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1722-1754.] ERA OF DISCOVERIES AND MISSIONS.
21
rose in revolt, and butchered the entire white population
of the little town. There were many other missions
founded, some of which have entirely disappeared, while
others still stand-majestic monuments to the patience
of the Spanish priests.*
*Below is given a list of some of the less important missions which may be of
interest to the mature student. Mission of San Juan (wan) de Capistrano (ka-pe-
stria'no), six miles from San Antonio, founded in 1731, named for Capistrano, a
Franciscan friar. The outline of the original plan followed in building all missions
(as described in a previous topic) is clearly to be seen in the ruins of San Juan.
Mission of San Francisco de la Espada, nine miles from San Antonio, on the
west bank of the San Antonio River, named for St. Francis, the founder of the
Franciscans, called Espada, or sword, from the shape of its chapel tower. The
massive tower at the south-east corner with its cannon- and musket-holes carries
one back to the days of brave knights and fair ladies, to the stories of feudal times
and baronial struggles.
Espiritu Santo Mission, founded in 1722, near Fort St. Louis, moved to the
vicinity of Goliad, said to have possessed 15,000 cattle.
La Bahia, founded in 1722, at Fort St. Louis and moved to Goliad.
Rosario, founded 1754, near San Tuan.
The following interesting extract is from Corner's " San Antonio de Bexar":
' Let a traveller from the East or North be set down before the gateway of San
Jos6. In his journeyings he has seen nothing like this before. The Mission must
be to him an enigma. He hears that it is a century and a laalf since its foundations
were laid by Catholic missionaries, aided by their converts, half or more than half
savage Indians, al under constant peril of their lives from the outside from the
cruelest of hostile tribes, that were uncompromising in their enmity. If he is
practical, the traveller will wonder whence the stone came where no quarries
were -from where the lime, with no kilns -who was the architect, the superinten-
dent of works, the artist stone-cutter-the engineer, for he may be told that this
old Mission was once fortified. An intelligent man is bound to ask these things, and
if he merely remembers that the mission is on the outside edge of his own territory
and civilization he will fail to understand and realize how it was all done; he is
even in the dark as to the spirit and design of its founders, much less comprehend-
ing the hard, practical fact of the presence of these great masses of masonry and
beautiful sculpture in a lone, wide, wild prairie, as he knows the spot must have
been in the days of the erection of these Missions.
"But suppose that the traveller had come from, say, the City of MIexico- had a
smattering, at least, of Spanish and Mexican History, knew and understood that the
aggrandizement of Spain's Empire was the object alike of Church and State - the
King and the Church going hand in hand, the one establishing the other; the King
granting, conceding, and sending his soldiers to protect, the Church sending
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Pennybacker, Anna J. Hardwicke. A new history of Texas for schools : also for general reading and for teachers preparing themselves for examination, book, 1895; Palestine, Tex.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2388/m1/33/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.