255
Establislmzent and Early Progress of San Xavier ,lfissions
habits, and customs and therefore the nations could not get along with one another. The small detachments stationed at Boca de Leones and Cerralvo had long ceased to be necessary and generally busied themseh·es in caring for the cattle of the large l1acienda.s in that region. In the case of the Presidio de! Sacramento, the settlement that had grown in its vicinity was now able to defend itself and really did not need the soldiers as much as the infant establishment proposed on the San Xa\'ier. Bustillo had attempted to persuade the viceroy in his report that the firearms reported to be in general use among the Yojuanes, Deadoses, and their allies were secured from the Tejas, who in turn obtained them from the Spaniards. In this, Mediavilla declared, the informant was in grave error. The guns could not have come from the Tejas and Spaniards in the first place because they were of French make. Furthermore, he knew from actual experience that French traders were in the habit of entering the Province of Texas by way of the Cadodachos, located above Los Adaes, from where they went far to the southwest, returning by way of Nachi (Natchez). It was these traders who furnished guns and ammuni• tion to the natives in exchange for hides and pelts. As a concrete example he related how in 1725 a Spanish soldier had run away to Natchitoches and told the French of a supposed silver mine near the Trinity. Almost five hundred Frenchmen and Indians had entered Texas shortly after- wards and explored the country for ninety leagues to a point beyond the Trinity in search of the silver mine. Not finding it, they had returned unmolested to their country. "It is my opinion," Mediavilla concluded, "that the site on the San Xavier is the best, when everything is considered, for the good of the nations that have solicited missions ... Nowhere are there such singular prairies or water sufficient to enrich the greater part of them ... May God enlighten the living with what they need most to obtain the desired success in the conversion of so many heathens."" Appeal for action. In the meantime, conditions at San Xavier where, as we have seen, a temporary unofficial mission had been established in the belief that the approval would be a question of only a few n1onths, grew desperate. Fray Mariano wrote Fray Giraldo at Queretaro at the HMelchor de Mediavilla y Azcona to Fray Alpnso Giraldo de Terreros, June 28, 1746. San Fra11cisco el Grande Arc/rive, vol. 19, pp. 65-71. A copy found also in Arcliivo del Colegio de la Sa,,ta Cruz de Querelaro (Dunn Transcripts, 1716-1749).
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