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Tlee Beginnings of Civilized Life in Texas, 1731-I745
no superior except the governor. Yet at this particular time, the informant observed that the officials of the Villa could neither read nor write. The vicar, or parish priest, who could have been a great influence for good, appears to have contributed little or nothing to the welfare or general improvement of the community. Because of the peculiar cir- cumstances attendant upon the establishment of the Villa de San Fernando, the parish priest was paid four hundred and fifty pesos a year out of the royal treasury. He was supposed to minister to the spiritual needs of the civil settlers and the soldiers of the presidio until the community made sufficient progress to become self-supporting. But the captain of San Antonio de Bejar complained that instead of serving the soldiers without charge as he was supposed to do, being paid by the king, he demanded of them from forty to fifty pesos for a marriage and similar amounts for Christian burials. The soldiers further complained that he seldom, if ever, preached to them, and that they missed the excellent sermons which they were accustomed to hear from the missionaries, who, prior to 1731, had looked after the spiritual needs of the garrison. 3 z The Bachiller Juan Recio de Leon, who was the parish priest from about 1734 to 1744, did no better by the Canary Islanders than he did by the men of the garrison. His friendship for Governor Franquis, already indicated, may have been the sincere result of sympathy for an erratic and impulsive man, but his actions and conduct in regard to his parishioners and the missionaries leave much to be desired. Similar to Governor Franquis in character, Father Recio de Leon appears to have been a choleric and bitter man of strong passions, quick to take offence, slow to forgive, and even slower to forget. It will be remembered that in the trial of Governor Franquis, Father Recio de Leon sponsored unres_ervedly and alone the defence of the conduct of this eccentric person, truly worthy of pity. The depositions, moreover, disclosed how Father Recio de Leon had been instrumental in securing some false affidavits against the missionaries. 33 Whether as a result of this fact or for some other more solid reasons, he took an intense dislike to the soldiers and the civil settlers cannot be determined from the facts available. But it is evident that in the years that followed he neglected his duties more and more. Finally on March 12, 1743, the City Council remonstrated to the governor, that having been deprived completely of divine services 32 Toribio de Urrutia to the Viceroy, December 17, 1740. A. G. JJI., Provincias lnternas, vol. 32. USee pages 62-64.
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