I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches

9. The Saga of San Sabá

82 When the viceroy finally agreed to a mission for the Apaches, in August 1756, it was fifteen years after their first request, thirteen years after Father Santa Ana’s first request, eleven years after the Ypande chief’s request, and seven years after the peace agreement at San Antonio. The Apaches had kept their peace in San Antonio and traded with the citizens,2 adjusted their territories, made new allies, fought their enemies, and, in general, managed nicely without Spanish help. So their lack of enthusiasm as the long-promised mission rose on the banks of the San Sabá might be forgiven. The Spanish bureaucratic machinery had jammed with internal conflict, politics and indecision. Jacinto de Barrios Jáuregui, governor of Texas, was the final obstacle, rudely rebuffing priests and Ypandes who sought his support.3 After the viceroy overruled Barrios, it took another two years and two exploratory expeditions to find a site. In summer 1753 Lieutenant Juan Galván and Father Miguel de Aranda of Mission Concepción found two promising locations on the San Sabá near present Menard. The Apaches were overjoyed to see them. “They began coming to my camp at once, firing salvos, surrendering their arms and kissing the hand of the father,” said Galván, 9 CHAPTER The Saga of San Sabá The Apaches were evidently unimpressed by the strength of the new Presidio, for they quite refused to settle at the Mission. Indeed the whole establishment stood like bait at the very edge of the Comanche territory. — Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla, 17581 The Saga of San Sabá 83 indicating that the Apaches had firearms and ammunition enough to waste it on salvos.4 Authorities next sent Pedro de Rábago y Terán, scourge of diseased Apaches, whose investigation in late 1754 and early 1755 confirmed abundant supplies of wood and pasture, as well as possible silver deposits. After crossing the Pedernales, he reached the camps of Chief Chiquito (also called Tacú), who had 467 people with him, and Chief Pintas, who had a hundred. Both were delighted to learn that the Spaniards planned a mission for them. On the Concho River, they said, were ten more chiefs whose people roamed as far as Comanche country . They too wanted a mission.5 An expedition sent in November 1755 to look for mineral deposits in the Llano and upper Colorado region found Apaches on the Guadalupe . A chief told Lieutenant Governor Bernardo de Miranda of rich silver deposits six days’ journey above the Llano in Comanche country. Pointing to the silver buckles on Miranda’s shoes, he told the wide-eyed explorers there was an entire mountain of pure silver.6 The Apaches must have laughed heartily as the gullible Spaniards rode away. Q R While the viceroy deliberated, Apaches sought alternatives. Some tried to join the San Xavier missions.7 Ypandes approached Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros at San Juan Bautista, who was planning a mission for Natagés, Sibolos and Tucubantes. (The latter may well have been Ypandes, the people of Tacú.) In June 1754, more than nine hundred Apaches led by three chiefs camped along both banks of the Rio Grande near San Fernando de Austria in Coahuila. Some were Apaches who had lived there before, but others were the people who had been at San Antonio. OntheRioEscondidotwoleaguesfromthevillaandwestofthePresidio del Rio Grande, the new San Lorenzo mission opened on December 21, 1754. By the end of March it had eighty-three resident Apaches, including three chiefs—El Gordo, El de Godo and Bigotes—who said 84 I FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT they were there because Father Dolores refused to give them missions in Texas. After Father Terreros left, his replacements failed to gain the Apaches’ trust or stem mounting discontent, and on October 4, 1755, they revolted, sacked the mission, set fire to the buildings and left.8 ThreeApachechiefsthenlednearlyathousandpeopletotheSanXavier mission, which Rábago had relocated to the San Marcos River, halfway between the former site and San Antonio. There an epidemic swept the missions, taking Rábago’s life before authorities transferred the mission and presidio again, this time to serve Apaches on the San Sabá.9 The viceroy in 1756 designated two leaders: Father Terreros and Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla, former governor of Sinaloa and Sonora.10 That fall Parrilla began making arrangements and recruiting soldiers, as the priest bought large inventories of supplies. Father Terreros arrived in...