THE QUARTERLY OF THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
VOLUME VI. JULY, 1902, TO APRIL, 1903.
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE. John H. Reagan, Z. T. Fulmore, C. W. Raines, George P. Garrison, Mrs. Bride Neill Taylor. EDITOR. George P. Garrison. AUSTIN, TEXAS: PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. 1903.The Texas State Historical Association.
Organized March 2, 1897.
PRESIDENT.
John H. Reagan.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
D. F. Houston, F. R. Lubbock,
Mrs. Julia Lee Sinks, T. S. Miller.
RECORDING SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN.
George P. Garrison.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
Eugene C. Barker.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.
Mrs. Dora Fowler Arthur, George P. Garrison,
W. J. Battle, F. R. Lubbock,
R. L. Batts, T. S. Miller,
Eugene C. Barker, C. W. Raines,
Beauregard Bryan, John H. Reagan,
D. F. Houston, Mrs. Julia Lee Sinks,
Z. T. Fulmore, Mrs. Bride Neill Taylor,
Dudley G. Wooten.
CONTENTS.
NUMBER 1; JULY, 1902.
Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis and the Re-establishment of the Tejas Missions Robert Carlton Clark 1
Educational Efforts in San Fernando de Bexar I. J. Cox 27
Book Reviews and Notices 64
Notes and Fragments 67
Queries and Answers 73
Affairs of the Association 74
NUMBER 2; OCTOBER, 1902.
The Southwest Boundary of Texas I. J. Cox 81
Some Materials for Southwestern History in the Archivo General de Mexico Herbert Eugene Bolton 103
Reminiscences of C. C. Cox, I. 113
An Account of the Battle of San Jacinto James Washington Winters 139
The African Slave Trade in Texas Eugene C. Barker 145
Book Reviews and Notices 159
Notes and Fragments 161
Queries and Answers 166
Affairs of the Association 168
NUMBER 3; JANUARY, 1903.
The Tampico Expedition Eugene C. Barker 169
Tienda de Cuervo's Ynspeccion of Laredo, 1757 Herbert Eugene Bolton 187
Reminiscences of C. C. Cox, II. 204
Reminiscences of Early Texans, I. J. H. Kuykendall 236
Book Reviews and Notices 254
Notes and Fragments 258
Affairs of the Association 263
NUMBER 4; APRIL, 1903.
The Disturbances at Anahuac in 1832 Edna Rowe 265
The Alamo Monument C. W. Raines 300
Reminiscences of Early Texans, II. J. H. Kuykendall 311
Book Reviews and Notices 331
Notes and Fragments 333
Queries and Answers 334
Affairs of the Association 337
Vol. VI. JULY, 1902. No. 1.
The publication committee and the editor disclaim responsibility for views expressed by contributors to the Quarterly.
In a former monograph the writer endeavored to trace, in some detail, the beginnings of Texas history, from the organization of La Salle's unfortunate expedition to the abandonment of the Tejas missions, San Francisco and Santa Maria. Therein it appeared that the first impulse of the Spaniards toward a definite possession of the lands lying between the Rio Grande and the Sabine river was occasioned by the fear of a French preoccupation. A report, vague and exaggerated, of La Salle's expedition and the subsequent establishment of his colony upon the La Vaca came to the ears of the viceroy and aroused him to jealous activity in behalf of Spain. Two missions were established far in the interior of Texas, as a formal announcement of Spanish ownership and a possible barrier to further encroachments of the French. But they were doomed to be short-lived. The missionary impulse of the vice-regal government was casual, and passed quickly when the fear of French occupation proved groundless. The missions were remote and feeble; the garrisons left to protect them were insufficient, and the soldiers increased the perils of their precarious existence by improper conduct toward the Indians. The savages became threatening, and even openly hostile; the appeals of the friars to Mexico for relief passed unheeded; and at last, October 25, 1693, Father Manzanet and the few priests and soldiers who were left, after burying the swivel guns, the bells, and other iron implements, abandoned the missions, and set out to return to Mexico. 3 On the return journey, however, four of the soldiers deserted and turned back to live with the Indians. One of these was Captain Urrutia, who remained among the savages seven years, and brought himself so much into their favor that thirteen years after his departure they had not forgotten him, and upon occasion clamored for his return. Fray Hidalgo, one of the missionary friars, also returned later to live among the Asinais, where he continued his missionary work for several years, contemporary with Captain Urrutia's stay. 4 He so endeared himself to the Indians that in 1714, when Saint-Denis appeared among them, they expressed a strong desire to have the good father return and resume his missionary work.
Upon the abandonment of the missions San Francisco and Santísima Nombre de María, Texas reverted to the undisputed possession of the savage tribes. For more than twenty years its history is almost a blank. The Spaniards of Mexico forgot it in the press of more urgent matters. The fact that an interval of twenty-two years occurs in the dates of the official documents relating to Texas is significant, as showing how little during that time (1693-1714) these northern lands were in the thoughts and plans of the governors of Mexico. The fear of a French intrusion into Spanish territory, which in the years 1689, 1690, and 1691 had been strong enough to induce the viceroy to send a company of priests and soldiers exploring far into the interior of Texas, grew less and less as the years passed, and no further attempt was made by the French to claim or possess the territory between the Red River and the Rio Grande. The rulers of New Spain, satisfied with a potential ownership, fell into a state of indifference toward the northeastern lands. Out of this apathy they were brought at length by another positive menace to Spanish authority,—nothing less, in fact, than the disturbing apparition of a Frenchman. M. Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis, at the very gates of Mexico. It is the purpose of this paper to relate in part the experiences of this adventurous French captain; 5 to indicate the course of events by which the French, moving westward from Louisiana, came into active rivalry with Spain; and to set forth how French enterprise and aggression, reaching out across the vast wilderness of Texas, and knocking at the barred doors of Mexico, aroused the Spaniards from their lethargy, and set in motion their friars and soldiers to re-establish the missions among the Tejas Indians, and to make a permanent occupation of the lands east of the Rio Grande.
Although the Franciscan fathers made no further attempt for twenty years to bear the message of peace to the Tejas tribes, they were not idle; and among the Indians of Mexico the work of conversion went on apace. During the years from 1690 to 1700 the Jaliscan and Querétaro friars gradually pushed their missions northward with the advancing frontier. In the year 1698 two friars of Querétaro, Francisco Hidalgo (the same Hidalgo who had been with Manzanet among the Asinais) and Diego de Salazar founded the mission of Dolores at La Punta (Lampazos) near the Rio Sabinas; and the next year Salazar crossed the river and established the mission of San Juan Bautista, of which Hidalgo soon took charge. San Juan had shortly to be abandoned on account of troubles with the Indians; but in January, 1700, President Salazar, with the assistance of Hidalgo and two other friars, Antonio Olivares and Marcos Guereña, rebuilt the mission upon a site farther north and near the Rio Grande. It was soon provided with a garrison, and formed the extreme outpost of Spanish civilization in this direction. Here for a time the advancing missionary wave was checked. The friars turned their eyes longingly northward across the wide plains of Texas, peopled with capable and friendly savages; but they could make no forward move without the assistance of the soldiers, and to all their urgent appeals and petitions the government of Mexico turned a deaf ear. Father Olivares ventured across the river, and proceeded as far as the Rio Frio, but accomplished nothing, save to stimulate his own missionary zeal. From here also Fray Hidalgo set out alone for the country of the Asinais, where he lived and labored for several years. 6 Upon his return to Mexico he found the friars still waiting at the Rio Grande; the government still dilatory and indifferent; and no prospect in sight of an early advance of the missionary forces into the region north of the river. Impatient at the long delay, and burning with enthusiasm for the conversion of the Indians among whom he had lived so long, Hidalgo seems to have given up the hope of securing aid from his own government, and to have turned elsewhere to find the means of establishing missions among the tribes of the Tejas. With that mingling of craft with zeal which was not uncommon among the early missionary fathers, he turned in his extremity to the French of Louisiana.
