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Leon and Father Massanet staying until next day with a few soldiers. 20 Fathers Fray Miguel de Fontcuberta, Fray Antonio Bordoy, and Fray Francisco de Jesus Maria Casanas, who remained behind, took leave of Father Massanet "with tears of joy and gladness, for these men did not sorrow at being left behind; nay, rather, they gave thanks to God for having merited such a grace as to be called to save the souls of the heathen." 21 Clark has paid a fitting tribute to these courageous soldiers of Christ. "The zeal which conceived this missionary establishment in the midst of an unexplored wilderness, and the self-sacrificing spirit of the holy men who undertook the well-nigh hopless task of bringing the savage children of the forest to know and respond to the better impulses of the Christian religion are worthy of the highest commendation," he declares. 22 But Governor Leon had not forgotten the strict instructions given him. While staying among the Tejas he had made diligent inquiry concerning the presence and visits of Frenchmen to this region. The Indian governor informed him that the very day on which the messenger had arrived with news of the Spaniards' return, four white men had sent a message in which they asked for the friendship of the Tejas. The chief declared that he had notified the strangers at once that he could not receive them because his friends, the Spaniards, were even then on their way to see him. In a formal investigation, the Ind ian governor testified that the strangers had not come to his pueblo, but had stopped in another rancleerza three days' journey away; that when they heard of the coming of the Spaniards they had left with their guides, saying, however, that they would return in the spring to establish a settlement; that they had asked him to accept a certain document, but that when he refused to receive it, they had left it on a tree. The chief added that the visitors had asked the Indians not to tel1 the Spaniards about their visit, because they were bad people. He said that three of the strangers were survivors of the colony on the coast and that the fourth one had only one hand; that in order to fire his gun, he had to support it on his arm. When asked where the intruders had gone, the chief replied that they had gone towards the east, crossing a large river in canoes, News of Tonty's activities.
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28 Massanet, Carta, in op. cit., 382; " Itinerary," in Ibid., 417. 21 Massanet, Carta, in op. cit. , 384. 22 Clark, Tiu Beginnings of Texas, 25.
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