THE FOUNDING OF MISSION ROSARIO: A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE GULF COAST. BY HERBERT E. BOLTON, Ph. D. Adjunct Professor of HisTory, the University of Texas. Reprinted from the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. X,-No. 2 (October, 1906). AUSTIN, TEXAS. m77 Reprinted from the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. X, No. 2 (October, 1906). THE FOUNDING OF MISSION EOSARIO : A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE GULF COAST.^ HERBERT E. BOLTON. This sketch of the founding of Mission Nuestra Seiiora del Rosario for the Karankawan Indian tribes of the Texas coast coun- try was written as a by-product, so-to-speak, of a more extended task. It aims merely to set forth the general conditions in northern New Spain that led to a renewed attempt, after one failure, to sub- due these tribes, and to a plan to colonize their territory and that along the coast to the southwest ; to tell the story of the struggles, delays, and difficulties that attended the foundation of the mis- sion that was established as one of the agencies in their reduction; and to convey an idea of the kind and degree of success that at- tended the first few years of its existence. If the historical im- ) portance of the founding of this mission were measured by the magnitude of the establishment or its success as a spiritual under- ^Upon the main subject of this paper there is nothing known to the writer in print, consequently he has had no guide for even the barest out- lines of the narrative. The materials used in its preparation are almost entirely manuscript records in the Archivo General de M6xico and in the Bexar Archives. Unless otherwise indicated, the correspondence cited is contained in a collection of manuscripts in the Archivo General (Secci6n de Historia, volume 287) entitled Autos fhos. apedimento. . . . [de] Frai Benitto de Santa An [a] . . . que se le manden restitu [ir a la Mision de] 8n. Antonio que es a cargo de la 8ta. Cruz de Querettaro los [con] hersos Indios de In Nacion [Cujan] que se kalian agregados d [la mision] de Santa Dorothea. 1751-1758. Original. Folios 108. r 114 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. taking, it would, indeed, be small. But such is not the case, for the project of a Karankawan mission was an index of plans affecting an entire geographical region, and the story of its foundation reveals the motives underlying these plans and the conditions attending their execution. It is but fair to state that the circumstances of the preparation of the sketch have made necessarily brief the treat- ment of these broader considerations, and have determined its em- phasis upon the Spanish relations with the coast tribes and the inner history of the mission. 1. The Karankawan Trihes About Matagorda Bay. When at the close of the seventeeth century the French and the Spaniards first attempted to occupy the Gulf coast in the neighbor- hood of Matagorda Ba}^, that region was the home of a group of native tribes now called Karankawan from their best known divi- sion. The principal tribes of this group, using the most common Spanish forms of the names, were the Cu janes, Carancaguases, Guapites (or Coapites), Cocos, and Copanes. They were closely interrelated, and all apparently spoke dialects of the same language, which was different from that of their neighbors farther inland.^ Though the Carancaguas tribe has finally given its name to the group, it was not always the one best known to the Europeans or regarded by them as the leading one, for in the middle of the 18th century four of the tribes, at least, including the Carancaguas, were frequently considered collectively under the name Cujanes.^ As these Indians did not occupy fixed localities, and as they , mingled freely with each other, it is difficult to assign definite V territorial limits to the different tribes; and yet in a general way ^The relation above asserted between these four tribes has not hitherto been established by ethnologists, nor do the scope and purpose of this article justify inserting here the evidence to prove it. Such evidence is not lacking, however, and will be published, it is hoped, in another place. The only essay in print on the Karankawan Indians is that by Dr. Gatschet, The Karankawa Indians, in Archwlogical and Ethnological Papers of the Peahody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. I, No. 2, 1891.) Recent work in the Mexican and the Texas archives has made accessible a great deal of material unused by him. ^Captain Manuel Eamlrez de la Piszina, of Bahia del Esplritu Santo, calls them "the four nations, who, under the name of Coxanes, have been reduced. They are the Co janes, Guapittes, Carancaguases, and Copanes" (Letter to the viceroy, Dec. 26, 1751). This is only one of several in- stances of this usage of the word Cujanes that might be cited. The Founding of Mission Rosario. 115 the characteristic habitat of each can be designated with some cer- tainty. The Carancaguases dwelt most commonly on the narrow fringe of islands extending along the coast to the east and the west of Matagorda Bay; the Cocos on the mainland east of Matagorda Bay about the lower Colorado River; the Cnjanes and Gna- pites on either side of the bay, particularly to the west of it; and the Copanes west of the mouth of the San Antonio River about Copano Bay, to which the tribe has given its name. Numerically the group was not large. A French writer of the seventeeth century estimates the "Quelancouchis", probably mean- ing the whole Karankawan group, at four hundred fighting men, and the Spaniards, upon the basis of a closer acquaintance, in 1751 put the number, excluding the Cocos, at five hundred fighting men.^ These tribes represented perhaps the lowest grade of native so- ciety in all Texas. Their tribal organization was loose, and their habits were extremely crude. With respect to clothing, they ordi- narily went about in a state of nature. Being almost or entirely without agriculture, they lived largely on fish, eggs of sea-fowls, and sylvan roots and fruits, although they hunted buffalo and other game to some extent in the interior. They led a roving life, and therefore built only temporary habitations, consisting usually of poles covered or partly covered with reeds or skins. The Caran- caguases, in particular, as has been said, dwelt on the islands; but during the hunting season and the cold winter months they mi- grated to the mainland. For these migrations they used canoes, which they managed with skill. Physically, the men were large and powerful, and they were correspondingly warlike. They were fre- quently at war with the interior tribes, and from their first contact with the whites they were regarded as particularly dangerous. Al- though their only weapons were the bow and the spear,^ their island asylum and their skill with canoes made them unassailable in re- treat, while horses, early secured from the Spaniards, increased their offensive strength. From very early times they were regarded as cannibals, and their religious superstitions were commensurate ^A mgmoire of 1699, in Margry, Decouvertes et Etahlissements, IV, 316; Captain Piszina, of Bahia, letter to the viceroy, Dec. 26, 1751. ^The "dardo," whicli they also used for catching fish (Mezi^res to Croix, Oct 7, 1779, in Memorias^ de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 258). 116 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. with their barbarity. Such Indians as these could hardly be called inviting material for the missionary. 2. Failure of Early Spanish Efforts Among the Karankawan T riles. Although the Karankawan tribes were among the very earliest of the Texas natives to come to the notice of the Spaniards, and were visited by them again during the first attempts at actual occupa- tion of the country, efforts to control them were for some time delayed. The Caoques, or Capoques, met by Cabeza de Vaca on the Texas coast (1528-1534) are thought to have been identical with the Cocos of later times.^ After this adventurer, their next white visitors were the French. La Salle's unfortunate colony (1685-9) on the Lavaca River had some of these tribes for ireigh- bors, and was destroyed by them. It was among^the Caocosi, the Cocos, very probably, that De Leon in 1690 rescued some captive survivors of this French colony.