Reorganization and New Policies, 1770-1800
temporal property of the missions. The matter was of such vital interest to the future welfare of the provinces that a hasty decision should be avoided at all costs. He advised, therefore, that the request of the College of Zacatecas, namely, that missionaries in Texas be relieved of the temporal administration of the missions, be not granted until other opinions concerning the subject were secured, and the whole question of a general policy concerning mission temporalities was fully discussed. 30 Upon his return to Chihuahua, the Caballero de Croix issued an order in which he declared that all unbranded cattle and other stock found on the king's domain (mesta) and generally designated as meste,io, were the king's property. Citizens and private individuals could round up such cattle and stock to brand them upon paying a fee of fifty cents per head. Croix had just made an inspection of the frontier in company with Father Fray Juan Agustin Morfi, and the numberless herds that roamed the plains were still fresh in his mind. The order was intended to prevent the natives from using this reserve food supply exclusively, to encourage the set- tlers to make use of the wild cattle and horses, and to increase thereby the revenues of the crown. The fee of fifty cents a head seemed rea- sonable, but it proved excessive for the destitute Spanish pioneers nf Texas to whom money was almost unknown, and who depended on barter for all their needs. 31 Question of owne,·sltip of unbranded cattle a11d stock. The decisions of the commandant general, however, ignored the fact that a large number of the unbranded cattle and horses roaming the plains were not wild, but belonged to the various missions and to the ranches of the more industrious settlers, particularly those in the vicinity of San Antonio. The hostility of the Indians in the years immediately preceding the order of Croix and the lack of protection had kept many of the citizens and the neophytes of the missions from the annual round- ups during which the new cattle and horses were generally branded. As long as the majority of the wild stock had belonged to the missions, the newly erected bishopric of Nuevo Leon had made no claims to tithes. But after the publication of the new order by Croix, Bishop Rafael Jose Verger, of Nuevo Leon, Payment of titlees on wild cattle and stock. 30 Royal Cedula of June I 4, I 780; Galindo Navarro to Croix, July 20, I 781. Saltillo Archives, Vol. S, pp. 5-6. 31 Fray Jose Francisco Lopez, Razon e Ynforme .•., p. 14. {lniv,rsilJ of Texas Archives.
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