USA > California > History of California, Volume II > Part 41
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In several mission papers the padres were instructed · in their duties or exhorted to a faithful performance of the same. Sarria, on assuming the office of prefect, issued a pastoral letter,15 bristling with learned quota- tions, very general in its nature, with no direct bear- ing on the state of affairs in California, and dealing almost exclusively with the spiritual interests of padres and neophytes. The author, with profuse expressions of his own unworthiness, enjoined a strict compliance with Franciscan rules, and uttered a warning against neglect of the annual religious exercises of the friars for their own benefit. He favored the acquiring of the native languages to ensure real instruction in the Christian mysteries,16 and devoted more than half the
12 Secularizacion, Decreto de las Cortes de 13 de Setiembre de 1813, MS. See also partial translations and mentions of the document in Jones' Report, no. 8; Halleck's Report, 125; Dwinelle's Colon. Hist., 39; St. Pap., Miss. and Col., MS., ii. 59-60; Hall's Hist. S. José, 430-1; Tuthill's Hist. Cal., 126; Taylor's Eldorado, i. 181; also official mention in Feb. 1821 by the guardian in Doc. Ilist. Cal., MS., iv. 491-2.
13 Dwinelle erroneously says it 'never attained the form or force of a law.'
14 Arch. Sta B., MS., iii. 188, 219.
15 Sarria, Exhortacion Pastoral del P. Comisario Prefecto, 1813, MS. Dated S. Carlos, July 8, 1813, and divided into 48 articles. Also in Arch. Obispado, 12-16.
16 He also favored the teaching of Spanish to the Indians in accordance with the king's wishes. What he objected to, and very sensibly, was the parrot-like repetitions by neophytes of religious forms in a language they did not understand. Especially he urged the rendering of the doctrina and cate-
401
PREFECT'S PASTORALS.
articles of his pastoral to details of spiritual training of neophytes. He reminded the missionaries that in the absence of curates the souls of the gente de razon must by no means be neglected. He alluded to the care of temporalities as a duty which must not detract attention from more solemn spiritual obligations, and closed as he had begun with a general exhortation.
In 1817 the prefect again addressed the friars on their missionary duties.17 This time he had more definite suggestions to make, having just completed a tour of inspection, which, as he affirms, had filled him in a general way with joy and satisfaction. Yet he had noted a few rooms of the friars much too large and sumptuously furnished for the " cells of poor evangelical toilers." He was grieved at this and at certain comforts in dress and food more in accord with the " spirit of the century " than with Franciscan rules. He entreated them to avoid scrupulously every ap- pearance of worldly ease, and not even to wear shoes except in cases of great necessity and on formal per- mission from prelate or confessor. A caution was given to avoid suspicious company and all counsel and association with women, that no breath of scandal might be raised. The matter of neglect to teach in the vernacular was touched upon more emphatically than before, and the case of a Jesuit, miraculously warned from heaven not to preach in Spanish, was cited. He had noted a few cases where persons had died without the sacraments. The padres were re- minded that there was a time for everything, includ-
chism in the native idioms; but he did not deem it necessary to acquire a perfect conversational knowledge of those idioms. There was not much agi- tation about the teaching of Spanish to the neophytes during this decade. In their report of 1815, Indios, Contestacion, etc., MS., the padres represented that Spanish was taught and its use encouraged at all the missions; but that the religious instruction was given in Spanish and the vernacular alternately. Sola in his report of 1818, Sola, Observaciones, MS., 182, 184, gave the same idea, and said the Indians learned Spanish very readily, especially those who came in contact with the troops. In Sept. 1812 the guardian sent to Califor- nia a patent of the comisario general on mission schools. Arch. Sta B., MS., xi. 327: Arch. Obispado, MS., 19.
11 Sarria, Carta Pastoral del Comisario Prefecto, 1817, MS. Dated San Carlos, Jan. 25, 1817, and divided in 27 articles.
HIST. CAL., VOL. II. 26
402
MISSION AFFAIRS.
ing recreation, social intercourse with each other, and especially the eight days of rest from all worldly cares in the "holy idleness of Mary." Sarria objected to the neophytes being required or allowed to work on the day of St Francis, and favored greater attention to other dias de fiesta.
