377
Missionary Activity Among t/1e Apaches, 1743-1758
little use in remaining, when almost all the Indians were gone and no new ones would come. 55 Don Pedro replied the same day. He admitted the reasons for the abandonment of the place to be well-founded, but deplored his inability to grant their just demand. He reminded them that their duty as soldiers was to remain at their post until ordered by the viceroy to some other place. It was against military discipline to abandon a post without orders. 56 On July 23, Fathers Fray Jose Lopez, Fray Sebastian Flores, and Fray Francisco Aparicio joined the soldiers and officers in their petition to move to the San Marcos. They declared their sufferings had been greatly increased since May. For three years they and the Indians had suffered and waited for relief. Many had died and many more were either sick or had run away. All the neophytes had come to feel a horror and a hatred for this accursed place. They, therefore, requested that the commander give them an escort to take such Indians as remained and all mission property to the San Marcos, where there was good running water and where many of the Indians had already gone. If permission were not granted, the rest of the neophytes would leave anyway. Don Pedro im- mediately replied, admitting that the request was just. In order to save the souls of the Indians and spare the lives of the missionaries, he would accede to the request without awaiting orders. He. therefore, commanded that ten soldiers, under the direction of the alferei:, accompanied by twenty picked mission Indians and one of the religious, go to the San l\farcos River within two days to build jacales (huts) and a temporary church, so that the presidio and missions could be removed to the new site as soon as possible. The removal was to be ad interim and subject to the final approval or disposition of the viceroy. 51 No time was lost in abandoning the site of so many suH:erings and privations. By August 16, 1755, the two remaining missions of Candelaria and San Francisco, as well as the Presidio de San Xavier had been moved 55 Petition of Soldiers, July 15, 1755. In Testimonio .. . sobre ... reduccion .•. A. G. I. Audiencia de Afez;co, 92-6-22 (Cunningham tr., 1763, pt. 3), 149-150. 56 Respuesta de Don Pedro Rabago y Teran, July 15, 1755. In Ibid., 151-152. 51 Petition of missionaries, July 2 3, 1755; Reply of Don Pedro, same date, in Ibid., 152-1 56. On the same date the soldiers and officers presented a second petition to the same effect, but with a threat that they would desert, if not granted permission to move, "preferring to suffer the deat.h penalty of deserters to the slow death of lin- gering illness." Don Pedro rebuked them severely, but excused them because their action had been the result of despair. In Ibid., 156-159.
Powered by FlippingBook