Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
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and that it was so short of hands that it was unable to brand its own cattle. Governor Munoz granted the request on August 8, 1795. 45 In January, 1797, Fray Aguilar wrote Nava that the Presidio of La Bahia owed the mission four hundred ,pesos for the transportation of supplies from San Antonio. He explained that all efforts to collect this amount from the commander of the presidio had proved futile. Captain Juan Bautista Elguezabal had been commissioned at this time to inves- tigate the state of affairs at La Bahia. Nava had suspected for some time that Lieutenant Manuel Espadas, burser of the company at La Bahia, was not discharging his duties with honesty and dispatch. He instructed Elguezabal, therefore, to ascertain the circumstances of the claim advanced by Father Aguilar, which, if found to be correct, would have to be paid to the mission by Espadas. When Elguezabal asked Father Aguilar for particulars, the missionary explained that the mission had paid four hundred pesos to the conductor of a train of supplies brought to the presidio in 1795, that subsequent efforts to collect this amount from Captain Cortes and Lieutenant Espadas had proved useless, and that the mission was now in sore need of that sum to secure supplies for the maintenance of the Indians. 46 Satisfied with the explanation, Elguezabal shortly thereafter ordered the payment of the amount. When Rosario was temporarily abandoned, part of the mission property was sold. Out of the.proceeds, two hundred six pesos were given to Father Reyes for the projected new mission of the Orcoquisacs, and two hundred, to Fray Jose Rafael Oliva of Mission San Juan Capistrano. The governor now suggested that these sums be repaid in horses and tools, both of which were needed to round up the herds and to cultivate the farm of the old mission. 47 Such were the conditions found by Father Silva in 1791, when he informed Governor Munoz that Father Reyes had been granted permis- sion to retire to Zacatecas and Father Jose Francisco Jaudenes had been appointed his successor on February 26. The governor shortly afterwards requested authorization from the viceroy to pay Father Reyes his salary for fifteen months and twenty-two days, the time, according to Father Silva, that he had served at Rosario since its restoration. This helps to 45 Fray Juan Jose Aguilar to Manuel Munoz. Bexar Archives. 46 Pedro Nava to Manuel Munoz, March 10, 1797; Nava to Juan Bautista Elguezabal, March :n, 1797; Juan Jose Aguilar to Eiguezabal, May II, 1797. Bexar Arcliives. 47 Manuel Munoz to Revlllagigedo, January 14, and 30, 1791. Nacogdoches Archives, Vol. 7, pp. 2-3; 5•7,
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