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Two Franciscan Documents on Early San Antonio, Texas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Benedict Leutenegger O.F.M.
Benedict Leutenegger O.F.M.*
Affiliation:
Academy of American Franciscan History, Washington, D.C.
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Extract

San Antonio, Texas, was founded in 1718, and this year is celebrating its 250th anniversary. To commemorate the event, we would like to publish two documents concerning early San Antonio, one dating from 1716 and the other from 1740.

Type
Documents
Information
The Americas , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , October 1968 , pp. 191 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1968 

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References

1 Fr. Marion Habig, O.F.M., letter, Chicago, Ill. August 17, 1968.

2 Espinosa, Isidro Felix de, Crónica de los Colegios de Propaganda Fide de la Nueva España (Washington, D. C.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1964), p. 753 Google Scholar.

3 Tablas Capitulares de la Provincia de Zacatecas, Archivo del convento de San Francisco de San Luis Potosí.—The seven-page Informe, therefore, without date or signature, attributed to P. Olivares, “sobre la oposicion de pareceres en q tubo con el Govern° Theran sobre la yda que executaron a los Cabodachos . . .” is not from our Fr. Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares. He was not in Texas at that time. It may be from Fr. Damián Mazanet (Espinosa, Crónica, p. 678).

4 Arlegui, José, Cronica de la Provincia de N.S.P.S. Francisco de Zacatecas (Mexico, 1851), pp. 80–81 Google Scholar; and pp. 86–87. Today it is Huejuquilla el Alto, Jalisco.

5 Fr. Rafael Cervantes, O. F. M., letter Ensenada, B. C. June 18, 1968.

6 Arricivita, Juan Domingo, Crónica seráfica y apostólica del Colegio de propaganda fide de la Santa Cruz de Querétaro en la Nueva España, segunda parte (Mexico, 1792), lib. II, caps. 10, 11, 12, pp. 206–226 Google Scholar.

7 Espinosa, Crónica, lib. V, cap. 36, pp. 843–847.

8 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 753. If born in 1640, he would have been 59 or 60 in 1699.

9 McCloskey, Michael B. O. F. M., The Formative Years of the Missionary College of Santa Cruz of Querétaro, 1683–1733 (Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1955), p. 95 Google Scholar.

10 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 756.

11 Governor of Coahuila, 1698–1702 (or 1703), Bolton, Herbert E., Guide to Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico (Washington, D.C., 1913), p. 478 Google Scholar.

12 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 753.

13 Weddle, Robert S., San Juan Bautista (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968), Plate I, after p. 224, pp. 29, 28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 754.

15 Weddle, op. cit., pp. 31, 33, 42.

16 Espinosa, Crónica, pp. 755–756.

17 McCloskey, op. cit., p. 98. Fr. Hidalgo’s term was from November, 1700 to October, 1703. He succeeded Fr. Margil.

18 Espinosa, Crónica, lib. V, cap. 37, pp. 849–854.

19 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 756.

20 Weddle, op. cit., p. 54.

21 Weddle, op. cit., p. 87.

22 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 757.

23 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 757.

24 Castañeda, Carlos E., Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols.; Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones Co., 1936-1958), II, 22, 71 Google Scholar.

25 Lino G. Canedo, Introduction to Espinosa’s Crónica, p. xxxviii.

26 Castañeda, op. cit., II, 62, 71, 72, 78.

28 Espinosa, Crónica, p. 735.

27 Ibid., II, 80, 81, 95.

29 Bolton’s Guide, The Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo, governor of Coahuila and Texas, 1719–1722, p. 478.

30 Castañeda, op. cit., II, 127, 130.

31 Fr. Leopoldo Campos, O.F.M., letter, Celaya, Gto. Mexico, July 8, 1968.

32 Bolton’s Guide, Viceroy of Mexico, 1716–1722, Baltazar de Zúñiga, Guzmán Sotomayor y Mendoza, Marqués de Valero, Duque de Arión, p. 470.—The ms. is in the Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico City, Sección de Manuscritos, Caja I, Fs. 59–60.—The translation is the only complete one that we know of.

33 Rios, Eduardo Enrique, Life of Fray Antonio Margil, O. F. M. tr. by Leutenegger, Benedict O. F. M., (Washington, D. C.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1959), ch. 14, pp. 112–124 Google Scholar.—The new missions were near present day Nacogdoches, east Texas.

34 The Spanish text we have, not always easy to decipher, reads: “Las naciones que hemos llegado a conocer y tratar son cincuenta, sin las que no hemos registrado y conocido que son muchas y mas por la relacion que nos han hecho los que las han visto.”—See Weddle, op. cit., p. 128. Also, Castañeda, op. cit., II, 71.

35 Weddle, Robert S., The San Sabá Mission (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964), p. 15 Google Scholar.

36 Castañeda, op. cit., III, 353.

37 The microfilm we have is taken from the original letter of Fr. Benito, found in the Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico City, Sección de Manuscritos, Caja 5–99, Fs. 1–5. The handwriting is clear, flowing and medium-sized; it is written in very good Spanish, says Fr. Francisco Morales, O. F. M., to whose help in translating we are indebted.

38 In 1739 a great epidemic of smallpox and measles ravaged San Antonio. Castañeda, op. cit., III, 71.

39 Fr. Felipe Suárez de Espinosa had his troubles with Governor Carlos Franquis de Lugo (1746), the high-handed and disrespectful official. In one altercation the Governor told Father he would send him back to his College. To this Father replied he was ready to start the next morning. Castañeda, op. cit., III, 49–58.

40 This is a suggestion, coming from a kind heart, one that could be also firm and resolute.

41 Actually established in 1718. Castañeda, op. cit., II, 93.

42 The Apostolic College of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas was founded in 1707 by Fr. Antonio Margil. He founded San José Mission in San Antonio in 1720. See Rios’ Life of Margil, pp. 91, 122.

43 “una grande ciudad”—as San Antonio is in 1968.—I remember the summer of 1953 was hot, near 100 degrees every day, and no rain fell all summer.

44 The text has: “subueste,” southwest; it should be “sudeste,” southeast.

45 Mississippi River.

46 The text has: “sudueste” with two short lines through “du,” making the reading “sueste,” southeast.

47 Again we have “sudueste”; it should be “sudeste.”

48 The Spanish word is illegible, except the first and last letters, which are “a” and “l.” The guess is “arbol.”

49 Peña, ’s Diary of the Aguayo Expedition into Texas in 1722 (Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society, vol. II, no. 7, Jan. 1935)Google Scholar. Also Castañeda, op. cit., II, 135.—See note 29.

50 The Colorado River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The Red River (Rio de los Cadodochos) empties into the Mississippi.

51 This paragraph is quoted in part by Bolton in Texas in the Middle 18th Century, p. 31. And Castañeda quotes Bolton, op. cit., III, 47.

52 He died from the epidemic. Castañeda, op. cit., III, 71.