The Red Man had already his own rude belief in the Great Spirit who sat behind the clouds and watched over the flight of his arrows and the tasseling4 of his corn. He loved to tell about the Happy Hunting-grounds to which he would travel after death, attended by his horse and his dog.
17
It required a great deal of patience and perseverance5 on the part of the missionaries6 to make these wild creatures understand the meaning of the strange things they saw and heard: the hymns7 and prayers which broke the stillness at morning and at eventide, the candles blazing on the altar, the tinkling9 of bells, the movements of the priests, the humble10 attitude of the proud Spanish soldiers at mass. They crowded about the chapels11, now accepting the new faith with childlike confidence, at other times seeking a chance to massacre13 priest and soldier in cold blood.
But these missionaries belonged to an order whose business it was to be patient. They were Franciscans from the monastery14 of St. Francis at Zacatecas in Mexico, and they were pledged to poverty and self-denial. Gentle, but sturdy, these barefooted friars, in their coarse woolen15 frocks and rope girdles, exercised a strange fascination16 over the Indians who fell under their influence.
A Franciscan Father.
18
Captain Domingo Ramon went bravely to work with his soldiers and Franciscans. He was very much loved by the Indians. They adopted him into their tribes and cheerfully aided him in the hard labor17 of clearing and building. Within a few years the country was dotted with missions. Some of these were temporary structures, rude and frail18; others were built of stone. The noble and majestic19 ruins of the latter fill the beholder20 to-day with wonder and delight. If the mission served also as a presidio, it was entitled to a garrison21 of two hundred and fifty soldiers; where there was no fortress, the church itself served as a stronghold. Among the earliest of the missions thus built were Our Lady of Guadalupe (Gwah-dah-loop′ā), at Victoria (1714); Mission Orquizacas (Or-kee-sa′-kass), on the San Jacinto River (1715); Mission Dolores near San Augustine (1716); Adaes, east of the Sabine River (1718); Nacogdoches (1715); and Espiritu Santo, at Goliad (La Bahia) (1718).
The Mission Alamo,[7] which was to play so prominent a part in the later history of Texas, was begun under another name, in 1703, on the Rio Grande River. It was removed to the San Pedro River at San Antonio in 1718. In 1744 it was finally built where its ruins now stand, on the Alamo Plaza22 in San Antonio, and was called the Church of the Alamo.
Early in 1718 the foundation of San José (Ho-sā′) de Aguayo, the largest and finest of all the missions, was laid near San Antonio. The little settlement which had so pleased the eye of St. Denis four years before had grown to a village. It had been laid off and named for the Duke de Bexar (Bair), a viceroy of Mexico; and St. Denis’ road, which linked it on the southwest with St. John the Baptist and on the northeast with Natchitoches in Louisiana, had already become a traveled highway. The Mission and Presidio of San José were therefore of the first importance.
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Captain Ramon himself may have selected the site. It was a few miles below the town, on the limpid23 and swift-flowing river San Antonio. A day or two after the site was decided24 upon, a long procession wound across the beautiful open prairie from the village. It was headed by a venerable barefoot Franciscan father, who carried aloft a large wooden cross; on either side of him walked a friar of the same order, and behind them came acolytes25 and altar-boys bearing censer, bell, and vessels26 of holy water. Captain Ramon and his soldiers on horseback, and stiff and erect27 in their holiday uniforms, followed with the Spanish flag in their midst; the Mexicans who composed the slim population of San Antonio came next; then, grave and stately in their blankets and feathered headdresses and as proud as the Spaniards themselves, stalked a hundred or more converted Apache and Comanche warriors28. A rabble29 of Indian squaws and papooses brought up the rear.
This procession went slowly along under the morning sun, now over the flower-set prairie, now through a strip of woodland. The river, breast-high to the women and boys, was forded, and as the foremost group reached the farther shore, the old Franciscan lifted his hand; a church hymn8, sweet, powerful, resonant30, arose from five hundred throats. Thus they came, singing, to the place where San José was to stand.
A large space was marked off; the ground plan of the great church was sketched31 on the turf,—perhaps with the point of Captain Domingo Ramon’s sword; the church prayers were said, and the corner-stone, already hewn and shaped, was sprinkled with holy water.
