Tlie Field and Its Workers
17
advanced tribes, but of the weak, barbarous, and wandering tribes of Coahuiltecan stock. Some of the missions of San Antonio, particularly San Jose, succeeded in training its neophytes to such an extent that by 1768 San Jose no longer had to use Spanish overseers either in the cultivation of its fields, or the supervision of its various trade shops and looms. The Indians had organized their own government by that time. under the sympathetic direction of the missionaries. They had their own tribunals of justice, and their own officers carried out the sentences. It is only necessary to read the graphic description of the progress made by the Indians of this mission to realize how effective were the labors of the sons of Saint Francis. Little wonder that the visiting Padre exclaimed: "This mission is so pretty and in such a flourishing condition, both materially and spiritually, that I cannot find words or figures with which to express its beauty." 36 Forty-eight years of unselfish and per- sistent effort had wrought what can truly be termed a miracle. Having described in detail the character and degree of culture of the various groups of Indians among whom the devoted missionaries worked in Texas, it will not be amiss at this time to give a brief summary of the establishment and purposes of the three colleges of Propaganda Fide from which the indefatigable laborers in the vineyard of the Lord came. Frequent references have been made in the course of the previous volumes to the College of La Santa Cruz ( Holy Cross) of Queretaro and the College of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) of Zacatecas. In the course of the present volume reference will be made to still another college, that of San Fernando of Mexico, which like the other two, sent missionaries to work in the missions of Texas. When wer~ these colleges established, what was their nature, and how did they come to furnish all the missionaries for Texas? These are the questions that naturally arise in the mind of the reader. College of La Santa Cmz de Queretaro. The founder of this apostolic college, which has the distinction of being the first of Propaganda Fide in all North and South America, was the Reverend Father Fray Antonio Linaz de Jesus Maria, a native of the Province of Mallorca, Spain. This remarkable and zealous Franciscan, urged by an ardent desire to spread the faith not only among indifferent and fallen away Spaniards but also among the uncounted thousands of unconverted Indians of the New
36 Forrestal, Tlte Solis Diar,y of 1767, Texas Catholic Historical Society, Prelimi- nar,y Studies, I, No. 6, p. J 9.
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