Or,r Catholic Heritage in Tcxas
The persistent efforts of the new commander, who seems to have set his heart on the reduction of these wily Indians, finally bore fruit. In August, 1761, Rabago informed the viceroy that he was about to succeed in his attempt to induce the Apaches to gather again in missions. He reported that several chiefs had just visited him, who had promised to bring all their people to live in a mission near the presidio. They had remonstrated, however, that in order to be reduced they needed to go on a last buffalo hunt to bring back enough meat to sustain them until supplies could be obtained. The request seemed reasonable and Rabago agreed to furnish a respectable escort of soldiers to accompany them on the hunt. In the meantime, he had at once written to Fray Diego Jimenez at San Juan Bautista to acquaint him with the promising outlook and to invite him to come in time to be at San Saba when the Lipans returned from their hunt, prepared to start the establishment of a mission, if the Indians kept their word. At the same time, he suggested to the viceroy that the commanders at Bejar, Rio Grande, and Santa Rosa del Sacramento be instructed to discourage the Apaches from visiting in their presidios and to repel them by force, if necessary, in order that they should be forced to find San Saba the only place of refuge. If told all along the frontier that they were welcome only at San Saba, this would aid greatly in their reduction. 16 The hopes of the commander rose higher in October, it seems, when the most formidable of the Apache-Lipan chiefs, El Cabez6n (Big Head) solemnly declared that all his people, who he claimed numbered three thousand, were ready to be congregated and to live in peace with the Spaniards forever. "This Indian," says Arricivita, "was more civilized and had greater judgment than Chief Chico, who had fooled the missionaries of San Antonio (in 1756) with his false promises.... The firmness, with which he assured the captain commander of the reduction and settlement of his people, led the latter to request the Father President of the missions at the Rio Grande to come at once and give no occasion for the Indians to repent." 17 Return of the missionaries. Like a clarion call o~ celestial music, the tones rang in the ears of Fray Diego, who had previously labored in San Saba and had barely escaped the crown of martyrdom for which his heart 16 Rabago y Teran to the Viceroy, August 18, 1761. A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 94, pt. I, pp. 17-18. 17 Arrlcivita, Cronica, 383.
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