University of Texas at Austin
College of Liberal ArtsSpanish Motives: Apache Souls and Precious Metals
The Spanish priests and soldiers were motivated to move into the San Sabá region of Texas for a variety of reasons. Overall, Spain was trying to settle and make productive the vast region of Texas to which it had laid claim. The government was anxious for people to move in, build towns, and begin farming, mining, and ranching activities that would bring revenue to the Spanish Crown. The Spanish were also greatly worried about the expanding presence of the French who controlled present-day eastern Texas and Louisiana. French traders were known to be trading arms to various Indian groups the Spanish viewed as threats, especially the troublesome Norteños—a general term applied to the Comanche, Wichita, and their allies.
The Catholic priests who came to San Sabá wanted to bring Christianity to the Native Americans. The San Sabá Mission was intended specifically for the Lipan Apache Indians, who had asked that a mission be established in their area of Texas. Historians believe that the Lipan were really interested in getting the protection that a Spanish presence would provide. They were under continuous threat from Comanches and other Native American enemies who were trying to push them out of their territory, then concentrated in the southern Edwards Plateau, south and west of present-day Austin.
In addition to Christianizing the Indians, the Spanish were interested in developing the mineral resources of central Texas. Well before the San Sabá mission and presidio were established, Spanish prospectors had discovered traces of gold and silver in the Llano Uplift, or Central Mineral Region, of Texas along the Llano River in Mason and Llano counties. In order to exploit the gold and silver, the Spaniards needed to tame and pacify the Indians, partly so the Indians wouldn't attack the miners and settlers, but also because a labor force was needed to work the mines. If the priests could get a large group of Indians to settle in a mission and begin taking up European ways, then the developers would have a ready source of impressed laborers. This was a pattern of development and exploitation that the Spaniards had applied very effectively in Mexico and all across Central and South America where they found tremendous wealth in gold and silver.
Before a location for the San Sabá Mission was selected, there were heated arguments between the miners, represented by soldiers, and the priests. The miners wanted the settlement to be near Llano, along the Llano River, close to the mines. The priests needed a place with lots of farmland, water, and other basic necessities required for a successful farming operation. They would need crops and livestock to feed and clothe the many Lipan Apache they hoped to attract and support in their mission. The priests prevailed, and the mission and presidio were built along the upper San Sabá River in what is now Menard County, from 50 to 70 miles west of where the main mining activity would occur.
In 1757, a train of carts and pack animals reached the location selected for the mission and presidio after moving up through Mexico via Saltillo and San Antonio. Workers immediately began to build the structures that would house and protect the people. Because shelters were needed quickly, the buildings were made of wattle-and-daub. Walls were made of upright poles and logs set into shallow trenches. Spaces between vertical poles were filled in with mud (daub) to form solid walls. The roofs were thatched with a long, coarse grass native to the region. Once the mission and presidio became established, these temporary buildings would be replaced with more permanent stone masonry walls and buildings. The mission, attacked ten months later, was burned to the ground and never rebuilt. About five years after it was founded, the temporary wattle-and-daub presidio was replaced with a huge stone fort, remnants of which can still be seen just west of Menard.
The mission and presidio were built about four miles apart, on opposite sides of the San Sabá River. Why was the fort so far from the mission, if the soldiers in the presidio were meant to protect the priest at the mission? The priests did this on purpose, even though they knew that it was dangerous. In earlier settlements built in east Texas, they had learned it was a bad idea to put the missions and presidios too close together. The Indians were afraid to come into the missions if the soldiers were too near. Also, the soldiers were known to molest the Indian women, another strong reason for the Indians to avoid settling in the missions. Learning from these mistakes, the priests decided that the San Sabá Mission would be located several miles from the presidio. Then, they hoped, the Indians would not be afraid to live in the mission.
The Lipan Apache never stayed more than a couple of days at the San Sabá Mission. Partly, it was because they really preferred the canyonlands to the south along the Nueces River, where the San Lorenzo Mission would later be built. The Lipan also feared they would be vulnerable to more Comanche attacks if they settled at San Sabá. So, the effort to Christianize the Lipan and get them to settle at San Sabá was a total failure.
The mining efforts along the Llano River were equally unsuccessful. Though there is unquestionably gold and silver in the Llano Uplift area of Texas, the Spanish prospectors apparently never found commercially viable deposits. If they had, Spain would have made a greater effort to keep control of Central Texas. It would have been worth it to send in more soldiers, priests, and settlers. The fact that Spain didn't go to this effort and expense is the strongest argument against there being a wealth of Spanish treasure buried in central Texas.
Though the gold and silver deposits were in Llano and Mason counties, the prospectors were bringing ore samples to the San Sabá Presidio, where they were tested or sent down to Mexico for further analysis by experts there. Later Texans, such as Jim Bowie, were misled by this activity. Jim Bowie and treasure hunters before and after him came to believe that the Spaniards had found tremendous deposits of gold or silver in what is now Menard County. Though geologists have demonstrated that there are no such deposits in the area, treasure hunters to this day continue the search, sometimes with destructive consequences. The damage began in the 1800's when treasure hunters dug up the cemetery at Presidio San Sabá Presidio, and it has continued ever since.