T lie P1·ovi11ce of T ezas in. I 762
35
indifferent, and the lack of food forced them to abandon this missi(ln frequently to search for food in the woods or in the bay and river, where they caught fish with harpoons. So unhealthy was the climate and so scarce the food that the missionaries had always experienced great suffering both from sickness and actual want at this post. Shortly after its establishment, the mission claimed its first victim, Father Fray Bruno Chavira, who died a martyr to his zeal. In a letter to the commissary general, the guardian of the College of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas described the circumstances. Father Chavira, although aged, was still a very active, zealous, and enthusiastic missionary. "He was a worthy religious," the guardian explains, "whose virtues were com- mended highly by Governor Barrios y Jauregui." Soon after his arrival with a young companion the two fell sick. The older man urged his young companion to go to Los Adaes for treatment. Left alone the venerable Padre grew worse. Overwork, lack of food, cold and dampness, the lack of shelter-for there were no buildings yet-proved too great a hardship for the aged missionary. Feeling his end approaching, he sent a messenger to Nacogdoches for a friar to come and administer to him the last sacra- ments. But the streams were high and the messenger could not reach his goal. Alone, in a rudely constructed hut made of brush, without the consolation of a brother missionary, Father Chavira delivered his soul unto his Maker, a true martyr of charity, early in 1757. 26 ,1/ission Nuestra Se1iora de los Dolores de los Ais. About seventeen leagues (approximately forty-five miles) due east from Nacogdoches, was the old Mission of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, founded in 1716. According to the Marques de Rubi this was located on a small hill, five leagues from the Atoyaque River in 1768, when he saw it. Nearby ran a permanent creek. 27 But the banks of this stream were too high to permit irrigation. With characteristic industry, however, the Padres had planted a garden and a small orchard along the creek, which were watered by hand. Here they raised cabbage, lettuce, beans, lentils, garlic, and onions. In the fields nearby, a moderate amount of corn was harvested 26 The details summarized here are taken from various sources, chiefly from La Fora, R1/ac-io11, ff. 73·74; Fray Jose Marla de Guadalupe Alclvla to the Commissary Gen• eral, September 18, 1757, in A.G. M., Historia, Vol. 28, pp. 190-19~; and Testimonlo de 101 autos fechos a consulta de Don Jacinto de Barrios y Jauregui, A.G. I., GuadtJ• l47ara, 103-6-23 (Dunn Transcript■, 1756). The hlstor)'. of the founding of the presidio is given in full in a subsequent chapter o! thla book. The location was not far from the present city of Liberty. 2 7La Fora, R1/ac-ion, f. 7 I.
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