Pioneer Black Robes on the West Coast [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9780520348646

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PIONEER

BLACK ROBES ON WEST

COAST

THE

C H U R C H OF T H E F O R M E R J E S U I T NOVITIATE AT T E P O T Z O T L A N , NEAR M E X I C O C I T Y

* Pioneer * Black Robes on the West Cjoast * By Peter Masten Dunne, S.J.

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles • 1940

UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

BERKELEY,

PRESS

CALIFORNIA

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

PRESS

LONDON,ENGLAND

C O P Y R I G H T , 1 9 4 0 , BY THE R E G E N T S OP T U E U N I V E R S I T Y OF CALIFORNIA

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THIS

Educational

SERIES

Foundations of the Jesuits in Sixteenth-Century By Jerome V. Jacobsen, S.J., Ph.D. 1938

PRINTED

I N T H E U N I T E D STATES OP

BY S A M U E L T . FARQUHAR, UNIVERSITY

AMERICA PRINTER

New Spain

TO T H E S O C I E T Y OF J E S U S W H I C H T H I S YEAR, 1 9 4 0 , C E L E B R A T E S ITS F O U R HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

EDITOR'S PREFACE

P

IONEER B L A C K ROBES ON T H E WEST COAST ÍS the

second

volume of a series which aims to tell the story of the Jesuits in Spanish North America between their arrival in J 5 7 2 and their expulsion nearly two hundred years later. In the first volume of the series, entitled Educational Foundations of the Jesuits in Sixteenth-Century New Spain, Dr. Jacohsen set forth the coming of the Jesuits to Mexico, the establishment of their educational system, and its geographical spread and institutional development to the end of the century. Dr. Jacobsens volume is concerned primarily with the founding of colleges and the great Colegio Máximo de San Pedro y San Pablo in the city of Mexico, and the extension of educational work among Spaniards and sedentary natives in Central Mexico outside of the capital. Here Dr. Dunne takes up the story of the beginning of Jesuit missionary work entre infieles, among the more primitive natives of the West Coast. His volume is devoted to the opening of missions on the Sinaloa River in 1591 by the protomartyr Gonzalo de Tapia, and their advance northward until the Sonora River was reached some four decades later. Father Dunne has depicted an epic story of missionary adventure as it appeared to the actors and their contemporaries, and as interpreted by himself, a sympathetic twentieth-century confrere. It is a stirring drama of missionaries and soldiers (notably El Capitán HurdaideJ laboring harmoniously side by side in an effort to plant Christian civilization in heathen America. In these pages the author has brought forth from comparative obscurity a galaxy of notable pioneers, great figures in their time but neglected by modern historians. Tapia, Ribas, Méndez, Pascual, and Martínez in New Spain, to mention only a few, deserve a place in Cvii]

viii

EDITOR'S

PREFACE

North American history beside Le Jeune, Jogues, Brebceuf, and Lallemand, their celebrated brethren who somewhat later toiled in New France. In the preparation of his narrative Father Dunne has not only used voluminous sources, both published and unpublished, but has personally gone over the terrain with which his story is concerned, and has thus enhanced its accuracy and its reality. Several additional volumes in the series, carrying the story forward, have been completed and are awaiting publication, and still others are in preparation. All of them, like the volumes of Drs. Jacobsen and Dunne, and that of Dr. Shiels on Gonzalo de Tapia (published elsewhereJ, have emanated from the same seminar, "The Round Table',' at the University of California. The publication of the present volume has been made possible by donors who have modestly requested that their names be not made known. TT r n HERBERT E . BOLTON

Berkeley, June

22,1940.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

T

HE STORY of the old Franciscan missions of California, which had their beginning in at San Diego under the eye and hand of Fray Junipero Serra, is well known; they are justly renowned for the historical importance of their permanence, for the color they lend to California's past, and for their picturesque ruins which add to the romantic atmosphere of the State. It is not so widely known, however, that they were but the last link in a long chain of cultural and humanitarian foundations for the North American native, a chain the first link of which was forged by men who had begun their labors far south of the California frontier, two centuries before. The first permanent missionaries north of Culiacan on the west coast of North America were Jesuit Black Robes, and of these the two earliest pioneers were Gonzalo de Tapia and Martin Perez. They began their labor of Christianizing the natives in 1591 on the Sinaloa River in Mexico, not far from the mouth of the Gulf of California. The present work intends to tell the story of the Jesuit missionary undertaking, but only during the first four decades, from 1 t o 1632—which will suffice to show the western missions well on the way toward their march to San Francisco. The author of the present work is grateful to many who have inspired and aided him in his task. To Dr. Herbert Eugene Bolton, under whose direction these studies were begun some years ago, who has been the chief inspiration of all that is here set down, and who assembled most of the source materials used, he owes a special debt of gratitude. Jesuit superiors, by releasing the author from other duties, helped to make the work possible in the first instance, and have continued to further it by their interest and encouragement. Jesuit confreres of the Province of W

AUTHOR'S

X

PREFACE

Mexico have given valuable assistance by lending documents and by facilitating a review of the geographical terrain. Generous aid and service have been rendered by the staff of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, and by those who at the expense of much labor and devotion have copied and recopied the manuscript and have aided in the reading of the proofs. i

'

Department of History, University of San Francisco, March i, 1940.

p. M. D.

CONTENTS CHAPTER

I. Far-flung Missions II. Gonzalo de Tapia

PAGE

i 9

III. Sinaloa Enters Mission History

16

IV. A Glorious Beginning

24

V. Tapia Is Martyred

35

VI. The Great Captain

48

VII. The Thrust to the Fuerte

58

VIII. Sinaloa Joins the Church

67

IX. Ribas Wins a River X. The Skirts o£ the Sierras XI. Mountain and Coast Indians XII. The Unconquerable liaquis

78 89 97 112

XIII. The Captain Builds a Fort

129

XIV. Eight Thousand Confirmations

140

X V . On to Rio Mayo

144

XVI. The Rim of Revolt

155

XVII. Don Bautista's Honeymoon

164

XVIII. Ribas to the \aqui

175

XIX. Chief Sisibotari

188

XX. Hurdaide's Last Campaign XXI. The Crowning Glory

198 207

xii

CONTENTS

APPENDIX

PAGE

I. List of Pioneer Black Robes on the West Coast . II. Numbers of Indians Baptized, 1591—1631

.

.

217 218

III. List of Missionaries in Sinaloa and Sonora in 1625, with Numbers of Baptized Indians to Whom They Ministered

219

IV. List Showing Increases in Numbers of Missionaries, 1604—1628

220

Essay on Sources

223

Notes

231

Bibliography

265

Index

271

ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

Church of the former Jesuit novitiate at Tepotzotlán, near Mexico City Frontispiece One of the five courts of the former Jesuit College of Santo Espíritu, Puebla

facing

Tower of the old Jesuit church, Sinaloa . . . .

16

facing 32

A page of a letter of Captain Hurdaide's, with his signature facing 48 Plaza at Ocoroni, as seen from the tower of the modern church

facing 64

Indian dwelling near Ocoroni

facing 64

Ruins of the Jesuit mission at Vaca, on the upper Fuerte facing 80 Ruins of Ribas' mission at Mochicahue, on the lower Fuerte facing 80 Ruins of the Jesuit mission at Charay, in the Suaqui country

facing 96

The bells of Charay

facing 96

A page of the biography of Father Pedro Méndez, in the Jesuit archives of Mexico facing 1 9 2 The martyrdom of Fathers Pascual and Martinez, facing 208 from an old print

MAPS PAGE

Distribution of Indian peoples in northwestern Mexico (after Sauer)

18

Early Jesuit missions on the Pacific slope

28

Í xiii ]

. . .

ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

Church of the former Jesuit novitiate at Tepotzotlán, near Mexico City Frontispiece One of the five courts of the former Jesuit College of Santo Espíritu, Puebla

facing

Tower of the old Jesuit church, Sinaloa . . . .

16

facing 32

A page of a letter of Captain Hurdaide's, with his signature facing 48 Plaza at Ocoroni, as seen from the tower of the modern church

facing 64

Indian dwelling near Ocoroni

facing 64

Ruins of the Jesuit mission at Vaca, on the upper Fuerte facing 80 Ruins of Ribas' mission at Mochicahue, on the lower Fuerte facing 80 Ruins of the Jesuit mission at Charay, in the Suaqui country

facing 96

The bells of Charay

facing 96

A page of the biography of Father Pedro Méndez, in the Jesuit archives of Mexico facing 1 9 2 The martyrdom of Fathers Pascual and Martinez, facing 208 from an old print

MAPS PAGE

Distribution of Indian peoples in northwestern Mexico (after Sauer)

18

Early Jesuit missions on the Pacific slope

28

Í xiii ]

. . .

Chapter I

FAR-FLUNG MISSIONS IK GREAT ENGLISH HISTORIAN of the last century said that dur-

L \ ing the period of the Reformation the Catholic Church A- A . gained more adherents in the New World than she had lost in the Old.1 Though exact figures are unavailable, and the words occur in a sentence of fine rhetorical flourish, the statement is almost certainly correct. And it is interesting to reflect that the two countries least affected by the Reformation, Spain and Portugal, were the very nations which for over a century most contributed to this important result. In 1519, just two years after Luther began his conflict with the Church, Cortes, with a few men and ships, landed upon the shores of Mexico. This was the first step taken in that march of events which led to the Christianization of innumerable Indians in North America. Francisco Pizarro touched the borders of the Inca Empire in 1526, one year before the sack of Rome, which some saw as the end of the Papacy,2 and three years before Henry VIII began the course of action that led to his break with the Church. This venture of Pizarro and his brothers was the starting point for the Christianization of innumerable Indians in South America. It is interesting to reflect that the conversion of many of the provinces that would be won for Catholicism was thus begun when the Church herself was most weakened, before the vitalizing movement of the Counter Reformation had begun and when her enemies were ringing her about with danger and threat. With the Counter Reformation a new force appeared which was destined to carry the missionary campaign still farther afield, not only in the New World, but also in many 1

Notes will be found on pp. 231-261.

C1 D

2

B L A C K ROBES ON T H E W E S T COAST

provinces of the Old. In 1540, Pope Paul III approved the constitution of the Society of Jesus which Ignatius de Loyola had created, and in that papal act a great missionary organization was born. When in April of the following year a certain ship sailed out of the harbor of Lisbon bound for the ports of the Indies, it bore the Spaniard, Francis Xavier, whose exploits, with those of his successors, would add millions of souls to the Christianity of the East. With the Jesuits, then, a new missionary force was created within the Church, and the first achievements of Xavier were followed by others equally heroic but not equally known to fame, achievements which found their field in the continents of the East and the West, the North and the South, and in countless islands that dot the seas. Xavier before his death in 1552 had reached Japan and gazed upon the coasts of China. In 1552 Luis Mendez and Pablo Vallez were killed by savages on the coasts of southern India;3 in 1555 Nunez Baretto and two companions were sent to Abyssinia,4 and shortly afterward Juan Bayra was laboring in Ceylon.5 Soon the far-off islands of the East Indies were visited; Magallanes converted the inhabitants of the coasts of Celebes,8 and Ribiera in 1549 died from poison on the island of Amboyna.' A s early as 1547 four Jesuits headed by Jorge Vaz went to the Congo, and by 1553 a mission had been founded there.8 In 1556 Melchior Nunez entered China. In 1549 the Portuguese Nobrega sailed for Brazil with six companions.9 Geronimo Ruiz del Portillo led a band of eight to Peru in 1567, arriving at Lima in the Lenten season of 1568™ Our story deals with the Jesuit missions of North America, and traces a part of the course of events which after two centuries brought the missions to the boundaries of Alta California. The Jesuits first entered North America through that same sea corridor by which most European men and things first came to

F A R - F L U N G MISSIONS

3

the Western Hemisphere: southwest from Spain, touching at the Canaries; across the Atlantic; then a little north through the Caribbean, skirting the southern shores of Haiti and Cuba, or touching at their ports; then swinging around the northern coasts of Yucatan into the harbor of Vera Cruz. For over a century this was the only general route used for entrance to North America and for more than two centuries it was the most crowded of them all. The first Jesuits who entered North America deviated from the usual course; they made a turning to the north that was both honorable and disastrous—honorable because it gave nine martyrs to the Society and the Church, disastrous because the toll in human lives discouraged this northern missionary effort. When the great fleet that sailed from Spain in June, 1566, entered the Caribbean, two ships left the group and, instead of putting in at the harbor of Santo Domingo on the Island of Española, as Haiti was then called, slid away to the north, cruised along the coast of Cuba, and put in at Havana. These ships were Flemish, for Spain was master of the Low Countries, and one of them carried Jesuits who had come to found missions in Florida. Great men had come to Florida before the arrival of these Jesuits, some of them among the greatest of the conquistadors. Lucas Vasquez de Ayllón had sailed along the coast to the north, Panfilo de Narváez to the west; Ponce de León and Hernando de Soto had trod many a league of mainland soil. But none of these was greater than Pedro Menéndez de Aviles, appointed governor of the province by Philip II that he might drive out the French who had settled on the coasts which are now the shores of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, but which were then called, together, La Florida. Menéndez achieved his object ruthlessly. The French at Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River

4

B L A C K ROBES ON T H E W E S T COAST

in Florida were surprised and slaughtered; St. Augustine was founded, and the country held for Spain. This was in 1565. Soon the Governor had strung along the coast a line of forts and settlements, from St. Augustine to Santa Elena on the South Carolina shore a few miles north of the Savannah River. He sent his lieutenants to explore the interior; they pierced the Alleghenies and even founded temporary settlements beyond." It was this great conquistador who finally clinched the matter of the coming of the Jesuits. On M a y 3,1566, King Philip II wrote to the third General of the Society, Francis Borgia, desiring twentyfour fathers for the evangelization of Florida which the prowess of Menendez had secured for Spain." The Royal Council of the Indies was making objections to this request when Pedro Menendez himself, old friend of Borgia, coming to Spain just at the auspicious moment, put an end to all the difficulties of the Council.13 The first Jesuits to enter North America, then, were Fathers Pedro Martinez and Juan Rogel and the brother Francisco de Villareal, who sailed from San Lucar on June 28,1566, with a fleet made up of Flemish ships, in one of which were the missionaries. As we have said, two of these Flemish hookers put in at Havana and after a brief stay sailed north for the coasts of Florida. Land was sighted on September 24th, not far from St. Augustine, but a few days later misfortune was followed by violence and sudden death. A typical storm separated the ships before they could land. The vessel which carried the Jesuits wandered aimlessly up the coast, battered by the winds. The captain had lost all direction. Twice some of the Flemings, accompanied by Father Martinez, rowed to land for food. When the ship reached what is now called Cumberland Island off the Georgia coast, the captain sent men ashore in a skiff to inquire directions of some Indians they saw fishing. Father Martinez

F A R - F L U N G MISSIONS

5

went along to give them courage. A few of the men landed, and while they went roaming incautiously about the shore the others waited for them in the skiff. Martinez began to see signs of danger. The skiff drew nearer to warn the Flemings, but it was suddenly set upon by Indians, and Martinez was seized, dragged to land, and slain with a club. The others in the boat escaped, but three of those who had gone ashore suffered the fate of the Jesuit." Father Rogel and Brother Villareal were later landed safely from the hooker and were soon at work among the Indians near the Spanish settlements.1" By the end of that year Menéndez was back in Spain asking for more Jesuits and six were this time given him, three fathers and three brothers. They sailed March 13,1568, headed by Juan Bautista de Segura, who held the office of vice-provincial. After touching at the Canaries and at Puerto Rico, they arrived at St. Augustine, already an American town, on June 19, 1568.16 Desolating reports and the scarcity of provisions for the little colony decided Segura to return with his group to Havana, leaving only the brother Domingo Agustín at the friendly pueblo of Sutariva near Santa Elena north of the Georgia coast, in order that he might learn the language of the natives." But the next year the Jesuits returned to Florida and fathers and brothers were sent in pairs to the settlements of St. Augustine, Guale, Santa Elena, and Carlos, four being left behind to attend to the spiritual wants of the people of Havana. A full year they labored, but it was a stubborn soil and nothing grew. There followed then a fateful passage in their history. The brother of a cacique in Axacán, far north on Chesapeake Bay, very close to the later settlement of Jamestown, had been carried away by some Dominican friars who had visited those coasts in 1561. He had become a Christian, and had been taken by the Europeans to Mexico City and later to Spain, where he

6

B L A C K ROBES ON T H E W E S T COAST

was received and entertained by King Philip II for several months. He was dubbed Don Luis, after the Viceroy of New Spain, Don Luis de Velasco." He returned to Florida while the fathers were at the missions, and this event moved the Superior, Father Segura, always in hope of spiritual harvest, to a bold and venturesome decision. He and his charges would accompany Don Luis back to his Virginia homeland, where, through the prestige of Spain's protege, the padre hoped to be able to convert the cacique himself and all his tribe. Father Segura and Don Luis therefore took ship for the north." They were accompanied by Father Luis de Quiros, lately arrived, and six brothers, most of whom had been admitted into the Society of Jesus at Havana. A boy named Alonso went along, probably as a servant. This little band of valiant and venturesome missionaries sailed from Santa Elena at the end of August, 1570, and on September nth disembarked on the banks of an inlet of Chesapeake Bay. The mission they founded there they called Santa Maria. Francisco Javier Alegre,20 early Jesuit historian of North America, says that this spot was distant from Santa Elena one hundred and seventy leagues and was in the thirty-sixth degree of latitude, which would place the mission somewhere on the lower Chesapeake. Father Michael Kenny in a recent study locates the site on the lower Rappahannock.21 Thus almost forty years before the settlement of Jamestown by one hundred and twenty Englishmen, including John Rolfe, who wooed Pocahontas, eight Jesuits landed upon these same shores seeking the conversion of Powhatan, brother of Don Luis and father (so the story goes) of the Indian maiden who saved the life of Captain John Smith. After landing with his small band of Jesuits and Don Luis, Father Segura dismissed the captain of the ship which had brought them and told him to return in four months with sup-

F A R - F L U N G MISSIONS

7

plies which would be got ready by Father Rogel in Havana. All would have gone well had Don Luis proved loyal. But his was the unstable nature of the savage, and the sight of his family and his old haunts lured him back into old ways. The smell of the forest got into his blood and the smoke of the wigwam dizzied his spirit. This Indian who had seen the splendors of the courts of Mexico and of Spain again put the moccasin upon his foot and the feather upon his head. When, contrary to promises, he had absented himself for some time from Santa Maria, Segura sent Father Luis de Quiros with brothers Gabriel de Soils and Juan Bautista Mendez in search of him. They found Luis with his tribe, and he met them with smiles and fair words and said he would return to the mission. But when they had departed, he pursued them with his braves and struck every man of them down. February 4,1571, is the date of these first killings. The group who had remained at Santa Maria soon became anxious because the three did not return, but soon and suddenly they discovered the reason at the cost of their own lives. For in a few days they themselves were attacked without warning. Brother Sancho Cevallos was the first to fall; then followed Segura and the three remaining brothers, Gabriel Gomez, Pedro Linares, and Cristobal Redondo.22 We have these details from the boy Alonso, who alone escaped death. The following year Menendez de Aviles and Father Rogel went in search of the martyrs. They found only Alonso, who told them the gruesome story. Rogel wrote the details to the General of the Society, Francis Borgia, and this letter, dated Florida, August 28,1572, is cited by the contemporary Jesuit historian Sacchini, a man of great exactness and critical ability.23 This disaster sounded the death knell of these first Florida missions. But other and more fertile fields were calling. A t the

8

B L A C K ROBES ON T H E W E S T COAST

very time of this massacre in Virginia, plans were being made in Mexico City to invite the fathers thither. The Jesuits had long been desired in Mexico. Interestingly enough, two from the first group of companions whom Ignatius had gathered about him in Spain had gone to the New World. Calixto Sá had become a merchant and traveled widely north and south. Juan de Arteaga had become a churchman and was made Bishop of Chiapas. He spread abroad the fame of Loyola's men.34 The Augustinian Bishop of Popayán, Agustín de la Corana, desired the Jesuits, as did especially Don Vasco de Quiroga, Bishop of Michoacán, who in 1556 sent to Loyola a secretary to petition the General for some of his men. But Ignatius died before the secretary could reach him and soon was followed by the Bishop himself, after he had made a second unsuccessful effort.26 A t the end of the following decade things began to take more definite shape. In 1568 Don Alonso de Villaseca, a wealthy cavalier, put 2000 ducats at the disposal of the Jesuit authorities in Spain for the expense of a voyage to Mexico, promising more when plans should be decided upon. Villaseca was joined in his petition by the chief authorities of Church and State in Mexico City, and by March, 1571, Manuel López, Provincial of Castile, held a letter from the King asking for fathers for Mexico.2" The matter was referred to the General, Francis Borgia, who acted immediately. Twelve fathers were designated for the new mission, with the illustrious Pedro Sanchez, doctor of theology and former rector of the University of Alcalá, at their head as Provincial. The men were to be taken from the three provinces of Toledo, Castile, and Aragón. Sanchez with fourteen companions sailed from San Lúcar June 13,1572, and Antonio Sedeño, one of the Florida group who had been at Havana, was ordered to Mexico City to prepare for their coming.27

Chapter I I

GONZALO DE TAPIA

I

of the sea the great Spanish flotillas would slip out of the harbor of San Lúcar at the mouth of the

IKE CARAVANS

^ Guadalquivir in southwestern Spain. Protection was found in numbers and the unarmed ships were shielded by men-of-war against the prowling sea dogs of the English and the French. Two ships of the fleet which started south to the Canaries on June 13,1572, carried the Jesuit missionaries. The journey required nearly three months, for they did not touch the shores of the western continent till September 9th.1 Father Sedeño had prepared for their coming and all was ready. These men had great reputation. Xavier was then but twenty years dead and the glory of his achievements had resounded over many seas. The fame of the nine martyrs of Florida filled Mexico; their martyrdom had occurred but yesterday and near by. A t this time there was no greater name in all Spain and the Spanish dominions than that of Francis Borgia, former Duke of Gandia and intimate friend of Charles V, now General of the Society of Jesus, and it was he who had sent the fathers to Mexico. We will not be surprised, then, when we read of the enthusiasm of their reception, of how the Governor of Vera Cruz and his staff, with the clergy and the elite of the town, came out to escort them to the city; of how at Puebla (for they were following the historic route of Cortes) Don Fernando Pacheco took them into his new home, just completed, his intention being to turn it over to the fathers; of how at their arrival in Mexico City on September 28th they were met by the Viceroy, Don Martín Enriquez, and the highest officials of the Church.2 Í91

IO

B L A C K ROBES ON THE W E S T COAST

The men of the sixteenth century seem not to have been alive to the beauties of nature. Not a word, for instance, of the splendor of the Alps has crept into the literature of the period, although there was constant passage to and fro between France and Germany and the Lombard plain of Italy, and although the pen of Erasmus might have touched them almost to the glories of a Ruskin. But the heart of the saint is lifted high by the contemplation of the splendor of God's creation, and these fathers must have been impressed, because from Vera Cruz to Mexico City they looked upon some of the finest scenery in the world. They passed close to the towering point of Citlaltepetl, the volcano of Orizaba, lifting its cap of snow more than eighteen thousand feet above the sea. At Puebla, besides Orizaba, which now was a lavender peak seen far off to the east, and Malinche, rough summit that guards the city to the north, they saw to the west, rising to almost equal height with Orizaba, the graceful cone of Popocatepetl clothed in everlasting snow—the "Popo" as Mexicans affectionately call it. To the right of Popo they beheld the form of the sleeping woman, Iztaccihuatl, only slightly less lofty than her companion, and draped likewise in a mantle of white. As the padres continued their journey they gazed through parted ridges into the plain of Mexico, its lake still broad and gray; and when they descended to the level they looked up high to the blue shoulder of Ajusco. Sickness soon came upon the fathers, unfortunately, and Francisco Bazan died. But the others recovered and were soon intent upon their spiritual and apostolic ministry to the Spaniards and the Indians. As the story of the beginnings of work in Mexico City and the first foundations has been treated in minute and scholarly fashion elsewhere,* we must hasten on to the narrative with which these pages are chiefly to be concerned. But we may note

GONZALO DE TAPIA

briefly the marvelously rapid development of houses and colleges, not only in Mexico City, but around the great cities of the central plateau as well. Soon the Indians of Tacuba (now a suburb of the city to the north and west) were busy building the church of the fathers.4 The following year saw the foundation of the Jesuit college of San Pedro y San Pablo. Juan Curiel was sent west to Pátzcuaro to start a house there, which soon became a college. Juan Sanchez and Hernando Suárez de la Concha went to Guadalajara; the residence there likewise became a college. The fathers went north to the highest city in Mexico, Zacatecas; then south, to beautiful Oaxaca. All this was before 1576. Soon a college was founded at Valladolid, now known as Morelia. In 1578 the college of Santo Espíritu was opened at Puebla; then a residence at \fera Cruz was begun, and the foundation at Tepotzotlán, about twenty-five miles north of Mexico City, was established, developing into the novitiate of the Mexican province.5 It found a wealthy patron in a kinsman of St. Teresa, Don Pedro Ruiz de Ahumada." Its church today still possesses five richly carved wooden altars, inlaid with gold in churrigueresque style, which are among the richest in Mexico and in the world.7 Thus the work expanded. In 1582, missions were conducted in Guatemala, Zamora, Guanajuato and at Teotlalco. Three years previously, Don Martínez Henriquez, Bishop of Manila, had asked for fathers for the Philippines, and Antonio Sedeño, our Florida acquaintance, and Alonso Sanchez, had been sent.8 These were followed by others, and within a decade the annual letters began to come in from these far-off islands, reporting to Jesuit headquarters in Mexico City the trials and successes, the hardships and fruitful labors, of many communities. Some of the larger towns soon had several foundations. For instance, in Mexico City there was the Professed House, the familiar Casa

12

BLACK ROBES ON T H E WEST COAST

Profesa, which was the residence of the fathers, with the church attached; there were the small college of San Gregorio, the seminary of San Ildefonso, and the Colegio Máximo for the training of young Jesuits. Within twenty years the work had spread far. If we examine, for example, the annual letters for I 595' written in to Mexico City from all the outlying houses, we see, after a brief introduction, reports of the Casa Profesa of Mexico City and of the different colleges of the metropolis. These are followed by reports from colleges at Puebla, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Pátzcuaro, and Guadiana, which is the later Durango; from the missions of Acapulco and Vinqua; and on rice paper the reports from the Philippines, from colleges at Manila and Zebu, from the residences at Taybay, Ceytez, Carigara y Palo, Ogma y Alangalbang, Ybalco, Catubig, Bohlg, Butuang, and the mission of Mindanao.9 But it is with the Indian missions that we are chiefly concerned. We have seen that missions were conducted in Guatemala, Zamora, Guanajuato, andTeotlalco. But these were passing activities in communities already converted, not missions entre infieles (among infidels), as the Spaniards called them. They were much like the work which the first companions of Loyola did in the cities of Italy, or like the missions given at a later date in Italy by such men as Pinamonte, Segneri, and the Blessed Baldinucci. In 1582 the Provincial, Juan de la Plaza, sent down to Guatemala Antonio de Torres and Alonzo Ruiz,10 and that same year other missionaries went out from Mexico City into the pueblos of the vicinity. Missions radiated likewise from Pátzcuaro; from \klladolid missionaries went to Zamora, and from Puebla they went to Teotlalco. A week or two of sermons and other spiritual exercises, confessions and Communion given to great masses of the population, and the missionaries would return fatigued, but happy for the spiritual seed they had sown.

