011r C atl1olic II eritage in T e:rns
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The presence of troops in San Antonio always aroused the cupidity of its poverty-stricken citizens, who ever since 1756 had suffered a considerable loss of stock as the result of the reduction of its garrison by the suppression of twenty-two men. In all justice this measure had not only affected the economic life of the community, but it had left the settlers almost at the mercy of the hostile tribes, whose boldness and daring constantly increased after the destruction of the Mission of San Saba. No sooner did Colonel Parrilla arrive with his men than Fray Mariano de los Dolores presented him with a formal petition in his name and that of all the missionaries, that he assign forty additional soldiers to the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar. He remonstrated that as a result of the recent campaign the missions of San Antonio were in serious danger of being attacked by the aggrieved and revengeful tribes of the north. Enraged by the punitive expedition just closed, they might sweep down upon the practically defenseless post of San Antonio, which would have only twenty-two men to withstand the attack. The request of the missionaries was immediately followed by a formal memorial drawn up by the Cabildo of the Villa de San Fernando. The frightened citizens, who already imagined themselves in the hands of the barbarous tribes of the north, whose victims were not only scalped but their very bones scraped clean of all flesh, painted in vivid colors the sorrowful plight of the presidio and villa. The garrison was totally inadequate to repel a concerted attack by the maddened and emboldened enemy. To allow the troops to disband would leave San Antonio and the entire province at their mercy. They begged, pleaded, and implored Parrilla to allow forty additional men to stay in San Antonio temporarily until the danger was passed and the viceroy was made to realize the importance of making the increase permanent. This heart-rending petition of a people threatened with extermination was signed by Francisco Delgado, Juan Joseph de Montes de Oca, Vicente Alvarez Travieso, Joseph Adeano, Alberto Lopez, Juan Manuel Ruiz, Ignacio Lorenzo, Juan Granados, and Marcos de Castro. The powerful voice of the good Bishop of Guadalajara, Francisco de San Buenaventura, who was at this time conducting an inspection of his vast diocese, was added to that of the zealous missionaries and the apprehensive citizens. He arrived in San Antonio on November 17 from La Bahia. In a letter to the viceroy written a month later, he declared that there was not a single fortified place in the entire Province of Texas. The walls of the
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