CHAPTER XII
Es-rAnLISHMENT or- M1ss10Ns JN EAsT TEXAS, 1689-1693
The officials of New Spain were at last able to breathe freely. Alonso de Leon and Father Massanet had returned from their trip to East Texas with unimpeachable proof of the destruction of the French settlement. An epidemic of smallpox had decimated the few lone survivors first, and the savage Indians of the coast had completed the devastation. The French threat, that had hung like a sword of Damocles over the Spanish dominion in North America, had been removed by Divine Providence, it seemed, and there was nothing to fear. This escape from the menace of foreign aggression filled the heart of the viceroy not only with joy, but with a sense of gratitude towards the Almighty, Who had delivered New Spain even before the king's troops at last found the ruins of the long- sought colony on Garcitas Creek. The realization that by this strange means God had brought the Spaniards in contact with a large group of Indians who had previously been visited by the Venerable Mother Maria de Agreda, marking them miraculously as the chosen children of the wilderness for missionary endeavor, deeply moved the officials. The sug- gestions of Alonso de Leon and Father Massanet for the immedia te extension of the Gospel into the new lands just visited met with enthu- siastic and hearty approval. Upon his return to Coahuila, Governor Leon had informed the new viceroy, the Count of Galve, that the country of the Tejas was fertile, well timbered, and blessed with an abundance of buffalo, game of all kinds, fish, wild fruits, and a most salubrious climate. The governor of this nation was a superior Indian, who showed much intelligence and understanding. His people cultivated the fields and raised corn, beans, melons, and watermelons. They lived in houses and were sa id to have nine permanent settlements. According to what the Spaniards had seen, they were already partly instructed in the tenets of Christianity, having been visited frequently in the past by the mysterious Woman in Bl1'e. In their primitive chapel they had a Crucifix, several saints, and a rosary; they kept a light burning day and night before their altar, used tallow in place of incense, celebrated feast days, and had musical instruments. In short, De Leon went so far as to declare that, in his opinion, the Tejas ,vere as civilized as the Aztecs had been when the Spaniards first came
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