62                   The Franciscan Missions in Texas
cisco Garsa [Garza] to see and to inspect that vast Province
and to make an account of what would conduce to the advance-
ment of its conquest, or of that which would retard or impede
it ... in order to attain the end so much desired, the conversion
of those nations."10
Some three months after he was elected Commissary and
Prefect of the missions, Father Silva set out for Texas in com-
pany with Father Garza. In January, 1791, they arrived in
San Antonio. Father Silva felt the responsibility of his office
and the urge of the saintly zeal of Father Margil, the first Zaca-
tecan superior to establish missions in Texas. Since 1767 the
harvest of souls in Texas was left exclusively to the Zacatecan
friars. Father Silva found San Antonio relatively well organized.
The missions of Rosario and Espiritu Santo caused him more
concern. The barbarous condition of the unhappy Karankawas
made special appeal to his zeal. He sent converted Indians from
Rosario into the coastal prairies to inform these savages that his
was a friendly purpose. Their welfare was Father Silva's mo-
tive. At length, in response to an invitation which the Karan-
kawa delivered in person to Father Silva, he and Father Garza
went to visit the Indians in their habitats. He was pleased with
the opportunity to make a survey of the field which Father Mar-
gil had loved so well, but official duties left him little time. In
the spring of 1791 he had to return to Mexico to preside at a
chapter of his confrères.
Fortunately, he had a capable priest to leave in charge of
the work initiated. Father Francisco Garza had spent some
time in eastern Texas as chaplain of the Spanish settlement at
the town of Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Bucareli. He had come
to this town from San Antonio de Valero, probably in 1776;
certainly, he was at the pueblo when disaster forced the settlers
to take refuge to Nacogdoches in 1779. By correspondence and
otherwise Father Garza had helped to lay the foundations of
modern Nacogdoches. In 1783 he left Nacogdoches and became
president of the Zacatecan missions in Texas. Other honors
came to him among his fellows; he was made Lector in Sacred
Theology and was a member of the Council of his college at
Guadalupe, Mexico. But in the purpose of our story the greatest
honor came to him in the spring of 1791.
10 Father Silva to the viceroy in Audiencia de Guadalajara, 104-1-1.