The same year President Payeras issued a circular to the padres on their duties, as representatives of the bishop, as confessors, as guardians of the public morals, with particular reference to their obligations toward the Spanish population.18 In 1820 Guardian Lopez of the mother college thought it necessary to preach the padres a sermon on their worldly extrava- gance, and to warn them earnestly to avoid even the appearance of evil. It was reported in Mexico, and unfortunately with much truth, that the Franciscans in California, forgetting the example of their prede- cessors, only the old and infirm among whom had travelled on muleback or otherwise than on foot, were using carts of two wheels and even coaches of four wheels! This fact had given rise in Mexico to the scandalous report that the Fernandinos of Cali- fornia, far from enduring hardships, were living in wealth and ease. Consequently the discretory had voted unanimously that every carriage must be burned at once if it could not be converted to some other use than the carrying of friars. The prefect was charged with the immediate execution of this order, which was, however, accompanied with much flattery of the padres for their faithfulness in other respects.19
18 Payeras, Circular del Presidente a los Padres, 1817, MS., dated Pnrí- sima Dec. 19, 1817. Another circular of president Payeras dated Dec. 31, 1818, relates not to the duties of the padres but to the offices of president and prefect. Original in Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., 409-16.
19 Lopez, El Guardian á los Padres prohibiendo el uso de Carruajes, 1820, MS. In a report of Nov. 5, 1817, Sarria admitted that he had allowed the rooms of the friars to be kept neater than might be thought proper for Fran- ciscans, and had also permitted some privileges in the matter of foot-wear. Arch. Sta B., MS., iii. 80-1. In a communication to the padres on business matters in 1817, Sarria had attributed the excessive demands of the govern- ment on the missions for supplies, and the slowness of the authorities in Mexico to relieve mission needs, in part to the extravagance of the friars in the matters of carriages, dress, etc., begging them to discontinue such foibles.
403
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE FRIARS.
The comprehensive report of 1815, in which the president and padres in reply to inquiries from Mex- ico told officially all they knew about the manners and customs of the California Indians, and also Sola's descriptive report after a personal visit to all the mis- sions in 1817, have already been noticed.20 I may also note the pastoral in which Fr. Juan Buenaven- tura Bestard, comisario general of Indies, instructed the American Franciscans at great length in August 1816 on their duties as loyal subjects of the king of Spain. 21 In May of that year the same official had, with profuse expressions of the deep interest he was in duty bound to feel for his ultramarine flock, called upon the American friars of the order for information about themselves, their past lives and present posi- tions. The reports were to be rendered to their im- mediate prelate, who was to add notes on various topics, but especially on the conduct of the padres during the present revolution. 22 In accordance with this demand Prefect Sarria on May 23, 1817, sent out a circular of eight blank leaves, enclosing a copy of Bestard's pastoral, and in a few lines on the first page of his circular calling on the padres for the rec- ord of their lives and services. Each on receiving the circular inscribed on it in his own handwriting a brief autobiography of himself, signed his name and rúbrica, and passed the paper on to the nearest companion friar, until within a month the document contained the life of each of the thirty-five missionaries serving
Id., vi. 63-6. There was some aid furnished to the Dominicans of the penin- sula; several of the latter visited the southern missions. They are several times alluded to as 'elder brothers,' and there was a mutual agreement to say three masses for the soul of a deceased padre of either order. Id., iii. 91, 145; xi. 163. For some unimportant orders of 1817-20 relating to the retire- ment of padres who had served out their term of 10 years, see Arch. Arzob., MS., iii. pt. ii. 18; Vallejo, Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., xxviii. 34; Arch. Obis- pado, MS., 17.
20 Indios, Contestacion al Interogatorio de 1811, MS .; Sola, Observaciones, MS.
21 Bestard, Pastoral del Comisario General de Indias de 28 de Agosto de 1816, MS.
22 Bestard, Pastoral del Comisario General de Indias de 6 de Mayo de 1816, en que pide informes sobre los frailes, MS .; Arch. Obispado, 16; Arch. Sta B., MS., xii. 401.
