Handicaps to irlission Development, 1731-1750
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been made slaves and employed in dressing skins, until one day, when they tried to escape, they were killed. On September 20, 1736, while on the way back from San Antonio to the Rio Grande, Fray Francisco Frias, escorted by ten soldiers under the command of Bartolome Torralba, was attacked by a large band of Apaches at a place called El Atascoso, about fourteen leagues from San Antonio. The soldiers resisted the attack with courage and succeeded in dridng the Indians away, but Torralba and a friendly Indian were wounded. The party, therefore, turned back to San Antonio, fearful of another assault. The new governor, Don Carlos Franquis de Lugo noticed the signs of the battle four days later when he passed by El Atascoso.= 0 A paclte raids on missions. The Apaches now displayed their anger against the missions. Shortly after the Atascoso fight, they stole about forty horses from San Francisco de la Espada. The leader of this raid appears to have been Cabellos Colorados, for the soldiers sent out in pursuit of the raiders captured a worn-out horse, which was recognized as one bought a short time before by the Indian chief from Alferez Galvan of San Antonio. A few days later Apache Indians surprised and killed two Indian women from Mission San Juan Capistrano. Not long after this outrage, they killed two others from Mission Concepcion. Shortly afterwards, they took two little Indian boys away from their mothers in plain sight of the mission. It is worthy of note that one of the boys succeeded in escaping and returned to his mission. During 1736 and 1737, the Apaches made frequent raids on the missions and presidio, killing several soldiers and citizens on different occasions and carrying away much stock and many horses. Such was the alarm felt at this time, that Antonio Fernandez de Jauregui, issued an order on October 19, 1737, commanding that no citizen of Bejar should fire a gun unless he saw Indians entering the settlement. The firing of a shot was to be the signal for all citizens to arm themselves to resist the Indians. 21 This same year, five Indian women and two boys from Mission San Francisco de la Espada went out to· gather fruit on the Medina River. While there, they were suddenly attacked by a group of Apaches, who killed the five women, horribly desecrated their bodies, slicing their abdomens with fiendish glee, and carried away the two boys.
20 Infidelidad de Apaches, 20, cited by Dunn, op. cit., 240-241. 2 1Bexar Archives, 1730-1736.
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