^ Again, in 1721, the hostility of apparently the same tribes caused La Harpe to abandon his project of occupying the Bay of St. Bernard for France, and thus put an end to French attempts to control this coast.^ Up to this time the Spaniards had seen but little of the Karan- kawan Indians since the first entradas from Mexico more than a quarter of a century before, and had made no attempt to subdue them. But in 1722 the Marques de Aguayo established on the very site of La Salle's fort the p^esidio of Nuestra Senora de Loreto, more commonly called Bahia, and founded near by for the Cujanes, Guapites, and Carancaguases the mission of Espiritu Santo de Zuniga. The presidio was left in charge of Captain Domingo Eamon, perhaps the same Ramon who had founded the second group of East Texas missions in 1716. Father Pena,^ a member ^Bandelier, The Journey of Alvar 'Nunez Gdbeza de Vaca (Barnes and Co. 1905), 72; Gatschet, The Karankawa Indians, 34; Hand-hook of the Indians (Bureau of American Ethnology), I, 315. - ^Velasco, Dietamen Fiscal, Nov. 30, 1716, in Memoriae de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 182. This statement is made by Velasco on the basis of De Le6n's own report. See Carta de Damian Manzanet (The Quarterly, II, 301), and De Leon, Derrotero, 1690. ^Margry, Decouvertes et Etahlissements, VI, 354. *Pena'8 diary of the Aguayo expedition calls him Jos§ Ram6n, but au- thentic documents written at Loreto at the time of Ram6n's death call him Domingo Ilam6n {Autos fechos en la Bahia de el espiritu 8a/nto solve. . . . muertes, 1723-1724. Original MS. Archivo General. The Founding of Mission Eosario. 117 of Aguayo's expedition, recorded at the time in his diary that "it was seen that they [these three tribes] were very docile and would enter readily upon the work of cultivating the earth and their own souls, the more because they live in greater misery than the other tribes, since they subsist altogether upon fish and go entirely without clothing/'^ By this utterance Pena proved himself either ignorant or defiant of history, a bad sociologist, and a worse prophet. In a short time forty or more families of Cujanes, Caranca- guases, and Guapites established their rancheria near the presidio, and others may have entered the mission; but scarcely had they done so before trouble began. In the fall of 1723 a personal quarrel arose between them and the soldiers. An attempt to punish an of- fending Indian resulted in a fight, the death of Captain Eamon, and tho flight of the natives.^ In a few weeks the Indians returned to make reprisals upon the lives and the goods of the soldiery — a practice which they kept up more or less continuously for the next twenty-five yearg.^ Whether or not the garrison was io blame for the origin of the ill feeling, as it was claimed they were, can not be stated, but at any rate they showed little skill in dealing with this warlike people.* Discouraged by the hostility between the Indians and the sol- diery, the missionary at Espiritu Santo removed his mission some ten leagues northwestward to the Guadalupe River, and labored among the Jaranames and the Tamiques,*^ non-coast tribes, of a different language, hostile to, and having a somewhat higher civil- ization than the Karankawans.^ Shortly afterward the presidio was ^Diary, in Memorias de Nueva Espana, XXVIIII, 57-58. ^Autos solve muertes, etc., 1723-1724. 'Ibid. In 1728 Rivera reported that the Cujanes, Cocos, Guapites, and Carancaguases were hostile to Bahla {Proyecto, Tercero Estado, Par. 42). In 1730 Governor Bustillo y Zevallos wrote to the viceroy that a treaty had been made with Cujanes, Guapites, and Carancaguases, and that he hoped that the Copanes and Cocos would soon join them (Letter of Nov. 29, 1730). Testimony given at Bahla Nov. 20, 1749, states that Captain Orobio y Basterra had succeeded for some time in keeping the Cocos Cujanes, and Orcoquizas quiet (BSxar Archives, Bahla, 1743-1778). /*Bancroft (North Mexican States and Texas, edition of 1886, I, 631), on the authority of Morfi, lays the blame upon the soldiers. So did Governor Almazan, who investigated the trouble in 1723 [Autos solre muertes, 1723-1724). 'Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, edition of 1886, I, 631. "Father Juan de Dios Maria Camberos, missionary at Bahla, wrote to the viceroy May 30, 1754, that "these Indians already mentioned [the Cujanes, Guapites, and Carancaguases] do not wish to leave the neigh- 118 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. removed to the same site by Captain Ramon's successor.* The new location is apparently marked by modern Mission Valley, west of the Guadalupe and near the northwestern line of Victoria county.^ Though the presidio and the mission had retreated from their midst, the Karankawan tribes remained hostile, and after Rivera's inspection, in 1727, there was little prospect of subduing them. Rivera's reports between 1728 and 1738 show that he regarded the Cu janes, Cocos, Guapites, Carancaguases, and Copanes all incapable of being reduced to mission life,^ and that it was for this reason, mainly, that he considered projects for removing the presidio and the mission of Bahia now to the San Marcos, now to the San Antonio, and now to the Medina. A missionary at San Antonio wrote in 1751 that "the Cu janes were for some thirty years con- sidered irreducible, and (according to various reports to be found in the Secretaria de Govierno), because irreducible, they were the principal obstacle to the presidio of la Bahia." A little earlier he had written, "In truth, since the year 1733, when I came to this province, I have never heard that one of these Indians has attached himself to that mission (Espiritu Santo)."* borhood of la Bahia del Espiritu Santo, where their lands are, nor is it proper that they should be put with the Jaranames and Tamiques, who are in the mission called Espiritu Santo at said Bahia, since they are of different languages, incompatible dispositions, and do not like to be in their company." Soils, in his Diario (1768), reports that the Jaranames and their associates are "en mas politica" than the Karankawans (Me- morias de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 265). ^Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, I, 631, on the authority of Morfi, Mem. Hist. Tex., 195. The presidio was removed after Apr. 8, 1724, and apparently before the close of Governor Almaz^n's term in 1726, but I have been unable to determine the exact date, ^This new site was later reported as fourteen leagues northwest from Bahia del Espiritu Santo (Report of Captain Orobio y Bast^rra, of Bahia, 1747) and about ten leagues northwest of the later site of Bahia, or mod- ern Goliad (Capt. Manuel Ramirez de la Piszina to the viceroy, Feb. 18, 1750). Mr. H. J. Passmore, of Goliad, informs me that at the lower end of Mission Valley, and close to the Guadalupe River, "near some slight falls, or what some think was an old dam in the River, and near what was known as the 'De Leon Crossing,"* there were, within the memory of the old settlers, some fairly well preserved ruins of a mission, whose name none in his locality can tell him. The distances of this point from the original site of Bahia and from Goliad correspond very well with those given above. "Santa Ana, president of the Quergtaran Missions at San Antonio, to the viceroy, about May 22, 1752. ♦Letters to the viceroy, June 17 and Dec. 20, 1751. The Founding of Mission Rosario. 119 Thus, with the exception of a few families of Cujanes and a few of Cocos who had found their way into the San Antonio missions, by 1750 no progress had been made toward converting or even sub- duing these Karankawan tribes. But now conditions in the prov- inces and the plans of the government led to a renewed and more successful attempt. 