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 that he could not be deprived of his office as keeper of the fund, because he had been appointed by the “Patriotic Junta.” Finally he turned over what he had on hand. The regular keeper was absent a considerable part of the time, so the fund often changed hands that year. There were many necessary repairs, and the twenty-two-dollar man stepped out and a six-dollar one took his place. This man, however, was only an assistant (ayudante); the real master was then serving without pay. At the end of the year the cash on hand amounted to some 39 pesos, with the same amount in notes as before. Evidently these notes had been given by the two garrison companies in an outburst of patriotic enthusiasm that rapidly cooled. By the end of 1834 these two companies had paid only 99 pesos on their four notes.
During 1831 there was collected by voluntary subscription 59 pesos, 7 reales, and from slaughter fees (producto de la carne) some 162 pesos. The expenses that year were 135 pesos, the salary of the assistant for nine months, and five month's salary for a new teacher at 25 pesos a month. Other expenses for repairs left the fund with 30 pesos, 6 reales in cash. The notes by this time amounted to 270 pesos. For 1832 there are some new items among the receipts, such as a voluntary contribution of 100 pesos, donated by Doña Gertrudis Perez, through her husband, José Casiano, and a loan of 50 pesos to the school fund from another branch of the municipal revenue. Contributions for that year added to the fund 90 pesos, 5 reales. From it were paid salaries to the extent of 435 pesos and expense of repairs, 13 pesos, 4 reales, leaving a balance of 296 pesos, 5 reales, of which only about 80 pesos were in cash. By the end of 1833 this cash balance amounted to 9 pesos only, although but 250 pesos had been paid out for salaries. Resort had again been had to borrowing from another fund, to eke out even this smaller sum. In 1834 only 144 pesos were paid to the assistant, but again it was necessary to borrow. At the close of that year the account of the school fund terminates, but receipts given by Bruno Huizar, as teacher, show that he was paid as late as January 31, 1835. 84
The “Ordinance for the Primary School of this City” (San Fernando de Bexar) 85 deserves more than the passing notice permitted by the limits of this article. At the very beginning the religious foundation of the school system is marked by selecting the Child Jesus as the patron saint of the establishment and dedicating the twenty-fifth of December to a special celebration in his honor. Each year the teacher was to invite the parents of the pupils to contribute to the expenses of this occasion. The pupils were to address each other as “Citizen So-and-so,” reserving “Señor” for the teacher and other elders. The two vacations of each year were to extend respectively from December 23 to January 1, and from the Wednesday of Holy Week to Easter Saturday. On festival days “of only one cross” school should be held as usual. Until the creation of a special fund, pupils should furnish their own books, paper, pens, etc.
The course of study was to include “reading from book and from manuscript, writing, accounting in the first five and principal rules, of arithmetic, “some knowledge of the grammar of the language, of the doctrine of our Holy Religion from the catechism of Father Ripalda, and the principles of good moral and political behavior and of the remaining social virtues.” For his services in teaching these branches the school-master was to receive 500 pesos, but could accept no fees in addition from the pupils. Public “disputations” were to be held every four months. Some members of the ayuntamiento were to visit the school each week, and for their first visit the teacher must have his list of pupils ready for inspection.
The length of the daily sessions would have been terrifying alike to modern pupil and teacher. In the summer—from April to October—they extended from six to eleven in the morning, and from two to six in the afternoon. During the winter the morning session extended from seven until twelve, but the afternoon session was unchanged. The school was to be opened and closed with prayer. A recess of a half hour was to be granted at 9 a. m. for the purpose of taking breakfast (almorzar). Three questions on Christian doctrine were to form the memory lesson for the morning, and as many more for the afternoon. The last hour of each session was to be devoted to hearing lessons and correcting work. On the last Saturday of each month the two lower divisions of pupils were to have a sort of contest among themselves in their written work and in reading. The other Saturday afternoons the first and second departments were to employ in a very short memory lesson in Spanish grammar, while the third department should review the questions of Christian doctrine learned during the week.
The most peculiar thing in the whole system, from our stand-point, but doubtless one of the distinguishing methods of a Lancasterian school, was the division of the student body into two general parties, “the Romans and the Carthaginians,” each having a president, six captains, and six corporals. The presidents were required to know how to write well; to know the first four rules of accounting, two-thirds of the catechism, and the same portion of Spanish grammar and of the constitution of the country. The captains must present half of these qualifications; the corporals, a third part. The two parties were each divided into three classes: the first comprising the captains and corporals; the second, those who were already writing and who were under the immediate orders of the captains; the third, those who were simply reading, who were in charge of the corporals. An equal number of pupils was assigned to each officer. Sky blue was to be the color of the Roman party, and crimson that of their opponents. Each officer was to have his rank appropriately designated, and the presidents, on public occasions, should carry a cane. Doubtless where only one teacher could be provided for 150 pupils, some such system of student espionage and display was necessary, but to us it seems ridiculous.
The duties of the teacher by no means ended with the regular school hours. He must look after and admonish his pupils regarding their language, public conduct, and deportment toward their elders. On the Fridays and Sundays of Lent he must conduct the children in a body to the church. On all Sundays and festal days the children must assemble at school an hour before the principal mass, in order to attend that function in a body. These occasions doubtless would afford a fine opportunity for display on the part of the student officers.
The chapter on punishments includes such penalties as shutting up the culprits in the school-house or keeping them in it under arrest during holy days, employing them in sweeping, for a week at a time only, giving them the dunce's seat (el asiento del aprovio), shutting them up in a room called the ware-house (almacen) during the day time, flogging for robbery of any sort, and the imposition of a like penalty upon those who, from failure in lessons or in writing, have to return to the dunce's seat within a week. The teacher was to attend to the application of these punishments with all the harmony and equity that the occasion demanded. Some of these rules make interesting reading, and are doubly so, owing to the fact that they are still in force in Mexican schools. The above system of rules was submitted to the teacher, who agreed to enforce it, and afterwards it was accepted by the ayuntamiento.
It may be well to mention the names of the teachers who were to put into force this elaborate system. The pedagogue whose acceptance is noted above, was José Antonio Gama y Fonseca, who contracted himself to serve four years from January 1, 1828, at the promised salary of 500 pesos per annum. He served until the ninth of October, 1829. He was succeeded by Victoriano Zepeda, who served for a monthly stipend of 22 pesos, until January 31, 1830, when he begged to be excused to accept other employment bringing him in greater returns. A committee, appointed by the ayuntamiento, then tried to secure the services of Domingo Bustillos, but he wished 25 pesos a month, so they could come to no agreement with him. At this juncture Francisco Rojo offered to fulfill the duties of the position without pay as long as he should remain in the community. The ayuntamiento accepted with heartfelt thanks this unselfishly patriotic offer, without, however, binding themselves not to give him some remuneration for his services. Señor Rojo probably estimated this proviso at its true value. The assistant, Bruno Huizar, received the only salary paid for the time being, and this amounted to six pesos a month. Upon representation of the preceptor Rojo, this was increased, in July, to eleven pesos, two reales. By the end of the year this was again raised, this time to fifteen pesos a month. He had previously asked permission to act as sacristan of the parish church, but the ayuntamiento preferred to raise his salary and retain him wholly in the service of the school. It is not at all strange, with such salaries for teachers, that the visiting committee from the ayuntamiento should report, in May, that they found a very small number of pupils in the schools. The teachers evidently did not wish to work any harder than necessary for their meagre pay.
By January, 1831, the ayuntamiento was again under the necessity of looking for a new school-master. Señor Rojo had evidently tired of his unselfish labors, or had taken his departure from the community. The committee appointed to consider the matter reported that they had advertised for a teacher, offering as a salary the endowment of 500 pesos promised by the State; 86 but that to this offer they had received no response, for prospective pedagogues evidently did not fully trust the ability of the State to pay. The committee favored making an application to their representatives in congress, to select for them a teacher in Saltillo from among the number that presented themselves in that city. By the following July a suitable candidate appeared in their midst, offered himself, and was accepted at the salary of 25 pesos a month. Juan Francisco Buchetti, the new preceptor, agreed to serve two years for that pay, commencing in August, 1831. He served the rest of the year, all of 1832, and three months of 1833, when he resigned his position to the faithful assistant, Bruno Huizar, who, like Tennyson's brook, seemed destined to go on forever in his place, while head masters continued to come and go.
In his petition to the ayuntamiento to be released from serving the remaining four months stipulated in his contract, Buchetti alleged that he had to depart from the city in order to engage in other employment. The members of the ayuntamiento agreed, “with extraordinary unanimity,” to grant his request, especially in view of the fact that for a year he had been extremely tardy in fulfilling his duties and had been guilty of such serious irregularities of conduct as “drunkenness and a scandalous mode of living with his new wife.” Perhaps the latter relation may account for the unhappy pedagogue's downfall; for, if we may judge from the ayuntamiento records, he had been unusually active during the earlier portion of his service.
