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Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
their duties wrapped in dirty blankets or in buffalo hides, while the women and children could not even leave their wretched huts. Tanned deerskin jackets or breeches were luxuries in a country where these wild animals were so abundant. Moved by their misery the Lieutnant Governor Joseph Gonzalez at Christmas distributed to them what cloth he had in the garrison's storeroom, "to keep the French from laughing at the soldiers wrapped in blankets and buffalo hides." This act of generosity gave but a temporary relief, for the cloth distributed was so rotten that in a few days it fell off the men and left them as naked as before. There were no shoes, no hats, no hose, and even the soap had become exhausted. Bad as the want of these things was, the shortage of actual food was even greater. The corn which formed the main article of diet for the men was so scarce that short rations were being issued and the supply was replenished only by the hardest exertions. The soldiers went without meat for two, three, and even four weeks. The supply of beans, the other staple food of the garrison, was even more scanty than corn, due to the reduced crop and the spoilage of a good part of the stored supply in the French settlement as a consequence of heavy rains through the winter. When meat and beans failed, the men and their families were reduced to com. To complete their absolute destitution, lard became scarce during this winter. A party of Indians from the missions went out to hunt bear. After many days they returned and reported they had not found any game. A small supply of butter and cheese, which the lieutenant governor was saving for the governor, who was expected daily with a supply train to relieve the trying conditions, was avidly seized in this hour of need. Exposure, malnutrition, and the hardships of frontier life brought down even the strongest, and there was naturally much sickness. The actual state of affairs may be judged by the fact that the lieutenant governor closed his report with a plea for a pair of pants for himself. 6 The condition of the fort was no better. The stockade had long since rotted away and many of the logs lay on the ground, leaving large holes or open spac~s in the wall. The cannons once mounted for its defense were no longer in place, and the earthworks had been washed away by the rains. Governor Franquis, who was inclined to exaggerate, declared that in I 737 the Presidio of Los Adaes resembled a cattle pen more than anything 6Fray Francisco Vallejo to Governor Manuel de Sandoval, March 9, 1 7 3 s ; Jose Gonzalez to Sandoval, March 15, 1735; Father Francisco Vallejo, Fray Ildefonso Joseph Marmolejo, and Fray Cipriano Martinez, Testimonial, June 1 7 1 1737. A. G. M., Historia, vol. 524, pt. 3, pp. 681-682, 894-902, 725-729.
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