The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-06-25

murderers. like mutfled-foOted beasts
frenZied by the taste of blood, Slipped
from the blazing mission to attack the
fort of Amarilas. But all in vain.
On the morrow the tiends cast up from
hell had fled away. Serene and peaceful
lay the trampled pasture land, the sky was
azure, where the eve before with omin-
Gus mutterings the storm clouds had
scudded before the blast, and where in
the intervals the cries of boding birds
had echoed to the elements. 1t was
spring time and the very air was amorous
of natures smiles which wreathed the
hills and dales into joy forever. Such
was the face that nature presented as
forth party rode from the fort towards
the burned and blackened mission site
OF the once contented place no show of
life remained. Here body lacerated lay
and there another with sightless eyes
amid the charred and cheerless ruins
The bedraggled head of Father San lis
tevan was found. which the wretches in
the tiendish delight had severed from his
body. Near by the outer gate the re-
mains of Padre Tcrreos. the heart and
soul of the mission, were found, and al
belt i'll his hand was clasped missal
and upon his rigid face Ii smile was
frozen as if in parting his soul had press
ed prayer for those who knew not what
they did.
And thus was ended another episode
in the Hateful struggle of the Francis
cans to bring the infidels to Christ. His
tory i'll her wide realm does not furnish
us with the names of martyrs of more
heroic mould than the two that sleep on
yonder hillside, where the San Saba still
complaining flows along. Yea, truly
were they like the first Christian martyr
w no .Inl. lad /. i, A.
frenZied people; then again the uncon-
querable spirit, the fortitude. the deter
mined purpose of the Franciscan fathers
was akin to that of the Great Apostle.
who, though thrice beaten and perse-
cuted. continued to preach in the name of
God: for scarcely had three years elapsed
ere the friars had again entered the coun-
try from whence they had been so ruth
lessly scourged. Two missions were
erected and the remains of these are still
to be seen, one piled high up on the
Nueces, the other not many leagues from
the old San Saba. OF the struggles of
from the silent witnesses there comes n
plant and an unmistakable story.
But let us turn from these fields of dis
aster to region where eliminated the
cause of the Franciscans. OF the mis-
slOns that once kept watch over the San
Antonio river, today in dismal ruins lie
there, while three others bear imploring-
ly their bosOms to the sky and storms.
The bitches where flowed the water the
fields where grew the corn. now all grown
with weeds and shrubs and trees. but
mark the eternal woe. Yet once at matin
call. full many penitents would hasten to
hear the fathers words of peace. then
HE them to the labor of the day. Quart
ered III the little rooms built in the walls
that comprised the church about. the
Indians lived their simple lives, One
routine only did they know. For the un-
speakablc pleasures of their native
streams and woods there was substituted
one eternal round of duties; now guiding
piowshare, now repeating n prayer.
now locked in Il dreary cell to sleep the
night away. and sleeping he dreamed
perchance, of chase and dance, of love
ana DllSS and tears. perhaps. On the
morrow he would awake and 10! the glo-
rious vision of the night had vanished
tone and tint.
Once within the walls of the mission
the whole current of their lives, swollen
by the streams of the generations dead,
was suddenly checked-and the result :.
iurn on the light of history and read. for
thou canst read. The Indian. in the fierce
crlclble of civilization melted away. The
transformation of Il savage race into sober.
thinking men is not the work of day.
nor a year, nor generation. but meta
morphosiS, the work of centuries
And so it came to pass each succeeding
year found the number of neophytes dimill-
lshed. AS opportunities presented they
fed to the haunts of their fathers and
rarely ever returned. In some instances.
where the red men would leave the mis-,
SION III a body, the grieved father would
follow after even as a mother her way
ward boy. beseeching them to return and
live as God would have them. Indeed.
no obstacle could hinder and no calamity
thwart those undaunted hero-followers of
San Francis. But against fate what
avails it to fight? BY the year 1893 the
failure of the mission system was pain
fully apparent. The Franciscans sur
rendered in that year, with few excep-
tons, all their establishments in Texas.
Though the regular church now took
charge of the work, many of the old friars.
devoted to their tlocks, remained among
them to teach and to breathe their last
in the land consecrated by their life's
service.
Early in the present century the last of
the Grey friars, in a dimly lighted clOis-
ter of San Jose, told his last bead and
passed peacefully into that realm from
whence no murmur ever steals. Fitting
place for the last to die. The browning
monument of the Franciscan occupation,
standing today pitiful in its desOlaton,
speaks out of the past its strangely fascin-
ating story. The hollow echoes that
reverberate through the deserted halls of
San Jose speak Il various language, whis-
pering of departed glory and crying that
the world hath been unjust. Yea, veri-