GONZALO DE T A P I A

I 3

It is true that Indians made up the great number of the auditors of the sermons, but they were Indians who had already been converted to the Faith and subjected for some decades to the influence of Christianity. We are beginning to touch the real and permanent missions among the heathen when we speak of the work done among tribes called Chichimecos in the mountains north of Patzcuaro. To these untamed peoples Father Juan Ferro was sent.11 And it was among these same wild tribes that there was destined to gain his first missionary experience a man who was to be the pioneer Jesuit in Mexico of those permanent missions which were flung out beyond the rim of any kind of civilized life. Twelve years after the first band of Jesuits set sail for Mexico, another group of twenty-three embarked, led by their Superior, Antonio de Mendoza, kinsman of the great Mendoza, the first Viceroy of Mexico. This group numbered five priests, ten scholastics (young Jesuits studying for the priesthood), and eight brothers. Among the ten scholastics was one destined to become the most famous missionary of his time in Mexico and the great driving power behind the advance of the permanent missions established by the pioneer Black Robes of the West Coast. His name was Gonzalo de Tapia and his biography has recently been written by the engaging pen of one of his confreres of the present day, Father W. Eugene Shiels." The group which included Father Tapia sailed from Cadiz on June 25,1584, and reached Mexico City in October. Tapia's destination was the diocese of Michoacan, whose chief city was Patzcuaro, where the Jesuits had labored almost from the first and where there was now a residence and the college of San Nicolas." He was first put to work among the Tarascan Indians, but he longed for a missionary field more challenging to his young spirit than the one he found among these placid

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people long Christianized, and even in the first year of these labors he began to dream of a mission among the wild Chichimecos. He made his tertianship, or final year of spiritual formation, in 1586 at Valladolid, and in the summer of 1587 he returned to Pátzcuaro. He again longed for work among the Chichimecos, and he may have made his desires known to others besides his superiors, for the Governor of Guanajuato soon asked for his services. The Governor could not have sought a finer missioner. Indeed, his work among the Tarascans had been so successful and his powers over men had proved of such excellent quality that his reputation was great and long secure. He went north, then, into the mountains, and worked in the pueblos of Numanán, Paqueco, and San Felipe, starting the foundation of San Luis de la Paz." In 1589 with Father Nicolas de Arnaya 15 he rode still farther north, into the city of Zacatecas, and up to Guadiana (Durango) to minister to the mining populations there. Here he met for the first time that valiant soldier and man of rough frontier experience, Don Rodrigo del Río y Losa, Governor of Nueva Vizcaya and Knight of Santiago. Mexico in Tapia's age was called Nueva España, or New Spain, of which Nueva Vizcaya was a large province to the northwest. Many of the provinces of New Spain took their names from the mother country, so that in the sixteenth century there were also Nuevo León, Nueva Galicia, and later Nuevo Santander, named respectively for provinces of Spain in Europe. Nueva Vizcaya included roughly most of the four modern states of Mexico in the northwest, Durango and Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Sonora. This vast territory was cut in two by the cleavage of the Sierra Madre, running northwest from Mexico City. This range of mountains is a link of the long cordillera that extends from the tip of Alaska to the tip of Chile. The province of Nueva Vizcaya comprised both the eastern and the

GONZALO DE TAPIA

15

western slope of the range, and many thousands of square miles of the mountains themselves. It was probably at Durango, the capital of Nueva Vizcaya, that Father Tapia met for the first time Governor Río y Losa. The meeting and the friendship which sprang from it were destined to have important consequences in the missionary annals of the west. Indeed, here was the beginning of a great undertaking, which was to reach even to the unexplored and almost unvisited lands of Alta California.

Chapter

III

SINALOA ENTERS MISSION HISTORY

T

his meeting with the Governor, an important thing happened in Tapias career. He received from the General of the Society, Claudius Aquaviva, a letter dated April 17,1590, commending his zeal for missions among the savages and promising to further his desires. The Provincial of New Spain, Father Pedro Diaz, was timid about this venture in Mexico, but the Father Visitor, Diego de Avellaneda, who happened to be in the province and who was higher in authority than the Provincial, was enthusiastic about putting into execution the General's promise to Tapia.1 Consequently, Gonzalo was sent to Zacatecas, far to the north, beyond the very rim of wildness, to start an Indian school. He arrived in 1590, and the catalogue of 1591 mentions him as teaching grammar there. It was at this period that the friendship between himself and Governor Río y Losa was cemented. This grizzled soldier and frontiersman, cattleman and wealthy encomendero, who knew the country and its needs, prevailed upon the padre to consider founding missions in Sinaloa. Tapia's ambitions were vaulting. He wanted to go up to New Mexico and begin his work there, forgetting the vastness of the intervening country and the dangerous uncertainty of that spot of terrible isolation. But Río y Losa had been with Francisco Ibarra when the latter made his famed exploration into the northern wilds." Subsequently, when appointed governor, he rode over all his new province, including the coasts of Sinaloa, and therefore was able from direct knowledge to tell the eager apostle how very much his work was needed on the rivers that flow into the Gulf of California. He could tell the young padre of the destruction ^HE YEAR AFTER

ONE OF THE FIVE COURTS OF THE FORMER JESUIT COLLEGE OF SANTO ESPIRITU, PUEBLA

SINALOA E N T E R S MISSION HISTORY

17

of San Juan de Carapoa by the Indians, of the murder of its Spanish inhabitants including two Franciscan friars,3 of Captain Martin's defeat and Governor Bazán's humiliation.4 Here evidently was the place to begin the mission, Río y Losa would urge; the western slope of the Sierra Madre cried out for an apostle. Then a letter from Mexico City clinched the whole affair. Gonzalo de Tapia, together with Father Martín Pérez, was ordered to put himself at the disposal of the Governor and to go to that district which the Governor would indicate.5 Of course it would be Sinaloa. The word Sinaloa, spelled also Cinaloa in the old annals, is of Indian origin and signifies the saguaro or tree cactus.8 The name was used as the designation of a tribe that lived on the upper reaches of the Fuerte River just after it emerges from the high mountains. This tribe belonged to the larger Cáhita family, with which most of our story will deal. The Sinaloa River was an aboriginal dividing line; north of it "a decided change in culture was noted, as shown by lesser density, ruder habits, and different speech of the Indians. The records of the Conquest check satisfactorily with the archaeologic distribution!" The Indians of the Cáhita family lived for the most part upon the banks of four short rivers, which drop from the Sierra Madre range into the Gulf of California.To name them from the south, these rivers are the Sinaloa, the Fuerte, the Mayo, and the Yiqui.8 The latter two have taken their names from the tribes inhabiting their course.' Not so with the Sinaloa River, on whose banks the savages of this name did not live. But these Indians gave their tribal name to a province, the present Mexican state of Sinaloa, in which they dwelt. From the province the name slipped over to a river and to a town, the town of Sinaloa on the banks of the Sinaloa River in the state of Sinaloa. The original name of the town founded by the Spaniards in 1585 was San

SINALOA ENTERS MISSION HISTORY

19

Felipe y Santiago, and the river was called variously Petatlán and Río de la Villa.10 But what's in a name? Sweetness is in the name of Sinaloa, which is good for town and river, as well as for a province. The Sinaloa River drops into the Gulf of California not far from its mouth. Some seventy miles up the river and about forty miles beyond the fork created by the inflow of the Ocoroni lies the town of Sinaloa, still a capital and still cherishing the relics of its mission days. A great waste of thicket sprinkled with the grotesque and thorny cactus lies today for miles and miles over the landscape. In winter it is leafless and of a dull russet hue. This brush is taller and less dense than, say, the brushwood of California, and consists of mesquite, the palo blanco, ama pa of the white flower, the palo santo; and, on the lower levels especially to the south, perhaps of ebony. The visitor to Sinaloa who is interested in the geography of the country for its connection with the ancient missions is most fortunate. The town is built on a gentle slope that blends lower down with the banks of the river. Up past the houses to the northwest, rising by gentle grades, stands a lone hill. Through the brush a broad yellow belt stands clear, leading to the top, and from this eminence the traveler looks down upon a magnificent panorama unrolled to the four points of the compass. What most strikes the northerner is the absolute clarity of the perspective. Far-off mountains which in thicker atmospheres would be dimmed to disappearance stand out in a delicious blue, and fardistant ranges rise like ghosts in lavender. From the coign of vantage that nature gave the town of Sinaloa, starting point of the missions of the West Coast, the visitor can gaze about him and look out as on a picture upon the streams and the mountains, the valleys and the pueblos about which he has been reading in the ancient annals of the padres.

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From this hilltop, as one looks down the Sinaloa River, there can be seen along a level stretch of country the sites of Bamoa and Nio and Guasave. Still beyond, steel-blue summits rise out of white space; they are the tips of graceful hills on long islands that hug the shore, Macapule and San Ignacio, about which also the missionaries speak. South is Mocorito, north is Ocoroni. And then, farther north and west there is a fine thrust of blue mountain ridge that struts across the plain, closing it in, yet not quite, for as one actually approaches those hills he perceives that they are open; there are passes between them, like the one in which San Bias is situated. Behind them runs the Rio Fuerte, then called the Sinaloa or the Suaque" But most impressive are the high sierras that fling out great barriers to the east and close in the valleys with tall and savage rock. Here is the Sierra Madre, and deep within its folds the padres labored and left the bosom of this cordillera dotted with Christian missions, the crumbling ruins of which still attest the valor of the men who penetrated for souls more deeply than the miner did for gold. A s from the hills of Sinaloa we have taken in a broad sweep of country geographically, let us now cast out with the eye of the mind and take in a broad sweep of time chronologically. From this same hill of Sinaloa there began a mission system that swept over barriers of time as of space, and did not stop until, after the lapse of two centuries, it reached the steep promontory of Point Lobos that looks across the Golden Gate. Up to the Fuerte River and to the Mayo and to the Yiqui the padres went, and then beyond the Yiqui into the heart of modern Sonora. A t the end of the sixteen hundreds, with Kino and Salvatierra, the missions crossed the Gulf of California in one direction, and in the other reached up into the deserts of southern Arizona. Then a great blow fell, in 1767; the Jesuits were removed from all the lands of Spain and many a mission was left desolate to

SINALOA ENTERS MISSION HISTORY

21

crumble, forgotten, into ruins. But not all. The sons of St. Francis and of St. Dominic entered to fill many of the vacant places. The main links of the chain remained unbroken. With the vigor of men like Serra, and with the strength of men like Anza, and with the dreams of national expansion of men like José de Galvez and Bucareli this system of missions was carried into Alta California, so that by the eventful year 1776 the Indians of San Francisco saw their padre and their church. Gonzalo de Tapia was not the first Spaniard to enter the Sinaloa country. Nuno de Guzman had penetrated into the province as early as 1530. Cabeza de Vaca, after his great journey across the plains of Texas, had rounded the Sierra Madre to the north and come down the coast in 1536 to Culiacan on the western slope of the mountains; Coronado in search of the seven cities of Cibola had passed up the coast in 1540. Ibarra in 1563 had gone north on the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre, and in 1564 he crossed the mountains at Topia, and thence marched up the coastal plains. It was he who founded the town of San Juan Bautista de Carapoa on the banks of the Fuerte River. This settlement was soon destroyed by the Suaqui Indians and most of the inhabitants massacred, including two Franciscan friars. Then, in 1583, Pedro de Montoya made another entrada and founded a town a second time on the banks of the same Fuerte River, calling it now San Felipe y Santiago de Carapoa. Montoya and twelve of his men were massacred, and the rest withdrew south to the Sinaloa River. In 1585 Governor Hernando Bazan with a hundred men marched north to avenge this slaughter. But his captain, Gonzalo Martin, was surrounded and his company all but wiped out and the Governor himself, although he marched to the Mayo River, was unable to draw the Suaquis to battle. The settlement that had been twice destroyed, Governor Bazan re-

22

B L A C K ROBES ON THE W E S T COAST

founded; this time he placed it on the banks of the Sinaloa south of the Fuerte by some fifty miles, but again it was called San Felipe y Santiago. Melchior Téllez was left as comandante, soon to be succeeded by Pedro Tovar. But the latter soon went back to Culiacán, followed almost at once by the greater part of the settlers. This desertion left a forlorn little speck of a place with only five Spanish inhabitants, one of whose number, Bartolomé Mondragón, was appointed comandante in 1589, two years before the Jesuits arrived. The names of the other four have been handed down to history for their great courage in clinging to the rim of civilization until the new Governor, Río y Losa, took steps the following year to lift them out of danger by sending in the padres." The names of these four frontiersmen as given by Ribas are: Tomás de Soberanes, Juan Caballero, Antonio Ruiz, and Juan Martinez del Castillo.18 Such had been the history of Sinaloa when Tapia and Pérez were ordered to put themselves at the disposal of Río y Losa. The old Governor had been successful; the two fathers he had asked for were on their way," and this mere rag of a settlement was saved from complete destruction. Civilization here would again begin to stir; soon it would be upon the march. The Governor was at Durango, and the missionaries sought him out. They were ordered to Sinaloa. It was the middle of May, 1591, when the Jesuits departed from Durango, bound for their mission field. It would have been shorter for them to cross the Sierra Madre, going northwest and by way of Topia, a mining town, and drop into the lower country of the western coast. But there was trouble among the Indians and the route was judged unsafe. Therefore they went south and west into the wild mountains of Nayarit, their tribes as yet untamed, and reached the town of Acaponeta, M a y 30, 1 5 9 1 " Here they turned northwest, probably toward the present Mazatlan, and

S I N A L O A ENTERS M I S S I O N H I S T O R Y

23

when they reached the coast they followed the level path up to Culiacan, the vestibule to San Felipe, which is Sinaloa, lying a hundred miles to the north. Culiacan, the capital of the state of Sinaloa, is today mildly picturesque; its big cathedral smiles upon the plaza, where the Mexicans' love of music bursts forth in biweekly concerts, and where even in deep winter the inhabitants come out into balmy evenings of crystal-clear twilight to listen to the symphony and to watch the stars. And, at least in ecclesiastical circles, the memory of the Jesuits is still green, and the most gracious hospitality is shown the traveling Jesuit padre. At the time of our story the town was known as San Miguel de Culiacan. This was a halting place for our two missionaries and they rested here for several days.

Chapter

IV

A GLORIOUS B E G I N N I N G

F

^ROM CULIACAN Father Tapia wrote letters to the five Spaniards at San Felipe announcing his approach. In consequence, Antonio Ruiz, the mayor of the town—the alcalde, as the Spaniards called him,—together with Juan del Castillo, came down to escort the fathers to the village. They met at Capirato, ten leagues north of Culiacan. But not only the Spaniards came; there came Indians as well. Here the fathers had their first vision of the greatness of the harvest that lay before them and of the splendid quality of the soil in which they were to sow the seeds of the gospel of Christ; for they received at Capirato the welcome typical of all these missions: the Indian chiefs came to greet them and on their knees asked baptism for themselves and for their children. Ruiz, who was present, tells us the whole story.1 Even more beautiful and consoling things were to occur. From Capirato the group moved north to Palmar, close to the present town of Mocorito. Now, the cacique of Mocorito was a Christian, converted years before by the pioneer Franciscans who had passed through this country. Hearing of the approach of the new padres, the chief gathered together all the unbaptized children who could take the road and trudged with them down to Palmar, where they arrived late at night and awakened the fathers from their sleep in order to ask for baptism. Next morning a lovely ceremony took place. The children formed a circle within which the padres celebrated Mass, and after Mass all the children were baptized.2 This is one of the finest of all the fine things that encouraged the missionaries of these regions; but the annals are full of events scarcely less consoling* 1*41

A GLORIOUS BEGINNING

25

From Palmar the party went to Mocorito and then to San Felipe. Here the welcome of the padres was again encouraging and joyous. The cacique was a Christian, son of the chief at Mocorito, and he brought the Indians to greet the fathers. Huts, and arbors made of tree branches, had been prepared for the missionaries. They were received with flowers and foliage, song and dance.4 It is no wonder that one of the earliest reports of these new missions, written back to Mexico by Martin Perez, says of these natives: "They are a very docile race and of good natural disposition, receptive of whatever may be taught them, especially the younger people of twenty-five years and less!'5 An anonymous account speaks of the gentleness and affability which the fathers noted in these natives." Much of the experience of the missionaries shows this to be true, and the historian must be careful to avoid exaggerations of Indian fierceness, a temptation to the dramatic which does not always accord with the facts. Certainly, the traveler who visits the country of these western rivers today and speaks with its native Indian will find him still docile, and of good natural disposition, and receptive of what may be taught him. But since Tapia's day, centuries of Christianity have further softened his character. Thus encouragingly did the missionary labors of the Jesuits begin; thus did this untamed country show itself not only prepared, but even eager, to receive the word of the gospel which the fathers were carrying to it. As a beginning, the missionaries were to work up and down the Sinaloa River, and a division of labor was made. Perez went down, taking charge of the pueblos of Cubiri and Bamoa,—Bamoa still the little Indian pueblo, where first had settled those Nebomes from the north who a half-century before had come in the company of that wandering Spanish Robinson Crusoe, Cabeza de Vaca. Tapia took the upper reaches of the river with its pueblos of Baboria, Tovoropa,

26

B L A C K ROBES ON T H E W E S T COAST

Lopoche, Matapan, and Ocoroni, the last-named lying on a tributary of the Sinaloa, some fifteen miles north of the town.' Baptisms of infants began immediately, just as they had already begun on the Mocorito. Then, when adults were properly instructed, they too were received into the Church. Groups of twenty or thirty took instruction and when ready were baptized.8 These were usually married people, and their baptism was followed by the rite of Christian matrimony. Godparents were required for the baptism, and the Spanish soldiers and meager citizenry of San Felipe were happy to travel from pueblo to pueblo serving in this capacity, to the delight of the Indians, who prized at its correct value this godly relationship." Gradually the Indian pueblos near San Felipe became Christian and the missions of the West Coast were auspiciously begun. The two pioneer Jesuits were interested to report on the strange customs of the primitives on the Rio Sinaloa. We read in the anua of 1593 that when one died they would either cremate the body or bury it under a tree. If they buried it, they brought to the grave—as did the ancient Egyptians to the tomb of Tutankhamen—all the personal belongings, the blankets, beads, feathers, bow and arrows of the dead. They placed by the grave, as provision for what they considered an important journey, quantities of food and a large hollow calabash full of water. Finally, as if to wipe out all memory of the deceased person, they slew the dogs which formerly had been his.10 Tapia intended to establish a center for these mission pueblos, and he chose a spot some six miles down the river from San Felipe, called Cubiri. Here with the help of the Indians he built a primitive church edifice, himself helping energetically with the manual labor. It was made of mud and branches of trees, with rafters of rough wood. Tapia likewise built another shelter, which he intended as a dwelling and school for Indian boys of

A GLORIOUS B E G I N N I N G

27

promising talent and disposition; but this foundation had no future. After Tapia's tragic death it was, apparently, abandoned, for we hear nothing more of it, and today it is but a name dimly remembered. So the town of San Felipe became the center of these missions and so it remained for centuries, carving its name deep in the annals of history. Here a great church was ultimately built; here thousands of Indians came to be confirmed at the first visit of the Bishop of Durango; and here remains a relic of those ancient days, for the tower of the old church is still erect and it bears the Jesuit mark still upon it. After a few months had rolled by and the beginnings at Cubiri and San Felipe appeared to be well established, the Spaniards of the mines at Topia, a town to the southeast and deep in the mountains, asked Father Tapia to pay them a visit so that they might profit by his company and his spiritual ministrations. Ambitious always and eager for greater things, Tapia set out. The details of this visit and of the padre's work in the mountains scarcely belong to the history of these more western missions, for, though Topia is on the western slope of the Sierra Madre, it was off the main line of the mission march north along the coast. It may suffice to say briefly here that besides ministering spiritually to the Spaniards of the mines of Topia and to the Christian Tarascan Indians who had been brought up from the south to labor in these mines, Tapia did good work among the wild and mountainous Acaxee tribe, beginning their evangelization and establishing among them, as earlier he had established among the Chichimecos, the first organized Christian pueblo of the region. He named it Santa Cruz del \^lle, and left it provided with alcalde or mayor, fiscal or church warden, and subordinate officers.11 Tapia returned from Topia in time for the celebration of Christmas, 1592" which was the first public celebration of the

EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE

A GLORIOUS B E G I N N I N G

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feast the padres were able to have; the previous Christmas had followed too soon upon their arrival. H e brought with him from the mines choristers of Tarascan Indian boys and musical instruments.13 The largest church these incipient missions then enjoyed was at Lopoche, scarcely three miles distant from San Felipe, and here it was decided to hold a public celebration this Christmas, and all the Indians of the pueblos round about, whether Christian or pagan, were invited to attend. More than a thousand Christians gathered, the fruit of eighteen months of evangelization. Many pagans also came, for the Indian is curious. This is what Tapia wanted. The pagan must be impressed and thus led to desire baptism. A more solemn Mass than usual was celebrated, to the sound of flute and flageolet and the singing of sweet Tarascan voices. There was a procession round the church and, afterward, dancing and merrymaking. Tapia, for all his heroic virtue and piety, was no puritan, and his method of dealing with the situation was the effective one. The pagan Indians did look on; they were impressed by the grandeur of a religion that did not rob them of innocent fun, and were thus more easily led to adopt the Christian faith. It was in accord with what the Church had anciently done in taking the pagan religious ceremonies of seedtime and harvest and turning them into Ember days of prayer and fasting." It accorded with the answer of Pope Gregory the Great, at the end of the sixth century, to St. Augustine, bidding him not to destroy the ancient pagan temples of the Anglo-Saxons, but rather to bless them and use them for Christian worship. Instead of abolishing public feasts and merrymaking let Augustine elevate them to Christian festivals. "In place of immolating animals to the demons, they will kill them to eat while they thank God who thus sustains them. In permitting sensible pleasures, one will dispose them more easily for those of the soul!'"

