Rivera's Inspection and Removal of Missions to San Antonio 241
in accord with the instructions given by the viceroy, in order to avoid unnecessary crowding and to be able to render each other mutual assist- ance in case of attack by enemy Indians. Temporary structures of rough timber, plastered with clay and roofed with grass, had been erected as chapels, quarters for the Padres had been built, and shelters made to store the provisions and supplies for the Indians. These had been induced to come to the new missions with much difficulty. Two trips to their dis- tant lands had been made, one to persuade them of the advantages of mission life and the other to conduct them from their rancherias to the new establishments. Three nations were now congregated: the Pacaos, the Pajalat, and the Alobja or Pitalaques. The captain of the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar, agreeable to the orders he had received from the viceroy, had officially placed them in possession of the sites selected, giving them sufficient lands and water for the raising of crops and the grazing of cattle. The governors and alcaldes for the Indian pueblos of the three missions had been elected and placed in office with great solemnity to impress the prospective neophytes. Espinosa estimated the number gathered in the new missions at one thousand, and Father Mezquia assured the viceroy that they were so numerous that some had to be asked to remain in their habitations until the missions had an ade- quate supply of provisions to feed them. 37 It took a month and a day to move the missions to the new sites and to bring the Indians. Father President Gabriel de Vergara, Father Pedro Munoz, and Father Juan de los Angeles, accompanied by seven soldiers and a corporal from the Presidio of San Antonio, and two Indian inter- preters, went to bring the neophytes. In addition, a settler hired by the missionaries and paid a regular salary by them, assisted the party in conducting the Indians back to their new home. The tribes of East Texas had refused to go all the way to San Antonio. They had, more- over, strongly protested against the departure of the Padres. Unable to understand the reason for the abandonment of the old missions, they asked the governor what they had done to displease the missionaries or the Spaniards. During the fourteen years of their establishment, the Ais, the Nazonis, and the Neches had become deeply attached to the kind and gentle sons of St. Francis, who had lived among them all these years and had shared their hardships, sufferings, and privations. But if l 7 Father Pedro Perez de Mezquia to the Viceroy, May 4, 17 J 1 ; also Mezquia to the Viceroy, August 8, I 7 31, in A. G. N., Provi11d11s l11lt!r11as, Vol. 236; Espinosa, op. cit., 459.
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