If the Spaniards were slow in turning to account the discoveries of Leon and Teran, the French were hardly less tardy in the following up the work of La Salle. For fourteen years their title to the vast region known as Louisiana rested in abeyance. Petitions were addressed at different times to the ministers setting forth the advantages of a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, but not until the year 1698 was the government ready to act. In that year M. Lemoyne d'Iberville set out in command of an expedition for the New World, and arrived in the early part of 1699 on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where he established Fort Biloxi. The growth of the colony at first was slow. The land surrounding it was poorly adapted for agriculture, hence the colonists had to depend for sustenance upon trade with the Indians. It was the policy of the French, therefore, to keep upon friendly terms with the savages, and to draw their trade as much as possible toward the Mississippi. To this end exploring parties were sent up the river and its tributaries to form treaties of friendship with the neighboring tribes. One of these companies, led by M. Bienville and Louis de Saint-Denis and consisting of twenty-two Canadians and seven Indians, set out in March, 1700, to explore the Red River country. They ascended the river to a village of Indians called Yactaches. There they learned that they were only two days journey from the land of the Caddos; and some Indians of the latter tribe, who happened to be at the village of the Yactaches, told the Frenchmen of a Spanish settlement five days' journey to the west, where, they said, were men, women, and children. Bienville and Saint-Denis did not, however, go in search of the reported settlement, but set out, May 18, to return to Mobile. 7 Later in the same month Saint-Denis was again directed to proceed westward with twenty-five men, and to keep watch on the Spaniards. 8 He ascended the river seventy leagues from its mouth to the country of the Nachitoches Indians, and thence a hundred leagues farther to the village of the Caddos. These Indians informed Saint-Denis that they had seen no Spaniards for more than two years. 9 In 1703 another company of Canadians, twenty in number, set out to discover New Mexico, and to see the fabled mines of that region; but of the success of the expedition we have no record. 10 It is probable also that about the year 1705 Saint-Denis led another party up Red River to the Nachitoches, and thence to the Asinais, and across Texas to the Rio Grande. 11
Of all this activity of the French, their incursions into Spanish territory, and the rapid westward extension of French influence, the Spaniards of Mexico remained ignorant. The governor of Pensacola, who was better situated for observing the rival colony, appeared at Biloxi, May, 1700, and made formal protest against the French occupation of the Gulf shore, declaring that Louisiana was a part of Mexico, and that Florida and Mexico should not be separated by the intrusion of a foreign and hostile people. 12 He also from time to time sent warning to the viceroy of Mexico. But no attempt was made to eject the intruders, and they persevered in their task of exploring the rivers and the valleys of Louisiana, and of fixing themselves more firmly in the friendship of the Indian tribes.
In September, 1712, the sieur Antoine Crozat received a grant of a monopoly of the trade of Louisiana for a period of fifteen years. The document securing to Crozat this exclusive right of trade for the first time attempted to define the limits of Louisiana. The field of his operations, as set forth in the royal grant, was to be the country watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and included between the English of Carolina on the east and New Mexico on the west. 13 But Crozat did not concern himself about territorial claims or boundary lines. He had interested himself in the affairs of the Western World for very practical reasons: unhampered by competition, he hoped to reap large profits from the trade of the Indians and from the mines which were still generally believed to exist everywhere in the New World. His factors were instructed to be diligent in their efforts to draw the trade of the Indians to the Mississippi, and to search constantly for promising mineral deposits. Lamothe Cadillac, who had been appointed governor of Louisiana in 1710, did not reach his post on Mobile Bay until 1713. He became at once the active agent of M. Crozat in his commercial enterprise. A few days after his arrival he received orders from the proprietor to approach the Spaniards with a view to establishing trade relations between Louisiana and Mexico. 14 In pursuance of these instructions, Cadillac dispatched a vessel to Vera Cruz to exchange merchandise for cattle and other necessaries, and to secure, if possible, a free entry for French ships into the ports of Mexico. But neither in the smaller nor in the larger purpose was the envoy successful. The viceroy would suffer the vessel to come no farther than the roadstead, where it was permitted to take on only such supplies as were necessary for the return voyage. Nor would he listen to any proposition to open the ports of Mexico to French vessels, declaring instead that the ports of New Spain were closed absolutely to all foreign commerce. 15 Thus all hope of building up a profitable trade with Mexico by sea had to be abandoned. But a little later there came into the hands of Governor Cadillac a letter, written by a Spanish priest, which set him to a different and more promising enterprise. This was to open an overland trade route across Texas to the northern provinces of Mexico.
It has been noted in a former paragraph that Fray Francisco Hidalgo, when he could no longer hope for aid from his own government in his long-cherished missionary enterprise, turned for assistance to the French of Louisiana. January 17, 1711, he inscribed a letter 16 to the Governor of Louisiana, inviting his co-operation in establishing a mission among the Asinais Indians. 17 He dispatched three copies of this letter by different routes toward the French settlements, hoping that one of them at least would come into the hands of some Frenchman. 18 In this hope he was not to be disappointed, for one of the letters at length found its way to Governor Cadillac. The proposition contained therein fell in well with Cadillac's policy of seeking more friendly relations with Mexico. He was entirely willing to assist the Spanish friars in rebuilding their churches among the Tejas, if thereby he could secure a better commercial arrangement. Accordingly he prepared at once to send a tentative expedition overland to the Rio Grande.
The character of this expedition, it is well to remark, was purely mercantile. It intended no hostile incursion or assertion of territorial claim. In this respect it differed essentially from the plans set forth formerly by La Salle and Peñalosa in their memorials to the crown. They had urged upon the king and his ministers the advantage of the Mississippi as a base for aggressive military operations against Mexico to the end of securing control of the valuable silver mines of Nueva Viscaya. But Crozat was not a warrior, nor were his factors engaged to do the work of soldiers. They were traders merely, seeking a market for their goods, and willing, in pursuit of this object, to waive all nice questions of boundary lines and royal authority. Moreover, in 1713 there was a pressing need that a source be provided whence could be drawn a sufficient and regular supply of provisions for the growing colony of Louisiana. To secure this desirable end, and to open the way for a profitable traffic in French merchandise with the markets of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon were the designs of Cadillac in responding favorably to the petition of Hidalgo, the Spanish priest. 19
The undertaking was not an easy one. The way was long, the Indians were not always friendly, and the Spanish were jealous and suspicious. It required the energies of a man of tact, courage, and experience. For this difficult and delicate task Saint-Denis, by reason of his long residence in the country, his friendly standing with the Indian tribes, his familiarity with the westward routes of travel, and his knowledge of the Spanish language, seemed eminently fitted. At the time he was in command of the old fort at Biloxi, from which post he was called to Mobile to confer with the governor. He readily accepted the trust offered him, and entered into a contract with Cadillac by which he agreed to take ten thousand livres worth of merchandise from the public store, to transport it across Texas to Mexico, and to endeavor there to dispose of it. The passport 20 given to him was dated September 12, 1713, and set forth the objects of the expedition thus: “The sieur de Saint-Denis is to take twenty-four men and as many Indians as necessary and with them go in search of the mission of Fray Francisco Hidalgo in response to his letter of January 17, 1711, and there to purchase horses and cattle for the Province of Louisiana.” Herein was indicated a desire to confer with Hidalgo, probably concerning the proposed mission among the Asinais, and a wish to open up commerce with the Spanish settlements to the extent, at least, of obtaining for Louisiana a supply of cattle and horses. For practical reasons the passport did not reveal an ultimate design of securing a general free trade treaty with Mexico; the experience of his ship in the port of Vera Cruz had taught Cadillac the unwisdom of frankly avowing his purpose. Hence, no doubt, it was deemed expedient that the formal statement of the objects of the expedition should mention only the purpose of obtaining the animals which were necessary to the life and comfort of the colonists, and which the Spanish, since they had them in abundance, would likely be glad to exchange for French merchandise. It may have been also in the mind of Cadillac that the establishment of a mission among the Tejas Indians would bring the Spaniards nearer to Louisiana, and thus facilitate trade between the two peoples. It is evident that the expedition did look further than the purchase of a few horses and cattle; the confessed motive was but a device to hide the ulterior motive, or rather, perhaps, a feeler put out to try how much in the way of trade the Spaniards might be induced to grant.
