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01,r Catholic Heritage in Texas
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they would consume everything in a few days and return to their roaming life. 61 The matter dragged on for three years. In 1740, Father Fray Mariano de los Dolores addressed a strong representation to the viceroy in the name of the missions of Texas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Reyno de Leon against the unjust order secured by Uro y Campa for the payment of tithes by these missions. He emphatically declared that they were exempt from the payment of tithes, because all mission property was common to the neophytes, for which reason he requested that the order issued in 1737 be rescinded and that the exemption enjoyed by the missions be recognized. The situation was referred to the Fis cal on November 17, 1740. Licettciado Vedoya, in a long report, reviewed the case and ruled that the missions were exempt from the payment of tithes. He advised the viceroy to issue the corresponding orders rescinding the previous instructions for the collection of tithes and ordering the officials of Guadalajara to respect the rights of the missions and their neophytes in this rnatter. 65 Tl1e mission.s m 1745. The progress made up to 1740 has been summarized in some detail in the previous chapter. On the eve of the renewal of missionary endeavors to bring into the fold the fierce and relentless Apaches, Father Fray Francisco Xavier Ortiz conducted a careful inspection of the missions of the College of La Santa Cruz de Queretaro. For more than a month he lived in San Antonio, where he scrutinized every mission. From his detailed report we are able to draw an accurate picture of the progress made by the missions up to the middle of 1745. Taken as a whole, the figures, when added together, are a remarkable revelation of the success attained by the patient and painstaking missionaries, whose work has so often been thought a failure by those who have not taken the trouble to examine the fruits of their labors. Moved from San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande in 1718 and reestablished on the banks of the San Antonio River by Father Olivares, the baptismal records of this, the oldest mission in San Antonio, showed that nine hundred and San Antonio de Valero (Tlie Alamo) in 1745. "Father Fray Miguel Sevillano de Paredes at San Juan Bautista, October 17, 1737; Autos de Ia investigacion. In Autos hechos a representazon . Provincias lnterna.r, vol. 32. 65Autos bechos a representacion.... Provincias Internas, vol. 32.
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