The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968 Page: 497
686 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Mission San Josd y San Miguel de Aguayo 497
San Jos6 would not have been founded in 1720 if the French had
not driven the Spaniards out of East Texas during the previous year.
A chain of six missions and a presidio had been established in the
eastern part of the Spanish Province of Texas in 1716 and 1717 by
the expedition of Domingo Ram6n.' The French had a post in Louisi-
ana at Natchitoches, only a short distance from the Spanish mission
of San Miguel. Learning that France and Spain had become involved
in a war in Europe, the French colonists seized San Miguel in June,
1719, and the Spanish soldiers, settlers, and missionaries of East Texas
retreated temporarily to the newly founded halfway station of San
Antonio.
Among the refugees who arrived at San Antonio early in Novem-
ber was the saintly Father Antonio Margil, sixty-two years old, veteran
missionary of almost every part of New Spain. Of the six missions
in East Texas, three had been placed in the care of missionaries of the
Franciscan College of QuerCtaro' and the other three had been staffed
by friars from the College of Zacatecas." Father Margil was the guard-
ian or superior of the latter; and Father Isidro F61ix de Espinosa,
the famous chronicler, held the same office among the Querdtaran
missionaries.
In the vicinity of Mission San Antonio, Father Margil found a
large number of Indians who were not friends of the Indians of Mis-
sion San Antonio de Valero, but who desired to settle down in a sep-
arate mission. Mission San Antonio was a Quer6taran mission. Why
could not a Zacatecan mission be established nearby? It would serve,
too, as a halfway station between East Texas and Coahuila for the mis-
sionaries of the Zacatecas College.
script, "Mission San Jos6 y San Miguel de Aguayo, 172o-1824," which contains a fuller
treatment and documentation.
'Father Isidro F61ix de Espinosa was with Ram6n's expedition when these missions
were founded. He later wrote Crdnica de los Colegios de Propaganda Fide de la Nueva
Espaifa (Mexico, 1746), which has since been edited by Lino Gomez Canedo (Washington,
1964); hereafter cited as Crdnica (in this study the Canedo edition is used). Espinosa
states that the last two of the six missions, Nuestra Sefiora de los Dolores de los Ais and
San Miguel de Linares de los Adaes, were founded, in this order, early in 1717. Espinosa,
Crdnica, 724. Canedo points out that Castafieda, Our Catholic Heritage, II, 67-68, is
mistaken when he claims that they were established in the reverse order in 1716. Ibid.,
727n.
5The College of Santa Cruz de Quertaro was founded in 1683 by Franciscan Father
Antonio Linaz de Jests Maria. The College of Santa Cruz was the first college of
Propaganda Fide founded in the new world. Castafieda, Our Catholic Heritage, III, 17-18.
6By a royal decree of 1704 the Franciscan fathers from the College of Querdtaro were
authorized to establish the College of Nuestra Sefiora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas. In 17o6
Father Antonio Margil de Jesus was named guardian, and in 1707 he went to Zacatecas,
and the College was officially established. Ibid., 21-25.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968, periodical, 1968; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117145/m1/563/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.