3. New Plans for the Coast Country. For some time the missionary field in Texas had tended rather to contract than to expand ; but toward the middle of the eighteenth century a new wave of missionary activity made itself felt not only in this province, but in the whole coast country north of Panuco. It was in a way a response to increased Indian troubles on the north Mexican frontier and to increasingly bold intrusions of the French among the northeastern tribes; and, although we must not underrate the zeal that still burned in the breast of the Franciscan friar, it is but truth to say that the dominant force behind this new missionary movement was mainly political — the desire to subdue unoccupied territory, protect the settlements, and to keep a con- trolling hand upon the frontier tribes to prevent them and their country from falling to a rival power. In Texas this activity showed itself in the plans for the coast country about to be described, and in the foundation of a number of new missions elsewhere for tribes hitherto neglected but now demanding attention. Among these missions were the three founded (about 1747) on San Xavier E-iver^ northeast of Austin, for tribes mainly of the Tonkawan group; Nuestra Senora de la Luz, (about 1756), on the lower Trinity Eiver, for the Yidais and Orcoquizas; the mission at San Saba (1757) for the Lipan Apaches; San Lorenzo and Candelaria^ (1762), south of San Saba, likewise for the Apaches; and possibly others. During this period, also, plans were considered, though unrealized, for missionizing the Towakana tribes of the Brazos, and the Yscanes farther to the northeast.^ It has been customary ^San Xavier, Candelaria, San Ildefonso. ^Founded in January and February, 1762. Eaypediente, sohre estableei- mento de Misiones en la immediadon del Presidio de 8n. Savas (Archive General), 94, 103, 112. ^Testimonio de los Diligendas practicadas . . . sohre la reduccion de los Yndios Tehuacanas e Yscanis & Mision, 1761-1763 (B6xar Archives). 120 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. to suppose that these missions were all failures, compared even with the standard of success attained by the earlier ones ; but until the facts of their history are better known judgment may well be suspended. Certain it is that, the more we know about the regime of the Spaniards in these northern provinces, the more we discover that they had and did here, and the more charitable we become in judging their ultimate failure. The founding of mission Rosario, as well as those enumerated above, was also part of this revived missionary movement, but more specifically, part of a plan to colonize and missionize the whole gulf coast country from Panuco to the San Antonio River. This region had been the longest neglected stretch of coast country round the entire Gulf of Mexico. It had become a retreat for Indians who troubled the interior provinces of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, and the southern portion of it was suspected of having valuable mines. The government at Mexico decided, therefore, to subdue it by conquest, colonization, and missions. The person ap- pointed to undertake this work was Jose de Escandon, one of the ablest men in Mexican history, who, some time before, had been made Count of Sierra Gorda for his notable pacification of that region. His appointment to the new commission dated from Sep- tember 3, 1746. The territory assigned for him to subdue and colonize was called Colonia del Nuevo Santander, and extended from Panuco to the San Antonio Eiver.^ Had the colonization of all New Spain been left to the care of men with Escandon^s views and ability, the results of Spain's ef- forts would doubtless have been much greater than they actually proved to be. He was a firm believer in the superiority of civil pueblos over military garrisons or even missions as a means of sub- duing natives and securing new territory; and an essential feature of his plan for Nuevo Santander was to have the settlements of Mexican colonists sufficiently numerous and prosperous to make possible within a few years the withdrawal of the garrisons.^ In 1746 and 1747 Escandon personally inspected the country to ^Bancroft, Mexico, III, 332- 342; Reconocimiento del 8eno Mexicano heoho por el Theniente de Capn. Gral. Dn. Joseph de Escandon, 1746-1747 (MS.), in the Archive General. '^Escandon's report to the viceroy of Oct. 26, 1747, and of July 27, 1758. MSS. in the Archivo General. The Founding of Mission Bosario. 121 and along the Rio Grande, while under his instructions Captain Joaquin de Orobio y Basterra, commander at Bahia, in Texas, ex- amined the region from the Guadalupe to the Rio Grande. Their reports contain the first detailed information that we have concern- ing the natives and the topography of many parts of this extended area. As an illustration, it may be noted that hitherto it was sup- posed that the Nueces River emptied into the Rio Grande. In conse- quence of these inspections Escandon recommended moving the mis- sion and presidio from Bahia to a site on the lower San Antonio called Santa Dorotea (near modem Goliad), and projected the foundation of fourteen Spanish villas in the territory under his charge. One of these was to be villa de Vedoya, composed of fifty families, and situated at the mouth of the Nueces near the site of modern Corpus Christi. Adjacent to the town was to be the mis- sion of Nuestra Seiiora de el Soto, to minister to the Zuncal, Pajase- queis (or Carrizos) Apatines, Napuapes, Pantapareis, and other tribes of the vicinity. Another of the fourteen towns was to be villa de Balmaceda, established with twenty-five families at Santa Dorotea.^ The successful establishment of this villa would, he believed, make possible the suppression of the presidio of Bahia in three or four years, and thus remove the chief ground for hostility on the part of the coast Indians.^ The plans for the southern half of the territory met with a large measure of permanent success. It was at this time that Laredo, Camargo, Reynosa, and several other settlements were founded along and south of the Rio Grande. That the outcome in the north- ern half was different was not the fault of Escandon. In accordance with his plan, the presidio of Bahia and the mission of Espiritu Santo were in 1749 moved some ten leagues southwest to Santa Dorotea ; but the families sent to settle on the Nueces, fearing harm from the Indians, backed out, and were allowed to return and found instead the present town of Soto la Marina ; while the plan to estab- lish villa de Balmaceda failed because at the fiscal's instance Escan- ^Reconocimiento del Seno Mexicano, folios 40-44, 85, 88, 110, 216; also Valcarcel to the viceroy, Feb. 1, 1758. The tribal names here given are those reported by Orobio y Basterra for the vicinity of the Nueces. I have not thus far attempted, to identify the tribes with those of the region going under better-known names. ^'Report of EscandCn, Oct. 26, 1747; Valcarcel to the viceroy, Feb. 1, 1758. k 122 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. don was refused the requisite funds. Had the government sup- ported Escandon in this and his subsequent efforts to plant colonies between the San Antonio and the Rio Grande, there seems no good reason why the Spanish hold might not have been made as secure in this region as it was beyond the Rio Grande.^ But this it failed to do. Nevertheless, the removal of Bahia to Santa Dorotea was fol- lowed by an effort to revive missionary work among the Karan- kawan tribes which resulted in the successful establishment of mis- sion Rosario. 4. The Quarrel Between Queretarans and Zacatecans Over the Cujanes. On April 14, 1750, the viceroy exhorted the missionaries at the new site to do all in their power to reduce, congregate, and convert the Cujanes, Carancaguases, and Guapites. They were to be treated with the utmost kindness, given presents, and promised, on behalf of the government, that if they would settle in a pueblo they would be given new missions, protected, and supplied with all neces- saries.^ Similar instructions were written to Captain Manuel Ramirez de la Piszina, the new commander of the presidio of Bahia. If we may trust the reports of the missionaries and the cap- tain, they went zealously to work among these three tribes in response to the viceroy's order. But little or nothing seems to have been accomplished until their rivals, the Queretaran friars at San Antonio, entered the same field.^ At this time the Queretaran missions at San Antonio were short of neophytes, partly because of an epidemic that had made ravages among the mission Indians.