Tlte Beginnings of Civilized life in Texas, 1731-1745
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missionary fathers have busied themselves with untiring zeal, doing everything possible in order that the barbarous and unconverted Indians come into a knowledge of our holy faith and agree to be reduced to pueblos [ in the missions] where the number of the faithful may not only be increased but that [the total] of loyal vassals of our lord the king be also enlarged. In order to attain their holy desire the reverend missionaries have always gone out personally into the woods and virgin forests where the natives live, exposing their lives to the manifest dangers of both the hostile Indians and the large rivers, and incurring other risks which a country so vast, uninhabited, and remote, offers. "Second. They declared that it is well known that after the wild Indians are brought and placed in the missions by the reverend mis- sionaries the Padres have always tried to induce them to live like civilized men by treating them with kindness, prudence, and tenderness on all occasions. They have always done everything in their power to promote the welfare of the new converts. Every year they appoint fiscales, governors, and ministers of justice for the mission pueblos [from among the Indians], who are approved and given the insignia of their offices by the governor and captains of the presidio in the province. With much suavity and moderation they have, little by little, inclined the Indians to work in order to banish their idleness. The missionaries, in order to encourage them [to persevere]. have often performed the most menial tasks, becoming hardly distinguishable from the Indians. Nevertheless, the laziness of the natives and their repugnance to systematic labor is such, having been brought up in the freedom of the wilds, that they often flee even from these moderate tasks and return to the woods. The missionaries go after them as often as is necessary, impelled by their love for them and the solicitude for their souls. "Third. They testified they were aware of the solicitude of the reverend missionaries in seeing that the missions had everything that was necessary to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as well as all the ornaments and other things needed for divine cult. [The mission churches] are so neat and clean that they inspire devotion in lands so remote. They likewise exercise the same care to see that the pueblos are provided with harrows, handbars, hoes, axes, and adzes, and that the Indians have metates [grinding stones], pots, pans, coma/es [ flat iron pans to cook corn cakes], and all the other household utensils necessary for civilized life. In truth, the missionaries are the spiritual and temporal fathers of the poor Indians. "Fourth. They declared that they did not know of any special revenue
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