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Explorations and Settlements A long tlze Rio Gr-ande
that he had baptized twenty-five Zuma Indians and that he had a large class of the same nation under instruction. It is to be remembered that Father Paez had gone as a missionary to La Junta, when the presidio was established in 1759. The party of merchants and Christian Indians who had gone to Chihuahua to trade returned safely on March 28. Six Apaches, four men and two women, came to the presidio on April 3. They came from two different ranclzerias and, as usual, claimed they were peace emissaries. The captain told them he had already warned them that their chiefs should come. The Indians then offered to leave one of the women in token of good faith to be instructed in the doctri11a until the chiefs arrived. The offer was accepted and the others were allowed to depart. But how faithless the Apaches were is shown by the fact that in spite of their proffers of concord and of the deposit of a woman as hostage, they stole five horses on April 5 and repeated the outrage on April 27, when they took seven more from San Lorenzo. On May 19, the soldiers took prisoners, in spite of their protestations of friendship and amity, two Apaches who were found near the presidio where the horses were kept. One of these was a well known leader called Frijoles (Beans) .• 0 Tranquillity seems to have prevailed during June and July at El Paso as nothing worthy of note is found in the diary for this period. On August 1, a mule train carrying wines and ag11ardimte for sale in Chihuahua set out. An escort accompanied the party for safety, and with it went Fray Diego Zapata from New Mexico, who was ill and was returning to Mexico for treatment. The next day another party of fifteen residents also went with an escort to Presidio de Janos to trade. Lieutenant Antonio Valencia commanded the guards furnished them. On August 10, a native from Nuestra Senora del Socorro reported that hostile Indians had stolen twelve oxen from the mission three days before. The captain severely reprimanded the soldiers stationed there as mission guards for not having reported the theft in time to permit pursuit of the offenders. The monotonous routine of life was broken on August 22, by the arrival of a group of Bethlemite Fathers from Santa Fe. They came under the escort of Jose Herrera and thirteen soldiers. The good men - 40Testimonio del Diario formado de orn. del Exmo. Sor. Virrey de este Reyno, por Don Pedro Joseph de la Fuente . .. A.G./., Audie,rcia de Guadalajara, 1o4-6-i 3 (Dunn Transcripts, 1757-1766), pp. 163-187.
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