Our Catholic Heritage, Volume II

Our Catlzoli& Heritage in T e:xas

Having completed the survey as ordered by the viceroy, Captain Almazan publicly declared one-fifth of all the pasture lands belonged to the Villa de San Fernando in perpet,mm. The revenue or rent derived from the lands thus set aside was to be used to pay the cost of the administration of the city and of all public festivals and functions under- taken or ordered by the city council. He then declared the boundaries of the public lands of the villa to be as follows: on the south side of the city they began on the .end of the ejido lands and extended as far as the Paso de los Nogalitos, hence to the west southwest to La Lagunilla where a corner or angle is formed, hence north across the Llano del Leon and La Escaramuza to the Real de Nicolas Hernandez, where another corner is located, and hence to the east to the end of the survey. The fifth part of the farm and irrigable lands would later be set aside in a similar manner and for the same purpose. In sumarizing the limits of the new city of San Fernando, with its ejido, farm lands, pastures, and public lands, Captain Almazan declared that on the east side it was bounded by the San Antonio River, on the west Arroyo de Leon, on the south by the lands of the Mission of San Jose and Paso de los Nogalitos, and on the north by Arroyo Salado. 57 Provisions made for a parish priest. It would have been strange indeed if, after having made such careful provision for the physical welfare of the colonists, and the survey and distribution of the lands of the new municipality, the viceroy should have failed to provide for the spiritual welfare of the Canary Islanders. At the same time that the minute details for their transportation to distant Texas were prepared, and the precise orders for their reception and establishment were issued, the Marquis of Casafuerte wrote a letter to the Bishop of Guadalajara, in whose ecclesi- astical jurisdiction the new settlement was being founded, to request that he send a priest to look after their religious faith and practices. After stating that it was most important for their consolation that they should have some one to administer to them the Holy Sacraments, he begged the Right Reverend Doctor Nicolas Carlos Gomez de Cervantes, Bishop of Guadalajara and member of the Council of His Majesty, to appoint a parish priest from the Oratory of the Oblate Clerics of San Carlos, well S7The facts summarized in the foregoing paragraphs constitute the original sur- vey of the present city of San Antonio and could serve in identifying th_e original boundaries of the Villa de San Fernando. They have been carefully outlined from the Acta de Fundacion previously cited, a photostat copy of which is in the pos- session of the writer.