Abandonment of East Texas
Relations witli t/1e Indians and condition of tlie missions. On the eve of the transfer of ~he four missions of Queretaro, these foundations were almost left without neophytes as the result of the thefts of the perfidious Apaches and the growing boldness of the northern tribes. On July 9, 1771, Captain Luis Antonio Menchaca with thirty soldiers and a group of mission Indians, accompanied one of the Padres on a trip to the coast to bring back runaways and to get recruits. It was difficult to secure new Indians for Mission Valero in particular, because its inmates were not from the coastal ti:ibes and the general policy was to place those who were brought back in the mission where there were others of the same nation. The expedition proved successful. It returned to San Antonio on August 7, bringing back one hundred seven men, women, and children, found on the coast and in the adjoining islands. Among them were several runaways from both the San Antonio and La Bahia missions. Ripperda remarked in reporting the incident that such an expedition had not been undertaken for years. Of the Indians brought back sixteen were given to Mission Concepcion, where Fray Juan Joseph Saenz de Gumiel signed a receipt for them, stating that ten were runaways from Mission Rosario, for which reason he had notified the missionary there. San Juan Capistrano, which was being administered by Father Fray Andres de San Buena- ventura y Santiesteban, received sixty-five. It was Father Andres who had gone in search of them. He declared in his testimonial that of the sixty-five, eighteen were Christians who had run away. San Francisco de la Espada recei\'ed twenty-six recruits, for whom Fray Antonio Ramos signed a receipt.1 4 While the expedition was away, an order arrived in San Antonio urging Governor Ripperda to send a detachment of fifty soldiers and thirty Indians from the five missions to reenforce the presidio at La Bahia and prevent the future escape of the neophytes from its two missions. The order, when_made known, aroused indignant protests on the part of the Cabildo, the captain of the presidio, and the missionaries. It was Father Fray Ignacio Maria Lanuza of San Jose who made the strongest remon- strance. To the request for seven Indians. armed, equipped. and mounted, he replied that he could not comply with the order, because the number of neophytes was small, the mission had only a few horses left, and it 14Ripperda to the Viceroy, July 20, 1771, and August 25, 1771; Testimonlos de los misioneros, August 8, 1771. A. G. M. Prot,incias /11ter11as, Vol. 100, pt. 1, pp. l 7 4-178, 193-198.
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