Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
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had regularly furnished the soldiers assigned as guards, who helped to instruct the neophytes in their various tasks about the mission farm, and had always been diligent in the performance of his duties. 53 It would be unfair to Father Gonzalez not to give some of the circum- stances that may account in part for the serious charges brought against him by the friends of Captain Flores. A letter written on July 4, 1724, by the Marquis of Aguayo to the Reverend Father Margil is significant in the light of subsequent developments. After informing him of the replacement of Flores by Mateo Perez through the intervention of the disturbing Padre, Aguayo told Father Margil how that missionary had gone to Mexico and there had spoken ill of everything and everybody in Texas. The Marquis resented in particular a statement ascribed to Father Gonzalez, declaring that he, Aguayo, had defrauded the royal treasury by collecting the salary of one hundred and thirty men who had not taken part in the expedition entrusted to him. He explained to Father Margil that there had been only sixty-seven deserters, but that all of them had been replaced by men from the company raised by Cap- tain Cardenas prior to the expedition; that he had personally furnished one hundred and thirty thousand pesos for the undertaking; and that every man had been paid in full for services rendered to May 1, 1722, when the entire troop was disbanded at Monclova. "If Father Gonzalez says he never heard of it, he is guilty of unpardonable ignorance," Aguayo added. "As for myself, it seems to me hell itself would open to engulf me if I maligned the integrity of my most ordinary fellowman.'' In closing he asked Father Margil, as Prefect General, therefore, to order the detractor to restore to him his good name before the viceroy in writing.u In vindicating Flores, Aguayo was indirectly striking at the man he believed had attempted to injure his reputation. This accounts for the vehemence with which he attacked the character of Father Gonzalez. But the testimony of the two missionaries from the College of Zacatecas still remains to be explained. From the beginning, a strong rivalry had always existed between the two colleges of Propaganda Fide. Captain Flores naturally had been inclined to favor the Mission of San Jose, founded by and named after his patron, the Marquis of Aguayo. It s,Testimony of Fathers Margi! and Nunez de Haro, June 14, and July 20, 1724, in Ibid. 5'Aguayo to Father Margil, July 4, 1724. Arckivo de (211eretaro, 1716-1749 (Dunn Transcripts).
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