404
MISSION AFFAIRS.
in California. The original of this most interesting document I regard as one of the most important in my possession.23 The original statements thus obtained were embodied with some amplification and change of arrangement in Sarria's report of November 5, 1817, to Bestard, to which he also added his testimony on the unwavering loyalty of the missionaries, and the zeal with which they performed their evangelical duties, adding some information about the details of mission management.24
Bestard's demand had been not only for one report but for a series of annual reports. Only one of later date is, however, extant, if more were rendered, which is somewhat doubtful. This was made by Prefect Payeras in 1820, and covered precisely the same ground as that of Sarria, including a biographical sketch of every missionary.25 In addition to the regular annual and biennial mission reports by padres and president, I may note a special report made by Sarría to Payeras in 1819, just after a tour of inspec- tion, of no special general importance and fully utilized elsewhere in local annals;26 and also a report by President Payeras to the governor in September 1819, which was an eloquent presentment of the mission troubles, particularly in their relations to gen- tiles and runaway neophytes. Formerly, says Paye- ras, the soldiers protected both padres and gente de razon; kept the neophytes under the suave yugo of the gospel, and inspired respect and fear among the gentiles; but now a spirit of insubordination and in-
23 Autobiografia Autográfica de los 35 Padres Misioneros que sirven en la Alta California en los meses de Mayo y Junio de 1817, MS. The information contained in this document is utilized elsewhere in my biographical account of each padre.
21 Sarria, Informe del Comisario Prefecto sobre los Frailes de California, 1817, MS.
25 Payeras, Informe por el Comisario Prefecto del actual Estado de las 19 Mi- siones de la Nuera California, 1820, MS. Dated December 31, 1820, though in the title it is said to have been sent in March and duplicated in May.
26 Sarria, Informe de Misiones, dirigido al P. Presidente, 1819, MS. Datcd San Carlos, Feb. 2, 1819. There are in the report some vague allusions to an asunto reservado, to clear up which the report was probably made.
405
INDIANS ON HORSEBACK.
dependence spreading through the world had reached California, affecting both soldiers and Indians. The neophytes were deserting the missions, and the gen- tiles, under the leadership of renegade Christians, were daily becoming more bold and hostile. All this was urged to obtain a resumption of military expeditions; and, as we have seen, was successful.27
I have elsewhere noted the refusal of the padres at San Gabriel to attend to the spiritual interests of the citizens of Los Angeles; a refusal which, however, at this period seems to have caused no controversy; and I have also mentioned several minor and local disagree- ments about mission lands. The only other subject of dissension deserving brief notice here is one pre- viously noted in the annals of each decade; a kind of connecting link between the earlier and later grounds for dispute-the use of horses by Indians. In January 1818 Sola issued stringent orders that only a certain number of neophytes, formally appointed by the padres as vaqueros as per lists furnished to the corporal of the escolta and other military authorities, should be allowed to ride, any other Indian found on horseback to be arrested and punished. In connection with the enforcement of this order besides much correspond- ence there were signs of a quarrel between Captain Guerra and Padre Señan at Santa Bárbara; but the prefect interfered to restore harmony, and the presi- dent ordered strict compliance with Sola's require- ments, which he deemed just. If the evil complained of, especially at San Fernando and San Gabriel, was reformed altogether we are not advised of the fact.28
There is a little to be added on the matter of mis- sion supplies to the presidios to what has been said in the chapters devoted to chronological annals. Upon the Franciscan establishments fell the whole burden
27 Payeras, Peticion al Gobernador, 1819, MS. Dated Sept. 17th.
28 Jan. 2, 1818, Sola's regulations. Prov. Rec., MS., xii. 143-5; S. José, Arch., MS., i. 28; Guerra, Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., v. 45-6; iv. 363; Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., xlix. 33; Arch. Sta B., MS., vi. 102-4; xi. 172, 436; Doc. Ilist. Cal., MS., iv. 435-6.
406
MISSION AFFAIRS.
