115
Last Attempts at Missionary Control of Indians
who looked after the spiritual needs of the settlers and those Indians who came to the settlement. A few miles south of Laredo was the Hacienda de Dolores where a Visita was maintained. Although the missions had been secularized, four Franciscan mis- sionaries were still taking care of the uninstructed Indians of Concepcion, Capistrano, San Jose, and San Francisco in San Antonio. These Padres were each paid four hundred fifty pesos annually by the royal treasurer. In the vicinity of La Bahia, dependent upon its garrison for protec- tion, there were three missions: Espiritu Santo, Rosario, and Refugio, where four Padres from Zacatecas resided and received the usual stipend from the king's bounty. Nacogdoches had two Padres, one to look after the settlers and one to care for the Indians. The president of the Texas missions resided in San Antonio and was paid annually by the royal treasurer the same salary received by the missionaries. The viceroy remarked that the maintenance of missionary activities in San Antonio, Nacogdoches, and La Bahia cost the king forty-five hundred pesos, and that there were five hundred seventy-three mission Indians, on whose farms sugar cane, corn, beans, cotton, and other products were raised. In El Paso, Isleta alone seems to have been still operated by a mis- sionary who received only three hundred thirty pesos. At La Junta (modern Presidio) there were still two missions: San Antonio de Julimes and Santa Cruz de Tapacolines, each with a missionary who was paid two hundred fifty pesos.• ir/ission administration after secularization. After the execution of the viceregal order of April 10, 1794, the bulk of the property of the missions in San Antonio was distributed among the neophytes. 9 But it will be remembered that in several of the missions there were groups of Indians who had recently been taken in, and had not yet reached that stage of development which would enable them to look after their own interests. It was to care for these persons that four missionaries were permitted to continue their labors in San Antonio. But the former inmates who had received their share of the communal property and wealth were no longer to enjoy the free administration of the sacraments •Marques de Branciforte to Eugenio Llaguero, January 15, 1795. A. G. /., Audiencia de Mexico, 88-1-15 (Dunn Transcripts, 1792-1799, pp. 107-128). 9For details see Chapter II of this volume.
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