Oter Catliolic Heritage in Texas
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instructions for the immediate survey of the mission lands, but it being late in the day the actual distribution was postponed until the next morning. Eight plats, four hundred by two hundred ·va1·as each, were duly marked off and set aside as common lands for the benefit of the new pueblo. They then proceeded to stake off eighteen plats, three hundred by two hundred varas each, which were assigned in the fol- lowing manner: sixteen were given to as many mission Indians; one to a former Spanish overseer of the mission, Javier Longoria, who agreed to continue to supervise the sowing of the crops; and one to Pedro Huizar, the new justicia, to cultivate or rent for his benefit and his family's in lieu of a salary for his services. After returning to the mission, the secularized Indians received all the other property formerly owned by the community. This consisted of a farm planted with eight bushels of corn, two cotton fields, a farm with ten pecks of beans; eighteen yoke of oxen, one hundred twenty- eight cows with their calves, placed under the care of a herder who was to be paid for his services out of the community funds of the pueblo; eleven saddle horses, eleven mares, with a stallion and a jack, five mules with pack equipment, thirteen horses bearing the mission brand. All this was distributed equitably among the neophytes. Any unbranded cattle caught or slaughtered were to be reported to Governor Munoz for the payment of the royal fee. 29 The San Antonio missions as an institution of the Spanish frontier had passed away. Labor on -Jmblic works, ,primary schools, and churclzes. Now that the missions were secularized, and the communal property was distributed, several matters remained to be settled. On June 14 the commandant general wrote Governor Munoz asking him to state his opinion regarding the extent to which the former neophytes could be expected to render personal service in the construction or repair of churches or the priests' quarters and the building and maintenance of primary schools in their respective pueblos. Nava seems to have had a special desire to keep the Indians, now being set free from the tutelage of the missionaries, from doing any work whatever for the Padres. Without awaiting the reply of Governor 29 Ynventario de los bienes de Temporalidad de la Mision de la Purisima Concep- cion Entregados a los Yndlos de ella conslgulente a orden del Senor Comandante General Briger. Dn. Pedro de Nava de 10 de abrll de este corriente ano. Comuni- cada al Governador de esta Provincia de los Texas. The Corl. Dn. Manuel Munoz, 1794. Saltillo Archives, Vol. VI, pp. 158-178.
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