226
Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
the roads their legs and feet were covered with blood. In addition to their many hardships, they had nothing to eat. I saw them begging food from the Indians who gave them ·mescal and some roots which they ate." 20 Establisliment of Santa Rosa. While they were engaged in this work, Captain Francisco de Elizondo arrived with a detachment of twenty soldiers on January 27. He had been sent by the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya to put the Indians in possession of the mission site which they might select for their formal settlement in an organized pueblo. He inter- viewed the various chiefs, received their oath of allegiance to the king, and assured them of the king's interest in their welfare and protection. He explained to them that they should choose a convenient site whereon to establish the mission and pueblo, where they would be expected to live in peace and cultivate the soil under the direction of the mission- aries. The Indians appeared to be afraid of the soldiers, but with the assurance of the Padres that they would do them no harm, they agreed to select a site on the north bank of the Sabinas River, which as pre- viously stated, was south of San Ildefonso. Led by Fathers Larios and Pefiasco, the Indian chiefs and such as were not sick went with Captain Elizondo and the soldiers to the Sabinas, where he placed them in formal possession of the lands along the river as far as its mouth and north to San Ildefonso. The place chosen for the erection of the mission was called Santa Rosa and here the missionaries decided to establish their headquarters. After the usual ceremonies, the captain exhorted the Indians to obey the Padres and to live in peace among themselves and with the Spaniards. 21 Soon after the departure of Elizondo, Fathers Larios and Penasco returned to San Ildefonso, gathered all the Indians who could travel and conducted them to Santa Rosa, now that the soldiers were gone. The Padres felt they had accomplished the first object of their mission. On February 9, therefore, leaving Fray Manuel de la Cruz to take care of the Indians, the two set out for Saltillo, from where Father Pefiasco went on to Guadalajara to make a personal report of what had been accom- 2ornvestigaci6n ... Ano de I 690, MS., Guadalajara Archive. 21Autos ... de la entrada que hizo el Capitan Francisco de Elizondo ... MS., San Francisco El Grande Archive, I, 63-78. In the Autos published in Portillo, A,P11ntes, I 42-144, it seems that there were two acts of possession, one at San Ilde- fonso, where the friars were found when Elizondo came in, and one at Santa Rosa on the Sabinas.
Powered by FlippingBook