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Last Attempts at i1 1 /issiona1·y Control of Indians
their former habitat to more desirable locations or to enter the Province of Texas. It is another manifestation of the effect of the westward and southward advance of the Anglo-American pioneer, who, exercising undue pressure on the native population, forced it to move into the interior of Texas and to seek homes in New Spain beyond the Rio Grande. One of the first instances of this phenomenon is that of a delegation of Tawakoni Indians, .headed by the son of Chief Quiscat, who presented themselves to the Count of Sierra Gorda at Laredo in October, 1796, and requested permission to go to Mexico City to inter- view the viceroy. When asked the purpose of the visit, they explained that their people wanted to establish a pueblo on the Colorado River. The Count of Sierra Gorda was both surprised and pleased at such a novel request and assured the Indians he would be glad to grant them an escort. 44 It is not clear whether this group set out shortly thereafter, or stayed in Laredo until the spring. But on March 1, 1797, Captain Jose Ramon Diaz Bustamante, of Laredo, informed Governor Munoz that he had detailed a corporal and twelve soldiers to escort a party of thirteen Tawakonis who were going to Mexico to see the viceroy. 45 It is doubtful whether the Indians understood what they were doing, and there is a suspicion that the wily natives might have used this means as a ruse to penetrate into the interior of New Spain in order to learn more about the resources and defences of the Spanish settlements. But similar delegations came from time to time and the practice continued until after the days of Spanish domination in Mexico. Last attempt to refound tlie mission of tlze Orcoquisacs (Arkokisas}, I788-1792. But while faith in the efficacy of the mission as an agency in the control of the native population of Texas was rapidly waning with the closing years of the eighteenth century, it was not yet entirely lost or dead. It is to be remembered that one of the consequences of the recommendations of the Marques de Rubi had been t·he abandonment of the ill-fated Mission of Nuestra Senora de la Luz in the vicinity of the mouth of the Trinity, at or near modern Liberty. These Indians had continued to frequent La Bahia and to bemoan the abandonment of their own mission, now and then going even to San Antonio to complain. While their sincerity may be questionable, nevertheless their demands and supplications for refounding the mission always found a 44 Count of Sierra Gorda to Governor Manuel .Munoz, October 23, 1796. Bexar Archives. 45 Jose Ramon Diaz Bustamante to Manuel Munoz, March 1, 1797. Bexar Arc/rives.
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