Huizar continued to act as sole master during the remainder of 1833. For the year 1834 we have the record of 144 pesos paid to the preceptor of the school, who is none other than the faithful Bruno. The salary paid later, eighteen dollars a month, seems just about adapted to him, and it remains unchanged as late as the succeeding January, when our records fail. 87
A vigorous teacher could find much to occupy his spare time, if such he had, after the prescribed hours of service. All improvements and repairs in the school-building must come as a result of his personal intervention in the meetings of the ayuntamiento. He must also take charge of any functions in which the school participated. Buchetti was active in urging improvements, and the mention of the “maestro” in the minutes of the ayuntamiento is especially frequent during his incumbency. He often appeared before that body to report cases of insubordination and ask for special power to deal with the same; or to complain of the poor furniture and petition for new, or to present the bill for articles made or purchased at his suggestion. In fact, the minutest details of school management seemed none too trivial for the consideration of the “Illustrious Ayuntamiento”; and the mark of a good teacher seemed to be to give that body plenty of material for action.
The matter of raising the money for a special celebration, such as that of the twenty-fifth of December, was also in the hands of the teacher; and, from what we know of money-raising in San Fernando, this was far from being an easy task. The ayuntamiento had also permitted Buchetti to cultivate the public lots of the house of the ayuntamiento during his continuance in office; possibly after attending to his many executive duties, he might feel the need of outdoor exercise, although one must wonder where he could find the time for it. His successor, Huizar, evidently had his hands full, inasmuch as he petitioned the ayuntamiento to use its good offices to have him released from militia service. Very likely he lacked other things than time, but he may well have thought that nine hours a day in the school-room, at the munificent salary of eighteen dollars a month, was all the service in behalf of “God and Liberty” that could reasonably be asked of him.
For the greater portion of the time one of the members of the ayuntamiento had charge of the school fund, the ultimate control always resting with that body. Angel Navarro, the third regidor, for two years served in this capacity. Usually the keeper of the fund, in company with another member, served as the committee for visiting the schools, supposedly once a week. Two visits only are mentioned during the two years of Buchetti's incumbency, so it must have been that this regulation was more honored in the breach than in the observance. All elections of teachers, increase of salaries, in fact, everything in connection with the school had to come before the ayuntamiento. It was also the function of this body, acting through the alcaldes or keeper of the school fund (depositario), to stir up individual contributors to pay their quotas. Of these delinquents the teacher usually furnished the list, and either he or his assistant often helped in collecting from them. In many matters concerning the public schools the parish curate acted with the committee of visitors, either ex officio or by special appointment, as was the case in formulating the code of rules.
With a system involving such elaborate details, evidently planned for external effect, if not for permanent results, what was the net result upon the community at large? We can not measure this with any degree of accuracy, but it is possible to note the fact that every teacher of this period complained of the non-attendance of pupils and gave to the ayuntamiento long lists of parents who were remiss in sending their children or in paying the voluntary subscriptions they had pledged. These contributions were to be paid in three equal installments during the year, but there seems to have been no regularity displayed in complying with this rule. Mention has already been made of the most important individual gift—that of Doña Gertrudis Perez. Another of moment was that of twenty-seven copies of a life of Saint Peter, to be used as rewards for the pupils. After careful inspection by the curate and a special committee to determine if the work was of suitable character, these were accepted with thanks. It is unfortunate that the name of the donor of this latter gift comes down to us in the records simply as “George Nixon's clerk.” After taking up so much space in the discussion of his gift, it certainly seems that the ayuntamiento might have thought his name worthy of mention.
Only during the two visits to the school made while Buchetti was master, did the inspection committee find the work progressing with any degree of satisfaction. At all other times they spoke regretfully of the few pupils in attendance and the many children running loose in the streets. Threatened pains and penalties did not seem to terrify the indifferent parents. 88 According to the statistical report for the year 1832, there were in the city of San Fernando de Bexar 297 boys and young men and 334 girls and young women between the ages of seven and twenty-five. For the following year these numbers were 296 and 334, respectively. 89 For the former year Buchetti reports an enrollment of 100 and for the latter, Huizar reports 60. Further comment upon these figures is unnecessary. In his report on Texas in 1834, Almonte remarks concerning schools:
“In Bexar there exists one supported by that ayuntamiento; but, as it appears, its funds have become so reduced that not even this useful establishment has been able to survive. What will be the lot of those unfortunate Mexicans who live in the midst of barbarians, without hope of civilization?” 90
It was not given to Colonel Almonte to read the future, so he could not know his despairing question anent the results of efforts toward education in San Fernando was to receive its answer in the rifle shots that rang from the Alamo and on the battlefield of San Jacinto. Had he understood the significance of those historic events, he might have recognized the fact that the Anglo-American was to accomplish what the Spanish-American had only attempted, and that in the hands of the former the lot of the Mexicans domiciled on this side of the Rio Grande, was, educationally, to be infinitely brighter than it had been thus far.
APPENDIX A.
Part I.
Inventory and conveyance of the school-house and of the furniture in it, made by Don Ygnacio de los Santos Coy, to his successor, D. José Ygnacio Sanchez Castellano, 91 in the following form:
First, a hall with platform, with two doors and one window; the key of one door being serviceable, and the other broken, and the window without any lock.
A room adjoining the hall, with its interior door without lock, and one small window, with bars only.
A wooden cross.
Four tables, one of them smaller than the others.
Four benches, one of these from the previous school, and the three remaining of those which D. Vizente Travieso made.
Two rulers, one of them with two measures lacking from each side, and the other with three lacking.
A barrel for carrying water, with five iron hoops.
A hoop loosened from the above barrel.
A wooden gutter.
A rawhide rope.
A trough of rough wood.
Thirteen A B C lists, the greater part of them interleaved.
Note.—In addition to the above, there exists, in process of repair, in possession of D. Manuel Yudo, a table of this school; and having nothing else to convey or receive, we sign this in this city of San Fernando de Bexar on the third of July, 1812.
Ygno. de los Santos Coy. Received José Ygnacio Sanchez Castellaño.
Part II.
Note of what is in the school, 92 towit:
4 Copy books.
One lead Inkstand with a Sandbox of the same [metal].
One Ruler.
One Print of St. Joseph.
One Cross.
One Table.
One Cube with its Chaqual and all the primers and drawings of the children.
Note.
Missed: One Pencil.
One old book of Lives of Saints.
One book of daily exercise.
2 Primers.
This, February 1st, 1809.
Fernando de Santiago.
APPENDIX B. School.
Having determined whether there be a worthy person to take charge of it, who meanwhile may instruct the youth, he shall be endowed with seventy places, of which five, of necessity, shall be free, and the rest paid for by those interested.
1.The aforesaid free places shall remain at the disposal of the one in charge of the school, who shall nominate the pupils to occupy them; he taking care that they are given to poor individuals of discretion, who are known to be of good disposition.
2.The seventy places shall be divided into the more able and the less able, the first paying a dollar, and the second fifty cents each month. Although each pupil may be advanced in his classes, the method or order of his payment should not be altered in any other way than is by this assigned to him; for the end is to avoid large contributions from the poorer ones.
3.The salary for the maintenance of the teacher shall be placed at thirty dollars a month.
4.The collection of the fund shall be in charge of one of the alcaldes, who, with the aid of the ward commissioners [comisarios de barrio], 93 shall look after the attendance of the children at school, and [shall take care] that they be at least a month ahead in the salary of the teacher, in order that he may not lack subsistence, and that any surplus be turned into a general fund for the ordinary expenses of the school.
5.That one of the regidores be charged to visit the school at least once a day, in order to note the infringements of the rules that he may observe, and to apply the remedy that appears to him most opportune, as the case may demand.
6.That the books, paper, ink-stands, and copy-books be at the expense of those interested, as also the tables and seats, in addition to those which may be existing in the school-house.
These are the points which we consider necessary for the useful establishment of this school, save those which may appear convenient to the superior authorities.
San Fernando de Bexar, 10 of June, 1812.
José Antonio Saucedo. Josef Erasmo Seguin.
APPENDIX C. ORDINANCE WHICH SHALL BE OBSERVED IN THE PUBLIC FREE PRIMARY SCHOOL DEDICATED TO THE INSTRUCTION OF THE YOUTH OF THE VICINITY OF BEXAR: 94
Chapter I. General Provisions.
Art. 1.The Holy Patron of this pious establishment shall be the Christ Child, and on the 25 of December, when his festival is celebrated, there shall be a Church function and some other public demonstrations of worship and of merriment, which shall be decided upon annually by the teacher, who shall present them beforehand to the Illustrious Ayuntamiento for its approbation or amendment.
2.Two months previous to said festival the Teacher shall send an invitation, by writing, to the Parents of all the Children, inviting them to make a contribution to defray the costs of this religious act, and these shall coöperate freely, according to their means, with whatever amount they wish, or with nothing, if they thus think best.
