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which would anger the Indians; and that a corporal in charge of a squad be sent to each mission each morning to escort the Indians to work and to bring them back in the evening. Fray Mariano also begged Cerda to use his influence to increase the respect which the Indians should have for the missionaries. The laxity observed in the past in this respect had practically destroyed their morale. 22 The careful and detailed preparations for the irrigation ditch were evidently put into execution by the indefatigable Fray Mariano. who appears to have remained in San Xavier until the first week in November. It was not until the eleventh of this month that he arrived in San Antonio. But the work must have progressed slowly in view of the natural disinclination of the natives to sustained labor and the half-hearted cooperation of the garrison, which was reduced the following June by Governor Barrios y Jauregui upon his arrival, when he withdrew the seventeen men stationed there from Los Adaes. On January 22, 1752, Fray Mariano complained bitterly that since June, 1751, when the garrison was reduced by the new governor, no hand had been put on the dam or ditch, from the construction of which the missionaries and their wards had expected so many benefits. The wail of the despondent friar, who had labored so long and so incessantly for the ill-fated mis- sions, was but a foreboding of the impending catastrophe that was soon to destroy all the work of the missionaries. Bolton may be right in surmising that in view of the subsequent trouble of 1752, it is very doubtful that the ditch was ever completed. 23 Erection of Presidio de San Xavier, 1750. In the meantime the cherished hope of the missionaries for a formal presidio was about to be realized. Although approved in principle in July, 1749, the actual establishment of the long sought presidio was deferred at that time, pending the findings of Eca y Musquiz. How thoroughly and how impartially this official performed his duty has already been shown. 26 His report vindicated the missionaries in their contentions as to the suitability of San Xavier for the permanent location of the missions and the presidio. This was transmitted to the viceroy early in the fall of 1750, who promptly turned it over to the Fiscal and the Auditor. .UFray Mariano to Francisco de la Cerda, October 14, 1750. Arcliivo del Colegio, 1750-1767, (Dunn Tr.) pp. 11-15. JSBolton, Tezas, pp. 236-237. "See page 293 et seq.
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