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Our Catlwlic Heritage in Texas
Nava approved the recommendations and instructed Governor Munoz and Bishop Andres Llanos y Valdez, of Nuevo Leon, that the Mission of Espiritu Santo and Mission Rosario were to be exempted from the provi- sions of the decree of April 10 for a period of five years. The time was to be counted from the date of publication of the exemption in the respective missions. The governor was further ordered to inform the missionaries of their duty to report each year to him in order that at the end of the period of grace, he might, in turn, make his report to the commandant general." The San Antonio missions had ceased to exist as such. Those at La Bahia had been given a brief respite with peremptory orders to speed up the process of Christianization and civilization of the indifferent natives. But the processes of civilization cannot be hurried at will. These missions, with the new one of Refugio, treated in the subsequent chapter, were to linger on for a few years. The work of the Franciscan missionaries was not yet finished.
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"Pedro Nava to Manuel Munoz, May 24 1 1797; Pedro Nava to Andres Llanos Y Valdez, same date. Saltillo Arcnives, Vol. VI, pp. 232-233; 230-231.
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