3.Before the close of the eight days following this function, the Teacher shall present to the Illustrious Ayuntamiento a written statement of the amount of the contribution, and of the objects for which it was spent.
4.Over the principal Doorway of the house which serves for a School shall be placed an inscription of the following tenor: PUBLIC FREE PRIMARY SCHOOL.
5.The style of address of the children among themselves, within or without the School, shall be that of Citizen So-and-so; and that which they shall use for the Teacher, as for all other persons their elders, shall be that of Señor.
6.All the children for the present and while the corresponding funds are being created, shall furnish their Syllable-books, Books, paper, pens and the remaining necessary articles, which the Teacher may require of them.
7.In the course of each year there shall be two periods during which the children shall enjoy a holiday or vacation, one of these lasting from the Wednesday of Holy Week until Easter Saturday, and the other from the 23 of December to the 1st of the following January, inclusive.
8.On feast days of only one cross there shall be school in the same manner as on all other days.
Chapter II. The Principal Points upon which has been based the contract agreed upon with the Teacher who is to serve the school, and some other rules which bear relation to them.
9.Citizen José Antonio Gama y Fonseca is obligated spontaneously and solemnly to teach, for four years reckoned from the 1st of January of the present year, all the youths of this vicinity, under the rules that have been prescribed for him or which shall be in the future; to read books and manuscript; to write, to calculate in the first five principal rules of Arithmetic; to take care that they receive some knowledge of the Grammar of the Language, likewise of the Doctrine of our Holy Religion by means of the catechism of Father Ripalda, and of the principles of good Morals and Manners, and other social virtues.
10.He shall enjoy annually the salary of $500, to be paid at the completion of each month, executing for this purpose partial receipts in favor of the Illustrious Ayuntamiento, which shall always be the immediate administrator of the funds destined and collected for this object.
11.In consequence of the preceding article, the Teacher is deprived of the power of exacting, even indirectly, from the pupils, any kind of payment, remuneration, or contribution; (not even that which is customary in other schools under the name of Fridays), unless their Parents desire to reward him spontaneously with some gift, as a token of their gratitude.
12.He is prohibited also from selling seats, or other abuses of this kind, which a corrupt custom has introduced into our schools.
For the first visit which must be paid to the school by the Illustrious Ayuntamiento the Teacher shall have formed a list of all the pupils, expressing their names, ages, date of entrance, and the state of instruction in which they then were, and a blank margin to the right, in order to note the Progress and Retrogression, which may be occurring, in accordance with the model which will be assigned to him; likewise showing the copy-books and remaining documents which may serve as evidence of the progress of the Children.
The Teacher shall be likewise prepared and in agreement with the Curate of the place regarding the visits which the latter must make to the School as Priest of this parish; agreeing also during the time of Lent upon the days and the methods in which the children must make their confessions, in order to fulfill their duties annually with the Church.
Each four months the Teacher shall hold a public contest in the School itself, announcing three days beforehand to all the vicinity that 12 pupils (six from each Band) will compete, and in this contest six individuals, who shall be invited in writing, shall serve as synodals; 95 he indicating to them the matters in which they may examine the participants, any one else in attendance being free to examine them also.
The contest being concluded, the Director associated with the synodals, after previous information which he shall give them concerning the progress of the Children who have participated in it, shall proceed to the grading, which shall be done in three degrees—Superlative, Comparative, and Positive, or especially good, very good, and good; there being next drawn up a record, which shall be filed at the School, indicating those who have been accredited to the first, to the 2nd, and to the 3rd grade, signed by the synodals and the Teacher; then they shall proceed to distribute among those of the 1st and 2nd places badges of distinction, which they shall wear placed upon the left arm, as will be shown in the first instance which occurs.
Chapter III. Concerning the internal management of the School.
This shall commence its work promptly every day in the Summer from six to eleven, and from seven to twelve in the Winter for the mornings, and for the afternoon, in each season, from two until six. The period of Summer shall be reckoned from the 1st of April to the last of September, and the six remaining months for the Winter.
At the said hours, with the number of Children that are present, the Teacher shall begin School with a devout prayer dedicated to the Supreme Being (which shall also be repeated at the closing); assigning next the distinct occupations with which the pupils are to employ themselves.
Of all these there shall be formed two parties, or Bands (Rome and Carthage), and in each one there shall be a President, six Captains and six corporals; which positions for the first time shall be filled by the Teacher, according to the experience of the Children, and afterwards they shall have the option of them who in the public and private Disputations are most distinguished for their advancement and application. The captains and corporals shall be denominated in numerical order from 1st to 6th, according to which they shall take position, whenever they form, at the head of their bands.
In order to be President it is at least necessary to be already writing [de delgado]; 96 to know the first four rules of counting; two-thirds of the catechism, the same of the lessons of Spanish Grammar, and some others concerning the constitution which may be taught them. The Captains must present a half of these qualifications, and the corporals a third of them, all of these being under the judgment of the Director, upon the supposition that the instruction which is demanded shall be perfect.
The bands shall be divided amongst themselves into three departments; the 1st shall be composed of the captains and the corporals, and shall be called the Department of officers, and shall be immediately subject to its respective President; all those who are already writing shall form the second and it shall be under the immediate orders of the captains; and the third shall be composed of readers only, and the corporals shall have charge of it; the number of children composing it being distributed among them in equal parts, the same being done in the 2nd for the captains.
The daily device that the officers shall wear, within and outside the school, shall be three fluted ribbons placed crosswise upon the left breast and a bar of white metal which crosses the three bands in the middle, commencing in the 1st and terminating in the 3rd, for the president; two arranged similarly for the captains, and one for the corporals, both without bars, the Romans being distinguished from the Carthaginians in that the device of the first shall be sky-blue, and scarlet that of the second; the Presidents shall carry in addition, for all public occasions, in the hand the most suitable cane possible. Each Band shall have a white Banner with the inscription in the middle of Rome or Carthage, in conformity with the model which shall be given, and these shall be placed in the school at the head of the party to which each one corresponds; it being the duty of the corporals of the sixth rank to bear these banners whenever they have to go in regular order outside the School, occupying the position which belongs to the Bearers.
In addition there shall be a place of opprobrium for the Children of both bands, designated by the Teacher and destined for the indolent or those who have relapsed into shortcomings in their respective subjects, which they shall not be able to leave until they give full proof of application and amendment, and with previous supplication from the commander of the Squad to which they belong.
The duties of the President shall be: 1st, to receive immediately the orders which the Teacher may have to communicate to the School; 2nd, to cause these to be observed and properly fulfilled by their respective bands, as well as all those prescribed in this regulation, under immediate responsibility to the Director, for which purpose they shall make use of the captains and corporals of their command, who shall be subordinate to them in everything; 3rd, to preside over their respective bands whenever they are gathered in regular order; 4th, to reply themselves in the public or private disputations, whenever an individual of their respective bands is unable to do so; 5th, to give an account to the Teacher of the faults which they observe in the Children inside and outside of the School, correcting them themselves by a serious admonition, or ordering them to kneel down, if the fault should be grave, and giving notice immediately to the Teacher, who shall carry into effect these punishments in the best possible way, unless injustice should be manifest.
The Department of readers shall be immediately in charge of the corporals, each one of these taking care to assign and hear, morning and evening, the Children of his Squad in the corresponding lesson and other tasks provided for them, giving account of the result to his respective President in order that the latter may do the same, in turn, to the Teacher; both of these should themselves frequently surprise the instructors in order to see if they comply with their duties, especially when some punishment is to be applied to anyone whatever of the Children, of whom his immediate director has given a bad report.
In the same manner and under the same conditions as given in the preceding article, by which the department of reading has to be subject to the six corporals, the department of writing shall be subject to the six captains, and the department composed of the former and the latter officers to the Presidents, and each one of these sections shall be denominated a Squadron.
As the next act after the invocation to the Supreme Being which the — 97 article prescribes, each of the captains and corporals shall gather those of his Squadron in their respective seats—(which shall be changed only through having obtained some promotion or degradation), and shall proceed immediately to hear their lessons, to rule paper for them, to pass lists, etc.
The Teacher shall observe very scrupulously that all the officers fulfill their respective duties—and the least failure shall render them liable to be deposed from the employment,—and to correct them seriously, especially when through animosity or partiality they conceal or exaggerate the faults of their subordinates.
In the morning at 9 the Children shall be permitted to go out to breakfast, the Teacher taking care that this interruption does not last more than half an hour.
He shall take care, also, that the special work of each department shall be terminated morning and afternoon an hour before dismissal and that this interval be employed in hearing lessons and in correcting exercise books.
Three questions of Christian doctrine in the morning, and as many more for the afternoon, shall be the memory lessons which shall be imposed upon all the pupils, including from every faithful Christian, and marking each point separately by questions up to where they begin.
