Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
Lopez, "in the company of the unconverted Indians and wrt:hout a Spanish escort until we·came to the Junta de los Rios (which is about one hundred leagues distant)." It seems that the enthusiastic missionaries were so kindled with ardor for the salvation of souls that they did not wait for an escort and that they actually left El Paso about December 1, 1683. After thirteen days, during which they tramped over many weary miles along the rough and almost impassable canyon of the Rio Grande, they came to the first settlement of the Julimes, where, much to their surprise, they found a "good-sized church, built of reeds, with an altar the size of that in the church at El Paso." 47 Encouraged by the faithfulness of the Indians who had kept their word so well, the Padres continued down the river for a distance of about six leagues to another pueblo. Here they found another church "larger and more carefully made, and a dwelling for the priests." 41 Little wonder, then, that the overjoyed missionaries began immediately to teach the Indians. "Seeing their docility and the fervor they employed to become Christians, we began at once," he says, "to baptize the children, because their parents offered them with singular love to our holy faith." 49 Thus by December, 1683, the three missionaries had in fact begun the evangelization of the Jumano Indians at La Junta de los Rios in the two churches which the natives had built for them before their arrival. It is safe to declare that from this time dates the beginning of formal missionary work in this area. That the two pueblos were on the Texas side is shown by the fact that Mendoza and his men, when they came upon the missionaries on December 29, 1683, at La Navidad en las Cruces, had already crossed the Rio Grande. From this point, they traveled seven leagues to the second church, calling its site El Apostol Santiago, which they said was near a creek which flowed from north to south and which could have been no other than Alamito Creek near present Presidio. 50 Tlie Jt,limes or ]umanos of La Junta. The Indians among whom the missionaries found themselves were no strangers to the Spaniards. As already stated, they had been often visited by various expeditions and they were in the habit of going as far inland as Parral, not on marauding expeditions, but to work in the Spanish plantations and mines, returning to their ranclierias in time to harvest their own crops. They lived in 47Hughes, op. cit., 332. 41 /bid., 332. "Posadas, "Memorial," in Fernandez Duro, Dittgo de Pe,ialosa, 69. S0"Itinerary of Juan Dominguez de Mendoza," in Bolton, Spanisl,, ExploraJio11, 326-328; see also pages 3I7-318, Volume 11, of the present work.
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