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Our Catliolic H critage in Texas
The reduction of the garrison of Los Adaes was as ill-advised as the abolition of the Presidio of Dolores. It left the former post at the mercy of the designs of the French, who, it was well known, had always looked with greed upon the Province of Texas. Numerous Indians were their friends and most of them had guns and used them with great skill. With the reduced force now left in the presidio and the extinction of Nuestra Senora de Ios Dolores de los Tejas, heretofore a rallying point for defence, the door had been left wide open for attack by the enemy. Missionaries reqttest permission to move from East Texas. In con- clusion, they humbly begged the viceroy to reconsider the action taken and restore the presidio, issuing instructions to its commander to exert himself in the reduction of the Indians to mission life. If his Excellency did not think it advisable to grant the request, they asked that he permit them to move the missions to a more suitable location where their efforts would not be wasted. But if he could not accede to either one of the two requests, they implored him to issue the necessary orders to relieve the missionaries of their responsibility and to allow them to return to their College of the Holy Cross of Queretaro. The petition was signed by Fathers Fray Gabriel de Vergara, President, Fray Joseph Andres Rod- riguez de Jesus Maria, Fray Juan Bautista Garcia de Suarez, Fray Alonso Giraldo de Terreros, Fray Manuel de Ortufi6n, and Fray Joseph de San Antonio y Estrada and sent to Mexico City by a special messenger. 30 The missionaries were not alone in their protest. Governor Melchor de Mediavilla y Azcona, and Captain Becerra, formerly stationed at the presidio, bitterly complained of the action taken. The Guardian of the College of Querctaro stressed, vehemently, the dire effects to be expected from the extinction of the presidio. He predicted the ruin of the three Queretaran missions founded in its vicinity by the zealous missionaries and maintained for fourteen years at the cost of so many sufferings and so much money to the royal treasury and to the benefactors of the Col- lege of the Holy Cross, who had contributed so liberally for the propa- gation of the faith in far-away Texas. 31 All the opposing declarations JORepresentaci6n de los Religiosos exponiendo razones contra la extinci6n del Presidio de los Tejas. July 20, 1729. San Francisco el Grande Archive, Vol. 3, pp. 4-6. JIFr. Miguel Sevillano de Paredes to the Viceroy, September 7, 1729; _Media- villa y Azcona to the Viceroy, July 30, 1729, in_ Ibid.; also ~r. Pedro Perez de Mezquia to the Viceroy, November 12, 1729, Arcluvo del Colegto de la Santa Crt1::, 1716-1749 (Dunn Transcripts).
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