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Ottr Catholic Heritage in T e:xas
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tillos, all of which was done on August 29, 1726. 29 The Presidio of Nuestra Senora de Loreto was destined to remain at its new location for twenty-three years, before it was moved for the last time to the San Antonio River in 1749. Apache hostilities and organization. Although the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar had not experienced the want and distress which afflicted Los Adaes and La Ba:hia, chiefly because of its relative prox- imity to the presidio on the Rio Grande and the better organization of the missions founded in its vicinity; nevertheless, the region had not been exempt from troubles of its own. No sooner was this post estab- lished than it became the mark of the undying enmity of the Apaches. These Indians were to prove a thorn in the side of the Spaniards in Texas. When the Tejas were befriended and aided in their campaigns against the Apaches, the seeds for their hatred were sown. They never forgot it and continued to pester the Spaniards relentlessly for more than half a century. Before discussing their hostilities during the period under discussion, it will be well to give a brief summary of the nature and character of these fierce tribes. The Apaches of Texas, more properly referred to as the Eastern Apaches, were a branch of the Athapascan family, the most widely dis- tributed of the North American Indian linguistic groups. Their name was probably derived from apaclm, the Zuni name for enemy, applied first to the Navajos of New Mexico. They are in reality a part of the southern division of the Athapascan family, which includes three large groups: the Navajos of New Mexico, just mentioned; the Apaches Car- lanes, a number of tribes surrounding the Navajos; and the Texas Apaches proper, or Lipanes. 30 In the early years, however, no distinction was made by the Spaniards between the different tribes or groups and the name was applied in a generic sense to all of them. At the begin- ning of the eighteenth century they lived far to the north and west of San Antonio, on the upper waters of the Colorado, Brazos, and Red River, but as time goes on, they were slowly pushed south by their invet- %9Report of the Auditor de Guerra, August 26, I 726. A. G. N., Provincias lnternas, Vol. 236, Part I. lDHanabook of the American Indians, Part I; Opinion del Auditor, Juan de Olivan Rebolledo, January 27, 1724. A. G. N., Provin&ias lnternas, Vol. 181; W. E. Dunn, "Apache Relations in Texas, 1718-1750," Quarterly, XIV, 198-269. The last monograph is a splendid study of the subject and the only one available in English.
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