25i
Fou11di11g of El Pnso 1111d Esta/,/isltment of 1llissions
The four leagues that separated the camp at La Salineta from Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe were quickly tra,·erscd by the grateful sun·ivors, for on October 9, three days after the official decision of the governor was announced, the camp had been formally installed beyond the Rio Grande. On that day Governor Otermin drew up an auto which he headed : "In the Plaza de Armas at the site on the Rio Grande del Norte de la Toma." On the twentieth of the same month. in an official communi- cation, he cleclared that he was already actually established and fortified on this new site, where he awaited the orders of the viceroy.~ 5 But it is the careful, patient, and tireless Aycta who has left us the first description of the Spanish establishment at the old Mission of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe at El Paso. In a letter written to the Commissary General on December 20, 1680, he says: "All the army remains on the same Rio del Norte divided into three di,·isions, at a distance of two leagues from each other; the governor and the cabildo in that of San Lorenzo (a name which was given in memory of the destruction having been [done] on the clay which the church celebrates for him) and with his Lordship five religious; he is also building huts in regular form, but all are dwelling in the house of poles and branches which he made with his hands; ... the second is the Real de San Pedro de Alcantara, where four other religious remain; the third is the Real de] Santisimo Sacramento, where the Father Preacher Fray Alvaro de Zavaleta remains as prelate with other religious; and the remainder of my religious stay in the convent of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. singing [in the choir] of I-I is Divine Goodness , as if [ they were] in San Francisco of Mexico, or in [the presence of] Divine Providence." 26 From the repeated ref- erences to La Toma at El Paso as the headquarters of the Spanish settlement, it may be safely deduced that San Lorenzo at this time, October, 1680, was in all probability on the present site of San Elizario on the river. Proposals for a -presidio at El Paso. The occupation of El Paso at this time was, of course, a temporary measure and the refugees had no intention of remaining there. But circumstances immediately developed which made the settlement permanent. No sooner was the camp estab- lished than Governor Otermin held a council on October 12, to determine the most urgent needs of the settlers. It was unanimously agreed that
25 A1,tos Toca11les, A . G . Al., Prm1i11cias l11ter11as, V ol. 3i, ff. 85-87, 102. 26 Carla de AJ•cla, December 20, 1680. Cited by Hughes in r>'f>. ril.. 316.
Powered by FlippingBook