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soldiers. The Indians lived in small but clean huts neatly arranged along the stockade. The fields of this mission, like those of Rosario, were not irrigated. During dry years little or no corn was raised. When the weather was favorable, however, the Indians raised cotton, melons, potatoes, corn, and beans. In an orchard cultivated by the neophytes excellent peaches and figs were harvested in large quantities. The mission owned several plows, plowshares, hoes, bars, and other implements necessary for farming. On its ranch it had fifteen hundred sheep and goats, almost as many head of cattle, about one hundred and ten horses, some seventy mules, four droves of asses, one herd of mares, and two hundred yoke of oxen. There were about three hundred Indians of both sexes and all ages living in the mission at this time. Sixty-five of them were capable of bearing arms, thirty of whom were armed with guns, while the rest had bows, arrows and spears. They came principally from the Xaraname, Tamique, Piquiane, and Manos de Perro. Since they had been longer under the administration of the mission, these Indians were much more civilized than those of Rosario. Father Solis observes that they no longer ate horse flesh, but confined themselves to beef, venison, buffalo meat, bear, turkeys, ducks, quail, geese, and partridges. To wean them from their pagan mitotes, the missionaries had introduced Spanish dances. ;\fany of the Indians had learned to play the guitar and the violin and they used these instruments, in addition to the drum, for the new dances. Some of these were new and required special costumes, with which the natives were supplied. Since its establishment this mission had baptized six hundred twenty-three Indians and had given Christian burial to two hundred seventy-eight. 23 "1ission N1,estra Sei'iora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoclies. When visited by Father Solis, this mission showed undeniable signs of decay. Located on a small plain, surrounded by shady trees, with a permanent creek that flowed through the grounds, the buildings looked neat and clean, but there was an air of forlornness about the place. The adobe church, with its shingle roof, formed the center of the now almost deserted mission. Nearby stood a similar building, the home of the lonely Padre. There were two or three other houses, a granary, and the temporary quarters of the mission guards. The whole was surrounded by a stockade. In the grounds a small orchard had been planted, where excellent peaches
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23 P. P. Forrestal, Tl,e Solis Diary of 1767. Preliminary Studies of t/ie Texas Catholic Historical Society, Volume I, No. 6, pp. 10-17.
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