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Our Ca//l(Jlic H eritflge in T e:i:as
Los Adaes. They stressed the fact that the journey east would be entirely at their own expense, that it would result in the renewal of direct com- munication with the now friendly tribes of the north, and asked only that a priest be supplied by the king for a period of ten years to minister to their spiritual wants. 12 A ppro. . ·,il of tlte request, ~otwithstanding the royal order of September 10, 1772, which unequivocally decreed the abandonment of east Texas and the placement of its inhabitants in the vicinity of San Antonio, the viceroy and his advisers agreed to grant a request that nullified in record time the royal will in this regard. The most influential official in Mexico was Jose de Areche, Fiscal and former member of the king's council. It was chiefly at his recommendation that the viceroy called a Junta de Guerra y flai:ienda for the 17th, when the terms for permission to return to Mission Dolores were approved. In his report Areche declared that the proposal made by the A daesanos was commendable as a means of checking Indian assaults; that the king's reason for the suppression of Mission Dolores de los Ais had been due to the failure of the natives to congregate; that there was no reason, therefore, for refusing to grant the petition of the settlers to return; and that in view of the multiple duties of Oconor, it might be well to instruct the Governor of Texas to attend to the execution of the new measure. As to the provision of a spiritual pastor for the flock, the President of the missions in Texas should be requested to send one of the missionaries from the abandoned missions and to inform the royal treasury of the allowance required for his maintenance, so that this might be paid during the period stipulated in the petition. Every effort should be made to establish other settlements among the northern tribes to assure permanent peace with the English and other foreign nations.13 When the petition, the letter of Governor Ripperda, and the opinion of the Fiscal were presented to the Junta on March 17, this body unanimously accepted the recommendations of Areche and instructed the governor to permit the former residents of Los Adaes to establish a settlement on the site of the abandoned Mission of Nuestra Senora de 12 Gil lbarbo and Gil Flores to the Viceroy, February 28, I 77 4. A. G. M. Historia, Vol. 31, pp. 228-231. llAreche, Dictamen, .i\farch 7, 1774. A. G. //,/. Historia, Vol. 51, pp. 231-234. Dolton declares Areche made no reference to the suggested danger of English encroachment played up by the petitioners. This is evidently an oversight. Bolton, Texas, 401.
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