Handicaps to 1vlission Development, 1731-1750
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defended themselves with unusual bravery. They waited for the Spaniards to discharge their arms and then closed in on them, time after time. For four hours the fight went on. The advantage of firearms soon began to tell, howe,·er, and shortly after noon, the Indians abandoned their ra11cl1eri as to the Spaniards and took refuge in the surrounding hills. The number of dead could not be estimated because as soon as the Indians fell, the warriors would drag their bodies and throw them into the river. Among those killed was a prominent chief, who carried a silver mounted cane, indicating that he had either been on friendly terms with the Spaniards before, or had obtained the cane from some one who had. The sc,·ere fight had yielded to the Spaniards only thirty women and children prisoners, the majority having fled at the approach of the soldiers. They took se\'en hundred horses and one hundred mule loads of peltry and plunder. Altogether only seven Spaniards were wounded during the ent:::igement, and one of them died a few days later. The details of the direction followed to the field of battle are confusing, but the location has been definitely identified as having been on the San Saba River, in the vicinity of the site where the mission of this name was established later. 12 At a council of war held immediately after the battle, it was decided to return to the main camp as quickly as possible, since the Indians still had many warriors and might surprise the Spaniards, who were not acquainted with the country. No sooner did Governor Bustillo turn his back, than the Apaches and their allies began to harass them. Constantly followed by various bands, the Spaniards made their way back to San Antonio with great haste, consuming only fifteen days on their return march. On December 22, 1732, they made their entry into the presidio. First efforts to reduce tlee Apaclees to missions. But the exultation of the recent victory was greatly minimized by the reprisals which the Apaches had taken on the stock and horses of San Antonio in the absence of the governor. Immediately upon his arrival, petitions were made, therefore, that the prisoners captured be not distributed but that they be held as a means of making a treaty. It was proposed that one or two of the women be sent back to their people as messengers of peace. Chief among the petitioners was Father Fray Gabriel de Vergara, president of the Queretaran missions of San Antonio and minister of that of Con- 12 Dunn, op. cit., Q11arterly, XIV, 232-234, It is of interest to note that by this time the Apaches had come to range much farther south than has generally been admitted.
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