Spanish Mission Records at San Antonio #271281

Students of Spanish-American history will ever be grateful for the detailed and painstaking way in which most Spanish officials kept the records of their acts. This excellence of the surviving materials left by them serves to increase our regret for the loss of those that have been destroyed or have otherwise disappeared. A case in point is furnished by the records of the Franciscan missions founded and conducted during the Spanish regime in Texas. For, while a small quantity of precious mission records are still available, the larger portion of what we know must have existed at one time has disappeared from present view. To say that they are irrevocably lost is unsafe, except where there is positive proof of destruction, for they may unexpectedly come to light in some out-of-the-way corner or some unexplored repository. There is good reason to hope, indeed, that when the archives of Mexico and Spain have been duly searched, much of the missing material for the history of these interesting institutions will be recovered.<br><br>It is not my purpose here to speculate as to what materials exist elsewhere, but rather to describe briefly the small collection that is now the property of the San Antonio diocese of the Catholic Church, and is in the custody of the Right Rev. Bishop Forest. Though the collection is small, it contains, besides important material for the history of Texas missions, ethnological data that may in the last resort be our only clue to the classification of a number of native Southwestern tribes, whose racial affiliation would otherwise remain forever unknown. This collection is private property, is guarded with care by the custodian, and, properly, is made available for use only under the strictest safeguards. It is highly desirable, however, that records such as these, which if once destroyed could never be replaced, should be stored in a fireproof building, beyond the danger of destruction.