It was probably in the latter part of September, 1713, that Saint-Denis set out from Mobile, with his men and goods, in five canoes. At Fort St. John, Biloxi, they halted while Pénicaut, our historian, with several other men, proceeded up the Mississippi to secure for guides some Nachitoches Indians who lived with a tribe on the eastern side of the river. They were detained at Biloxi several months, 21 on account of difficulties with the Indians, and it is probable that the journey was not resumed until the following year. 22 At the village of the Tonicas, two leagues above the mouth of Red River, the company halted again to collect provisions, and to induce the chief of the Tonicas and several of his men to accompany the party on the journey west. 23 From this point they propelled their canoes eighty leagues up the river to a village of the Nachitoches. Here they built two store-houses 24 wherein to bestow their merchandise; and, leaving a guard of ten men to protect the new post, with an additional contingent of thirty Nachitoches, they proceeded to the village of the Asinais, where the Spanish had formerly had a mission. Here among the Tejas the journey seems to have been suspended, though the intention of prosecuting it farther was not entirely abandoned. They found among these Indians an abundant supply of horses and cattle, 25 so that, for the first purpose of the expedition, they had no need to proceed farther. For six months or more they seem to have carried on an active exchange with the Indians of French guns, beads, knives, and cloth for beasts and buffalo hides. 26 Of this traffic the post lately established on the Red River was naturally the center. Saint-Denis, during this time, returned to the Natchez on the Mississippi to give an account of his journey to the Governor, after which he took more goods and repaired again to the country of the Asinais. 27
The Frenchmen found that notwithstanding it had been more than five years since a Spaniard had been among the Asinais, some of them still adhered to the Catholic faith. 28 Among this number was Bernadino, their governor, probably the same Bernadino mentioned in Leon's and Teran's narratives. 29 The Indians earnestly urged Saint-Denis to ask the Spanish missionaries to return and establish missions among them, expressing a particular desire to see again Fray Hidalgo and Captain Urrutia. Bernadino and twenty-five of his men set out to accompany the party of Frenchmen to act as guides, and to solicit in person a return of the missionaries to their village. On the bank of the San Marcos they encountered a band of two hundred hostile Indians from the coast country, the mortal enemies of the Asinais. 30 A fierce battle followed, in which the Asinais were victorious, killing twelve of the enemy and wounding many others. They pursued the defeated savages to their rancherías, where they compelled them to make peace. All of the Asinais then, except Bernadino and three others, turned back home. The remnant of the party continued the journey, passing the San Antonio river, where was an Indian village. Saint-Denis remarked the spot, observing that it was very suitable for a village, and worthy a good presidio. 31 At the end of about six weeks, during which time they had traveled one hundred and twenty leagues from the country of the Asinais, they arrived 32 at the presidio of Captain Diego Ramon, two leagues beyond the Rio Grande.
Saint-Denis presented to the commander of the presidio his passport, wherein was exhibited the object of the expedition. Here was a delicate question for Captain Ramon. The passport contained a distinct proposition for the Spaniards to enter into commercial relations with a foreign nation. As this was contrary to all precedent, and to the declared policy of his government, the commander did not feel competent to act without instructions from the viceroy. He therefore deferred his answer to Saint-Denis's proposition, and detained the Frenchman and his companions till he could communicate with a higher authority. He had certainly sufficient ground for caution. The Frenchmen had traversed more than four hundred miles of Spanish territory without invitation or permission; they were trespassers on foreign soil. It is possible also that Ramon had received orders to be on the lookout for just such a party as this, since the governor of Pensacola, in August, 1713, had written the viceroy that a company of Frenchmen would try to introduce merchandise into Mexico. 33 But though Captain Ramon felt himself bound to arrest the intruders till he should have instructions what to do with them, he accorded them the most courteous treatment while they were awaiting the return of the messenger who had been sent to the viceroy. 34 Saint-Denis, Pénicaut, Jalot, and the surgeon he entertained in his own house, and provided quarters for the others. 35 February 15th, SaintDenis dispatched some of his men secretly to the governor of Louisiana, to inform him of what had happened since their arrival upon the Rio Grande. He writes that, while he might escape by stealth, he does not wish to do so, “As seeing a good fortune before my eyes and wishing to put my name in repute, I rejoice at all that may happen, for I fear nothing from these people or from Mexico.” Lest, however, this good fortune shall in the end prove uncertain or elusive, he deems it prudent to bespeak for himself the good offices of the governor. “After all the risks I have run,” he adds, “and the services which I have rendered the public, I flatter myself that you will serve as my patron, and that you will procure me some employment at Mobile.” 36 After several weeks the governor of Coahuila sent a detachment of soldiers to convey the Frenchman to his capital. Saint-Denis took with him only his valet de chambre, Medar Jalot, sending Pénicaut and the others back to the post on the Red River to await his return. From Monclova he was conducted to the City of Mexico, arriving there sometime in June. 37
The announcement that a party of Frenchmen had crossed the Rio Grande could have created no great surprise in the City of Mexico; for, as we have seen, the Spanish Governor of Pensacola had previously sent warning that such an expedition was in progress. The fiscal had even gone so far as to recommend that active steps be taken to prevent the expected entrada, 38 and the viceroy had written to the governor of Mobile giving him to understand that he was apprised of the intention of the French, and warning them to refrain from entering territory that belonged to His Majesty, the King of Spain. 39 When, therefore, Saint-Denis reached the capital, the government was prepared to deal with him. He was called to several audiences with the viceroy in which he was questioned concerning the object of his expedition. To all of these interrogatories he replied in careful conformance to the letter of his instructions: “That his governor had sent him to Father Francisco Hidalgo, and at the same time to see if he could get some beasts for Louisiana, for which they would pay in silver or in merchandise; but that, not having found the father at the place from which he had written, and having heard that he was at the Rio Bravo del Norte, he had continued his course thither.” 40 He was requested also to dictate a formal narrative of his journey, which should be taken down in writing and submitted, together with his passport, to the fiscal. This writing, it was intended, should be an exhibit of the purpose and events of the expedition, with a description and map of the route followed. But Saint-Denis discreetly refrained from making a more explicit statement of his intentions, and related only such events as would not tend to prejudice his cause, concerning himself rather to describe in detail the different stages of his journey and the physical character of the country through which he had passed. With considerable tact he emphasized the “natural affection” which the Indians had for the Spanish, and their desire to have the friars return and re-establish missions among them. He omitted to account for the year and nine months that had elapsed since he set out from Mobile; said nothing of the post established at the Nachitoches; and forgot to mention the several months' sojourn of his party among the Asinais, and their lively trade in cattle. Evidently he would have made it appear to his inquisitors that the journey from Mobile to the Rio Grande had been continuous, and that nothing detrimental to their interests had occurred on the way.
When the Declaración had been prepared, a translation of it, with the map and all the documents relating to the province of Texas, was submitted to Espinosa, the fiscal, in order that he might formulate therefrom a dictamen embodying his opinion and recommendations in the matter, to be laid before a junta de guerra. To this council, called to meet August 22, 1715, Espinosa pointed out 41 with much plausibility the results which would follow this French incursion. The French had opened a route by which the commerce of the northern provinces might be diverted from its usual channels and eventually destroyed; they had laid out a road to Coahuila, and it would be but a matter of a short time till they discovered the mines of Nueva Estremadura, Viscaya, and Parral, and they had gained such a knowledge of the country and the ways by which it could be traversed as would enable them easily to carry on illicit trade with Mexico. In short, the commerce of the north was threatened with destruction; the valuable mines were liable to immediate discovery; and the province of Texas was in imminent danger of being possessed by the encroaching French. To guard against these dire contingencies, the fiscal recommended two measures to be put into effect at once: the governors of the northern provinces must be instructed carefully to prohibit the further entrance of the French upon Spanish territory, and the missions must be re-established upon the eastern frontier. To accomplish the latter object Olivares and Hidalgo and one other friar should be sent without delay into the country of the Tejas to found a mission for the purpose of instructing the heathen savages in the holy Catholic faith. Moral or religious considerations had little weight in fixing this determination; the principal argument in favor of a second missionary venture was that with the proper instruction the Indians would become more firmly bound to the Spanish, and would serve as a barrier against the further advance of the French. Watchfulness and constant activity alone could save Texas to the crown of Spain.
