Destruction of the San Xavier Missions 33 1 soon confessed that he had fired the arrow that killed Fray Ganzabal, and that in company with four soldiers from the presidio, who desired to kill Ceballos and the padres, he had gone to Mission Candelaria on May 11. In his confession he declared that he had run away from Mission Can- delaria two days before the murders; that he had visited Captain Rabago, who had given him presents; that on the afternoon of May II he had met Martin Gutierrez and three other soldiers on Las Animas Creek (Brushy) while hunting turkey; that they told him they were waiting for Fray Miguel Pinilla, who was in the habit of coming there to fish in the evenings; that Gutierrez told him they were going to kill Ceballos and the padres and offered Andres a horse to help them; that at dusk the soldiers had disguised themselves as Indians with paint and skins on the banks of the San Xavier River, where they left their horses. He said two carried blunderbusses and the other two were armed with bows and arrows taken from the Cocos a few days before. As they approached the mission, Gutierrez went ahead to reconnoiter. The others stayed in a creek about the distance of a gunshot away, and from there they went to a chicken coop from where they could hear Fray Ganzabal speak. Gutierrez came and said now was the time, that the padres were eating their meal with Ceballos. It was Gutierrez, said the Indian Andres, who fired the two shots that killed Ceballos. He, Andres, had shot Fray Ganzabal. Carrillo, one of the soldiers, had fired the parting shot into the darkened room. 58 Andres then joined his wife and fled to San Antonio, the soldiers return- ing to the presidio. Effort of Rabago to evade responsibility. On May 15, two days after he notified Captain Urrutia of the tragic death of Fray Ganzabal and Jose Ceballos, blaming the Cocos for the murders, Captain Rabago sent a long and detailed report to the viceroy. He began by recounting how the Cocos had fled from Mission Candelaria on May 1, and of his fruitless efforts to restore them to the mission. He emphasized the evil character of these Indians and then explained how on hearing two shots fired in the deserted mission, about nine o'clock on the night of !\fay 11, he had hurriedly mounted his horse and dashed to Candelaria with as many men as he could muster, only to find that Fray Joseph Ganzabal and Jose Ceballos had been killed. The clatter of the horses' hoofs had no doubt
58 Confesion de! Indio Andres, May 23, 1752. In Testimonio de los Autos fhos. pp. 238-245. Copy also in Testimonio de las Diligencias ... A. G. /., Audiinckl di Me:r:ico, 91-3-2, pp. 3-8 (Dunn tr. 1752).
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