On the last Saturday in each month the Children of the first and second departments (one band against another) shall have, in the afternoon, a contest in which shall be considered the exercises and their respective instruction in reading, and the memory lessons which they have learned; and the decision shall rest upon the judgment of the Teacher, there being an appeal from his judgment only to the individual vote of three residents, simply in the branch of writing.
The conquered party shall have to file in front of the conquerors who shall be seated in their places, and as each pupil of the former class arrives in front of the one who surpassed him, he shall kneel on one knee to the ground and shall remain until the latter shall lift him up, saying to him: Have a little more application. The President only in every case, and those who have surpassed, although they may be of the conquered party, shall not perform this last act of acknowledgment; but they shall remain standing after they have filed past until the last of their associates shall have performed it; and the Banner of the conquered shall remain furled until they recover the lost honor.
Challenges shall also be permitted, at one time it may be of one band against another, at another of the individuals of the same one amongst themselves, observing in the first case everything provided in the preceding article; and in the second case the punishment of the conquered shall be to go down to the place which the conqueror held, the latter going up to the place of the former.
For the remaining Saturdays, in the afternoon, the Children of the first and second Departments shall be employed only in learning a memory lesson, the shortest possible, of Spanish Grammar, and of any other manuscript compendium that shall be formed for them. They shall become accustomed among themselves to ask and answer questions, and those of the third shall merely take a review of all the questions of Christian Doctrine with which they may have been occupied during the week.
Failure of attendance on the part of the Presidents, as well as that of any of the captains or corporals, shall be constantly provided for by the immediate successor, whether it be to obtain possession of the place, or to fill it provisionally while the absent one is not in attendance.
The day after the disputation provided for during each four months in article —, 98 the rest of the Children shall be subjected to an examination by the Teacher and the twelve participants, and all those residents who wish may also be present. According to the greater or less amount of learning which they show, they shall be judged as belonging to the first, second, and third grade, without giving them the honorary distinction of the badge provided for in the cited article.
Chapter IV. Rules which shall be taught to the Children for their conduct out- side the School.
The Teacher shall especially take care to admonish them concerning the propriety and moderation with which they ought to comport themselves in their homes, in the Church, on the street, and in all their intercourse with their elders, advising them that above all things, they abstain from the detestable use of obscene words, from disputes, and from prohibited games.
On Fridays and Sundays of Lent in the afternoon, the Teacher shall take care to conduct the Children to recite the Via Crucis and to hear the accustomed doctrinal discourse. To do this he shall try to shorten the duties of the School and to accomplish the same as on all the remaining days, he agreeing with the Curate of the place, whether before the discourse the Pupils may be exercised in a Catechism of Christian doctrine.
On all Sundays and observed festal days of the year the Children shall be assembled at the School an hour before high Mass, in order to attend it in regular order.
On all occasions when the Children have to attend Church, in their going and coming, they may go praising God by means of some devout song in which the Teacher shall instruct them, seeing that all of those who can carry some book in which shall be explained the unspeakable mysteries of this august Sacrifice.
For the purpose of keeping order in the ranks, the first and second captains of each band shall be employed, without having any place therein, going back and forth along their respective lines, to cause the best order and propriety to be observed.
Each one of the Presidents shall have a copy of this regulation, and shall cause the captains and corporals to read it at least once a week, and for this purpose they shall make all the copies possible, the Teacher himself, moreover, taking care to read it aloud at least once a month.
The Presidents for all cases which present themselves shall refer to what is prescribed in this regulation.
Chapter V. Penal Laws.
The punishments which shall be applied to the Children who may commit some fault shall be: to put them on their knees in the School; to keep them under arrest in the same on holidays; to employ them in sweeping and in other cleaning, for a whole week, no more; to assign them to the seat of opprobrium until they recover their lost standing; to imprison them in a room or dungeon, which shall be called the Warehouse, but they shall not pass the night in it. In case that any pupil shall be convicted of robbery, within or outside of the School, he shall be punished with six stripes, the same penalty being inflicted upon those who relapse into their faults in lessons or writing after having been a week in the place of opprobrium.
The Teacher shall take care that all punishments be applied to the Children with all possible forbearance and equity, in proportion to the nature of the faults and persistence therein.
Failures in reading, in the copy-books, in accounting, or memory lessons shall be regarded as relapses, if they are repeated within the space of one week.
It remains under the immediate responsibility of the Teacher alone to look out for the most punctual observance of this regulation, as also the only object to which everything is directed, and that is, the advancement and instruction of all the Children.
The immediate fiscal and Judge, who at the same time, shall observe the conduct of the Director and apply to him the punishment which he may merit according to his faults, shall be the Illustrious Ayuntamiento, from whose sentence appeal can be made only to the Citizen Chief of this Department.
The only punishments which can be applied to the Director either for the infraction of any article of this regulation, or for any other grave fault, relative to his ministry, of which he may be convicted, shall be: 1st, a discount from the salary of the next month, and, 2nd, the absolute deprivation of his office, a previous succinct report to this effect having been approved by the Citizen Chief of this Department.
The pecuniary penalty mentioned in the preceding article shall not be less than one dollar, nor exceed six.
This ordinance, before being signed by the Illustrious Ayuntamiento, shall be laid before the Teacher of the School, in order that, within the limit of three days, having examined the whole in detail, he may be able to make criticisms which occur to him, which shall either be answered, if they are not thought reasonable, or shall be made use of by addition to or amendment of, any of the rules prescribed by the commission empowered for this purpose.
Refugio de la Garza 99 Juan Martin de Beramendi Jose Maria Balmaceda. Being carefully informed of what is contained in the foregoing Ordinance, which is to serve for the internal Government of the Public primary School of this City, which is under my control, and not having any reflection to make, I am in agreement with whatever is prescribed in it and will take care that it be put in practice and properly complied with. José Anto. Gama y Fonseca. San Fernando de Bexar, 13 of Mch., 1828. The foregoing Ordinance having been put under general discussion, it has been approved in its entirety by this Ayuntamiento. Capitular Hall of San Fernando de Bejar, 13 of March, 1828. Ramon Musquiz Juan Martin de Beramendi Jose Maria de la Garza Manul. Flores Juan Angl. Seguin Victoriano Zepeda, Sec'y ad Interim.
The education of youth has always been one of the most important bases for the felicity of Peoples, and the prosperity of their Government. The Mexican, who, unfortunately, groaned under the despotic and savage sway of the ambitious sons of Iberia, has never occupied himself in perfecting this most important institution, which would already have placed him on a level with the most cultured nations. The corrupt Government at Madrid only cared to suck up, by whatever means within its reach, the precious resources of the Americas, and studiously and craftily to retard the growth of enlightenment. Nothing, in truth, was more natural than this iniquitous behavior, since the first, increasing its riches, satisfied all the desires of its vain and haughty natural caprice; and the second secured it in the domination of the richest and most productive of its evil-acquired patrimonies, blinding us to the important knowledge of our Native rights.
Nevertheless, the natural empire of the reason, which some day comes to prevail, and the characteristic qualities of all the children of this soil, in union with other joint causes, broke finally the ominous chain which bound us, elevating us to the rank of free men, independent of any other.
In spite of this, and of the paternal beneficent institutions of our Present Government, to which belongs the establishment of primary Schools, the spirit of discord which still endures amongst us has impeded it from occupying itself with this, as with other matters that undoubtedly make for the aggrandizement of the Nation, all its efforts being employed in assuring our internal and external tranquillity, which is doubtless the corner stone of the social edifice.
In spite of all, and in virtue of the ardent desires of the towns, there are already seen in most of them educational establishments for the youth who will form the future generation, which will come to secure completely Mexican Liberties; and among these, although one of the most distant from the center, of the least populous, of the poorest in moneyed citizens, and finally, vexed by the terrifying hostilities which it has suffered from the savages through long periods of time, — 100 has just made a heroic and extraordinary effort, stirred up by several of its citizens, and by that worthy citizen, General Anastacio Bustamente, to make a collection amongst all its citizens, amounting to six hundred dollars annually and lasting for four years, in order to carry to accomplishment the desire which in all time it has had for the education of its youth.
Yes, unfortunate Béjar, truly worthy of a better fate, you are the one which has just given so heroic a testimony of beneficence in spite of your notorious poverty; with difficulty do you commence to lift yourself from the abject state into which you had sunk, thanks to the presence of that philanthropic General and the aid of the Supreme Federal Government.
Be filled, then, citizens of Béjar, with the ineffable satisfaction which is produced by the important services directed to the good of your children, of society in general, and of the adored Country to which we belong, awaiting the glorious day in which you may either experience the fruit of your sacrifices for this pious establishment, or in which your ashes may receive a new being, through the eulogies which, without doubt, your posterity will lavish upon you.
BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES.
In the April, May, and June numbers of Out West is continued the publication of Junípero Serra's Diary, the first section of which appeared in the March number. Other installments are to follow.
