169
Return of Rabago and the Founding of Cai"io11 Missions
In the present location this post had become practically useless. Monclova was adequately protected on the west by the Hacienda of Aguayo, where the Marquis maintained a private company of soldiers, on the north by Presidio de! Sacramento and the more recently established Presidio of La Junta de los Rios, while to the east and south were the presidios of Nuevo Santander and Nuevo Leon. 21 Within a week after their establi~hment the number of Indians congregated in each mission had increased to four hundred. Five neophytes in each had been baptized with great solemnity and there was much rejoicing. The hope of converting the three thousand members of the Apache nation had again warmed the hearts of the enthusiastic missionaries, who momentarily forgot their misgivings and former disappointments. Faithfully they toiled day after day. waiting every minute for the formal approval of the project and the sorely needed aid and support of the royal treasury. Spring passed and summer came, but no news of action by the viceroy arrived. The dreaded enemy made its appearance in May in the vicinity and ruthlessly destroyed several ranclterzas of Apaches who had not joined the missions. This greatly disturbed the neophytes, who became more apprehensive when the Comanches repeated their depredations in July and the mission guards were unable or unwilling to go out in pursuit of them. Prog1·ess at 1J,fissions San Lorenzo and Candelaria. In spite of repeated dangers and the slight inclination of the unreliable neophytes to work, the Padres succeeded in planting six and a half fanegas of corn (some twelve bushels). The crop was well tended and soon there was an abundance of roasting ears. But long before the corn was ripe it was consumed by the numerous roving tribes that visited the mission and who were treated kindly in order to attract them. While some cultivated the fields, led and encouraged by the mission Indians brought from San Bernardo, others made adobes (mud bricks) and patiently began the construction of a church. By the end of the summer, the church of San Lorenzo was completed and a decent sacristy and monastery for the missionaries were erected. Almost as important to mission life was the granary in which the grain and supplies were kept. One had been started and would be finished in October. Plans also had
21Rabago to the Viceroy, February 6, 1762. A. G. 111., Hisloria, Vol. 84, pt. 1, pp. 294-306.
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