San Antonio de Valero and Jrlissionary Activity, 1716-1719 73
it was pointed out, for the new Indians to be congregated there, knowing well how to till the soil and to do many other useful things learned in their mission life. It is to be noted that in making this suggestion Father Olivares was following an old custom established in the early days of the conquest. The Indians who had become civilized in the older missions were frequently used to help train those more recently congregated. It is thus that we find Tlaxcaltecan Indians in almost all the missions of the northern frontier. From Saltillo, where the town of San Esteban of the Tlaxcaltecos was established, they were taken as far as Monclova and it was even proposed-on several occasions to bring them to Texas. But let us return to Father Olivares' proposals. He pointed out that a pueblo of about three or four thousand Indians could be established near the new mission when the Payayas, Sanas, Pampoas, and the other neigh- boring tribes were congregated on the San Antonio River. The location, he assured the viceroy, with pardonable ignorance of the country, was about twenty-five or thirty leagues from the Bay of Espiritu Santo and bordered on the north with the country of the Apaches. It would be nec- essary, therefore, that ten soldiers be assigned to the new mission for his personal safety until he was able to gather all the Indians to form the new pueblo. It would be highly advisable to induce some civilians to form a settlement in the same locality by offering them lands and water rights, the river being sufficient to supply a whole province. 5 Report of tlee Fiscales. The two reports of Father Olivares, together with the recent communications received ~rom Captain Domingo Ramon and the missionaries were all sent to the Fiscales who were asked to make such suggestions and recommendations as they deemed best. Ten days later, on November 30, the Fiscal Civil Espinosa and the Fiscal de Hacienda Velasco made separate reports to the viceroy on the subject. The first of these recommended that everything needed for the proposed establishment of a mission on the San Antonio River should be furnished to Father Olivares without delay, this being in accordance with the orders of His Majesty and his great zeal for the conversion of the natives. But Velasco took occasion to make a long, detailed, and lucid summary of everything that had transpired in Texas from 1688 to November 30, 1716. After having summarized the various measures adopted by the colonial government for the suppression of illicit trade 5 Father Espinosa to the Viceroy, [November 20, 1717]. Provi,,ciar /nternar, Vol. 181, pp. 131-133.
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