Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
16
many years in the province."u This opinion as to the blame of Rivera is somewhat far-fetched, but the deduction as to the evils that accrued from befriending the Apaches are certainly accurate. 33 Tl,e Comanche. This tribe was an offshoot of the Shoshoni of Wyoming, who appear to have reached the region of eastern New Mexico and the Panhandle of Texas about 1700. It was a common tradition among the natives, recorded by the Spaniards, that early in the century these two warlike and determined nations had met in fierce battle on the Rio del Fierro, a stream which seems to have been the Wichita, in which after fighting desperately for nine days, the Apaches had been at last defeated and forced to retreat. From that time on, the Comanches had pursued and attacked them without mercy, forcing them continually farther to the south and west. Extending their raids into the very heart of the new province, the Comanches are said to have been seen in an attack on San Antonio for the first time in 1743. 34 After the destruction of San Saba, the missionaries became interested in founding missions for the Comanches and induced Spanish officials to make peace with them and the nations of the north. But the cession of Louisiana and the subsequent changes in the administration of Texas, changed conditions and the original plans were not carried out, although temporary peace was negotiated. 35 Such was the nature of the natives with which the missionaries had perpetually to contend. It is necessary to keep in mind the relatively low culture of even the most advanced of the groups described, which may be said to have been the Hasinai, to appreciate fully the difficulties and iabors of the tireless Padres in their faithful efforts to instruct them not only in the tenets of our faith but in the habits and customs of civilized life. Those who at the close of the century had attained the highest degree of civilization, however, were members not of the more 32 Castaiieda, Alorfi's History of Te:ras, II, 376-377. "The best and only study in English on ·Apache relations in Texas is the excellent attide by W. E. Dunn "Apache Relations in Texas, 1718-1750," Quarterly, XIV, 198-274. The best Spanish printed source on these Indians is Arricivita, Cltroni<,a Serafica y A,Postolica . .. Cf. "Apache" in Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, I, 63-67; see also Hackett, Pic/rardo; limits of Louisiana and Te:ras, II, Chap- ter XVI. 34 Castaiieda, Aforft's History of Te:ras, II, 294. 35 For details concerning the Comanches see Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, I, 327-328; Hackett, op. cit., II, Chapter XV Ill; Chabot, Morft's Indian Excerpts, 14-15.
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