Texas Almanac, 1947-1948 Page: 96

96 TEXAS ALMANAC.-1947-1948.

population was removed to San Antonio. In
1779, however, a number of these settlers
returned under the leadership of Antonio Gil
y Barbo and settled around old Mission
Guadalupe, permanently establishing what is
today the city of Nacogdoches, though Nac-
ogdoches also has some claim to having been
founded in 1716, year of the building of the
old Guadalupe Mission. This community, San
Antonio and Goliad for many years were the
three dim lights of civilization in the vast
wilderness of Texas.
Accomplishments of the Missions.
The purpose of the missions was twofold:
(1) To christianize the Indian, and (2) to
extend the frontier of Spanish dominion and
aid temporal authorities in establishing civil
law. The missionaries in Texas were faced
with a peculiarly difficult problem because
the Indians, excepting the Caddoes of East
Texas, were characteristically nomadic. The
padres had found an environment suitable to
their missionary effort in the characteristic
Indian villages and pueblos in Mexico and
in the Upper Rio Grande Valley of New Mex-
ico, but it was necessary to establish a new
way of life for the largely nomadic tribes of
Texas before the process of christianizatilon
could begin.
Nevertheless, appreciable progress was
made. A report on Queretaran missions of
San Antonio in 1745, according to Dr. Carlos
E. Castaneda, showed a total of 2,282 Indians
had been baptized. There were living at the
four missions 885 Indians at the time of the
report. There were 5,115 head of cattle; 2,662
sheep; 664 goats and 257 horses. There was
produced annually about 8,000 bushels of
corn, 2.000 pounds of cotton and a quantity
of beans, melons, pumpkins and other crops.
The missions were well supplied with agri-
cultural implements, and Indian women had
been taught to spin and weave. This report
did not include the mission of San Jose,
which belonged to the Zacatecan group, but
a report of a little later date showed that
it had over 200 neophytes in Its pueblo and
that there were over 2,000 head of cattle,
1,000 sheep and a considerable annual har-
vest of corn and other crops.
The effect of the missions on the subse-
quent history of Texas is incalculable. They
planted the first seeds of cultural progress
in the soil of Texas. Undoubtedly there
would have been military expeditions north
of the Rio Grande even had there been no
missionary work. But it was the faithful
padre that stayed behind to maintain these
outposts. It is true that more than 100 years
of missionary effort succeeded in establishing
in Texas probably not more than 7,000 white
inhabitants. Nevertheless, had there been no
missionary effort in Texas there probably
would have been no nucleus of civilization to
attract Moses Austin and his son in their
enterprise, which resulted In the introduction
of Angl bo-American civilization. It was to San
Antonio, which had been the principal center
of missionary activity north of the Rio
Grande, that Austin made his way when he
first conceived the idea of a Texas colony.
IV.-ERA OF STAGNATION-FREEBOOT-
ERS AND BUCCANEERS.
Following the secularization of the mis-
sions in 1793, there was a period of waning of
Spanish religious and political influence in
Texas. There were several reasons: Spain
was in difficulties in Europe and was losing
her grip on Mexico. In turn, the growing
sentiment of revolt in Mexico created a situa-
tion which permitted little consideration of
Texas. Spanish influence reached a low ebb
in Texas after 1811, when the revolt in Mex-
ico led by Hidalgo broke out. Though it was
suppressed temporarily there was a state of
smoldering rebellion until 1821 when Mexico
finally succeeded in throwing off the Spanish

yoke. During this period authorities of nel-
ther Spain nor Mexico had much time to
devote to the raw province between the Rio
Grande and the Sabine.
Two Early Nuclei of Texas Development.
In the development of Texas history, it
should be kept in mind that the early politi-
cal, as well as the early church history, was
di\,ided between the east and the west. The
administrations of the Governors did not ex-
tend into the territory of extreme western
Texas, which was under the authority of the
administration at Santa Fe. Those portions
of Texas now included in the Trans-Pecos,
Pecos Valley and Great Plains regions were
identified in their early development with
the history of New Mexico rather than that
of Texas.
New Problem on the East,
In 1803, France sold Louisiana to the
United States and Spain recognized a still
greater menace east of the Sabine. The
virile new republic was more feared than
France, and several incidents, notably the
Aaron Burr conspiracy, contributed to Span-
ish fear of American designs on Texas. In
1736, the Arroyo Hondo east of the Sabine,
had been temporarily fixed as the eastern
boundary of Texas. However, doubt as to
the actual boundary continued and the ter-
ritory between the Sabine and the Arroyo
Hondo became the "Neutral Ground," a law-
less no-man's land and home of desperate
characters.
Circumstances along the eastern boundary
of Texas, in the United States and in Spain
and Mexico conspired to lead venturesome
Americans to try their fortunes west of the
Sabine, and several expeditions were led into
Texas for the purpose of making it independ-
ent of Spain, alone or in conjunction with
Mexico.
On behalf of the expeditions of this era, it
must be said that the spirit of adventure was
not unmixed with the zeal of patriotic Texans
and Mexicans for throwing off the oppressive
Spanish yoke and establishing an independent
democracy in Texas, alone or in conjunction
with Mexico. The success of the young
United States of America, together with the
spreading doctrines of the French Revolu-
tion, was largely responsible for the flame of
revolt that swept Latin America from 1810
to 1830, generally removing Spanish sover-
eignty.
Magee-Gutierrez Expedition.
The most noteworthy of these attempts to
free Texas from Spain was the Magee-Gutier-
rez expedition of 1812-13. Augustus Magee,
an army officer of the United States sta-
tioned in Louisiana, became intrigued by the
plans of Bernardo Gutierrez, a Mexican who
had been an adherent of Father Miguel
Hidalgo y Costilla in his unsuccessful attempt
to free Mexico in 1810-11. Magee resigned his
commission in the army and, with Gutierrez,
had little difficulty in collecting a force of
venturesome men along the turbulent border.
Marching westward, the little army captured
Nacogdoches, Goliad and San Antonio, Magee
dying a mysterious death at Goliad, however.
This Republican Army of the North
marched under the Green Flag, which is
recognized by some authorities as having a
legitimate claim to a place among the sover-
eign flags of Texas. Admission of this claim
would raise the customarily recognized six
flags to seven flags. No recognition was ever
given by any foreign government to the new
state, yet it is a fact that during four or five
months in the spring and summer of 1813,
Spanish sovereignty in Texas was completely
deposed, a formal declaration of independ-
ence issued and a constitution written. Capi-
tal of the new state was at San Antonio. In
view of the difficulties Spain was having in
Mexico, it might have been a successful new