The council of war approved the recommendations of the fiscal, and drew up a plan by which they should be put into effect. The plan included three prescriptions. The governors of Parral, Nuevo Leon, Galicia, and Coahuila should be instructed to prevent the introduction of any goods into their territories by the French, and the sale of cattle to them; twenty-five soldiers and a captain should go, with a sufficient number of priests, and establish four missions among the Tejas Indians; and strict inquiry should be made concerning any French settlements in the country, and a watch kept upon the movements of the French of Louisiana, and information furnished the government promptly of any demonstrations hostile to the interests of Spain. It was provided also that in the organization of the missions two soldiers should be left to guard each establishment, and these soldiers were to confine themselves to their respective missions and to refrain from engaging in private business. Each soldier was to receive a salary of four hundred dollars and the captain five hundred, and each should be paid one year's salary in advance. Whatever supplies of provisions, munitions, and other necessaries were required for a successful prosecution of the enterprise were ordered to be furnished.
Again the vice-regal government was ready to undertake the occupation of Texas; but, as in the former attempt, the impulse to such a movement was fear rather than inclination. It required the actual presence in the City of Mexico of Frenchmen who had traveled unhindered more than four hundred miles across Spanish territory to arouse the dilatory and indifferent officials to action. As long as they could be reasonably sure that a wide reach of unknown country lay between their frontier and the nearest European settlement, and that their mines were safely hidden from foreign eyes, they were well content to do nothing. Texas could remain an untenanted wilderness; the Tejas Indians might clamor in vain for the saving ministrations of the priests; and the Spanish title to the vast domain east of the Rio Grande could remain unasserted. But in a day, as it were, all was changed. Texas was no longer an unknown land; the commerce of the northern provinces could no longer with certainty be confined to its former southern paths; and the hidden treasures of the mountains were all but revealed to envious foreign eyes. Here was an emergency that demanded action, sufficiently imperative, indeed, to arouse the government of Mexico to set in motion its slow, cumbrous mission-presidio process of occupation and colonization.
The similarity between this advance movement, as outlined in the plan of the junta de guerra, and those of 1690 and 1691, is evident at once. In this instance, as in the former ones, fear of French encroachment furnished the incentive. Now, as then, a small body of soldiers was sent forth with a few friars to establish missions among the Tejas Indians, and to keep watch on the French; and now, as then, these establishments were to be far from any base of supplies, unconnected by any line of forts or settlements with the frontier presidios of Mexico, and dependent for existence on the good will of the natives. The disastrous ending of their former missionary efforts had taught the Spaniards little. The emergency was greater than in 1690 or 1691, but the energy put forth to meet it was less. The expedition, as planned, was upon a much smaller scale than that of Teran: the military and spiritual contingents were smaller; fewer missions were contemplated; and there was to be no co-operative movement by sea. There was, however, a notable difference between this and the former expeditions, due rather to changed conditions than to any accession of intelligence or wisdom on the part of the Mexican government. In 1690 the French offered no real menace to Spanish interests. The elaborate plans of La Salle and Peñalosa had ended in the abortive colony on Bay St. Louis. For many years the French concerned themselves little about their territorial claims in the southern part of the Western World, and the right of Spain to whatever lands she might desire was undisputed. But by 1715 a different state of affairs existed. The French were established at the mouth of the Mississippi. For several years they had been sending their traders westward to explore the country and traffic with the Indians, and were beginning to feel and to assert a paramount title to the lands discovered by La Salle. They stood upon the very threshold of Spanish territory, and were threatening at any moment to enter and take possession. With their rivals thus established, active, energetic, and aggressive, the Spaniards could not, as in the former instance, allow their missionary and colonizing enthusiasm to expend itself in a single ephemeral effort. They must follow up the first expedition with others. They must found not four missions, but as many as would be needed to secure them in possession of the country. Each mission must have, not two soldiers, but as large a garrison as was necessary to protect it from the savages, and from the advancing French. They must secure and fortify a port on the Texas coast. They must be at all times active and vigilant. In this constant and growing necessity for watchfulness and activity on the part of the Spaniards of Mexico lay the best promise of a permanent occupation of Texas.
Moreover, the missionary program of 1715 differed in one significant respect from those of 1690 and 1691. If the Spanish had not brought many lessons out of the costly experimenting of Father Manzanet, they had learned one of considerable value. The failure of the first missions among the Tejas had been due largely to the evil conduct of the soldiers. Unmarried men, and adventurers merely, they had been little disposed to settle down soberly and industriously to the routine of mission life, and instead of aiding the friars in their noble work, hindered them rather by their vicious lives. To prevent a recurrence of this evil it was determined, in the later movement, to send with the priests, as far as possible, only men of family, who would be more circumspect in their conduct, and who would go with the expectation of making homes for themselves in the new country. With wives and mothers in the company, and actual settlers equipped with agricultural implements—plows and hoes—and oxen, the expedition began to look, in a degree at least, like a sane attempt to occupy and colonize the eastern wilderness.
On the 30th of September the viceroy, the Duque de Linares, appointed Domingo Ramon captain of the soldiers and leader of the expedition. Saint-Denis must have made a favorable impression on the Spaniards, for he was offered a place in the company of Captain Ramon, which he accepted, receiving the title of cabo camboyadar (chief guide), at a salary of five hundred dollars a year. 42 If an answer was made to his proposition to open up trade in cattle, nothing of it appears in the record, and we can not be sure that he went so far as to broach the subject of a general commercial treaty. Apparently, in entering the service of Mexico, he gave up the original object of his journey. It is possible, however, that he was merely shifting from one expedient to another. 43 The traffic in horses and cattle was to have been only an introduction to a larger trade. If he could accomplish his purpose more easily and directly by employing other means, he was willing to alter his plans accordingly. The establishment of the missions would bring the Spaniards nearer to the French, and would furnish a more convenient market for his goods. Moreover, by assisting in founding the missions he might reasonably hope to gain the friendship of the Spanish, and thus render it easier to carry out his plans of trade. The right of the French to the vast territory of Texas he seems to have been willing to waive, if thereby he might better his own material fortunes and those of his patron.
The defection of Saint-Denis to the service of the Spanish was no doubt influenced to an extent also by an affaire de coeur in which he became involved soon after his arrival upon the Rio Grande. While he was at the presidio of San Juan he fell in love with the granddaughter of the commander. The attachment was mutual, and nothing but the necessity that Saint-Denis was under of proceeding to the city of Mexico prevented a speedy consummation of their desires. As soon, therefore, as he could come to an understanding with the high officers of the government, he returned to the presidio to celebrate his marriage with Doña María, 44 and to await there the coming of Captain Ramon and his company.
He had time to enjoy but a few weeks of conjugal felicity. February 17, 1716, Captain Ramon set out from the Villa de Saltillo, leaving behind six soldiers as an escort for the friars, who were to come later. 45 On the 3rd of March the padres overtook the company, and they all proceeded northward toward the presidio of the Rio Grande, halting at several villas and missions along the way. As a result of the bad financial policy of paying in advance, six of the soldiers deserted before they came to the river, taking with them their horses and the money they had received. 46 Supplies of all kinds, such as goats, meal, corn, etc., were collected along the road. At the Mission de la Punta, Padre Hidalgo and three other friars joined the party. 47 They arrived April 18th at the presidio of the Rio Grande, where Diego Ramon, the father of Captain Domingo Ramon was in command. Here they halted for a day to collect more provisions. The 20th was consumed in putting across the river more than a thousand head of cattle and goats. They were delayed at the Rio Grande until the 27th, waiting for the friars, who had been detained by the illness of Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus, chief of the Zacatecas friars. Here Isidoro Felix de Espinosa, president of the missions around San Juan, joined the company as director of the Querétaro friars.
Captain Ramon, while they were in camp at the river, made a list of all the persons in his company. The religious party consisted of five friars, one lay brother, and one lay friar, 48 besides Espinosa and Hidalgo already mentioned. Captain Ramon, his son and lieutenant Diego (grandson of the elder Diego Ramon), and twenty-two soldiers formed the military escort. Of these soldiers five were married, and one married en route. The Frenchmen in the party were Saint-Denis, Jalot, and one other. In addition to the military and religious contingents there were two men with their families, and thirteen unmarried men who were going out apparently as prospective settlers and traders. These, with seven married women, one girl, two children, a negro, and five Indians constituted the company, which counted a total of sixty-five persons.