* On the other hand these missions were just now under the direction of Father Fr. Juan Mariano de los Dolores, one of the leaders of the missionary revival which we have mentioned. For these reasons, and since the Karankawans had ^Cf. Escandon's report, July 27, 1758, again urging the colonization of this whole strip of country. ^Summary by Camberos, missionary at this time in Bahia. *Piszina to the viceroy, Dec. 26, 1751 ; Camberos to the viceroy, May 30, 1754. ^Father Dolores, missionary at San Antonio, to Father Gonzales, mis- sionary at Esplritu Santo, June 17, 1751. The Founding of Mission Bosario. 123 long been without mission influence, the Queretarans entertained the plan of gathering them, especially the Cujanes,^ into their par- ticular fold. Whether the idea originated with Father Santa Ana, former president of the San Antonio missions, but now in Mexico, or with Father Dolores, his successor now on the ground, does not appear; but it is through Santa Ana that we first learn of the pro- ject, while it was the latter who put it into execution. Early in 1750, in a private communication to Altamira, the auditor general of the viceregal government, Santa Ana made known the plan, in- timating that he feared objections from the Zacatecan friars at Espiritu Santo, on the ground that the Karankawan tribes had once been assigned to that mission.^ He doubtless knew, too, that the Zacatecans had recently been ordered to renew efforts on the coast. Altamira approved the project, saying that so long as these Indians remained in the forest they belonged only to the Devil, and that any one who wished was free to try his hand at winning them to the Lord.^ The actual work from San Antonio was undertaken by Father Dolores with the aid of Fray Diego Martin Garcia. Before entering the field he first asked the consent of the principal missionary at Espiritu Santo, Fray Juan Joseph Gronzales.* Gonzales replied that such a procedure would be satisfactory to him, and that he would waive whatever right his mission possessed to these Indians.^ The way was made easier for Dolores by the presence of the few Cujanes and Cocos previously mentioned as being at one of his missions.® Knowing by experience, as he said, "that presents were the most effective texts with which to open the conversion of sav- ages,^' he began the revival by sending to the Cujanes, early in 1751, a Coco mission Indian bearing gifts,*^ and a promise that a missionary would be sent to them.^ ^The plan evidently had in view the "Puxanes and others clear to the Rio Grande del Norte" (Santa Ana to the viceroy, Jan. 31, 1752). ^Santa Ana to the viceroy, Dec. 20, 1751. mid. *Hi3 request was apparently made in 1750. Santa Ana to the viceroy, undated, but about March 22, 1752. ^Santa Ana to the viceroy, Dec. 2, 1751; Gonzales to Dolores, Apr. 13, 1751; Dolores to Santa Ana, Oct. 26, 1751. ^Santa Ana to the viceroy, Dec. 20, 1751. TDolores to Gonzales, June 17, 1751. ^This pomise is inferred from Santa Ana's letter of Dec. 20, 1751. 124 Texas Historical Association Qicarterly. In spite of the assurance that had been given to Dolores by Gon- zales, this move of the former led very speedily to a politely worded but none the less spirited dispute between the two. In the competi- tion that attended the dispute Espiritu Santo had decidedly the advantage of geographical position. The Cu janes were pleased with the evidence of good will — or better, perhaps, with the pros- pect of more gifts — and, without awaiting the arrival of the prom- ised minister, fifty-four adults^ set out for San Antonio to confer with Dolores. When on April 8 they reached the neighborhood of Santa Dorotea, or New Bahia, they were seen by some mission In- dians. These warned Captain Piszina that hostile Cu janes were near by killing mission cattle. A squadron of soldiers and Indians was accordingly sent out, and the Cu janes, after a slight show of fight, were taken to the presidio, and here they remained, notwith- standing their previous intention to go to San Antonio.^ Gon- zales and Piszina claimed that the Cu janes were told that they might continue their journey, that no force was used to keep them at Bahia, and that it was only with misgivings and after delibera- tion that their request to be allowed to remain at the mission was granted.^ But Dolores believed that if not force, then persuasion, had been used to rob him of the fruits of his efforts. With a forbearance that might be called commendable, however, he held his peace, and made another attempt, which likewise re- sulted more to the advantage of the rival mission than of his own. Some of the Cujanes had returned from Bahia to their country and gathered ninety-five more Indians "of the Cujan, Copanes, Gua- pites, and Talancagues tribes." On their way they stopped at Bahia, left their women and children, and went back to gather a ^In his letter to the viceroy Dec. 26, 1751, Captain Piszina calls them "fifty-four Indians of the Coxan nation"; but in the same letter he says that the four recently reduced tribes going under the name of Coxan are the "Cojanes, Ouapittes, Carancguases, and Copanes." Hence we may in- fer that these fifty-four were not exclusively Cujanes, although they were called by this name. =^Gonzales to Dolores, Apr. 3, 1751 ; Dolores to Santa Ana, Oct. 26, 1751 ; Santa Ana to the viceroy, Dec. 20, 1756; Piszina to the viceroy, Dec. 26, 1751. Piszina said that they were taken to Bahia at the end of March, but Gonzales's letter of Apr. 13 is more reliable for the date, because nearer the event and more explicit. ^Gonzales to Dolores, Apr. 13, 1751; Piszina to the viceroy, Dec. 26, 1751. This last assertion casts doubt upon any claim the Bahia authori- ties might make to have previously tried to take these Indians there. The Founding of Mission Rosario. 125 larger number of their people, with the intention, Dolores under- stood, of going on with them to San Antonio. He thereupon sent a number of mules laden with such supplies as might be needed by the Indians on their way.^ Shortly afterward a Coco arrived re- porting that one hundred and five families were already collected near Old Bahia and that more were gathering, but that, unless horses were sent at once to transport them, they would be diverted to Bahia, just as the first band had been, there to remain. Dolores now lost no time in despatching Fray Diego Martin with horses and a Coco guide to assist in bringing in the Cu janes and their friends.^ In a note written soon after this, Gonzales claimed that these Indians desired to remain at Bahia.^ Thereupon Dolores entered a vigorous protest. He reminded Gonzales that he had once waived his right to the coast Indians, but was now enticing them to Espiritu Santo; that but for him (Dolores) the Cujanes and the rest would still be in the woods and at war with the Spaniards, as they had always been; that if after many years the Espiritu Santo mission had failed to subdue the Jaranames, whom they still claimed the right to monopolize, they could hardly expect to succeed with the additional task of subduing the Cujanes. Disclaiming a wish to quarrel, he requested Gonzales to find out for certain, by whatever means he chose, whether these Indians preferred to be at Bahia or at San Antonio, and promised to abide by the result, with these conditions, that in case they wished to come to San Antonio they must not be hindered, and that if they remained at Bahia he would send in a bill for the supplies he had given them.* Dolores was now called to the missions at San Xavier, and when he got back he found new cause for displeasure with the author- ities at Bahia. In his absence Fray Diego Martin had returned with twenty-four Indians of the four tribes and the rather flimsy report that he might have brought five hundred had it not been for their fear that they would be prevented by the soldiers and mission- aries at Bahia from going to San Antonio. Meanwhile none of the families who had stopped at Bahia had appeared in San Antonio; ^Dolores to Gonzales, June 17, 1751. mid. ^Gonzales to Dolores, May 22, 1751, referred to in Hid. *md. 126 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. consequently, again conceding the point backed by the better argu- ment of possession, Dolores advised the twenty-four to go to their friends at Bahia. But, by no means giving up his claim, he ap- pealed both to the discretorio of his college and to Santa Ana for authority to bring the Cu janes to his missions.