Fou11ding of El Paso med Establislmeent of Ali.ssions
269
that it was indispensable that the Padres, going to their lands and saying Mass among their people, should have churches in which to offer the Holy Sacrifice. The Indian chiefs, who had traveled several hundred miles, however, were determined to convince the good friar of their sincerity. Taking the measurements of the church at El Paso, they sent them by their swiftest runners posthaste to their pueblos with instructions for them to build a similar edifice. About twenty days later, a large group of sixty Indians, men and women, appeared before the astonished Padre to inform him that their friends were already erecting the church, which would be ready by the time the missionaries came. These Indians, it should be remembered, had welcomed Cabeza de Vaca in 1 536, and had since that time evinced unmistakable signs of friendship for the Spaniards. It is of interest to note that the leader of the petitioners was a certain Juan Sabeata, a Jumano Indian, who had been baptized at Parral and now lived at La Junta. This interesting chief was dest ined to guide Mendoza almost to the threshold of the country of the Tejas and was later to bring the first news of the destruction of La Salle's colony, giving to the amazed Spanish officers of Nueva Vizcaya four pages from La Salle's diary, the only manuscript relics of the unfortunate settlement now extant , as a silent testimony of the fate of the French expedition to Texas. In his company there came at this time, several Tejas chiefs. Sabeata expiained to the governor and to Father Lopez that a part of h is nation lived to the east of La Junta, on the buffalo plains and near the Nueces River (upper Colorado) ; that there were some Christian Indians among them; and that all his people wished to be congregated in missions and to be taught and baptized by the Padrcs. 46 Tltc establiskmeut of missions at La Junta, 1683. Convinced of the sincerity of the Indian chiefs who had come to solicit missionaries, Father Lopez now resolved to set out immediately. Accompanied by Fathers Fray Juan de Zavaleta and Fray Antonio de Acevedo, he fearlessly made his way through the numerous villages of the Zumas along the Rio Grande to its confluence with the Mexican Conchos. These three zealous sons of Saint Francis were guided on the way by the faithful envoys that had come for them. "Vle t raveled afoot and barefooted," says Father 46 Bolton, Spa11isli Explorat io11 , 314-315 ; Hughes, op. cit. , 331-332; " .Memorial de Fr. Nicolas Lopez acerca de la poblacion de Nuevo l\lejico ..." Fernandez Duro, Diego de Pe,ia!osa, 67-69; "Memorial del l\'laestre de Campo Dominguez de l\lendoza" in Ibid., 7 5-76. Hackett, Historical Docum,mls, II, 2 57, 476 .
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