Handicaps to Mission Development, r73r-r750
soldiers, citizens, and Indians, to give testimony. Curious enough, the declarations of all the persons called are practically identical. They declared unanimously that the missionaries cruelly overworked the Indians and gave them scarcely enough food to maintain life; that they were not only poorly fed but practically naked; that on one occasion Father Ysasmendi had driven all the mission Indians away with a lash in order to say they had fled because of the lack of guards ; that when the Indians fled in their desire to be relieved from such cruelty, they were brought back with the help of soldiers and administered the most inhuman punishment, such as whipping at the post until they fainted. They declared that even the old men, expectant mothers, and the little children were subjected to the same punishment by former Governor Sandoval for fleeing from the missions. The testimony of the witnesses was further corroborated by the ever-constant admirer of Governor Franquis, Father Juan Recio de Leon, the parish priest of the Villa de San Fernando, and naturally by the Cabildo. 54 The dark picture of mission life painted in these declarations would constitute a very serious indictment of the mission system in general and of the work of the Franciscans in Texas in particular, if it were true. But as pointed out, the similarity of the depositions is too marked to make them worthy of serious consideration. Fortunately the manner in which they were obtained was revealed shortly afterwards, during the trial of Governor Franquis. When some of the same witnesses were questioned on this point during the trial, they declared that their testi- mony in regard to the cruelty with which the missionaries had treated the neophytes had been obtained from them by Franquis and the Vicario Juan Recio de Leon under duress. The depositions, it was stated, had been prepared by the parish priest and the Notary Arocha, who turned them over to the governor for him to get the witnesses' signatures. One of the men, who strenuously objected when told to sign, was ~ieutenant Mateo Perez. The governor, as usual, flew into a rage, the declarant said, and told him that if he did not sign he would banish him from the province "farther than any place he could imagine." Another man too honest to perjure himself without a protest was Juan Leal Alvarez, Alcalde Ordinario of the Villa of San Fernando. But the Vicario Juan 54 The detailed depositions of the witnesses, which abound in minute accounts of refined cruelty, are found in the Autos del Governador Franquis, August 5-22, 1737, A. G. M., Misio111s, vol. 21, pt. 1, pp. 212-267.
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