History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII, Part 30

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Oak, Henry Lebbeus, 1844-1905
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Company
Number of Pages: 890

USA > Arizona > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 30
USA > New Mexico > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 30

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centres. 26 26 In reply, the comandante general did not favor the use of force, but advised that Anza on some pretext, as of an Apache campaign, should visit the Moquis, give them some food, and persuade them, if possible, to settle in New Mexico; otherwise the foun- dation might be laid for future conversion. The gov- ernor continued his efforts, and in August 1780 a message came that 40 families were ready to migrate if he would come in person to bring them. He started in September with padres Fernandez and García, vis-

cion Comancha, 1779, MS. In N. Mex., Doc., 861-922, preceded by Anza's letter of Nov. Ist and Croix's letter of thanks Jan. 1, '80. The campaign was in Aug .- Sept. '79; 200 Yutas and Apaches joined the army as allies on the way; 30 women and children with 500 horses were captured. Names on the way and return above Taos, are Paso de S. Bartolomé on the Rio del Norte, 15 l. from its source, Ciénega de S. Luis, Arroyo de S. Ginés, Aguage de Yutas, Rio S. Agustin, Lomas Perdidas, Rio Sta Rosa, Sierra de Almagre, Arr. de Cristo, Rio Dolores, Rio Culebra, and Rio Ductil.

26 Moqui, Providencias tomadas á consecuencia de los avisos comunicados por Anza, 1779, in N. Mex., Doc., MS., 922-1022. Letters of Anza to Croix, Nov. Ist, 13th, with a letter of P. Andrés Garcia, who had made some vain efforts to find the Moqui fugitives among the Navajos; also Escalante's letters, already noticed, and Croix's reply of Dec. 31st.

In connection with Anza's operations, Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, the same who had tried to manufacture cannon, and a member of the exploring party of Dominguez and Escalante, made two maps, covering all the settlemeuts of N. Mex. in '79, which are preserved in the Acad. Hist. at Madrid, but which I have not seen. Fernandez Duro, Not., 143.

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LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

iting all the towns, two of which were completely abandoned. The 40 families had been forced by hun- ger 15 days ago to go to the Navajo country, where the men had been killed and the women and children seized as slaves. Moqui affairs were indeed in a sad condition. Escalante in 1775 had found 7,494 souls; now there were but 798; no rain had fallen in three years, and in that time deaths had numbered 6,698. Of 30,000 sheep 300 remained, and there were but five horses and no cattle. Only 500 fanegas of maize and beans could be expected from the coming crop. Pestilence had aided famine in the deadly work; raids from the Yutas and Navajos had never ceased. There were those who believed their misfortunes a judgment for their treatment of Padre Garcés in 1776. The chief at Oraibe was offered a load of provisions to re- lieve immediate wants, but he proudly declined the gift, as he had nothing to offer in return. He refused to listen to the friars, and in reply to Anza's exhorta- tions declared that as his nation was apparently doomed to annihilation, the few who remained were resolved to die in their homes and in their own faith. Yet his subjects were free to go and become Chris- tians if they chose to do so; and finally 30 families were induced to depart with the Spaniards, including the chief of Gualpi.27 I find no record as to what became of these converts, but I have an idea that with them and others, a little later, the pueblo of Moquino, in the Laguna region, may have been founded.

Not only among the Moquis did pestilence rage, but small-pox carried off 5,025 Indians of the mission pueblos in 1780-1; and in consequence of this loss of population, Governor Anza, by consolidation, reduced the number of missions, or of sínodos, to 20, a change which for the next decade provoked much protest on

27 Anza, Diario de la expedicion que hace á la provincia de Moqui, 1780. Orig. MS. in the Pinart col. The start was on Sept. 10th from Sta Fé, Zuni 17th, Moqui 20-4th, back at Sta Fé Oct. 1st.