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The following year, 1593, two helpers came, sent up by superiors from Mexico City, Fathers Juan Bautista de Velasco and Alonso de Santiago.16 They were welcomed with demonstrations of joy by the Indians.1' To Velasco were given the pueblos of Mocorito, thirty miles to the south, Bacubirito, twenty miles to the east of Sinaloa, and Orobato, between the two. To Santiago were given Ocoroni and Lopoche and some of Tapia's old towns;1* but his health could not stand the life. He fell ill and ultimately had to return to Mexico City. Velasco, however, like Perez, had a long and fruitful career in the missions. He was a native of Oaxaca, a town rich in churches and in sculpture, far to the south of Mexico City. He was only sixteen years of age when he entered the Society of Jesus, but as he had given proof of solid virtue his superiors sent him to the Sinaloa mission then just beginning. For twenty-two years he was destined to labor here, and he was the first Jesuit to die a natural death upon the land.19 This year Tapia undertook the long and arduous journey south to Mexico City. His purpose was to obtain more recruits for the mission, and he was successful in bringing back with him a real treasure in the person of the lay brother Francisco de Castro, who rendered invaluable service to the fathers and to the missions.20 Castro was not, like Velasco, a native of America, but was born in Spain, at Gines, a village near Seville. His father had managed the estates of Count Alvaro de Zuniga, and when the great man came over to Mexico to be Viceroy of New Spain the young Francisco was in his train. The grace of a vocation to the religious life was given him and at twenty-five he applied for admission to the Jesuits. It was with reluctance that the Viceroy let so valuable a subject leave his service, but these great Spanish nobles had, for the most part, solid and lively religious instincts, and he became willing to give over to the service of

A GLORIOUS BEGINNING

3 I

God one who had served him so well.21 Francisco was employed in Mexico for five years as cook, and he carried his art to the missions.22 The new arrivals, Velasco, Santiago, and Castro, were soon called upon to do heroic work. A plague broke out among the Indians, the first of a series of visitations that wrought havoc with the lives of the natives both young and old and sometimes became a serious danger to the fathers themselves. It was not that they fell ill, for most of them seemed to be immune to the diseases—smallpox, measles, fevers of different kinds,—but that the native priests or medicine men, the hechiceros, spread it about that baptism had done the deadly work, a punishment for the rejection of the old idolatry. Perhaps this very epidemic helped to lead to the distressing events that are soon to be narrated. Be that as it may, this sickness wrought destruction in the pueblos of both the upper and the lower river.23 Pérez de Ribas describes in realistic language the utterly miserable plight of some of the victims as he saw them himself at the time of a later but similar epidemic. Nothing worse, he says, had he ever beheld. Great sores would rot into a mass of swarming maggots, and these sometimes would drop from the mouth and from the nose, the stench being horrible.24 Martín Pérez, who was in the midst of this present plague, draws the same picture.25 The fathers worked day and night consoling the afflicted and baptizing. As the epidemic was confined chiefly to the banks of the Sinaloa River, Velasco was called from Mocorito and sent to Guasave on the lower reaches of the stream to help out the tired Pérez. The latter had made beginnings at Guasave and Sisinicari while Tapia was absent in Topia, so that Velasco did not come to virgin soil. But he did great work here, and as the epidemic ran its course he baptized two hundred dying infants.26 \felasco makes interesting reflections on the reactions of the

32

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Indians to the plague. He says in a letter of 1593: "The Devil had occasion in this plague to make war and contradiction against the propagation of the holy gospel. But God did not allow this, and in my opinion it is a thing of great supernatural import that although these same Indians notice that these sicknesses came upon them after we entered the country, they formerly enjoying robust health and suffering no epidemic, and although they speak of these things among themselves, not for that reason do they withdraw from us or refuse the reception of baptism. They aver that they do not die because of us, for we run to help them in their illness, seeking them out and consoling theml'27 Plague among the Indians was nothing new. As Priestley says: "Among the many misfortunes inevitably incident to the clash of two civilizations . . . none were more destructive than the frequent scourges of epidemic diseases which smote the land with devastating fury!'28 Within two years of Cortes' arrival in Mexico, a slave boy in 1521 introduced an epidemic among the natives; and in 1544, in the vice-royalty of Antonio de Mendoza, a disease furious among the Indians, called by the Aztecs matlazahuatl, probably smallpox, decimated the population. Plague broke out again in 1555,1575. and 1595- There were many other visitations." The Sinaloa experience, then, was nothing new, and Velasco could have offered a perfectly natural explanation for the outbreak of the plague. The Indians were proverbially unable to resist illnesses introduced by Europeans and the very fact of their coming together for baptism and living more closely in pueblos to be near the fathers and the church would help to intensify the ravages of the disease.30 This was sad but inevitable. If the Indians were to be Christianized and civilized it seemed necessary that they be brought together to live in more compact communities than those they

T O W E R OF T H E OLD J E S U I T CHURCH, SINALOA

A GLORIOUS B E G I N N I N G

33

had in their wild state. It was this cause, and not baptism as the hechiceros proclaimed, that promoted the plague. In view of all this, the trust in the fathers shown by most of the Indians is touching, especially the experience of Tapia at a certain village unnamed in the sources. He went there to baptize the infants, but many died after receiving the sacrament. These deaths did not shake the confidence of the neophytes, for when Tapia next returned they came running out to him with more children to baptize—a sign, remarks Velasco in a letter, of their supernatural predestination.31 It was at the time of this same epidemic that Brother Castro began his long and valuable career of thirty-three years of service to the missions and their poor peoples to whom he became both physician and father. Parents and relatives often left their sick to die of hunger, saying that the affected ones did not want to eat, and with this excuse they felt themselves free from obligation. Castro would seek out such derelicts, bless them (which was the practice of the time), wash their sores, and administer medicines.32 He thus laid the foundations of that great affection which all the tribes of Indians, both Christian and pagan, came to have for him. He was always a protected man. Every district was open to Brother Castro, and no one dared harm him even with a scratch. A t his approach to a pueblo the children would run out with joy and their parents greet him with smiles and happiness.33 The plague wore itself out and for awhile progress continued, so that the year 1594 seemed to hold promise. Men of two tribes, the Sinaloa and the Suaqui, from the next river to the north, the Fuerte, came over to interview Tapia. The Sinaloas lived far up the stream close to the high sierras; the Suaquis lived farther down, within some thirty miles of the sea. A dramatic occurrence brought the Suaquis over to Father Tapia. We read in the sources that a great earthquake shook the country of the lower

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Fuerte, and so vigorously that it cracked and split a rocky hill rising on the skirts of the pueblo of Mochicahue. The Suaquis at first endeavored to appease the anger of the god of earthquakes by flinging into the maw of one of the chasms blankets, and beads, and water taken from the sea. Possibly because this was an expensive business, they thought of going to the padre. They went over to Ocoroni, which lay south and east from Mochicahue about forty miles. They offered Tapia presents of coal, beans, and corn, and asked for baptism and the gospel. Tapia promised to visit them. The Sinaloas came south and west from the higher reaches of the river about a hundred and twenty miles. They made the same request and Tapia showed the same compliance.84 As the padre, in fulfillment of his promise, approached the country of the Suaquis, he beheld to his delight a great cross erected as a sign of welcome. This was the work of some old Tahue Christians of Culiacan, who had come north to live at Cacalotlan, on the Ocoroni River.They were at that time guests of the Suaquis. Tapia made these latter a promise of missionaries, but he saw that they were not yet ready for the gospel. Upon his return to Ocoroni he ordered Martin Perez to care for the Christian Tahues. From Mochicahue he went up the river to the Sinaloas and his visit there was even more discouraging. Indeed, it was fraught with danger, for some of their caciques had plotted his death."

Chapter

V

TAPIA IS MARTYRED IK REAL SETBACK came with the plague that appeared late in / • A 1593. The ever-suspicious Indian, changeful and credu-A- j L . lous, especially when influenced by his medicine man, was prone to attribute disease either to the effects of baptism or to the displeasure of the ancient gods whom he had abandoned for the God of the Spaniards. The medicine men, as we often refer to them in North America, hechiceros or wizards as the Spaniards called them, were in these as in all the missions a great thorn in the side of the padres. It is safe to say that almost all the trouble at the missions—plots to murder the padre, and schemes to induce the Indians to pack up and go off to the mountains and thus to return secretly to idolatry in caves and hidden hollows—was due to the influence of the hechicero, who, let us say it frankly, was under strong temptation to jealousy of the padre, who now had come to take from him his old-time influence and who enjoyed far greater prestige than the sorcerer had ever known. Taxicora was a famous wizard on the Fuerte, and when the gospel was pushing up to his country he spread the report that once, when on horseback, he had caused himself and the animal to be raised in the air, to the wonder of the Suaqui tribe, and he boasted that when the padres could do likewise the Indians might listen to them.1 It was an hechicero at Tórin on the lower Yiqui who caused Father Basilio to be shot at and wounded with a poisoned arrow.2 And now almost at the very start of the work in this mission on the Sinaloa it was a hechicero who stirred up the trouble which led to murder and martyrdom and near disaster. This man was Nacabeba. His name in the native language C 35 H

3D

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meant "Struck-on-the-EarJ' for in early life he had received a blow which deafened him, "even to the gospel," as the pious chronicler remarks.' He belonged to the pueblo called Tovoropa,* which lay on the river to the east of San Felipe, half a league or more from the town.5 Never would he allow himself to be baptized, and soon he began to spread disquieting talk against Tapia.The ancient gods, he said, had been neglected, the Indians could no longer dance their old dances and have their old fun, and no man among them could have more than one woman. For a whole year Tapia tried to win this man by kindness. But when these methods bore no fruit the padre delated him to the mayor of San Felipe, who had him flogged. Nacabeba then determined on murder. He organized a plot over tobacco smoke and strong drink, and plans were laid to kill. A final meeting was held on Sunday, July 3,1594, at the pueblo of Cavihuri. Here the plotters decided to do the deed the following Sunday. It was but a small following that the chief could muster, nine in all, of whom two were the leader's sons and five others his kinsmen." Tapia was slain at Tovoropa. Shiels describes the crime thus: Towards evening Father Tapia was very tired and he decided to retire early. H e was on his knees at the door of his hut, facing the church and telling his beads. Of a sudden, figures stole out of the dusk and walked slowly to the door. A t their head was Nacabeba. H e approached quiedy to Father Tapia and bent down as if to whisper some favor. Tapia suspected danger from the circumstances of the strange group before his eyes. H e distrusted the visit at this hour of the day, the smooth words, the evil look in their eyes, for he knew the crowd well. But contrary to their expectation he kept a serene face. Unperturbed, rosary in hand, he spoke kindly to them. A t the sign from Nacabeba, Tahaa threw back his cloak quietly. H e drew out his macana and struck Father Tapia heavily on the head, making him slump to the earth as though dead. They stood back terrified a moment at thought of what they had done. Tapia saw that his death was near. H e moved to the patio and called

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37

on God with trustful and forgiving groans. Then he said: "What is this, my children, this evil thing that you have done?" Then, reaching out with his arms to the cross that stood in the cemetery between his door and the church, he folded his arms to die with the sign of salvation upon him. The villains had thought him dead. They wondered at the movement of the body, the words it spoke. Then they came on, and struck him with knives and macanas. Tapia lurched forward with his last sight and seeing that he could not reach to the cross, made a cross with the fingers of his right hand, as a sign of his mission to the Indians, and then lay quiet. The Father of the Missions was dead.

The gang then stripped the martyr o£ his clothes and severed his head and left arm. These they bore off in triumph that they might drink liquor from his skull and dance with his mutilated limb.7 Great was the dismay among both Spaniards and Indians. Disorganization followed, that kind of disorganization which seemed at a blow to destroy the work of years: the Indians fled. Terror over what had been done by their own kin, fear of retribution from the Spaniards, desire to be off, away and free for the old pagan life—all these things worked upon the Indians time and time again and led to a scattering of the pueblos. With Tapia's murder it happened for the first time in these missions. The Indians on the river to the east of the town, of the pueblos where Tapia had worked—Baboria, Lopoche, Matapan, and Tovoropa,—these all fled to the mountains which rise some ten miles east of the district. The work of Gonzalo de Tapia was at one stroke broken and undone. The alcalde of San Felipe, Miguel Ortiz Maldonado, who also acted as military captain, strengthened the garrisons, called in the two fathers Velasco and Perez, fearing violence for them also, and kept a special watch day and night. As soon as it was feasible he sent three soldiers well armed to gather up and bring

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into San Felipe the remains of one whom they now revered as a martyr. The three soldiers found the body prone but with the right arm lifted from the elbow, which struck them with awe, for the thumb and index finger had retained even in death the figure of a cross.8 They carried the padre reverently back to the town, and he was buried in the church. The day of the murder was Monday, July 11,1594° The skull and arm of the martyr were recovered from the barbarians and sent to Mexico by Father Martin Pelaez in 1610. Here the relics were carefully guarded by the fathers until the expulsion in 1767, when they were given over to the care of a convent of nuns, Religiosas de la Companta de Maria, who were still treasuring them in 1901. 10 In 1616 a memorial to Tapia was erected on the spot of his martyrdom, which Father Mendez says was "a fine big shrine,"u and in 1637 the fathers of the Provincial Congregation sent a petition to the General of the Society, Mutius Vitelleschi, that the cause of Tapia for beatification be introduced at Rome." The bones of the padre were still resting in the church at San Felipe in 1637, as we learn from a letter of that date to Mexico from the resident superior.18 Cuevas reproduces a photograph which purports to picture the shrine of which Mendez speaks, but it appears here as nothing but a cross surmounted by an enramada, or covering made from interwoven osiers." Nothing of the shrine remains today. The pueblo of Tovoropa, where Tapia was killed, can indeed no longer be identified.11 Neither the present inhabitants of Sinaloa nor the Indians of the country know of any such place. Certainly today there is no pueblo of that name half a league, or one and a half miles, up the river from the town. The closest settlements are Opahi, which lies just across the river, and Caiman, which is some four miles distant on the road leading to

T A P I A IS M A R T Y R E D

39

Ocoroni. But history has played a strange trick. The name of Tapia's killer has perpetuated itself in the land, and though the inhabitants of the pueblo itself and of the country round about know nothing of the connection, there is a Nacabeba, a small Indian village, lying ten miles almost due east of Sinaloa and close up to a black and bold sierra. For centuries the sinking sun has touched the shoulders of these peaks to very purple, and high above the village, topping the neighboring summits, stands a gruff bastion of square rock frowning upon Nacabeba: it is the tombstone of Gonzalo de Tapia. Captain Maldonado, at San Felipe, immediately upon the calamity of Tapia's death, sent down for help to Culiacan, which acted with promptness in defense of the northern town. Robles, the alcalde, held a council. It was decided to send the alguacil or bailiff, Galarraga, with thirteen men to the help of San Felipe. N o time was lost and they set out on Sunday, July 17th.16 With their arrival the mission town breathed a bit more easily. A letter from San Felipe written at this period tells of the destruction wrought in the mission. The Indians had fled and the pueblos round about were left desolate. The huts of the missionaries and the rude churches had been burned and all ministry brought to a standstill. The three remaining fathers, Santiago, Perez, and Velasco, had been called by the Captain into the town, and for a while they dared not venture into the country for fear of violence. Although the help from Culiacan strengthened the garrison, the Spaniards still felt themselves insecure." But the desolation did not last forever and the light of a new hope soon shone. Father Tapia's visit to Mexico bore fruit again and many weeks before the disaster two missionaries left the capital for San Felipe. They arrived at Culiacan on June 29th, thirteen days before Tapia's murder. Hernando de Santaren

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was one and Pedro Méndez the other.18 Santarén was destined after four years to be sent east into the mountains of Topia.19 Ripened for Heaven by twenty years of labor, he died a martyr in the Tepehuán revolt of 1616.20 Méndez, however, was to have a long and fine career in the missions of the West Coast. He had entered the Society of Jesus in Europe and begun his studies there. He took the course in theology at Mexico City and was ordained in 1583 near Puebla at a villa belonging to the College of Santo Espíritu. Made minister of the college after his tertianship, he was put in charge of a small seminary for the elementary education of Indian boys. His years of experience here were a valuable novitiate for the mission of Sinaloa, for which he volunteered.21 When Santarén and Méndez arrived at Culiacán, though anxious to begin the final stap;e of their journey to San Felipe, they were pressed so earnestly by the Indians and Spaniards to remain that they yielded in charity and solaced the spirit of the town by their priestly ministrations.22 Finally they started on, and had arrived at Capirato when they were stunned by the news of Tapia's violent death. Prudence demanded a halt and they awaited instructions. Father Martín Pérez, acting now as Superior, ordered them to abide a less turbulent time. He suggested a temporary mission among the well-disposed Tahue Indians in the environs of Culiacán, already made Christians by the pioneer Franciscan missionaries. The new arrivals acted upon the suggestion of their superior and met with good success. About the middle of August things were quiet enough to permit their setting out for San Felipe, and they were happy at last to reach their destination. Father Alonso de Santiago, who could not bear the summer heat, left for the south at this time.23 The mission had lost Tapia and Santiago, and had gained Santarén and Méndez.

TAP IA IS MARTYRED

41

The missionaries could not be inactive long, and Perez was soon about, probably even before the arrival of the two recruits, endeavoring to dissipate the spiritual desolation. Nor must the evil be exaggerated. Not all the Indians had fled, nor were all the pueblos desolate. A t least one consolatidn was the attitude of the faithful Ocoronis among whom Tapia was staying at the time of his murder. A delegation came to San Felipe and expressed regret over what had happened. There is evidence, however, that they slipped back into some of their pagan practices. Indeed, they were found dancing with the scalps of some whom they thought to be accomplices in Tapia's murder. It was difficult to be harsh with them for this.24 Perez was soon pursuing the fugitives into the mountains, endeavoring with gentle words and kindly persuasions to induce them to return. And he was partly successful.26 He promised them immunity from punishment; but they were suspicious, saying that formerly Spaniards had not kept their word. When the new fathers arrived, they were welcomed with great joy by their confreres and by the Spaniards, and they set themselves immediately to learn the chief languages of the district. Judging from the antta or annual letter of 1595, there was an encouraging recuperation during at least a part of that fall of 1594 and the following spring. Many of the pueblos, however, continued to hold off, and even after two years there was evidence of the wreckage that had been scattered by the storm. Nacabeba and his party were still abroad and active, doing mischief or inciting others to it. Both the Spaniards and the Indians who had come back to their missions were harried in various ways by these rebels. Horses were stolen and domestic animals driven off. Life was no longer safe. In this predicament San Felipe again asked for help, this time in the shape of a permanent institution. The Spaniards petitioned

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for a presidio for Sinaloa in order that the presence of the soldiers might awe the Indians and permit more effective missionary work. The new Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, Diego Fernández de Velasco, and the Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, were approached. A favorable ear was inclined to these representations, for from the days of Queen Isabella the Catholic it had been the constant policy of the Spanish crown to take serious measures for the propagation as well as for the protection of the Faith. The request was granted and a garrison sent to San Felipe. The Governor dispatched thither twenty-four soldiers led by Captain Alonso Díaz, whom the sources refer to as lieutenant-general. It was the middle of January, 1595, when Diaz and his men, traveling from Durango on the other side of the mountains, arrived in San Felipe.28 They were accompanied by Father Martín Peláez and Brother Vicente Beltrán.27 Peláez came not as a missioner, but as Visitor, to inquire into the circumstances of Tapias death, to look into the state of the mission, and to take account of the needs of its work. Méndez writes that even at that date they saw plenty of desolation about them.28 There were two things for the soldiers to do: punish Nacabeba and his followers, and aid the missionaries in reestablishing peace and progress on both the upper and lower reaches of the Sinaloa. The punishment of Nacabeba was not so easily carried out, and it remained for a greater man than Diaz to accomplish it, but enough was done to let the Indians know that no more trifling would be tolerated. Nacabeba had fled north to the Fuerte River and taken refuge among its tribes. These harbored him, on condition that he and his followers would deliver up their wives and daughters, which was agreed to. Here was held high revelry with the skull and arm, and with the chalice, the alb, and the chasuble which the murdered padre had used.28 Later, Nacabeba retreated into the wildest part of the moun-

TAPIA IS MARTYRED

43

tains. Thither Diaz had him pursued. One of the murderers, called Sebastian, was caught, and was tortured to make him betray the whereabouts of his chief. On the second day he said he would lead the soldiers to their man. On the way over the mountains he tried to fling himself from a cliff. Failing in this, he contrived to swallow a poisonous herb called tlapatl from which he died in twenty-four hours, and the search for Nacabeba had to be given up for the time.80 One of his sons, however, was caught and hanged, and a friendly Indian slew his wife, who had danced arrayed in the alb of the padre and had desecrated the chalice, the purificator, and a blanket used by the martyr. The Spaniards got the chasuble from an Indian at Mochicahue,81 and the Suaqui Indians, wishing to curry favor with the Spanish chief, sent over to him on a pole the skull of the martyr, which they had been able to recover. But the left arm neither they nor others were able at that time to procure."2 Among the Indians of the pueblo of Tehueco on the upper Fuerte, there was a friendly chief, Lanzarote, who received the Captain well and, with his son Miguelito, was soon baptized by Father \felasco. On the lower Sinaloa progress had been made even before the arrival of Captain Diaz and his soldiers. Mendez and Santaren were sent to complete the evangelization of this district. Mendez worked in the pueblo of Nio, where today crumble the ruins of two Jesuit churches built at a later time. The cacique became a neophyte and showed himself ardent for the conversion of all his people. Santaren was working lower down the river at Guasave. There he overthrew an idol, and the natives stood aghast expecting the god to strike him dead. That night a big wind blew, it is said, and the savages, horror-stricken, fled to the hills. Santaren pursued them, and after much persuasion was able to coax them back and ultimately to baptize them. He

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labored likewise at a pueblo in these parts called Ures.83 After four years he was called away to the missions of the mountains and his activities must be sought for there." The Guasaves were a mild race and took readily to the gospel.Thus all through the year 1595 the harvests on the lower Sinaloa were being gathered in. The fathers of this time profited greatly by the services of a nameless Indian woman who had been a slave among the Tahues. She became a Christian there and returned north to help evangelize her people.85 In this same year a great Christmas celebration was held in San Felipe. The fathers gave notice far ahead, so that men, women, and children of twenty-three pueblos came together for the feast. Several different languages were represented. On Christmas Eve they all attended matins and in the mornings Mass was sung and a sermon preached in the Sinaloa tongue, which the greatest number could understand. After Mass a procession marched round the church. This was followed by amusements of different kinds, singing and dancing, dialogues in imitation of the Shepherds, Christmas carols and sacred songs sung both in the Mexican language and in Ocoroni, and finally a salvo from the cannon which the soldiers had brought up from Culiacan. The roar of the artillery greatly impressed the Indians, not the less so that they were told a single shot could kill seventy men at once.86 Some interesting figures are given for April, 1595, which show what progress was being made. On the Sinaloa River there were now thirteen pueblos with 3312 Christians; on its tributary, the Ocoroni, three pueblos with 1270 Christians; and farther south on the banks of the Mocorito, then called San Sebastian f de Ebora, five pueblos with 1588 Christians. Even at this early date, too, the fathers were busy along the great stream, the Fuerte, and this same report numbers for this period 600 Chris-

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45

tians along its banks. But it was many years before the fierce Suaquis and the wild Sinaloas bowed themselves to the message of the gospel.37 As if to prove at the very start that the presence of the soldiers in the country would by no means work magic, a setback occurred in the year following their arrival. Father Pérez succeeded Santarén among the Guasaves in 1596. He, too, destroyed one of their pagan idols. This started a ferment which in two weeks' time frothed up and over in murder and flight. The trouble-makers killed the Christian Indian slave woman from Culiacán and persuaded some of the Nio and Ocoroni people to make off with them to the mountains. This was at the end of July. Pérez was for following them, but the Captain would not let him go without an escort. Eighteen soldiers were given him for protection, and away he went after his Indians. He was able to persuade most of them to return, and by December nearly all of them were home except a few from Tehueco on the Fuerte who had joined the others. Hunger and desire for their milder river valleys finally drove the rest to return.88 The following year, in July, a group from the Tehuecos attacked Ocoroni. Unfortunately for them, Méndez and three soldiers were at the pueblo and were able to defend these Christians. The invaders were repulsed and several of them were killed. One of the Ocoronis died later of his wounds.89 But, in general, things advanced on the Sinaloa River in the years that succeeded Tapia's death, especially after the coming of the garrison. Indeed, most consoling results were soon apparent, and many an edifying story is told by the humble missioner in great joy over his spiritual success. The piety instilled into these simple folk by the padres was of the Latin type of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and, therefore, in some of its details was not such as to have the unqualified admiration or

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approval of a modern and religiously sophisticated age. The padres taught the Indians how to flog themselves for penance, and a not uncommon sight in a pueblo which had been well brought in hand was, especially in Lent, processions marching round the church and about the open space in front of it called the plaza, the people singing hymns and scourging themselves till the blood flowed. This would oftenest occur during the devotion of the Stations of the Cross. The fathers in their letters always mention such incidents with warm gusto. It was the religious ardor of the Counter Reformation brought to the natives of America by the Jesuits. Edifying was the action of a Christian cacique who, in the troubles following Tapia's murder, had killed some of his own people. He came now in a spirit of penance to seek piety in San Felipe, stating that he would live privately and alone, giving up his vassals rather than risk his faith and the keeping of its obligations.40 Some when ill would ask for baptism and die in sentiments of great joy to themselves and consolation to the padre. Some, asking for the sacrament, would lift the cross high as a mark of their desire. A n old woman who had heard of Tapia's virtues came to Mass every day. So innocent was the life she led that the father declared, after her death, that upon sacramental confession there had been hardly matter for absolution. She died in sentiments of deep piety, adjuring her husband and those about her to remain faithful to the teachings of Tapia." These, and dozens of similar accounts, are repeatedly given us by the missionaries, whose enthusiasm led them doubtless sometimes to exaggerate. In the meantime the cause of the beatification of Father Tapia had been taken up and was being advanced. In 1598 they heard in the Sinaloa mission that good progress in the matter was being made.45 From time to time the fathers from San Felipe went on mis-

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47

sions to the pious Tahue Indians on the Río Culiacán. These had been long neglected, and now there was no padre among them who could speak their language; hence the touching and impressive appeal to tarry among them made to Méndez and Santarén on their way through in 1594. The details of their work show how much there was to do in spiritual ministration. Méndez returned to Culiacán in 1599 and wrote back to San Felipe glowing accounts of his work.43 Pérez was sent down in 1601," Santarén from Topia in 1602,45 and Velasco in i6i4.46

