Tlze Beginnings of Civilized Life in Texas, I731-I745
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had been baptized had received the sacrament in articulo mortis. Although there were many who at various times asked to be baptized, the Padres preferred not to administer this sacrament to them, because the natives were not constant in their desire to be Christians and would often apostatize. There was a jacal church, made of brush, mud, and straw, and a place of similar nature for .the missionary. Conditions similar to those already described existed here. The mission had an adobe church and living quarters for the missionaries. There were a few old Indians and their families living in the mission but the majority of the Adaes still lived in their ranche,;as scattered over a distance of many miles and enjoying the full liberty of their wild life. They frequented the mission at times, were generally friendly, but positively refused to be congregated. The missionaries constantly tried to make them give up their savagery in the wilderness and live in the mission but their efforts had little success. The Padres at San Miguel had to look after both the scattered Indians and the soldiers and their families in the presidio. Altogether the missionaries cared for about four hundred Indians and sixty soldiers and their families. 75 Summarizing the work accomplished by the Zacatecan missionaries in East Texas, the College declared that up to 1748 there had been baptized in the three missions "one thousand three hundred and eighteen Indians, whose names are inscribed in the Book of Life because they were cleansed by the waters of baptism. All of [this information] is recorded in the authentic testimonials submitted to this College by the missionaries two years ago [ 1748]." The number cited, the recorder explained, does not include those baptized between 1748 and 1750, the time of the report, nor those of the years 1716 and 1717, for the registers were lost. Such was the spiritual fruit of their living faith and untiring labors. No detailed account of the temporal welfare has been found, but in the description of conditions in Los Adaes already given, it is clearly shown that the three missions not only raised corn and beans and had livestock, but on repeated occasions they gladly gave of their supply to keep the San illigttel de los A daes. 75The details summarized above are taken from the previously cited letter of Fray Ciprian to Fray Abasolo, October 27, 1749; the report of Fathers Fray Francisco Vallejo, Fray Juan Gregorio de la Campa Cos, Fray Ildefonso Joseph l\farmolejo, Fray Gaspar Joseph Solis, Fray Joseph de San Miguel Dominguez, and Fray Dimos Maria Chacon, January IS, 17 so; and the Memorial to the King of the same date. A,-cl,ivo de San F,-ancirco el G,-ande, vol. S, pp. 41-47, 56-60, 61-77.
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