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Our Catlzolic Heritage in Texas
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the loud report of a blunderbuss. The first report was immediately followed by a second one. The body of the maligned, persecuted, and wretched Ceballos, who had sought peace in the refuge of the friary, fell with a heavy thud by the side of the table. Fray Pinilla kneeled to aid the dying man; Fray Ganzabal took the candle and rushed to the door to see whence the shots had come. There he stood outlined as in a frame by the door. In one hand he held the flickering candle, while he shaded his eyes with the other as he peered into the darkness. A gentle swish rent the air, the friar swayed and fell, pierced by an arrow that struck him in the pit of his arm and swiftly found its way to his heart. The candle too, went out. Darkness reigned again and its protecting folds saved Fray Pinilla from a similar fate. A parting flash of a gun and the loud report of a shot that failed to find its mark rang out and then all was still. 57 Who fired the fatal shot and winged the sacrilegious arrow on that fateful night? The secret was revealed unexpectedly and much sooner than the actors in this bloody drama had anticipated. On May 13, Captain Rabago, who claimed that upon hearing the shots, he had rushed on horseback to render assistance, sent a formal letter to Captain Urrutia of San Antonio informing him officially that Fray Joseph Ganzabal and Juan Jose Ceballos had been killed on the night of May 11 in Mission Candelaria by prowling Coco Indians. The notice was carried by no other than Fray Jose Pinilla, brother of Fray Miguel, who arrived alone in Mission Espada about eleven o'clock on the morning of May 16, because the Indians who accompanied him had become apprehensive and had abandoned him on the road. The good friar was much surprised to find that the details of the murder were already being freely circulated among the Indians not only of Mission Espada, but of Mission San Juan Capistrano as well. At his request Captain Urrutia started an investigation and it was soon found that on the night of May 15 an Indian named Andres, of the Sayopin nation, who had been living in San Xavier, arrived in the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, where he had told the tragic story of the two murders. When questioned, he at first denied any participation or knowledge, claiming he had fled from Mission San Xavier two days before the crimes were committed. How did he know what had happened two days after his departure? He was arrested and S7The scene is faithfully reconstructed from the confession of the Indian Andres, who fired the arrow, and from the reports of Fray Mariano and Captain Rabago, each of whom gave his own version. All found in Testimonio de los Autos fhos; pp. 167-169, 238-245, 199-205.
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