Our Catholic Heritage, Volume IV

265

Witltdrawal of Queretaran Missionaries from Te:xas

the Province of Guadalajara. According to this order Captain Vicente Rodriguez informed the President of the Missions of the College of Queretaro in Coahuila and Texas, Fray Diego Jimenez, that Fray Luis de Lizarrana, of the Province of Guadalajara, was ready to receive from him the missions of San Juan Bautista and San Bernardo. On November 27, the official transfer began. First the church. the baptistry, the sacristy, and all the linens, ornaments, vestments, and sacred vessels were turned over. The list of vessels, silver and brass candlesticks. monstrances, crucifixes, and paintings is truly remarkable. Having listed every item, they proceeded to the Indian quarters and made an inventory of the houses and all their equipment, furnishings, and utensils. The cultivated farms were about a league from the mission and had a special building to keep the implements and a stable. Six or seven leagues to the southeast was the cattle ranch, where there were a good stone and mortar house, the necessary corrals, saddles, and other ranching equipment. Returning to the mission an inventory was made of the equipment of the carpenter shop, the blacksmith shop, the loom, the dining room, the kitchen, and the stores in the warehouse. When the cattle and stock were rounded, it was found that San Juan Bautista possessed six hundred seventy-two branded cows and bulls, six hundred ninety-eight horses. mules and donkeys, over fifty-three hundred sheep, and six hundred fifty-seven goats. There were ninety-six male and seventy-three female Indians living in the mission at the time. "Aware of the care, vigilance. and constancy with which the said Reverend Father President and his missionaries have labored," declared Captain Rodriguez, "in the fulfill- ment of their duty, the education of the natives, and the teaching of the catechism, as well as in the efficient administration of the temporal interests of the missions, I hereby declare the College of Queretaro exonerated from all further responsibility and thank its missionaries for their faithful services."' Transfer of tlte Mission of San Bernardo. On December I 5, 1772, Captain Vicente Rodriguez, accompanied by Fray Diego Jimenez of the College of Queretaro and Fray Luis de Lizarrana, went to the Mission of San Bernardo to turn it over to the representative of the Province of Guadalajara. The church, the sacristy, the missionary quarters, the Indian pueblo, the farm, the storehouse, the implements and tools, and all the cattle and other stock were carefully listed and the inventory given to 'Testimonio de los Vienes de la Mission de San Juan Baptista del Rio Grande del Norte. Ano 177::1. Saltillo Archives, Vol. 3, pp. 76-134.

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