Our Catltolic Heritage in Texas
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the m1ss10ns. Instead of conscripts, married men with families, who desired to settle in the province and make it their permanent home, should be sent. Indigent families who were unable to make a comfortable living in the city should be encouraged to go to Texas. The heads of such families could be enlisted and paid the same salary as the soldiers. These men should be given the equivalent of two years' pay in advance, and their wives and children. over fifteen years of age should be paid half as much. By advancing them the cash, they could buy and transport, at their own expense, all they needed to establish their permanent set- tlement in Texas. Upon arrival in the province they should be assigned land and given full rights to will their property to their children. This would naturally prove a great incentive to the new settlers, who would cultivate and improve their land for the benefit of their children. Fur- thermore, Father Espinosa pointed out that children born and reared in Texas would come to regard it their country. There were many mechanics and tradesmen living in Mexico City and other large centers, he observed, who were unemployed and who were barely able to subsist. These would be more than glad of the opportunity to make a new start in a new land.n The officials listened with interest to his proposals but, as usual, did little to put them into effect. In the instructions for the enlistment of men for the new expedition it was urged, as in the past, that they be married men as far as possible. Nothing else resulted from the earnest efforts of Father Espinosa to promote the building up of substantial civil settle- ments near the missions. Margil offers to found San Jose -mission. While Father Espinosa was on his way to Mexico, Father Margil, who remained in the Villa de Bejar, was not idle. Consumed by a desire to preach the Gospel and bring into the fold of the Church the hundreds of Indians with whom he came in contact, it grieved him exceedingly to see so many tribes come to San Antonio in quest of missions. On December 26, 1719, he wrote a long letter to the Marquis of Aguayo, congratulating him on his appoint- ment as governor. After the customary courtesies, he explained to the new governor, who was an old friend of the saintly missionary, that the friars from the Colleges of Queretaro and Zacatecas were working in perfect harmony with but one end in view, the salvation of souls. He related how each had founded three missions in East Texas and how they had SOFather Espinosa, Cnf'!5nica, 455-456. It is interesting to note the arguments advanced by Father Espinosa in an effort to solve the question of unemployment at that time.
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