Handicaps to Mission Development, 1731-1750
73
As to the physical plant, he declared that the buildings erected were still of a temporary nature. The churches built had straw or thatch roofs and in some cases had fallen down and were being rebuilt. The quarters for the Indians were inadequate in some instances for the increased number of neophytes. But all these things were being remedied as rapidly as time permitted. The Indians had little time or inclination to work on the buildings because they had to cultivate the fields, construct irrigation ditches, and attend to other more pressing duties first, .all essential to the production and accumulation of the food necessary to maintain the mission. In spite of the light tasks required of the neophytes, many of them continued to run away and the Padres had to go in search of them frequently, often traveling into the woods and unexplored country more than one hundred leagues. 71 This was the opinion of a secular official, who had spent most of his life in the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar, and who was in a position to speak authoritatively. The report of Urrutia is corroborated by a letter of Father Fray Benito Fernandez de Santa Ana, President of the Queretaran Missions, written to Fray Pedro del Barco, Guardian of the College of the Holy Cross. After stating that the missions had fully recovered from the recent epidemic and that many of the losses had been replaced by new recruits, he declared that the actual condition of the five establishments was most satisfactory. Physically, he assured Father Barco, they were better able to withstand attacks from the enemy than any of the three presidios in the province. The Indians were well fed and clothed, thanks to the use of the royal allowance of the Padres to supply their needs. San Antonio de Valero being the oldest, had the largest and best organized pueblo of Indians at this time. But all the missions were well supplied with harrows, axes, hoes, pots, grindstones, and all the necessary tools for carpentry and blacksmithing. The Indians were given regular rations of corn once or twice a week, and about one hundred head of cattle were killed annually in each mission to supply the neophytes with meat. In addition, they received regular allowances of sugar, salt, beans, beads, cloth, and blankets. The sick were carefully treated and medicines were administered to them, as well as all other things they needed. "In a word," he declares, "these Indians are better fed and clothed than those in the interior [of Mexico]." As early as the spring of 1740, the new crops had been planted and the prospects for an abundant harvest were most encouraging. The Indians had once more settled down to the routine of mission life and
11 /bid., A. G. M., Provincias lnternas, vol. 32.
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