Tlee Secularization of tlee ivlissio11,,s
51
frankly," he said, "I can not praise sufficiently the justness, the fairness, and the wisdom of the measure." He added that all the missionaries had been duly informed of its provisions and instructed to carry them out as soon as the governor was ready to effect the formal transfer of all mission property. Considering that the welfare of the Indians was the prime motive for secularization, Father Cardenas asked permission to make a recommenda- tion with regard to Mission Espiritu Santo. Although it was true that the mission had been founded many years ago, the neophytes now living· there were still in a rather wild stage and totally incapable of adminis- tering their property individually. To divide among them the temporal goods of the mission would be to squander its resources uselessly, because these Indians, if left alone, would revert to savagery. The reason for this state of affairs was that those now in the mission had lived as apostates among the Tawakoni for many years, and had been brought back only three years previously. "I call the attention of your lordship to these facts," he declared, "in case you wish to make an exception in this instance, preventing thereby the loss of their souls."= 4 On July I 1, 1794, Governor Munoz went to Mission San Francisco de la Espada and was met there by Father Fray Pedro Norena, minister in charge, and by Jose Lazaro de los Santos, the newly appointed justicia. He ordered that all the mission Indians be summoned and that the decree of the commandant general be read and explained to them. Fifteen neophytes, including three who were old and disabled, were brought. They were the Indian governor, Blas Torres, Jose Tejada, Tomas Ganzabal, Patricio Codallos, Miguel Codallos, Mariano Diaz, Esteban Galindo, Emeterio Espinosa, Cosme Ceballos, Juan de Dios Montes, Antonio Villegas, Juan Eustaquio Tejada, Jose Miguel Conti, Jorge Pinilla, and Francisco Antonio Pinto. Upon hearing the terms of the decree of secularization, they declared they were ready to receive their share of the mission property and to administer and increase it. The governor had his dot1bts as to the -ability of these Indians to carry out their promise, as he honestly and frankly expressed his opinion in the record. "The governor is of the opinion," he wrote, "that the fifteen Indians are incapable of fulfilling their promise with regard to the administration and increase of their individual property." Pedro Huizar,
24 Fray Jose Mariano de Cardenas to Pedro Nava, July 6, 1794. Saltillo Archives, Vol. VI, pp. 91-93.
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