Two pamphlets received from Hon. L. Bradford Prince, president of the Historical Society of New Mexico, are The Stone Idols of New Mexico, and Statehood for New Mexico, the latter being a speech delivered by Mr. Prince at the Trans-Mississippi Congress, held at Cripple Creek, Colorado, July 19, 1901.
An interesting and instructive booklet is Christmas in Old Mexico, by Fanny Chambers Gooch Iglehart, author of Face to Face with the Mexicans. It pictures certain salient aspects of the Mexican Christmas with much vividness.
The March number (Vol. VI, No. 2) of Publications of the Southern History Association contains the first installment of two documents of considerable value: Journal of Charles Porterfield, and Southern Political Views, 1865, by Hon. John H. Reagan. Captain Charles Porterfield was a Virginian who enlisted in the Continental army in 1775. He saw service at the siege of Boston; in the Canada expedition of Montgomery and Arnold; in the battle of Saratoga; spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, and was finally killed in the Southern campaign of 1780 in South Carolina. Judge Reagan's paper takes the form of a letter addressed to President Andrew Johnson. It was written from prison in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, and is dated “May 28, 1865.” This number of the Publications contains also a Bibliography of S. C. Women Writers, by A. S. Salley, Jr.; An Early Decision on Imperialism (1812), by D. Y. Thomas; and an account of the celebration of the Bi-Centenary of the French Settlement of the Southwest, held at Mobile, Alabama, January 22, 1902. The Secretary's report for 1901 shows the Association in an encouraging condition.
The May number of the Publications contains: Journal of Charles Porterfield (continued); Southern Political Views, 1865 (concluded); Early Quaker Records in Virginia (to be continued); An Old-Time Merchant in South Carolina, by Kate Furman, and The Spaniards in the South and Southwest, by Stephen B. Weeks.
The Quarterly has received an interesting and valuable brochure of 44 pages entitled Vida y Obras de Don José Fernando Ramírez, by Don Luis González Obregón, M. S. A. This brief sketch of the life of the distinguished jurist, historian, and man of letters, who found it possible, in spite of the storms of his political career, to do so much for the cause of sound learning in Mexico, is told with evident sympathy by Señor González Obregón. It is a pathetic story to tell—how Ramírez toiled for a life time in forming a library of inestimable value, only for it to be sold in London after his death. It has been scattered to the four winds, but there is warrant for the faith that most of it has passed to appreciative owners. This is certainly true of so much of it as has fallen into the hands of Mr. Edward E. Ayer, of Chicago.
The latter half of the pamphlet contains a bibliography of the works of Ramírez with notes that must prove very useful to students of Southwestern history.
G. P. G.
The April number (Vol. VII, No. 3) of The American Historical Review contains, besides the secretary's report of the Washington meeting of the American Historical Association, three signed articles, thirty-four pages of documents, and the usual portion of book reviews and notices. Professor Chas. H. Haskins contributes the first installment of a paper entitled Robert Le Bougre and the Beginnings of the Inquisition in Northern France. It gives us substantial information relative to the Inquisition in northern France during the early thirteenth century. In the history of the Inquisition this particular field has been, comparatively speaking, a neglected one. George Kriehn continues his Studies in the Sources of the Social Revolt in 1381. Part V is devoted to the death of Wat Tyler. He concludes that Tyler was a man of marked ability and eloquence; and that the traditional account of the events at Smithville culminating in his death is far from correct, particularly in the view that Tyler's death was an accident. In support of his contention, Mr. Kriehn analyzes the value of Froissart, Walsingham, and Knighton, on whose chronicles the traditional view is based, and concludes that as sources for the question in hand they are far inferior to the Continuation of the Eulogium and the Anonymous French Chronicle. He then proceeds to reconstruct the story of events at Smithfield, basing it largely on the last mentioned source. He concludes that, instead of being an accident, Tyler's death was most likely “one of the state murders that darken English history.” Part VI is a detailed analysis of the demands of the insurgents. Here again Mr. Kriehn draws conclusions at variance with generally accepted views. James Ford Rhodes writes a short paper on Who Burned Columbia? The documents printed in this number are Papers of Sir Charles R. Vaughan, 1825-1835 (concluding installment).
The secretary's report of the Washington meeting describes one of the most profitable meetings yet held. A portion of this report of direct interest to readers of The Quarterly, and to students of Southwestern history generally, is that devoted to Professor Garrison's part in the program. The liberal space given to his paper on historical study in the Southwest and the favorable comments upon it indicate the interest being taken in Southwestern history and in the University of Texas as a center for the study of it. At this meeting Professor Garrison was made chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, and was also appointed a member of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, of which the chairman is Professor E. G. Bourne, of Yale. The other members of the commission are Professor Frederick W. Moore, of Vanderbilt; Professor Theodore C. Smith, of the University of Ohio, and Secretary Reuben Gold Thwaites, of the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
H. E. B.
NOTES AND FRAGMENTS.
A Correction.—In the changes incident to correction in the proof of The Quarterly for October, 1901, p. 109, one line was repeated and one lost. This left the beginning of the last paragraph on the page in confusion. It should read as follows: “Shortly after Beaujeu's departure La Salle organized an expedition to explore the river on which he was situated in order to clear his doubts about its being an arm of the Mississippi. This expedition resulted,” etc. In the same article, p. 106, l. 14, the words in sympathy should be inserted after “Jesuit.”
Notice of Texas by a Traveler.—Mr. Schabelitz, in 1888, collected into a pamphlet of 164 pages, entitled Ueberseeische Reisen, the accounts of the travels of Amand Goegg, which had been published in the Hamburg Fremdenblatt and the Frantfurter Zeitung.
Mr. Goegg first visited America in 1851. He consequently found a considerable change when in 1876 he arrived in New York en route to Australia. An account of this trip occupies the first 33 pages. The period 1880-1882 he spent in Brazil, and contributed much useful information respecting that country.
His remarks on Texas occupy pages 125-142. The first letter is dated from San Antonio, in August, 1882, at a time when the Southern Pacific stopped at Morgan City, whence the traveler was taken by steamer to Galveston.
He gives a short account of the German colony of New Braunfels, and notices with pleasure the number of German newspapers.
The few remaining pages describe a trip through Mexico.
William Beer. Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans.
Rose's Escape from the Alamo.—I have been advised by a friend whose position entitles his opinion to high respect, that it is incumbent upon me to answer the question as to why the narrative of this escape was not published before 1873, and I do so according to my knowledge of the subject.
I have elsewhere explained what I believe to be the cause of the silence, till that date, of others on this subject. 101 Therefore, it remains only to explain why I did not publish the facts sooner.
Be it remembered that my account of Rose's escape and journey was not the principal purpose of my article in the Texas Almanac for 1873; that story was merely incidental to, and in proof of, my version of the substance of Colonel Travis's last speech to his comrades. The compilation of that speech was a work of much study and long deliberation, besides repeated conversations with my mother, to refresh my memory. Though I often thought of the speech, and wished that it could be rescued from oblivion, I did not, till 1871, believe that I or any other person could perform such a task.
In 1871, after much reading of early events in Texas—mainly in Richardson's Texas Almanac—I experienced a phenomenal refreshment of my memory of what I had seen, heard, and read of during my earlier life. Among other things, I recovered scraps of Travis's speech, as Rose had disconnectedly repeated them to my parents, and they had likewise repeated them to me. I then felt that I owed to posterity the duty of preserving all that I could of that speech. By the assistance of my mother, whose memory was yet bright, I committed to writing all that we could remember of the speech, according to our recollection of its substance; but its parts were disconnected, and we did not think that they included all that Travis said. Then I wished so to arrange the parts as to approach, as nearly as possible, toward their proper connection. Accordingly I rewrote and transposed the parts many times, and the result was the speech as it was afterwards published. My success was as much a surprise to me as it could be to any one else.
Having reproduced Travis's speech, as nearly as it could be done, it was necessary that I should explain how I had obtained it. This explanation consisted in Rose's statement in full. To repeat this was comparatively an easy task, as his narrative was one of successive events which he stated in the order of their occurrences and was easily remembered. I accordingly wrote his full statement, embracing the speech, and this was the form in which both the speech and the narrative were first published. I hoped to have my article published in the Texas Almanac for 1872; but it was not ready in time for that year. It was published in that for 1873, which was the last issue of that valuable annual.
On request of Mrs. Pennybacker I prepared for her use separate copies of my versions of Travis's speech and Rose's escape and journey to my father's residence, both of which are inserted in her History of Texas for Schools. 102
Summary (Here I condense my explanation to twenty words) : Prior to 1871, I did not believe that the substance of Colonel Travis's last speech could be rescued from oblivion.
