Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/25

 NEW MEXICO

NEW MEXICO

ary work was begun in earnest, and in 1599 Onate sent a party to Mexico for re-enforcements. With this party went Fathers Martinez, Salazar, and Vergara to obtain more friars. Salazar died on the way, Marti- nez did not return, but a new Franciscan comisario, Juan de Escalona, returned to New Mexico with Ver- gara and eight more Franciscans. New missions were being estabhshed in the near puehlos, and prosperity was at hand, but Onate's ambitions proved fatal: in 1601 he desired to conquer the coimtry to the north and west, and started on an expedition with a small force, taking with him two Franciscans. The people who remained at and near San Juan de los Caballeros were left unprotected. Civil discord followed, and the newly-settled province was abandoned, the set- tlers, with the friars, moving south. Father Escalona remained, at the risk of his life, to await the return of Onate; but he had written to the viceroy, asking that Onate should be recalled. Oiiate, with a new comi- sario, Francisco Escobar, and Father San Buenaven- tura, set out on another counter expedition, and Es- calona and the other friars continued their missionary work among their neophytes. New re- enforcements arrived between 1605 and 1608, in spite of Onate's misrule. In 1608 Father Alonso Peinado came as co- misario and brought with him eight more friars. By this time 8000 Indians had been converted. By 1617 the Franciscans had built eleven churches and had converted 14,000 In- dians.

In 1620 Father Ger6nimo de Zdrate Salmer6n, a very zealous missionary, came to New Mexico. There he worked for eight years, and wrote a book on Chris- tian doctrine in the language of the Jemez. By 1626 the missions numbered 27; 34,000 Indians had been baptized, and 43 churches built. Of the friars only 16 were left. In 1630 Fr. Benavides desired to establish a bishopric in New Mexico, and went to Spain to lay his petition before the king. In his memorial he says that there were in New Mexico, in 1630, 2.5 missions, covering 90 pueblos, attended by 50 friars, and that the Christian natives numbered 00,000. The mi.ssions established in New Mexico in 1630, according to this memorial, were the following: among the Piros, or Picos, 3 missions (Socorro, Senecii, Sevilleta) ; among the Liguas, 2 (Sandia, Isleta); among the Queres, 3; among the Tompiros, 6; among the Tanos, 1; among the Pecos, 1 ; among the Toas, or Tehuas, 3; at Santa F6, 1 ; among the Taos, 1 ; among the Zuni, 2. The other two are not mentioned. However, the wrongs perpetrated by local governors exasperated the In- dians, and the missionaries were thus labouring under difficulties. By 1680 the number of missions had increased to 33, but the Indian rebellion broke out. All the missions and settlements were destroyed, the churches burned, and the settlers massacred. The number of victims among the Spaniards was 400. Of the missionaries, 11 escaped, while 21 were massacred.

With Don Diego de Vargas, and the reconquest of New Alexico in 1691-95, the Franciscans entered the province again. Father San Antonio was the guard- ian, but in 1694 he returned to EI Paso, and, with Father Francisco Vargas as guardian, the missions

were re-established. Not only were most of the old missions again in a prosperous condition, but new ones were established among the Apaches, Navajos, and other tribes. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, petty disputes arose between the friars and the Bishop of Durango, and the results were unfav- ourable to the missions, which at this time numbered from 20 to 25, Father Juan Mirabal being guardian. In 1760 Bishop Tamar6n of Durango visited the prov- ince. From this time on the Franciscan missions in New Mexico changed, the friars in many cases acted as parish priests, and their work did not prove so fruitful.

During the last half of the eighteenth century, and during the last years of Spanish rule (1800-1821), the missions declined more and more The Franciscans still remained, and received salaries from the Govern- ment, not as missionaries but as parish priests. They were under their guardian, but the Bishop of Durango controlled religious affairs, with a permanent vicar in New Mexico. The Mexican rule of 1821-1846 was worse than the Span- ish rule, and the mis- sions existed only in name. At the time of the American oc- cupation, in 1846, the missions, as such, no longer existed.

The missionary work in what is now Arizona was in some fuses that of the \( \v Mexican friars, A lid from the begin- <\\t.\'i_ of their labours irinl.il their mis- M- :iiii(ingtheZuni .^iiil the Moquis. A irw uf these missions, 1 1< iwever, had no con- I II -xion whateverwith ilir missionary work 1 )t New Mexico. After Niza's exploration in 1540, we know little of the missionary work in Ari- zona proper, until 1633, when Fray Francisco Par- ras, who was almost alone in his work, was killed at Aguatevi. In 1680 four Franciscans, attending three missions among the Moquis, were killed dur- ing the New Mexican rebellion of that year. In Northern Mexico, close to the Arizona line (or, as then known, Pimeria Alta), the Jesuits were doing excellent mission work in 1600-1700. It was a Jesuit, also. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, who explored what is now southern Arizona, in 1687. No missions were es- tablished, however, in Arizona before Father Kino's death in 1711, though churches were built, and many Indians converted. The work of Father Kino was abandoned after his death, until 1732, when Fathers Felipe Segesser and Juan B. Grashoffer established the first permanent missions of Arizona at San Xavier del Bac and San Miguel de Guevavi. In 1750 these two missions were attacked and plundered by the Pimas, but the missionaries escaped. In 1752 the mis- sions were reoccupied. A rivalry between the Fran- ciscans and the Jesuits hindered the success of the missions.

In 1767, however, the controversy between Jesuits and Franciscans was ended, and the Jesuits exijelled. The Government, not content with their exiuilsion, confiscated the mission property, (hough the Francis- cans were invited to the field. Four Franciscans ar- rived in 1768 to renew the missionary work and found the missions in a deplorable state, but they persuaded the Government to help in the restoration and to re- store the confiscated property. It is to be observed