The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 29, July 1925 - April, 1926 Page: 295

The First Text Book Used in Texas

The next portion of the text sets forth the principles of the
Catholic faith. Special emphasis is laid on word pictures which
might fire the Indian imagination.
"Where does God send the souls of bad people when their bodies
die ?
"He pitches them to hell in order that the demons may keep
on burning and beating them, because they did not do in this
world the things that God commands."
In the prayers for the sick and in the administration of extreme
unction, some Latin is retained in the service. Before performing
the marriage ceremony, which is included, the priest tried dili-
gently to determine, through questioning, whether the contracting
parties were so closely related as to bar the ceremony. Provision
for the bestowal of a ring is made, but it was not considered an
essential.
In this volume, the substance of the moral education of the
Texas Indian is presented. The type of material used shows that
the mental limitations of the people for whom the questions were
intended were so narrow as to render rapid progress in education
impossible. All that the missionaries could hope to accomplish
was to accustom the Indians gradually to some of the habits of
civilized life, and this text was one of the means employed to that
end. For this reason it may well take its place among the ma-
tcrials contributing to the historical background of this state as
the first text book used in Texas.

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