W. P. Zuber.
“De los Mapas.”—The following fragment was copied in Spanish from an original document in the archives of the Diocese of San Antonio (Bautismos, Casamientos, Entierros, 2 B, 1731-1760. San Fernando. Pp. 197-198) by the Rev. Father Edmond J. P. Schmitt, deceased. The caption, “de los Mapas” stands in the margin of the manuscript from which the copy was made, opposite the portion extracted. The order here set forth is of interest as throwing light upon the means taken by the Church to administer its affairs. It is not known how the order was executed nor what the result showed, but it is safe to say that if the returns could be found they would doubtless constitute valuable material on the early history of Texas. In translating the extract the capitalization and punctuation of Father Schmitt's copy have not been followed, but otherwise the form and mode of expression of the manuscript have been preserved so far as is consonant with rendering the somewhat corrupt Spanish into intelligible English.
We, the Dr. Dn. Diego Rodriguez de Rivas, by the divine favor and [that] of the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Guadalaxara, New Kingdom of Galicia and of Leon, provinces of Nayarit, [the] Californias, Coahuila, and Texas, of the Council of His Majesty:
To all our curates, secular and regular, we make known that the piety of the King our Lord has given orders most fitting and suitable for the convenience of the curates in the administration of the Holy sacraments [and] the spiritual welfare of the parishioners, for which, and in order that the holy intentions of his majesty may be put into practice, we order and command that each one of the curates make a map or plan of the territory of his parish, marking the settlements, stating the number and condition of the parishioners, the[ir] temperament, the employments and occupations by which they live and sustain themselves, the condition of the roads from settlement to settlement,—that is, whether they are level, broken, or wooded; whether there are intervening rivers of considerable volume, and how they are crossed, in time of rain or in dry weather, or [and] with what dangers or inconveniences one travels from one settlement to others [another]. And considering that some of the curates may find themselves embarrassed in the execution of this our mandate, through want of practice in making map[s], or by [their] not understanding well that expressed in this despatch, let them observe and practice that which, for illustration and example, is placed on the other side. And in consideration of its being of so much importance for the curates and the spiritual welfare of their parishioners, we order and command that within thirty days counted from the receipt of this despatch, they remit to our Secretaria de Cámara y Govierno the map[s] and the description of all the aforesaid, under penalty to the secular curates of two hundred pesos, and to the regular [curates] of four months' suspension from office and benefice, during which time a secular priest shall serve the parish (doctrina), 103 and let him have the income of the parish. Given in the City of Guadalaxara, on the eleventh day of the month of May, in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five; signed in our own name and hand, sealed with our seal, and countersigned by our undersigned Secretaria de Cámara y Govierno. Diego, Bishop of Guadalaxara. By order of the Most Illustrious, the Bishop, my Lord Pedro de Madrid.
Secretary, Br. [?] Jph Antto. Ildephonso d la Peña. Herbert E. Bolton.
Some Interesting Documents.—The documents printed below are copied from originals in possession of Mrs. Adèle B. Looscan, of Houston, Texas.
The Guadalupe and the Montezuma mentioned in the letter were two Mexican vessels of war that had been built in England, and were attacked, when they were brought over, by Commodore Moore on the coast of Yucatan.
The bill of lading consists of a printed blank filled in with a pen. The written parts of the bill are here put in italics.—Editor Quarterly.
New Orleans August 14, 1843. Andrew Brisco Esq
Dear Sir The prospect of a peace will bring our Lands into Market have you done anything towards getting settlers on our Montgomery location, how is it situated with regard to Taxas &c. and is their any demand for it., I have directed several Emigrants to you, who were in pursuit of good locations but have not heard from them since. there are a number more expected this fall and I wish to be prepared for them. you will therefore do me a favor of writing all the particulars
I came from Galveston a short time since on business and shall be detained here awhile. should you write me address to care of Texas Consul,. I hope to be able to return in the Winter. Speculations is rife on the subject of the Treaty to be effected with Santa Ana, Abolition, Relinquishing Territory, assuming 5 million debt to English bond holders, &c. &c. are among them. I think we have suffered enough to entitle us to an Unconditional recognition, Atho assuming the 5 million debt to pay when we can, would be better than to spend that amount in a continuance of a ruinous War, Gen Green &5 of his comrades have escaped from the Perote Prison &took pasage from here in a Scho. bound to Matagorda. they are full of fight &want to be revenged on Santa Ana for his Cruel &Villanous treatment to them, Doctor Sinnickson &Capt Reese have published thanking letters for favors received from Mexicans, they may possibly produce better treatment to those left behind,
I have seen &conversed with the surgion of the Mexican Steamer Guadalope. he compliments Com Moore on his gallantry says 3 shots struck the steamer. but not a man was touched, he says if Com Moore could have got along side he must have captured them, as there was only 15 English on board &the rest of the crew some 4 or 500 were Mexicans, so alarmed that they were in each others way &would have made poor defence The Accounts from the Montezuma are that, the approach of the Texas Vessels produced the utmost Consternation, the Mexicans exclaiming here comes the Texas Devils, The Continued heavy rains has kept back the yellow fever. 8 or 10 cases however have been reported yesterday &today. James K Brown &his Sister Jesse have escaped from the danger, by going to Saint Louis, Business is, as ever, at this season flat, every body that can afford it have gone to some retreat or Watering place. so that few remain for the Yellow fever to opperate on, let me hear from you soon Very Respectfully Yours
Edward Hall
Mr Bryan is still at Galveston attending to the Naval affairs
SHIPPED in good order and well conditioned by Nathaniel Lynch on board the Schr called the Kosciusko whereof A Burns is master, now lying in the port of Anahuac and bound for New Orleans To say One Hundred Dollars—Seventy Dollars of which is in Bank Notes and thirty in Eagle Dollars being marked and numbered as in the margin and are to be delivered in the like good order and condition at the port of New Orleans unto A Brisco or to his assigns, he or they paying freight for the said at the rate of one per cent with — In witness whereof the master or purser of the said vessel hath affirmed to this. Bills of Lading, all of this tenor and date one of which being accomplished the others to stand void.
Dated in Anahuac the 31 day of October 1836
A Burns
QUERIES AND ANSWERS.
I should be glad to have answers to the following questions relative to Ellis Bean:
1. Was he in sympathy with the Texas Revolution?
2. When did he leave Texas, and under what circumstances?
Geo. C. Pendleton, Temple, Texas.
AFFAIRS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
The annual meeting of the Association, held at Lampasas on San Jacinto Day, was well attended, and in it an enthusiastic interest was shown in Association affairs. This meeting, according to the plan announced in the April Quarterly, was held jointly with the annual meeting of the Veterans and the Daughters of the Republic. It is hoped and intended that this shall become a permanent custom, for all three of the associations profit much by such an arrangement. As numerous individuals are members of more than one of the organizations, joint meetings insure good attendance with all its obvious advantages.
The citizens of Lampasas displayed a generous hospitality and secured for themselves a most kindly remembrance in providing accommodations and entertainment for the numerous visitors to their pleasant city.
The meeting was devoted exclusively to the transaction of necessary business. The President, Judge J. H. Reagan, being absent on account of ill health, ex-Governor Lubbock presided. Professor George P. Garrison spoke at some length on the purposes and present condition of the Association. He pointed out the importance to scholarship and to enlightened citizenship of the work being done by the Association in its efforts to collect and preserve historical records, and to direct along scientific lines the study of Southwestern history. He showed that this is a work in which Texas has peculiar advantages, hence, special responsibilities; and, indeed, one in which the outside world is coming more and more to look to Texas for guidance and leadership. He reported for the Association a sound financial status; a gratifying increase in desirable membership, a number of additions having recently been made outside the State; a rapidly widening influence for the Association through The Quarterly; and a number of valuable additions to the library. In conclusion, Dr. Garrison spoke feelingly of the irreparable loss which the Association has recently sustained through the death of some of its most able and active members, particularly Professor Lester G. Bugbee, Hon. Guy M. Bryan, and Dr. Rufus C. Burleson.
In the election of officers, all incumbents were re-elected, new ones being chosen only to fill vacancies caused by death. The following officers were elected: President, Judge J. H. Reagan; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Julia Lee Sinks, ex-Gov. F. R. Lubbock, T. S. Miller, Esq.; Professor David F. Houston (vice Guy M. Bryan); Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, Mr. Eugene C. Barker (vice Lester G. Bugbee); Members of the Executive Council, Professor John C. Townes, Professor S. P. Brooks (vice Rufus C. Burleson), and Mrs. Dora Fowler Arthur. This list does not include those positions held ex-officio.
A long list of names, reported for membership by Professor Garrison for the Executive Council, was approved by the meeting. This increase leaves the bona fide membership at about nine hundred. A number of additional applications for membership were referred to the Executive Council.
The concluding transaction of the meeting was the appointment of a committee, consisting of Professor Garrison, Mrs. J. B. Dibrell and Judge C. W. Raines, to draft resolutions, to be published in The Quarterly, expressing the regret of the Association for its loss in the death of Professor Bugbee, Colonel Bryan, and Dr. Burleson, and recording its appreciation for their invaluable services. The resolutions drafted by the committee are given immediately below.
