BULL. 30] 



SAN FRANCISCO DE LA ESPADA 



435 



San Borja.— Venegas, Hist. Cal., ii, 198, 1759. San 

 Francisco Borja. — Taylor in Browne, Res. Pac. 

 Slope, app., 60, 1869. "S. Borgia.— Clavigero, Storia 

 dellaCal.,11,116,1789. S. Francesco Borgia. —Tay- 

 lor, op. eit. 



San Francisco de la Espada. A Francis- 

 can mission, founded ^lar. 5, 1731, on 

 the a))andonment of San Francisco de los 

 Neches (see San Francisco de los Tejas), 

 about 9 m. below San Antonio, Texas, on 

 the w. bank of San Antonio r. Its ruins 

 are now known at San Antonio as ' ' fourth 

 mission." It was at this mission that Fr. 

 Bartolome Garcia wrote his famous Man- 

 ual (1 760), which preserves for us theCoa- 

 huiltecan language. There were brought 

 from the Frio and Nueces rs. (Espinosa 

 conveys a wrong impression when he 

 says they were "insight") to this and 

 the neighbor missions three docile native 

 tribes, unused to agriculture, the Pacao, 

 Pajalat, and Pitalac, which together were 



CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO DE LA ESPADA 



said to numberabout 1,000 persons. This 

 mission was founded with the Pacao tribe, 

 its chief being made "governor" of the 

 pueblo, called Pueblo de Acuna (Te.sti- 

 monio de Asiento de Misiones, Gen. Land 

 Office, Texas, Span. Archives, xl, folios 

 13, 21-22) . Since most of the records for 

 this mission havedisappeared, our knowl- 

 edge of its tribal history is fragmentary. 

 In June 1737 there were 137 neophytes, 

 mainly Pacaos and Arcahomos (appar- 

 ently those better known as Tacames), 

 80 of them having been baptized. These 

 two tribes seem to have been for some 

 time the chief ones there. On June 

 7 of that year all deserted, the mission- 

 aries charging the flight to fear of the 

 Apache, while Indians and soldiers said 

 the cause was bad treatment. By Nov. 

 22 only 7 had returned, in spite of the 



fact that three efforts had been made to 

 reclaim them. In January a fourth em- 

 bassy sent for them brought back 108 

 more (Lamar Papers, Span. ]\IS. no. 33; 

 Expediente sobre la campafia, Archivo 

 Gen., Prov. Intern., xxxii; Testimony, 

 Aug. 5, 1737, Archivo Gen., Misiones, 

 XXI, MS.). In June 1738 the mission 

 still had a Pacao "governor" (Archivo 

 Gen., Yndiferente cle Guerra, 1736-37, 

 folio 93; this volume has recently been 

 transferred to Seccion de Historia ) . This 

 year the Apache made a raid on the 

 neophytes while they M'ere gathering 

 fruit in the neighborhood, near the Me- 

 dina, killed a number, and took others 

 cajitive (Expediente sobre la campatia, 

 6). By Feb. 20, 1740, there had been 

 233 baptisms at the mission, and at that 

 time, which was immediately after an 

 epidemic, there were 120 neo])hytes re- 

 maining (Descripcion, Mem. de Nueva 

 Espana, xxviii, 203, MS. ). Between 1740 

 and 1762 the success of the mission was 

 considerable, for by INIar. 6 of the latter 

 year the number of persons baptized had 

 reached 815. Of these 513 had been 

 buried at the mission. These figures are 

 a telling commentary on the death-rate. 

 There were now 52 "families, or 207 per- 

 sons, mainly Pacaos, Borrados, and Ma- 

 raquites or Maraguitas, the last two of 

 which tribes were still being brought in. 

 A church of stone, begun some time be- 

 fore, was at this time in process of con- 

 struction. The Indian pueblo consisted 

 of three rows of stone huts. On the 

 ranch there were 1,262 head of cattle, 

 4,000 sheep and goats, 145 horses, besides 

 burros and working oxen (Ynforme de 

 ^lisiones, in Mem. de Nueva Espana, 

 XXVIII, 172-78, MS.). 



This mission was conducted by the 

 Queretaran fathers up to about 1773, 

 when it was turned over to the Zacate- 

 cans. In 1778 Father Morfi wrote in his 

 diary that there were 133 neophytes and 

 4,000 head of stock, which had much 

 decreased owing to the attack of the 

 Lipan and Comanche. The church, hav- 

 ing fallen into ruins, had been razed; 

 apparently it had never been finished. 

 Morfi commented particularh' on the ex- 

 cellent lands and irrigating facilities of 

 the mission (Viage de Indios, 1778, in 

 Doc. Hist. Mex., 464-65, 1856). About 

 1781 Governor Cabello proposed that the 

 buildings of this mission should be de- 

 stroyed and the neophytes sent to San 

 Antonio de Valero or San Jose, but this 

 was not done (Revilla-Gigedo, Carta, 

 1793, II 223). In 1785 the neophytes 

 numbered 57, and in 1793 only 46. On 

 Apr. 10, 1794, the commandant general 

 of the Provincias Internas, Pedro de 

 Nava, ordered this and the neighbor mis- 

 sions secularized, and the order was in 



