Handicaps to 11'/ission Development, r73r-r750
the spring of 1740, the Padres in San Jose finally saw their attempts in this direction crowned with success. By repeated trips to their remote haunts to the south and southwest of San Antonio, where the Tacames had then taken refuge, they brought back to Mission San Antonio de Valero seventy-seven members of this tribe. 68 This incident is typical of the patience and perseverance required of the missionaries in congregating and teaching the wilful and wayward children of the wilds. T/1e great epidemic of 1739. Just when conditions were being improved by persistent and patient toil, an epidemic of smallpox and measles broke out in San Antonio, which almost put an end to missionary endeavor. In the year 1739 sickness swept through the five missions. The Padres toiled day and night trying to comfort the ill, baptizing those who were about to die, and encouraging the others to persevere in their labors that supplies for the living might not give out. But smallpox was a dreaded disease among all Indians and the neophytes believed that the only safety for them was in flight. It was their time-honored custom to abandon the unfortunate victims of their tribes, when stricken by this dreaded malady. It was only through the greatest exertions on the part of the missionaries that all the neophytes did not flee to the woods at this time. Many, however, abandoned the missions in spite of all the efforts of the Padres. The losses from desertion and death were very great. San Jose, which had been one of the most flourishing prior to the epidemic, was reduced to forty-nine. In San Antonio de Valero, from more than three hundred, only one hundred and eighty-four sur- vived the scourge. Concepcion had approximately two hundred and fifty before the epidemic. When the affliction passed, there were one hundred and twenty. San Francisco was reduced from one hundred and twenty to fifty; and San Juan Capistrano, from two hundred and eighteen had scarcely sixty-six. Sickness respects no person. The Padres took sick, exhausted by their redoubled labors, but by the spring of 1740 most of them were convalescing. Father Fray Ignacio Ysasmendi died during the epidemic, a martyr to charity. 69 68 Fray Benito de Santa Ana to Governor Orobio y Basterra [January 13, 1738?] ; Instructions of Governor Orobio y Basterra to Andres Hernandez, February 26, 1738; Report of Andres Hernandez, March 23, 1738, all in Nacogdoches Archives, vol. 1, pp. 48, 61, 63; Fray Benito Fernandez de Santa Ana, "Descripcion de las Misiones del Colegio de la Santa Cruz en el Rio de San Antonio, Afio de 1740," in San Fra11cisco el Grande Archive, vol. 3, p. 35, copy also in A. G. M., Historia, vol. 28. 69 Captain Toribio de Urrutia to the Viceroy, December 17, 1740. A. G. Al.,
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