^ Santa Ana took up the matter vigorously with the viceroy, with Andreu, the fiscal, and with Altamira, the auditor. He wrote let- ters, furnished documents, and sought personal interviews in de- fense of the rights of his college. He argued that until Dolores had pacified them the Karankawan Indians had always been hostile; that the Queretarans friars had been robbed of the fruits of their efforts by the Zacatecans, who had done nothing except to spoil a good work well begun; that by thirty years of idleness the latter had forfeited all the rights they ever had to the Karankawan field ; and that nothing could be expected of them in the future.^ In view of these considerations, he earnestly recommended that the work of converting these tribes might be entrusted to the Queretarans.^ On the other hand, appeal was made to law 32, title 15, book I, of the Recopilacion de Indias, which provided that when one re- ligious order had begun the conversion of a tribe it should not be disturbed by another. And thus the dispute went on until the end of 1752, when it was closed in effect by the fiscaFs compromise de- cision that under the peculiar circumstances joint work among the tribes in question would be lawful and equitable, and by the vice- roy's exhortation of all parties to cooperate in the work of saving Karankawan souls for the glory of ^both majesties.'* 5. Progress With the Cujanes at Espiritu Santo. Meanwhile, the possession of the Cujanes and the others had proved a very temporary advantage to the Espiritu Santo mission, and even during that short time these "first fruits and hostages of all that Gentile race" had added little to the mission's glory. While the Indians were there the missionaries succeeded in baptizing fifteen in articulo mortis; the rest deserted within a few weeks, ^Dolores to the discretorio, undated; to Santa Ana, Oct. 26, 1751. '^Santa Ana to the viceroy, Dec. 20, 1751; Jan. 31, 1752; March 22. ^Tbid. *Dictamen fiscal, Oct. 2, 1752; Auditor's opinion, Oct. 9, 1752; Viceroy's decree, Oct. 10, 1752. The Founding of Mission Bosario. 127 so that at the end of 1751 none appear to have remained. To make matters worse, relations between the tribes and the Span- iards again became strained through the unexplained killing of five Cu janes by their hosts. ^ Altamira had at first favored Santa Ana^s proposal to take the Cujanes to San Antonio. But when conflicting reports and news of the desertion of the Indians reached him he lost his patience and delivered himself of a generous amount of ill-natured truth about mission history, at the same time showing his hearty sympathy with Escandon^s policy of settlement as a complement to the mis- sion and as a substitute for the garrison. "All the foregoing," he said, "but illustrates how, in this as in all like affairs of places at such long and unpeopled distances, come inopportune and irregular letters, proposals, representations, and petitions, that only leave the questions unintelligible. Thus in his report the captain [Pis- zina] begins by saying 'In obedience to Your Excellency's superior order,' without saying what order, or without specifying what he considers necessary for the conversion of the Indians in question. This conversion he assumes as assured simply because a few of them have submitted, when he can not be ignorant of their notorious in- constancy. And Eev. Padre Santa Anna, who had experienced this inconstancy, on Dec. 20 plead the cause of these same Cu- janes, only to report forty days after (on Jan. 31, of this year) that the occasion had passed because all of the Indians had deserted. This is what happens daily on those and all the other unsettled frontiers. "The same will be true two hundred years hence unless there be established there settlements of Spaniards and civilized people to protect, restrain, and make respectable the barbarous Indians who may be newly congregated, assuring them before their eyes a living example of civilized life, application to labor, and to the faith. Without this they will always remain in the bonds of their native brutality, inherited for many centuries, as happens in the missions of the Eio Grande, of [East] Texas, and all the rest where there are no Spanish settlements, for the Indians there, after having ^Dolores to Santa Ana, Oct. 26, 1751; Piszina to the viceroy, Dec. 26, 1751 (Piszina, referring to the iBfty-four, said they remained two and one- half months) ; Santa Ana to the viceroy, Jan. 31, 1752. 128 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. been congregated fifty years or more, return to the woods at Notwithstanding the unflattering outcome of the enterprise thus far, the missionaries and the captain at Bahia, roused into activity by their rivals, continued their efforts to cultivate friendship with their traditional enemies, and, although conversions were few, they were otherwise comparatively successful.^ During the next two years they spent considerable sums from their own pockets for pres- ents and supplies, and Piszina made the occasion an excuse for asking the government for more soldiers, more money, and more missionaries. Writing in Dec, 1751, he said that the recent friendly attitude of the coast Indians, though favorable to mis- sionary work, also increased the expenses and made more workers necessary, for the four tribes included under the name Coxanes would comprise five hundred warriors besides their families. More- over, their conversion would make more soldiers necessary, since they were really more dangerous at peace than at war; for besides being treacherous themselves, the unfriendly Indians on the coast would visit their relatives at the mission and thus learn the weak- ness of the garrison. While, therefore, more missionaries and more supplies would be necessary before these tribes could be converted, their reduction would require an increase of soldiers to guard the Spaniards against the treachery of the neophytes and against their friends still upon the coast. Within two years Piszina made three such appeals to the viceroy.^ 6. The Plan to Transfer the Ais Mission to Bahia. By the end of this time the local authorities conceived the idea of founding a separate mission especially for the Cu janes and their friends, as a substitute for trying to reduce them at mission Espi- ritu Santo with Indians of another race. To effect this plan the best informed person, and probably the father of the project, Fray Juan de Dies Camberos, missionary at Espiritu Santo went to Zacatecas, and was sent thence by the college to Mexico.* His ap- ^Altamira to the viceroy,. Feb. 29, 1752. ^Andreu to the viceroy. "Dec. 26, 1751; 3>ec. 31, 1753, and another mentioned in this last. *Piszina to the viceroy, Dec. 30, 1753; Camberos to the viceroy, OVIiiy 30, 1754. It is inferred from the context that Piszina's letter here recited was sent by Camberos to the viceroy. The Founding of Mission Rosario. l29 pointment was dated Feb. 26, 1754, and was signed by Fray Gas- par Joseph de Soils, guardian of the college, and later known in Texas by his tour of inspection among the missions.