On the 27th of April, Father Margil, being still unable to travel, 49 the company set out from the Rio Grande. Saint-Denis, acting as guide, led the way over the northern and more direct route, afterwards known as the Old Presidio Road. The details of the journey need not detain us. On the 5th of May they halted to celebrate the marriage of Lorenzo Mercado, a soldier, and Anna Guerra. They camped on the 15th of the same month at some springs to which they gave the name of San Pedro. These springs were at the source of the San Antonio river. Captain Ramon noted the spot as one most suitable for the building of a city. They found the Colorado swollen by recent rains, and crossed it with difficulty, after ascending some four leagues. Beyond the Colorado they found buffaloes in abundance, and from them easily provided meat to supply the entire company. After they had crossed the Brazos, which they called the San Xavier, they found the Indians becoming more numerous, for they were approaching the country of the Tejas. Everywhere the natives manifested great joy when they learned that the Spaniards were returning to live among them. Captain Ramon, in his Derrotero, has much to say of the beauty of the country. The Guadalupe river he thinks more beautiful than can be imagined. There were lakes filled with fishes; game of all kind in abundance; streams bordered with umbrageous trees; vines in profusion, loaded with half-ripe grapes; pastures with grass so luxuriant that the horses could hardly be made to travel through it; valleys flanked with cedars, willows, sycamores, live-oaks, walnuts, and lofty pines; and fields of watermelons and maize from which the Indians, in token of their friendship, brought ripe melons and young corn.
Saint-Denis made himself useful to Captain Ramon as an interpreter, and his great influence with the Indians was helpful in securing for the Spaniards a kindly reception. 50 He went on in advance of the company to the Tejas tribes, where, according to the plan, the first mission should be established, and gave notice of the approach of the Spaniards, returning soon at the head of a mounted delegation of chiefs. Captain Ramon received them with proper ceremony, the flaunting of banners and the firing of guns; and when they had all smoked the pipe of peace, the Indians led the way to their village. On the way thither they met a larger body of natives who come to meet them, bearing gifts of maize, watermelons, and tamales, which they heaped together in a pile before the Spaniards. Captain Ramon, with reciprocal courtesy, ordered cloth, dishes, hats, and tobacco to be distributed among the Indians. Then by means of an interpreter he addressed them, telling them that the Spaniards had come to look after the welfare of their souls, and to bring them to a knowledge of the Holy Law and to a recognition of the authority of King Felipe V, who, by the hands of the Duque de Linares, viceroy of New Spain, had sent them these gifts as a token of his love. He instructed them, also, for the good government of their people, to select from their number one who should be their captain general. The Indians thereupon withdrew to confer together, and in a short time sent forward the youngest of their great chiefs, as the one whose rule they could the most easily endure. To him were given the baston and Captain Ramon's own jacket as insignia of his rank and office.
When these courtesies and ceremonies were finished, the journey was resumed. On June 30th they came to the spot where the first mission of San Francisco de los Tejas had been established by Father Manzanet in 1690. Captain Ramon, the friars, and some of the Indian chiefs set out to find a site for the new mission. They selected a spot four leagues farther inland than the original mission, because it was the choice of the Indians themselves. On the 3rd of July the new mission of San Francisco was established upon the site selected, in the village of the Nacoches, the chief of three tribes for whom this mission was to be the religious center. Father Hidalgo, the only representative of the friars, who more than twenty-five years before had worked among the Tejas, was placed in charge of the mission. Other missions were soon afterward established. The second, Purísima Concepción, was placed at the pueblo of the Asinais, nine leagues northeast from the first; and the third, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, was nine leagues southeast from Concepción, in the village of the Nacogdoches. These three missions stood on the road by which the French had made their incursions into Texas, and were thus intended to guard against further trespass. A fourth, called San Joseph, was established among the Noaches, seven leagues northeast of Concepción. Later in the year, when the Spaniards discovered the presence of the French on Red River, they built two other missions still farther east and southeast, among the Adays and Ays. The one among the Adays, called San Miguel de Linares, was only eight leagues from the French post at the Nachitoches. The one among the Ays was called Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. 51 Concepción was nominated the capital of the missions founded and to be founded by the Zacatecas friars, with Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus as president. Of the six missions already mentioned, three, namely, Concepción, San Miguel de Linares, and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, were placed in his charge. Of the other three, and of all others that should be established by the Querétaro friars, Fray Isidoro Felix de Espinosa was made president. It was agreed between the two presidents that each religious fraternity should draw its converts from the tribes in its own immediate territory, that there might be no conflict.
An Indian captain general was chosen by the community of Indians for each mission, and his election approved by Captain Ramon. In like manner a governor and an alcalde were chosen for each pueblo; a treasurer was appointed from the friars at each mission; and a garrison was left for the protection of each establishment. Thus a sort of polity was created under Spanish control. The motive was not more religious than political. Here were six missionary settlements planted in the heart of the Indian country. They were widely separated, and each stood in the center of a populous tribe. Thus the Spaniards endeavored to occupy and control as much territory as possible. They could not, of course, expect with a few scattered and feeble garrisons to resist a determined advance of the French; but they could, from their several posts, maintain a watch upon their enemies, and keep the home government informed of their movements. And in the meantime the work of converting the natives to the Christian religion and the Spanish allegiance could go on. Within reach of the missions were some four or five thousand Indians. To convert these, and to discipline them so that they might be effectively employed, in the event of a conflict with their rivals, was the task the Spanish priests and soldiers set themselves to accomplish.
Here, for the present, the narrative must end. It was my purpose to trace the history of this second missionary impulse only to the founding of the missions, and to indicate the motives, both of the French and the Spanish, which contributed to secure their establishment. The significant facts may be briefly summarized by way of conclusion. The Saint-Denis expedition, from the view-point of the French, was a business enterprise growing out of the commercial policy of Antoine Crozat and his agent, Cadillac; it was in no sense military or political, but sought merely to secure for the French of Louisiana a freer and more profitable trade arrangement with Mexico. The same business motive no doubt led Saint-Denis, when he failed in his first effort, to accept service with the Spanish and to assist to introduce their friars and soldiers into territory which might, with much justice, have been claimed as French. The missionary and colonizing expedition of 1716 was the immediate result of the presence of Saint-Denis and his companions in Mexico; the rulers of New Spain were again brought to fear that the French would supersede them in the lands east of the Rio Grande. Both in its plan and purpose, as well as in the motive which occasioned it, the entrada of Captain Ramon resembled those of Leon and Teran, respectively in 1690 and 1691. But there were two notable differences. The presence of women in the company, and of men equipped for active settlement, gave it the aspect of a permanent colonizing enterprise. The elements which in the earlier effort at settlement had offended and irritated the Indians, were at this time, to a great extent, absent; and instead of being jealous and hostile, the natives were constantly friendly, and willing to assist the Spaniards in whatever way they were required. But the most important difference lay in the changed attitude of the French. Instead of an abandoned fort and a few refugees scattered among the Indian tribes, Captain Ramon found the rivals of Spain settled upon Red River, and facing aggressively westward. To have withdrawn again would have meant surely to abandon Texas to the French. Moreover, to make permanent the missions established among the Tejas tribes it was necessary to go further, to extend the sphere of occupation, and to make a greater show of strength. To this end a mission and a presidio were soon established upon the San Antonio river, a half-way house between the remote settlements on the Neches and Sabine, and the outlying settlements of Mexico; to facilitate communication by sea with the home government, a post was established on San Bernard Bay; and in order that they might better control the Indians and repel the advance of the French, the garrisons of the several missions were increased to an effective force. This time there was to be no retreat.
The importance of the Saint-Denis expedition has been variously estimated. One class of writers has been able to see in it little more than the romantic escapade of a young and daring adventurer who ingratiated himself into the favor of the Spanish officials and won a Spanish bride. Others have declared vaguely that it resulted in the laying out of the Old Presidio Road, which became later the great highway between Texas and Mexico. Neither class of writers has come near the truth. The real significance of the expedition is that it determined the ownership of Texas. The Spanish established, by the fact of actual possession, their title to the lands east of the Rio Grande. The entrada of Captain Ramon was followed by others till a line of missions and presidios was established extending from the lands of the Ays and Adays to the Rio Grande; and the western limit of Louisiana was fixed at the Sabine. But for the menace of Saint-Denis's presence to arouse the slow and indifferent Mexican government to action, it is probable that the movement to occupy Texas would not have come till much later. The French might have continued unresisted their westward advance to the Neches and the Sabine, and farther even to the Brazos and the Colorado. Texas would have become French instead of Spanish; and, if we may venture to speculate upon what might have happened, the whole course of history in the Southwest would have been changed. When later the vast territory of Louisiana was transferred by France to the United States, Texas, or a considerable part of it, would have been included. There would have been, alas! no Texas Revolution, and no Mexican war. The conflict between Anglo-Saxon and Spaniard in the Southwest would have been avoided, or would have taken an entirely different form; and the acquisition of California would have been indefinitely delayed. In this view the Saint-Denis expedition becomes of great importance. A mere trading enterprise, sent out as an experiment by Governor Cadillac in conformance to the commercial policy of Antoine Crozat, is dignified into a notable historical movement, a determining factor not only in the history of Texas, but also in the course of our larger national growth.
