Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
in ~ood years by the missionaries, the mission guards, and their families, for there were no Indians living in the mission. The natives came on feast days and Sundays, and they occasionally helped with the planting. In the mission, whose church, priest's house, and granary were made of timber and roofed with shingles, lived two Padres and a lay brother in addition to two soldiers and their families. They made up the permanent residents at this time. Recently, sporadic interest was suddenly aroused by the discovery of gold in the vicinity. It seems that a mine was actually started not far from somnolent Mission Dolores. Some ore was extracted, but it proved to be of very inferior quality. The interest in the operation was naturally short-lived. 28 Although there were no Indians living in the mission the Ais nation occupied the surrounding country and attended religious services with some regularity. The frequency with which they committed petty thefts on the depleted stock of the mission on such occasions indicates that their visits were the result of material rather than spiritual interest. Their lax morals were the constant despair of the missionaries. But in spite of frequent losses the mission still had a few saddle horses, fifteen or twenty mules, ten or twelve cows, a few bulls, and eight or ten yoke of oxen. The Padres experienced considerable difficulty, however, in saving what little stock remained. The Indians often ate the oxen during the winter and made it almost impossible to plant the crops in the spring. Not infrequently they stole the remaining horses and mules to trade them to the French for paint, beads, clothes, powder, bullets, guns, tobacco, and wine._. Father Solis was thoroughly disgusted with the worthless character of the Ais, whom he declared were the worst Indians in the entire province, being drunkards, thieves, and indolent dullards. They were fond of dancing and addicted to all vices. The generally optimistic Padres were obliged to admit the hopelessness of their true conversion. In view of the circumstances, the missionaries stationed in this lonely spot deserved much praise, Father Solis thought, for having the fortitude necessary to stay among such ungrateful people, waiting patiently for a repentant soul to come in search of the cleansing waters of baptism and the comforts of religion.: 9 Was this mission a failure? Can it becited as incontestable proof of the futility of the work attempted by Franciscans in East Texas? On the face of the circumstances just described this conclusion seems inevitable. But on the other hand the Marques de Rubi bears testimony to the fact that the 21 Tlze Solis Diary of 1767 in op. cit., pp. 33-34; La Fora, Relacion, f. 7 I. 19 The Solis Diary in o,p. cit., pp. 33. 34 ,
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