^ In his communications to the viceroy of April 29, May 6, 7, and 30, Camberos set forth the situation and his plan. The Cujanes and their kindred, he said,^ were eagerly asking for a mission; so eager, indeed, that six of the chiefs of the Cujanes, Carancaguases, and Guapites were clamoring to be allowed to come to see the vice- roy himself in reference to the matter. But it was inadvisable to put them into mission Espiritu Santo together with the Jaranames and Tamiques already there, for they were tribes of different lan- guages, of different habits, and unfriendly. But to send them to San Antonio was equally impracticable, for they did not wish to leave the neighborhood of Bahia del Espiritu Santo, their native country. Even if the Indians were willing to be transplanted, ex- perience had shown that this was bad policy, for the Pamaques and other tribes, removed to San Antonio from their native soil on the Nueces, had speedily become almost extinguished. This very con- sideration had caused General Escandon to order Captain Piszina not to allow the Indians of his district to be taken from their coun- try. Moreover, if the mission were near the home of the Indians, fugitive neophytes could be easily recovered, whereas, if they were taken to San Antonio, the soldiers and missionaries would have to spend most of their time pursuing them. Camberos advised, therefore, the establishment of a separate mis- sion. But to save the expense of equipping a new one he recom- mended removing mission Nuestra Sehora de los Ais from near the Sabine to the neighborhood of Bahia, and re-establishing it for the Cujanes. His arguments in favor of his plan are an interesting commentary, coming as they do from a zealous Zacatecan, upon the comparative failure of the East Texas missions. The three Zaca- tecan foundations in EasfTexas, San Miguel de los Adaes, Nuestra Sehora de los Dolores de los Ais, and Nuestra Sehora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches had been existing for more than thirty years, and yet, according to him, notwithstanding the untiring efforts of the missionaries to reduce the Indians to mission life, it was notor- ious that they had succeeded in little more than the baptizing of ^The original commission, with seal, is in the Archive General de Mexico. 130 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. a few children and fewer adults upon the deathbed ; and there was no hope that these tribes could ever be reduced to pueblos and in- duced to give up their tribal life. Under these circumstances four missionaries instead of five would suffice on that frontier. Since the Ais Indians consisted of only some forty families — ^perhaps two hundred persons — living within about fourteen leagues of mission Nacogdoches/ their mission could be suppressed, one missionary going to Nacogdoches to reside and from there ministering to the Ais, the other going to Bahia with the mission equipment, to work among the Karankawan tribes in question.^ At first Andreu, the fiscal, disapproved the plan on the ground that with the padre so far away, travel so difficult, and the Ais In- dians so indifferent, they would lose not only the wholesome ex- ample of the missionary in their daily life, but even the slight re- ligious benefits which they now received.^ But Camberos sug- gested that the minister might incorporate the Ais with their kin- dred, the Little Ais (Aixittos),* living two leagues from the Nacog- doches mission. He concluded by reminding the fiscal that it was after all a question of relative service. On the one hand, here were scarce forty families of Ais, who for thirty years had shown them- selves irreducible; on the other hand, there were five hundred or more families of Cu janes, Guapites, and Carancaguases, "as ready to be instructed in the mysteries of our faith as the Ayx are repug- nant to living in Christian society"; for two years they had been and still were firm in their anxious desire to be reduced to a pueblo and instructed. Was it not jfc matter of duty to save the willing many rather than to struggle^opelessly with the unwilling few?^ These arguments convinced the fiscal and the auditor, whereupon the viceroy, on June 17 and June 21, issued to the governor and the college the necessary decrees for effecting the transfer. The order to the college provided "that the mission (^ Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Ais, situated in the provinSPof los Texas, should be ^Father Vallejo, of Adaes, maintained that the distance was nearly twenty leagues. Letter to the discretorio of his college, Dec. 1, 1754. Camberos to the viceroy, Apr. 29, May 6, May 7, and May Jtt. ^Andreu to the viceroy, May 2, 1754. ^ *This name was sometimes written Aijitos, but it was intended for the diminutive of Ais, and when spelled with an x was pronounced, no doubt, "Aisitos." ''Camberos to the viceroy. May 30, 1754. The Founding of Mission Rosario. 131 totally abandoned; that of the two ministers there, one should re- main at mission Nacogdoches, it being the nearest at hand, in order that he might assist with the waters of holy baptism all the children and adults who might wish this benefit ; and that the other should go to found the new mission of the Guapittes, Cu janes, and Caran- caguases in the territory of la Bahla del Espiritu Santo, for which purpose all the ornaments, furniture, and other goods of the mission of los Aix should be given to this minister and transferred to the new mission."^ But now a protest was heard from East Texas. Upon receiving the viceroy^s order to extinguish the Ais mission. Father Vallejo, president of the Zacatecan establishments on the eastern frontier, and a veteran of thirty years^ service, first sought the opinion of the governor. His opinion was Hostile to the change.^ Vallejo, with this backing, wrote to the guardian of his college that the Ais mission was by no means useless, and that until he should get further instructions he would defer the execution of the order. True, he said, the Ais Indians had not yet adopted mission life, in spite of the efforts of the fathers ; yet they were being baptized in articulo mortis — the records showed 158 such baptisms in 36 years — ; the padre was useful as physician and nurse among them ; and the friendly relations with the Indians, who assisted will- ingly in the domestic and agricultural duties about the mission, offered still a hope that they would settle down to pueblo life. In- deed, when Father Cyprian had been missionary he had had them congregated for a space of four years, and Father Garcia had like- wise kept them content about the mls|ion till, because of a recent scarcity of mission supplies, one of tW chiefs had persuaded them to return to their rancherias. But if the missionary were to retire to Nacogdoches, the distance and the difficulties of travel were so great that the Indians would be without aid, and would likely abandon their country, just as the Nazones had done when the mis- sionaries had deserted thl^ (1729). The good father could not close his argument without appealing to the fear of the French, ^Summary contained in the communication of the discretorio to the viceroy, Jan^A 1755. ^Vallejo to^overnor Barrios y Jauregui, Nov. 20, 1754; the governor to Vallejo, Nov. 30, 1754. The president's name was sometimes spelled with a B and sometimes with a V. 132 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. tactics which had stood many a special pleader in good stead within the last half century. So he added that, aside from the importance of the Ais mission to the Indians, it was necessary as a half-way station between Nacogdoches and Adaes to give succor in case of hostile invasion. He maintained therefore that the mission should be continued at all hazards, even if with only one minister'.^ This letter put an end to the effort to suppress the Ais mission, and set in motion a new plan. The discretorio, whence the idea of extinguishing los Ais had come, reported to the viceroy and sus- tained Vallejo's objections, and suggested, instead, a new mission for the Cu janes, maintaining, perhaps with truth, but with little regard for its former argument based on economy, that to equip a new mission would be little more expensive than to transfer the old one.^ So the matter again went to the fiscal, and he, on March 6, 1755, without other discussion than a review of the question, em- braced the new plan, and recommended that the Ais mission be al- lowed to remain and that a new one be established for the coast tribes.^ On March 22 the auditor approved the project, and on April 7, the viceroy issued the corresponding decree.* 7. Founding Mission Nuestra Senora del Rosario de los Cu janes. But matters at Bahia had not waited for the viceroy to change his mind. Some time before this steps had already been taken, in conse- quence of the previous order — that looking to the transfer of the old establishment to a new site — ^toward the actual foundation of the mission for the Cu janes and their friends. The government was slower to supply means than to sanction projects, and the funds with which to begin the work were raised by private gifts to the college or advanced by Piszina and the mis- sionaries at Bahia, while part of the mission furniture was bor- rowed from mission Espiritu Santo.'