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Our C atkolic Heritage in Texas
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of the Asinais, who were numerous and knew how to use rifles. 36 The remarkably lucid and sound analysis of the problem and the wise advice of this zealous missionary, who had spent many years in Texas were, however, disregarded. Taking up the plea made by Governor Franquis, Captain Joseph de Urrutia likewise addressed a long representation to the viceroy in r 7 40. After declaring that many settlers had abandoned the settlement of San Antonio and many had been deterred from coming to settle out of fear of Indian attacks, he recommended that the garrison should be enlarged to eighty or ninety men. The failure to increase the number of soldiers was causing some of the Indians to abandon the missions. This hampered the propagation of the faith, he piously pleaded. He then declared he had had forty-five years of experience, and suggested how the garrison could be augmented by transferring men from La Bahia, Sacramento, Los Adaes, and Nueva Vizcaya without added expense to the royal treasury. He explained that with an expanded garrison he could under- take a campaign against the Apaches, establish a post, or patrol a new pass (Bandera), which he had discovered in his previous expedition, and by this means put a stop to their depredations, since this pass was the only one by which these savages could and did penetrate into the interior to raid the settlements of Coahuila and Nueva Vizcaya. 37 The matter was referred to the Fiscal, who, with the usual foresight, reported that the plan presented by Urrutia was impractical, somewhat fantastic, and far-fetched. San Fernando Cliurck. The original church enjoys the distinction of being the oldest parish building in the State. When the detailed instructions for the establishment of the Villa de San Fernando were isued by Viceroy Casafuerte on November 28, 1730, it was provided that the new ·settlers should attend services in the chapel of the Mission of San Antonio de Valero until a separate edifice was built for them. But after the founding of the Villa, it was thought more convenient for the settlers to attend Mass in a provisional chapel in the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar, where services were held for the soldiers. This practice continued, it seems, until 1738, notwithstanding the affirmation that the "Fray Benito Fernandez de Santa Ana to Fray Pedro del Barco, March 26, 1740. ,frcliivo del Cougio de la Santa Crus de Queretaro, 1716-1749. (Dnnn Transcripts.) '7Captaln Urrutia to the Viceroy, May 17, 1740. A. G. M., Provincias lnternas, vol. 32.
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