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Decline continues as Spanish officer leaves San Xavier missions
On this day in 1754, Pedro de Rábago y Terán took over as commander of
San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo Presidio, the military post at the San
Xavier missions. He replaced José Joaquín de Ecay Múzquiz, who had been
sent in 1753 to assist Capt. Miguel de la Garza Falcón in investigating
the murder of a priest and a soldier at Candelaria Mission. Nothing
better illustrates the animosity that often existed between missionaries
and soldiers than events at the San Xavier missions. Felipe de Rábago y
Terán, Pedro's nephew, had served so poorly that conditions at the
missions were deplorable when Ecay Múzquiz arrived. The nadir had come
with the murder of Father Juan José Ganzabal and the soldier Juan José
Ceballos, on May 11, 1752. Commandant Felipe, who had debauched
Ceballos's wife, blamed the violence on the Coco Indians. But evidence
uncovered by Ecay Múzquiz and others strongly suggested that Felipe
himself was behind the murders. When the elder Rábago y Terán replaced
Ecay Múzquiz, he was unable to reverse the general decline. The San
Xavier missions were abandoned in 1756, and their property was moved to
Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission, which was itself destroyed by Indians in
1758.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- ECAY MUZQUIZ, JOSE JOAQUIN DE
- RABAGO Y TERAN, FELIPE DE
- RABAGO Y TERAN, PEDRO DE
- GANZABAL, JUAN JOSE DE
- GARZA FALCON, MIGUEL DE LA
- SAN XAVIER MISSIONS
- NUESTRA SENORA DE LA CANDELARIA MISSION
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Future Texas woodcarver born in Switzerland (1883)
- Mysterious fire destroys evidence against Parr political machine (1914)
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