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Our Catlzolic Heritage in Texas
carried fifty men, commanded by Captain Salinas Varona. They seem to have sailed about a month after Teran set out from Monclova. Martinez and his men left the camp on July 3, with one hundred and fifty horses and forty mules, who soon made their way to the site of the old fort, from where they descended to the coast, which they reached on July 7. There was no sign of a vessel to be seen anywhere in the bay. For five days the coast was explored, smoke made, and men ordered to climb the highest trees in an effort to discover the expected vessel or attract its attention, but to no avail. On July 12, Martinez wrote a letter, which he left with the coast Indians, informing the commander of the vessel, should he come later, that he had expected him for five days and had gone back to join the expedition on its way to the country of the Tejas. While waiting on the coast, he succeeded in rescuing two other French boys from the Indians. He arrived in camp, according to his own diary, on July 17.'° The maritime expedition, which consisted of a large ship named Santo Cristo de San Roman, with Captain Juan Enrique Barroto as commander- in-chief and a smaller one in charge of Joseph de Aramburu, sailed from Veracruz on June 25 and arrived at the Bay of Espiritu Santo· (Lavaca) on July 12, according to the viceroy, where they stayed for several months.4 1 Renewal of tlze 1narcli to San Francisco de los T ejas. The failure to meet the maritime expedition became the occasion of heated discussion to decide what should be done next. Teran favored sending a new detachment and waiting in camp until the supplies and reenforcements, which were to come from Veracruz, by water, arrived. The missionaries, headed by Father Massanet, strenously objected to further delay. They argued that the letters received while at the Guadalupe revealed the need of supplies which the Padres, who had remained at the mis- sions, felt. It would be criminal to put off giving them relief, said Father Massanet.•z The matter was put to a vote and the majority, influenced by the opinions expressed by the missionaries, chose to continue without delay. 4 0Diario y derrotero que hizo el Capitan .. . Francisco Martinez, in Sa11 Fra11cisco El Grande Archive, Vol. 10, pp. 80-85. This diary is not in Historia, Vol. 27, nor is it included in the translation of related documents previously cited. 41 The Viceroy to the King, July 26, 1692, in A . G. I ., Audie11cia de Mexico, 6 I -6-2 I ( Dunn Transcripts, I 69 I -1693) . 4 ZParecer del P. Comiserio y religiosos, San Francisco El Grande Archive, Vol. 10, pp. 47-50.
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