01,r Catholic Heritage in Texas
Padres had to instruct them in the use of the tools used by masons and carpenters, how to build their living quarters, and how to help erect the new chapels and the houses for the missionaries. Experience, he said, had demonstrated that unless the missionary was constantly with the neophytes everything was neglected, and they soon became so discouraged that they abandoned the mission, returning to the woods. Every captain of a presidio or soldier on the frontier could testify to the truth of this fact. If the provisions stored in the common barn and kept by the Padre were not . rationed to them daily, they would consume the whole stock in two days. They had no conception of regular habits. Used to a hand-to-mouth existence, they had difficulty in becoming used to setting aside a sufficient amount of food from one day to another. Game had always been plentiful during certain seasons of the year, and at such times they had gorged themselves. When winter came, they had subsisted on wild roots and insects. When the provisions in the missions were plentiful, the neophytes were always happy, but when there was a scarcity of food it was extremely difficult to keep them from running away. Even those who were Christians and had lived in the missions for several years became restless and sullen under these circumstances. They all disliked work. It took much urging and tact to make them become accustomed to labor day after day in the fields or in the mission pueblo. Regularity and routine was distasteful to their wayward natures and it took all the patience of the Padres, Father Sevillano assured the king, to instruct them in the numerous duties of mission life and in the doctrina. It was in the instruction of manual labors that the soldiers assigned to the missions in the past had been so helpful to the missionaries. It was impossible for the religious in charge to be out in the fields and in the mission, and in the Indian pueblo super- vising the work at all times. The soldiers generally had looked after the work outdoors, such as the planting and tending of the cattle; while the missionary looked after the construction of new quarters, or the improve- ment of the old, or the completion of the mission chapel, or the con- struction of rough furniture for the needs of the Padres and neophytes, or the weaving of rough cloth. All this was done by the neophytes under the direction of the two soldiers and the missionary. But in addition to these duties, the religious in charge of a mission had to give instruction in the doctrina, celebrate Holy Mass every day, baptize the Indians when they were ready to receive this sacrament, marry the neophytes, admin- ister the sacraments, hear confessions, bury the dead, and look after the
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