July, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



41 



all combined to discourage the work, and finally, in 

 1693, tne Government, disgusted at the long series 

 of disasters, 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, and some of pretentious archi- 

 tecture, provided with bells shipped from Spain to 

 Mexico. For some reason, the many missions of 

 Coahuila, the neighboring province in Mexico, were 

 much more successful, probably because here were 

 more presidios and more soldiers to keep the Indian 

 converts under rule. In 1786, there were eighteen 

 hundred mission Indians, about two-thirds of whom 

 were Tlascaltecs. The Queretaro Franciscans gave 

 up their missions to the Jalisco Friars in 177 1-2, 

 and at this time they had baptized in Coahuila and 

 Texas about ten thousand natives. The rise, fall 

 and ruin of the mission in these centuries is like the 

 swell of the troubled ocean; the Spanish and French 

 struggling for supremacy, the men for gain, the 





Second Mission of San Jose, Texas 



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. 



The most important part of a mission-establishing 

 expedition was the priests or Friars who were to con- 

 vert the savage natives and plant the cross in the 

 unknown land. The Friars were architects, teachers 

 and mechanics. It was their business to assume the 

 practical part of the work. While converting the 

 natives they employed them to build the missions in 

 many instances, nearly all the old buildings being the 

 result of the labor of native artisans under the in- 

 structions of the Friars. The ecclesiastics of an ex- 

 pedition under Domingo Ramon, for example, were 

 six Franciscans from Queretaro and four Friars from 

 Zacatecas. With the expedition were twenty-five or 

 thirty horses, over a thousand goats, pack animals 

 and oxen, so that while the number of fighting men 

 was few they made a pretentious showing as they 

 marched on, heading for the interior of what is now 

 Texas. They had some difficulty in crossing the 

 streams, losing at the San Marcos eighty-three horses 



Ruins of the Granary of the Second Mission, San Jose, Texas 



in a deep pool. They crossed the Colorado, and in 

 June, 17 15, reached the River Trinity, and finding 

 many Tejas, who received them kindly, they decided 

 to make a stand. A treaty was consummated with 

 the Indians and a settlement made in a land described 

 eloquently by Ramon as one of fruit and flowers, 

 charming to the eye and senses. The streams 

 abounded in fish; buffalo and deer grazed on the 

 prairies, and in the forest the wild turkey was found 

 — all suggestive of a land of plenty. 



The Indians were particularly tractable, and even 

 welcomed the Friars, and it was decided to establish 

 the first mission at the town of Nacodoches; here was 

 built the mission of San Francisco. About sixty 

 miles further on was a large settlement of Asinais, 

 and in their midst was established the mission of 

 Purisima Concepcion. A third mission was estab- 

 lished sixty miles southeast of the latter, and called 

 Guadalupe. In the erection of all these, the Friars 

 used designs copied from other buildings in Mexico. 

 The whites laid out the work, large numbers of 

 natives being employed as laborers and unskilled me- 

 chanics. Nearly all the missions were made more or 



**>*, ~ 



Ruined Arches of San Antonio de Valero, San Antonio, Texas 



