Tl,e Beginnings of Missionary Activity, I670-I676
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on them as long as they kept the peace, but that they would punish any insult offered to the Padres and chastise those who rebelled. He then dismounted from his horse and held a procession. "I ordered an image of Christ Crucified to be taken out and another of his most Holy Mother of the Immaculate Conception which I had brought. These were carried by the Father Commissary and the Chaplain [of the expedition] in an orderly procession in which the Spaniards and the Indians in perfect harmony and accord sang the Te Detmi Laudanms, rendering thanks to God for so signal a blessing." After a careful inspection of the sur- rounding country, he finally founded the new settlement on the site of old Almaden, which he named Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe on December 8, 1674. The friars went out during the next few months to persuade the Indians to return to their former mission life. On April 26, 1675, Bakarcel founded the town of San Miguel de Luna for the Indians of the neighboring country and those which the missionaries succeeded in bringing together from the more distant lands to the north. The captain of the Bobole tribe, Lazaro Agustin, was duly appointed the first governor of the Indian pueblo.3' 1 Ever since their arrival the Padres had been anxious to continue their missionary labors among the nations to the north of the new settlement. As early as December 30, 1674, Father Larios wrote to the Commissary General that he was contemplating to enter "in the beginning of February the land beyond the Rio de! Norte which is eighty leagues distant from this town" named Guadalupe. He then went on to explain that his plan was to take another friar with him and to send a third one, probably Fray Manuel, to the Catujanes. It was his intention to see the cacique, Don Estevan, who he had heard was there with all his people and the Guyquechales. 35 But it seems that Baka.reel was opposed to the plan and that he prevented the missionaries from going on the expedition. It is certain that Father Larios on January 15, 1675, declared that the hard- ships and difficulties of the Padres had increased since the coming of Captain Baka.reel. The opposition of Baka.reel, however, to the project may have been the result of caution, for it is to be remembered that he had a relatively small force, a fact which Father Larios himself admitted. It is only natural, therefore, that he should not want to undertake an enterprise that would take a part of his inadequate garrison, leaving the 34Portillo, Apuntes, 63-74. 35 Fray Juan Larios to the Commissary General, December 30, 1674. MS., San Francisco El Grande Arcl,ive, I, 141-149.
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