Our Catlzolic Heritage in Te:ras
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Indians and win their friendship. The only thing needed was the approval and authorization for the founding of the new mission. If his Lordship approved the idea, he could issue orders to Captain Juan Valdez, now in San Antonio, to select a suitable site for the new establishment and to give possession of it, in the name of His Majesty, to Father Margil, as representative of the friars from the College of Zacatecas. This had been the procedure followed in East Texas by Ramon. It would be well to send, he suggested, a few oxen and some .corn seed. Two or three yokes of oxen from those destined for the soldiers of the Presidio of San Antonio could be used temporarily to plant a crop as soon as possible after the establishment of the new mission. He closed the letter by declaring that it was his cherished hope that the proposed Mission of San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo might be the first which his Lordship founded in the Province of the Tejas. 11 Margil's letter found a favorable reception. The idea of establishing a mission so soon after his appointment both pleased and flattered Aguayo. He immediately gave orders, therefore, for the founding of the proposed mission to Captain Juan Valdez, his lieutenant in San Antonio. In a long decree the new governor explained that the propagation of the Catholic faith had always beer1 the chief concern of the king, who, in the case of the Province of the Tejas, had issued special instructions directed to this end. The governor had been informed by Father Margil and other persons worthy of credit that "in the vicinity of said Villa [de Bejar] and farther inland, there are many nations of peaceful Indians, docile and friendly to the Spaniards, who live in the wretched night of heathenism, clamoring for missions in order that the beautiful day of evangelical truth may dawn upon them," and that among these were the Pampopas, an Indian nation of about two hundred members who lived near the San Antonio River. In view of these facts he had seen fit to order, in the name of His Majesty, "that a mission be founded and built under the advocation and patronage of San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo, in the vicinity of the said Villa of San Antonio, and that the most suitable, fertile, and convenient site [for the purpose] be chosen." Unable to be present in person, because of his many .duties in connection with the enlistment of men and the purchase of supplies, such as arms, horses, munitions of war, provisions, and all those things necessary for the expe- dition entrusted to him by the Marquis of Valero to reestablish the power JI Father Margi! to Aguayo, December 26, 171 9, in Testimonio de la Possession y Mission de San Jose. A.G. I., Audiencia de G11adalajara, 67-3-11.
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