267

NEW APACHE POLICY.

the part of the friars.28 Pino, followed by other authors, gives 1783 as the date of a long effective treaty with the Comanches; but as he mentions the defeat of Cuerno Verde in the same connection, this may be a reference to an earlier event.29 In 1786 Viceroy Galvez, in his instructions to General Ugarte, introduced a new Indian policy in the north, a policy of extermination, the main features of which were to be unrelenting warfare on all tribes to secure treaties, free trade and gifts to tribes at peace, the creation among the savages of needs that could be supplied only by the Spaniards, the distribution of guns and powder of inferior quality, the liberal use of spirituous liquors to demoralize the Apaches, and constant efforts to promote a war of extermination between the different tribes. Little or nothing appears respecting the carrying-out of this policy in New Mexico; but the instructions in some parts had special reference to that province.30

28 Anza's report of May 6, '81. Arch. Sta Fé, MS .; Revilla Gigedo, Carta de 1793, p. 443.

29 Pino, Exposicion, 39, 43; Id., Noticias, 87-8; Velasco, Not. Estudl. de Son., 262; Davis' El Gringo, 82. Yet a mention of the campaign appears in the Gaceta de Mex., i. 131-2. It may be that a treaty was made in '83 in conse- quence of the victory of '79. Davis, El Gringo, 82-3, also describes a later battle of '85 with the Comanches at Rabbit Ear, the Span, leader being Lieut. Guerrero, and the foe being so effectually defeated that they sued for peace and made a permanent treaty. I have found no original record of this affair. 3 Instruccion formada en virtud de real orden, 1786. See also Hist. North Mex. States, i. 648. The N. Mex. troops were to be aided by settlers and Ind .; movements were to be made, when possible, in conjunction with forces of N. Viz. and Sonora; all to be directed by the gov .; hostilities between Apaches and Navajos to be promoted; the peace with Yutas to be scrupulously observed, and they to be used against the others; also peace with the Jica- rillas; Comanche offers of peace at Taos not to be rejected, but encouraged by trade; a report on the Moqui condition to be made. Oct. 6th, Gen. Ugarte to Anza, will devote $6,000 a year to the task of defeating the Gileños and keeping peace with the Comanches, Yutas, and Navajos. Four hundred horses and a large amount of stores were sent at the beginning of the year. A salary to be paid the Com. chiefs for their services. Oct. 25th, he com- plains that certain Navajos aided the Gileños in an attack on Arizpe. Jan. 17, 1787, Anza says that gentle measures with the Moquis have been successful and should be continued. Over 200 are content in their new homes. June 13, 1789, Ugarte orders active operations against the Apaches during the rest of the year, with Comanche aid. July 4th, gov. reports a campaign in May, in which he killed 6 Apaches. Against orders he has consented to a truce with the Apaches at Tecolote who promise well, and will be watched, MSS. in Pinart col. Navajos reduced to peace in '88. Escudero, Not. Chih., 227. Ind. of N. Mex. at peace June '88, acc. to viceroy's report. Cavo.

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LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Lieutenant-colonel Manuel Flon came from Spain in 1785 with a commission as governor, and started for New Mexico; but there are no indications that he ever assumed the office.31 Anza's successor was Fer- nando de la Concha, who arrived after the middle of 1789, and ruled for a full term of five years.32 Concha was succeeded in 1794 by Lieutenant-colonel Fernando Chacon, whose rule continued to the end of the cen- tury and later.33 For the last years of the period I find many items in the archives; but nearly all are of so trivial and unimportant a nature that they are not worth reproduction. They relate almost exclusively to Indian affairs, and seem to indicate that all the tribes were behaving tolerably well, except the Apaches, against whom constant warfare was waged, with re- sults not clearly shown by the records. 34

Evidently not much had been effected in the way of general reform; for in the last decade we have from the pen of Padre Juan Agustin Morfi, not one of the

Tres Siglos, iii. 77. About '90 a Comanche chief, Maya, put his son at school in Sta Fé under Lieut. Troncoso. The son later hecame chief and a firm friend of the Spans. Pino, Erpo., 38.

