Om· Cat/10/ic Heritage in Texas
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they had acted hastily and made strenuous efforts to sccmc official sanction to insure the success of the daring enterprise. Three days before the formal founding of Mission Candelaria on the upper Nueces, Fray Jimenez made an ardent appeal to the Commissary General Fray Manuel Naxera. Over three hundred Indians had been settled in Mission San Lorenzo and another group just as large wa '> about to be congregated, he explained. Their reduction might lead eventually to the conversion of the whole Apacl,eria, consisting of over three thousand souls. The approval of the viceroy and the granting of the necessary support for the development of the proposed missions were of the greatest importance. He warned the Commissary General that personal opposition to Rabago for his past misdeeds would endanger the success of the enterprise. Whatever the former career of this man might have been, he was now displaying the most fervent zeal for the reduction of the Apaches and deserved to be supported in his earnest efforts. He appealed to the material importance of occupying the new region, extolling its beauty and natural resources. Incidentally he described how he was living in a tent and how a recent snowfall had not chilled his enthusiasm. Before he dispatched the letter the second Mission of Candelaria had been founded. 26 The letter must have been dispatched by special messenger, for by February 22, it had reached the College of Queretaro and had been read by the Discretorio. The council of the College enthusiastically lauded the work of Fray Jimenez and his companion Fray Banos. They endorsed the recommendation of the zealous missionaries and officially petitioned the approval of the viceroy and solicited his aid. They declared that the enterprise had the full approbation of the College and that they were ready to send any number of missionaries that might be needed for the conversion and reduction of the Apaches. 11 Captain Rabago also promptly reported the formal founding of Mission San Lorenzo on February 6, and informed the viceroy that he was about to found Candelaria. He deplored the circumstances that had made it necessary to establish them at a spot so distant from the Presidio of San Saba and explained the difficulties of providing adequate military pro- tection. He suggested that in view of the need of additional troops a part of the garrison of Presidio of Coahuila ( Monclova) might be used. Z6 Fray Diego Jimenez to Fray Manuel Naxera, February S, 1762. A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 84, pt. 1, pp. 61-62. 21Ducretorio to the Viceroy, February 22, 1762. A. G. M., Hisloria, Vol. 84, pt. I, p. 63.
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