Chapter V I

T H E GREAT CAPTAIN í^lonso DÍAZ did not remain long in the missions of Sinaloa. A t the end of the year 1596 he was gone, called to high A. administrative office by the Governor, his place being taken by Pérez de Zebreros. And then, because the excesses of Zebreros displeased the fathers, the post was given to Diego de Quiros.1 But there was now in the missions a far greater man than either, and one of the strongest characters and finest soldiers in the whole history of Mexico. He came to San Felipe with Alonso Díaz when the latter arrived with his band of soldiers, January 15,1595, for the protection of the infant mission.2 His name is Diego Martínez de Hurdaide. Not at the outset in full command, he gave from the first full evidence of his splendid qualities. Later he was created head of all the secular government in Sinaloa, military as well as civil, and was most often referred to by the fathers simply as "El Capitán!' For thirty years he was the head and heart of the State and almost of the Church, in Sinaloa, for his services to the missions are beyond exaggeration. In the relationship between Hurdaide and the padres we behold a fine example of the working out of a great ideal of the Church—the union, for the common good of humanity, of Church and State. The great historian of the missions of Sinaloa, Father Andres Pérez de Ribas, devoted a long chapter of his monumental work, Los Trittmphos de Nuestra Santa Fee, to the valor and the virtue of Hurdaide. Ribas says: H e assisted in the reduction of twenty nations which accepted peace in the province of Sinaloa. Everywhere he showed courage, prudence, quick decision, and perseverance, so that his prestige among all the

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tribes was of the highest, and this not only among neighboring and Christian peoples, but also among those the most distant and most fierce. He could actually govern them with a piece of wax, for his mere seal upon a slip of paper, without words and even without signature, carried by an Indian in his hair, would give the bearer safe passage through enemy tribes. To see this seal was to see the Captain and it assured immunity to him who bore i t . . . . It is certain that he was favored by Heaven, for he lived the life of a perfect Christian. Assiduity at Mass and the sacraments, respect for the fathers, enthusiasm for the instruction of the Indians, all these he had, and his ardor for the spread of the faith was such that it engaged his whole thought. In this he expended his chief energy and even his private fortune. So much so that when he journeyed the first time to Mexico to obtain authority for the extension of the missions up to the great river of Sinaloa [now the Fuerte], and when a Jesuit priest of grave judgment heard him discoursing upon these topics, the father said: "To this man has been given the vocation and the zeal which God is accustomed to give to his own Christian workers and apostles!' Thus it was that toward the Indians Hurdaide manifested a great benevolence, which, joined with his bravery, worked such wonders among them.3 T h e s e and many other things does Perez de Ribas say about the great Captain. But Hurdaide was a general favorite a m o n g the fathers. Francisco Xavier Faria was for many years in the Sinaloa mission. U p o n his return to Mexico in 1653, he wrote a life of Pedto de Velasco, one of his older companions, who later became Provincial of N e w Spain. In this life of Velasco b y Faria there is a warm eulogy of the Captain. " A bolt of lightning in war, his valor smashed the Indians when punishment was necessary; but he was a ray of light in times of peace, winning the natives b y his kindliness, his discretion and his artful stratagems of diplomacy'.' 4 T h e Captain never used force until he had exhausted all the means of kindness and diplomatic art. A l t h o u g h Hurdaide drew handsome salaries from the K i n g , he died a poor man heavily in debt, because of the funds he

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spent constantly in opening new paths for the progress of the gospel.5 One of the Governors of Nueva Vizcaya admitted that Hurdaide's soldierly qualities were superior to his own. This was Francisco de Urdiñola; and when the Viceroy, the Count of Montesclaros, was thinking of removing the Captain, the Governor, as he told Ribas personally, wrote this praise of Hurdaide to the Count. When Martín Pérez was Superior of the mission, he objected to Hurdaide's leaving the province even to pay his respects to the new Governor, Don Gaspar de Alvear.6 Hurdaide, moreover, had a sense of humor. His joy was great whenever a new Indian tribe was about to be received into the Faith; and at such times he would say: "Now we have to give another jolt to the Devil in Sinaloa!' He was not a handsome man. He was short, his legs were clumsy, and he walked pigeon-toed. But he was of great strength and agile as a cat. He could run like a deer, and God help the Indian whom Hurdaide pursued over the hills; the fugitive was sure to be caught, and once the Captain laid hands upon him the Indian was held fast in his iron grip. Although he was engaged in dangerous encounters with the Indians for thirty years, and fought twenty pitched battles, no Spaniard of his army was ever taken prisoner nor was he' himself ever made a captive, though certain tribes would have sold their very souls to catch him. His immunity was thus considered by Río y Losa as miraculous, and the tribes became worn out and discouraged in their efforts to overcome him.T Indeed, if half the things they tell about him are true, he was an extraordinary individual. Hurdaide was born in Zacatecas, both his father and mother being natives of New Spain. Francisco de Urdiñola, later Governor but in the 'seventies and 'eighties engaged as a soldier east of the mountains in the country about Saltillo, soon discovered the qualities of this young man, and when Hurdaide was but a

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5 I

boy he gave him a responsible military position. From that time on he was steadily employed in the frontier provinces of the north, namely, in Nueva Galicia and Nueva Vizcaya, which included the mining towns of Zacatecas, Guanaceví, Santa Barbara, and Mazapil.8 It shows the important place which the missions of Sinaloa were taking in the minds of the Governors of Nueva Vizcaya that they sent so valuable a man to Sinaloa and allowed him to remain. Although Hurdaide was not at first in supreme command in Sinaloa, his immediate superiors, Diaz, Zebreros, and Quirós, seem to have entrusted entirely to him the most important projects. Now, Nacabeba was still abroad, and so long as he roamed at large he was a thorn in the side of the missions. A t certain seasons he would live on the upper Sinaloa River where it emerges from the mountains and from there descend upon the Christian pueblos, stealing horses, setting fire to dwellings, and creating other mischief.0 In 1598 Hurdaide was given the task of capturing the rebel.10 He got in touch with a nephew of Nacabeba, called Cristobal Horcom, a youth in his early twenties. The Indian promised to deliver his uncle dead or alive. But there was great delay and Hurdaide became impatient. The nephew, afraid to return without his prize, was living in the hills with some other young braves. They decided upon a ruse. One day they attacked an old Tehueco Indian on his way north from the Mocorito River to his pueblo on the Fuerte. They slew him and cut off his head and bore it in triumph to Sinaloa, where they claimed their reward, for they said it was the head of Nacabeba. There was rejoicing in the town and the youths were rewarded with some fine blankets, in which they took great pride—but only for a while, for some Tehueco Indians came shortly to San Felipe, gazed upon the supposed head of Nacabeba, and recognized it for one of their own tribe. They swore

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vengeance, and when Nacabeba, unaware of his danger, came later into the country of the Fuerte, they took him and his whole party, including one of his wives, his daughter, and other relatives. They bound him to a post, and the friendly cacique Lanzarote notified Hurdaide. After four days he arrived at Tehueco and found the culprit half-dead with hunger and exposure, for they had fed him nothing.11 He was taken back to San Felipe, tried, and condemned to be hanged, and his artful nephew with him. He was baptized before his death; the nephew, who was a Christian, confessed sacramentally while others of the party of the chief were slain by the Tehueco Indians. Thus ended Nacabeba, slayer of Tapia and pest of the Sinaloa missions.12 The year 1599 was an important one in the mission annals. Hurdaide was dispatched to Mexico City by his immediate superior, Diego de Quiros, to ask for more soldiers, for the Suaquis on the middle Fuerte had not yet been tamed and they were giving trouble. Only twenty-four soldiers made up the presidio and it was felt that more were needed. Although we have no details of Hurdaide's first official visit to the capital, we know it was crowned with a twofold success: the Viceroy, the Count of Monterey, gave him ten more men for the protection of the mission; and he promoted Hurdaide to chief command in Sinaloa, with the title of Captain. Hurdaide returned with his soldiers and assumed the duties of his new office.18 The newly created Captain had immediate occasion to use his men. In his absence the Guasave tribe living along the coast had rebelled under the leadership of a powerful cacique. They fled to the mountains. With the help of some friendly Indians Hurdaide pursued them, captured their leaders and punished them with death, all except the cacique. This man had qualities which Hurdaide foresaw could be useful to the cause of the mis-

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sions. The judgment was correct. The cacique appreciated the clemency offered him, soon was baptized, and had great influence for good upon the tribe, bringing back from the hills through persuasion most of those who had fled, and by his own example leading his people to piety and virtue. But Hurdaide had fiercer men to deal with than the mild Guasaves. The Suaqui Indians continued haughty and insolent, defying the prowess of the Spaniards. Once a Suaqui came to the Spanish officer in charge, who was probably Alonso Diaz, and defied him to set foot in their lands. The captain answered mildly, but Hurdaide, who was present, knocked the Indian down, saying that some day the Suaquis would have to reckon with him in their own territory. Hurdaide then turned to his superior officer and said it was a mistake thus mildly to handle this race, for such treatment only assured a continuance of their perpetual unruliness." N o sooner, then, did Hurdaide return from the capital with more soldiers and with full authority than he decided to humble the haughty tribe. The Suaqui pueblos were strung along the Fuerte River for some thirty miles, beginning thirty miles from the sea. Hurdaide from the lone hill at San Felipe could gaze over to their country, for it lay beyond the barrier of blue mountains that extend across the valley to the north. It was nearly forty miles as the crow flies, north and somewhat west, to this range, and yet more miles beyond to thread their passes to the Fuerte. Hurdaide completed his plans but kept them locked in his strong mind. These Spanish frontiersmen were afraid of the Suaquis, and Hurdaide must not weaken the morale of his little band of soldiers. H e procured a supply of rope, rawhide, chains, and shackles, the soldiers not divining his intentions. When he was ready he told them. H e selected twenty-four of his best men. They provisioned themselves with jerked beef against a

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possible shortage of meat at the river, and took with them in leather bags large supplies of beads and glass ornaments of different kinds in order to entice the unwary Indians. Hurdaide was always against the shedding of blood in pitched battles; if he could accomplish his object through diplomacy or ruse, he would do so. The Suaquis, he judged, would not at first offer battle, but through curiosity would come about the camp to learn the Captain's intentions and to steal and pilfer. He would not have to fight. He would secure the chiefs by strategem and then the tribe would be helpless. In this wise he instructed his soldiers: they were to march over to the Fuerte, make their camp upon its banks and wait for the curious chiefs to come about; they would entertain the caciques with the beads and glassware they had brought; and at a signal from himself each soldier would seize and bind two of them—a commentary on the physique of the Sinaloa Indian. The soldiers begged to be let off with one, but the Captain would not hear of it. So was the expedition begun. The camp was pitched; the Indians came around, feigning friendliness. Among them was a Christian woman named Luisa, whom Hurdaide had known formerly as a slave in the mines of Topia. He had always kept her friendship and now when he saw her approaching, which was a fortunate turn for himself, he greeted her kindly and kept her by his side as an interpreter. The chiefs inquired his purpose. "I have come with these my sons to slaughter some cattle for food and to make over some of the meat to you!' They inquired why, if this were so, he sat there inactive in camp. "Because there is here no firewood to cook the meat!' "We shall go after the wood!' suggested the chiefs. "No, not the chiefs. Let some of the people go!' And so it was done, the people going off with alacrity and without unloosening their bows and arrows, to gather wood for the barbecue.

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Here was the Captain's chance. He engaged his unwary visitors in conversation until their people were well away and then he gave the signal for action. A sharp scuffle followed. A gigantic cacique named Taa escaped Hurdaide, but he held the other firmly by the hair of his head. His men were as swift and as clever as he, and only one other escaped. Forty-three were captured and clapped into irons. A hue and cry was raised. The people came running in, unloosening their bows and arrows. But they were without leaders, and they feared bloodshed, especially the wounding of their chiefs. Hurdaide told these latter to order their people off, for should a fight begin he would destroy all their villages and punish the entire tribe. He promised protection to their wives and daughters and said they could even bring food to the prisoners. The caciques consented and the people dispersed—not without leaving upon the reader of these events an impression of their supreme stupidity. Here is where the Christian spirit of Hurdaide shone forth. He could have executed the chiefs immediately and returned to Sinaloa in the flush of complete victory. But he preferred to risk the dangers of delay until the padres could be summoned to instruct and baptize them. In the meantime the wives had brought stones hidden in the bags of food, and in the depths of a cold night when the prisoners were allowed a fire, they suddenly let fly at the guards, who had to run for their lives. The Indians worked themselves up to a fury and two of their number were killed before quiet was restored. Luisa persuaded the Captain to free one of her friends, who later was baptized and named Venturo. Two padres came with expedition, Mendez and Velasco. They were informed by the Captain of what they were expected to do, for the chiefs were all to hang from the limbs of trees. The fathers found most of the Indians happy to

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be baptized, seeing death was inevitable. Two only held out, but after two days even these were persuaded. When all was in readiness the remaining forty were hanged. Thus perished the leaders who for long had worried and harried "not only the province of Sinaloa, but the whole government of Nueva Vizcaya" Hurdaide's name resounded far and wide. Such are the details of the story as given in Perez de Ribas' Los Triumpbos " Father Ribas came into this country as a missioner a short time after these events, and he had the story from the lips of Hurdaide himself.16 He seems to be conscious of the possible verdict of history upon the deed as treacherous and cruel, for he enters into a lengthy apology for the affair. In fact, he tells us that many at the time spoke of excessive rigor and cruelty. But, he reminds his readers, these slaughtered caciques were the men who had destroyed the original settlement at Carapoa and murdered all its Spanish inhabitants; these were the men who had surrounded Governor Hernando Bazan and killed him and most of his troop, and had kept the decapitated and mutilated bodies, all painted up, dangling from the limbs of trees; these were the men who had befriended Nacabeba, the murderer of Tapia, and had aided him in his subsequent rascalities." Ribas, it is plain, was in sympathy with the action of Hurdaide, and considered this hanging of the Suaqui chiefs a well-merited punishment and retribution. History will probably judge of the affair according to the sympathy and inclination of the individual historian. Here, the facts are repeated with neither apology nor condemnation. Still another reflection is to be made. It seems incredible that Hurdaide should have been able to accomplish what he did in the face of multitudes of hostile Indians and with a band of but twenty-four soldiers. Itet Ribas is so careful and sincere a chronicler, and his means of knowing the facts were so direct and

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contemporary, that it would seem rash to question his narrative. The account will seem less incredible if we bear in mind a few observations generally agreed upon. These Indians, then as today, were exceedingly simple and often stupid. They were easily overawed, and without leadership were helpless. Moreover, the Spanish soldier had his horse, his murderous gun, and his stout armor against which the arrow thudded harmlessly. The Spaniard had his riata of rawhide and his chains. He could, if he were quick and clever, grasp an Indian by his long hair and throw him to the ground in a twinkle. Cortes with a handful of men conquered an empire, and Francisco de Ibarra with six Spaniards attacked and put to flight six hundred Indians of Sonora fortified in their pueblo of Sahuaripa. But even when we have considered all this, it still seems wellnigh incredible that but twenty-four soldiers and their captain could seize and bind and hold as prisoners forty-three of the Suaqui chiefs, who, we have frequently been told, were fierce and warlike men. Truly these southern Indians were not of the stuff of the Iroquois or the Sioux, the Yumas or the Apaches.

Chapter V I I

THE THRUST TO THE FUERTE

E

IGHTEEN OR TWENTY MILES northwest along a level, dusty

road from Los Mochis lies picturesque Ahome. Unlike ' many Mexican towns, it enjoys streets shaded by trees whose height and robust trunks attest their age. Ahome's soil is rich, for it lies on low land but fifteen miles from the sea, and along the fringes of the town flows the Fuerte with its clear strong current, carrying down its good waters from the high sierra. A little church is here, modern except for an archway at the rear which marks the last remnant of the old mission built upon the site long ago. A t the opening of the seventeenth century the Indians of Ahome were still pagan, as were their neighbors, the Suaquis, farther up the stream. But the Ahomes were a mild and docile race, belonging to the Guasave family as distinct from the Cahita. Inclined as they were from the beginning to friendship with the Spaniards, the only thing that prevented an earlier conversion was dearth of padres to administer to them. They did offer, however, the occasion for the conversion of the tribes of the whole Fuerte River, and were thus instrumental in advancing the missions of the West Coast to the banks of still another river. It was in 1602 that a delegation of the Ahomes journeyed over to Sinaloa to see the great Captain. They came with a complaint and a request. The Suaqui Indians, whom Hurdaide had punished so signally, had usurped the ancient lands of the Ahomes, using them for the sowing of their corn. Besides, they worried the Ahomes in various other ways, especially in the maltreatment of their wives and daughters.1 The traveler today, looking over the landscape, can perhaps see the land which was C58 3

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the subject of the Ahomes' complaint. The level country to the north of the Fuerte is interrupted by a bulge of the plain into lines of rolling hills; this may have been the line beyond which the Suaquis had presumed to trespass. These people of Ahome, ripe and ready for the gospel, now placed themselves under the protection of the King of Spain. Hurdaide must defend their weakness against the aggressor. As was his wont, he tried at first every effort of conciliation and diplomacy to persuade the Suaquis to withdraw from the lands of the mild Ahomes. But it was of no avail. They were under the evil influence of a man who had long enjoyed great prestige among them and their neighbors to the north, the Sinaloas. Taxicora was witch and wizard, medicine man and evil genius, an hechicero, and thus belonged to the class so potent for evil during all the history of the other missions. This is the man who was said to have raised a horse from the ground with himself on its back, saying that when the padres could do the same thing it would be time to respect them.' So, kindness and diplomacy failing, another military expedition, with its labors and its dangers, was organized. Only the year before, Hurdaide had undertaken by command of his government a dangerous entrada into the high sierras of the Chinipas, where, betrayed by the Sinaloas and attacked by a combination of Chinipas and Sinaloas, he had all but suffered disaster." And now duty commanded him again to take the field. For the second time the Captain started out with his small band of soldiers to the country of the Suaquis, but now he was accompanied by a group of Indian allies. His intention was to go direct to the dwelling of Taxicora and take him prisoner; but providence intervened in Hurdaide's favor, and Taxicora came to him, stumbling into his net. Arrived at the Fuerte, Hurdaide made his camp at the pueblo

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of Mochicahue, on the lower river in the plain called Matahoa. The Suaquis were some five hundred strong here, and were in touch with their allies the Sinaloas. The Captain was correct in his surmise that the Indians would not attack him at the start; therefore he would pitch camp and await developments. He was sitting in his tent, the interpreter Luisa close by, when a band of Sinaloas approached, led by Taxicora himself. "Here comes Taxicora" whispered Luisa. "Behold him yonder with his following!' Hurdaide had to think quickly. Should he endeavor now to seize the man, or should be wait for a more favorable opportunity? He was in enemy country, and the Suaquis could call upon the Sinaloa tribe at a moment's notice. Furthermore, the people of Tehueco, between the Suaquis and the Sinaloas, could also join in an attack. At this moment of judicious indecision he turned to himself, as he later related to Ribas, and said: "Ah, Vizcayan, where now dost thou stand?" He was a Vizcayan, or Basque, he said to himself, sprung from a people able to rise to every danger. He resolved with his own hands to capture Taxicora.4 Speedily Hurdaide gave his orders. His men were to surround his tent and stand ready, armed and with their horses, and were thus to await the approach of the chief. The latter came up with great arrogance. Hurdaide pretended not to know him and asked his name. While the chief was answering, Hurdaide knocked the bow from his hand with his foot and seized him by the hair of his head, shouted an order that he should be fast bound on the instant, and warned the men to be ready to fight. The Indians, fearing for the life of their chief, retired, but held the camp beleaguered. When Hurdaide attempted to march off, the Indians attacked furiously and the Captain was in danger. The country was thick with trees, and the arquebuses could not be used with effect. Hurdaide ordered that Taxicora

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should be threatened with death. The chief, fearing for his life, shouted out to his men to leave off; but the excitement deafened them and the battle raged. Then one of the Spaniards was hurled from his horse and Hurdaide lent him his own. No sooner was he on foot than he seized an Indian and gave orders that he be strung up on the nearest tree. The others, seeing death claim their comrade, fled.5 The Captain wanted to finish this trouble on the Fuerte at one stroke, and so he determined to march immediately upon the pueblo of Tehueco, which was involved in the usurpation of Ahome land. Taking Taxicora as a prisoner in chains, he appeared suddenly before their village and surprised them. Their warriors, not daring to meet him in the open country, fled to the mountains. He took as prisoners and hostages two hundred women and children and then settled down to camp. He made the chiefs a proposal: if they would depart from the country of the Ahomes, he would not shed a drop of blood and would return their women to them uninjured. Because they respected Hurdaide's word, they accepted his offer, withdrew from the Ahome lands, and received back their wives and daughters.6 There was one thing more to do. The Suaquis lower down the river had to be dealt with. Hurdaide had not yet either persuaded these lower Suaquis to depart from the Ahome plains nor forced them to do so. Therefore, after the Tehuecos had been disciplined, he marched down the river and again appeared before the pueblo of Mochicahue. He returned with his prestige now heightened by a double victory. The warriors fled upon his approach, and he encamped on the edge of the pueblo, which, fortunately for him and for the success of his dealings with the chiefs, had great stores of maize. He could remain there indefinitely, provisioned from their own stock, and this he let them know. He promised, moreover, that he would neither shed their

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blood nor burn their pueblo if only they would accept his terms, namely, departure from the Ahome lands and maintenance of peace with the Spaniards.There was nothing for it but to submit. The Suaquis underwent the further humiliation of subjection to strokes of the lash and cropping of their hair as earnest of their obedience.7 Taxicora was taken back to Sinaloa and hanged. He was willing to be baptized before his death.8 These operations settled finally the difficulties on the river. The three populous tribes who for years had been the cause of so much disturbance and worry, the Sinaloas on the upper Fuerte, the Suaquis farther down its stream, and the Tehuecos in between them, were now won over. They feared the Spaniards for their superior prowess in battle; they respected Hurdaide for his moderation in victory and the integrity of his word; and they were consequently led to admire a religion which was represented by such strong and worthy men. They therefore not only asked for missionaries and for baptism, that they might enjoy the peace and prestige of Christianity, but promised also to build churches in order to hasten and facilitate the coming of the gospel. The Ahomes, eternally grateful to Hurdaide for having rid their plains of the enemy, likewise asked for padres to instruct them and to baptize. There was rejoicing, of course, at San Felipe on the part of Church and State." The Suaquis were now so friendly that when Hurdaide came to them shortly afterward, accompanied by Brother Francisco de Castro, to get supplies for San Felipe, they gladly gave in abundance. In each pueblo the Indians gathered two large piles of maize, one for Hurdaide, the other for the brother. This was their peace offering. It amounted to approximately a thousand bushels of grain.10 But what to do? Since there were not enough fathers even for the Sinaloa River, how could the missions advance to the

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Fuerte? Santarén had been called over to the mountains o£ Topia, leaving only Pérez, Velasco, Méndez, and a new arrival, Villafañe, with the lay brother Castro to attend to the whole river. It was impossible without recruits to advance to the Fuerte. Hurdaide with his usual energy and decision determined to go to Mexico to get them.u These visits, long and arduous as they were, had never been without fruit to the Sinaloa mission. Tapia had brought back Castro with him in 1593, besides the promise of two padres to follow soon, namely,.Méndez and Santarén. Hurdaide in 1599 had returned with ten more soldiers for the protection of the missions. There was reason to hope that one more journey to Mexico City would yield further profit. And another thing prompted the visit to the capital. Under the arrangement of the Patronato Real or Royal Patronage, by which the Church in Mexico was administered from Madrid by Spanish officials, and not from Rome, the State had the final decision in the appointment of missionaries and their advance into new country. Now, the Viceroy in Mexico City, the Count of Montesclaros, had given orders that no new territories were to be settled and Christianized without his advice and consent. The Captain and the fathers must get leave from headquarters to advance to the Fuerte River and to Christianize its tribes.12 Hurdaide invited some of the chiefs to accompany him to the capital, and they were glad to accept." Tapia had taken some Indian boys with him when he made his visit some years before,14 and it will be recalled that the brother of Powhatan, the chief of the Chesapeake Bay people, called Don Luis, had visited Mexico and then Spain. The Viceroy was gracious in his welcome to Hurdaide and the caciques. He acknowledged the importance of their visit and the validity of the reasons for their request. And he acted.

