T lie Dtcll/11, of a New Era
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Not having time to answer the many questions raised by his inqu1s1tive host, Timon asked to be allowed to send him "some books designed to carry conviction on all these points." To this he answered that "he would gladly read them, for he sincerely desired to judge Catholicism impartially. " 41 He met President Mirabeau B. Lamar, the successor of Houston, "I saw the president actitale for only a moment or two in passing," Timon wrote. "He impresses me as being a genuine liberal; but I could discover in him no inclination toward our religion. His forbears were Huguenots." Invitations from numerous men of prominence poured in as Timon became better known, but the humble Vincentian refused to be lionized. He had no time for purely social engagements. While trying to decide his next move, Father Timon and his com- panion prayed daily, said Mass, worked among the poor and the afflicted and encouraged the weak in Faith. On January 8 Timon married Francis Hunt and Catherine Corbett, probably the first marriage witnessed and blessed by a priest in Houston. If he administered Baptism while in the Capital, there is no record of it. One day, while on a mission of mercy, Timon found a man lying in the muddy street. He soon learned his name was O'Brien and that he was seriously ill. Timon had him taken to the primitive hospital of the city, a log hut full of chinks, where ten or twelve wretches lay on the floor lacking bedding and heat, poorly tended by a hardened dis- ciplinarian. There he heard the expiring man's confession and repri- manded the heartless administrator, who threatened to beat the dying man if he did not stop complaining. The poor fellow shortly after died happily, thanking God for mercifully sending a priest to bring him the last comforts of his religion. 42 Anxious to complete his survey, Timon consulted his friends in Houston on his projected inspection tour. Catholics and Protestants alike declared impractical the plan to visit San Antonio and East Texas. He was told that the discomforts of travel, great at all times in Texas, were now multiplied because of winter rains; that the peril of Indian attack had been increased of late as a result of the aggressive policy of President Lamar; and that Mexican guerillas, who were known to be roaming the country along the Guadalupe and the San Antonio, 41 Timon to Nozo, January 15, 1839; Timon to Blanc, January 15-17 1 1839, C. A. T. UBarrens Memoir, 38, cited by Bayard in o,;. cit., 44-45; Llebaria to Etienne, January IS, 1839, Annal,s d11 la Congregation de la Mission, V, I 19.
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