Missionary Activity Among the Apaclzes, 1743-1758
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ously shed his precious blood, and where Fathers Terreros and Santiesteban and their companions also made the supreme sacrifice of their lives. 100 The faith and zeal of the missio11aries. Although the San Saba Mission had proved a dismal and tragic failure through no fault of theirs, the faithful sons of Saint Francis were unshaken in their firm determination to continue to labor in behalf of the ungrateful Apaches. To shield them from their inveterate enemies, the northern tribes, two of them had gladly suffered martyrdom. They had disdained the safety of the presidio, be- cause they were battling for the souls of all Indian savages. No better example of unselfish purpose and devotedness to sacred duty for the planting of Christianity is to be found in the history of the propagation of the faith along the entire northern frontier of New Spain than that furnished by these zealous soldiers of Christ, some of whom became the sacrificial victims of the flaming and bloody holocaust of San Saba. The subsequent efforts of the Franciscan missionaries in behalf of the Apaches will be narrated in the following volume of this history. IOOTerreros to the Viceroy, July 25, 1754; Fray Jose Antonio de Oliva to the Viceroy, July 22, 1 7 58, same to same, August 29, 1758, in A. G. I. Audiencia de Afe:r:ico, 92-6-22 {Cunningham Tr., 1763, pt. 2), pp. 159-163.
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