USA > Texas > Bexar County > San Antonio > San Antonio de Bexar; a guide and history > Part 11
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
It was in the course of this litigation-a copy of the proceedings in which, "filling thirty volumes of manuscript," was transmitted to Spain-that the old doc- ument hereinbefore referred to as the testimonio de un Parecer had its origin. In this paper San Antonio is called San Antonio de Vejar o Valero: Vejar being the Spanish orthography of the Mexican Bexar (pronounced Váy-har.) This name San Antonio de Bexar, seems to have attached itself particularly to the military post, or presidio; its origin is not known. The town of San Fernando was still so called at this time; and the town and mission of San Antonio de Valero bore that name. In 1744 this latter extended itself to the eastward, or rather the extension had probably gone on before that time and was only evidenced then. At any rate,
75
SIDNEY LANIER'S HISTORICAL SKETCH.
on the 8th of May, 1744, the first stone of the present Church of the Alamo was laid and blessed. The site of this church is nearly a quarter of a mile to the east- ward of the Military plaza, where the mission to which it belonged had been located in 1722. Prom an old record-book purporting to contain the baptisms in "the Parish of the Pueblo of San Jose del Alamo," it would seem that there must have been also a settlement of that name. San Antonio de Bexar, therefore- the modern city-seems to be a consolidation of the presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, the mission and pueblo (or villa) of San Antonio de Valero, and the pueblos of San Fernando and San José del Alamo.
For the next forty years after the foundation of the Alamo in 1744, the colonists and missionaries seemed to have pursued the ordinary round of their labors without unusual events; in point of material prosperity San Antonio seems to have led but a struggling existence. Yoakum * estimates the whole European population of of Texas in 1744, to have been fifteen hundred, which, together with about the same number of converted Indians, "was divided mostly between Adaes and San Antonio." The same author again ; estimates the population of Adaes and San Antonio in 1765 to have been "hardly five hundred" Europeans, besides converted Indians, of whom he adds that there were only about seven hundred and fifty in the whole province of Texas. It was impossible indeed during these years that any legitimate prosperty could have been attained. Up to the year 1762, when France, to save Louisiana from the clutches of England, ceded it to Spain, trade had been prohibited by the latter between her Texan colonists and the French settlers in Louisiana, though some intercourse always went on in a smuggling way between the two, whenever they could get a Spanish official to wink his eye or turn his back; and even after the cession of Louisiana matters were little better in point of com- mercial activity. There were also restrictions even upon the agricultural energies of the colonists; they were, it is said, prohibited from cultivating the vine and the olive, and also from the manufacture of many articles. Indeed, the immediate nec- essity of settlements having passed away with the removal of the danger of French occupation, the old policy of Spain seems to have been resumed in full force, that of keeping her provinces around New Mexico and Mexico impenetrable wastes, as barriers against enterprising neighbors.
Nor was the spiritual prosperity much greater. The arduous toils and sublime devotions of the Franciscan brethren bore but moderate fruit. Father Marest had declared in 1712 that the conversion of the Indians was "a miracle of the Lord's mercy," and that it was "necessary first to transform them into men, and afterward to labor to make them Christians." These noble brothers too had reason to believe in the inhumanity of the Indians. They could remember the San Saba Mission; where, in 1758, the Indians had fallen upon the people and massacred every human being, lay and clerical; and here, in 1785, they could see for themselves the company of San Carlos de Parras driven by the fierce Comanches to place their quarters within the enclosure of the Alamo.
In 1783-85 San Antonio de Valero ceased to be a Mission. For some reason it had become customary to send whatever captive Indians were brought in to the
* History of Texas, vol. 1, p. 87.
+ Vol. 1, p. 97.
76
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
Missions below the town for Christianization. The town, however, which had been built up about the Mission buildings, remained, having a separate alcalde, and an organization politically and religiously distinct from that of San Antonio de Bexar and San Fernando for some years longer. In 1790 the population around the Alamo was increased by the addition of the people from the Presidio de los Adaes ; this post was abandoned, and its inhabitants were provided with lands which had been the property of the Mission of San Antonio de Valero, lying in the neighborhood of the Alamo to the north. "The upper labor* of the Alamo," says Mr. Giraud, in an interesting note which constitutes Appendix IV. of Yoakum's History of Texas, " is still commonly called by the old inhabitants the
labor de los Adaesenos." These Mission lands about the Alamo seem to have ceased to be such about this time, and to have been divided off to the Mission people, each of whom received a portion, with fee-simple title .; In 1793 the distinct religious
* Labor: a Spanish land-measure of about one hundred and seventy-seven acres.
