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Handicaps to 111ission Development, 1731-1750
I contented myself with answering him tleat Ire was rig/it in all lee said, tliat I /rad taken 11ote of everytleing, and that I commended him to God in my prayers ... I thought it best to assume the guilt rather than to give the governor occasion for resentment, thus adding to the flame of discord. Instead, I wrote to the Reverend Father President [in San Antonio] that he should try to restore peace and harmony with him . . . I have always desired peace and union as an indispensable means for the propagation of the gospel, which is our chief concern as missionaries. What has moved me now to make this long report to Your Excellency is that the troubles endured not only by the missionaries in San Antonio but by those who are more than sixty leagues away are increasing daily, and that the governor does not spare even those with whom he has never dealt. If this evil is not checked, I foresee the loss of the conversions and the stemming of the propagation of the faith."" The detailed memorial of Father Sevillano was presented to the viceroy by Father Munoz in April. The viceroy referred the whole matter to the Fiscal, who rendered his opinion on April 16, 1737. In view of the testimony presented regarding the public use of abusive language by the governor in his dealings with the missionaries, his arbitrary manner of moving them at will from mission to mission, his incredible temerit) in tampering with the mail to prevent the missionaries from presenting their just complaints, a practice specifically condemned by the Laws of tlte Indies, and his refusal to restore the mission guards as ordered, the Fiscal Melgarejo thought the governor should be suspended from office and ordered to retire to the Rio Grande while an investigation was made of all these charges and until his Residencia ( trial for period of tenure of office) was held. But the Auditor de Guerra, Don Juan Olivan Rebolledo, was more explicit in his recommendations. "If Your Excellency so desires," he said, "he may issue immediately instructions to the luez de Residencia of the governor 0 to notify the present governor to carry out in full tlze orders ismed by Your Excellency in favor of the 1Hissio11aries; to follow as lze slzould tlie rules and orders of tlze Regulations [of presidiosJ ; to treat well in word, .deed, and writing the soldiers, the citizens, the Indians, whether Christians or unconverted, and the mis- sionary Padres, without removing them from the missions to which they· 49 Consulta Apologetica, February 15, 1737, A. G. M., llfisiones, vol. 21, pt. 1, pp. I 07-1 08. 50 The Juez (Judge) was Captain Juan de Brizeno, who was conducting at this time the Residencia of former Governor Sandoval.
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