31 Gomez, Diario, 214-16; Arch. Cal., Prov. St. Pap., MS., v. 181. Flon's wife was a sister of the vireina; and he was later prominent in Mex.

$2 Ang. 10, '89, Gen. Rengel notifies Anza from El Paso that Concha is on the way to succeed him. Arch. Sta Fé, MS. Davis and Prince make his rule '88-93, and again in 1800. He was prob. appointel in '88.

33 July 21, 1794, Gen. Nava notified the lieut. - gov. at El Paso of Chacon's appointment and coming. Arch. Sta Fé, MS.

34 In May 1793 there was a suspicious meeting of the Ind. at S. Ildefonso, leading to some arrests and long investigations. Nothing definite was proven, though half a dozen Ind. were flogged or condemned to several months in chains. Arch. Stt Fé, MS. Lieut. Fran. Javier de Uranga is named as lieut. - gov. at El Paso in 1794. Id. In Aug. 1795 Gen. Nava'ordered a gen. move- ment from Chih., Coahuila, and N. Mex. against the Apaches, to be made in Sept .- Nov. and again in the spring; no gandules to be spared. MS. of Pinart col. In July 1795 Gov. Chacon reports the Navajos as friendly to Span., foes to the Apaches, occupied iu agric., fond of wearing jewelry an 1 speaking Span .- yet a spy is always kept among them to watch and report their plans. Arch. Sta Fé, MS. In Aug. Gen. Nava complains that of five Ind. killed the ears were not brought in as proofs, 'que es la práctica que se observa en esta provincia.' Id. Lieut. Cañuelas sent with 160 men against Apaches, who had raided Alburquerque. Id. In '96 the gov.'s inspection of Abiquiú and Sandía is preserved, mere formality, nothing of importance. Id. In May 1800 the gov. and 500 men made a campaign against the Apaches Navajos (?), 20 chiefs appearing to inake peace, giving up 28 animals. Another exped. of Lieut. José Manrique with 250 men to the sierras of S. Mateo and Magdalena recovered two animals. Gen. Nava in July complains that so little has been effected, MS. of Pinart col.

269

PADRE MORFI'S REPORT.

New Mexican friars, an able presentment of the coun- try's ills similar to those alluded to by earlier writers. Chief among the evils to be remedied were the lack of order in Spanish settlements, the houses being scattered, and the settlers beyond the reach of law and religion, besides being exposed to Indian raids; a vicious system of trade, and absence of money, of which more will be said presently; the free admission of Spaniards and castas to live in the Indian pueblos, these penniless intruders generally succeeding in mak- ing the industrious native proprietors practically slaves through debt, or in driving them away to live among the gentiles, the remedy being to forbid the Spaniards to live in the pueblos or own property in them except by marriage;35 the oppressive tyranny of the alcaldes mayores, more fully noticed elsewhere in this chapter; and finally the unsettled and unfortunate status of the Genízaros, or rescued Indian captives. 36

Before 1750, as recorded in the preceding chapter, the padres were charged by secular and ecclesiastic authorities with culpable neglect of their duties as missionaries, notably in their failure to acquire the native languages, or to speak Spanish to the Indians, the result being that their preaching and religious in- struction had no real effect, that the neophytes were Christians only in name, and that confession of sins through interpreters was generally postponed until the approach of death. While this matter did not in this half-century assume a controversial aspect, yet the charges are sustained by such evidence as exists. Bishop Tamaron in his visit of 1760 had occasion at many points to administer severe reproof; and the

33 A mulatto felt insulted because a pueblo Ind. wished to marry his daughter! This absurd pride of the castas and their assumed superiority over the natives should be discouraged. Ind. should not be allowed to sell or mortgage their lands. The laws on these matters are not observed.

36 Morfi (Juan Agustin), Desórdenes que se advierten en el N. Mex. y medios que se juzgan oportunos para mejorar su constitucion (1792). MS. in N. Mex., Doc., 381-450. P. Morfi declares that the New Mexicans are much worse off than before the coming of the Span. or than the Moquis who have retained their independence.