^ Camberos was sent to super- ^Fray Francisco Vallejo to the guardian and the discretorio of the col- lege, Dec. 1, 1754. ''The discretorio of the college to the viceroy, January 6, 1755. ^Andreu to the viceroy, March 6, 1755, *Valcarcel to the viceroy, IVIarch 22; viceroy decree, Apr. 7. ''Letter of Camberos, May 26, 1758. The Founding of Mission Rosario. 133 vise the foundation/ which was begun in November, 1754. Piszina spared nine soldiers to act as a guard, to assist with their hands, and to direct the Indians, some of whom were induced to help in the building and in preparing the field. On Jan. 15 Piszina thus wrote of the mission site and of progress in the work : "The place assigned for the congregation of these Indians, Excellent Sir, is four leagues from this presidio.^ It has all the advantages known to be useful and necessary for the foundation of a large settlement, and, in my estimation, the country is the best yet discovered in these parts. It has spacious plains, and very fine meadows skirted by the River San Antonio, which appears to offer facilities for a canal to irrigate the crops. In the short time of two months since the building of the material part of the mission was begun, a decetit [wooden] church for divine worship has been finished. It is better made than that of this presidio and the mission of Espiritu Santo. There have been completed also the dwellings for the minister and the other necessary houses and offices, all surrounded by a field large enough to plant ten fanegas of maize."^ Two years later it was reported that irrigation facilities were about to be completed; that a dam of lime and stone forty varas long and four varas high had been built across an arroyo carrying enough water to fill it in four months, and that all that was lacking was the canal, which would soon be finished.* But this work seems not to have been com- pleted. Within a few years — how soon does not appear — a strong wooden stockade was built around the mission.^ ESWCTOft LlbW^ The name by which Camberos called the mission in his reports was "Nuestra Senora del Rosario de los Co janes."® Contemporary government documents sometimes call it by this name, and some- times simply "Nuestra Senora del Rosario"; while Solis, official = ^It is not clear when the missionary from Los Ais went to Rosario to assist Camberos. But that he did go before May 27, 1757, appears from ft letter of that date. Strangely, however, the correspondence in several instances speaks qf the missionary in the singular, and while Camberos commends Captain Piszia for his co-operatin, he mentions no ecclesiasti- cal associate. (The discretorio to the viceroy, May 27, 1757; opinion of Valcareel, Feb. 1, 1758; report to the junta de guerra, Apr. 17, 1758; Juan Martin de Astiz to the viceroy, on or before June 21, 1758.) ^See page 134. ^Piszina to the viceroy, Jan. 15. *The discretorio of the college to the viceroy, May 27, 1757. 'Soils, Diario, 1767-1768. Memorias, XXVII, 258. See page 137. 'Camberos to the viceroy. May 26, 1758. 134 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. inspector for the college, in his diary of 1768 calls it "Mision del Santissimo Eosario," and "Mision del Eosario."^ The last is the more usual and popular form of the name. The addition of "de los Co janes" indicates in part the prominence of the Cujan tribe in the mission, and also the prevalent usage of their name as a generic term for the Karankawan tribes. The location of Eosario was given by Piszina as four leagues from the presidio of Bahia^ — in which direction he does not say, but it was clearly up stream. As will be seen, Piszina's estimate of the distance from Bahia was too great, unless the location of Eosario was subsequently changed. We learn from Solls's diary of 1768 that mission Espiritu Santo was "in sight of the Eoyal Presidio [apparently almost on the site of modern Goliad], with nothing between them but the river, which is crossed by a canoe" ;^ and in 1793 Eevilla Gigedo reported mission Eosario as two leagues nearer than Espiritu Santo to Bexar.* I am informed by Mr. J. H. Passmore, of Goliad, that the ruins today identified as those of Espiritu Santo are across the river from Goliad, and that four miles west of these, one-half a mile south of the San Antonio Eiver, are the ruins identified, correctly, no doubt, as those of mission Eosario.^ Lack of funds for current expenses and to properly establish agriculture and grazing greatly handicapped the missionaries and Captain Piszina, while, on the other hand, the Indians did not prove as eager to embrace the blessings of Christianity as the un- initiated might have been led to expect from the former reports of their anxiety to do so. They came to the mission from time to time, and helped more or less with the work, but when provisions gave out they were perforce allowed, or even advised, to return to the coast.^ The number who frequented the mission and availed themselves of these periodical supplies must have been considerable, for within less than a year of the founding of the mission, Piszina reported memorias, XXVII, 256, 266; Aranda to the viceroy, July 19, 1758. ^See ante, page 133. ^Memorids de Nueva Esfxma, XXVII, 264. *Carta dirigida d la carte de Espana, Dec. 27, 1793. ''From what I can learn, it seems probable that the buildings at Groliad whose remains are now called "Mission Aranama" were connected with the presidio of Bahia rather than with a mission. 'Piszina to the viceroy, Dec. 22, 1756; Camberos, May 26, 1758. The Founding of Mission Rosario, 135 that one thousand pesos in private funds had been spent for maize, meat, cotton cloth, tobacco, etc. ; a year later he said that the num- ber of Indians at mission Espiritu Santo — a number large enough to consume five or six bulls a week— was smaller than the number at Kosario,^ and that in all six thousand pesos had been spent in supporting the latter. But conversions were slow, and the total harvest after four years' work was twenty-one souls baptized in articulo mortis — twelve adults and nine children. In May, 1758, only one of the Indians living at the mission was baptized. Camberos claimed that this small showing of baptisms was partly due to his conservatism. "If I had been over-ready in baptizing Indians," he said, "at the end of these four years you would have found this coast nearly covered with the holy baptism ; but experience has taught me that baptisms performed hastily make of Indians Christians who are so only in name, and who live in the woods undistinguishable from the in- fidel.''^ The Indians were hard to manage, gave the soldiers much diffi- culty,^ and sustained their old reputation for being inconstant, unfaithful, and dissatisfied. The example of San Xavier, where a padre had recently been murdered, was fresh in the minds of the missionaries, and even when the Indians at Kosario were best dis- posed it was feared that they might revolt and harm their benefac- tors. The Cu janes in particular were feared, for, besides being the most numerous, they were regarded as especially bold and un- manageable.* This fear, together with danger from the Apaches, was ground for some of the numerous appeals made for an increase of soldiers at the presidio, and for the building of the stockade. As soon as Piszina had finished the mission buildings he had re- newed his former request for ten additional soldiers,^ and had asked the government to assist the new mission with the usual one year's supplies, in addition to the ornaments and furniture. Thereafter his appeal was frequently repeated,® and was seconded by the col- ^Piszina to the viceroy, Nov. 10, 1755, and Dec. 22, 1756. ''Letter dated May 23, 1758. ^PiszJina to the viceroy, Dec. 22, 1756. *The disoretorio to the viceroy, May 27, 1757. "See page 128. "Letters to the viceroy, Jan. 15, 1755, Nov. 10, 1755; Dec. 22, 1756. 136 Texas Historical Association Quarterly, lege, by Camberos, and by Governor Barrios y Jauregui.^ But for three years the government only discussed, procrastinated, and called for reports, until finally in a junta de guerra y hacienda held Apr. 17, 1758, the various items asked for were granted.