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He consulted with the Provincial of the Jesuits and they decided between them that two men should be sent up to the mission to take charge of these tribes of the Fuerte. They would begin with the baptism of the children and then pass on to the adults. If later it should be seen that more workmen were needed, others would be forthcoming. The Viceroy gave orders to the royal officials of His Majesty's treasury that they prepare for immediate dispatch to the missions vestments for Mass, chalices and other equipment for the altars, bells for the churches, and different musical instruments. He ordered further that the Indians be fitted out with clothes and be given swords, with which these simple barbarians were highly delighted. This was regal indeed. But the Viceroy was not the only official thus generously interested. The Archbishop of Mexico, Fray Garcia de Mendoza y Zuniga, was equally gracious and almost equally generous. He regaled the chiefs with further gifts and aided the mission with alms. Hurdaide's satisfaction can be imagined.15 The Captain began his return journey in high spirits. His Indians had been deeply impressed and he had in his company the promised padres. One was Perez de Ribas, later the famous historian of the missions, from whose pen much of this narrative is taken, and the other was Cristobal de Villalta.1" They went north, winding along many valleys, to Zacatecas, more than three hundred miles away. Here they suffered a reverse, a result of the fickle nature of the savage. One morning it was discovered that four of the caciques, all belonging to the Tehuecos, had made off secretly in the night. The Captain knew what harm this might do to the mission, for the fugitives would disseminate lies and false reports and spread disaffection among the tribes so recently won over. He gave chase, therefore, but was unable to overtake them. The Indians were traveling rapidly and surely, though the country was exceedingly rough and they had tra-

INDIAN DWELLING NEAR OCORONI

THE THRUST TO THE FUERTE

65

versed it only once before, on their journey south. They arrived safe home almost five hundred miles away. Hurdaide had surmised correctly. On the borders of Sinaloa they murdered three Indians of the Culiacan district in order to steal their mounts. Arrived back on the Fuerte, they spread disquieting rumors which caused some disturbance, but which many did not give full credence to. By forced marches Hurdaide reached Topia across the mountains, where bad news awaited him. In his absence two tribes had rebelled and fled, those of Ocoroni and of Bacubirito. This meant more work. Upon his arrival at San Felipe he heard all. The four Tehueco chiefs, after spreading their destruction, had fled to their friends, the Tepahue tribe, fearing the punishment of the Captain. He decided to deal with these first, and he succeeded. He called the Tehuecos together and explained what had happened: how, in spite of the hospitable treatment of the chiefs in Mexico City, they had fled and murdered the three Tahues, whose people demanded satisfaction. He was able to persuade five hundred of the Tehuecos to accompany him into the difficult Tepahue country and to assist in capturing the four murderers. The Tepahues had boasted that he could never enter their mountains. He replied: "Does the sun enter? Then shall I!" So skillfully and successfully did he deal with this mountain tribe that he was soon able to persuade them to hand over the four who had fled to them. These were taken south, judged, and hanged on the very spot where they had committed the outrage against the Tahues, to the satisfaction of that tribe." The Captain now turned his attention to the Ocoronis and the Bacubiritos. This was a harder task. They, too, had gone to the mountains among the wilder tribes. The Bacubiritos were not so numerous, and with these Hurdaide had some success. But four hundred of the Ocoronis were gone, two hundred of

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them possessing bows and arrows. Because of a press of other affairs, especially the important business of the beginnings on the Fuerte, Hurdaide had not leisure to devote to them and they could not be brought back at this time. But consolation existed for the fathers even in the flight of these formerly faithful Ocoronis. Mendez had organized at San Felipe a school for boys under sixteen years of age. H e had taught them to read, to write, to sing and to serve in the church, and even, when he should be absent, to instruct others in the Faith, including their elders. Now, when the Ocoronis fled, the parents of these children tried their best to have the boys follow them to the mountains. But without success. One even left his mother to join his old comrades and the padre. As Mendez writes in one of his letters, they preferred to remain with their father of the spirit rather than to follow in flight their fathers and mothers in the flesh. The Jesuits were succeeding with the youth of this country."

Chapter

VIII

SINALOA JOINS THE CHURCH

I

N THE MEANTIME, while the great Captain by his warlike qualities, his diplomacy, and his Christian spirit was preparing the way for the advance of the missions up to the Fuerte River, so that, indeed, everything was ready for the entrance of the fathers, matters on the Sinaloa River were advancing encouragingly though not continuously. There were trials and setbacks—trials peculiarly human, as shown by unrest in the spirit of man, and trials from nature, as shown in the upheavals of Mother Earth. The year 1598 is the probable date of the arrival of Father Hernando de Villafane.1 He did some of his best work among the Guasaves on the lower Sinaloa. We have seen how Perez at his first coming in 1591 had worked among and converted the Indians of Bamoa down the river from San Felipe; how the cacique at Nio, converted by Mendez, brought his people over to the Faith; how some of the Guasaves near the sea had been baptized in time of plague by Velasco and later evangelized by Santaren; how they had rebelled and fled to the mountains when Perez destroyed an idol in 1596. After 1598 Villafane took in charge this whole tribe which was spread along the coast and labored successfully among them. Indeed, the first large mission churches, large for those times, were begun by Villafane among the Guasaves. When he had nearly finished the baptisms, he set himself to build permanent houses of worship.2 The first churches had been scarcely more than enramadas, such as are used everywhere in Mexico today as dwelling houses for the poorer Indians. They are made of upright poles, more or less straight, being the unfinished C673

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branches of trees. These support a framework of more slender poles through which are thickly interwoven the pliant boughs of the willow or a similar tree. This laid over with straw and covered with mud makes the roof of the dwelling. The walls consist of thickly woven osiers, sometimes plastered with mud, sometimes not. From the front of this primitive dwelling there extends usually a covering overhead, supported by thick poles or posts, to serve as an awning, which in hot weather keeps out the sun and in the rainy season offers some protection. There is a perfect specimen of such a little church or chapel today near Ocoroni at the Indian village of La Playa, and, like many another shrine or ruined larger church, it is cared for lovingly by the natives. The altar is there, and quaint pictures, faded and stained by age and weather, adorn the farther wall. On Sunday one may see fresh flowers laid upon the altar or placed in rude vases, and the dirt floor freshly swept or raked. Mass is never said on these altars, yet old as they are, and crude, they are sustained in some order and decoration by the faith of the Indian, for this is his place of worship. Huts like these, made of branches and mud, Tapia and Perez first used, and such was the type of church first built among the Guasaves. But Villafane wanted now, in the first years of the sixteen hundreds, to have for his Indians and their worship real churches of enduring quality which they could be proud of and form traditions about. The walls were to rise thick and sturdy, made of adobe or mud brick reinforced by straw. This would be assurance against fire. Only the roof was to be of wood: plaited osiers and straw thatch covered with earth, supported by great wooden beams. The work was entirely new to the Indians. They had never even set eyes upon such an edifice. But under the encouraging influence and direction of their padre they girded themselves for the task. Slowly the walls began to rise,

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and as the work progressed they became more and more eager to see the fabric completed. It took a long time: the adobe bricks had to be formed by hand and baked in the sun; osiers for the extension of the roof had to be gathered, selected, and plaited; large beams had to be cut in the mountains and got down to the lower valley. As two centuries later the California Indians of San Luis Rey carried down from the San Jacinto Mountains the great beams for their mission church, and as the Indians of San Miguel came similarly laden from the Coast Range many miles away, so did these, their older brothers of the south, trudge down from the Sierra Madre bent under a weight of oak. Finally, several churches arose, for the ambition of the padre led him to have one for each of the three important pueblos of the section, Guasave, Tamazula, and Sisinicari.8 The three churches were completed to the great pride of the Guasave tribe. Never before had structures such as these risen on their land; from far and wide natives came to wonder and admire. If we are to judge from the old churches, some almost intact, some in ruins, which today stand along the Fuerte and the Mayo, we shall see that these simple folk had reason to be proud of what they had accomplished with the labor of their hands. The walls of these old structures are from 5 to 6 feet thick and rise to a height of from 25 to 30 feet, and the enclosed spaces are 125 feet long and 25 feet across. If these were the dimensions of Villafane's churches, the very first, except for the smaller one at Sinaloa, the Indians were justified in their satisfaction. But alas for human aspirations and the pride and joy of accomplishment unless faith strengthen against discouragement. The work finished, all were awaiting the time of dedication, for which a great celebration was planned. Then nature stepped in to ruin all. Such a rain as was never seen before fell upon the

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land of Sinaloa and for five continuous days the heavens poured from their open floodgates.1 Now, the lower Sinaloa River in the land of the Guasaves is swelled by the inflow of two streams that come southwest from the mountains. The Ocoroni is one, and just before it reaches the Sinaloa above Guasave it is enlarged by another and nameless stream. After five days of pouring rain these three streams were each singly in flood, so that when they joined into one there was no managing the waters. Like the yellow Tiber, the Sinaloa tumultuously overflowed its banks. Against earthquake the massive walls might have stood, but the more treacherous dissolving action of flowing water upon the mud bricks was too much, and the fine new churches crumbled and melted down. It was a heavy blow, a very great disappointment, but to Villafane not a totally discouraging one. His resolution did not for a moment flag, and soon we read that he was again at the task, prepared to build even better structures than those which had been ruined." All this happened in 1604. The whole country suffered. The crops generally were destroyed, and even at San Felipe, which is so far above the tributaries of the river, the waters entered the town and wrought destruction, ruining stores of maize. Fortunately, the church here was on higher ground and the floodwaters did not reach it. The simple and primitive buildings of the Indian school likewise escaped serious damage. But the Indians on the lower river had to flee to the hills and many were endangered in their flight. Some remained for days in the branches of trees, suffering hunger. Velasco was marooned in the sacristy of his church until an Indian swam to his assistance. Mendez had to perch with his neophytes in the trees. And then the tempters began to wag their tongues, especially pagans from outside the missions/The God of the Christians has not been very good to you and you have had to flee your pueblos. Remain

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away and come back to your old gods!' But many stayed faithfully with the fathers and when the trouble was over began quietly the work of reconstruction." Nevertheless, before this, and—in spite of the setback—after this, while Hurdaide was opening up the country to the north, progress and organization went on apace. T h e Mocoritos to the south built churches like those of the Guasaves. Ribas calls the fathers ambidexterous, but he is too modest; they were polydexterous. First came the spiritual administrations which were prime and proper to their calling; but it is well known that the missionary has to be many things at once. T h e activities of these padres were various. Like Tapia they directed the building of the churches and lent a ready hand to the manual labor itself, to the great edification of the neophyte. Then, the economy of the communities was vastly improved. These people, the missionaries believed, must be taught to clothe themselves better. Cotton was needed for this, and therefore more was planted and from its produce garments were made. T h e y could exchange the raw cotton, and even their maize and frijoles and calabashes, for fine colored blankets that Spanish merchants brought up from the south; and thus was trade with the white men first begun among them. So delighted were these children with what they could procure in exchange for their raw products that they laid out too much land in cotton, to the retrenchment of their food crops. Suffering from hunger ensued and they were obliged on occasion to live on roots and herbs. A golden mean needed to be struck; in this the wisdom of the fathers would aid/ T h e r e followed a development which demonstrates how large a part the mission played in the civilization of the savage. T h e political organization of the pueblos was promoted, and in this Hurdaide's strength and wisdom were vastly important. State and Church worked together. Our source states that the

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Captain "consented" to the political organization o£ the villages." If the implication is correct, the fathers broached the subject and Hurdaide consented and offered material cooperation. It had been an old practice in Spanish America, which later became law, to give the Indian caciques a certain limited amount of jurisdiction," and we have seen howTapia had organized pueblos at San Luis de la Paz and in Topia. It was no new thing, therefore, when in these missions of Sinaloa, Hurdaide, representing the King and the temporal power, carried out the actual work of organization. The Captain appointed officers from among the Indians in those Christian pueblos which were considered to be sufficiently mature. They would act as heads of the pueblo, representing through Hurdaide the King of Spain and the discipline of Spanish civilization. These, prudently enough, were most often chosen from the caciques of the tribes. There was a governor to act as head of the pueblo and give unity to the group. There was the alcalde or justice of the peace, responsible for the good behavior of the people. Should anything untoward occur, it was his duty to report the matter to the Captain. Concerning the exterior ordering of church matters, there was the fiscal, appointed by the fathers, who was head of a corps to keep the church edifice fit and clean, ring the bells for Mass and for prayer, and see that all was kept in readiness for the performance of the Christian ceremonies. The preservation of order in the sacred edifice was also part of the fiscal's responsibility. Thus the system which the Jesuit missionaries would soon work out with brilliant success in Paraguay, and which they later carried out in Lower California under Salvatierra and his successors, they now were setting up for the natives in Sinaloa in harmonious cooperation with the King's civil officer, Diego Martinez de Hurdaide.10

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There was also the Indian school. It has been only mentioned in the preceding chapter. The reports of the province refer to this school as the college at Sinaloa. Here the word is used in its wider sense, for the "college" was simply a rudimentary school for Indian boys of sixteen years and less.The brightest and most promising of the boys of the surrounding pueblos were taken. Besides reading, writing, and singing, these lads were taught religion. In this the institution was a normal school, for it developed young teachers to teach others, older people not yet instructed in the Faith, or youngsters being prepared for Holy Communion or for confirmation. Thus a double advantage was gained. The seed of Christianity early planted in young hearts would strike its root into rich and virgin soil so that the plant of faith springing therefrom could never be plucked out. Moreover, for a wide and rapid propagation it was necessary that the fathers have assistants to relieve them of the humdrum burden of elementary instruction when this could be conveniently delegated to others. Therefore we have the catechist or ternastian, a familiar figure in the missions. The best of these boys were able to perform a marvelous service, and became diminutive ministers of religion. The fathers would dress them up in gown and surplice and have them read the gospel to the people at the foot of the altar. At other times these same boys would deliver a discourse on Christian doctrine which had a fine effect upon young and old. The young were spurred to emulation, and the old were delighted to see these lads of their own race discoursing upon the very things of which the padres spoke. That which came from the lips of their sons entered easily the hearts of the parents." After all, this method is in part the one which Catholicism has always used and uses efficiently today. And so it is in the Protestant Sunday school. Yrang people of either sex are employed to instruct the younger

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children in the elements of the faith. The instruction of the elders, however, is a departure that seems to be unique to missionary countries. The anua of 1602 tells us that during this year thirty boys made up the school at Sinaloa, the older ones being twelve and thirteen years of age. Here was trained an orchestra of flutes, horns, and tambourines. With the music went singing, which served for the solemn Masses. A t Ocoroni, likewise, Méndez trained an orchestra of boys. Indeed, the Ocoroni lads were smart enough to learn to play the flute in fifteen days.12 Was it thus the early fathers trained this race to become so musical that even to this day the youngsters pluck with ease at stringed instruments and sing with all the ardor of Caruso? Or are they just natural musicians? Thus, in the education of the rural Indian, what the Mexican government is trying to do today with such great difficulty was done successfully on a smaller scale by the Jesuits three hundred years ago.13 Enlightening statistics have come down to us concerning the tangible progress of the Faith among the tribes of the Sinaloa River. A letter of Velasco says that in 1601 Martín Pérez was attending the pueblos near Sinaloa. Velasco contrasts the present devout and quiet behavior of the villages with their former wild and boisterous manner." Ribas informs us that by the year 1600 some 18,000 souls in the communities along the Sinaloa River, or near it, had been instructed and baptized.16 For 1604 Ribas gives the number of 40,000 souls.10 Hurdaide in one of his letters, which has come down to us undated and unaddressed but evidently was written in 1603 to the Viceroy, offers further and different information. His figures cut down those of Ribas by almost a fourth, for he says that more than 12,000 were baptized, of whom 7000 lived in pueblos." True, he is speaking only

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of the Sinaloa River, and adds that even on the Fuerte 600 infants had already been baptized. His letter, furthermore, was written one year before that of Ribas. But these differences cannot account for the great discrepancy in numbers. The Captain ought more probably to be correct, because Ribas wrote his figures years after he had left the missions, whereas Hurdaide set down the statistics on the spot. Besides, he is confirmed by the anua of 1604, which gives 10,000 as the number of baptized on the Sinaloa.18 The Captain further tells us that 4000 Christian Indians had perished either from pestilence or war. There were twenty-seven pueblos of baptized Indians." Father Alberto Clerici came among the Guasaves in 1611. He was in ill health, but he worked on bravely. The tribes nearest the sea were a timid and fickle lot. Hurdaide had been working with Clerici to Christianize them. This year, 500 made off to a lone peninsula, probably that which juts into the sea just south of the Sinaloa. Here they were caught; Hurdaide and the father had nothing to do but to wait for their return. One by one they crawled back to civilization.20 They fled again in 1617 to the swamps and dunes near the sea, driven by the plague. Here they lived like beasts. Clerici, trying to seek them out, came one night upon a group sick and naked, exposed to the sharp winds of the coast. He brought them food, and they received from him the sacrament of penance, and though some died their souls were saved.21 Ten years later Clerici tells of a great fishing fest held upon the beach to call God's blessing upon the catch. Clerici said Mass upon the sand for four hundred of his neophytes.22 Once when a coast group, called Toroacas, rebelled and fled to an island (the isle of Macapule ?), thinking the Spaniards could not pursue them, Hurdaide built rafts, reached the island, captured the leaders, put seven to death, and dispersed the rest among the Guasaves.2"

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In the year 1603 the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, Francisco de Urdiñola, visited Sinaloa. A l l the caciques and lesser leading men of the tribes came to salute him, and those of the Fuerte begged for fathers and baptism.24 The Governor ordered a report to be made out by reputable inhabitants, which was to be in the form of an answer to thirteen questions. The replies of Bartolomé Muñoz and others have come down to us. Muñoz affirms that 14,000 souls were in friendly contact with the fathers and that they had in their care twenty-six Indian pueblos. This witness reports that they had baptized 6000 souls. There were among the Suaquis, Tehuecos, and Sinaloas 8000 Indians, and they were in touch with the town of San Felipe and had begged for missionaries. The report avers that the presidio is necessary for the work of Christianization, that were the soldiers withdrawn the town would be depopulated, and that more than twenty-four soldiers are needed for the proper carrying on of the work. Of the ten witnesses whose reports are extant, Muñoz gives the lowest figure. The majority testify that in 1603 from 18,000 to 20,000 Indians were living in pueblos under the direction of the missionaries; Diego Martin raises the figure to as high as 23,000 or 24,000. These would not all be Christians, but a conservative estimate of all those who were baptized in the years from 1591 to 1603 would seem to be somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000. By 1609, according to the official record, the number of baptized passed the 25,000 mark. Including those lost by infant mortality and death from plague or other causes, the number of baptized would always be higher than the number of living Christians. The neophytes were gathered into various settlements. The numbers of pueblos in the reports ranged from twenty-six to thirty-six.28 While they were baptizing the natives and carrying forward other spiritual ministrations, the

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Black Robes, as was their wont, were making a scientific study of the language. During this period, Father Juan Bautista de Velasco was writing a grammar of the Cahita tongue.26 Thus at the opening of the seventeenth century the missions on the Sinaloa River, in spite of trials and local setbacks, were making a steady advance and the baptized numbered in the vicinity of ten thousand. Ribas' pious and flowing pen comments thus warmly: "Who would have foretold that in such wilds, sown with thorns and brambles, there would sprout and grow, mature and be gathered in, so rich a harvest of Christian souls? And who would have surmised that among fierce tigers, such as were these nations, God would have gathered into Heaven a flock of six thousand lambkins, stainless infants who in the first years of the missions died in their baptismal grace?"" The fathers were evidently greatly consoled at reviewing the results of their missionary work.

Chapter IX

RIBAS W I N S A RIVER

T

HE FUERTE RIVER AREA is today the richest in ruins of old

Jesuit missions. Beginning with Ahome, fifteen miles from the sea, and following a road of infinite dust in the lowlands and of exceeding roughness in the highlands, the traveler passes in quick succession along the riverbank the sites and ruins of old missions built by the Black Robes. As one goes up the river, they appear in the following order: Ahome, San Miguel, Mochicahue, Charay, Sivirijoa, Tehueco, Toro, and Vaca. A t Ahome there is but an archway left, now incorporated in the modern church. San Miguel is a picturesque ruin, the roof entirely gone, which crumbles on ground that slopes away from back-lying hills. A t Mochicahue, only the rear of the old mission church remains, jutting out from the modern fabric. Charay is similar to San Miguel, but better preserved and far more colorful. On one side its walls of adobe are almost intact, and toward the rear the rough supports of wood hold up a portion of the roof. There is an attempt at capitals done in rough scrollwork on the gaunt wooden pillars. Altar and sacristy are in good condition. The altar, as in the later, California missions, is made of adobe. The mission at Sivirijoa, like that at Purísima Concepción in California before its restoration, was almost intact a few decades ago. But now its roof has crumbled and the file of time has worn down the walls almost to the ground. Soon there may be nothing left, ^et the altar stands and is adorned with fresh flowers. What was once the sanctuary is swept and garnished, and the approach to this ghost of past prosperity is kept in rough order with broom and brush. After three centuries the Indian preserves his devotion to his shrine. C78]

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A t Tehueco, a few miles north, the church in 1534 rose strong and secure, a long structure for its width, 125 feet by 30. The ruins of Toro are somewhat similar to those of San Miguel; but those at Vaca are by far the most interesting of all. Far away from the valleys of the lower river and just at the gateway to the high sierra, this ruin at Vaca stands as mute testimony to the spirit of the pioneer padres who planted among these mountain tribes the first seeds of Christianity and civilization. Although no priest visits Vaca, the shrine is cared for by loving hands. The roof running from the sanctuary back to the main entrance is four-fifths intact. Its weave of osier under straw and earth is supported by stout, rough-hewn beams. The last two but one have fallen and lie slanting from a single wall. The ruin is 130 feet long and 40 feet wide; the walls are 4 feet thick, and rise to a height of 30 feet, the roof of the sacristy being 4 feet lower. The sanctuary within is hooded by corbels roughly scrolled and nicked and there are the same scrolled supports under every crossbeam as it leaves the wall. The corbels of the beams in the California missions of San Miguel and Santa Ines are not quite so elaborate as those of Vaca. A t the right in a niche stands a veiled statue of Christ. The altar remains, and behind its wall is the sacristy, containing a veiled crucifix surmounting a smaller altar and cross. A niche for a statue marks the far end of the wall. The altar rail is sustained by slender supports roughly carved and painted green, pictures of saints hang above the main altar, and a cross at the top of a pole, evidently a processional cross, stands in a corner to the left. Behind the church and a few paces to the left is the fathers' house, with one large apartment 80 by 40 feet in gross dimensions, covered by a thatched roof partly intact, with earth and grass on top half a foot thick. Such in 1934 was the mission at Vaca. Worn down continually by time, it was still almost intact, standing with

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dignity in a little settlement, mute witness from centuries ago of days that are gone forever. This chain of missions on the Fuerte was begun in 1605, and the first was at Ahome on the lower river. The great Captain opened up the country by repeated military campaigns into its hills and valleys, and even the warlike Suaquis and Sinaloas had been led to ask for the gospel. But from the events narrated it can be readily understood why these missions of the second river might have begun at the pueblo of Ahome. The mildness of the Ahomes, their constant friendship for the Spaniards, their request to Hurdaide to defend them, and their petitions that padres might come to them—all this encouraged early approach. Besides, the flight of the four Tehueco chiefs at Zacatecas as the Captain was returning from Mexico had caused some disturbance upon the upper river. Nevertheless, all four divisions of the Indians of the Fuerte—the Ahomes, the Suaquis, the Tehuecos, and the Sinaloas—were in readiness to receive the fathers, and when they heard that Perez de Ribas and Cristobal de Villalta had come from Mexico there was a unanimous demonstration of welcome and joy. Thus had it been when Tapia and Perez first came. This simple and, as compared with the northeastern Indian, docile and amenable race seemed at this time very ready to receive the Christianity of the Counter Reformation which the Jesuits were bringing them. The details of joyousness and welcome were repeated over and over again and among many tribes, both here and on the next two rivers, the Mayo and the \aqui, and among the tribes of the mountains. with the Spaniards the Suaquis had a reputation for bravery and fierceness by reason of the various defeats and massacres the Spaniards had suffered at their hands. The Maquis were more fierce and warlike still. However, later on, they too received the fathers with gladness.