H. E. B.
Resolved, That the Association hereby express its sense of the great loss it has sustained since its last meeting in the death of three of its most loyal and useful officers, namely, Vice-President Guy M. Bryan, Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer Lester Gladstone Bugbee, and Councillor Rufus C. Burleson.
That Texas should honor the memory of Colonel Bryan and Dr. Burleson as devoted lovers of the State and its traditions and as eminent and effective workers, the one especially in political and the other in educational lines, in its behalf; while the Association should remember them with reverence as its influential friends in the days when it has most needed help.
That by the death of Professor Bugbee the University of Texas has lost one of its most efficient teachers and productive investigators, and the Association an official to whose faithful and valuable services has been due a large measure of its success.
Geo. P. Garrison, Mrs. J. B. Dibrell, C. W. Raines.
During the year the following persons have been made Fellows of the Association: Mr. I. J. Cox, of the San Antonio Academy; Mr. W. Roy Smith, now of Bryn Mawr College; and Mr. Eugene C. Barker and Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, of the University.
At a meeting of the Fellows, held at the University on Saturday, June 28th, last year's Publication Committee was re-elected. At a meeting of the Executive Council, held the same day, Mrs. Nellie Stedman Cox was awarded life membership, in return for her gift to the Association of the manuscript reminiscences of her deceased husband.
1. Pénicaut, Relation ou Annales, etc. (1698-1722), in Vol. V, pp. 375 et seq., of Pierre Margry's Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l'Amérique Septentrionale. A condensation in English will be found in Historical Collections of Louisiana, second series; the translator has, however, inserted dates and names, and his version should be used with care. My references are to Margry.
2. Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, in three volumes, published 1758, Paris; English translation, two volumes, published in London, 1763. The translator frankly admits that he has omitted what he considers unimportant; he has, and his selection of matter to omit is not always wise. My references are to the French edition.
3. Journal Historique de l'établissement des Français a la Louisiane, published 1831, New Orleans, La.; English translation in Hist. Col. La., part III. My references are to the New Orleans edition. The translation is unreliable.
4. Shea, English translation of Charlevoix's Histoire de la Nouvelle France.
In addition to these authorities there are many important documents published by Margry, which will be cited with full title in references. The Spanish sources which I have used are in the form of manuscript letters, dairies, reports, etc., and are found in a collection of documents in two volumes, entitled Documentos para la Historia Eclesiástica y Civil de la Provincia de Texas, Libro I, which is identical with Memorias de Nueva España, Tomo XXVII. This collection will be cited as Texas MSS., and the title of the particular document will be given with each reference.
2. Mr. Clark held a graduate scholarship in history in the University of Wisconsin during the year 1901-1902. He has just been appointed fellow in American history at the same university for the year 1902-1903.—Editor Quarterly.
3. Dictamen Fiscal de Espinosa, Texas MSS., 188.
4. Carta del Marquez de Aguayo, Texas MSS., 197; Declaracion de San Denis y Medar, ibid., p. 123 vuelta. This Declaración will be found in French in Margry, VI, 214 et seq. A comparison of the French and Spanish copies reveals no essential differences in the two. The Spanish version purports to be a translation from the French as given by Saint-Denis and Jalot.
5. “Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis was a son of Nicholas Juchereau, sieur de Saint-Denis, who was ennobled for gallantry and wounds received at the defense of Quebec, in 1690. He was born at Quebec, September 18, 1676.” Abbé Tanguay, Dictionnaire Généalogique, 328.
6. Declaracion de San Denis, Texas MSS., 123, vuelta.
7. Journal de Bienville, Margry, IV 432.
8. Journal Historique, 34.
9. Margry, V 421.
10. Letter of Iberville, Margry, VI 180.
11. In the Declaración, Texas MSS., 125, Saint-Denis states, under date of June 22, 1715, that it had been ten years since he traveled over the route from Mobile to the Rio Grande. There is no statement of the purpose of such an expedition.
12. Journal Historique, 18, and Lettre d'Andrez de Riola, gouverneur de Pensacola, Margry, IV 487, 539.
13. Journal Historique, 39. La Salle's discoveries and explorations offered as a more definite western boundary the Guadalupe river, and in 1714 a French writer makes “the river Madeline (Guadalupe), which is a short river flowing into Saint Bernard bay, and which consequently is neither the Rio Pánuco nor the Rio del Norte,” the western limit of the province of Louisiana. See extract from Memoire de Lemaire, Margry, VI 184.
14. The Journal Historique, 113, says this refusal was to gratify the English with whom the Spanish had made the Assiento Treaty, March 26, 1713.
15. Pénicaut, Margry, V 495.
16. Hidalgo may have written this letter while he was living among the Asinais. Vide letter of Cadillac, Margry, VI 196, for statement of Saint-Denis, showing that he expected to find Hidalgo there.
17. The date of this letter, January 17, 1711, is given in the passport (Texas MSS., 120, vuelta) which Cadillac furnished to Saint-Denis in September, 1713; its purport is given by Le Page du Pratz, I 10.
18. Le Page du Pratz, I 10.
19. Le Page du Pratz, I 9.
20. Patente, Texas MSS., 120 vuelta.
21. Pénicaut, Margry, V 497.
22. The Spanish governor of Pensacola, Don Gregorio Salinas de Varona, had heard rumors of this expedition before August 21, 1713, for on that date he wrote to the viceroy informing him that twenty Frenchmen and fifty Indians with six boats loaded with merchandise had set out from Mobile to introduce goods into Mexico. Vide Dictamen Fiscal, Texas MSS., 127 vuelta, 191 vuelta. La Harpe, in an extract from his journal, Margry, VI 193, says that Saint-Denis set out from Mobile August 23, 1714. The patente is dated September 12, 1713. Pénicaut has the expedition begin soon after the arrival of Cadillac at Mobile. Saint-Denis in his Declaración, dated June 22, 1715, does not give the date of his departure, but says that he set out from Mobile about a year and nine months before. It seems probable that he left Mobile in September, 1713, the detention at Biloxi preventing a real departure until some time in the early months of 1714. This view is sustained by the fact that he stopped six months or more among the Tejas Indians, and reached the Rio Grande before February 15, 1715.
23. Pénicaut, Margry, V 497.
24. Pénicaut, Margry, V 498.
25. Declaracion de Saint-Denis, Texas MSS., 124.
26. Carta del Capitan Domingo Ramon, Texas MSS., 134 vuelta.
27. La Harpe, Margry, VI 193.
The fact that Saint-Denis's journey was not continuous from the time of his departure from Mobile to his arrival in Mexico has not, I think, been noticed by modern historians. Pénicaut's account makes the expedition continuous, but he may be thinking of only one phase of it. The Declaración takes no account of long stops, nor on the other hand does it account for the year and nine months on the road. The evidence on which I have based the statement above is as follows: Captain Ramon in a letter to the viceroy, written in July, 1716, commends Saint-Denis for the assistance he had given the Spaniards through his knowledge of the Indian language, saying: “For he once lived in this province six months on two occasions. He has given the Tejas eighteen or twenty French arquebuses, many beads, bugles, knives, ribbons, some clasp-knives, small pieces of blue and red cloth, and some coats; all of which the French have traded for some beasts the times they have entered this province.” Velasco, Dictamen Fiscal, Texas MSS., 192, calls attention to the inconsistency of these facts as given by Ramon and the statement of Saint-Denis in his Declaración, and states further that the governor of Pensacola had given notice, under date of October 20, 1715, “of what the French were publishing in Mobile: that they had reached the province of Coahuila and carried away a great number of cattle.” The rumor would presumably have reached Pensacola in an exaggerated and twisted form, but the facts are in the main correct. It is to be understood, however, that they carried away the cattle from the country of the Asinais, and not from Coahuila. La Harpe, as cited above, says: “Saint-Denis, after this expedition [to the Asinais], returned to the Natchez, 113 leagues, to the Mississippi, to give an account of his journey to M. de Lamothe. He took in this place the goods of which he had need and, having ascended the Red River with five Frenchmen, returned to the Nachitoches, and thence to the Asinais.”
28. Pénicaut (Margry, V 499) mentions a woman named Angelica who had been baptized by a Spanish priest, and spoke the Spanish language well enough to act as interpreter.
29. Bonilla, Breve Compendio de los sucesos de texas, Texas MSS., 6 vuelta, says it was the “ancient governor.”
30. Bonilla, ibid., says, “Naturally, they must have been Apaches.”
31. This was probably the spot where the mission and presidio of San Antonio were established a few years later.
32. Probably early in 1715, as Saint-Denis sent a letter to Cadillac dated February, 1715, telling him of their arrival at the presidio. Margry, VI, 195.
