History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 17

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tle life of a North American after making
him prisoner, without bringing him before
the council for trial, the offenders are punished
with death. Not so with the Mexicans,
who are considered as enemies and treated
as such. This hatred is mutual, and fully
reciprocated by the Mexicans. Hence the
origin of the epithet expressing odium, so
general in all parts of M~exico; to denote the
greatest degree of degradation, they call a
person a ' Comanche.' "
The principal Anglo-Saxon settlements
at the beginning of the present century were
San Antonio de Bejar, with about 2,000 inhabitants;
La Bahiadel Espiritu Santo, now Goliad,
about 1,400; and Nacogdoches, with 500.
Nacogdoches was first settled by AngloAmericans
in 1822-'23, when many of the
emigrants who left the United States with the
view of joining Austin's colony stopped at
this place. Here and there in Texas a small
Catholic mission existed, around which were
a few miserable Indian proselytes. The little
trade carried on was effected with Mexico, by
may of Monterey and Monclova, and with
New Orleans through Natchitoches; the latter,
however, was contraband. In 1806
Texas was allowed a port, namely, at Bahia
de San Bernardo. The exchange for merchandise
consisted in specie, horses and mules.
Most of the inhabitants were of a roving
disposition, cultivated to a still greater degree
by the nature of their calling, which was
the chase after horses and buffalo; but in
1806 the governor, Antonio Cordero, endeavored
to check this thriftless and Indianlike
mode of life by encouraging agriculture,
and this he did by restricting buffalo hunts
to certain seasons and obliging every family
to cultivate a certain amount of land. There
were a few wealthy Spanish residents at the
centers of population, who exhibited some of

the refinements of modern life, as they had
come from the regal cities of Spain or from
the vice-regal court. Though most of the inhabitants
of San Antonio dwelt in miserable
houses, with mud walls and thatched roofs,
the upper class enlivened social intercourse
with dinner parties and dances, at which refinement
of manners was noticeable. This
place, indeed, was probably the most pleasant
in Texas at that time.
CATHOLIC MISSIONS.
The early Spanish (Catholic) missions
within the present boundaries of Texas, were
established by Franciscan monks, under the
auspices of the Spanish government, and were
called presidios. They consisted of a chapel
for worelhip, the cells for the monks, the dwellings
for the inhabitants, and a fort for defense.
The mission was of course under the
control of the ecclesiastical power, and the
military force was under an officer of the
army, who in most matters was under the
control of the priest. A complete list of
these missions is as follows:
In 1690 the mission of San Francisco was
established on the Lavaca river at Fort St.
Louis, by the Spanish under Captain Alonzo
de Leon. In the same year the mission of
San Juan Bautista was founded on the Rio
Grande river.
In 1714 Captain Ramon established the
mission of San Bernard, also the mission of
Adaes, among the Indians of that name fifteen
miles wett of Natchitoches.
In 1715 was established the mission of
Dolores, west of the Sabine, among the Orquisaco
Indians. In the same year, one
among the Nacogdoches Indians, near the
site of the present town of that name; also

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HISTopt Y OF TE, XIIIIIZ.

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