H[THE PARTITION OF THE LANDS OF THE MISSION OF SAN ANTONIO DE VALERO OR ALAMO MISSION TO THE SETTLERS OF THE EXTINGUISHED POST OR PRESIDIO OF ADAES WHO HAD BEEN BROUGHT TO THIS MISSION UPON THE BREAKING UP OF THAT POST.
The Presidio of the Adaes was a Spanish frontier Post of Eastern Texas. Its site was alinost due east from Nacogdoches between the Sabine and Red Rivers, in Louisiana Territory. It was abandoned and broken up about 1790. It had been of some importance in its day. Upon its extinction its settlers were brought to San Antonio de Valero. It would appear that the Spanish Government, about the year 1784, were a little dissatisfied with results in the Province of Texas, and became curious or anxious to know something of the general welfare and condition of the Missions of Texas, and an order was issued under the mandate of the King for an official report of the Texas Missions. This report was not concluded and forwarded until December 27th, 1793, when it was done by El Conde de Revilla-gigedo, Viceroy of Mexico. He instituted some changes, apparently sug- gested to him by his enquiries and by petitions sent to him by certain resident Adaes. San Antonio de Valero was now no longer a Mission, but of course it enters into his report. The following is a letter from a tran- slated copy deposited in the City Engineer's Records in 1858, apparently addressed to Manuel Munioz, Pro- visional Governor, in 1792 :
" I return you the enclosed proceedings marked P. Y. number 21, pages 19, which you sent me with your letters marked 394, dated the 29th of last October, and in which the residents of San Antonio de Bexar petition for the distribution amongst them of lands in consideration of their having been the settlers of the extinguished Presidio of the Adaes, so that in conformity with the opinion of the War Auditor with which I have agreed in a superior decree of the 17th, present, (month) you shall order its compliance. God keep you many years.
" Mexico, November the 20th, 1792.
" The Count of Revilla-gigedo,
"S. Dn. RAMON DE CASTRO, Secretary.
" (A copy. Coahuila, 27th December, 1792. Castro.) "
(Translated by A. A. Lewis, October 2d. 1858.)
The document translation from which this is an excerpt, is headed : "Copy of Proceedings sent to the Commander General on July 27th, 1793, respecting the Partition of lands to the Adaes and returned by that Superiority to the Government so that the interested parties have it more in their reach to apply for testimonios that may serve them as titles.
" M. MUNIOZ,
" Lieut. Col. of Cavalry of the Royal Armies of His Majesty, Political and Military Governor of the Province of " Texas and New Philippines."
So, it seems, that these Adaes might be fittingly provided for, the Count issued an order to Manuel Munioz to divide amongst them the Alamo Mission lands. Accordingly Don Pedro Huizar is ordered to survey the suertes and Bernardo Zervantes is appointed to divide the lands among the Indians and settlers, January 17th, 1793. A drawing or lottery was to be held to decide who should have first choice of the suertes surveyed, each individual to be granted by lot a piece of land, as much as 4 pecks of seed corn will cover, and they are all cautioned to be satisfied with what falls to their lot or luck, whether they draw land bordering the irrigating ditches or merely ordinary pasture land. "On February 24th, 1793, the following named Adae Indians received their portions of land," then follows in the records of the County a list of names, viz :
" No. 1. Suerte a Manuel Martinez.
" No. 2. Suerte a Jose Rodriguez.
" No. 3. Suerte a Manuel de los Santos.
" No. 4. Suerte á Joachin Musquiz, etc., etc. 56 Grants altogether."
The only condition under which these Indians seem to have held their lands, was that they were to pay a Church debt out of a part of the crops and produce of their lands. At this date, Father Francisco José Lopez was President of the Missions .- W. C., ED.]
MEM. The Labor of Abajo to pay with its products the debts that the Mission might have at the time of its delivery over to the public.
MEM. Ramon de Castro was Count of Sierra Gorda .- W. C., ED.
77
SIDNEY LANIER'S HISTORICAL SKETCH.
organization of the Mission of San Antonio de Valero terminated, and it was aggregated to the curacy of the town of San Fernando and the presidio of San Antonio de Bexar ; as appears by the following note which is found on the last page of an old Record book of baptisms in the archives of Bexar :---
"On the 22d day of August, 1793, I passed this book of the Records of the pueblo of San Antonio de Valero to the archives of the curacy of the town of San Fernando and presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, by order of the most illustrious Señor Dr. Don Andres de Llanos y Valdez, most worthy Bishop of this diocese, dated January 2d, of the same year, by reason of said pueblo having been aggre- gated to the curacy of Bexar ; and that it may be known, I sign it.
