Our Catholic H e1·itage in Texas
320
I 1! . •1 I '
I ' I
final report inadvertently stated that, gi\'en the proximity of the five missions to the new settlement-meaning to each other-the Fa~her Presi- dent should be asked by the governor to send a missionary to Bucareli. 38 Satisfied with a plan that saved all additional expense to the royal treasury, the viceroy instructed the governor to carry out the recommendation. Ripperda formally requested Father Pedro Ramirez de Arellano, President of the missions in San Antonio, to send a missionary to Bucareli on September 27, 1776. Fray Pedro promptly complied with the request, sending Father Fray Jose Francisco Mariano de la Garza to take charge. But in January of this year two missionaries had gone to Bucareli to investigate the possibility of estab- lishing a mission, one of them being, it seems, Father Garza. 39 Early in the following year he seems to have been joined by a second m1ss10nary, Fray Juan Garcia Botello, who remained in Bucareli until the end of October, 1778, when he returned to San Antonio. 40 T lie missionaries at Bucareli. Objections of Fray Ramfrez de Arellano. Although he complied with the order transmitted through the governor, the president of the missions registered a strong protest and pounced upon the inadvertent error of the Fiscal, ,vhich he attributed to ·the viceroy, regarding the distance of Bucareli from San Antonio, as an excuse to have the arrangement annulled. Bucareli, he pointed out, was almost one hundred and forty leagues from San Antonio. The missionary sent was, in fact, sorely needed in Bejar, where each mission required two men in order that, when one went out to secure new converts or retrieve runaways, those in the mission might have some one to minister to them and to keep them to their regular duties. In his opinion, a secular priest was what was needed, and the UAreche to the Viceroy, August 8, 1776. Ibid., Vol. 51, p. 359. 39 Fray Pedro Ramirez de Arellano to the Comma11da11le General, April 2 7, 17 7 7; Fray Jose Francisco Mariano de la Garza to Governor Domingo Cabello, January 8, I 779, A. G. ,JI. H istoria, Vol. 51, pp. 359-365; 484-490; 334,346. There is no doubt that Father Garza went to Bucareli at this time, since in his letter of January 8, 1779, he clearly states he had been in Bucareli since sent there by order of the viceroy, meaning September 27, 1776. Cf. Bolton, "Spanish Abandonment and Re-Occupation of East Texas," The Quarterly, Texas Historical Association, Vol. 9, pp. 1I2-114. 40 There has been some doubt as to the time and how long Father Botello was in Bucareli. In his own statement he says he was present at both attacks of the Comanches in 1778 and Governor Cabello says in August, 1777, that two missionaries were then in Bucareli. Fray Juan Garcia Botello to Governor Cabello, December 23, 1778; Governor Cabello to Caballero de Croix, August 30, 1777. A. G. Al. Historia, Vol. S 1, pp. 478-482; 376-382. Cf. Bolton, op cit., pp. 114-11 5.
'· I
,, !
I
Powered by FlippingBook