RUINS OF RIBAS' MISSION AT MOCHICAHUE, ON THE LOWER FUERTE

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Six years after the events now about to be related—that is, in 1611—the first Jesuit missionaries to Canada, Fathers Biard and Masse, arrived from France.1 When, after 1625, the permanent Jesuit missions of Canada were founded, their story was very different from the history of these West Coast missions. In the words of Bolton: "The Black Robes of New France counted their conversions by hundreds, or at best by thousands; those of New Spain, working in a more propitious vineyard, numbered their baptisms by hundreds of thousands, or even by millions!'3 Ifet these French Jesuits had much success with the Huron and Algonquin. Perhaps had not the unfortunate action of Champlain against the Iroquois at Ticonderoga in 1609 earned at the start the ill will of these five nations, and had not the fur trade brought the Iroquois in frequent contact with the English and the Dutch, the story might have been at least somewhat similar to that of the far southwestern missions.3 And perhaps if the savage of the northeast coast had been approached by the gentle Jesuit and the just Hurdaide, history might have told another story and larger numbers of Indians there too might have been preserved and Christianized. Another and very important consideration must be borne in mind. The hostile Indians of the east had firearms which they procured from the English and the Dutch, and thus they could meet the European on equal ground. The Indians of our four western rivers were put to hopeless disadvantage by the guns and armor of the Spaniard. So it was when Cortes first invaded the southern coasts, so it was when Hurdaide came up into the country of Sinaloa. It was like the history of the western plains, changed through the introduction of the six-shooter. Hurdaide, then, brought back with him from Mexico City the two Jesuits, Perez de Ribas and Villalta. When the Indians of the Fuerte heard that the missionaries had actually arrived in

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the town of San Felipe, some, as representatives of the tribes, visited them and discussed how they might enter their country. 4 From the Suaquis came the interpreter Luisa who has before entered our story, and with her the cacique Venturo whom she had saved from the gallows at the time of Hurdaide's slaughter of the chiefs. From the Tehuecos came Lanzarote, already a Christian, with his wife and some other chiefs. T h e Sinaloas sent several caciques, and the Ahomes, greatly delighted, joined with an enthusiastic delegation. Ways and means were talked over with Hurdaide and the fathers. T h e Indians promised to gather themselves together more closely into pueblos, and to build their huts around the spot where the prospective church would rise. Before this time they had lived more or less scattered on their sementeras

or cornfields. It was understood that they

should build fine churches when the time came, and close to the church a suitable house for the fathers. Also it was decided that they would prepare their respective groups for the coming of the missionaries and send word to neighboring tribes to do likewise. T h e ambassadors returned satisfied and there was joy at their success. Councils were held, speeches were made, and bonfires were lighted at night. 5 It was understood that some delay would be necessary. Hurdaide had to make certain arrangements to assure the safety of the fathers, and they had first to learn the native language. But in spite of the delay the Indians were as good as their word. Their enthusiasm did not flag. T h e y even sent some of their boys to San Felipe so that they might be taught the truths of religion and then return with the missionaries to help in the work of more general instruction. It was soon seen that the two who had just arrived would not suffice for this promising harvest. Therefore the Superior of the mission, Father Martin Perez, decided to add to their number the experienced Pedro Mendez,

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in order that three might go to the Fuerte instead of only two. The work was to be divided: to Villalta were assigned the Sinaloas on the upper river against the tall sierras; the Tehuecos were given to Méndez; and to Ribas were entrusted both the Suaquis and the Ahornes, neighbors upon the lower reaches of the river. When the natives heard of this disposition, they came with joy to the fathers, told of the preparations they had been making, invited them to come immediately, and said that they would accompany them to their respective lands." Accordingly, Pérez de Ribas made his first entrada into the land of the Ahornes in 1605, and that same year Captain Hurdaide accompanied Méndez and Villalta to the upper Fuerte.7 In November of the following year a sort of formal recognition and confirmation of the fine beginnings of 1605 was made when Captain Hurdaide and the three missionaries, accompanied by thirty-nine soldiers, made their way from the pueblo of Ahome all the way up the Fuerte to the skirts of the great Sierra.8 It was like a victory march after the success of a year's labor. This is mentioned here because it was a sort of formal entrada definitely adding the new river to the frontier. But to return to Ribas and 1605. The Ahornes were well prepared for the first coming of their padre. They had put up a little church and placed a cross in front of it which they visited twice daily. A blind Indian who was a Christian had been instructing them in the Faith. It is not surprising, then, that when the missionary came they received him with joy and that multitudinous spiritual labors immediately began. What is now to be related is directly from the pen of Pérez de Ribas. Though Méndez and Villalta wrote back to Sinaloa most interesting letters of their entrance and first successes at their assignments, it is Ribas who gives us the most detailed account of all. In his classic history of these missions he was

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naturally able to enter into greater detail about his own work than about the work of the other two. First, then, we shall learn of the Ahomes, and then gradually ascend the river. Ribas had a journey of some sixty miles ahead of him on that day in 1605 when he left San Felipe for Ahome. He would go northwest across the plain to the hills that close it at the north, then due west along their slopes until he should reach the river that runs beyond them. He would follow down to Ahome. On his way, he says, some Indians came to have a look at him. He gave them food, and began to explain the mysteries of the Faith. A s he was speaking, an earthquake shook the ground and they ran off in fright, but soon returned to hear the father draw from the event a lesson about the power of God. Ribas' reception at Ahome was encouraging. A s he approached the pueblo the cacique came out on horseback to welcome him. The chief was accompanied by the whole multitude of his people, whom he called his sons. They made a great demonstration that warmed the heart of Ribas. Arbors made of freshly cut branches of trees decked his progress, and the natives came out in procession bearing before them a cross which was embellished with the best Indian finery—colored plumes—and boughs of trees. As he approached, they sang in good voice and order the Christian doctrine and the divine praises, as if, says Ribas, they were already Christians and not pagans. They thus accompanied him all the way to the village." Ribas saw work to do at once. Hundreds of mothers were there with their babies, offering them for baptism. N o time was lost; that very day three hundred infants were baptized, and names were given each and entered in a book. The ceremony over, the Indians departed to their houses and their fields. That night there was great jubilee. The godparents were invited by happy mothers and fathers to feasts of tortillas, tama-

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les, and bread of maize, and the neighbors prolonged the night in speech and felicitation. During this and the following days they expressed to Ribas their deep satisfaction at his coming. They were the great gainers, for the Captain had threatened anyone who should in the future molest them. They rejoiced in their security. They pointed out to Ribas the passes to the north through which the Suaquis had formerly come to invade their land and harass their pueblo. Formerly their women could not even go to the river for water, for fear of molestation. A guard of men armed with bow and arrow used always to accompany them. But now, thanks to Hurdaide and the coming of the padre, all was different.10 Ribas had a very sincere admiration and affection for these Indians. He says: "The natural goodness, gentleness, and fidelity of this people . . . can be described in a thought that I have often had. During most dangerous times when all the tribes of the province were threatening to rise, the one refuge that was offered me until the tempest passed was to go, even into the mountains, with my faithful Ahomes. Here would I find greater security than in any other nation of the province, so great was their love and respect for their spiritual father. And in the eleven years that I lived among them and instructed them, never once did I witness any movement of disquietude or of inconstancy!' H e goes on to say how rare polygamy was among them, which could not be said for many of the other tribes; how carefully they guarded their daughters, who wore as a sign of their maidenhood a small shell about their neck, which they did not lay aside until they were married. The dress of the women was the most modest among all the nations. It consisted in blankets of cotton which they wove through strange wefts and dyed into strange colors. Soothsayers and witches were rare among them. Thus does Ribas praise his Ahomes, and it was his exceeding

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good fortune to be freed here from the almost universal pest, the medicine man.11 These people were not perfect, however. When an Indian died the plaint lasted a year. For an hour at night and for another hour at dawn this lamentation went on in the house of death, with great groans of different pitch answered by the people of the nearest neighboring house. They sounded like voices from hell, says Ribas. This custom had become so entrenched that only with difficulty could the missionary root it out. Fortunately for the poor man's rest and nerves, he succeeded." The Ahomes planted little corn. They lived chiefly by fishing and hunting. Their method of catching fish was unique. They would throw into the shallows of the lower river quantities of the poisonous herb Jacquinto armillaris, which contains the poison called by the Spaniards barbasco. The water became saturated with the toxin, and the fish, becoming affected, went into a lifeless stupor and sank to the bottom. Here they were easily gathered in.13 Ribas at this his first visit remained at Ahome eight days. He then departed to prepare for his entrance into the other section assigned him, the tribe of the Suaquis a few miles up the river. It is probable, but not certain, that Ribas went directly to the Suaqui country from Ahome. He says he entered into this proud and rebellious nation in 1605 accompanied by an escort of honor—among whom was most probably the faithful Luisa. "I arrived at their pueblos, which are three within a distance of six leagues, and in which are about a thousand inhabitants and families. The principal of these is called Mochicahue, which sits on the bank of the river in a beautiful level spot in the most fertile valley of the Sinaloa" These Suaquis of Mochicahue came out to meet Ribas with every sign of happiness and

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favor, just as did the Ahomes. They came without bows and arrows, a thing this nation seldom did. They kissed Ribas' hand and some took it and laid it upon their heads. They had made an enramada to serve as a church and another to be his dwelling. Ribas made a speech: "I come not for war, because I carry no arms; nor am I with soldiers. But I come to assist you and to be your father and to teach you the way of salvation!'14 With the aid of Luisa the mothers were got together with their children so that the baptisms might begin. They came along, some carrying their offspring, others dragging them toddling by the hand. Three hundred were baptized this first day at Mochicahue. Soon Ribas went up to the two other pueblos. In two or three days he had baptized eight hundred children and twenty-seven old people. The latter were so far along in years, he comments, that it would have been dangerous to defer the sacrament until instruction could be given, for they seemed very close to death. These old people he instructed twice a day with no small labor to himself, and he blessed their marriages. Some were close to a hundred years of age.15 After these beginnings, and when they knew the padre better, they would come to Ribas and express to him their happiness at his being among them. H e asked why they had in the past been so rebellious and had so long resisted the Faith. It was, they replied, because of their fear of the Spaniards, for their medicine men and sorcerers had spoken so ill of the white man that they had mortal dread of him. But now they saw how greatly they had been deceived by these hechiceros.16 Ribas was of course delighted, and considered all the difficulties of their former hostility slight in comparison with this present fruit. His enthusiasm waxed as he remembered this happiness, and he recorded it in pious and glowing terms.17 After a short sojourn among the Suaquis, Ribas returned to

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Ahome. He found that they had already got together timber for a church. This was now begun under his direction. They worked with a will, men and women, preparing the wood and the straw, and in a short time it was finished. Although rough and poor, it seemed to the Indians to be a great edifice, for they had never possessed anything like it. Now the cacique and all his family arranged for baptism: his wife, his son, and his father, a wrinkled old fellow. The chief became a pillar of the church, sermonizing and catechizing. In a short while the whole tribe was ready for the sacrament and there was much changing of names. The old cacique was named Don Pedro; his son, the now active chief, Don Miguel. Hurdaide appointed him governor over all the district.18 Ribas made a list of all the families, that they might be taught, and went every morning to the church to instruct those who came. An old-time dance was allowed by the padre, provided it was carried on without drink and with seemly Christian moderation; the details of this new propriety delighted Ribas extremely. The boys did not even look at the girls, nor touch so much as their mantillas!" Thus the Jesuit missions on the lower Fuerte began; thus Andres Perez de Ribas, missionary, historian, ethnologist and, later, Provincial of New Spain, began his laborious and most fruitful career.

Chapter X

T H E SKIRTS OF T H E SIERRAS

F

>EDRO MENDEZ, the most experienced missionary of these "parts since the time of Tapia's death, was sent to the Tehueco tribe on the middle Fuerte above the Suaquis and below the Sinaloas. The Tehuecos, in spite of the aid which one of their chiefs, Lanzarote, had given in catching Nacabeba, had often given trouble and they had an instability which required skillful handling.1 These were the people who had attacked the pueblo of Ocoroni in the earlier days of the mission just after Tapia's death.2 It was four chiefs of this same nation who, after their hospitable treatment in Mexico with Hurdaide, fled from him on the return journey and came home to spread trouble through false report.3 If not sofierceas the Suaquis, they were more unstable. Besides, their morals were very irregular and it would require tact and experience to persuade them, without trouble or riot, to relinquish their vicious habits. Therefore Mendez was selected. He was well ripened for this task after ten years in the missions. He had been sent down in 1599, and again in 1602, to the Tahue tribe, where because the natives had no priest much work awaited him.1 He had accompanied Hurdaide in his expedition into the wild mountains of the Chinipas' country with near disaster;' he had worked among the Nios," and was with Villafane among the Guasaves at the time of the flood in 1604.' He had been at Ocoroni and organized a boys' orchestra there." It was Mendez, too, who so attached to himself the boys of the school at San Felipe that when the Ocoronis rebelled at the time of Hurdaide's absence the lads preferred to remain with the padre rather than follow their parents to the mountains.' He

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had made himself familiar with the languages of the Nios, the Guasaves, and the Ocoronis, and had ambitions to translate pious works into the idiom of the Indians.10 Therefore was Pedro Méndez a good man to send among the Tehuecos. He wanted to go alone, but the Captain would not hear of it. Unlike Ribas to the Ahornes and Suaquis, he went with an escort of soldiers. The Captain mistrusted these Tehuecos." Méndez had no difficulty with the language, which was cognate to that of the Ocoronis, and so well did he come to understand it that, like Velasco with his Indian grammar,12 Méndez translated the Flos Sanctorum of Peter Ribadeneira18 in order that here, as elsewhere, the boys trained by him might read these edifying pages to the people for their spiritual encouragement." Ribas says that the pueblos of the Tehueco nation were three at this time, beginning four leagues above the last of the Suaquis and extending for "seven leagues over beautiful vales of the same Rio Grande!' He means, of course, the Fuerte. Two of the pueblos would be Macori (now Tehueco) and Sivirijoa.15 Perhaps Ribas exaggerates the beauty of the country here, just as he certainly exaggerated when he spoke of the land of the Ahornes as surrounded by crags and forests which served as a protection against their enemies.16 Forests there may have been in Ribas' time, but the rocky summits are so distant that the plain cannot be said to be surrounded by them. When he speaks of the upper Fuerte, if he refers to the surrounding countryside he is wrong to write of beautiful vales, but if he means by vales the flats created by the river and its banks, which rise from fifty to two hundred feet, he is correct. The Tehueco tribe lived mostly on game, since they were too far up the river for good fishing." Méndez' reception here was as happy as was that of Ribas lower down the river. He was accompanied by caciques, who formed his escort of honor and made his entry a sort of triumph.

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He describes it himself in a letter to his superiors: "OurTehuecos received me with marks of joy and welcomed me more warmly than I could ever have hoped, bringing their children to me that I might baptize them. And although the river rushed down very broad and furious, those who were on the opposite bank swam over to our side for baptism. The godparents were feasted sumptuously and throughout the whole day there were people in the houses of the recently baptized. Such was the security and quiet with which everything proceeded that from the time I entered among them to the time I left I did not see a single Indian with bow and arrow. It was marvelous that among a nation formerly so given to disorders and tumults there was not during all this time a trace of disquiet.... On Sundays particularly they came in from two or three leagues to the pueblo to assist me in such numbers that the surrounding plain would be dark with Indians, all with their children that they might be baptized!' They brought Mendez provisions, as much as he could carry, not only of food, but also of cotton for the service of the altar and of wax for candles.18 We come now to a phenomenon, as consoling as interesting, which manifested itself all up and down these rivers of the west, and which contributed immensely to the spread of religion and of civilization. When the fathers and Hurdaide made arrangements to advance to the Fuerte, it was agreed with the four nations we have mentioned that after they should have been instructed and baptized, they must influence the neighboring tribes and their friends and allies to the same end. Down at Ahome the Comoporis and Bacorigues soon joined the others in Christianity;1' among the Mocoritos the neighboring Bacubiritos were influenced, and we shall see how the Zoe and Huite nations, neighbors to the Sinaloas and affected by what they saw, asked to be admitted to the Church.20 So here with Mendez

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among the Tehuecos. Two small tribes of different language from the Tehuecos came from across the river petitioning baptism for their children. A s happened over and over again, they assented to the condition proposed by the padre, namely, that they should come to live among the Tehuecos to be properly instructed. They agreed, and he to their great joy assented. The very next day the women came bringing their babies. They had with them pinole and other gifts for the godparents.21 Méndez during these first days of his labor baptized seven hundred children. In the meantime the Indians were building a temporary church and a dwelling for Méndez, while the people came in from round about to "reduce themselves"to the pueblo.* Orderly lanes were laid out in the Spanish fashion, with an open space or plaza before the church. When the pueblo was thus organized, Méndez began the instruction and baptism of the adults. In a second letter he gives glowing accounts of their progress.22 He was with them during the Lent of 1605, and their devotion was good to behold. Starting out to hunt, one Friday, for food and then remembering the abstinence, they returned and laid aside their bows and arrows. On confession day they remained hours on their knees awaiting their turn. On certain days of penance, after listening to a good sermon on the Passion, they would take the discipline, namely, flog themselves with sticks and switches, in imitation of the saints. "This J' says Méndez, "they used to do with an ardor that was a reproach to my own tepidity" General religious processions were organized and gone through in silence. Certain shrines with crosses were ranged about the pueblo for halting places in the course of the procession. When the Indians arrived at these they would drop to their knees and cry out for mercy. These Lenten devotions had excellent effects. Four Christians who had been living in * That is, to live in the permanent village.

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evil relations with pagan women returned to the sacraments, and a cacique left his five wives, received baptism, and was then married to one of the women. Twenty-six old people, including lame, halt, and blind, were baptized on one occasion. Thus does Mendez describe the progress of his work and the ardor of his Tehueco neophytes.23 In the meantime Cristobal Villalta went to the Sinaloas farther up the river.24 Here again we have the same story: caciques accompany the father to their country; the good people have prepared arches of the branches of trees; they come out to meet the padre with gladness; they press for immediate baptism of the children. Toro, near the center of their territory, makes almost a perfect equilateral triangle with Ahome and San Felipe, each side of the triangle being some sixty miles in length. If we place one of the angles at San Felipe, the opposite line will run nearly southwestward from Toro to Ahome down the river. These Sinaloas were the people who gave their name to the province because of their early trade with the Spaniards of the destroyed settlement of Carapoa. They were, however, found to be treacherous and surly. But Villalta in his report has some praise for them.25 They lived more closely gathered into settlements and seemed to be of higher culture than the others of the river. They planted maize and cotton, and the women were careful of their homes, weaving mats and baskets skillfully from reed grass. Villalta is enthusiastic over their intellectual and religious qualities. They learned so speedily that after four or five days they could make the sign of the cross and chant their prayers, saluting with the beautiful "Praised be Jesus Christ!' This they would say with much charm in Castilian, as if they had been Spaniards. Accustomed to submission to their chief, they yielded to the padre a splendid obedience from the first. One word from the

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cacique and they were all in church. With unflagging ardor they would listen to the word of God even though it were delivered several times a day. Churches were soon begun in emulation of those among the nations lower down. In these descriptions the novice missioner, Villalta, eulogizes the first heathen among whom he worked. Soon delegates, caciques from the Zoe nation, came, sent by their people, saying that if the padre would come among them they would get together in pueblos and live like Christians. Villalta gave them good hopes and they departed satisfied. The Zoes lived on the south bank of the Fuerte, farther into the mountains, near the great fork which divides the stream. Across the river were the Huites.26 These, too, came to ask for Christianity; but this was a few years later, in 1612.27 The padre had not been long among these people when he had noisy evidence of their superstition. One evening a rising tide of hubbub in the village dinned his ears. He rushed out to see his neophytes darting about the plaza with wild shouts, shooting arrows to the sky and flinging clubs into the air. Mats, even, from their poor huts were hurled as missiles against an unseen enemy. A n eclipse had taken place, which meant the death of the old moon in battle with the new one coming to replace it and bringing protracted war. Moreover, the old moon's demise portended the dreaded plague of thorns, cocoliztli? as the natives called it. In an effort to avert this calamity, the Indians were throwing thorns into the air and strewing them through the huts. The padre pointed out the folly of all of this and taught these primitives to pray to the true God for deliverance from their ills.29 Like Savonarola at Florence battling vanity a century earlier, Villalta in his fight against superstition persuaded his charges to make a great bonfire, to be the hot grave of their idols and

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their ornaments. Here were destroyed many things: braids of hair, bones, hides of animals, seeds, stones of various configuration. The combustibles were burned, the stones were at least scorched and lost their magic. In the course of one of the padre's sermons against superstition, one of the audience was seized with a violent fit of fear. In dread of death, he would not leave the priest until he had made a general confession of all his life. For twenty years, he said, he had been possessed of the Devil. He had evidently done many evil things, for we are told that his confession lasted several days. Before he was done, an illness came upon him, and he asked for the last sacraments. The padre, though not considering him ill enough for this, granted the request. He was anointed, and forthwith died, exclaiming: "Now I go to see God!' Besides superstition, Villalta had to battle another evil: suicide made easy and painless from the eating of a poisonous herb which would wrap the victim in drugged sleep and after twenty-four hours extinguish life.30 The piety which this nation developed was extraordinary. Every Saturday evening they would recite the rosary of Our Blessed Lady in their church, led by their own fiscal or temastian.31 From this developed the custom of praying aloud on the road when they were traveling, the men in one group, the women in another. On one occasion, at a rendezvous of several of the tribes, the Sinaloas, upon arriving first, held themselves aloof until they had recited their beads. Hurdaide, who saw this, was astonished and expressed his admiration to Villalta. In their villages at night the De Profundis bell would ring, calling to prayer for the departed dead, probably at half-past eight, the time at which it now rings at Santa Clara in Alta California. All would at once fall to their knees and recite two decades of their rosary. None could interrupt this prayer, as a Spanish soldier learned to his chagrin when he came in hungry and looking

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for food. He could get no response from anyone until the prayer was over. Thus each week these pious Sinaloas covered the entire fifteen decades of the rosary for their dead.32 Villalta had indeed succeeded well in his labor of love and the surly Sinaloas had been changed by Christianity to a bright and happy people.

RUINS OF THE JESUIT M I S S I O N AT CHARAY, IN THE SUAQUI COUNTRY

THE BELLS OF CHARAY

Chapter X I

MOUNTAIN AND COAST INDIANS

F

ATHER MARTÍN PEREZ wrote, in 1611, a most charming

letter, which offers a good illustration of how the natives distant from a base of operations and in the mountains were quietly won over. Those to whom he refers were of the Valle del Cuervo or Cacalotlán, which was up the Ocoroni River forty-two miles from San Felipe and on the skirts of the Sierra. Pérez did not go to them—he attracted them to him. The padre writes from San Felipe: "I have come to know some mountain Indians who live off in the canyons and on the summits with no care about the other life. Through some Christian Indians who are friends I invited them to pay me a visit. Thirty-eight men and nineteen boys came to see me. The youngsters seemed nothing other than mountain fawns, so timid were they, hiding themselves so as not to be seen. I spoke kindly, telling them how important it is to have a care for their souls' salvation, theirs and their children's, which now they take so lightly. After listening to this counsel they straightway made up their minds to remain in the pueblo and to be baptized!' A few days later thirty more came and were baptized. Each day brought others led by the example of the happiness that had come to their brothers. But these neophytes had to suffer the taunts of those who held back.1 It was thanks to the religious ardor and diplomatic ability of Hurdaide that much of this country of the upper Sinaloa was opened, and without noisy campaigns but by the silent operation of friendly commercial contact. Thirty miles up the Sinaloa River lived the Chicoratos, the Cahuemetos, and other cognate tribes. Ribas says they lived in savagery in the mountains.2 They belonged to the larger Comanito family, neighbors to the C97 3

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intractable Tepehuanes.8 These tribes were a source o£ disquiet to the Christians lower down the river, so that the Captain must bring them over to less troublesome ways. In accomplishing this he was invaluable to the padres. Hurdaide was able to do this work peacefully, in sharp contrast to his operations on the Fuerte a couple of years before. He cleverly enticed them down from their mountains. They bartered maize and other foods with the Spaniards—whom Hurdaide forbade to go up, thus making it necessary for the Indians to come down. Such commerce familiarized them with the Christian Indians. Then he was able to persuade fifteen hundred of the group to settle in lower and more accessible country. To encourage and facilitate the move, the Captain lent them pack animals for the transportation of their goods and provisions, and he made over to them in this lower country certain fields for sowing which had belonged to Christian groups. He asked these to help the newcomers in the sowing of their crops and the building of their houses. Thus there sprang up a pueblo, Cahuemeto, of fifteen hundred people. They were now, thought Hurdaide, ready for the gospel, and he applied to Sinaloa for a missionary. There was one ready to hand.4 Pedro de Velasco—not to be confused with the older missionary Juan Bautista de Wasco—was sprung of princely stock. His father, Luis de Velasco, mounting all the steps of honor, reached the summit of high position in 1589 by appointment as Viceroy of New Spain. Luis, the Viceroy's own father, had held the office before him. Luis de Velasco II, as Conde de Santiago, served until 1595 and enjoyed a second term from 1607 to 1611. Pedro's mother was a daughter of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, conquistador of Florida, who, as we have seen, first invited the Jesuits to North America.' Pedro de Velasco was born in Mexico City in 1581. He went

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to the Jesuit college and took his degree with honor. Like many a highborn person of those times, when he evinced a desire to become a Jesuit, Pedro met with opposition on the part of his father the Viceroy, and of other members of the family." But prayer brought a change of heart to his parent and he was allowed to enter the Society when fifteen years of age. He went through the usual course of training, except that at the end of his theology, too young for ordination, he was put to his tertianship instead. Ordained a priest, Velasco asked for the missions and was sent to Sinaloa, where he arrived in 1607, just at the time a man was needed for the Chicoratos and Cahuemetos, the Hogueras, Bazapas, Gozopas, Oroniratos, and Bayacatos, of the upper river.7 This was a hard mission, for although Hurdaide had made a beginning of civilization with some of these Indians, there was still much savagery, especially farther up the river close to theTepehuanes.The Indians used a very dangerous arrow, not the ordinary dart of wood charred and pointed at the end, but one with a head of flint so inserted that if the arrow pierced the flesh and was drawn out the flint remained. Their women were accustomed to hard labor and the carrying of heavy burdensloads of maize, jugs of water—with one child or two slung over their backs. Their custom was to place water near the graves of their dead for the supposed journey to the other life, and when a wife died, they carried her son or widower or some near relative to the river, faced him east, and ducked him three times in the water. This they would repeat on three successive days. Then they shut him up for eight days, a prisoner on bread and water. Sorcerers, too, were among them, and there was one in particular who was haunted by an evil spirit. Pedro de Velasco was going to have much to do.8 The young missionary worked well and successfully and soon

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was writing back to headquarters glowing accounts of his happiness and success and of his love for these his children in the spirit. He did away with water at the graves, substituting burial in the church, which came to be most highly prized among them, a privilege of baptism. He sermonized on the benefits of prayer for the dead, and they left off the ridiculous practice of ducking and imprisoning; whether he was able to get his neophytes to cut off their long hair for greater convenience at baptism we are not told. With a sorcerer the young padre had some trouble. The man had been persuaded as a condition of baptism to give over his unholy practices of magic and renounce all contact with his evil spirit. He promised and was baptized. Soon, however, he suffered a temptation. The spirit visibly appeared to this hechicero, urging the old practices. He came troubled to the father. He was advised to place many crosses in his hut and when the spirit should appear to bless himself devoutly. The spirit did appear while the wizard was resting, assumed most horrible shapes and bellowed like a bull, giving thus to understand that the crosses be removed that he might enter. But the neophyte stood his ground and the spirit fled, never to return." Such stories are frequent in these mission annals. For instance, Hurdaide in a letter to the Viceroy of April 4,1622, tells his superior of a terrible threat of revolt among the l&quis which threatened to be the worst the province had ever seen. It was stirred up by the hechiceros. A t this time the Devil appeared, he says, in human form at the fourth pueblo, which was called ^feyequi. The Captain used this threat of revolt as an argument for the erection of two forts, one among the Maquis and another among the northern Nebomes.10 Ribas, too, had been on theYiqui River and had observed at least the effects of what he considered to be preternatural interference. Wishing to make a study of

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IOI

the matter, he procured a work on magic which was then looked upon as a great classic,11 Six Books of Research on Magic, Divided into Three Volumes, by the scholar and doctor, turned Jesuit in middle age, Martin Antonio Delrio.12 How Ribas got hold of these volumes away up on the Yiqui is a puzzle, but get them he did, and he studied them, discovering this: that almost all the kinds o£ demoniac visitation described by the learned Delrio had been introduced among the l&quis by their hechiceros. Ribas testifies to the effects of this Indian demonology." But there is reason to doubt the veracity of some of these stories. Ribas seems to have accepted the whole of seventeenthcentury demonology, and he even believed in the flight of witches to the sabbat. The pioneer Black Robes worked and wrote when the witch superstition in Europe was at its worst, and Delrio himself, with his six books on magic, undoubtedly contributed to the evil. This is not to deny that evil visitations brought torments to some Indian souls—as perhaps to Father fiasco's wizard on the upper Sinaloa. The Jesuit missionary of today has witnessed similar effects in his neophytes. In spite of such difficulties Pedro Velasco made fine strides forward in his new work, baptizing in a few years up to the number of six thousand souls. The Christian community advanced marvelously, and "those" says Ribas, "who appeared to be wild mountain deer were transformed into the gentle lambs of Christ!' They would not go out even to sow their fields without first letting the padre know. When at a neighboring village of older Christians a Church feast day was celebrated, Velasco's Indians came over with garlands on their heads, carrying a cross before them and chanting the truths of the Faith. In 1611 the missionary writes that he had just baptized the caciques of the Chicoratos and of the Hogueras and that these pueblos were now entirely Christian."

