Handicaps to irlission Development, 1731-1750
55
next day, Tuesday the 17th, and told him in these very words: 'Do not allmv even tl1c governor to pass to tlee mission pueblo,' feeling certain that he would not come." These instructions were ill-advised, considering the strong feeling that prevailed concerning the matter. It was not long before the irate governor learned of the iristructions. He no sooner heard of them than he dashed to the bridge, crossed it, and, without formalities of any kind, made his way to the very cell of Father Mariano, where he was talking with Father Cosme Borruel, who had come to visit him. The scene that followed may well be imagined. Father Mariano avers that the governor so far forgot himself as to raise his cane and threatened to strike him, although Franquis later denied it. He did threaten to send the missionary back to his convent forthwith "packed on a mule," and repeated at least twice that the friars were not sons of Saint Francis but sons of Satan. Giving no one a chance to explain, he thundered on like a madman. 38 The bridge remained in place, the guard was removed, but the church of the mission was not open to the public. Its doors were closed by order of Fray Mariano, according to the governor, to all the soldiers of the presidio and the inhabitants of the Villa de San Fernando. A public investigation was held at which several witnesses declared that thi~ practice worked a great hardship upon the soldiers and settlers whc were in the habit of going to Mission Valero. Chief among those who protested was the parish priest of San Fernando. 39 But when all the evidence is examined impartially, the fact remains that it was the duty of Father Juan Recio de Leon, the parish priest, to look after the spiritual needs of the soldiers and the civil settlers; that there was a presidia! chapel, poor as it might have been, for this purpose; and that the mis- sionaries were in their right in ministering first to the Indians. Father Fray Mariano de los Dolores felt that his influence over the mission Indians at Valero had been greatly diminished as a result of the treatment he had received at the hands of the governor. He conse- 38 Father Mariano de los Dolores to Father Sevillano, January 16, 1737, A. G. Ill., Misio11es, Vol. 21, pt. 1, pp. 181-184; Fray Juan Vergara to Fray Sevillano, November 4, 1736, A.G. Al., Historia, Vol. 524, pt. 1, pp. 269-270; Fray Vergara to Fray Francisco de Frias, October 27, 1736, in / bid., pp. 272-273; Governor Franquis to Fray Santa Ana, October 18, 1736, Ibid., 276-277; Franquis to the Viceroy, January 25, 1737, Historia, Vol. 524, pt. 3, pp. 814-816. 39 Autos of Governor Franquis Benites de Lugo, July 15, 1737, in A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 524, pt. 1, pp. 251-266; Franquis to the Viceroy, January 2 5, 17 37, in / bid., pt. 3, 814-81 6,
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