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LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

friars, while making various excuses for their remiss- ness, denying some of its worst results, and even promising reforms, did not claim the ability to com- municate with their neophytes, except through inter- preters. Charges of neglect in other matters, of oppressing the natives, of being frequently absent from their posts, and of undue fondness for trade are not supported by any evidence of this period.37

It should be noted that the New Mexican missions were radically different from the Californian estab- lishments of later years. Practically, except in being subject to their provincial and paid by the king, in- stead of being under the bishop and supported by parochial fees, these friars were mere parish priests in charge of Indian pueblos. There were no mission estates, no temporalities managed by the padres, and except in petty matters of religious observance the latter had no authority over the neophytes. At each pueblo the padre had a church, where he preached, and taught, and said mass. With the performance of these routine duties, and of those connected with bap- tism, marriage, and burials, he was generally content. The Indians, for the most part willingly, tilled a little piece of land for him, furnishing also a few servants from week to week for his household service and that of the church. He was in most instances a kind- hearted man, a friend of his Indians, spending much of his salary on them or on the church. If sometimes reproved by conscience for having lost something of the true Franciscan spirit, he redoubled his zeal in petty parish duties for a time, bethought him of ad-

37 Tamaron, Visita, MS., passim. The bishop offered to print confesionarios in native lang. if the friars would write them. Some promises were made, and some later corresp. had, but nothing effected down to 1763. Nov. 13, 1764, the viceroy orders Gov. Cachupin to see to it that the Ind. learn Span., and that the padres attend zealously to their duties. Recent reports indi- cated that the friars were not careful enough to destroy idols and heathen temples, or to study the native character. MS. of Pinart col. Bouilla, Apuntes, MS., 368-9, in 1776 advises a careful investigation of the friars' treatment of Ind., with a view to learn if the missions should not be secular- ized. Iu 1784 Gov. Anza was ordered to see to it that the Ind. were pro- tected in all their rights. Arch. Sta Fé, MS.

271

MISSION AFFAIRS.

verse circumstances and of the 'custumbre del país,' and relapsed into the customary inertia. If reproved by the governor or bishop or provincial-for even the latter occasionally complained that the New Mexican friars were beyond his control-he had stored up in his memory no end of plausible excuses and counter- charges. The Indians were in no sense Christians, but they liked the padres in comparison with other Spaniards, and were willing to comply with certain harmless church formalities, which they neither under- stood nor cared to understand. They had lost all hope of successful revolt, but were devotedly attached to their homes and their ancestral ways of pueblo life; dreaded apostasy, because it involved a precarious existence among hostile tribes of savages ; and thus, as a choice of evils, they lived and died as nominal Chris- tians and Spanish subjects, or perhaps more properly slaves. 38

38 Trigo (Manuel de S. J. N.), Informe sobre las Misiones del N. Mex., 1754, MS., in N. Mex. Doc., 283-326, is devoted mainly to unimportant descrip. matter on each mission, with particular ref. to the personal service rendered by the Ind. to the padres instead of obvenciones, fees, or taxes. Many details of the mission routine are found in Ruiz (Joaquin de J.), Gobierno de las Mi- siones, 1773, MS., in N. Mex., Doc., 1059-76; and also in Serrano, Informe, of '61. Humboldt, Ess. Pol., 305-6, gives some attention to the condition of the N. Mex. missions. Davis, Span. Conq., 416, notes a decree of the audien- cia of Mex in '81, prohibiting the Ind. from selling or otherwise disposing of their lands. Ilzarbe, Informe del P. Provincial, 178", MS., in P.nart col., complains somewhat of the difficulty of getting reports from the N. Mex. friars, but praises the efficiency with which they perform their duties as mis- sionaries and teachers. At Sta Fé the padre was supported by fees, elsewhere by the sínodos of $330 per year. I. says the reduction of the number of mis- sions or of salaries is a wrong to the friars, and interferes considerably with mission discipline. His complaints are more strongly urged in his Estado of 1788; and the bishop, Durango, Informe del Obispo sobre Misiones, 1789, MS. of Pinart col., declares it has been impossible to get satisfactory reports from the N. Mex. custodio. Viceroy Revilla Gigedo, in his Carta de 1793, 443, etc., gives much information on the condition and management of the missions. The pueblo is ruled in local matters by a native gov., or alcalde, war captain, and various subordinates elected each year under the supervision of the alcalde mayor, with approval of the gov. These officials also render aid against the gentile foe. In internal affairs they often act arbitrarily. There is no community property or formal distribution of lands, each fam. regarding as its own the land held by its ancestors, cultivating it acc. to needs or fancies; yet as the pueblo lands are the best, the Ind. got a living more easily than the Span., the latter having sometimes to rent land of the Ind., or even to work for them in bad years. Good crops and much live-stock. The Ind. do not generally dress in Span. style or speak Spanish, though many of them uuder- stand it. They hunt deer and buffalo, or barter for them with the gentiles. No brotherhoods or cofradías; churches generally in a state of decadence;

