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T/1e Begi1111i11gs of Missionary Activity, 1670-1676
The miraculous apparition of Maria of Agreda, revealed to the J umanos, the Tejas and other nations east of New Mexico, inspired the religious efforts and fervor of the missionaries, who carried the torch of Christian civilization almost to the eastern borders of Texas in the land of the Hasinai Confederacy. It cannot be denied that material interests and sordid considerat-ions of gain still moved colonial officials during this century, but the apostolic zeal of the faithful sons of Saint Francis had become an all-consuming passion. Thus the first formal attempts to Christianize the Indians that lived within the present limits of Texas below the Pecos were not in reality the result of a search for riches or wealth, nor of the fear of foreign aggression. Rather they were the result of the honest and laudable desire of Franciscan missionaries from the Province of J alisco to bring to the fold the Indians who lived beyond the Rio Grande. "If the intrepidity and valor of the Spanish settler," says Portillo, "in penetrating unknown regions and daring imminent dangers and hardships are laudable and worthy of admiration, the zeal of the evangelical missionaries who, without other arms than a crucifix and a breviary, defied death in the hope of finding at each step the palm of martyrdom, is no less admirable." 1 It has been shown that contact between the Spanish outposts of Nueva Vizcaya, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila and the Indians who lived along the Rio Grande was common and frequent. For more than two decades many of these Indian tribes had been sending messengers to Saltillo, Parral, Guadalajara, and Mexico City itself to solicit missionaries to instruct them in our faith. Under what influence they had been moved to take this unprecedented step in the history of the New World can be easily deduced. The miraculous apparition of the Woman in Blue was, no doubt, the source of these early delegations. Not until 1673, however, were measures finally adopted to meet their frequent requests. In this year the conversion of these tribes was formally entrusted to the Franciscan missionaries of the Province of J alisco. In the course of their labors, they were to extend their activity not only north of Saltillo to present Monclova, but even beyond the Rio Grande into present day Texas. Their missionary work was to take them as far as present Edwards County and to bring them into contact with many of the Indians in the Del Rio- Eagle Pass area and as far east as the present Nueces River.
1 Portillo, Apuntes para la /sistoria de Coa/suila y Tejas, I 58.
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