"FR. JOSÉ FRANCISCO LOPEZ, Parroco."
In the year 1800 San Antonio began to see a new sort of prisoners brought in. Instead of captive Indians, here arrived a party of eleven Americans* in irons, who were the remainder of a company with which Philip Nolan, a trader between Natchez and San Antonio, had started out, and who, after a sharp fight with one hundred and fifty Spanish soldiers in which Nolan was killed, had been first induced to return to Nacogdoches, and there treacherously manacled and sent to prison at San Antonio. Again, in 1805, three Americans are brought in under guard. In this year, too, matters begin to be a little more lively in the town. Spain's neighbor on the east is not now France ; for in 1803 Louisiana has been formally transferred to the United States. There is already trouble with the latter about the boundary line betwixt Louisiana and Texas. Don Antonio Cordero, the new Governor of Texas, has brought on a lot of troops through the town, and fixed his official residence here ; and troops continue to march through en route to Natchitoches, where the American General Wilkinson is, menacing the border. Again, in 1807, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, of the United States Army, passes through town in charge of an escort. Lieutenant Pike has been sent to explore the Arkansas and Red Rivers, and to treat with the Comanches, has been apprehended by the Spanish authorities in New Mexico, carried to Santa Fé, and is now being escorted home.
At this time there are four hundred troops in San Antonio, in quarters near the Alamo. Besides these, the town has about two thousand inhabitants, mostly Spaniards and Creoles, the remainder Frenchmen, Americans, civilized Indians, and half-breeds. New settlers have come in; and what with army officers, the Governor's people, the clergy, and prominent citizens, society begins to form and to enjoy itself. The Governor, Father McGuire, Colonel Delgado, Captain Ugarte, Doctor Zerbin, dispense hospitalities and adorn social meetings. There are, in the evenings, levees at the Governor's ; sometimes Mexican dances on the Plaza, at which all assist ; and frequent and prolonged card parties.
But these peaceful scenes do not last long. In 1811 the passers across the San Antonio river between the Alamo and the Main Plaza behold a strange sight: it is the head of a man stuck on a pole, there, in bloody menace against rebels. This head but yesterday was on the shoulders of Colonel Delgado, a flying adherent of Hidalgo, in Mexico: Hidalgo, initiator of how long a train of Mexican revolutions!
* Americans, i. e. United States people ; in which sense, to avoid the awkwardness of the only other equiv . alent terms, I shall hereafter use the word.
78
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
having been also put to death in Chihuahua. It was not long before this blood was (as from of old) washed out with other blood. Bernardo Gutierrez, a fellow-rebel of the unfortunate Delgado, escaped to Natchitoches, and met young Magee, an officer of the United States army. In a short time the two had assembled a mixed force of American adventurers and rebellious Mexican republicans, had driven the Spanish troops from Nacogdoches, marched into Texas, captured the fort and sup- plies at La Bahia, enlisted its garrison, and sustained a siege there which the enemy was finally compelled to abandon with loss. It was in March, 1813, that the Spanish besieging force set out on its retreat up the river to San Antonio. Gutier- rez-Magee having committed suicide in consequence of mortification at the indignant refusal of the troops to accept å surrender which he had negotiated soon after the beginning of the siege-determined to pursue. On the 28th of March he crossed the Salado, en route to San Antonio, with a force consisting of eight hundred Americans under Colonel Kemper, one hundred and eighty Mexicans led by Man- chaca,* under Colonel James Gaines, three hundred Lipan and Twowokana Indians, and twenty-five Cooshattie Indians. Marching along the bank of the San Antonio river, with the left flank protected by the stream, this motley army arrived within nine miles of San Antonio, when the riflemen on the right suddenly discovered the enemy ambushed in the chaparral on the side of a ridge. Here the whole force that Governor Salcedo could muster had been posted, consisting of about fifteen hundred regular troops and a thousand militia. To gain time to form, the Indians were ranged to receive the opening charge of the Spanish cavalry; the enemy mean- time having immediately formed along the crest of the ridge, with twelve pieces of artillery in the centre. The Indians broke at the first shock; only the Cooshatties and a few others stood their ground. These received two other charges, in which they lost two killed and several wounded. The Americans had now made their dispositions, and proceeded to execute them with matchless coolness. They charged up the hill, stopped at thirty yards of the enemy's line, fired three rounds, loaded, then charged again, and straighway the slope towards San Antonio was dotted with Spanish fugitives, whom the Indians pursued and butchered regardless of quarter. The Spanish commander, who had pledged sword and head to Governor Salcedo that he would kill and capture the American army, could not endure the sting of his misfortune. He spurred his horse upon the American ranks, attacked Major Ross, then Colonel Kemper, and while in the act of striking the latter, was shot by private William Owen. The Spanish loss is said to have been near a thousand killed and wounded.
