Tlee Founding of 1Jfission Nuestra Senora del Refugio
87
behalf of his project. By the royal decrees of November 23 and 24, 1792, the Provinces of Coahuila and Texas, left under the immediate juris- diction of the viceroy when the Interior Provinces were first organized under the independent administration of the commandant general, were added to the jurisdiction of the latter official. Early in 1793, Father Silva was informed by the viceroy of the change. It was this news that hastened his departure for Texas with the intention of calling upon the new commander. But before leaving Mexico City, he addressed a formal memorial to the king on March 7, 1793, soliciting royal support for his enterprise. He recounted his experiences in Texas, how he had contacted the Karan- kawas, the Guapites, and the Copanos, and how he had won their friend- ship and confidence. He explained that these tribes and many others had agreed to congregate in missions and had, in fact, earnestly requested instruction in the faith. Their conversion, he argued, would lead to the reduction of other tribes in central and north Texas. The viceroy had authorized the establishment of only one mission on San Bernardo Bay and this had aiready been founded. One missionary had been assigned to care for the numerous natives who came daily. The amount of money appropriated for its development was inadequate. With only one mission and one missionary and the meager resources furnished, it was impos- sible to expand the work of conversion to the adjacent tribes. Father Silva described vividly the possibilities of his original mis- sionary plan. Only eighty leagues up the coast from the new mission were the Arkokisas who ardently desired instruction in the faith. From their lands the missionaries could reach the Tawakoni and the Taovayas. These nations had numerous pueblos, some of which had, perhaps, more than a thousand inhabitants. All these Indians desired instruction and sought baptism, but they were reluctant, he explained, to abandon their lands and homes to join the missions in San Antonio. They desired missions in their own land. It was through them that the distant Comanches might be brought into the faith.' 7 But he either did not know, or he forgot to mention that Mission Nuestra Senora de la Luz had been established in the country of the Arkokisas and abandoned at the '?Fray Manuel Silva, Comisario y Prefecto de Misiones de los Colegios Obser- vantes de America Septentrional, e hijo de el de Ntra. Sra. de Guadalupe de Zacatecas [to the King]. March 7, 1793; Father Silva to the Secretary of the Council of the Indies, March 18, 1793. A. G . I., A 1'dien&ia d, Guadalajara, 104-1-1 (Dunn Transcripts, 1790-93, pp. 164-169; 162-163).
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