To one only superficially acquainted with the history of Texas, under the Spanish and Mexican régimes, the above title may be the occasion for two surprises: first, that the authorities or citizens of the villa of San Fernando ever made commendable efforts in any direction whatever; and second, that any effort that they should chance to make should be directed towards education. Yet both of these facts are true; and, when due consideration is given to the aggregate of such efforts, the net result is not inconsiderable, nor the effect upon our present system lightly to be ignored.
By my title I am restrained from any consideration of the educational system of other portions of New Spain; in which, however, not a single public free school was established, prior to 1793 53 I must also pass over the work of the Franciscan missionaries, which, though churchly in character, was creditable in result. The field is restricted to the villa of San Fernando, which later developed into the “city” of San Fernando de Bexar, more familiar to us by its modern name of San Antonio. The subject naturally divides itself into two principal chapters: Education under Spanish Rule, and Education under Mexican Rule.
Matters strictly educational did not early occupy the attention of the officials of San Fernando. Indeed, this is not surprising, for the members of the cabildo (town council) were far from being men of keen intellectual perception, while the genérality of the people were all too content with gaining an existence with the least possible effort, to demand anything better. The first real sign of educational awakening is contained in a petition, presented to the cabildo, in 1789, by Don José Francisco de la Mata. 54 In this paper he says that, led by pity for the ignorance of the youth of the villa, he had, a few years before, opened a sort of school for them, in which they might learn something of the proprieties of the church service, of parental control, and of public duties. The object of his petition is to secure the good will of the members of the cabildo, the coöperation of the village curate, the modest little stipend of twelve reales per pupil, and lastly, but by no means of least import, the formal authorization of his school by the proper authorities, in order to prevent the undue interference of parents with his educational methods.
The lot of this pedagogue could not have been a very happy one, for he tells the members of the cabildo that the parents of those to whom he had administered mild punishments were accustomed to threaten him in a most insulting manner in the very presence of their children. They would also, upon the least provocation, remove the latter from his school, a policy disastrous alike to parents, children, and the community at large. Perhaps these trials could have been endured with greater equanimity had his salary been in any way commensurate with his labors; but he had made his tuition fees purposely small in order to attract to his teaching all the children of the community. 55
As Don José Francisco asked for little more than the good will of the cabildo and the forwarding of his petition to the governor for his necessary approval, his request was readily received by the members and forwarded according to his wish. The governor granted what the petitioner desired, but as the document abruptly ends at this point, we can learn no more of Don José's pioneer educational experiment. From another document we learn that, three years later, he was arrested and imprisoned because the members of the ayuntamiento found in possession of one of the alcaldes, certain papers of his, unworthily criticising the governor of the province. 56 However, no record of his trial appears.
Some thirteen years later a new governor, Juan Bautista Elguezabal, tries his hand at stirring the community to an educational awakening. He issues a long decree that contains many regulations for the betterment of conditions, among which none is more important than the one in which he orders the alcaldes and the alguacil mayor to see that parents place their children in school, and to oblige them to do this under severe penalties, for the provision was of the greatest importance to the religious and political life of the community. 57 The following year he attempts to enlist the coöperation of the cabildo in the matter. At the meeting of that body, on January 20, the main topic for discussion is the foundation of a school and the selection of its master. José Francisco Ruiz, possibly a son of the pioneer pedagogue, is selected for the position, provided his minority does not render him incompetent to fill it. His residence, for the present, is to constitute the school-house. 58
From the two items noted above, we should imagine that the school sessions had been, since 1789, by no means regular or well attended. In all probability both private initiative on the part of the master and popular support from the individual citizens would be necessary for any sort of school whatever, and not infrequently one or both of these elements was lacking. The mystery about the matter is that the governor of the province should at all concern himself about education. Possibly the leaven of Revilla Gigedo's public schools, introduced at the capital during the previous decade, was just beginning to make itself felt in the far-off province of Texas.
Another petition 59 of equally tantalizing and indefinite educational import informs us that Francisco Barrera has been a school-master in the villa of San Fernando, and (possibly for this reason) finds himself unable to support his family. He asks for a license to engage in public writing, and after five or six persons have been examined, in order to ascertain his character, his request is granted. School-teaching certainly did not seem to pay in San Fernando, although at times the residents of the community seemed to recognize the importance of having a few men of some educational ability in their midst.
The next important educational effort occurred during the revolutonary days of 1811. On January 22 of that year Juan Bautista Casas overthrew the regular government and proclaimed one favorable to the Mexican revolutionists. His actions while in power caused many to become disgusted with him, so the curate, Juan Manuel Zambrano, 60 organized a counter-revolution and overthrew him, March 1, 1811. Then Zambrano with a junta of eleven members, was selected by the principal inhabitants of San Fernando to administer the affairs of government and restore the royal authority. 61 It was this junta that took measures to organize more thoroughly the school system of San Antonio by providing for the building of a school-house. Possibly Zambrano may have wished to impress the people with the desirability of continuing longer under the monarchial rule of Spain; or it may be that some of Hidalgo's emissaries, who fell into the hands of the counter-revolutionists, had carried considerable treasure with them, and the junta had considered this as the most profitable way of spending it. At any rate, 855 pesos were handed over to Don Bicente Travieso to be expended in the erection of a suitable building to serve as a school-house. In August, 1812, he was ready to submit his account, with its accompanying vouchers, showing the expenditure of 843 pesos and five reales. The accounts were formally passed upon by the auditing committee and pronounced correct. 62 Everything, to judge from the document, seemed to be in due form, and it looked as if one might expect for the future a fairly well appointed school-house, filled with happy children, whose progress would be fondly watched by admiring parents.
Unfortunately for the reputation of Don Bicente Travieso and those connected with him in this little “job,” there exists an inventory of the belongings of the school, taken just about a month before Travieso passed in his accounts. In this inventory mention is made of only a small portion of the articles that he claimed to have furnished. It evidently refers to the same building, for the description tallies perfectly, and Don Bicente is even mentioned by name, in the inventory, as having furnished three benches. The condition of the building was also deplorable. Doors and windows were without locks, and locks without keys; while even the water-barrel had a loosened hoop, which article was duly reported as one of the important items of the inventory. 63 Evidently the temptation to plunder the public was too strong for these worthy officials of old San Fernando.
In the above inventory mention is made of a bench obtained from the previous school, so there had evidently been some sort of an educational organization, with its building, since the days of Governor Elguezabal. 64 Of course this building could have been the residence of the school-master. An undated manuscript of the Bexar Archives, evidently of this period, bids parents send their children, under twelve years of age, to the public school, as soon as it is completed. Meanwhile they are to give them the best possible instruction at home. One wonders what this might have meant, in those days and in San Fernando.
As the new school-building approached completion, José Erasmo Seguin and José Antonio Saucedo reported a code of rules for its government. There should be places for seventy pupils, of which five should be free and at the disposal of the master, to be given to worthy persons of good disposition. The seventy places were to be divided into two classes, according to ability to pay; the first class paying a peso, and the second four reales each month. A pupil might be advanced in his studies, but the method of his payment was not to be altered. The teacher was to receive a salary of thirty pesos a month. One of the alcaldes, with the aid of the four ward commissioners, was to have charge of the collecting of the fund and to keep a sufficient amount on hand to be a month ahead in the payment of the teacher's salary. One of the regidores was to visit the school at least once a day to note the infringements of the rules and to apply the appropriate remedy. All books, paper, extra seats, etc., were to be furnished by those needing them. 65
The above rules suggest a beginning in the matter of public free education, although a very modest one. The salary of the teacher was not to be munificent, but it is to be doubted if the miserable village could pay, with any regularity, even this little stipend. If the alcalde and regidor carried out their duties conscientiously, they certainly had their hands full; but we have already seen how easy it was for the municipal authorities of San Fernando to make a creditable appearance on paper, while falling far short of it in execution. But, however bright the educational prospects of San Fernando might appear for the moment, they were destined to be speedily eclipsed by the dark days of the Magee-Gutierrez raid of 1813.
