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 GUAM

45

GUARANf

they lay clown in the open air wherever night found them, antl rarely twice consecutively in the same spot. They had practically no form of government, and marriage could hardly be said to exist, in view of the universal licentiousness, jealousy being apparently unknown. The rest of their moral make-up was of a parity. Honour, shame, and gratitude were un- known virtues, and after years of effort the mission- ary was obliged to confess "that there was but very little result because there was no foundation to build upon. They had no religious ceremonies or emblems, and their mathematical ability did not permit them to count beyond six, so that," as Baegert quaintly puts it, "none of them can say how many fingers he has." To save the souls and ameliorate the temporal con- dition of such naked, houseless, and utterly degraded savages, some of the most devoted and scholarly men of the Jesuit Order gave the best years of their lives.

Through the efforts of the celebrated Jesuit, Father Kino, priest of the Sonora mission, who had already begun the religious instruction of the Pericui and a study of their language in 16S3-.5, attention was di- rected to the peninsula and the work of conversion was entrusted to Father Juan Maria Salvatierra, S.J., who landed on the east coast near the Island of Carmen on 15 October, 1697, with six companions, a few cattle, sheep, and pigs, and founded the mis- sion of Our Lady of Loreto, destined to become the centre of the peninsula missions. The partic- ular tribe in the vicinity was the Laimon, the Pericui range beginning a few miles to the south. The na- tives appeared friendly, and after a short time the boat returned to the mainland, leaving the missionary alone to act as " priest, officer, .sentry, and even cook". Other missionaries followed and the work grew, largely assisted by the benefactors of the Pious Fund, until, at the close of the Jesuit period, there existed along the peninsula a chain of fourteen mis- sions. Most of the earlier missions were within the territories of the Guaicuri, including San Luis Gon- zaga, where Baegert was stationed, or the Pericui, the northern CochimI being visited later. After Sal- vatierra, who died in 1717, the most prominent name in connexion with these missions is probably that of Father Ugarte, who first explored the Gulf of Cali- fornia in a ship of his own building. The mission day began with Mass and a short recitation of catechism in the Indian language, followed by breakfast, after which the workers scattered to their daily tasks. The sunset bell summoned them to the church for the litany. Regular cooked meals of meat and grain, besides fruits from the mission orchards and vine- yards, were furnished three times daily to the sick, the old, and the workers, the others, who roved at will, being expected to look out for themselves.

In spite of the fickle character of the natives, the missionaries encountered very little active opposition excepting among the Pericui, but their efforts for good were largely frustrated )iy the vicious example of the pearl fishers and other adventurers, who, follow- ing the opening up of the coimtry, introduced dissi- pation and disease until the blood of the whole Indian population was hopelessly poisoned. On the de- parture of the Jesuits in 1768 the missions were turned over to the Franciscans, but subject to so many re- strictions that in 1773 they transferred them to the Dominicans. Nine other missions, all among the more northern tribes, were founded by the latter order up to 1797, making a total of twenty-three then in existence on the peninsula. The missions, however, soon declined, chiefly owing to the rapid extinction of the Indians themselves. Serious scandals also crept in. Governmental interference was succeeded by governmental hostility and spoliation under the revolutionary regime, culminating in 1833, in the act of secularization by which the ruin of the missions was completed. The few surviving Indians scattered

to the mountains or starved about their former homes. Those within the mission area, estimated originally at a minimum of 25,000, numbered less than 3S00 in 1840. In 1908 these had dwindled to a handful of supposed Guaicuri about San Xavier and a few in- dividuals of the Cochimf about Santa Gertrudis and San Borja, orderly in conduct and devoutly Catholic. Baegert, Nachriclden von der Amerikanischen Halbinsel Califomiens (Mannheini, 1773): edited in extracts by Rau as Account of the Aboriginal 1 nhnbitants of the California Peninsula in Smithsonian Reports far 186:) and 1864 (Wa.shington. 1864 and 1865): Bancroft, Native Races of the Paeifie Stales: I: Wild Tribes (San Francisco, 1882): Idem, Historic of the North Mexican States and Texas (San Francisco, 1886): Browne, Settlement and Exploration of Lower California (San FrancLsco, 1859): Clavigero, Storia delta California (Venice, 1789); Gleeson, History of the Catholic Church in California (San Francisco, 1872): Duflot de Mofra.s, Exploration du Terri- toire de I'Oregon, 1840-2 (Paris. 1S44): North, The Mother of California (San Francisco and New York, 1908); Venegas, No- ticia de la California (Madrid, 1757).

J,\MES MOONEY.

Guam. See M.^riana Islands, Prefecture Apos- tolic OF THE.

Guamanga, Diocese op. See Ayacucho, Dio- cese OF.

Guaram Indians (pronounced Warant), one of the most important tribal grotips of South America, hav- ing theu' former home territory chiefly between the Uruguay and Lower Paraguay rivers, in what is now Paraguay and the Provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios of Argentina. The name by which they are commonly known is of disputed origin and meaning. They call themselves simply -1 bd, that is, men. They belong to the great Tupi-Guarani stock, which ex- tends almost continuously from the Parana to the Amazon, including most of Eastern Brazil, with out- Ijdng branches as far west as the slopes of the Andes. Upon the Tupi-Guaranf dialects is based the lingoa geral or Indian trade language of the Amazon region.

The Guarani are best known for their connexion with the early Jesuit missions of Paraguay, the most notable mission foundation ever established in Amer- ica, and for their later heroic resistance — as the State of Paraguay, against the comljined powers of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay — until practically all their able-bodied men had been exterminated. In phy- sique they are short and stoutly built, averaging but little over five feet, and are rather light in colour. In their primitive condition they were sedentary and agricultural, subsisting largely upon manioc, the root from which tapioca is prepared, together with corn, game, and wild honey, and occupying palisaded villages of communal houses, large enough to accom- modate from ten to fifteen families each. They were expert and artistic potters and woodcarvers. Their arms were the bow and blow-gun. According to the Jesuit missionary Dobrizhoffer, besides being cannibals, as were many other South American tribes, they, in ancient times, even ate their own dead, but later disposed of them in large jars placed inverted upon the ground. The men wore only the G-string, with labrets in the lower lip, and feather crowns. The women wore woven garments covering the whole body. Polygamy was allowed but was not common. Their religion was the animistic Pantheism usual among northern Indians. There was no central gov- ernment, the numerous village communities being united only by the bond of common interest and language, with a tendency to form tribal groups according to dialect. At a minimum estimate they numbered when first known at least 400,000 souls.

The first entry into the Rio de la Plata, the estuary of the Parana or Paraguay, was made by the Spanish navigator Juan de Solis, in 1511. Sebastian Cabot followed in 1526, and in 1537 Gonzalo de Mendoza ascended the Paraguay to about the present Brazilian frontier, and returning founded Asimcion, destined