Our Catholic Heritage in Tezas
318
neophytes. The missions at La Bahia had been exempt from the order of secularization and allowed to continue operating. Unable to secure secular priests to care for the Indian families and the Spaniards, the Bishop of Monterrey with the consent of the College of Zacatecas, asked the former missionaries to continue to look after those living in the San Antonio missions. A considerable portion of the lands, however, remained undivided. 20 The three missions at La Bahia were Rosario, Espiritu Santo, and Refugio. Early in 1806, the Indian wards had been intrusted and chapel property of Rosario had been transferred for safekeeping to the recently established mission of Refugio. Now that the extensive lands of the abandoned Rosario had reverted unofficially to the Government, 21 the chaplain of the garrison at La Bahia, Father Antonio Valdez;, applied to Governor Martinez; in September of 1820 for a grant of the old mission lands. The petition endorsed by the Ayuntamiento was repeated in July, 1821, and sent to the Governor with a similar one from Manuel Trejo. These petitions revived the whole subject of secularization.n Interest in mission lands had become general. The La Bahia City Council presented a memorial through Governor Martinez; to the Pro- vincial Deputation on January 10, 1822, urging the formal secularization of Mission Espiritu Santo and the distribution of its rich lands to residents who had none. They asserted that the chapel and walls were in ruins, the fields lay fallow, and the grazing lands were deserted. They contended that a considerable expenditure would be required to rebuild the mission and revitalize the land. The memorial related that the missionary had taken the sacred vessels, images and other property to his residence for preservation, that the bells were silent, that the Indians--who numbered scarcely fifty men, women and children, less than fifteen of whom could work-were allowed to roam at will with the heathen Tonkawas and Karankawas. The Councilors maintained that the Indians no longer attended Mass, and received no instructions or any other benefits of. mission life. The Ayuntamiento, furthermore, reminded the Governor that the bells of the parish church were cracked and useless. The memorial, therefore, asked that the equipment of the old 'mission be turned over to the parish church of La Bahia
20See Castaiieda, Our Catholic Heritage ;,. Tezas, V, 35-67. 21w. H. Oberste, History of Refugio Missiu11 1 306.
nvaldez to Martinez, September 15, 1820; Martinez to Saucedo, July 17, 1821, Bezar Ard,ives. Paul H. Walters, "Secularization of the La Bahia Mission," unpub• Jished paper, loaned to the author by Mr. Walters.
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