Palaces of the Desert 267 



Drought, heat, sudden changes in the weather, 

 the hostility of the Indians, all combined to 

 discourage the work, and finally, in 1693, the 

 government, disgusted at the long series of dis- 

 asters, recalled the missionaries, and the priests, 

 after burying the bells, retreated to Coahuila, 

 thus ingloriously ending another attempt of the 

 Spanish to occupy Texas. 



Most of the missions were of the type shown 

 in the accompanying illustrations, and were 

 made of stone, wood, or adobe; some were of 

 pretentious architecture, provided with bells 

 shipped from Spain to Mexico. For some rea- 

 son, the many missions of Coahuila, the neigh- 

 boring province in Mexico, were much more 

 successful, probably because here were more 

 soldiers to keep the Indian converts under 

 rule. In 1786 there were eighteen hundred mis- 

 sion Indians, about two thirds of whom were 

 Tlascaltecs. The Queretaro Franciscans gave 

 up their missions to the Jalisco friars in 

 1771-72, and at this time they had baptized in 

 Coahuila and Texas about ten thousand natives. 

 The rise, fall, and ruin of the missions in these 

 centuries is like the swell of the troubled ocean ; 

 the Spanish and French struggling for suprem- 

 acy, the men for gain, the officers for glory, the 

 adventurers chiefly for loot, and the friars to 

 save the souls of the unlettered savages, who 

 too often took their scalps for their pains. 



