Our Catlzolic Heritage in Texas
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Father Fray Lorenzo de Saavedra declared during the investigation that he was the oldest missionary of La Junta. He agreed that the country afforded but a poor site at the best, yet the presidio could be established. The most plausible location in his opinion was one chosen several years before by Father Fray Andres Varo, at the abandoned pueblo of Tecolote (Owl), seven leagues above San Francisco mission. To the suggestion that all the Indians at La Junta should be congregated in two pueblos of one hundred families each for their better instruction and care, he replied that the number congregated originally had been much greater. San Francisco mission alone had then more than all the pueblos put together now, and at that time it had been the smallest of them. Epidemics, hostility of the Apaches, and runaways had reduced the number not only of this but of all the missions at La Junta. But recruits or new converts could be secured with relative ease. Only recently the Pescados (Fish) had come to live at San Antonio de los Puliques, and the Cibolos at San Cristobal. Originally each pueblo had its own missionary and even now the missions of San Juan Bautista on the Conchos, San Francisco de la Junta, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, and San Cristobal each had its church and sacristy and all the things necessary for divine cult. He argued that many Indians had remained faithful in spite of repeated discouragements and many others had frequently helped Spanish soldiers in their campaigns. To reduce all the mission Indians at La Junta to two pueblos might have serious consequences. He then pointed out that in the establishment of a presidio at La Junta, as the missionaries desired for their protection and that of the Indians, the selection of its captain was of the utmost importance. He should be a wise and prudent man, who could deal fairly with the Indians. Furthermore the trade with the Apaches could not be abolished suddenly because the mission Indians had come to depend upon it for a livelihood. The skins and hides secured in this manner sold regularly in Chihuahua in exchange for supplies and other necessities. The children captives bought from the Apaches were generally raised as Christians by the mission Indians. Because of all the reasons alleged, Father Lorenzo concluded that La Junta with all its shortcomings, was still the best site for the erection of the new presidio. 27
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21 /bid., 92-97.
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