Our Catholic Heritage, Volume III

Ottr Catleolic Heritage in Texas

were on their way to Mexico to beg alms for the new shrine of the Holy Virgin of Bethlehem. The party that had gone to Presidio de Janos returned safely on August 30. The leader of the military escort reported, however, that he had noticed a fresh trail near El Paso made by Apache Indians who appeared to be driving a large number of horses in the direction of the Gila country. Five days later, on September 4, the group that had gone to Chihuahua returned safely also. On September 9, a party of settlers who had gone to Las Salinas to get salt came back with a train of mules loaded with this product. Three days later Jose de Herrera set out for Santa Fe with a shipment of dry goods for that place. These were being transported by the mule train of Pedro Colmenero and were intended for the soldiers of the Presidio de Santa Fe. The Apaches renewed their hostilities and on September 17, Lieutenant Patricio Lucero undertook a campaign against them with two hundred and thirty men, including soldiers, volunteers, and mission Indians. They took as their guide, Chief Frijoles, an Apache who had been captured a few months before. But while the expedition made its way north in search of the enemy, different Apache bands stole twenty-one cows from Chihuahua on September 20, and ten oxen from Socorro on the 22nd. The expedition of Lieutenant Lucero to Sierra del Sacramento accom- plished little. He returned to El Paso on September 27 after a fruitless chase.' 1 El Paso continued to grow in importance it seems. On October 1, 1788, Francisco Xavier de Uranga was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Pueblo del Paso de) Norte. This clearly shows that the settlement and missions in this area had become of sufficient importance to appoint a higher administrative officer than a mere Captain of Presidio.' 2 41A. G. M., Provincias lnternas, v. I 02, pp. 84-94. ,2A. G. /., Audiencia de Guadalajara, 104-6-8 (Commissions of Military Officers of the Presidio del Norte in New Spain) .

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