sixty troops, that of la Bahia del Espiritu Santo to forty, and that of San Antonio de Vexar to forty- three; and he suppressed (reformando) that of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores ; so that the strength of these companies, which had consisted of two hundred and sixty-eight men, remained, as a result of this revista, one hundred and forty-three. Even this number of troops seemed to Vol. I. ?
18
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
him too large, for he states in his plan that the soldiers would live in tranquility, without being discommoded by the hardships of the service."
The missions in northeast Texas were found to be without warrant for existence, so few were their Indian converts. Three of these mis- sions, under the Queretaran friars, have special interest to this narrative. "Next to the Presidio of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, he inspected the establishment of the missions of Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion de los Asinais, San Francisco de los Neches, San Josef de los Nazones; all without Indians, and the missionaries with little hopes of collecting them. These missions, however, were afterward removed to the vicinity of San Antonio de Vexar."
The Missions.
This removal, which was effected about 1730, brought to the capital city of the province the three remaining missions whose ruins still form such picturesque features of San Antonio. Mission of Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion Purisimma de Acuna was transferred to a point south of the presidio and became the "first mission" as it is now known (that name referring to its position, not to the date of its building). The foundation stone of this mission was laid, as above stated, March 5, 1731, the same day on which San Jose was completed. The building required twenty-one years, being completed in 1752. Mission San Josef de los Nazones, when transferred to San Antonio, was re-dedicated as San Juan de Capistrano. San Francisco de los Neches became San Francisco de la Espada. The actual work of construction of each of these began in March, 1731.
San Fernando Villa.
The present city of San Antonio may be considered a whole body, with, of course, many factors combining to make it a body politic and social. One could not now consider the religious institutions in a group apart from the city; a comprehensive view of San Antonio would em- brace the churches as prominent features of the city. And the same is true of all institutions, social groups, and commercial or other interests located anywhere in the municipal limits of San Antonio.
But to understand the early history of the city, it is necessary to ' have a clear `conception of the three distinct and co-ordinate elements maintaining existence side by side on the site of the present city, and from the aggregate of which San Antonio is descended. These were, first, the Mission San Antonio de Valero, a religious establishment with priests, attendant laborers, and converted Indians; second, the presidio, or garrison of soldiers, whose primary object was to uphold the Spanish authority in the land, at the same time furnishing protection to the mis- sions; and third, the villa, or settlement, an organization separate from both the other two, and whose local governing officers were responsible only to the governor of the province or his superiors. Here, then, were three independent institutions-military, political and ecclesiastical-each one containing sufficient social and industrial elements to serve as the nucleus of a civic community ; yet not one preserved its identity, and it is from the union of them all that San Antonio city has been evolved.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.