Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
Governor Elguezabal from Nacogdoches that Juan Bautista Fortiere had arrived there with sixteen horses which he claimed he had caught near La Bahia. Upon being asked to present his passport and permit, he was unable to produce them; whereupon Musquiz confiscated the horses and sold them at auction on April 18. Fortiere was sentenced to two weeks' work on the new church being built in Nacogdoches. 43 Vicente Fernandez Tejeiro requested permission on May 23 to take three hundred horses, three hundred mares, and twenty-five asses each year for two or three years, to the new settlement of Baron de Bastrop in Louisiana. These animals were needed for developing the new colony and cultivating the wheat fields."" The request was rejected because of the excitement created at this time by the Nolan affair. In July, Nicolas Lanee, from San Fernando, in Nuevo Santander, sent notice posthaste to Elguezabal that Tomas Luna and two servants, Emeregildo Garza and Gregorio Patino, had just left for Natchitoches with a drove of stolen horses. According to the information obtained, they were not planning to go by way of San Antonio but would follow along the coast to avoid La Bahia and Nacogdoches, and passing through the country of the Arkokisas, would cross the Sabine at the Juan Mora crossing. Lanee suggested that the horse thieves be intercepted at once before they reached the Sabine. Elguezabal wrote Guadiana on August 12 to send a party out from Nacogdoches to apprehend the horse thief smugglers, but it seems they arrived at the Sabine crossing too late. 4 :; On October 13 Juan Lastrope wrote Elguezabal that he had contracted the year before with a certain Manuel Barrera for one hundred eighty or one hundred ninety head of cattle and a drove of horses. But since the death of Nolan and the arrest of his companions, all exportation of both cattle and horses had been strictly prohibited. Lastrope asked that an exception be made in this instance, but Nava was not in a favorable mood and the request was refused. 46 Horse and cattle smugglers had to risk not only official retribution but the danger of Indian attacks as well. On September. 16, Elguezabal reported to Nava a typical example. A group of herders, who had been secretly rounding up wild cattle north of San Antonio, started for 43 Miguel Musquiz to Elguezabal, April 20, 1801. Bexar Archives. "Vicente Fernandez Tejeiro to Elguezabal, May 23, 1801. Bexar Archives. 45 Nicolas Lanee to Elguezabal, July 31, 1801; Elguezabal to Guadiana, August 12, 1801. Bexar Arcllives. "Juan Lastrape to Elguezabal, October 13, 1801. Bexar Archives.
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