the spanish government, acting on the governor-general’s advice, ordered four hundred families to be sent out to the new philippines from the canary islands. these islands, situated off the coast of africa, belonged to spain by right of conquest, and were settled by spaniards of pure blood, noted for their honor and chastity, and for their devotion to the catholic religion. of the four hundred families only thirteen ever came. they reached san antonio by way of mexico in 1729, bringing with them their stores of clothing, silverware, and jewels. they built their dwellings around the present square of the constitution, which they called plaza de las islas (square of the islands), in homesick memory of the sea-girt isles they had left behind.
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other colonists from monterey and from lake teztuco, in mexico, followed; houses sprung up beside the musical water-ways; vines were trained over the yellow adobe walls; semi-tropical vegetation made a paradise of the spreading fields and gardens. finally, the newcomers, emulous of the growing walls of san josé, laid on their plaza the foundation (1731) of san fernando church.
enlarged and rebuilt on the same spot, san fernando remains to this day the parish church of the spanish-speaking catholics of san antonio.
but the settlers, or townspeople—as they may now be called—were full of anxiety in those troublous times. no more french soldiers, it is true, came riding across the border, chasing the spanish troops to their very gates. but there were the apaches and the comanches. for in spite of the efforts of spanish friars and spanish soldiers, but few of the apaches and comanches had become indios reducidos (converted indians). thousands of indios bravos (wild indians), as savage and cruel as if a mission had never been built, roamed the country, ready to swoop down at any moment upon the ill-guarded little post. a messenger would hurry in, perhaps from the missions below, which kept ever a keen lookout, breathless with the news that the apaches were creeping stealthily upon the town. or, suddenly and without warning, a ringing war-whoop would echo in the air, and leaping from cover to cover among the scattered houses, the comanches, tomahawk in hand, would pursue their hapless victims to some last hiding-place; then, leaving death and desolation behind, they would vanish as suddenly as they had come.
at last the new settlers determined to put an end to this state of affairs. they organized themselves into a small army, and aided by the little garrison of soldiers then stationed there, they marched against their indian foes, whom they defeated in a pitched battle.
the mission of la purissima concepcion.
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this victory (in 1732) gave some security to the place. the indian bravos still harried the country, killing those who ventured far from post and mission, and plundering where they could not kill. a number of years later (1752), after a fresh quarrel with the miners at las almagras, they fell upon the mission of san saba, and butchered every human creature within its walls. but rarely did they again venture near the dwellings of those determined pale-faces who had overcome them on their own hunting-grounds.