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In the lowlands, too, the work was spreading, and we can glance at Ribas' efforts on the lower Fuerte, which carried him far down to the sea and up along its coasts. From the time Ribas first arrived among the Suaquis in 1 6 0 5 " until the Tehueco revolt in 1612, when he left to accompany Hurdaide into the Tepahue country, the results of his labors were most consoling. A m o n g this Suaqui nation who formerly lived on fight and plunder, no word was now spoken of war or brigandage. Ribas began the baptism of adults and got over smoothly the question of separating the men from their numerous wives. T h e day for the christening of the chiefs came and went with joy and celebration. A m o n g them was the man Venturo, saved b y Luisa from Hurdaide's punishment of the Suaqui chiefs. This man and Luisa herself were of much aid to Ribas in all his work. Another was a warrior of high prestige among his people and of great power, consequently, for good or evil. Here was one whom Ribas desired specially to win over, and he succeeded. Although the brave had had many women, he allowed himself to be baptized and was then married to one girl. This was a great victory, and exerted an influence over all the tribe. A f t e r baptism, he was called Don Cristobal Anamei. This same Cristobal soon afterward got into trouble, did penance, and was reinstated. Once, when he was in another pueblo, he seized the wife of a Christian and made off with her. N o one dared to take vengeance upon him, because of his great power and prestige. Ribas took this very seriously, for if the thing were passed over, every cacique would think himself similarly privileged. Ribas wrote to Hurdaide, suggesting punishment. But the Captain feared trouble and possible rebellion because of the influence of the chief, and asked Ribas to think out some other w a y of bringing him to time. T h e padre prayed, and his prayer was answered.

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Cristóbal, coming of his own accord, one midnight woke up a boy asleep in the vestibule of the church and asked to see the padre. Admitted, he fell to his knees, expressed sorrow for his sin, saying the Devil had overcome him, and offered to do a heavy penance. Ribas showed real wisdom; he mitigated the penance, but made it public since the sin had been public. He had the boy summon from their slumber the fiscals of the pueblo. Before them all as witnesses—the padre, the two fiscales, and the boy—Cristobal took off his coat and shirt, dropped to his knees, and began to flog himself. Ribas soon stopped him, and the affair was over. But reparation had been made by the chief, penance had been performed before witnesses, and as a consequence word of it buzzed through all the pueblos. The scandal had been removed.19 Cristobal, let us remark, went about dressed as a Spanish official, for Hurdaide, when he appointed governors of pueblos from among the Indian chiefs, allowed them to dress in the Spanish fashion, with feathered hat, doublet, sword, and all the rest. The boys here too, as at Sinaloa and Ocoroni, were taught to read and write and to sing the services of the Church. They grew up with the Christian habit of saluting one another with the pious phrase,"Praised be Jesus Christ!' This, Ribas says, was their ordinary salutation. Fathers would not give their daughters in marriage except to men who had been baptized. The three pueblos were contracted into two of eight hundred inhabitants each. The distance between these was seven miles. Mochicahue was one, San Miguel most probably the other. Thus in a short while Ribas had added to the Church three thousand souls. These Suaquis set about the building of a church in each of the two pueblos. As at Ahome, men and women lent the labor of their hands. Sometimes four hundred, sometimes as many as six hundred were employed in the various labors, direct and

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indirect, of the erection of their temples. When completed, the buildings stood up fine with lofty and stately façades.They were whitewashed and then frescoed. In front of each was placed a large crucifix, which marked the cemetery. Then these good people planned a great celebration to take place on the day of dedication, with Christian games and merriment in place of their former pagan orgies. Ribas showed himself on these occasions a kind and wise father. He says: "Great care was taken to solemnize these festive occasions with all that made for pageantry and joy. In our happiness to have witnessed the spiritual conquest of the valorous Suaquis, all the more difficult because of the hold the Devil had upon them, nothing was spared in the way of music, games, dances, and bonfires for the joy of the people of this poor land!'17 At Mochicahue, where the principal church was, the people went further. Near the pueblo, and on the top of a rocky hill the base of which was washed by the river, they set up a shrine of the Blessed Virgin. On the day of dedication two trios of musicians took up their positions, one on the summit of the hill, the other on the roof of the church. The former had flageolets, the latter trumpets. One company responded to the other in music, while in both places, on the hill and near the church, bonfires were kindled. Banners and streamers made of Chinese silk from the Philippines floated from the high places. On the plaza blazed other fires, in the light of which the Suaquis danced and made merry to the beating of drums. The following day a procession was organized previous to the celebration of a solemn Mass. Arches of foliage had been set up on the plaza, one at each corner. Each had its altar, and for carpet the leaves of trees. The procession passed through each of these and then entered the church, where Mass was celebrated with the chanting of the boys' choir. An unnamed padre who

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with a large crowd had come from another mission preached the sermon. There were guests innumerable. After Mass their hosts, the Suaquis, regaled them with delicacies of beef and fish, the gift of the Ahomes, who had received the beef from San Felipe for their sick. T h e celebration was a great success and guests and hosts alike were happy at the result.18 T h e Suaquis had now lost all desire for roving and fighting. T h e y were fascinated b y the greatness and beauty of their churches and took an absorbing interest in them. So deeply were they impressed by the beauty of the divine service that they laid out extra fields of maize in exchange for which they might procure from Spanish merchants further ornaments for the sacred edifice. Thus was Ribas made happy in the progress and happiness of his children. Part of an old ruin survives at Mochicahue, and it may date back to this very time. And there rises the rocky hill hard by the old church. Its summit commands a fine prospect of the surrounding plains, and, as Ribas has described, its north side drops down sheer to the level of the river. In flood the waters would wash the base of this lone hillock. Today the traveler can identify the remains even of the shrine, for on the eastern end of the summit, which measures about twenty yards, there can still be seen, while all the rest is rock, a mouldered covering of earth. Here are the powdered remains of the shrine of Our Lady which the Suaquis built three hundred years ago while Ribas looked on in joy. This was the hill that, according to report, was cleft and broken by an earthquake a short while before Tapia's death. It is true that these rocks are cloven and torn, but whether by a semimiraculous earthquake—punishment of rebellious paganism—or eons before in the cooling convulsions of nature, we need not attempt to judge.19 Just as Pedro de Velasco on the upper Sinaloa and Cristobal

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Villalta on the upper Fuerte admitted allied or neighboring tribes into the older families of Christian nations, so on the lower Fuerte the peoples living close to the Ahomes, or allied with them, were brought in by Ribas. The chiefs of some of these groups came in to see the padre. H e pleased them with the gifts he knew they would enjoy: colored glass and beads for their adornment, a knife he knew was novel to them, a horseshoe they could sharpen to a hatchet, a needle with which to sew their fishing nets. The caciques were delighted and returned to their people with directions to organize pueblos for instruction in the Faith; thus they too could enjoy the peace and security of the Ahomes. This all came to ready fruitage. One of the neighboring tribes was that of the Batucaris, a shaggy people living near flats of swamp land. They were hunters, but their game was not of the highest type; deer and rabbit, and sometimes even snakes and rats, made up their meal. Some Batucaris came over to Ahome and lived in the pueblo with their kinsmen. Ribas himself went to others, making arrangements with their chief to group their dwellings that he might the more easily instruct them. Soon two hundred infants were baptized.20 Similar plans had to be made for the Bacorigues, who lived on the sand dunes near the sea and supported themselves by fishing. It was decided that the padre should himself come to them. They selected a good spot for a village upon a beautiful and cool level, which they cleared of underbrush for their huts and a church. They then returned to their rancherias, intending to come with their belongings to settle in the newly selected site. But the Indian is strongly attached to the spot where he has been born and has lived, so the return was slow at first; but it kept increasing steadily. Soon Ribas was able to begin his labors with them and in a short while he had baptized two hundred

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children. They built a small church and appointed a fiscal to see to their prompt attendance. For teacher in catechism Ribas procured the services of the blind man of Ahome who had aided the padre there. For cacique they had a giant who of his own strength could kill and drag out of the water a crocodile.21 The Comoporis were as fierce and brave a tribe as lived in Sinaloa, so that even the Suaquis feared them. Never had these tribes met in conflict but that the Suaquis had left some comrades dead on the field. The Bacorigues told Ribas about these people, who lived twenty miles farther on up a lonely peninsula among the dunes. They spoke the same tongue as the Ahomes and some Christians went among them from time to time and told them of the padre. Ribas intimated that he would be delighted to meet them and that they would be well received. They soon started to come one by one, especially the chiefs, whom he pleased with gifts. Then the women came and, witnessing the Christian feasts and celebrations of the Ahomes, were moved to petition for baptism. Ribas got in touch with his superior at San Felipe about the matter, for an entrance into the land of this tribe incurred no little risk. He was allowed to go, provided a guard of his faithful Christians should accompany him. Ribas talked the matter over with Don Miguel, chief of the Ahomes, who was honored to be the leader of a small bodyguard for the padre. Ribas, however, was made uncomfortable by the suspicions of Don Miguel's wife, who said she had heard ugly rumors of his being enticed into a trap. It was too late, however, to withdraw. On the appointed day not a small band, but more than a hundred of his faithful, were there all armed to accompany the father. Down to the sea they went, then turned north across the river and after a long march entered the sands and flats of the Comoporis. In spite of some suspicion and a good deal of danger, for the

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strange Indians came out to meet the padre without their women, a bad sign, and they might have taken alarm at the number of Ribas' escort, a satisfactory sojourn among them was made. They had built a hut for Ribas to sleep in overnight. He spoke with the chiefs and became acquaintd with the men and women of the tribe. They were well impressed and asked for baptism. Ribas said he could not come to them often, because of the distance and the river,which could not be crossed at every season, but he promised to come sometimes. Before he returned, Ribas overthrew an idol standing in the middle of a heap of human bones, with impunity to himself and to the amazement of the Indians, who thought it death to touch. Thus it was that the conversion of this intractable tribe began. Larger and larger numbers kept coming over to the Ahomes. Within two years this whole people became completely tamed. It was another triumph for Perez de Ribas.22 Later, Father Vicente de Aguila carried on Ribas' work along the sea, where he visited often from the Fuerte, his field in 1617. Under his tutelage the Bacorigues progressed encouragingly. He was able to Christianize the whole tribe and to build a church among them.23 In 1615 an event broke the peaceful flow of Ribas' life. The Indians had seen a tall white thing at sea, a palace swimming on the wave. The report spread over the country. Ribas suspected a Spanish vessel. He wrote a letter and gave it to an Indian he knew to be a good swimmer, with the following instructions: he was to keep a lookout for the ship; if he saw it he was to put the letter in a tube, tie it to the ornament of his hair, and swim out to this floating house. This was not necessary, however. One day Ribas saw a troop of Indians approaching. To his amazement they were accompanied by two famished Spaniards, men from the pinnace the Indians had seen. Warm

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was the welcome Ribas gave them; great was their delight at encountering on these wild and strange coasts a Jesuit priest and Christian Indians. Their hunger satisfied with corn and beans, they told their story. They belonged to the crew of Captain Juan Iturbi, who held a commission from Tomas Cardona of Seville, licensed by King Philip III, to hunt for pearls both in the Caribbean Sea and in the Gulf of California.84 They had rounded the Horn with a frigate and a pinnace, but off Cape San Lucas, which is the southwestern tip of Lower California, they met with pirates, Dutch freebooters called "PichilinguesJ' who captured the frigate.28 Then they went north into the gulf, looking for pearls. They were successful only in the quantity of valuable shells they were able to collect. This was the time when Captain Iturbi, sailing up to thirty degrees latitude, concluded that California was an island; and this misinformation got abroad, crept into history, and emerged in various maps of his time and after.2" Provisions giving out, the crew was on the point of starvation; the captain had sent these two men ashore in a skiff to hunt for food. They had met with Indians who had conducted them to the padre. It was arranged that they should go down to the sea the next day with horses and provisions. Ribas ordered Don Miguel to get in readiness good quantities of fresh beef, jerked beef, maize, and frijoles, that the starving crew might have prompt relief. So it was done, with a great concourse of Indians, as excited as children over the novelty, accompanied by Ribas. They lost their way in swamps near the sea and the skiff of the Spaniards could not at first be found. Later it was brought to light, and when the horses could go no farther because of mud and tules, the Indians carried the provisions to the tender, which, well loaded, put out to Iturbi's ship three miles from shore. Next day Ribas himself was invited on board. Taking with him a boatload of Indians,

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he went out to the ship, where a warm reception was given them by the captain.27 The missionary was able to impart valuable information and advice. Iturbi would find a good port at the mouth of the Sinaloa River if he should proceed there, and would be warmly welcomed by Captain Hurdaide. This suggestion was followed. Hurdaide wrote to the Viceroy, the Marquis of Guadalcazar, for instructions. These came in due time. Captain Iturbi was to put out to sea immediately to seek for and accompany the fleet which was coming in from Manila and down the California coast, bound for Acapulco; for Dutch pirates were again prowling the seas for the Manila galleons. Soldiers commanded by Captain Bartolome Suarez, of San Andres, near Topia, were to embark with Iturbi's crew.28 Hurdaide in a letter to the Viceroy of February 27,1616, has the following: "I gave also assistance to Captain Juan de Iturbi, for after he lost his frigate he had to continue his hunt for pearls with one small boat and was forced to make a landing. I aided him in all that was necessary, making over to him supplies of wood, tar, rigging, nails, iron casks for water, and chests for food. He took off on the fourth of this month with three big Indians as divers which I gave him. Thus equipped he went a second time to California!' Hurdaide makes the expenses thus incurred a reason added to many others for asking financial help from the Viceroy, that his poverty might be lessened.29 The orders of the Viceroy were carried out, although Iturbi was unable to find the fleet—which, however, arrived safely at Acapulco. Iturbi returned to the mouth of the Sinaloa, built another ship, and went back up the gulf, this time reaching thirtytwo degrees latitude and all the more strongly convinced that California was an island.™ All this, says Ribas, had a marvelous effect upon the Indians.

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While the white floating house was in sight each day, crowds of them would go down to the sea to wonder at this vision the like of which they had never seen before. The fathers had told them of the greatness of the Spaniards, and now they had visible proof of it. This did two things, says the padre: it heightened their respect for the greatness of Spain, and it lent them a greater willingness to hear the word of God and receive the Faith.

Chapter

XII

T H E UNCONQUERABLE YAQUIS

T

^HE YAQUI INDIANS, together with the Mayos, belong to the Cahita family,1 and both tribes "spoke and speak today the Cahita language!'2 "Split up into a number of autonomous villages, each one governed after the well-known tribal system, the entire dialectic cluster only coalesced temporarily and at rare intervals for self-protection!'3 They spoke with highpitched voices and their language was inflected like Latin.1 T h e Yiquis were among the bravest and most warlike of the Indian tribes of Mexico; and for this and other qualities they have attracted the attention of the white man from the time they first broke into his history. Their fine physique, their energy and determination, their bravery in the field have made them stand out among the tribes of the northwestern coast of Mexico. Indeed, within our own days they have again been in the public eye, for in the beginning of the present century they rebelled against the government of Porfirio Diaz, and suffered so serious a defeat that it will take them a long time to recover, if they can recover at all. But, though defeated in the field by an organized modern government, as a race they have remained still unconquered, for they have taken refuge in their hills, which lie north of a broad bend made by their river before it enters the sea. Today the traveler is told that up to very recent years no white man except the padre has ever entered those canyons and come back alive. Such havoc did the Indians work among Spanish and American landowners, who drew the abundant waters of their river to spread over the rich and level country of the coast, that the Mexican government had to come to terms and offer them a yearly subsidy. Stories are still fresh upon the lower

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Yiqui of the battles which a generation still living waged with these Indians, and round stone towers of defense attest the fear of modern Mexicans for the unconquerable Maquis. They had the same reputation for fierceness three hundred years ago when Captain Diego Martinez de Hurdaide and Andres Perez de Ribas first came among them. Our great historian of the missions, Perez de Ribas, was three years with the "Yaquis at the beginning of their conversion and it is to him that we owe the most complete description of them in a pagan condition of life. A t the time that the padre came to their country thirty thousand of these \aquis lived along the last forty miles of their river.5 They already enjoyed a reputation for bravery. A Spanish historian of the sixteenth century, Antonio de Herrera, describing the first advance into this country, in 1533, under Captain Diego de Guzman, says that when the Castilians came to the Maquis they averred that up to that time they had not, in all N e w Spain, met Indians so advanced and so brave.* Nearly a hundred years later Captain Hurdaide formed the same opinion of this tribe, an opinion strengthened by sharp experience. Hurdaide considered the Ifaquis the most valiant of all the nations he had subdued. Unlike the other Indians of the West Coast, who lost heart when they beheld their companions dead, the Maquis used to leap over the corpses and fight the more furiously. Although other Indian nations designated their males by the number of braves they had slain in war, this was particularly the custom with the Itaquis. They were named also from the place where they had killed their foe, and these Indian terms are quite uncomposable in a modern language. Sitting Bull, or Brown Bear, can still be pronounced by us as a compound name. Nacabeba, it will be remembered, signified "Struck-onthe-ear" which is still more or less negotiable in English. But what would we do with such names as Killing-three-men,

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Killing-ten-men, Killing-a-man-on-the-mountain, -near-theriver, -in-the-field? This, we are informed by the careful chronicler, oifered no little difficulty at the time of their baptism, for these names were so similar and so often repeated that, added to the Christian names, they did not create variety enough for convenient distinction.7 The men went almost naked, except the chief, who wore a mantle of deerskin or of the hide of a mountain lion or puma, or sometimes of cotton. The women, except the cacique's wife, who wore cotton, were clothed in garments skillfully woven from willows and their leaves. The \aqui women were superior in weaving. Their tunics reaching to the knees made a more modest garb than the smaller covering of cotton or century plant made by the women of other tribes. The men painted their arms and faces, especially the chin and around the eyes, in varied colors, and they put together a large earring of loops of blue cotton on which they hung small amulets. Early in life, the men used to bore their nostrils through and suspend rings in them, to which they tied a species of blue stone. In certain things they were like the tribes of the three rivers farther south. They were given to polygamy, drunkenness, and superstition. They made great sport with the scalps of their enemies and they would carouse all night in savage dances, howling out their triumph of blood and war.8 Such were these people when Ribas and Hurdaide came among them. The Mayo and ^Kaqui rivers are from fifty to sixty miles apart near the sea, varying with their turns and curves. The \aqui is the last and most northern of the four larger rivers in our story. Its main stream comes down straight from the north, some of its springs rising in Arizona. Almost halfway down, a large branch flows into the stream from the east, out of the northern spurs of the Sierra Madre. Forty miles from the coast the river

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begins to turn in a broad but somewhat irregular arc, so that when it enters the Gulf of California it is flowing almost directly west. Eight miles from the coast one arm of a delta breaks away to the north and there enters the sea. This is just south of twenty-eight degrees of latitude and almost halfway up the gulf's length. The \aqui is the largest of the rivers which flow into the Gulf of California. A t Torin on the lower stream near the summit of a hill that commands a graceful bend of the river, the ruins of an old stone mission church tell of the romantic past. Hurdaide's acquaintance with the Maquis began long before the entrada of Ribas in 1617. It will be remembered that when the Captain went a second time to Mexico in 1603—1604 seeking missionaries, taking with him chiefs from the tribes on the Fuerte, three of the groups on the Sinaloa, the Nios, the Guasaves, and the Ocoronis, rebelled and fled. They went first to the mountains that hem in the valley of the Sinaloa. But later a group of the Ocoronis consisting of forty families went up to the Yiqui, thinking there to escape the vengeance of the Captain, who had now returned. They were led, strangely enough, by Babilonio, a Sinaloa Christian, chief on the Fuerte, and by a pagan named Juan Lautaro who had spent some time in the mission of San Andres and had worked in the mines of Topia.9 The leaders first tried to corrupt the Mayos, but were repulsed. The Yiquis consented to receive them, provided they would deliver over their daughters and their finest articles of clothing. Babilonio, and more particularly Lautaro, began now to succeed in doing among the Maquis what they had endeavored to do among the faithful Mayos, namely, sow the seeds of mistrust and hatred against Hurdaide, the Spaniards, and Christianity.' In this mischief Lautaro progressed all too well. He said the Captain would be sure to come among them to punish him and to take back to their own pueblos the forty families of Ocoroni

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Christians, but he instructed them how to meet the army the Captain would bring up and how to escape from the fire of the guns.10 Upon his return from Mexico, in 1604, bringing with him Fathers Ribas and Villalta, Hurdaide knew that he would have to gather in all these fugitives, for such a revolt could not be allowed to go unpunished, lest, succeeding in the business once, the Indians might try it again. Many months were occupied in getting back those who had fled to the surrounding mountains, and it was at this time that the forty Ocoroni families led by Lautaro fled farther away to the Yiqui tribesmen. We know well at this point of our story that the Captain was not the man to leave unfinished something he had once begun, and indeed he saw clearly that he would have to deal with these fugitive Ocoronis. First, he tried every method of diplomacy, in which months and months were consumed, but when one after another these failed, for the clever Lautaro saw to it that they should, Hurdaide knew that he would have to undertake a long and arduous military campaign through the country of the yet unconverted Mayo tribe, across the Mayo River, and still farther north to the banks of the liaqui. This expedition was not, indeed, into such wild and mountainous country as he had entered before, but it was against a tribe whose numbers and whose fighting qualities were enough to make a handful of Spaniards quake with fear. Hurdaide had undertaken military expeditions among the Suaquis, the Tehuecos, the Sinaloas, and the Tepahues and he had been victorious. What would he now accomplish with the \aquis? The Captain was forced, then, to resort to arms. He got his soldiers and a muster of friendly Indians, among them the still pagan Mayos, and started in pursuit of the Ocoronis away up to the Yiqui River. It was high time he was pursuing these fu-

