OM Catl,olic Heritage in Texas
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In the statement made above about this being the first high Mass, the reason why it was not mentioned before was, perhaps, the fact that they did not consider it extraordinary to hold regular low Mass. It is to be noted particularly in the description just cited, concerning the adminis- tration of the Sacrament of Baptism, that contrary to the grossly unfounded assertion that the missionaries, in their zeal and fervor, often baptized thousands of Indians without giving them adequate instruction to prepare them for the sacrament, Father Larios refused to baptize the grown children and adults "until they knew their prayers." On the twenty-first, Father Larios ordered an altar erected in order that Father Dionisio de San Buenaventura could say Mass. This service was attended by the Indians of the Ceniocane nation which made a total of one hundred and seventy-eight persons. The Padres were consistently beseeched to baptize the Indians, but they continually refused. putting the seekers off by saying that they had to learn their prayers first. The farthest point reached by the expedition was a point which they called San Pablo Hermitano and which has been located in present Edwards County. It was on a small arroyo "with heavy timber, between some knolls and high hills (like nipples) ." This place they reached on the twenty-fifth of May, and after spending four days there, they started back on the twenty-ninth, but apparently followed a different route, for they "arrived at another place on the River of San Buenaventura del Norte," where they found part of the Bobole Indians with their women and children. Evidently on the return they crossed the Rio Grande above the former place, as the Bobole nation was in the habit of ranging farther north. On the twelfth of June, Del Bosque and his expedition reached Guada- lupe, where he made a formal report to Don Antonio Bakarcel. "Having gone at his orders to reconnoiter the nations of Indians of the following of Don Estevan Guiezuesale [Guyquechale], who lived toward the Sierra Dacate and in its vicinity and the others of their district and neighbor- hood," he declares, "they manifested before His Majesty ... that they wish to settle in pueblos and be Christians with religious to catechize and instruct them. And having passed through the length and breadth of the country ... and having seen it and its inhabitants, I have learned that they are divided into three followings or bands, each very numerous ... [I have been informed] of the great discord between them from which they kill and eat each other and capture each other's children; for they say this, being now actually at war with each other; the band
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