Our Catlzoli& Heritage in Te;l'aS
Efforts to save the new missi.ons. When new information was requested, the missionaries, who had no particular interest in a presidio and ardently desired the indispensable royal aid to continue their labors, lost no time in advancing every argument possible to attain their purpose. Captain Lorenzo Cancio of Presidio de Coahuila ( Monclova) was asked to secure the desired information. The viceroy and his advisers were at this time seriously trying to get a better understanding of the various Indian nations that harassed the entire Spanish frontier from New Mexico to Texas. Conflicting reports from officials in the two provinces made it impossible to determine the general policy to be adopted in regard to the various Indian tribes. Tlze Apaclie Nations. When Cancio submitted a questionnaire to the missionaries of the Valle de San Jose on September 12, 1763, they replied in detail. This document contains invaluable information about the various nations of the great Apache family. They declared that the Mescaleros were an Apache nation. known by this name since 1722. Although ranging more to the north and west than the Valle de San Jose and the San Saba, the Mescaleros raided the outposts of both New Mexico and Coahuila and at times had attacked presidios in Texas. Closely allied to the Mescaleros were the Pelones ( Roundheads, called such, because of the manner in which they cut their hair) and the Faraones (Pharos). The raids of these three nations, who were Apaches, had temporarily decreased after the establishment of San Saba, but in the last year or two their attacks had become frequent. Although all three were Apaches and spoke similar dialects, they maintained their tribal identity and intermarried sparingly. The Lipans, who were also Apaches, were the only ones who had sincerely become friends of the Spaniards and were now congregated in part in the new missions. The Mescaleros no longer intermarried with the Lipans. They still traded amicably, but they met together much less frequently. In late years, the Mescaleros had actually begun to prey upon the property of the Lipans, because the latter had refused to join the former in their raids on Spanish outposts. But the Lipans were the firm friends of the Spaniards, and if they were completely won over and Christianized. they would prove an invaluable help in the conversion of the other Apache nations, who spoke a similar dialect and had more or less similar habits. Tht! Lipans wert! an idolatrous nation. They had no St!t places of worship nor heatht:n temples, but their high priests or wizards carried their idols with them. One of the idols had been turned over to the mis- sionaries. It was a rudely shaped figure made of stuffed skins resembling
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