The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 48
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The padres were not to receive nor demand compensation or fees
from the Indians or Spaniards.
Father Antonio Olivares' list of needed supplies for the pro-
posed mission of Valero indicates the type of activities in the
mission. The list included:
(1) Provisions for the support of the missionaries and Indians,
(2) Seed corn,
(3) Forty-eight head of cattle,
(4) One hundred head each of sheep and goats,
(5) Tools for building the church and houses,
(6) Cooking utensils, and
(7) Presents for the Indians."
By 1719 Valero secured pumpkins, chile, and melon seed to plant.
Vine and fig tree cuttings were brought from Coahuila.
Usually once a year a pack train, with military escort to protect
it from the hostile Indians, arrived at the missions with supplies.
Most of the supplies came from Mexico, Saltillo, and San Juan
Bautista. Saltillo was the principal food market.
The supplies came from outside the mission, as did most of
the pattern of life. The missionaries made few attempts to adapt
or relate Indian culture to that of Spain. There were some con-
cessions, however, to the Indians. The missionaries said that corn
was grown instead of wheat because the Indians preferred it.1o
The mission buildings, inside and out, sport frescoes with color
discords and geometric patterns which indicate Indian craftsman-
ship. Possibly the designs and colors were incorporated to satisfy
the natives' love of color.1'
Aside from those two possible concessions, mission life was
regulated by an established pattern which involved building,
working in the fields and on ranches, and learning arts and crafts.
The missions contained a church and rooms for the mission-
aries, which were usually to the back or side of the church. Houses
for the Indians and shops for arts and crafts were arranged in a
vEdward Heusinger, Early Explorations and Mission Establishments in Texas
(San Antonio, 1936), 71.
10Dabbs, "Texas Missions in 1785," Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic
Historical Society, III, 21-22.
"lCharles Mattoon Brooks, Jr., Texas Missions: Their Romance and Architecture
(Dallas, 1936), 91-92, 117-118, 12o.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/66/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.