of supporting the provincial government and the troops, and their dues for unpaid drafts amounted in 1820 to nearly half a million dollars. Not a dollar of stipend was received by the friars during the whole decade; and not a single invoice of goods for the mis- sions-goods usually bought with the proceeds of habilitado's drafts and the friars' stipends-could be forwarded,29 except one or two of very small amount obtained from other sources. The fact that the sti- pends came from the pious fund, to which the treasury had no claim save as a kind of trustee for the mis- sions, and the fact that other missionaries were not so entirely neglected as those of California, made the situation all the more exasperating; yet the protests and complaints of the friars were neither so frequent nor so bitter as might be expected, considering the legal rights that were being violated. In reality, how- ever, as the reader is aware, the padres' condition dur- ing this decade was by no means a hard one. They were much better off than any other class in the prov- ince, and the current reports in Mexico of the com-
29 Annual payment interrupted from 1811 to 1834. Guerra, Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 5. Procurador Juan Cortés stated that the stipends for 1819 were collected in 1820-1, but unfortunately fell into the hands of Síndico Es- calante, whose financial embarrassment prevented anything being paid to the padres. Arch. Sta B., MS., vi. 255-6. In 1810, P. Cortés wrote to the president that in spite of repeated efforts since 1813 nothing could be ol)- tained. Occasionally payments were ordered with a view to keep the padres quiet, but were never made. He urged that the padres should continue their efforts and petitions for their just dues ; and mentioned that current reports of mission wealth had much to do with the refusal to pay; $4,000 had been sent from California to buy goods, but had not yet arrived in Sep- tember. Id., xii. 395-7. In 1817 Prefect Sarria had proposed that the Cali- fornian missions pay a debt of the college amounting to $5,000. Id., iii. 88. Aug. 17, 1819, the viceroy had promised $10,000 or $12,000 from the pious fund, and afterward $15,000 per year; but the administrator of the fund said he had no money for this year. Back pay must be collected at Gua- dlalajara. Id., xii. 394-5. On Feb. 24, 1813, the viceroy ordered $45,526 paid by the Guadalajara treasury; and again in 1815 the procurador was ordered to apply to Guadalajara; but all such applications proved a nseless expense. There were various other orders in 1815 to pay travelling expenses and freight, and once a very small amount was collected. The guardian states in 1819 that the padres of Zacatecas and of Lower California were being paid. He pictured the needs of California in dark colors, and earnestly entreated the viceroy for relief, even warning against the imminent danger of revolt grow- ing out of the prevalent neglect and want. Lopez, Quejas del P. Guardian al Virey, 1819, MS.
407
CESSION OF SOUTHERN MISSIONS.
parative ease and wealth in which they lived were not wholly without foundation. 30
The greatest trouble, or that about which most was written, was that of obtaining new missionaries to take the place of those who had died, of the aged and in- firm, and of those who having served out their term were anxious for one reason or another to retire. Of what was accomplished enough has been said earlier in this chapter; what was not accomplished requires brief notice here. The failure to pay stipends seems to have been the smallest difficulty in the way; the failure of the government to pay travelling expenses was a more formidable obstacle; and worse yet the college had rarely any padres to spare for the northern field. As early as 1810-11 there was a proposition for the Fernandinos to cede half the California mis- sions to the college of San José de Gracia de Orizaba, with a view to devote themselves to new foundations. Exactly what form the proposition assumed is not known, but it was rejected by the discretory.31 In 1816 Sola wrote to the viceroy on the great need of friars to relieve the old and infirm, attend to chaplain and pueblo duties, and to found new missions in the east. Twenty was the number he asked for, and he suggested that they might be obtained from Orizaba, either acting for their own college, or being incorpo- rated with that of San Fernando. 32
In 1817, however, a cession was voluntarily made to the Orizaba college of nine missions from Purísima south, the alleged reason being inability for want of
. 30 The somewhat meagre information extant respecting the pious fund estates in earlier and later times, contains of course some slight items bearing on this decade, but nothing, I believe, which can be brought out here with profit. to the reader. See San Miguel, Doc. Rel. Fondo Piadoso, 16-18; Mexico, Mem. Relaciones, 1831, 44-7; Id., 1835, 36-7, and annex No. 10; Id., Mem., Hacienda, 1825, 10-11; Mofras, Explor., i. 270. Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 89-90, mentions the death of one José Verdia in California in 1816, who: left all his property to the fund, and it was ordered distributed among the mis- sions, but had been for the most part destroyed to prevent the contagion of. the phthisic.
31 Garijo, Carta del P. Guardian, 1811, MS., 218.
32 Aug. 21, 1816, Sola to viceroy. Prov. Rec., MS., ix. 142; Arch. Sta. B., MS., vi. 200-2.
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408
MISSION AFFAIRS.
