Destruction of the San Xavier Missions
301
very numerous. These, as well as the five bands that constituted the Orco- quisac nation, could be added to this mission if the means permitted it. Recently several Orcoquisacs had visited the mission and they had been so impressed with the treatment accorded the neophytes that they had offered to return to their lands and bring the others back with them. Fray Ganzabal gave them tobacco and other presents and asked them to return to their lands and wait there until he was able to take care of their people.u 111ission Nzeestra Sei'iora de la Candelaria, July, 1750. The following day, July 15, Eca y Musquiz repaired to Mission Candelaria, where as usual, the Indians gathered in the church at the same time, recited their prayers and sang the A labado before they were formally listed and inter- viewed. There were ninety persons: seventeen adult male Cocos, eleven married and six single; thirteen Tops, six married, seven single; one Karankawa, married; a total of thirty-one males, ranging in age from twenty to sixty years of age, all able-bodied and capable of bearing arms, skilled in the use of bows and arrows. Among the women there were eighteen Cocos, eleven married and seven single; eight Tops, six married, two widows; three Karankawas, one married and two single. The children numbered thirty in all. But since there were twelve Indians absent, the total of neophytes in reality was one hundred two. The rations allowed the Indians of Candelaria were identical with those of the other two missions. When the different chiefs were individually questioned as to whether they were satisfied with the site, they all were unanimous in their objection to any suggestion of moving the missions. Musquiz observes that the Indians of Candelaria had a stronger reason for not desiring the site to be changed, since the haunts of their respective nations were closer than those of the others. When the baptismal records were examined, it was found that since July, 1749, when Mission Candelaria was first established, until the day of the inspection fifty persons had been baptized. Of these, fourteen were adults and thirty-six children. Eight adults and five children of those baptized had died. The missionary in charge was Father Fray Bartolome Garcia, destined to write a few years hence the first Manual for the administration of the sacraments to the Indians of Texas. He declared that the Cujanes could be added to this mission because they were blood kin of the Cocos and
"Segundo padron de la mision de San Ildefonso, July 14, 17 so, Arc/rivo del Co/egio, 1750-1767 (Dunn Tr.) pp. 40-44.
Powered by FlippingBook