01'r Catl,olic Heritage in Texas
tunity to endorse the secularization of the old mission. He agreed that it should be turned over to a secular, its property divided among the neophytes, and the residue among the former settlers of Los Adaes who were still in San Antonio. He pointed out that the houses of the old mission were not more than eighty varas from the Villa de San Fernando, for they were separated from the latter by only the river. These houses should be incorporated with the Villa, the streets of which should be extended through into the new addition. The mission Indians, except for a few brought in recently who were still receiving instructions, had not only been thoroughly Christianized and civilized, but also had intermarried in a good many instances with the neighboring settlers. 5 Conditions at la Villita. The Count of Sierra Gorda mentioned the fact that adjacent to Mission Valero and just outside the Villa de San Fernando, there had grown up a fairly large settlement of families generally called agregados (squatters). It was with these that many of the mission Indians had intermarried. 6 This is one of the earliest concrete references to the origin and development of La Villita which eventually came to form an important part of San Fernando and present San Antonio. Returning to the matter of the disposition of the neophytes and the property of the mission, he suggested that the Indians who were still receiving instruction could be moved to San Jose. The other neophytes should each be given a yoke of oxen, a cow with a calf, a plow, a rake, a hoe, a parcel of land sufficiently large to plant four bushels of seed, a share of the corn, beans, and other products now stored in the common warehouse, and a house. Since the number of Indians was relatively small, there would be a surplus of supplies and land, as well as of available houses, remaining even after each member of the mission community received his share and provisions for a year. The acting governor proposed that any stock and all the supplies left over in the warehouse could be used to aid in founding the new mission or missions proposed by Father Silva. The houses and farm lands not needed by the neophytes could be distributed among the destitute families which had abandoned their homes at Los Adaes in I 772 by royal decree and were still living in San Antonio. sconde de Sierra Gorda to the Viceroy, September 27, 1792. Saltillo Archives, Vol. V, pp. 227-234. 6 /bid.
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