BULL. 30] 



NUESTRA SENORA DEL VALLE HUMBROSO 



95 



Zuniga mission, nearly opposite modern 

 Goliad and ^ m. from San Antonio r.. for 

 the Karankawan tril)e.s, particularly the 

 Cujanes ( Kohani ) , of theTexas(:■oa^^t below 

 this point. Early missionary effortsamong 

 the Karankawan tribes had been made at 

 Espiritu Santo, founded in 1722 by the 

 Zacatecan Franciscans near the site of 

 La Salle's settlement on Lavaca r. The 

 hostility of these tribes soon caused the 

 removal of the mission, and subsequently 

 the neighboring ])residio, Bahi'a <lel Espi- 

 ritu Santo, to Guadalupe r. The site 

 is now marked by ruins in Mission val- 

 ley, Victoria co. From this time until 

 1750 the Karankawan tribes, except the 

 Coco, some of whom before this were 

 attracted to Candelaria mission, were al- 

 most unaffected by mission influence; but 

 in the year named, in consequence of Jose 

 de Escandon's plan to colonize the whole 

 coast country from Panuco, INIexico, to 

 San Antonio r., renewed efforts were 

 made to missionize them. At tirst the 

 government ordered that an attempt be 

 made to gather tliem into Espiritu Santo 

 de Zuniga mission, which, at Escandon's 

 instance, had been moved in 1749 with 

 the presidio of Bahi'a to San Antonio r. 

 At the same time the Queretaran mis- 

 sionaries at San Antonip made an effort 

 to gather them there. A quarrel ensued, 

 with the result that Espiritu Santo mis- 

 sion, profiting by the efforts of the Que- 

 retarans, succeeded in 1751 in gathering 

 temporarily a number of Karankawans, 

 mainly Cujanes. They deserted in a few 

 weeks, but the missionaries and Captain 

 Ramirez de la Piszina of the presidio con- 

 tinued making efforts to win the Cujanes, 

 Karankawa, Coapites, and Copanes(Ko- 

 pano ) . 



It being found objectionable to attempt 

 to put these tribes into the Espiritu Santo 

 mission with the Aranames and Taini- 

 ques, "since they are of different lan- 

 guages, incompatible dispositions, and do 

 not like to be in their company," an 

 effort was made and permission obtained 

 to transfer mission Nuestra Seiiora de los 

 Dolores de los Ais from e. Texas to the 

 neighborhood of Espiritu Santi), there to 

 reestablish it for the Karankawan tribes. 

 Objections from e. Texas, however, re- 

 sulted in an order (Apr. 7, 1755) to found 

 a new mission for the Cujanes (Kohani), 

 Coapites, and Karankawa. The Copanes 

 (Kopano) do not seem to have been in- 

 cluded. Already, in consequence of the 

 former plan, the founding of a new 

 mission for these tribes had been begun 

 (Nov. 1754) by Father Camberos and 

 Captain Ramirez de la Piszina. Without 

 waiting for the government to supply 

 funds, work was begun with private do- 

 nations and borrowed means. The name 

 given the mission was Nuestra Seiiora 

 del Rosario, with the addition, sometimes. 



of "de los Cujanes," the addition indi- 

 cating the prominence of the Cujan tribe 

 in the mission, and also the prevalent 

 usage of the name of this tribe as a generic 

 term for the Karankawan group. As first 

 constructed, the church was built of w ood, 

 and was surrounded by a stake palisade. 

 Later this church was replaced by one of 

 stone. Conversions were slow, the total 

 number of baptisms after four years' work 

 being only 21. The Cujanes in particular 

 were hard to manage, and with dithculty 

 were kept from deserting. Adequate gov- 

 ernment support for the mission was de- 

 layed until Apr. 1758, when the supplies 

 that had I)een asked for were granteil, and 

 10 additional soldiers were added to the 

 garrison at the neighboring presidio. 

 With this aid the mission became more 

 prosperous. In 1768 it was able to report a 

 total of al)out 200 baptisms, and the indi- 

 cations are that at this time from 100 to 

 200 Indians lived intermittently, at least, 

 at the mission. Father Sob's inspected 

 the mission in that year and reported it 

 in good material condition, but said that 

 the Indians were very hard to subdue, 

 and that the Copanes, some of whom had 

 joined the other tribes there, had en- 

 tirely deserted it. In the same year 

 charges were made to the government 

 that the Indians were being seriously 

 mistreated by the missionary. Father 

 Escobar, and for that reason were de- 

 serting. Soli's, however, gave a contrary 

 report. (For a study of the history of 

 Mission Rosario to this point, with cita- 

 tation of authorities for the above state- 

 ments, see Bolton in Texas Hist. Ass'n 

 Quar., Oct. 1906.) The subsetjuent his- 

 tory of this mission has never been in- 

 vestigated. Viceroy Revilla Gigedo tells 

 us that- it was completely abandoned in 

 1781; that efforts were made at once to 

 reestablish it, but withcjut success until 

 1791 (Carta dirigida a la Corte de Es- 

 pafia, Dec. 27, 1793). Portillo (Apuntes 

 para la Historia Antigua de Coahuila y 

 Texas, 310-11 ), an unreliable writer, who 

 however had access to documents, says 

 that in 1794 it had 62 neophytes (some of 

 them apparently Coco), and that three 

 years later 97 Coco and Karankawa 

 from the mouth of the Colorado, after 

 failing to gain admission to Espi'ritu 

 Santo, entere«l Rosario mission Ruins 

 of the lattei; are still to be seen, but little 

 remains of its walls. (h. e. b.) 



Nuestra Senora del 'Rosario. A former 

 Cora pueblo and seat of a mission which 

 had Corapa as a visita. Situated near the 

 w. bank of Rio San Pedro, lat. 22° 15', Ja- 

 lisco, Mexico. — Orozco v Berra, Geog., 

 280, 1864. 



Nuestra Senora del Valle Humbroso. A 

 Teraoris pueblo in Chinipas valley, w. 

 Chihuahua, Mexico. — Orozco v Berra, 

 Geog., 324, 1864. 