* 8. Ten Years After. With this belated aid the mission became more prosperous — as prosperous, indeed, as could be expected under the circumstances. In 1768 it was able to report a total of two hundred baptisms, which, so far as mere numbers go, was relatively as good a showing as had been made by its neighbor among tribes somewhat more docile, and nearly as good as that made by San Jose, the finest mission in all New Spain. At this time there must have been from one hundred to two hundred Indians, at least, living intermittently in the mission. But residence or baptism did not of necessity signify any great change in the savage nature of the Indians. They were hard to control, and were with difficulty kept at the mission, made to work, and induced to give up their crude ways. If corporal pun- ishment was used, which was sometimes the case,^ the neophytes ran away; and if they complained of harsh treatment by the padres, they were likely to find willing listeners among the soldiers. It is not the purpose of this paper to follow out the history of the mission after its foundation. But it may vivify the reader^s impression, and help him to secure a more correct idea of a frontier mission of the less substantial sort and of the conditions surround- ing it to reproduce here some parts of the diary account of Rosario made in 1768 by Father Soils, the official inspector of the Texas missions for his college. I therefore quote the following: "[Feb.] 26. I passed through an opening called the Guardian, ^The discretorio to the viceroy, May 27, 1757 (At the end of 1755 the college sent an agent to the viceroy in person to urge haste in the matter) ; Barrios y Jauregui to the viceroy, Aug. 26, 1757; Letter to Camberos, May 26, 1756. ^Report of the junta, in the Archivo General, original MS. The discus- sion of the question by the government may be found in communications of Aranda to the viceroy, Jan, 24, 1758; Aranda to the viceroy, March 10, 1757; Valcarcel to the viceroy, Apr. 5, 1757; Valcarcel to the viceroy, Feb. 1, 1758; report of the junta de guerra, Apr. 17, 1758. ^In 1768 an investigation was made at this mission as a result of the! flight of some of the Carancaguases, with the result that charges of harsh dealing with the neophytes were reported to the government at Mexico. The Founding of Mission Eosario. 137 then through others, and arrived at Mission del Santissimo Eosario, where I was received by the minister with much attention. The Indians who had remained at the mission — for many were fugitive in the woods and on the shore — came out in gala array as an em- bassy to meet me on the way. . . . The captain of la Bahia re- mained and posted a picket of soldiers to keep guard by day and by night. This mission is extremely well kept in all respects. It secures good water from Eio San Antonio de Vejar. The country is pleasant and luxurious. . . . The climate is very bad and unhealthful, hot, and humid, with southerly winds. Everything, including one's clothing, becomes damp, even within the houses, as if it were put in water. Even the inner walls wreak with water as if it were raining. "28. I went to dine at the royal presidio of La Bahia del Espi- ritu Santo, at the invitation of the captain. I was accompanied by Fathers Ganuza^ and Lopez, and Brothers Francisco Sedano and Antonio Casas. . . . The captain received us with great respect and ceremony, welcoming us with a volley by the company and four cannon shots, . . . serving us a very free, rich, and abundant table, and comporting himself in everything with the magnificence and opulence of a prince. . . "29. I said the mass of the inspection (visita) and inspected the church, sacristy, and the entire mission. . . . "[March] 3. . . . At night there returned thirty-three fam- ilies of the Indians of this mission who had wandered, fugitives. I received them with suavity and affection. . . . "4. . . . The opinion which I have formed of this mission of Nuestra Sehora del Eosario is as follows : As to material wealth it is in good condition. It has two droves of burros, about forty gentle horses, thirty gentle mules, twelve of them with harness, five thousand cattle, two hundred milch cows, and seven hundred sheep and goats. The buildings and the dwellings, both for the minis- ters and for the soldiers and the Indians, are good and sufficient. The stockade of thick and strong stakes which protects the mission from its enemies is very well made. The church is very decent. It is substantially built of wood, plastered inside with mud, and ^In the MS. this man's name is spelled Ganuza, Lamuza and Lanuza. His name is not given in Schmidt's Catalogue of Franciscan Missions. 138 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. whitewashed with lime; and its roof of good beams and shingles (taxamanil) looks like a dome (parece arteson). Its decoration is very bright and clean. It has sacred vessels, a bench for ornaments and utensils, a pulpit with confessional, altars, and all the things pertaining to the divine cult. Everything is properly arranged and kept in its place. There is a baptismal font, with a silver concha and silver cruets for the holy oils. The mission has fields of crops, which depend upon the rainfall, for water can not be got from the river, since it has very high and steep banks, nor from any where else since there is no other place to get it. "This mission was founded in 1754. Its minister, who, as I have already said, is Fr. Joseph Escovar, labors hard for its welfare, growth, and improvement. He treaits the Indians with much love, charity, and gentleness, employing methods soft, bland, and alluring. He makes them work, teaches them to pray, tries to teach them the catechism and to instruct them in the rudiments of our Holy Faith and in good manners. He aids and succors them as best he may in all their needs, corporal and spiritual, giving them food to eat and clothing to wear. In the afternoon before evening prayers, with a stroke of the bell, he assembles them, big and little, in the cemetery, has them say the prayers and the Chris- tian doctrine, explains and tries to teach them the mysteries of our Holy Faith, exhorting them to keep the commandments of God and of Our Holy Mother Church, and setting forth what is neces- sary for salvation. On Saturdays he collects them and has them repeat the rosary with its mysteries, and the alavado cantado. On Sundays and holidays before mass, he has them repeat the prayers and the doctrine and afterward preaches to them, explaining the doctrine and whatever else they ought to understand. If he orders punishment given to those who neerl it, it is with due moderation, and not exceeding the limits of charity and paternal correction; looking only to the punishment of wrong and excess, it does not lean toward cruelty or tyranny.^ "The Indians with which this mission was founded are the Co- xanes, Guapites, Carancaguases, and Coopanes, but of this last na- tion there are at present only a few, for most of them are in the woods or on the banks of some of the many rivers in these parts; ^See note ante, p. 136. The Founding of Mission Rosario. 139 or with another (otra) nation, their friends and confederates, on the shore of the sea, which is some thirteen or fourteen leagues dis- tant to the east of the mission. They are all barbarous, idle, and lazy; and although they were so greedy and gluttonous that they eat meat almost raw, parboiled, or half roasted and dripping with blood, yet, rather than stay in the mission where the padre pro- vides them everything needed to eat and wear, they prefer to suffer hunger, nakedness, and other necessities, in order to be at liberty and idle in the woods or on the beach, giving themselves up to all kinds of vice, especially lust, theft, and dancing."^ Such were the difficulties usually attending the labors of the fron- tier missionaries, exaggerated somewhat in this instance, no doubt, by the exceptional crudeness of the tribes they were trying to subdue. And such were the meager first fruits of Escandon's well considered plan to occupy the coast country this side of the Rio Grande. In after years the wooden church of the mission was re- placed by one of stone, and the mission experienced varying de- grees of prosperity. Escandon^s project of establishing a Spanish pueblo near by was also realized, and other weak settlements were founded toward the Rio Grande. But these are matters outside the scope of this paper. ^Solfs, Diario, in Memorias de Nueva Espana, XXVII, 256-259.