The Field and Its Workers
3
determining factor. Consequently in order to understand the work of the missionaries during the next fifty years, it is essential to summarize briefly the character of the various groups of Indians who inhabited the province and to describe their respective stages of civilization. Only in this manner can the labor of the faithful padres be understood better and the fruit of their unselfish sacrifices fully appreciated. The Indians of Texas. Along the coast from Padre Island to the east as far as the mo4th of the Red River, hence north and then west along this stream, various groups of Indians, now fairly well identified, formed a half moon that encircled the present province of Texas in its southern, eastern, and northern frontiers. They were an outer fringe of ~ative tribes facing the Gulf of Mexico and the French settlements of Louisiana on one side and the Spanish advance on the other. Behind these frontier tribes that divide themselves into a number of distinct groups, representing widely different cultures, there were other nations that may be considered separately and very aptly called the inner group. 3 The struggle for the extension of influence over both of these groups by Spain and France constitutes the chief aim of all activities in Texas during most of the eighteenth century. In this work the missionaries played an important role with no ulterior motives. For them it was a question of saving the souls of the untutored children of the forest, of instructing them in the tenets of our Catholic faith, and of teaching them the arts and habits of civilized life. The Karankawa. Chief among the native tribes that inhabited the Gulf coast and the neighboring islands were the Karankawas. Occupying the coastal area from perhaps Saint Joseph Island near Aransas Pass to the vicinity of Galveston Bay, were found various members of the Karankawa group. Its principal tribes were the Cujanes, Carancaguases, Guapites or Coapites, Cocos, and Copanes. Closely related, these tribes spoke a similar dialect which bears a strong resemblance in many respects to that of the Pakawa group, which included the Pakawa, Comecrudo, and Cotonam tribes, identified as part of the Coahuiltecan family. These lived farther to the south along the coast and roamed inland along the R~o Grande as far as Coahuila. With the exception of the last named group, the Karankawa represented the lowest grade of native society in all Texas. "They were fierce cannibals, were frequently at war with the interior tribes, and were from their first contact with the Europeans
1 Bolton, Athanase de Mezieres, I, 18.
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