167
Return of Rabago and tl,e Founding of Canon Afissions
It seems they wished to be established in the Chanas (Llano River). After several councils held at San Saba, it was decided to go to the new Mission of San Lorenzo in San Jose Valley in the upper Nueces to choose a convenient spot near the recently founded mission. Chief Turnio and Chief Panocha remonstrated that they had one hundred and fourteen warriors in addition to the women and children, which made a total of over three hundred souls, and that they wanted to be put in a mission near a spring on the west side of the river some four leagues (eight or ten miles) below San Lorenzo. They declared they wanted an adequate guard to protect them against attack, and according to Arricivita, they frankly told Captain Rabago that he must furnish a sufficient number of soldiers to make their people work. They assured the missionaries that by the time the corn had come up in the new fields many more members of the tribe would come to live in the mission. Both the Padres and Captain Rabago were anxious and willing to grant the request of the two chiefs, but both realized their limited resources of food and men. Rabago agreed to place an additional guard of ten men in the new mission, being the most he could spare, and the good friars agreed to take upon themselves the responsibility of the spiritual and material administration. With misgivings in their hearts, the new mission was decided upon. On February 8, 1762, Captain Rabago and Father Jimenez went to the chosen site, some ten miles south of present Barksdale, and where Montell is now located. Mass was said, the Indians were given to under- stand their duties and obligations through an interpreter, and formal possession was given them of the mission site in the name of the king. Chief Turnio was appointed governor of the new pueblo, and his brother, Chief Panocha, was made Alcalde. Father Jimenez was placed in charge of the new mission, which was officially called Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria. 15 Contrary to the usual practice two missions had been founded within a month. The new commander of San Saba and the energetic successor of the martyred Father Fray Giraldo de Terreros had boldly taken upon themselves the responsibility in a heroic effort to reduce the treacherous Apaches to mission life, before their fickle natures caused them to change their minds. But both felt 25 Fray Diego Jimenez to Fray Manuel Naxera, February S, 1762; Captain Rabago y Teran to the Viceroy, February 6, 1762; Auto of Rabago y Teran, February 7-8, 1762. A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 84, pt. 1, pp. 61-62, 201-206. Arricivlta, Cro,,ica, 385-386. A ttem-pt to sec11re affroval.
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