26i
Founding of El Paso and Establislmzent of 11'/issions
they were now in a position to defend themselves better "from so many and such barbarous nations as are today banded together." 42 The subsequent development of the Spanish settlements and Indian pueblos at El Paso will form the subject of another chapter. We have now seen how by the end of 1685, a permanent presidio and Casas Reales had been erected near the Mission of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, and how by that time also, the bulk of the Spanish settlers who had first established themselves at Real de San Lorenzo had been forced by circumstances to remove to a site within a league and a half from the presidio. In the winter of 1684 the Spanish settlers had been sorely tried. They suffered untold hardships, hemmed in on all sides by hostile Indians, with practically no clothing, and almost without food because of the failure of their crops caused by a severe drouth. They seriously con- templated the abandonment of El Paso and their retreat to Sacramento, still farther south in Nueva Vizcaya. Only the firmness of Governor Cruzate, who stoutly resisted all their efforts and rejected their pro- posals to abandon this strategic point, saved the day. Very ably he pointed out that to retreat still farther south would in no manner improve their condition and would only serve to encourage the Indians, who would attribute their removal not to dire necessity but to fear and this would fill them with such pride that they would harass the survivors still more in the new site. 43 Beginnings of missionary work at La Junta de Los Rios. We have seen in the preceding chapters how La Junta de los Rios (present Presidio) was frequently visited by the Spaniards from San Bartolome, Santa Barbara, and Nuevo Almaden in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. During those years, several of the expeditions that set out for New Mexico actually crossed the Rio Grande at this point and placed crosses in the pueblos of the J ulimes, a branch of the J umano, who resided there. 44 But it seems that the first missionary to have said Mass among these Indians,· according to the records now available, was no other than the enthusiastic Father Fray Garcia de San Francisco, who, 42 Certification of Cabi/do, Open Meeting, Held at El Paso, October 27, 1684, Autos sobre los Socorros, A. G. ill., Provi11cias l11/er11as, Vol. 37, f. 20. 43 Reprcsentations of the Cabildo and Autos of Governor Cruzate, August 27- October 2, 1684, Autos sobre los Socorros, A. G. ,~!., Provincias lnternas, Vol. 37, ff. 32-43. "See Chapter VII.
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