01'r C at/1olic H e,--itage in Texas
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was true that the missions had a respectable number of armed Indians for their protection, they could give little or no help to the presidio and settlers in case of an emergency because of the distance that separated them and the fact that they were needed to defend the different missions. Like the bishop, he pointed out that the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar offered no protection to the settlers. It did not have a single stone building. There was no stockade, no wall, no trench, no dirt redoubt, no protecting ditch, in a word no defences whatsoever. The cannon were useless and lay on the ground by the door of the captain's house. The town itself was ill-planned for defense, the houses having been built at random, without order, and of inflammable materials, with but few excep- tions. The need of a well built fort, with a ·strong wall around it, within which the settlers could congregate in case of a general attack was most urgent. In the present condition it could not withstand a concerted native attack and much less check foreign invasion. If something was not done to remedy the situation soon, San Antonio would "become the door that will usher a host of evils to the entire realm and cause the ultimate loss of the country to His Majesty's dominion." 11 By 1762 conditions had not been improved, rather they had become worse as the result of the vacillating policy which circumstances had forced upon the settlers and the missionaries alike in regard to the Apaches. In a statement to Governor Martos y Navarrete, Fray Mariano declared that the greatest evil that had befallen the five missions on the San Antonio and the Villa de San Fernando were the outrages they had to endure from the Apaches under a feigned peace that had become a farce. These Indians killed, stole, and destroyed the property of the Spaniards and the missions with impunity. The herds of cattle had been decimated and were threatened with complete annihilation. The crops were wantonly trampled and destroyed. Thus the resources of the struggling settlement were gradually being reduced and consumed. The tolerance of the Spaniards in the face of such outrages had lost to them the respect of the Apaches and had incurred the enmity of the northern tribes. The immediate effect upon San Antonio had been to confine the settlers to an c,·er decreasing area in the vicinity of their homes, making it dangerous to cultivate the fields and to establish or maintain ranches beyond the city limits.u 11 Fray ~!ariano de los Dolores to the Viceroy, January 16, 1760. A. G. M., II istoria, Vol. 9 5, pp. 7 6-80. Ufray Mariano de los Dolores to Governor Martos y Navarrete, August 6, 176:i.
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