laborers to carry on so great a missionary work. The cession was accepted July 16th and approved by the viceroy. 83 It was announced in California by Sarria in a circular of October 11th, and was approved by him, though the archives show no previous corre- spondenee on the subject.34 There was, however, a delay of two years in despatching the new mission- aries, mainly attributable, I suppose, to the impos- sibility of getting money from the treasury; and meanwhile a hitch occurred in California which pre- vented their being despatched at all. While Sarria was pleased with the cession, the southern friars to be displaced were astonished and disgusted. Presi- dent Payeras shared their feeling, but a sense of duty and submission to his prelate led him to comfort the friars as best he could by suggesting that some of them might escape removal by joining the other col- lege. Early in 1819, however, Payeras becoming absolute prelate was in a position to express his views, and he lost no time in doing so, protesting to the guardian that the northern missions to be retained were but worthless skeletons in comparison with the southern ones to be given up, and insisting at the least on delay, deliberation, and consultation of the padres in California. Both guardian and viceroy saw the justice of his request; in fact the hasty cession by the college had been most astonishing; a stay of proceedings was effected, four friars from each college being ordered to California to take the places that
33 Sept. 26, 1817, viceroy to guardian. Arch. Sta B., MS., xii. 407-9. The cession, dated June 10th, included Los Angeles and the two presidios.
3: Oct. 11, 1817, Sarría to padres in Arch. Sta B., MS., ix. 377-8. He states that the viceroy's approval is still lacking. He expresses his own sat- isfaction in his report of Nov. 5th. Sarria, Informe del Comisario Prefecto, 1817, MS., 89-90. Sept. 12, 1818, the guardian writes that arrangements have been made for seven of the Orizaba friars to come this year to take the ceded missions, the viceroy having ordered the payment of travelling expenses. He urges the padres in California to receive the new-comers kindly and remem- ber that all are Franciscans. Arch. Sta B., MS., xi. 325-7; S. José, Patentes, MS., 340-5; Arch. Obispado, MS., 18-19. July 24, 1819, viceroy informs Sola that the Orizaba padres had been detained by the war, but would start as soon as possible. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xx. 79. Aug. 29, 1819, Com. Gen. Bestard announces that P. Garijo is forming in Spain a new party of 40 friars for the Mexican college. Arch. Sta B., MS., xii. 404.
409
THE SOUTHERNERS OBJECT.
might be assigned them by the prelate, temporarily, till the main question could be settled.
The Orizaba friars naturally refused to come north on the experimental basis proposed, and the four Fer- nandinos came alone. In a private letter from the guardian Payeras was informed of the trouble brew- ing, and was reminded that it would be absolutely necessary to cede some of the missions. He was re- quested to consult with both northern and southern padres as to what missions should be surrendered, and to send in for the viceroy's consideration his reasons in full for opposing the action of his college.35 Accordingly Prefect Payeras addressed the padres at considerable length on the subject, urging upon them the importance of voting to surrender the nine mis- sions from San Miguel northward rather than the nine of the south. That the southern establishments were the richest and the most desirable in respect of climate, soil, and products was " clear as the noon-day sun." For the young friars of Orizaba to reap the advantage of all that had been achieved, expelling the old and infirm Fernandinos from the homes to which they had become attached, would be an injustice equally manifest. Moreover, the southern friars would all retire to Mexico rather than endure a transfer to the north; while on the other hand the change southward would by no means be deemed a hardship by those of the north. It might be said that San Fernando was a college de propaganda, not propagata, fide, and should therefore choose the district where there were most gentiles to be converted. But Pay- eras ingeniously combated that argument, the force of which he admitted, with the plea that while gen-
35 Lopez, El Guardian al Presidente sobre Cesion de Misiones al Colegio de Orizaba, 1820, MS. The exact date is not given. The guardian informs Pay- eras that his proposal or plan will not be needed, for the viáticos have been ordered paid from the pious fund. The reference was to a plan for paying the expenses of some new friars by subscriptions among the missions, proposed to the padres on August 28, 1819. Payeras, Circular ú los Padres sobre medios de conseguir nuevos misioneros, 1819, MS., approved by the padres, or rather referred by most of them to PP. Señan, Tapis, and Sarria.
410
MISSION AFFAIRS.
tiles were doubtless most numerous in the far north, yet they were not so situated as to be accessible for missionary purposes without a strong military force, which there was no prospect of obtaining; while in the south there were five or six places where new missions might be founded,36 if only padres and some church furniture could be obtained. As to the latter he had a scheme in his head whereby a market might be found at Tepic or Guadalajara for the oil, wine, tallow, woods, and soap of the southern missions, and the needed funds be thus raised; while it was well known that in the north but little produce could be offered, even if there were a market. 87 To what extent the California friars shared their prelate's enthusiastic preference for the south does not appear, as they were not called upon to vote upon the proposition. I do not know exactly how the question was settled in Mexico; but it could not make itself heard above the political din of the next few years, and never reap- peared in California. 39
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