Next day the Americans advanced to the outskirts of San Antonio and de- manded a surrender. Governor Salcedo desired to parley, to delay. A second demand was made-peremptory. Governor Salcedo then marched out with his staff. He presented his sword to Captain Taylor ; Taylor refused, and referred him to Colonel Kemper. Presenting to Colonel Kemper, he was in turn referred to Gutierrez. No, not to that rebel ! Salcedo thrust his sword into the ground, whence Gutierrez drew it. The victors got stores, arms, and treasure. Seven- teen American prisoners in the Alamo were released and armed. The troops were paid-receiving a bonus of fifteen dollars each in addition to wages-clothed
* A prominent Mexican, of Texas, of strong but uncultivated intellect.
79
SIDNEY LANIER'S HISTORICAL SKETCH.
and mounted out of the booty. The Indians were not forgotten in the distribu- tion ; they "were supplied," says Yoakum, "with two dollars' worth of ver- milion, together with presents of the value of a hundred and thirty dollars, and sent away rejoicing."
And now flowed the blood that must answer that which dripped down the pole from poor Colonel Delgado's head. Shortly after the victory, Captain Del- gado, a son of the executed rebel, falls upon his knees before Gutierrez, and de- mands vengence upon the prisoner, Governor Salcedo, who apprehended and executed his father. Gutierrez arrays his army, informs them that it would be safe to send Salcedo and staff to New Orleans, and that it so happens that ves- sels are about to sail for that port from Matagorda Bay. The army consents (we are so fearfully and wonderfully republican in these days : the army consents) that the prisoners be sent off as proposed. Captain Delgado, with a company of Mexicans, starts in charge, ostensibly en route for Matagorda Bay. There are fifteen of the distinguished captives : Governor Salcedo, of Texas, Governor Herrera, of New Leon, Ex-Governor Cordero, whom we last saw holding levees in San Antonio, several Spanish and Mexican officers, and one citizen. Delgado gets his prisoners a mile and a half from town, halts them on the bank of the river, strips them, ties them, and cuts the throats of every man : "some of the assassins," says Colonel Navarro, whetting "their knives upon the soles of their shoes in presence of their victims."
The town of San Antonio must have been anything but a pleasant place for peaceful citizens during the next two months. Colonel Kemper, who was really the commanding officer of the American army, refused further connection with those who could be guilty of such barbarity, and left, with other American officers. Their departure left in the town an uncontrolled body of troops who feared neither God nor man ; and these immediately proceeded to avail themselves of the situation by indulging in all manner of riotous and lawless pleasures. With the month of June, however, came Don Elisondo from Mexico with an army of royalists, consisting of about three thousand men half of whom were regular troops. His advance upon San Antonio seems to have been a complete surprise, and to have been only learned by the undisciplined republican army in the town, together with the fact that he had captured their horses, which had been out grazing, and killed part of the guard which was protecting the caballada. If El- isondo had marched straight on into town, his task would probably have been an easy one. But he committed the fatal mistake of encamping a short distance from the suburbs, where he threw up two bastions with a curtain between, on a ridge near the Alazan Creek.
Meantime the republican army in the town recovered from the confusion into which they had been thrown by the first intelligence of Elisondo's proximity, and organized themselves under Gutierrez and Captain Perry. It was determined to anticipate the enemy's attack. Ingress and egress were prohibited, the senti- nels doubled, and all the cannons spiked except four field-pieces. In the darkness of the night of June 4th the Americans marched quietly out of town, by file, to within hearing of the enemy's pickets, and remained there until the enemy was heard at matins, The signal to charge being given-a cheer from the right of
80
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
companies-the Americans advanced, surprised and captured the pickets in front, mounted the enemy's work, lowered his flag and hoisted their own, before they were fairly discovered through the dim dawn. The enemy struggled hard, how- ever, and compelled the Americans to abandon the works. The latter charged again, and this time routed the enemy completely. The royalist loss is said to have been about a thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners; and that of the Americans, ninety-four killed and mortally wounded.
