Our Catlwlic Heritage in Texas
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iards want us to work for them; we want to be their friends and to fight no more; but to live near them, or to be placed in a mission, we do not want even to speak of it.'' Father Miguel frankly confesses that he did everything usque ad teltimmn potentis to attract the Indians, but all in vain. He says that Fray Juan de los Angeles, who knows the language of the Tejas and is very skillful in the use of signs, tried to convince them but failed, and that Chief Rodriguez had tried the same persuasion without results. 23 But the enthusiastic missionary would not be discouraged in spite of the circumstances. In his report he goes on to explain that he is going to make one more attempt. He says that he has arranged for Chief Rodriguez to accompany Governor Almazan on his return to East Texas and that the two of them will stop at Rancheria Grande in a last effort to get some of the chiefs of the Yerbipiames to come to live at the pro- posed mission of San Francisco Xavier. He points out that this end is greatly to be desired because the Indians of Rancheria Grande have always had a bad influence up~n those congregated in the missions of East Texas. Most of the Yerbipiames are apostate Indians, he says, who visit the others frequently and cause them to become dissatisfied with mission life. He expresses the fear, however, that all the endeavors to bring them to the new mission will be unsuccessful. If this last attempt failed, he promised the Guardian of the College of Queretaro that he would go in person to the ranclzeria of the Paquache na_tion on the upper Nueces and try to convince these Indians to congre- gate in the new mission. He said he was hopeful of success because these Indians had suffered two severe attacks recently from the Apaches, and as a result of these misfortunes they were more likely to be willing to listen to his proposals to come and live under the protection of the Spanish garrison on the San Antonio. He closed his report by assuring his superior that he would try to establish the Mission of San Francisco Xavier as ordered by the viceroy with one or the other tribe, or with both. 24 It seems that his efforts to carry out the belated establishment of the Mission of San Francisco Xavier de Najera proved useless. The result of Father Miguel's negotiations with the Paquache was never reported. After 1726, the separate record kept by the missionaries at San Antonio de Valero for the Indians of San Francisco Xavier was discontinued. Thus this mission never became a reality in spite of the persistence of Chief
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