 Virtually all the physical work was done by indigenous people convinced to or coerced into joining the missions.The padres provided instructions for making adobe bricks, building mission buildings, planting fields, digging irrigation ditches, growing new grains and vegetables, herding cattle and horses, singing, speaking Spanish, and understanding the Catholic faith—all that was thought to be necessary to bring the Indians to be able to support themselves and their new church.The soldiers supervised the construction of the Presidios (forts) and were responsible for keeping order and preventing and/or capturing runaway Indians that tried to leave the missions.