The Province of Texas in 1762
9
three missions already described, there was a separate hall where woolen and cotton cloth and blankets of various kinds were woven in three looms for the use of the mission Indians. All the cotton and wool employed for this purpose were produced by the mission. Its weaving and spinning room was well equipped with everything needed for the work. Being much more exposed to the frequent attacks and raids of the enemy, the mission had not made as much progress as the others. The neophytes sitll lived in adobe huts thatched with grass or hay, but these were neatly kept. Plans had already been made, however, to replace them with more durable structures of rock and lime, for which purpose the mission ·had twelve carts ready to transport the necessary materials. Each family was provided with pots and pans, grindstones, and other household utensils. To repel the not uncommon attacks of the Apaches the mission had several swivel guns and twenty arquebuses with the corresponding ammunition. In the granary, which was a large and well constructed building of stone and mortar, the mission had room to store as many as two thousand bushels of corn and beans for the maintenance of the Indians. For the cultivation of the fields it had a supply of plows, hoes, plowshares, harrows, and other farm implements. It also had a good supply of carpenter and blacksmith tools, as well as trowels and other instruments for masonry. The chief crops cultivated by the neophytes of this mission were corn, beans, chile, various vegetables, and cotton. The mission owned about one thousand head of cattle and thirty-five hundred sheep and goats. To care for these it had one hundred saddle horses and four hundred mares which were pastured in eleven droves. According to the records of the mission the good Padres had baptized eight hundred and forty-seven persons, young and old, and they had given Christian burial to six hundred and forty-five. At this time there were living in the mission fifty-one families with a total of two hundred and three persons of both sexes and all ages. The chief nations represented were the Orej6n, the Sayopin, the Pamaque, and the Piguique. The mis- sionaries in the mission were Fray Benito Varela and Fray Manuel Rolan.' Mission San Francisco de la Espada. This was in some respects the most exposed of the San Antonio missions founded by the College of Queretaro. It was located about a quarter of a league (less than a mile) south from San Juan Capistrano, but over three leagues from San Antonio
4 /bid., 169-171.
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