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011r Cat/10/ic Heritage in Texas
Fray Diego Jimenez, was located on a flat hill near a spring, on the east side of the Nueces River in the Valle de San Jose, generally called "El Canon.'' 39 This valley was about fifty leagues, some one hundred and forty miles, north of San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande, and some forty leagues south of San Saba, or ·nearly halfway between these two points. In the vicinity there were good arable lands and many springs. Furthermore, the Apaches chose the spot because it was much more secluded than San Saba and offered greater facilities for defense. Before the end of 1762 there were four hundred Apaches and Lipanes, young and old, living in the mission, and the enthusiastic friars had hopes of gathering here and in the neighboring mission as many as three thousand natives." On the eve of the French cession of Louisiana, this new mission in west Texas had just been started. The necessary buildings, such as the church, the friary, the granary, and the huts for the neophytes were as yet only temporary structures. Although the missionaries were very hopeful of the future, this depended largely on the formal approval by the viceroy of the new enterprise to assure it the indispensable royal aid. The mission had been founded provisionally and without official authorization. Mission Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria del Caiion. Practically at the same time that San Lorenzo de la Santa Cruz was founded, another Apache chief called El Turnio (Cross-Eyed) requested that a similar establishment be founded for his people on another spring located four leagues south of the first, on the west side of the river, in the Valle de San Jose. This was the beginning of the new mission of Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria. By the close of 1762 it, too, had over four hundred Indians, young and old, most of the essential buildings had been erected, and the fields necessary for the planting of corn and beans had been cleared and planted. 61 When a report was made on December 7, 1764, two years later, of the progress of the two missions at "El Canon," it was stated that each one still had over four hundred neophytes, mostly Lipanes. The enthu- siastic missionaries Fray Diego Jimenez, Fray Manuel Antonio Cuevas, and Fray Joaquin Banos, who had served the two missions since their 39 The details of Its founding will be given in subsequent chapters. 40 Report of Fray Diego Jimenez, Fray Joaquin Banos, and Fray Diego Martin Garcia, February 7, 1762, in A.G. M., Historia, Vol. 29, pt. I, pp. II3-u5. 41 Autos of Rabago y Teran, February 7, 1762; Fray Diego Jimenez to Rabago y Teran, October 8, 1762, In A.G. M., Historia, Vol. 84, pt. 1, pp. 201-203, 150-156.
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