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Our Catl1olic Heritage in T e:xas
and thirty Indians in the mission, most of them Christians. "All those souls," exclaimed Father Santa Ana, "have returned to their former barbarous freedom of the wilds." He appealed directly to the viceroy to remedy the situation. "If the orders of Your Excellency had been obeyed, the abandonment of this mission would not have taken place. for with the assistance of three soldiers the Indians could be restrained in their excesses."" Father Ysasmendi informed Governor Orobio y Basterra on November 24, 1737, that shortly after the flight of the Indians he had sent a messenger to ask the runaways to return to the mission, assuring them that they would be pardoned. A few days later the messenger brought back five adults and two children. Having sent another Indian a second time to induce the other runaways to come back, the messenger did not return. A third time he tried, but in vain. He requested, therefore, that the governor give him an escort sufficient to accompany him to the woods where they were living, explaining that the crops which were ready to be harvested, would be lost during the rainy season, if the Indians were not brought back. But he argued that more important than this consid- eration was the fact that many of them were baptized Christians and should not be allowed to continue in their apostasy. The governor imme- diately sent word to Captain Gabriel Costales at La Bahia to detail ten men to report to him to accompany the faithful missionary in his quest for his former wards, who had taken refuge in the land of the Apaches. On December 23, Sergeant Miguel Olivares and nine men from La Bahia reported to the governor as ordered, and were instructed to go to Mission San Francisco and accompany the Padre on his journey in search of the Pacao and Arcahomo Indians. Strict instructions were given to the men to cooperate with the missionary, to treat the Indians, when found, with kindness, and to avoid giving offence or occasion for resentment to the Indians, whom they were to escort back to the mission, assuring them that their presence was to protect them against the Apaches. 65 For twenty-one days the zealous missionary, accompanied by the soldiers, looked for the neophytes in the land of the Pacao and Arcahomo Indians. His faith and labors were rewarded by bringing back one hund·red ·and "Fray Benito Fernandez de Santa Ana to the Viceroy, June 8, 1737, Ibid., pp. 381-382. •sPetition of Fray Pedro de Ysasmendi for an escort, November 24, 1737; Order of Governor Orobio y Basterra to Captain Costales to furnish escort, December 2, 1737; Instructions to soldiers, December 23, 1737, in Nacogdoc/res Arckive, vol. I, pp. 41-45 (University of Texas Transcripts). -
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