Our Catleolic Heritage in T ezas
site of El Paso and of the Manso or Zuma Indians that lived in this region which was to become a missionary center more than fifty years later and was destined to serve as a refuge for the fleeing settlers and missionaries of the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. Fray Alonso de Benavides at El Paso. With the permanent occupation of New Mexico, Spaniards passed frequently across El Paso on their way to and from New Spain, but the Manso Indians do not seem to have shown a disposition to be congregated in missions until the time of Father Benavides. In his Jl1 emorial, he has left us the best description of the habits and customs of these natives now available. Referring to the peculiar manner in which they wore their hair, already noted by Ofiate in his diary, he says that they were called Mansos or Gorretas; the latter, "because they cut the hair in such fashion that it looks [as if] they wore a small cap set upon the head." In their frequent contact with the Span- iards they had been taught to fear them rather than to love them, but with native cunning they were in the habit of professing friendship in order to receive gifts and steal everything they could under this guise. They neither sowed grain nor wore any clothes in particular. Only the women carried two deerskins from their waist down, one in front and one behind. They were a comely people, however, of good features and robust con- stitution. The missionaries had been in the habit of stopping in their rancltenas on the way to and from New Mexico and of preaching to them, but the Indians had given no sign of a desire to be established in missions until the last visit of Father Benavides in this region in 1630. "Of all the times that we have preached to them," he declares, " [ it was not until] now, when I passed through their [ranclierzas], that they told me that they would be glad to have religious there who could teach and baptize them." 5 The good Padre then goes on to tell how he preached to them and placed a large cross in one of the rancherzas to which the Indians came to pray with much reverence. He points out that it was highly advantageous to establish a mission with three or four religious at this place and with an escort of fifteen or twenty soldiers. This would not only bring about the conversion of the Indians and the salvation of their souls, but would make the road to New Mexico much safer, permit the occupation of the vast area of uninhabited lands between the settlements in the remote SBenavides, Memorial, writer's translation of reprint in Mrs. Ayer, The Memorial of Fray A lo11so de Benavides, 1630, 90-91 ; Hughes, Tire Begi11ni11gs of Spanish Settlement in the El Paso Region, 303-304.
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