For some reason Gutierrez was now dismissed from the leadership of the army (we republican soldiers decapitate our commanders very quickly if they please us not !), and shortly afterwards troops and citizens went forth in grand procession to welcome Don José Alvarez Toledo, a distinguished republican Cuban who had been forwarding recruits from Louisiana to San Antonio ; and having escorted him into town with much ceremony, elected him commander-in- chief of the Republican Army of the North. Toledo immediately organised a government ; but the people of San Antonio enjoyed the unaccustomed blessing of civil law only a little while.
In a few days enter, from over the Mexican border, Gen. Arredondo, with the remnant of Elisondo's men and some fresh troops, about four thousand in all, en route for San Antonio. Toledo marches out to meet him with about twenty- five hundred men, one-third of whom are Americans, the balance Mexicans under Manchaca ; and on the 18th of August, 1813, they come together. Arredondo decoys him into an ingenious cul de sac which he has thrown up, just south of the Medina River, and has concealed by cut bushes ; and pours such a murderous fire of cannon and small arms upon him, that in spite of the gallantry of the right wing where the Americans are, the retreat which Toledo has ordered too late becomes a mere rout, and the republican army is butchered without mercy. One batch of seventy or eighty fugitives is captured by the pursuing royalists, tied, set by tens upon a log laid across a great grave, and shot !
On the 20th Arredondo enters San Antonio in great triumph, and straight- way proceeds to wreak fearful vengeance upon the unhappy town for the massacre of his brother governors. Seven hundred citizens are thrown into prison. Dur- ing the night of the 20th eighteen die of suffocation out of three hundred who are confined in one house. These only anticipate the remainder, who are shot, with- out trial, in detachments. Five hundred republican women are imprisoned in a building, derisively termed the 'Quinta, and compelled to make up twenty-four bushels of corn into tortillas every day for the royalist army. Having thus sent up a sweet savor of revenge to the spirits of the murdered Salcedo, Cordero, Herrera, and the others, Arredondo finally gathers their bones together and buries them. In all this blood the prosperity of San Antonio was drowned. To settlers it offered no inducements ; to most of its former citizens it held out noth- ing but terror ; and it is described as almost entirely abandoned in 1816.
In December, 1820, arrived a person in San Antonio who, though not then known as such, was really a harbinger of better times. This was Moses Austin, of Connecticut. He came to see Governor Martinez, with a view of bringing a colony to Texas. The two. with the Baron de Bastrop, put in train the prelimi- nary application for permission to Arredondo, Commandant-General at Monterey.
REEVE MARY QF THỊ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
David Crockett
5. 4. Austin. Il Baronde Reppenday 1776
{ mi Cabelloz 1786
Gaspar Hores & 1823
Pedro flores 1791
HBI
Manuel Hun 1823
Nem Delgado p Jeran das no Seque 1476
1836.
Die's Hond Minharan
El Baron & Bastrop
1745
Manuel de Arriba
1776.
James Bowie
I'm danston
R. Bowie
Bergen R Milan
Ant. Lopez aa
Juan Martin &
anta tima
Berameny
FAC-SIMILES OF SIGNATURES OF HISTORICAL PERSONAGES.
.
81
SIDNEY LANIER'S HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Austin, it is true, died soon afterwards ; but he left his project to his son Stephen F., who afterwards carried it out with a patience that amounted to genius and a fortitude that was equivalent to the favor of Heaven.
On the 24th of August, 1821, Don Juan O'Donojú and Yturbide entered into the Treaty of Córdova, which substantially perfected the separation of Mexico from the mother-country. When the intelligence of this event had spread, the citizens of San Antonio returned. Moreover, about this time a tide of emigra- tion began to set towards Texas. The Americans who had composed part of the army of Gutierrez had circulated fair reports of the country. In 1823 San Antonio is said to have had five thousand inhabitants ; though the Comanches appear still to have had matters all their own way when they came into town, as they frequently did, to buy beads and other articles with skins of deer and buffalo. One would find this difficult to believe, but reasoning a priori, it is rendered probable by the fact that in the decree of the the Federal Congress of Mexico of the 24th of August, 1826, to provide for raising troops to serve in Coahuila and Texas as frontier defenders, it is ordered that out of the gross levies there shall be first preferred for military service " los vagos y mal entretenidos," vagrant and evil-disposed persons ; and a posteriori, it is quite confirmed by the experience of Olmsted in San Fernando (a considerable town west of the Rio Grande) so late as 1854, where he found the Indians "lounging in and out of every house .... with such an air as indicated they were masters of the town. They entered every door," adds Olmsted, " fell on every neck, patted the women on the check, helped themselves to whatever suited their fancy, and dis- tributed their scowls or grunts of pleasure according to their sensations."
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.