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the advantages of the old site of the abandoned Mission of the Nacog- doches and concluded by stating he was transmitting the request for permission to move and urging that it be either granted or else that adequate protection be gi,·en to Bucareli. The fears of the settlers had been greatly increased by the alarming news that an Indian messenger had just brought. He had declared that a suspicious rendezvous had been called by the Comanches on the Brazos and that these Indians had been prowling on the Navasoto. If panic seized the settlers, they would very likely abandon Bucareli. 60 T lie ftiglit to N acogdoclies. On January 25, Ibarbo, unable to refuse the settlers' repeated petition to be allowed to abandon Bucareli and to find refuge among the Tejas on the Neches and the Angelina, told them they might do as they pleased. He explained to the viceroy that he could refuse them no longer, because they had been reduced to practical starva- tion, unable as they were to go either hunting or fishing, or to work their fields, or to tend their herds for fear of attack by the enemy. He had been forced by circumstances to grant the request. "I am giving you notice," he declared, "of the decision taken as well as of the fact that all of the men have left with their families. My people, too, have gone. Only twenty men and myself, with a few families have remained here until the others can return to gather their property which, through fear of the enemy, they have left scattered in the fields. Today the Reverend Father Garza set out on foot, accompanying the sick. With him I have sent the ornaments and sacred vessels belonging to the church. I beg your lordship to give his approval to this measure, which I have also communicated to the Commandante Ge11eral." 61 This letter definitely fixes the date of departure for Nacogdoches, which is further corroborated by a letter of Father Garza, written from Nacogdoches on April 30, showing that by this time, the settlers were already established there. 62 Having, as he says, the good fortune of accompanying the fleeing settlers, Father Garza gives a vivid picture of their suffering. "I was an eye-witness," he declares, "of the universal anguish of their souls, of the imponderable miseries they suffered, and the hardships they endured on 60Jbarbo to Governor Cabello, January 12, 1779. A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 51, pp. 490-494. 61Jbarbo to Governor Cabello, January 27, 1779. A. G. ill., Historia, Vol. 51, pp. 494-496. 62Father Gaza to Governor Cabello, April 30, 1779. In Ibid., pp. 521-524. pp. 496-499.
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