51
Handicaps to Mission Development, 1731-1750
tell Father Felipe that he was not at home. 31 Trivial as the incident mav appear, it is significant of the attitude of Governor Franquis towards the religious. It was not long before the animosity of the governor found expression in hostile action. On October 8, twelve days after his arrival, he formally notified Fray Benito de Santa Ana, President of the Queretaran missions in San Antonio, that since there were three soldiers stationed at each one of the missions, Concepcion, San Francisco de la Espada and San Juan Capistrano, who had been assigned to them by former Viceroy Casafuerte for a period of two years, which time had long since expired, and since the soldiers were greatly needed to reenforce the reduced garrisons of the presidios, he had decided to remove two from each mission. He asked the Father President, there- fore, to notify Fathers Pedro Ysasmendi and Joseph Hurtado, who were in the other two missions of the order. With refined irony, the governor, in an attempt to justify his action, declared, "I assure your reverence, in all truth, that I wish I had at my command a sufficiently large garrison to practice the same disregard [of my duty] as my predecessors," broadly hinting the irregularity of the practice. 32 At the same time he removed also the two extra guards from the missions of San Antonio de Valero and San Jose. Not satisfied with the change, he informed Fray Benito two days later that he had further decided that Captain Costales of La Bahia, who had supplied soldiers for three of the missions before, should furnish all the guards now, which were to consist of one man for each of the missions. But that since Fath:er Joseph Borruel, of Mission San Jose, had informed him that he really did not need a guard, he had requested Costales to send only four men from the garrison at La Bahia, who were to be changed each month. 33 The removal of the guards was a very serious blow to the welfare of the struggling missions. These men were sorely needed at this time to maintain order among the naturally frightened neophytes, to help the missionaries carry out the daily routine of mission life, and to accompany the Padres on their frequent quests for runaway Indians. Removal of mission guards. 31 Fray Mariano de los Dolores to Fray Miguel Sevillano de Paredes, January 16, 1736 (1737), A.G. M., Misiones, Vol. 21, pt. 1, pp. 179-180. 32 Carlos Franquis Benites de Lugo to Fray Benito de Santa Ana, October 8, 1736, A. G. M., Misiones, Vol. 21, pt. 1, p. 195. A copy of this letter is also found in Historia, Vol. 524, pt. 3, pp. 751-52. S3 Franquis to Fray Benito, October Io, 1 7 36, in / bid., 7 53.
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