CHAPTER VIII
THE BEGINNINGS OF MISSIONARY ACTIVITY, 1670-1676
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Reasons for tlze grad11al advance into Texas . Ever since Pineda sailed along the coast of Texas in I 519, the Spaniards had continued to penetrate into this unknown land from all the points of the compass. Four lines of approach may be easily traced as we look back through the little more than a century and a half of explorations that have been treated in this narrative up to this time. We have seen how the first approaches were made from the east and along the Gulf of Mexico; how these were followed by the search of La Gran Quivira from New Mexic~ and Nueva Vizcaya as a base, that is, from the west and southwest; and lastly we have witnessed an advance from the south, through the far-reaching expansion of the Nuevo Reyno de Leon and Coahuila. Thus from the east, from the south, from the west, and from the north Spanish explorers, fortune hunters, slave catchers, and the pious sons of Saint Francis have repeatedly crossed the borders of the present State of Texas, each bent on his own quest. "Throughout the sixteenth century it may be said that the strongest urge in the exploration of the vast unknown regions of New Spain, whether north, south, east, or west was wealth and glory. Renown and easy fortune were the ruling passions of the stern conquis- tadors. And yet it must be admitted in all justice that the religious influence, that is, the missionary zeal which burned in the hearts of the Franciscans and their co-workers to convert the numberless thousands of the New World was ever present as evidenced by the missionaries that accompanied every expedition, and that it became in the end a greater urge than purely material or political aims ... Faith in fabu- lously rich kingdoms like those of the Aztecs and the Incas died slowly, but surely, as a result of repeated dismal failures and disappoint- ments. By the close of the century the material interest shifted .gradually from rich native kingdoms to rich mines, while the earnest desire to convert the natives grew stronger." 1 As the seventeenth century progressed, the missionary spirit and zeal, the desire to spread our faith and carry the comforts of religion to the unfortunate natives became a stronger factor in the northern advance.
I Castaneda, "Earliest Catholic Activities," i n oj. &it., p. x. [ 216]
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