Our Catlzolic H e,-itage in T e:xas
nine beams, ninety-one boards, one thousand sixty shingles, and several carts in a little less than a year at the mission. The Padre was glad he had gone. He said Uraga was a slow and poor worker. The same was true of a man named Joaquin Jaime, who left owing the Padre twenty-two pesos. He had asked permission to go to work at Presidio de la Bahia, but had gone to San Antonio instead. Father Silva hoped he would never return. There was also a pottery maker, brought to teach the Indians his trade, but his work seemed unsatisfactory to Father Silva. 77 T/1e legal stat,u of Refugio. Mission Refugio up to the end of 1796 was under the personal administration of Father Manuel Silva who had conceived the idea of its establishment and secured its approval. He was the sole sponsor and the only one responsible for the enterprise. The Discretorio and the guardian of the College of Zacatecas had not been consulted. The moneys granted first by the viceroy and later by the commandant general were turned over not to the College but to Father Silva. The governor had been instructed to deal directly in all matters with Father Silva. The status of Refugio, therefore, was unique. The appeal made to the king in 1793 started an investigation of this unusual one-man enterprise. The royal fiscal requested further informa- tion from the commissary general of the Franciscans in Spain concerning Fray Manuel Silva and his plan. 71 Fray Juan Moya replied on February II, 1794, that the plan itself appeared worthy of support, if its prac- ticability was borne out by more concrete evidence. He expressed some doubts about Fray Silva's sincerity and dependability. He pointed out that, judging from the information at his disposal, it appeared to him that Father Silva had gone to Texas first in 1790; that after starting the promotion of the new mission, he had been called to preside at a chapter meeting held at Pachuca on October 29, 1791 ; but that he should have returned shortly thereafter to Zacatecas and then to his mission in Texas. But in March, 1793, he was still in Pachuca, near Mexico City, where he wrote his memorial to the king. In his appeal to the king he stated that he had petitioned the viceroy for aid, but gave no details as to the action taken, the extent of aid granted, or the actual progress made. In view of the facts available, Moya hesitated to endorse the 71 Fray Silva to Governor Munoz, March 27, 1796; Fray Antonio de Jesus Garabito to Manuel Munoz, June 4, 1797. Bexar Archives. 71 Dictamen del Real Fiscal. A. G. / ., Audiencia de Guadalajara, 104-1-1 (Dunn Transcripts, 1794-1798, pp. 181-182).
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