Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
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the Spaniards would be friendly in proportion to the gifts and other advantages enjoyed by the recipients. 57 Removal t.o Nacogdoclzes. There are indications that shortly after the second Comanche attack in October, the settlers of Bucareli conceived the idea of moving from what they considered an exposed position to the country of the Tejas, where they would have the protection which the total strength of that nation and their allies would afford them. Father Fray Juan Garcia Botello, who had been in Bucareli since I 776, must have left the settlement shortly after the Comanche attack in October, for he was in San Antonio by December. In a written report made to Governor Cabello at this time, we have the first suggestion, sustained by argument, in favor of allowing the settlers now at Paso Tomas on the Trinity to mo\'e to the country of the Tejas. He described vividly the miserable condition of the settlers and their just fear of total annihilation by the Comanches. He then explained that the location of the settlement was too exposed to enemy attacks and unhealthy. Basing the suggestion on these premises, he proposed that the settlers be allowed to move some twenty-five or thirty leagues inland, towards the Neches or Angelina in the country of the Tejas. He went further and declared that on the Atoyaque River, where Mission Guadalupe of the Nacogdoches had been once located, was the ideal site for the permanent establishment of the settlers now at Bucareli. Botello specifically advised against suppression of the settlement and the recall of the settlers to San Antonio as was being contemplated by officials in Mexico. He declared that their presence among the tribes in northeast Texas was essential to the maintenance of the friendship of these Indians. 58 It should be kept in mind that neither the site chosen nor the settlement itself had been officially approved and its existence was entirely unauthorized. Here we find the first mention of the intention to move to Nacogdoches rather than closer to San Antonio, paradoxical as the proposal may seem. Early in January, 1779, Father Fray Jose Francisco Mariano de la Garza felt impelled by his moral responsibility for the welfare of his parishioners to make a frank report on the almost unbearable conditions that prevailed in Bucareli. The settlers, he declared, were in a serious predicament, torn between feelings of loyalty to the government and 57 Governor Cabello to Teodore de Croix, April 24, 1778. A. G. M. Historia, Vol. 51, pp. 525-536. 51Fray Juan Garcia Botello to Governor Cabello, December 23, 1778. A. G. M. Historia, Vol. 51, pp. 478-482.
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