Tlze Prefecture, 1840-1841
45
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volunteers had the strength of character needed for vocations serving on the frontier. 20 In company with Father Clarke, Haydon again visited the settle- ments early in spring and returned to Richmond by June. He reported that the prospects of Catholicity throughout Texas were most favor- able. Catholics everywhere were delighted with the prospect of an early reorganization of the Church. He repeated that there was widespread interest in and desire for establishing Catholic schools. The tour was fruitful. One hundred had made their Easter Com- munion and many others were preparing to fulfill their Easter duty on his next visit. First Communion classes had been organized in al- most every hamlet, and Baptism had been conferred on some thirty or forty persons, children for the most part. He had married four or five couples. During his visit in Refugio he started repairs on the church, which he intended to make his regular headquarters. Mr. Linn, of Victoria, was to endeavor to recover the church taken over by that municipality. In Brown's Settlement on the Lavaca a new log building had been started. Clarke not only stood the trip well, but actually gained weight.% 1 Odin in San Ant<mio. In the meantime John Mary Odin had ar- rived in Texas as the Vice-Prefect and had set out on July 21 from Victoria for San Antonio. His first journey overland made a deep im- pression on the future Bishop. "The distance is only one hundred and fifty miles," wrote Odin, "but the numerous bands of Comanches and To- wakanie savages, who scour the country without ceasing, render the route extremely dangerous." The heat was fierce, as the long caravan of wagons, the thirty Mexican drivers and riders, and the merchants and immigrants trudged slowly across the endless prairies with "scarcely a bush" under which to rest. They traveled generally after sunset, making frequent stops to repair the creaking wagons. The shortage of food forced them to resort to hunting wild game. A fever epidemic broke out and Odin himself fell ill, but "the medicine which I had brought along for the purpose soon restored me to health," wrote the. Padre. His diligence in helping the sick won him the title of "The Father who knows how to cure the sick." After many false Indian alarms and nine days of painful travel, "we were happy if we found a little hole where we disputed with the frog for a few drops of dirty
20Haydon to Bishop Blanc, Galveston, March 1 3, 1840, C. A. T. 21Haydon to Blanc, June 17, 1840, C. A. T.
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