Espíritu Santo de Zuñiga: A Frontier Mission in South Texas (review)

86Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJuly Cochran's telling of the Clayton Williams story is entertaining, and he clearly shows that there is a natural, easy charm about Williams that draws people to him. It should be noted, however, that this "authorized" biography is essentially Williams telling his story dirough the author, complete with self-serving explanations of the more untoward aspects of Williams's life. Cochran's view of Williams is rarely critical, and diis book should not be mistaken for a balanced historical work that can significantly add to the literature of the history of the Texas petroleum industry or of Texas politics. Since that is not the author's purpose, however, read Claytie, chuckle, and enjoy it. Texas AùfM UniversityKelly E. Crager Espíritu Santo de Zuñiga: A Frontier Mission in South Texas. By Tamra Lynn Walter, foreword by Thomas R. Hester. (Austin: University ofTexas Press, 2007. Pp. 240. Illustrations, maps, tables, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780292714786. $45.00, cloth.) For over a century, south Texas was part of the northern frontier of New Spain. The colonial-period missions of the region were, along widi presidios and associated communities, sociopolitical institutions designed to establish viable relations between New Spain and the many Native American groups that inhabited the region. Espíritu Santo was first established in 1722 near Matagorda Bay in presentday Victoria County with the goal of bringing the coastal Karankawa Indians into the Spanish colonial fold. Although the Karankawa did show a tentative interest in this mission, relations between Indians and Spaniards deteriorated to the extent that the location was soon abandoned and Espíritu Santo was relocated to a site on the banks of the lower Guadalupe River, within the present limits of the city of Victoria, Texas. Shortly thereafter, it was moved again to a location some miles upstream, where it remained until its relocation, in 1749, to its final (and most successful) location on the banks of the San Antonio River near modern Goliad. It is with the third site of the mission that Tamra Walter is concerned. Drawing upon archaeological findings made at this site, designated by the trinomial 41VT11, Walter provides the reader with detailed descriptions and discussions of an impressive array of native-made and Spanish-colonial artifacts, as well as architectural and other features revealed by excavations and surveys conducted by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Archeological Society in 1 997 and 1998. Following brief introductory chapters that provide a concise historical context , the book is largely devoted to presenting the archaeological findings. It describes the contributions to die archaeological record of both Indians and Spaniards who lived and worked at the mission: ceramic, lithic, shell, and metal artifacts; bones of domesticated and wild animals; as well as architectural remains associated with the mission compound. Abundant illustrations of the various arti- 2??8Book Reviews87 fact classes and features, as well as die excavations in and around the mission buildings, provide die essential visual dimension to the archaeological narrative. Chapter 3 describes several distinctly defined areas of die site, notably the location of mission Indian residences and the formal mission compound where Franciscan friars and presidiai soldiers resided. Also discussed in some detail are discrete midden areas that contained abundant bones of cattle and other animals that were butchered and prepared as food. Comparisons of the relative amounts of Indian and Spanish-colonial artifacts in these different areas are of interest in helping to define how living space and labor were divided between the different cultural and ethnic groups that co-resided at the mission. Chapter 4 discusses the architectural features at the site, including the church, kitchens, and friars' quarters. Chapter 5 presents information on related sites in the vicinity, including dams used in die early attempts at acequia irrigation , a lime kiln, and a quarry where sandstone was obtained as building material. Additional chapters discuss the native and Spanish-colonial artifacts in detail, and examine mission foodways as indicated by the faunal bones recovered mainly from midden deposits. Most interesting is the evidence for the various efforts (some ofwhich, such as the acequia irrigation system, were ultimately failures) made to establish Esp íritu Santo as...