SAMUCO
424
SAN ANTONIO
ties of the abbej-, looked into the finances, cleared of?
arrears of debt, lebuilt the choir, constructed an aque-
duct, and added the great bell tower at the west end
of the abbey, and two flanking towers. He did his
best for the liberties of the town; helped the towns-
folk to obtain a chaiter and gave every encourage-
ment to new settlers. Ths monks resisted Samson's
concessions of market rights to the townsmen, but
were no match for their abbot. A hospital at Bab-
well, and a free school for poor scholars, were also the
giftrs of Abbot Samson to the townspeoiile. Pope
Lucius III made Samson a judge delegate in ecclesias-
tical cau.^es: he ser\ed on the commission for settling
the quarrel between ArchbLshop Hubert and the
monks of Canterbury; and on the Royal Council in
London, where he sat as a baron, frustrated the
efforts of William of Longchamp to curtail the rights
of the Benedictine Order. Samson died in 1211,
having ruled his abbey successfully for thirty years.
Carlyle in "Past and Present" has made Abbot Sam-
son familiar to all the world; but Carlyle's fascinat-
ing jjicture must not be mistaken for history.
Memorials of St. Edmunds Abbey, e<\. .\rnold, in Rolls Series; NoRGATE in Diet. Nat. Biog.. a. v.; there are many editions and translations of Jocelix de Br.^keloxd's De rebus gestis Samsonis Abbatis. JoSEPH ClaYTON.
Samuco Indians (Zamuco), the collective name of a group of tribes in south-western Bolivia, speaking dialects of a common language which constitutes a distinct linguistic stock (Samucan) and includes, besides the Samuco proper, the Guaranoca, Morotoco, Poturero, and several others. Their original country w^as along the northern border of the Chaco, from about 18° to 21° south latitude and from about .58° to 02° west longitude, bordering south upon the Toba and other wandering tribes of the Chaco, and west and north-west upon the celebrated mission tribes of the Chiquito and Chiriguano.
In their original condition the Samuco were semi- sedentarj', and combined agriculture and hunting, the men returning to the woods at the close of the planting season to hunt, drying the meat for future ase. They planted corn, manioc, and a species of plum. The women wove mats and hammocks (the latter from thread spun from native cotton) and made potter}'. The men were noted for their warlike and afiventurous spirit. They went entirely naked, while the women wore onlj' a .small covering about the middle of the body. Lips, ears, and nostrils were bored for the in.sertion of wooden plugs. The men carried bows, lances, and wooden clubs, and the warrior's weapon."; were buried with him. Mothers strangled all their children after the second, and in one tribe, the Morotoco, the women seem to have ruled while the men did the household work. They were pa.ssionately given to dancing and visiting, and to thf drinking of chicha, an intoxicating liquor made from fermented corn. The majority of them were Christianized through the efforts of the Jesuits in the middle of the eighttn^nth century, and were es- tablished in the Chiquito mi.ssions of Bolivia, partic- ularly in the mi.ssions of San Juan, Santiago, and Santo Cfjrazon, wh(!rc many of them, through the efforts of the ini.ssionarif^s, arJopted the prevailing Chiquito language;. Their conversion was largely the work of Father Xarci.so Patzi. A large part of them n;tainefl thf;ir savage independence in the for- ests. Thosf! of the three mission towns numbered together 5854 sfjuls shortly before the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1707. In 18.'W, accorfling to d'Or- bigny. they numben^l abfjut 1250 souls, besides about 10,000 more still wild in the remote ejistern forests. The same traveller dfjseribfw them as robust and well built, frank, honrat, sociable, and notably fond of adventure, pleasure, and gaiety, and with a sweet and euphonious language
Baluvia.v, DocumerUon jtara la hial. de Bolivia (La Pb», 1906);
Brixton, American Race (Xew York, 1S91); Dobrizhoffer,
Account of the Abipones (London, 1822); HervAs, Catdlogo de
las Lengtias, I (Madrid, 1800); d'Orbiony, L' Homme AmMcain
(Paris, 1839); Southey, Hist, of Brazil. Ill (London, 182.'}).
James Mooney.
SamueL See Judges; Kings, First and Second Books of.
San Antonio, Diocese of (Sancti Antonii), comj)ris('s all that portion of the State of Texas be- tween th(> Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers, except the land south of the Arroyo de los Ilermanos, on the Rio Grande, and the Counties of Live Oak, Bee, Goliad, and Refugio. It embraces an area of about 90,909 square miles. The first religious ministrations in this territor}- of which we have definite histoiical information were those of the French .secular and regular priests who accompanied the expedition of La Salle. They entered Matagorda Bav in January, 1085. La Salle built a fort called Fort St. Louis on the spot subsequently occupied by the Bahia Mis- sion; a chapel was constructed in the fort, and for two years five priests laboured here: Fathers Zeno- bius Membrd, Maxime Le Clercq, and Anastasius Douay, Franciscans, and Fathers Chefdeville and Cavcher, Sulpicians. They finally abandoned Texas and returned to Canada. Shortly after their de- parture, Franciscans from the apostolic school of Queretaro and Zacatecas founded missions on the Rio Grande. The pioneer Spanish priest was the Francis- can Father Damian Mazanet, who accompanied the expedition of Alonzo de I^6n in 1089. He found the field so promising that he invoked the help of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities to establish a permanent mission beyond the Rio Grande. In 1090 Father 'Mazanet crossed the Rio Grande, accompanied by Fathers Michael Fontcubierto, Francis Casanas, Anthony Borday, and Anthony Pereira. The friendly Indians (Asinais) received them with joy, and the Mission of San Francisco de las Tejas was established. In 1091, and again in 1700, additional missionaries arrived from Mexico; four more missions were es- ta))iish('d, and these were maintained till 1718, when the chief mission was transferred to San Antonio.
In 170.S the Mission of San Francisco Solano was established on the banks of the Rio Grande. It was transferred in 1712 to San Ildefonso; thence, in 1713, it was moved to San Jo,s6 on the Rio Grande, and, finally, in 1718 to the San Antonio River, where it was established under the title of San Antonio de Valero. This last move was made by order of the Marquess de Valero, Viceroy of New Spain. The mission was then under the direction of Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares. In the year 1710 nine friars from Quer6taro and Zacatecas, with Father Antonio Margil de Jesus as .superior, es- tablished six Missions in the most northerly part of the Province of Texas, and a few ytnirs afterwards another was built near the Presidio of NucstraSeftora del Pilar de los Adayes, seven leagues from the fort of Natchitoches, in Louisiana. The mission of La Purisirna Concepci6n was founded in 1710, among the Sanipaos, Tocr.nes, and other tribes. A massive stone church was erectefl in 1731, and is still in a fair state of pr(!.servation and is used for Divine worship. It is situated one mile south of the present city of San Antonio. In 1729 the King of Spain ordered four hundred families to be transferred from the Canary Islands to Texas. Fourteen families arrived the next year, and the city of San Fernando was founded near the fort and mission of San Antonio de Valero. A chapel was at once raised, to serve till a proper parish church could be built. The two settlements in course; of time became consolidated and the modern city of San Antonio is the result. In 1744 the cornerstone of the Church of San Fer- nando was laid, and on (i November, 1749, the build- ing was dedicated to Divine worship. A portion of
