Our Catlzolic Heritage in T ezas
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sentatives of the one hundred and twenty-seven families appeared before Ripperda and appointed Antonio Gil Ibarbo and Gil Flores their legal agents to proceed to Mexico and solicit permission from the viceroy to found a settlement on the abandoned site of Mission Dolores de los Ais.7 Three days later the courageous agents began preparations to set out for Mexico, armed with letters of recommendation from the governor to the viceroy and Hugo Oconor. They took with them other documents, such as certificates issued by Father Pedro Fuentes, Curate of San Fernando and Chaplain of the Presidio, as to the number of baptisms performed in Missions Guadalupe and Dolores, which showed. that three hundred and forty men, women, and children had received this sacrament. 8 In his letter to the viceroy Ripeprda heartily endorsed the petition and urged that it be granted. He frankly admitted that he did not know all the reasons for the abandonment of east Texas, but that he was still of the opinion that it was to be to the advantage of San Antonio and other interior settlements to maintain Spaniards among the northern Indians, particularly the Tawakonis and the Taovayas. These tribes were new friends, and closer communication with them was essential to the retention of their good will, invaluable because of their number and power. If the Spaniards were organized as a military unit, they would come to form a line of defense between San Antonio and Natchitoches. The objection that such a settlement might give encouragement to trade with Natchi- toches was short-sighted, because as a matter of fact such trade was now going on more briskly than ever. Not only the Taovayas and Tawakonis but many other nations far in the interior of Texas were being supplied freely and abundantly with French goods. During a recent visit by Indians from central Texas to San Antonio, they had offered the Spaniards guns in trade. But speaking on this subject, Ripperda reminded the viceroy that an attempt to cut off all trade with Natchitoches al' proposed might ha,·e a more lamentable consequence, the establishment of trade between these tribes and the English. 9 To Oconor, the governor repeated the same reasons in soliciting his appro,·al for the proposed return to the abandoned Mission of Dolores. But he added a second request in behalf of Ibarbo, who, it seems, had 7Document 2, in Autos que se ban introducido . . . A. G. M. Historia, S 1, pp. 218-221. •Certificado del Padre Pedro Fuentes, December 7, 1773. In Ibid., 240. VRipperda to the Viceroy, December 1 o, 177 3. A. G. iJ/. Historia, Vol. S 1, pp. 222-:126.
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