Tlie Begin11ings of Civilized Life in Texas, 1731-1745
123
coming as it does from such a representative group of officials and settlers on the eve of the expansion of their labors to the land of the Apaches. Tlie Zacatecan missions in 1749. Little has been said about San Jose and the other missions administered by the College of Zacatecas. Students of the mission era have ~ften wondered why the material on the work of the Zacatecans in Texas is so scanty, there being practically no reports until 1749. It is for this reason that Dr. Bolton, in summarizing mission progress to 1745, declares that unfortunately there are no data on San Jose for this time. The reason for the apparent lack of information is that the Zacatecan missionaries appear to have gone quietly about their work and made no reports to the Commissary General or the viceroy for many years. But in 1748, when a request for additional recruits for the missions of the College of Nuestra Seiiora de Guadalupe of Zacatecas was presented to the Council of the Indies, it was denied on the grounds that this College had only one mission, San Jose, and that it had done very little since its establishment. The Commissary General of Spain was asked to inform the Council of the activities of the College in question, and much to his chagrin he had to admit that he knew nothin~ about it. Such a condition of affairs was a shock to this high official, whc. immediately wrote an imperative order to the Commissary General of the Franciscan Order in New Spain asking for a detailed report. But this official was no better informed than the first. He in turn wrote a scorching letter to the Guardian of the College of Zacatecas, requesting a full report of the missionary labors in the College, declaring that the Commissary General in Spain had blushed with shame at not being able to give this information when interrogated by the Council of the Indies. In a long report, the Guardian explained that the College of Zacatecas had many more missions than San Jose, that it had rendered faithful services in maintaining foundations not only in Texas, but in Coahuila, Nuevo Reyno de Leon, and even in the recently established Province of Nuevo Santander; that the sons of the College had gone about their labors without ostentation and had taken their hardships and trials as everyday occurrences in their busy lives, for which reason they had made no reports except to the College. After having made his apology for not sending periodic reports of the progress of the missions in the care of the College, he then proceeded to give a summary of its work. The Guardian explained how in 1715, the Duque de Linares, Viceroy of New Spain, had authorized the missionaries of the College of Zacatecas to undertake the conversion of the Indians of the Province of the Tejas.
Powered by FlippingBook