The next educational effort of note dates from February 15, 1815. At the meeting of the cabildo on that date, its members considered very earnestly the urgent need in their community of a teacher to instruct the youth in the “rudiments of Our Holy Religion and the Primary Branches (Primeras Letras).” For a long time they had felt this lack, but the fact that the unhappy community was wholly without means sufficient for the support of a teacher, utterly precluded them from making the provision that the lack demanded. Among the possible solutions of this problem was that all of those able should help to make a common contribution of five hundred pesos, to pay the annual salary of a teacher. This suggestion seemed to present little difficulty; for they appeared to believe that the money would be contributed with great pleasure, in order that the children might not lack so useful and profitable a thing as an educational establishment.
For the accomplishment of this purpose they needed the approval of the governor, and the latter was requested also to ask the commanding general to assign for the use of the school the house of one of the insurgents of the recent invasion; since neither the cabildo nor the community could raise the two thousand pesos necessary for such a structure. 66
The last request again brings to mind the “job” in connection with the construction of a school-house by Bicente Travieso, for why should a school-house be lacking, if built three years before, unless destroyed by some special calamity. If the latter had been the case some mention would surely have been made of the fact. In reading further in the records for that year, one learns that the province was in such a deplorable state, owing to Indian depredations, that there was remote prospect, indeed, of raising even the modest salary for the teacher. While the soldiers of the garrison were without meat for the body, it was not at all likely that the children's intellectual needs would receive attention.
Two years later the same matter was again brought up in the cabildo. The parents of children were to be solicited to contribute graciously, in order to pay promptly the teacher's salary. 67 We have a list of the contributors from the south ward in 1819. 68 The total money contributed was fifty-five pesos, four reales, and a fanega (about two bushels) of Indian corn. Let us hope, for the sake of the teacher, that the other three wards contributed more liberally. But even if they did, it is not at all likely that the whole contribution amounted to the five hundred pesos, which, in 1815, they talked so lightly of raising.
At a later meeting in 1817, they were informed by the teacher that some parents still persisted in the old abuse of taking their children from the school, without any motive, while others had entirely forgotten to comply with the order to send them. After mature deliberation, the village fathers decided that parents without any excuse should send their children to school, under penalty of suffering a fine of three pesos, and whatever punishment in addition should be esteemed just. The governor could make what disposition he pleased with reference to the children of soldiers. 69
Three years later and in the year following were made the final efforts under the old régime. The cabildo again took into consideration “the establishment of a school for the instruction of the children.” Don Ygnacio Villa Señor was appointed a commissioner, to look after “the good order and management of the school.” Don Ygnacio had complete authority from the governor and from the ayuntamiento (or cabildo) to enable him to bestow rewards or to punish those who failed in their duty to the schoolmaster, in his teaching of the children. He had the same control over the parents with regard to the payment of tuition fees, and he was to notify them that on the last day of the coming month they must pay to their ward commissioner their school fees, according to their respective salaries. 70
At the meeting held on the twenty-second of the following February the four members of the cabildo then present, resolved to request Governor Martinez to issue a proclamation requiring parents to keep their children within doors until a school should be established to give them the necessary education. In this manner they might prevent the gatherings which certain youths were accustomed to hold at night on the streets and plazas, and also keep them from balls and other spectacles improper for childhood. Two weeks later, as they thought that the youth of the city, through parental carelessness, were still given too much liberty to roam the streets, they received with favor the proposition of a citizen to establish a school at the expense of these same negligent parents. They were very willing to grant the request of the petitioner, for they knew of no one else capable of teaching the children of the community, and if they had known such a one they would have had no funds to expend for the purpose. Each of the regidores agreed also to take a certain number of the streets of the city and to visit the families of those living upon them in order to compel the parents to send their children to school and to pay the expenses of their tuition. 71 This act of the cabildo certainly seems definite enough in character to be productive of some results, but we meet in the minutes of the cabildo with no further mention of schools previous to the adoption of the Plan of Iguala.
The above references, scattered through a period of some thirty odd years, will serve to give an idea of the efforts put forth, in an educational way, in the villa, or, after 1809, the “city” of San Fernando. Of course these efforts are pitifully weak in results, yet we must not judge the citizens of this frontier town of New Spain harshly, before we consider the educational status of our own frontier towns, on the eve of our independence from Great Britain. After a careful comparative view, we shall find ourselves more ready to render due credit for their efforts to clear the ground for the later educational structure of Texas.
The year 1821 beheld the achievement of Mexican independence from Spain, but in the confusion of the next few years there occurred almost nothing of interest in Texas, from an educational standpoint. While there was taking place in Mexico the swift changes from colonial dependency to independent monarchy, and later to constitutional republicanism, the wonder is that a government of any sort continued to exist in the distant province of Texas. Naturally, during this period we learn of no new efforts in behalf of public education. The situation excites comment, however, among those who regret the intellectual barrenness of the time. From one report we learn that “owing to the vicissitudes of the time and the critical condition of this province, this city, the capital, wholly lacks funds for the education of the youth, as well as for erecting edifices of public utility and adornment.” 72
Three years later a more lengthy comment adds that the city is entirely without provision for public primary schools. The ayuntamientos, under the previous régime, had now and then promoted the establishment of schools, but had displayed little or no energy in keeping them up. This fact has already been sufficiently illustrated from the testimony of the records. The salaries of teachers had remained unpaid, in default of funds; while their work was still further hampered by the failure of the parents to support them in the matter of discipline, or to cease the withdrawal of their children from school. Such was the miserable condition of the city that it was doubtful if the citizens could pay the expenses of a teacher from Mexico—and they had none in their own midst—or if they could prevail upon a teacher to stay in such a decadent community. 73
The real progress of a country, in the condition of Mexico at the consummation of her independence, depends largely upon the unselfish and prudent foresight of its leaders. It will be interesting to note the presence or absence of that quality with regard to the question of education, in those who controlled the destinies of the dual State of Coahuila and Texas. The constitution of the State, ratified March 11, 1827, required that the method of instruction should be uniform throughout the State, and that to facilitate this, congress should form a general plan for public instruction. 74 There was to be a system of education, then, but this system must be formed upon an approved plan. What this plan was to be appeared in a later decree of the constitutional congress. 75
According to this decree schools upon the Lancasterian plan were to be established in the capital of each of the three departments of the State. Qualified teachers, employed for three years, should be placed in charge of these establishments, at a salary of $800 per year, payable monthly in advance. The number of pupils in each school was limited to 150, but if more attended, the teacher might request a proportionate increase of salary from the State authorities. The three teachers together were to form for the schools a set of regulations which, when approved by the executive, should be published. The course of instruction should consist of reading, writing, arithmetic, the dogma of the Catholic religion, and all of Ackerman's “Catechisms of Arts and Sciences.”
Each ayuntamiento was required to ascertain what children could not attend, through lack of means, and from this number to select from one to five by lot, to be sent to school at the expense of that body. If there was no fund for this purpose, they should send at least one pupil by private subscription. The children of those citizens of the department of Texas who contributed towards establishing the existing school fund of San Fernando should be admitted free, provided their parents continued to pay their agreed quota. All citizens who could afford it should be obliged to send their children to these establishments, and due penalties could be inflicted on those who were obstinate in this particular.
The ayuntamiento of the capital of each department was to take charge of the school fund, of which it should appoint the keeper. This fund should be made up of the existing school funds of the capital towns, all legacies for school purposes, all quotas assigned from the branches of municipal revenue, and the product of the pay pupils in each school. The parents of the latter should pay fourteen dollars per annum for each pupil, until he learned to write, when the pay should be eighteen dollars. The ayuntamiento was to be punctual in the collection of these sums and exact in keeping account of them. The proceeds of the fund were to be devoted to the payment of the teacher's salary, rent for building, and the making and repairing of the necessary furniture. The amount of money paid out must be accompanied by the receipts of the teacher, duly authenticated by the sindico-procurador and accompanied by an order from the alcalde. If the school fund was temporarily exhausted, the municipality could assist from its funds; if these also were exhausted, requisition might be made on the state agents. In either case, the money so advanced must be replaced as soon as possible. Each pupil, on leaving the school, was to pay to the ayuntamiento ten dollars, to be known as gratitude money, with which a special fund was to be created to be used to reward the teacher at the close of his contract. A formal account of these funds was to be rendered at the end of each fiscal year. In order to put this law into effect as soon as possible the executive was empowered to use two thousand dollars from the State revenues, for the purchase of the furniture, books, etc., necessary to carry out its provisions.
