Note 1 — BURIED TREASURE LEGENDS OF MILAM COUNTY

[Although up to ten years ago Texas history had hardly recognized the existence of the San Gabriel missions, legend had kept the fact and the place green for generations. In April, 1914, an article by Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, on “The Founding of the Missions on the San Gabriel River, 1745–1749,” appeared in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. The next year Dr. Bolton’s book entitled Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century was issued by the University of California Press; in it pages 135–278 treat of “The San Xavier Missions.” These are the main and almost only accessible sources for whoever would know the history of the San Gabriel missions. There were three missions, the principal and most enduring one being the Mission San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas (1748–1755). The name San Xavier was later corrupted into San Gabriel.1 The San Gabriel missions had trouble with the Indians, and it is a fact that a priest, Father Ganzábal, as in the legend, was killed by them.2