The scene on the spot daily thereafter for many years was a busy and picturesque32 one. Everybody worked with a will,—soldiers, priests, and Indians, all filled with a holy zeal33. Even the Indian women fetched sand in their aprons34, and the Indian children set their small brown bodies against the stones and helped push them into place. Tradition says that the people brought milk from their goats and cows to mix the mortar35, thereby36 making it firmer and more lasting37.
The beautiful twin towers went slowly up; the great dome38 was rounded over the main chapel12; the double row of arched cloisters39 stretched their lovely length along the wall; the artist, Juan Huicar (wee′-car), sent out by the king of Spain, set his fine carvings40 above the wide doors.
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At the same time the enclosing wall was raised; the fort with its flying buttresses41, the guardhouse, the huts into which the Indian converts were locked at night—all these were completed. Orchards42 and gardens were planted, and irrigating43 ditches were dug. Again and again the work was interrupted by attacks from Indians; but when the fight was over the dead were buried, the wounded were cared for, and the building and planting went on as before.[8]
Such was the manner of the building of the Texas missions. It took sixty years to complete San José. In the meantime the handsome Mission of La Purissima Concepcion (Immaculate Conception) and San Francisco de la Espada (St. Francis of the Sword) were erected44, both also on the San Antonio River.
The Mission of San Saba was built in 1734, on the San Saba River in what is now Menard County. The good fathers were at first very successful in converting the Apaches and the Comanches, who flocked to them in great numbers. But the reopening of Las Almagras (red ores), an old silver mine near the mission, brought into the neighborhood many reckless men; and quarrels soon arose between them and the Indians—quarrels which were one day to bear bitter fruit.
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1 fortress | |
n.堡垒,防御工事 | |
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2 populous | |
adj.人口稠密的,人口众多的 | |
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3 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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4 tasseling | |
v.抽穗, (玉米)长穗须( tassel的现在分词 );使抽穗, (为了使作物茁壮生长)摘去穗状雄花;用流苏装饰 | |
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5 perseverance | |
n.坚持不懈,不屈不挠 | |
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6 missionaries | |
n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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7 hymns | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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8 hymn | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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9 tinkling | |
n.丁当作响声 | |
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10 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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11 chapels | |
n.小教堂, (医院、监狱等的)附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 );(在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的)礼拜仪式 | |
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12 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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13 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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14 monastery | |
n.修道院,僧院,寺院 | |
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15 woolen | |
adj.羊毛(制)的;毛纺的 | |
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16 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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17 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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18 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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19 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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20 beholder | |
n.观看者,旁观者 | |
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21 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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22 plaza | |
n.广场,市场 | |
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23 limpid | |
adj.清澈的,透明的 | |
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24 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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25 acolytes | |
n.助手( acolyte的名词复数 );随从;新手;(天主教)侍祭 | |
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26 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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27 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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28 warriors | |
武士,勇士,战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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29 rabble | |
n.乌合之众,暴民;下等人 | |
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30 resonant | |
adj.(声音)洪亮的,共鸣的 | |
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31 sketched | |
v.草拟(sketch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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32 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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33 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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34 aprons | |
围裙( apron的名词复数 ); 停机坪,台口(舞台幕前的部份) | |
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35 mortar | |
n.灰浆,灰泥;迫击炮;v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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36 thereby | |
adv.因此,从而 | |
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37 lasting | |
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持 | |
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38 dome | |
n.圆屋顶,拱顶 | |
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39 cloisters | |
n.(学院、修道院、教堂等建筑的)走廊( cloister的名词复数 );回廊;修道院的生活;隐居v.隐退,使与世隔绝( cloister的第三人称单数 ) | |
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40 carvings | |
n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 );雕刻术;雕刻品;雕刻物 | |
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41 buttresses | |
n.扶壁,扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑,加固( buttress的第三人称单数 ) | |
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42 orchards | |
(通常指围起来的)果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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43 irrigating | |
灌溉( irrigate的现在分词 ); 冲洗(伤口) | |
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44 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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