33. Dictamen Fiscal, Texas MSS., 127 vuelta.
34. Saint-Denis in the letter cited above says, “The captain does not dare to let us go without an order from the viceroy.” Pénicaut, p. 501, says that the commander wrote to the governor of Coahuila for advice, who sent in turn to inquire of the governor of Parral; and that after six weeks the former sent a company of soldiers to convey Saint-Denis to his capital.
35. The fact that Pénicaut calls the commander Don Pedro Villescas after having been in his house for several months rather casts a shadow upon the truthfulness of his narrative.
36. Extract from a letter of Saint-Denis to Cadillac, Margry, VI 495.
37. Before the 22nd, for his Declaración is dated June 22, 1715. La Harpe and Pénicaut make the date of his arrival June 25th. Le Page du Pratz, I 14, says June 5th. The latter date is no doubt correct.
38. Dictamen Fiscal, Texas MSS., 127 vuelta.
39. Junta de Guerra, Texas MSS., 211.
40. Extract from a letter of Cadillac to his government, giving the substance of a message sent by Saint-Denis from the City of Mexico. Margry, VI 196.
41. Dictamen Fiscal, Texas MSS., 126 vuelta.
42. He was called also conductor de víveres (Texas MSS., 213). It is interesting in this connection to note the double part that Saint-Denis was playing. He accepted office under the Mexican government, receiving a year's salary in advance, to abet an enterprise which was in direct opposition to the interests of his own government. At the same time, under date of September 7, he wrote to the governor of Louisiana advising him that the viceroy was about to send a party to establish a mission among the Tejas. He asked that a brigantine be sent to Espiritu Santo bay, and declared that it would be necessary for the king of France to demand that the boundary of Louisiana be fixed at the Rio Grande.
43. Le Page du Pratz, who had excellent means of knowing the truth, having written his Histoire de Louisiane with the memoirs of Saint-Denis before him, says (I 14): “The viceroy, the Duque de Linares, had naturally an affection for France, and promised to make a treaty of commerce as soon as the Spaniards should be settled at the Asinais.” There is nothing in the Spanish documents to support such a statement.
44. Doña María was the granddaughter of Diego Ramon, and the niece of Captain Domingo Ramon.
45. Captain Ramon, in his Derrotero (Texas MSS., 135 vuelta et seq.), carefully details the events of his entrada.
46. Velasco, Dictamen, Texas MSS., 214. Informe dado por Domingo Ramon, ibid., 133.
47. Le Page du Pratz (I 17, 20) speaks of a jealousy that existed between Olivares and Hidalgo, and says that the latter besought Saint-Denis to prevent Olivares from going on the expedition, on account of his jealous and turbulent disposition. Olivares, although recommended by the fiscal, is not to be found among the number of friars.
48. Their names were Benito Sanchez, Manuel Castellanos, Pedro de Mendoza, Gabriel Vergara, Matías Sanchez de San Antonio, Gabriel Cubillos (lay friar), Fr. Domingo (lay brother). Derrotero de Ramon, Texas MSS., 141 vuelta. Counting Margil there were ten friars. Bancroft (North Mexican States and Texas, I 604) says twelve, and two laymen. Bonilla (Texas MSS., 7) says “five friars of Querétaro and four of Zacatecas, and three laymen.”
49. He must have recovered quickly and overtaken the company before or shortly after it came to the Tejas Indians, for he was there soon after the arrival of the party.
50. Carta de Ramon, Texas MSS., 134 vuelta; Saint-Denis is especially commended as being “obedient and faithful to our nation.”
51. Representacion hecha por Antonio Margil de Jesus, Texas MSS., 223.
52. Mr. Cox is holder of the C. C. Harrison fellowship in American history at the University of Pennsylvania for the year 1902-1903.—Editor Quarterly.
53. Revilla Gigedo, Instruccion Reservada, par. 335.
54. Petition, May 1, 1789. Bexar Archives.
55. The census for 1783 gave this number as 321 boys and 264 girls; the figures for 1791 are 285 boys and 268 girls. Bexar Archives.
56. Ayuntamiento vs. Don Vicente Amador, First Alcalde, for absence from the province without leave, January 20, 1792.
57. Article 15 of Proclamation of Juan Bautista Elguezabal, January 10, 1802. Bexar Archives.
58. Act of cabildo, January 20, 1803. Bexar Archives.
59. March 24, 1809. Bexar Archives.
60. Juan Manuel Zambrano had been banished from the province of Texas in 1807 upon petition of citizens and municipal officers alike for conduct unworthy of a priest. After his successful counter-revolution he was made a lieutenant colonel of the militia. In 1818 he was in command of the post of Bahia, but was later deprived of his office. Subsequently he appears as one of the escrutadores in an electoral junta of 1820. Evidently his career was full of vicissitudes.
61. Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, II 17, 18.
62. Account submitted by Don Bicente Travieso, August 10, 1812. Bexar Archives.
63. Inventory and conveyance of school-house and furniture made by Ygnacio de los Santos Coy to José Ygnacio Sanchez Castellano, July 3, 1812. Bexar Archives. See Appendix A, Part I.
64. See Appendix A, Part II.
65. Report of June 10, 1812. Bexar Archives. See Appendix B. San Antonio had been divided into four wards (barrios) in 1809; hence the use of the term ward commissioners (comisarios de barrio).
66. Act of cabildo, February 23, 1815. MS. in city clerk's office, San Antonio. In a later letter the commanding general assigns for the use of the ayuntamiento the house formerly belonging to the “traitor Vizente Travieso.” Evidently Travieso belonged to the wrong party in the revolutionary days of 1813, despite his vigorous “pull” of the previous year.
67. Act of cabildo, January 9, 1817. MS. in city clerk's office, San Antonio.
68. In the Bexar Archives.
69. Act of cabildo, April 10, 1817. MS. in city clerk's office, San Antonio.
70. Acts of cabildo, February 10 and May 25, 1820. MSS. in city clerk's office in San Antonio.
71. Acts of cabildo for February 22 and March 8, 1821. Bexar Archives.
72. Report from Sala Capitular of San Fernando, 1822. Bexar Archives.
73. Saucedo to the governor of the State, 1825. Bexar Archives.
74. Article 277.
75. Decree No. 92, May 13, 1829. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 237-240.
76. Decree No. 129, April 13, 1830. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 258.
77. Decree No. 144, April 30, 1830. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 157.
78. Decree No. 229, April 27, 1833. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 323-327.
79. No. 244, May 8, 1833. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 336.
80. Messages of governor to congress, 1833 and 1834. Bexar Archives.
81. Expediente, etc., for the construction of an edifice for a primary school, January 31, 1826. Bexar Archives.
82. Minutes of ayuntamiento, May 27, 1830. City clerk's office, San Antonio.
83. Report of school fund, 1828-34. Bexar Archives.
84. The above facts are gleaned from the accounts of the school fund from 1828-1834, inclusive, contained in the Bexar Archives, supplemented by occasional references to the minutes of the ayuntamiento during the years 1830-32, and to receipts for salary given by the teachers.
85. Drawn up by Juan de Beramendi, Refugio de la Garza, the parish curate, and José Maria Balmeceda, March 13, 1826. MSS. Bexar Archives. See Appendix C.
86. Decree No. 129, April 13, 1830. See above, p. 38.
87. Report of school fund and minutes of ayuntamiento.
88. Report and minutes as above, passim.
89. Messages of governor of State for 1833 and 1834. Bexar Archives.
90. Report of Almonte in Documentos Para la Historia de Mexico, 4th Series, V 40. Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico. This report was published in 1835.
91. This document and those under Appendices B and C are translated from the original MSS. in the Bexar Archives.
92. On the back of a report of the condition of the garrisons of Texas. Bexar Archives.
93. San Fernando had been divided into four wards in 1809.
94. For the year 1828. In the translation of this code of rules the literal expression of the original has been followed or imitated as closely as possible, the changes being, for the most part, only in punctuation. The capitalization and parentheses are those of the manuscript.
95. That is, examiners.
96. This expression is too puzzling for an attempt at translation.
97. It was evidently intended that the numbers after 12, which are wanting in the MS., should be inserted, and that this blank should be filled to correspond. The article referred to would thus have been numbered the 18th.
98. This blank should have been filled with the number 15.
99. The handwriting of the Ordinance, as well as that of the following address, seems to be that of Refugio de la Garza.
100. The name Béjar was omitted here in the MS.
101. See Mrs. Pennybacker's New History of Texas for Schools, revised edition, pp. 185-187; also The Quarterly for July, 1901, pp. 9-10.
102. Revised edition, pp. 139-140, 183-188.
103. A doctrina was technically an Indian town or village newly converted to Christianity, to which the parish organization had not yet been given (see Bancroft, History of Mexico, II, 178, note), but in this case doctrina and parish seem to be used as synonymous terms.
How to cite:
"Issue View", Volume 006, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v006/n1/issue.html
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