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Our Catliolic Heritage in T ezas
1748. In the meantime Fray Mariano proceeded to the formal founding of Mission San Francisco Xavier in February of the same year. It will be remembered that this mission, the first of the San Xavier group, had been unofficially begun as early as February, 1746. 34 In accord with the peremptory order of the viceroy of January 25, 1748, the thirty men from La Bahia and Los Adaes had been sent to San Xavier under the command of Lieutenant Juan Galvan, who arrived at his destination on March 13. It is to Galvan that we owe the first description of conditions at San Xavier. In a report which he made on March- 18, he declared that upon his arrival he had found the missionaries at San Xavier without a single soldier. A stockade had already been built, as well as the necessary huts for the use of the soldiers. He also found a good supply of seed, stock, oxen, and clothing for the Indians. These had been taken the month before from San Antonio by the tireless Fray Mariano, who had pledged his credit and that of the College to the amount of over five thousand ,pesos. Galvan reported that many Indians from Rancheria Grande Yerbipi- ames, Yojuanes, Tonkawas, Mayeyes, Deadoses, Bidais, and Orcoquisacs, were gathered in expectation of the founding of the new mission. Many others were expected daily. A Bidai Indian had declared that more than four hundred others were only six leagues distant, while a chief of the Orcoquisacs offered to bring numerous Indians of neighboring tribes. So great was the number already congregated, however, that Fray Mariano, much to his sorrow, was obliged to tell the new converts before the end of March, not to solicit any more tribes. In spite of the supplies brought, he was soon constrained to ·refuse food to all except those who were actually engaged in the cultivation of the fields and the other tasks attendant upon the founding of the new mission. Word was sent to the tribes, who had not arrived, to halt at convenient distances until further notice. In concluding his report, Galvan declared emphatically that the thirty soldiers could not afford adequate protection to the three missions. Like the missionaries, he urged establishment of a presidio with fifty men.is "See pp. 24 6_ 247_ Bolton points out that in the_ first report conceming th_is mission made by Fray Mariano, it was called Nuestra Senora _de los Dolores de! Rio de San Xavier a name never applied to it again. Bolton, o-p. c,t., 185. JSM ' "al f Father Ganzabal, June 14, 1748; Galvan's report, March 18, 1748 emon o , . . ~ . , . ~ G M Historia Vol. 28; Arricivita, Chromca, 325 "'rass,m; Fray Mariano ID n · · ·, ' d l C 1 · (D T ' C . U ti"a May 7 1748 A rchivo e o eg,o unn ranscripts 1716 to aptam rru , , , , • 1749).
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