Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/215

 CALIFORNIA

179

CALIFORNIA

north, were: San Jose del Cabo (17:10); Santiago de las Coras (172] i; San Juan de Ligni (1705); Nuestra Senora de los Dolores del Sur (1721); Nuestra Senora del Pilar (1720); Santa Rosa or Todos Santos (17:13); San Luis Gonzaga (1737); San Francisco Xavier (1699); Nuestra Senora de Loreto (Kilt,. San Jose de Comundu (1708); Purfsima Conception de Cade- gonio (1718); Santa Rosalia de Mulege (1705); Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (1720); San Ignacio (1728); Santa Gertrudis (1752); San Francisco de Borja (1759); and Santa Maria de los Angeles ( 1766). < >nly fourteen of these missions existed in 1767; epi- demics had carried off the neophytes of the other establishments so that they had to be abandoned.

No statistics exist from which the success of the Jesuit missionary labours can be estimated, because no such minute reports were required by the Govern- ment as were demanded at subsequent periods. Some of the missionaries were rather enthusiastic in describing the reception given to the Gospel by the natives in their respective localities; but owing to the unfavourable conditions, according to the Jesuit, Father John Jacob Baegert (q. v.), who had toiled for seventeen years at one of the missions, the relig- ious and moral impression was nowhere very deep or lasting. Like other Jesuit historians he describes the Indians as indolent to the last degree, dull, cruel, treacherous, indifferent, and addicted to the lowest vices, from which it was exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to wean them, on account of the little control which the missionaries could exercise over their neophytes. Owing to the sterility of the soil and the lack of water for irrigation, it was impossible, except in a few places, to feed and clothe a large number of people at the missions and thus keep them under the watchful eye of the missionaries. After a course of instructions more or less long, during which period they were fed at the missionary establish- ments, the neophytes were permitted to return to their haunts in order to search for food in the moun- tains, as had been their custom from time imme- morial. A chief and a catechist would, indeed, exer- cise some kind of supervision over the converts and report grievous transgressions to the missionary; but the neophytes were necessarily left to themselves, save when the turn came for each particular village to repair for a week to the mission for examination in the catechism and for further instruction, during which week the Fathers had to maintain them. Nevertheless, the missionaries succeeded in opening the gates of heaven to many thousands of souls who, but for the unselfish efforts of the religious, would not have learned even of the existence of I Sod.

During the sixty years that the Jesuits were per- mitted to labour among the natives of California, as far as known, fifty-six members of the Society of Jesus came to tlie peninsula, of whom sixteen, two as martyrs, died at their posts. Fifteen priests and One lay brothel- survived the hardships only to be subjected to enforcement of the brutal decree launched against the Society of Jesus by King Carlos 111 of Spain. The Jesuits of Lower California were placed on board a ship in February, 1768, and brought to Mexico, whence, with the Mexican relig- ious, those who had outlived the cruelties inflicted on the way tliit her were shipped to Europe. The missions meanwhile were left in charge of military officers called comigionados, who for a year mismanaged the tem- poralities regardless of the rights of the Indians.

Immediately after the decree of expulsion had been published at the capital of Mexico (July, 1767), Viceroy De Croiz requested the Franciscans of the Apostolic Missionary College of San Fernando in the city of Mexico to accept the missions of California. Their superiors acquiesced reluctantly, for they were not in a condition to furnish the requisite number of missionaries. To be able to comply with the de-

mand, five flourishing Indian missions in the Sierra Gorda were surrendered to the Archbishop of Mexico. Fifteen volunteer friars, led by the famous Junipero Serra, finally arrived at Loreto on Good Friday, the 1st of April, 1768, and were at once assigned to deserted missions. They were given charge of the spiritual affairs only, to the amazement of the Indians who had been accustomed to receive food, clothing, and presents as well as religious instructions from their spiritual guides. When, however, the inspec- tor-general, Don Jos6 de Galvez, arrived in July, 1768, with almost unlimited power to remedy the irregularities brought on by the sudden change, and discovered from personal observation how the comi- sionados had squandered the mission property, he at once turned it over to the Franciscans who, thereafter, could manage the missions as freely as the Jesuits had done. The friars continued the system of their predecessors and sought, though in vain at various places, to repair the damage wrought during the mis- rule of the secular officials. A year after their arrival another mission was founded to the north of Santa Maria at Velicata under the patronage of San Fernan- do. The Fathers were about to establish five additional missions in obedience to the orders of the viceroy, who had already named the pa- tron saints, when the hostility of Governor Barri frustrated the plan. From a report, t he only general one we have concerning Lower Cali- fornia during the mission period, which Father Francisco Palou, then superior, or presidente, of the missions, sent to Mexico, we learn that the Franciscans, from April, 1768, to Septem- ber, 1771, baptized 1731 persons, nearly all In- dians. During the same period they blessed 787 marriages and buried 2165 dead.

As early as 176S the Dominican viear-general, Father Juan Pedro de Iriarte, sought permission from the king to found missions in Lower California, and succeeded in obtaining a royal decree to that effect on the 8th of April, 1770; but the Franciscan College of San Fernando, deeming the territory too sparsely populated for two different missionary bands, offered to cede the whole peninsula to the Dominican Order. An agreement between Father Rafael Verger, the guardian of the college, and Father Juan Pedro de Iriarte, the viear-general of the Dominicans, was accordingly drawn up on the 7th of April, 1772, and approved by the Viceroy Bucareli on the 12th of May, 1772. Nine Dominican Fathers and one lay brother landed at Loreto on the 14th of October. 1772. but refused to accept control of the missions until their superior, Father Iriarte, should arrive. The latter sometime after suffered shipwreck and was drowned in the Gulf of California. Father Yincente Mora was then appointed superior or presidente, where- upon Father Francisco Palou began the formal transfer at Loreto in May, 1773, and repeated the ceremony at each mission as he travelled north on his way to Upper California. Thirty-nine Friars Minor had been active on the peninsula during tin- five years and five months of the Franciscan rule. Four of these died, ten were transferred to Upper California, where Father Junipero Serra had begun to open a much larger field for his brethren, and the remainder returned to the mother-house.

N'cisco Palou