Destruction of tire San Xavier illissions
333
his confession, to clear the soldiers implicated by a series of alibis, and to lay the entire blame for the two deaths on the Coco Indians. 62 But neither the officials nor the friars were fooled by the gross subter- fuge of false testimony. Both Fray Mariano and Fray Benito pointed out that the Cocos could not have committed the murders because they never used guns, that if they had used any sort of firearms, they would ha\'e been more likely of French make and not Spanish blunderbusses. The original confession of the Indian Andres was too detailed and filled with intimate data that only a participator in the foul deed could have known. No Indian had enough imagination to have given such revealing details of the movements of the four soldiers prior to the murders. The same opinion was held by the austere and logical minded Fiscal Doctor Andreu, who on December 6, 1752, in a caustic Respuesta (reply) to the voluminous and spurious reports of the supposed investigations, declared that "the mass of reports, petitions, and certifications concerning the murders at San Xavier only confuse the real issue. They all lack the legal requirements; that order and formality prescribed by sound logic and impartial judgment." The only results of the investigations undertaken gratuitously were a series of retractions and contradictions, of charges and countercharges of bad faith, and a mass of false testimony. 63 But eight years were to elapse before the legal proceedings originated by the tragic deaths were closed with a dubious acquittal of the chief actor in the sacrilegious drama and a complete exoneration of the zealous mis- sionaries. Conditions in San Xavier after the nmrders. But let us return to San Xavier. Not until June 13 did Fray Mariano, sorrow-laden with the recent tragedy, receive the letter of the viceroy dated April 12, requesting him to investigate the circumstances that led to the excommunication, and recommending the removal of Fray Miguel Pinilla and the other mis- sionaries from San Xavier, replacing them with others. Strange irony of fate was here made manifest. The letter was delivered to him by 62 The complete record of depositions and declarations takeo in this farcical investi- gation are found in a long ex pedienle entitled Testimo. de las Diligs. practicadas por Dn. Thorivio de Vrrutia Capn. del RI. Presidio de Sn. Antto. de Bejar y otros comisaros. sobre las Averiguazon. delos verdaderos agresores de las mucrtes ex- ecutadas en el de San Franco. Xavier de Gigedo en el R. P. F. Joseph Ganzabal, y Juan Jph. Cevallos. A.G. I., Audiencia de Mexico, 91-3-2 (Dunn Tr. 1752) pp. 1-282. 61 Respuesta Fiscal, December 6, 1752. In Testimonio de los Autos fhos. pp. 280-294.
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