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LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Countercharges of the friars against the governors and alcaldes mayores, as embodied in Padre Delgado's letter of 1750, were repeated in this period, especially in an exhaustive report of the provincial, Padre Pedro Serrano, in 1761, which included long quotations from a letter of Padre Varo, the custodio, and from state- ments of other friars. The last governors, Cachupin, Marin del Valle, and Mendoza, are represented as the worst, but all as speculating tyrants, without skill or experience in matters of Indian warfare or government, habitually sending to Mexico reports of campaigns never performed, bent only on enriching themselves, treating the pueblo Indians most inhumanly as slaves, using their women and all female captives for the gratification of their lusts, cheating the gentiles, and by outrageous treatment keeping alive their hostility. The alcaldes are mere tools or accomplices of the gov- ernors, and jueces de residencia are also in the ring of oppressors. The Indians are the chief victims of these rascals; but the Spanish settlers are hardly less unfor- tunate, and even the soldiers are cheated out of half their pay. The padres are the objects of hatred, and if they open their mouths in protest are by perjured and suborned testimony made the victims of outra- geous calumnies, their reports to Mexico being inter- cepted on the way. The partisan bitterness and prejudice of the writers, with their allusions to offences, terrible only in the eyes of friars, and the sicken- ing cant and priestly verbiage in which they clothe their charges, indicate clearly enough that the accusa- tions are too sweeping, and often grossly over-colored; yet enough of candor and honest evidence remains to

Ind. ignorant of the faith. The child is baptized, but does not keep his bap- tismal name; he attends doctrina from the age of 6 or 7 years, but soon for- gets after marriage the little he has learned, and dies for the most part like the pagans. The Span. are but little better. The Arch. Sta Fé, MS., contains records of various formal inspections of the missions by the gov., who finds affairs in tolerable condition, though the Ind. are much too fond of their old ways. Gov. Chacon, in his report of '99, says each pueblo has I league of land assigned, though at some pueblos more is cultivated. We have seen, however, that in the preceding century 4 sq. 1. had been assigned to some of the pueblos.

273

PREVALENT ABUSES.

justify the conclusion that New Mexican affairs were in a sad plight, and that the pueblo Indians were little better than slaves. With all their shortcomings, the padres were better men than their enemies. After 1761 not much is heard against the governors, though the friars were not able to prevent the reappointment of Cachupin. Probably there were reforms in some directions under the later rulers; but if we may credit Padre Morfi's statements, the condition of the Indians was but slightly bettered, since the alcaldes mayores, through the creation of debts, a vicious commercial system, and various abuses of their official authority, still kept the natives in their power as before.39

39 Serrano (Pedro), Informe del P. Provincial sobre los males de N. Mex., 1761, MS., in N. Mex., Doc., 173-283, addressed to the viceroy and founded o' various reports in the archives. One of these reports is Lezaun (Juan Sans), Noticias lamentables acaecidas en la N. Mex., y atrasos que cada dia se experi- mentan asi en lo espiritual como en lo temporal, 1760, MS. in Id., 128-73. A somewhat more temperate and later statement of the case is Morfi (Juan Agustin), Desórdenes que se advierten en el N. Mex., 1792, MS. in Id., 381-450.

