The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 277

THE QUARTERLY
OF THE
TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
VOL. VIII. APRIL, 1905. No. 4.
The publication committee and the editors disclaim responsibility for views
expressed by contributors to THE QUARTERLY.
THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF SAN FERNANDO
DE BEXAR, 1730-1800.1
MATTIE ALICE AUSTIN.
In their efforts to civilize and christianize the Indians of Texas,
and to hold it against the encroachments of the French, the Span-
iards employed three instrumentalities: the mission, the presidio,
and the civil settlement. These were tried, not all together at the
outset, but successively, in the order mentioned, in accordance with
the demands of circumstances. The development of the plans for
the colonization of Texas was further affected by the fact that
these plans were worked out by two different agencies-the gov-
'In the preparation of this paper four classes of material have been
used: (1) public archives of Mexico and of Texas under the Spanish
and Mexican government; (2) contemporaneous accounts of early mis-
sion work in Texas; (3) laws relative to the organization of Spanish
settlements and documents throwing light on the construction of these
laws; (4) and the works of authorities on South-western history. Of
the first class are the Bdxar Archives; the Nacogdoches Archives; the V.
O. King Collection of Texas Documents; and copies of various documents
in the Archivo General de Mcxico in Seccidn de Bistoria, Seccin de Pro-
vincias Internas, Ramo de Reales Gdulas, and Memorias de Nueva
Espafla. The Baxar Archives contain a large part of the public docu-
ments connected with the Spanish and Mexican occupation of Texas for
over a century. They consist of official correspondence, local records, etc.,
that were collected at Bexar, or San Antonio, which was the capital of