In view of the limited educational exhibit so far made, the above law seems very comprehensive, indeed. The sympathies and aims of the authorities all appear to have been in the right direction, but in means for the accomplishment of the same, they were wholly deficient. Hardly a single provision of the above law was ever carried out as originally planned.
The following year an attempt was made to put into force a modification of the above plan. Until the Lancasterian schools could be established, six primary schools were to be set up in the three departments of the State, in places where they were most needed. The teachers were to receive an annual salary of five hundred pesos, while the gratitude money of the pupils was to be reduced to six pesos. The ayuntamientos were to perform the duties prescribed by the other decree. Yearly samples of the work of the pupils were to be sent to the executive, to be reported to congress. 76
The regulations of the new decree were carried out no better than those of the former, but that did not deter the State congress from passing additional laws upon the same subject. By the terms of a new decree the executive was ordered to make three silver medals, to be paid for out of municipal or State funds, and these were to be worn by pupils on the days of public visits to the schools, as “rewards of virtue and application.” The ayuntamientos should distribute these tokens in the schools under their direction, in accordance with the judgment of the teacher. The executive was also to obtain from the funds of the State a sufficient number of Fleuris's Castilian Grammar, Orthography, and Catechism, to be distributed among the pupils, also as rewards of “virtue and application. 77 If any of the above rewards ever reached San Fernando de Bexar, the records do not now indicate the fact. The above laws are interesting, however, in that they reveal the ideas of the State officials concerning the best form of education. Very likely the Lancasterian system would have been the best adapted to their use, in order to reach the greatest number of pupils with the least outlay of money, but as a matter of fact, the State had no public money whatever to be used for schools, and never did have while the union of Texas with Coahuila lasted. The churchly element, too, still continued to constitute the greater portion of an all-round Mexican education. Aside from this, only the merest smattering of learning could be attempted. This was all that could be expected, at that time, for each community must begin almost from the very bottom in erecting its public school system. The native love of display was also to be strongly encouraged by suitable rewards for “virtue and application.” It is such a system as we should imagine an oppressed people, just entering into a state of freedom, would adopt; and especially when they had a very hazy idea of the responsibilities connected with this same freedom. The authorities seemed to feel the need of some system of education, but they were unable to hit upon the right way for obtaining it. However, they should be given credit for the desire, if not for its fulfillment.
Three years later the State congress inaugurated a policy that promised more definite results. The various municipalities were to sell the public property within their limits. In all the capital towns of departments, where the funds were sufficient, primary schools should be established. In addition to the subjects already mentioned, instruction should be given in the elements of geography, morals, politics, and good breeding. The ayuntamientos were to designate buildings, as large as could be found, for the purposes of instruction and for the residence of the teacher. Schools were to be established in other towns as soon as possible, and in the most practicable manner. In addition to the private revenue belonging to the schools, one-half of the annual product of the municipal funds should be devoted to educational purposes, until the amount of the annual school fund should reach two thousand dollars. All vacant property was to revert to the State and was to be used for the schools. In all department and district capitals “juntas of public education” should be organized, consisting of the president of the ayuntamiento, the parish curate, and one other, appointed by the State executive. This junta was to have charge of funds, look after the attendance of pupils, employ qualified teachers and inspect their work, assist the indigent and collect from the well-to-do, and in general to do everything to make the school system efficient. If the members did not perform their duties in a proper manner, any citizen might lodge a complaint against them. 78
The above decree seems a step in the proper direction—that of allowing each community to attend to the matter of education within its own limits, and to provide funds for this purpose by allowing it the proceeds of the sales of the public land in its midst. It was with these two principles as the foundation that the present school system of our city has grown to such splendid proportions. A later decree 79 provided that the proceeds of the sale of the “commons” belonging to the city of San Fernando de Bexar should be reserved as a perpetual fund to be used exclusively for the payment of teachers of primary schools. Lest all here stated may seem ancient history, it may be well to note that this law was recently cited in the suit brought by the school board of San Antonio for the recovery of some land claimed by the Galveston, Harrisburg, &San Antonio Railroad. Yet, notwithstanding these new measures, the governor had to report, at the beginning of 1834, as he had done the previous year, that public instruction remained in the same condition as before. In his message of that year he expresses the wish that the parents of the State be aroused to the importance of educating their children, “in order to banish the chaos of ignorance in which the greater part of the communities lie.” 80
From the above references we may gain a pretty fair idea of the ambitious plans and tardy measures of execution adopted by the State authorities of Coahuila and Texas—plans soon to come to naught, so far as the greater part of the State was concerned, by the success of the Texas Revolution. Thus all of the projects of the central authorities were of no effect. It remains to be seen if those of the municipality of San Fernando, in a more restricted field of operations were doomed to a like failure. We have the copy of a letter, dated January 31, 1826, from José Antonio Saucedo, the political chief of the Department of Texas, to Rafael Gonzales the governor of the State of Coahuila and Texas, in which he reports the fact that a school was established in the city of San Fernando on the fifteenth of that month. The school had been established, that is, so far as funds for the payment of a teacher were concerned. These had been raised by private subscription. But a building, to serve as a school-house was still lacking, and this lack Saucedo wished the protecting hand of the “Honorable Assembly” (the State congress) to supply. He thought that San Fernando, as a community, merited this gift, which it could not, owing to a scarcity of ready money, procure for itself, and he promised his best efforts to see that it was prudently used. With his letter he sent an estimate of the cost of the desired building which amounted to 746 pesos, 5 reales. The congress, however, did not grant the desired aid, for there was not sufficient assurance that the school work would be continued. 81 Before the promulgation of the State constitution we have the record of a patriotic junta, held May 26, 1826, to provide for the establishment of a public school. There is a later reference to this 82 showing that contributions had been pledged on that occasion, but the amount is not reported. The next year, after the promulgation of the constitution, the sixteenth of September was celebrated in a most practical and helpful way by the installation of another patriotic junta, which later turned over to the school fund, the sum of 323 pesos, 6 reales. 83
As the school fund is the most important part of the whole system, it may be well first to trace that of San Fernando de Bexar during the seven years (1828 to 1834, inclusive), of which we have record. Besides the amount given above from the patriotic junta, there was contributed during the year 310 pesos by individual citizens, of whom the three largest contributors gave 20 pesos each. The captain of the presidial company surpassed them all by subscribing 25 pesos (“only for this time,” however). The smallest contributors gave only 4 reales each, and there were six of these. The total number of contributors was 74, including the two pueblos of Mission San Juan and Mission Espada. In addition to the cash contribution there was a note for 100 pesos, given by the company of Bexar, and one for 75 pesos, by the company of the Alamo. Besides this, the proceeds from fees for the slaughter of animals for 1827 and 1828 contributed enough to raise the total receipts of the fund for 1828 to 1060 pesos and 6 granos. The fund was to continue to be made up principally from direct contributions and the fees paid for the killing of animals. The disbursements for the year 1828 comprised simply the teacher's salary of 500 pesos.
For the year 1829, the direct contributions dropped down to 91 pesos. Evidently the members of the “Patriotic Junta” were losing some of their enthusiasm. Other branches of revenue also fell off, so that the actual cash balance, at the end of the year, was only 76 pesos and 6¼ reales, although there were notes for 315 pesos and an unpaid account of 15 pesos, 2 reales. Of the subscription for 1828, 76 pesos, 4 reales remained unpaid. In the month of October the authorities had been obliged to let their five-hundred-dollar teacher go, and take one who would serve for 22 pesos a month. During the early part of the following year there was some trouble with the former keeper of the school fund, Captain Alejandro Treviño. He did not transfer his account to the keeper ad interim until the 27th of May, although he should have done so on January 1st, and before that time he reported that, in a case of emergency, he had used some 50 pesos of the fund for giving presents to the Indians. As a military man, possibly this necessity appealed more strongly to him than that of educating the children. At first Captain Treviño claimed