I give a few details of the accusations, but have no space for most. Eighty padres have lost their lives in N. Mex .; yet, by the governor's fault, little has been accomplished. At Zuñi 4,000 Ind. live without religion, the single padre expecting death, and the gov. refuses an escort. The gov. and his friends interrupt padres during divine service, declaring the king to be the pope's equal, entering church on horseback after accused persons or even friars, often threatening to put padres in chains. In '50 the gov. forbade the issu- ance of any certificates to friars, so that they can send no reports; before that time reports were doubtless stolen on the way, except a few sent by returning padres. The gov. had threatened to turn out all the padres and substitute Jesuits or Franciscans of Zacatecas. The gov. collects all the wool he can, and divides it among the pueblos for spinning and weaving, and the Ind. have to transport the product to Sta Fé. All agric. work, shelling and grinding corn, building, tending stock, etc., must be done by the Ind. without pay; anl the slight product of his own fields must be sold on credit, to be paid for at half-price in gimcracks. The cream of all barter with the gentiles is taken by the gov., and the people have to live on what is left. Girl captives are resold after a time, with the recommendation, 'que ya estan buenas; ' the best- looking women are selected for service at the palacio, and usually return to their pueblo enceinte. Many Ind. refuse to marry because ashamed of their wives having children of light color. When anything is accomplished against the gentiles it is by vecinos, not the soldiers. Militiamen are selected, not for military service, but as cheap servants of the gov. Once the gov. soll all the powder and loft the militia without any. The artillery at Galisteo was dis- mounted, and the iron made into implements for trade with the Ind. Morfi tells us that the alcaldes mayores are rarely of Span. blood, the most ignorant and vicious of all the inhabitants. They rarely visit the towns under their charge, requiring all they need to be brought to them. They are the only ones who trade with the pueblo Ind., and get all their property for little or nothing. Few girls escape infamy. The worst of the gang have been C'le- mente Gutierrez, Fran. Trebol (once acting gov.), Baltasar Vaca, Pedro Pino, Nerio Montoya, Manuel Vigil, Cris. Vigil, and José Mig. de la Peña. Mar- HIST. ARIZ. AND N. MEX. 18

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LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

The population of pueblo Indians decreased by about 2,400 during these 50 years, local particulars and approximately exact figures being presented in the final note of this chapter. Of mission history proper in addition to what has been given in other connections, there is little to be said. In 1767 the four establishments of Santa Fé, La Cañada, Albur- querque, and El Paso were ordered to be put under secular curates, and this was perhaps done, though later records seem to indicate that friars were still stationed at those places. The founding of a mission- ary college was ordered by the king and pope in 1777-9, but nothing was accomplished. In conse- quence of the small-pox epidemic of 1780-1, as we have seen, the number of missions was reduced by consolidation in 1782, Jemes, Santa Ana, Acoma, Nambé, Tesuque, Pecos, San Felipe, and San Ilde- fonso being reduced to the condition of visitas, a saving of about $4,000 in sínodos being thus effected. The friars were naturally displeased, and down to the end of the century were constant in their efforts to obtain an increase of missionaries, or of salaries, or the privilege of collecting parochial taxes, but without success. In addition to some references and particu- lars of these and other matters, I give in the ap- pended note a list of friars serving in 1751-1800, including all the names I have found in the various documents consulted, but doubtless far from being complete.40

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History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII, Part 30

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Oak, Henry Lebbeus, 1844-1905 Publication date: 1889 Publisher: San Francisco : The History Company Number of Pages: 890

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Oak, Henry Lebbeus, 1844-1905
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Company
Number of Pages: 890