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gitives, for it was three or four years now since they had fled to the mountains near the Sinaloa. Hurdaide took with him twenty-six soldiers, three servants well armed, and a hundred allied Indians. Ribas feared greatly that the expedition would not succeed, and advised against it. Seventy soldiers, he said, would be necessary. Besides, since the Governor could afford no more men, the Indian allies should be taught the use of firearms, but this was not allowed and Hurdaide set out with what he had.11 It was in 1607 or 1608—years of Jamestown's beginnings in Virginia—that this first entrance into the Yiqui country was made. T h e Captain had difficulty in provisioning his men. Nevertheless, he camped boldly by the river in the land of the fierce tribesmen. They did not make an assault at this time. Curious, nevertheless, as the Indians always were, and armed now for an emergency, the Maquis came into the vicinity of the camp. The Captain had given signs of peace, for again he desired to use kindness and thus win them over to Christianity. He first sent among them certain of his Indians who knew the language. He gave assurances of his peaceful intentions. He promised that if they would deliver over the fugitive Ocoronis with their leader Lautaro, he would be at peace with them, and would return to his own country and promote trade between them and the Spaniards. But Lautaro had deeply poisoned the Yiqui mind against the Captain and they would accept none of his conditions. Hurdaide felt himself not strong enough to attack them; and the sequel shows that in this he was very wise. He would retire to San Felipe and make trial of further peaceful means. He was so far successful, however, that he was able to take back with him two Yaquis whom he had won over. They received instruction at San Felipe and were baptized.12 Failure of this attempt gave as much concern to the fathers

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as to Hurdaide, for the eyes of all had been fixed upon the expedition. The Captain and the fathers consulted. Hurdaide's wise counselor, Juan Bautista de Velasco, not yet departed this life, was called into the conference. It was decided to try again with friendly overtures and promises. Trusted Indians were this time sent north, carrying the assurances which it would be to the advantage of the Yaquis to accept. Some of the nation seemed to understand this, and it looked as if peace were finally within sight. They went so far as to send their principal cacique, Anabailutei, back to San Felipe with the Indian ambassadors. Well treated, the cacique was finally persuaded to accept their proffered conditions. He asked that some of the Christian Indians return with him to the Yiquis to see to the deliverance of the fugitives. Some Christian Tehuecos were designated for this serious business. They returned with Chief Anabailutei; and the two Christian "itaquis, recently baptized, accompanied the group. Alas, it was all a hoax. When the Tehuecos arrived% at the \aqui the greater number of them were killed and all were robbed of horses, clothing, and whatever they possessed." The honor of the Spaniards and the prestige of the missions were now at stake. Besides, the Tehuecos demanded vengeance. Another expedition was organized and Hurdaide again took the field. Forty mounted and well-armed Spanish soldiers and two thousand allied Indians, Mayos and Tehuecos, now set out to the north. On the way some spies were caught and held as hostages. Hurdaide pitched his camp near some of the rancherias and at once made overtures of peace. But the reply was arrogant, with a threat of attack upon the camp. Hurdaide now prepared to fight. On probably the second morning after his arrival he took the offensive and launched an attack against the alarmingly numerous array that had formed in readiness for battle. Many of the Maquis were killed, many taken, and many forced

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to flee. But at what price was victory won! A goodly number of the allies were mortally wounded and died in camp. Some Spaniards, too, had been struck with arrows dipped in poison and were in danger of their lives. N o facilities were at hand for caring for the sick, and supplies had given out. There was nothing for it but, more or less ingloriously, to retreat to San Felipe with the captives they had taken." Things were still as bad as ever. It was evident that the missions would not be safe, nor peace enjoyed by the Christians, until the Ifaquis had been chastised. Hurdaide must organize another and stronger force. He applied to Culiacan, which sent him extra men. Early in 1609—just when Champlain with Algonquin allies invaded Iroquois territory by way of the lake which now bears his name—Hurdaide again took the field, with thirty-seven mounted Spanish soldiers and an army of four thousand Indians." He carried abundant provisions, and on leaving San Felipe bade the fathers pray for final success. The foe was on the alert. The Yiquis knew the Captain's quality and they knew he would return. They dotted the country with sentinels and bolstered their own courage with drinkingbouts. They promised themselves victory, and Lautaro swore that he would have the Captain's head and that they would soon have sport with his skull in drink and dance. So the Captain's proffered conditions of peace were a third time rejected, and with rough arrogance and swollen pride. A sealed message Hurdaide had sent them was dragged about mockingly in the presence of the whole Spanish camp. A t the first arrival of the Spaniards the Yiquis came about in such numbers and raised such a howl and rumpus of war that the allied Indians began to show signs of fear. Hurdaide was afraid to engage them where he was, for he could not deploy his cavalry to advantage. He must retreat out of danger.

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He sent the provisions to the van, with eighteen Spanish soldiets to guard them. He took up the rear with the remaining nineteen soldiers in order to prevent attack and to steady the allies, who might break and flee.16 The line of retreat lay through a plain, dangerous for the Spaniards by reason of tree and thicket. The cavalry were hampered and the enemy had cover. In fact, disaster was at hand, for the "Vaquis fell upon the little army with such force, and poured upon them such a rain of arrows, that the allied Indians made off in cowardly flight. The soldiers guarding the baggage, seeing the rout and thinking the Captain dead, loosened the armor of their horses and followed the terrified allies. The Captain was left behind with nineteen soldiers and an Indian he managed to keep by him. Hurdaide was now in probably the most serious danger of his life. Half his soldiers and all his allies were gone, the supplies were lost, and with them a great quantity of ammunition. The men with him had now only what powder they carried in their pouches. In this plight the Spaniards were circled by seven thousand infuriated savages. A mile and a half from the river there was a spot of rising ground free from the usual brushwood. This hillock Hurdaide was able to gain, and here he made his stand. From the edge of the brush the Indians' arrows were unable to pierce the armor of the soldiers, while their own musketry could work damage on any savage who should expose himself. But it was late summer, and as the day wore on the heat, intensified by the armor, became terrific. The little group began to suffer badly from thirst. They had recourse to the old makeshift of holding leaden bullets in their mouths, while the Indians were protected by the shade of the trees and their women brought refreshment. Moreover, the Yaquis set fire to the grass which covered the hill in order to drive Hurdaide forth. But the Captain was too smart for them. H e

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backfired upon the advancing flames and stayed on his height, which was now hotter than ever and black with charred stubble. Night came on. Most of the Yaqui warriors retired, leaving a guard. Should escape be attempted, the whole body of warriors could be notified and the Spaniards surrounded and killed. But again Hurdaide foiled their designs. His animals were suffering from thirst and some of them were wounded. These latter he turned loose, sacrificing them for his present need. He knew that when freed they would make for the water of the river. This they did with thump of hoof and crackling of brush. The fracas brought all the Indians out, but in the wrong direction, and while they pursued the thirsty horses north toward the river, Hurdaide and his men made their escape south toward San Felipe." The Captain was saved, but his prestige was sadly reduced. The Maquis had gained a victory. The news spread like wildfire. Hurdaide and nineteen soldiers had been surrounded and slain by the Maquis: this is what those bleating soldiers and that ragged and fleeing herd of Indian allies spread through the country as they went south across the rivers. It was a very anxious moment in the history of the missions and the hearts of the fathers at San Felipe might well sink. The strong arm now removed, they foresaw a rising of other tribes and perhaps the ruination of all their work. The Mayos were not yet converted, and the Suaquis were new in the Faith, for 1609 was the year the defeat occurred." Martin Perez, the Superior at San Felipe, called in the fathers of the surrounding missions, including Ribas from the Suaquis. The morning after their arrival they said Mass for the Captain's soul." But the more the soldiers were questioned, the more Ribas and others began to doubt, for they could find no one who, when pressed for the exact details of the killing of the Captain, had seen him fall, and the accounts differed greatly. Shortly,

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however, all doubt was removed and hearts again beat normally, for Hurdaide had again shown his wisdom. Foreseeing the consternation that the false reports would bring—he was certain the fugitives would say he was dead—and fearing the possible trouble this error might cause among the Indians, he dispatched a speedy messenger ahead with the following note: "God forgive those men who forsook me and placed the whole province in danger. I and the soldiers with me, though wounded, still live and we are returning slowly because of our wounds and the fatigue of the horses. That there may be no uprising in the province upon receipt of news brought by the fugitives, I have dispatched this man who has been my faithful support" The messenger had, indeed, offered to exchange armor with Hurdaide that the latter might escape. Upon Hurdaide's return, welcomed and escorted as he was by the padres, his inclination was to chastise the runaway soldiers severely for their cowardice. The Governor, Francisco de Urdiñola, wanted them punished with death. But Father Martin Pérez interceded and there was, besides mercy, a very practical reason why they should be pardoned: were these cowards put to death, the Indian allies who had shared the guilt would begin to fear the same fate and this would cause disquietude with possible untoward results. The reason was appreciated by Urdiñola, who withdrew his demand.20 The Miquis in the meantime were elated. Never had they gained so signal a victory, never had such richness of booty fallen into their hands. Saddles, stirrups, bits, hatchets, and blankets made such a haul as they had never before been fortunate enough to gather in. \et there was disappointment; not one of the Spaniards had been killed, much less the Captain himself with whose head they had promised themselves they would dance. Some said they wished by all means that he would return

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so that they might finally take him. Others swore that they would have his head, for now that they possessed the hatchets of the Spaniards, they would wound the horses in the belly, where the armor did not extend, and thus have the enemy at their mercy. Unhorsed and helpless with his weight of armor, they would kill him. But in spite of all, they feared Hurdaide, called him an hechicero, and knew they were not safe while he lived. The Captain, however, was unable for the present to renew the attack. He had spent most of his substance upon this campaign and could not now afford another. Besides, the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya had not greatly approved these warlike maneuvers against so populous a nation and the matter rested there for the moment.21 Hurdaide upon the banks of the 'Vaqui had all but met his Waterloo. But the Captain had always proved a gifted man, and his endowments consisted not only in talent and energy, but likewise, as the sequel seems to demonstrate, in good fortune resulting from the favorable inclinations of Providence. In the very year of his defeat, 1609, an event which in other circumstances would have been considered unimportant proved the turning point in this affair. In late autumn, ships appeared upon the sea, and were observed by the Yiquis.22 Captain Hurdaide made use of the opportunity thus offered. He caused it to be reported by Christian Indians who went up to Yiqui country that this was the beginning of the gathering of a fleet of Spanish ships to punish them for all that they had done. One fleet would enter at the northern river, the Sonora, and its army march south; another at the Mayo, and its army march north; he himself would perform a flanking movement from the west and enter their own river; the Indian allies would give aid through motives of vengeance; the Maquis would be destroyed. The thing was not altogether a bluff, for it had actually been considered.23

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These threats had an effect upon the simple Indian mind, particularly since the Yaquis had failed to kill Hurdaide or even a single Spaniard. The consequence was the formation of a peace party headed by Chief Conibomeai. Conscious that he would carry with him the greater part of the tribe, he decided to treat with Hurdaide. His first maneuvers were subtle for a savage. He sent down to the Mayos at the risk of her life a woman whom he trusted. She was instructed to seek out the chiefs Ofameai and Boothisuame and to request them to make known to Hurdaide, in whose friendship and under whose protection the Mayos were, their intentions of peace, and to have the chiefs inform them of what Hurdaide's terms might be. The sign of success would be her return to her tribe. If within four days she did not appear, they would give her up for dead. This woman traveled alone the fifty miles to the Mayo, entered into the midst of her enemies, and sought out the two chiefs. She found their reply favorable. They were willing to cooperate. If the Yiquis really desired peace the Mayos would help them. The response pleased other "Yaqui chiefs and Conibomeai resolved to follow it through. He sent again to the Mayos the same ambassador, accompanied this time by two others of her own sex, one a Mayo who had married into the Yaqui tribe. The Mayo chiefs, delighted by this confirmation of Yiqui good will, sent word of it to Hurdaide.24 Hurdaide's satisfaction on learning that three \aquis were then among the Mayos treating for peace can well be imagined. He sent his own instructions: the Yiquis must come to San Felipe and treat with him personally. These instructions he enclosed with his seal. He told the Mayo chiefs, moreover, to supply the Maquis with food and other provisions for the journey. While these Mayo messengers were returning from San Felipe they were crossed by a southbound group, including the three

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\aqui ambassadors, accompanied by some forty Mayos on their way to see the Captain, so anxious were both parties, it seems, to speed negotiations. T h e three Yiqui women spoke to the Captain. Their nation was afraid of a return of war. In fear the women went out to draw water and at night they could hear the sound of Spanish guns. Hurdaide asked how prevalent was this desire for peace. Only the old men and the young opposed it. But the two principal caciques, Conibomeai and Hinsemeai, rebuked the former and told the latter to hold their tongues as they were too young to, offer counsel. Hurdaide gave his orders. T h e ambassadors must say to their nation that he wanted the caciques to come to him, for he must negotiate with men, not with women. Further, all those who intended thus to lead a peaceful life must gather themselves into pueblos, that he might distinguish them from the others. Finally, when the ambassadors should come to him, even if at last they rejected his conditions, they would be permitted to return in perfect security to their river. H e gave them each a horse and some garments and instructed the accompanying Mayos to treat them well and, when the chiefs should come, to give them provisions again, this time at his expense. T h e women took back the message. T h e "Vaqui chiefs were pleased but skeptical. To test the Captain they sent down two representatives only. Hurdaide asked why they had been so obstinate, had resisted all his overtures of peace. T h e y had been deceived, they replied, they and the whole nation, by the lies of Lautaro and Babilonio,25 who said the Spaniards were cowards and that many of them had been killed by the Suaquis, and that they, Lautaro and Babilonio, would teach them how to defend themselves against the muskets, and would kill Hurdaide and dance with his head. But since none of these things happened, and since, rather, a number of their own people were

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killed by the Spaniards, and since they saw the prosperity of those who were at peace with the Captain, they decided to enter into friendly relations with him. After four days these ambassadors returned to the Maquis. Hurdaide gave them presents: to one a horse, to the others clothes, knives, and a blanket. They went back to their nation carrying four conditions from the Captain. A number of chiefs should come down soon to treat personally; they must not make war on the Mayos, nor on any other tribe, Christian or pagan, which stood under the protection of the King of Spain; they should hand over the horses that still survived, also the armor, jugs, and silver plate which they had taken from the Spaniards; and finally, they must deliver to him speedily the two leaders of the rebels who had fled to them and were still among them. If they could not hand over the rebels, they must kill them as soon as possible. The envoys departed asking twenty-six days for a reply. Hurdaide gave them thirty-six.26 There was much curiosity when the l&qui ambassadors returned to their river and told what they had seen and heard. To substantiate what they said were the gifts: the horse, the blanket, the knives, and even dresses for the women, besides feathers such as were never before seen among them. The tribe heard of the security and peace which those allied with the Spaniards were enjoying and of the protection offered by the King of Spain. The upshot of it all was that the war party was weakened and the peace party gained proportionately. True, some bitter-enders still held out, especially the hechiceros. But the peace party prevailing, it was decided that not only the caciques, but a large number of the people, should visit Hurdaide and the padres and take with them the horses, the plate, and the arms which they had seized. Moreover, to clinch the whole affair they would leave behind them in the town of San Felipe,

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as pledges of their sincerity, a goodly number of their boys to be instructed in the Faith. These lads would join the others in the seminary, and when the time was ripe, would return to teach their elders. In a few days intention was translated into action. One hundred and fifty of these Maquis went down to San Felipe, where they were gloriously received by Hurdaide and the fathers. They brought back the loot, but excused themselves for the horses which they were unable to catch. They visited the surrounding Christian tribes and were refreshed by their peace and happiness. They forthwith offered to reduce their own pueblos to like form. Hurdaide gave to the caciques handsome presents, young colts highly prized and plumage of feathers. The Captain wrote down an account of all in order to send it to the Viceroy. This would facilitate his asking the Provincial of the Jesuits for added missionaries for the prospective missions on the Yiqui. Finally, he made over to them stores of provisions for their return journey. After a joyous fête, the exact date of which was April 25, 1610, in which fathers and soldiers, Christians and pagans all participated, the ^taquis returned happy to their river.27 The travelers gave a glowing account to the tribe. All were delighted and resolved to press for padres. They kept going down to San Felipe in great numbers, and, which satisfied Hurdaide and spelled his final triumph, they handed over the culprits whom the Captain had demanded. The chiefs of the rebellion, Lautaro and Babilonio, with possibly one or another of the Ocoronis, were beheaded. They had first either confessed, if they were Christians, or received baptism, if pagans. The rest were sent back to their country, the Ocoronis to their river and the Yiquis to theirs. The great struggle had lasted for six years, ever since the Ocoronis made off to the hills when Hurdaide was absent in Mexico

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in 1604. The gathering in o£ the Ocoronis, the Nios, and the Guasaves, who had not gone farther than the mountains near the Sinaloa, the quest for those of the Ocoroni River who had finally fled to the Itaqui, the three expeditions, the defeats and disasters, the parleys and the conditions, all had taken Hurdaide's attention and the fathers' care and worry up to the year 161 o, when the final settlement was made. True, good will was not in every individual, for Hurdaide writes in 161 o to Viceroy Vélasco of evil intent still among some and of their desire to murder the priests.28 But generally after this the l&quis kept pressing for padres, so that when Méndez in 1614 and later De la Cruz went to the Mayos, the Maquis wanted at least one of them upon their own river. Missionaries, indeed, were destined to come, but not until three years after they came to the Mayo, when our grand old friend and historian, Andrés Pérez de Ribas, was the first to be sent to that fourth river in 1617, after the Yiquis had waited for seven years. It was Ribas who finally had the supreme joy of baptizing Chief Conibomeai. But for the present Hurdaide had gained his point; the l(aqui tribesmen had been conquered, and not by force of arms.

Chapter XIII

T H E CAPTAIN BUILDS A FORT

W

'HEN THE GOVERNOR of Nueva Vizcaya, Don Rodrigo del Río y Losa, in 1591, first conceived and urged the idea of sending Jesuits into the Sinaloa country, he was not actuated solely by motives of religious zeal. Indeed, judging from the reports which are left to us and which have been given at the beginning of this history, probably the chief motive of the Governor was the settlement of the province and the pushing forward of the frontier.1 To aid such an advance was the important service the missionaries could render to their country all the while that they were spreading the Faith and ministering to souls. Río y Losa knew perfectly well what service to civilization as well as to Spain the padres were capable of rendering. But the Governor was not alone in this opinion; and the truth of it became so evident as to be commonplace. Thus the reductions of Paraguay gained and held for Spain many provinces on the Parana and Uruguay rivers. The annals of New France are filled with the repetition of this idea, and it is well known in Canadian history that the friendship of the Jesuits with the great Algonquin tribe, and with the Hurons and the Ottawas, was perhaps the most important element in the flow of French influence and French colonization up the Great Lakes to the west and down the great rivers to the south." Very important in the history of the West is our own present story. These pages speak of the advance of a frontier and tell how Spain was able to go up into Alta California and hold it until the liankee came. What Bancroft sketches," Bolton develops;* and centuries before, Ribas had given the full and EI29 3

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detailed account of a small area. Ribas had no perspective—because he could not have it. Little did he dream that his labors on the Fuerte and then on the \aqui were contributing to a gigantic advance by his country and his Church for hundreds of miles up into a region whose romantic name would be but the echo of its romantic past. It remained for the historian Bolton and his disciple Chapman to follow the pioneer Bancroft and in their narratives to drop the facts into their proper alignment. A s early as 1598 there was talk of another city on the Fuerte, similar to San Felipe y Santiago on the Sinaloa, which might afford security to Spaniards settling or desiring to settle on that river and protection to travelers trading with the Indians in those parts.6 Whether or not the idea of a fort on the Fuerte originated with Hurdaide we have no means of telling, but it is certain that he was the soul of its building and its chief promoter. In the years after Hurdaide became Captain, the reasons for such a fort had grown a hundredfold. New missions were now strung all along the river, and three padres who required protection were working up and down its banks. San Felipe was far away. In times of danger or at the first murmurings of revolt, soldiers could not be marched up with sufficient speed. The fort would harbor the number of soldiers necessary to awe the Indians and to protect the land. Hence a good site should be selected where the Spaniards could plant their corn and develop their herds." Such was the plan which the Captain proposed to his highest superior, Juan de Mendoza y Luna, the Count of Montesclaros, Viceroy of Mexico from 1603 to 1607. The arguments seemed good to the Viceroy and he authorized the fort's construction, sending men and money for the purpose.7 It was therefore right that the stronghold should bear the Viceroy's name— though, as matters turned out, it was not built till three years

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after the close of his term of office. In two places in Hurdaide's letters and reports under the regency of Montesclaros, minute lists are given of the requirements and expenses of the fort; the first is of December 31,1605, 8 the other, of February 9,1606.' But the work, for some reason, was not begun, and in 1607 the Count of Montesclaros went out of office. He was succeeded by the younger Luis de Velasco, Count of Salinas, who then entered on a second term as Viceroy, and governed until 1611. Difficulties now arose and these explain the further delay. In a long report to the Father Visitor of the missions made by Hurdaide years afterward, the reasons for the delay appear. Neither the Governor, Francisco de Urdiiiola,'nor the new Viceroy favored the project, and the latter had rejected the representations of the officer Pedro Coronado, of Father Santarén, and even of a former Father Visitor.10 But the defeat of Hurdaide by the Yiqui Indians in 1609 shook both Viceroy and Governor into reason and on October 3d of that year Hurdaide was ordered to proceed with the fort.11 In a letter to the Viceroy dated January 6,1610, from Culiacan, we learn that in March the Captain would go up to the Fuerte and begin the work of construction. He would use the 2000 pesos which Viceroy Velasco had entrusted to the fathers for that purpose and, in accordance with orders from Velasco, he would call the fort Montesclaros in memory of the Viceroy's predecessor. Hurdaide had come to Culiacan, his letter says further, to collect gear necessary for the work of building, but he was of the opinion that the expenses would now double the amount first projected.13 The date 1610 is confirmed by the anua of 1610, which says that in that year the fort of Montesclaros was built,1" Ribas gives a fine description of the site. The fort stood on a hill six miles from the principal pueblo of the Tehuecos and

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close to the site of the original settlement of Carapoa, destroyed by the Indians years before. It rose above the river and commanded a broad stretch of open country, where herds could range and where Indians could have no chance of ambuscade. Although the fort was of adobe it was large enough to ofEer protection to the troopers' horses. It was these which needed protection, for the Indians well knew the advantage of a mount and they used to say: dead horse, dead Spaniard. Here, too, were the soldiers' quarters. At each corner towers were built, both for watching and for impressing the Indians." It was because of this stronghold upon its banks that the river formerly known as the Sinaloa came to be called the Fuerte. If Ribas is correct about the two leagues' distance from the pueblo of Tehueco—though a league's length was elastic with these writers—and if this pueblo was Tehueco, known earlier as Macori, then the present town of El Fuerte, supposed to be the site of the original fort, is too far up the river to answer to Ribas' description. There is another place which answers perfectly. It is today a little settlement or farm known in the district as "El Altillo" This group of houses, standing on the edge of a promontory, and looking high over the river, commands a fine sweep of country. It is ten kilometers by road from the present Tehueco, which would make it rather close to the two leagues of Ribas. Further, an old resident at the present El Fuerte, an American of education, accustomed to exact observation and knowing the country well, avers that El Altillo is the original site of the fort and that some of the ruins of the foundation are still discernible there.15 These the present writer did not see. The present El Fuerte is some nine miles above the present Tehueco, and three miles above El Altillo. The good effects of erecting the fort of Montesclaros were immediate. First of all, the "Yaquis were still further confirmed

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in their policy of peace. Then, within a short time of its completion, four caciques came from the interior, offering peace and desiring to see the missions and visit the padres. They brought gifts: a thousand arrows, and skins of wildcat and marten. The Captain was all courtesy and the fathers gladdened them with the presents of beads and glass they liked so well. They asked for padres and were promised some when they could be spared. The wild Chinipas, too, came down from their steep canyons where they had nearly destroyed Hurdaide and his men a few years before, visiting the Captain and asking for missionaries. A knife besmeared with blood was what Hurdaide sent to some tribes who continued troublesome. This and the hint it carried, combined with the existence of the new fort, brought them to reason.16 It was well on other accounts that Hurdaide built this fort when he did; for a little more than a year after its completion, in 1611, a storm cloud began to gather over the nation of the Tehuecos. Father Pedro Mendez did not at first perceive it. Just as once before on the lower Sinaloa trouble was caused when Martin Perez overthrew an idol, so here on the upper Fuerte, when Mendez broke up meetings of sorcery and destroyed the pagan shrines. Certain hechiceros, offended, banded together to spread discontent. Secretly they disseminated wild reports. Unless the people should abandon the padre and flee to the mountains a terrible plague would decimate them. One night a number of them held an orgy. They went about the village of Tehueco with a sheet of cloth gathered at the four corners, into which they threw articles that were thought to seal their pact with evil spirits. With horrible grimaces and hideous yells they made it known that within the bag was the plague they were carrying off to the mountains. They then departed toward the hills, thinking that soon the people would follow them. They

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were bold in their design to kill Méndez and murder the Spaniards, and one rebel promised that he would procure the head of Hurdaide." A friendly Indian told Méndez what was going on. The padre, incredulous at first, for false reports were often abroad, informed Hurdaide, who sent soldiers for his protection. Méndez, gradually becoming aware of the danger, himself tried persuasion. He spoke to these restless spirits of their present blessings and of the folly of flight. He seemed to succeed, but the quiet was on the surface only; the contagion had gone deep and they had it in their hearts to leave. The leaders made two attempts to bring matters to a head. In league with their ancient allies, the Tepahues, among whom formerly the four fleeing chiefs had taken refuge, they resorted twice to violence. A group entered the town at night and tried to murder Méndez. But he and the soldiers had been warned and the rebels were easily repulsed. Soon afterward, when the padre was away from Tehueco, the same crowd set fire to the church by a ruse that was cleverly executed. Not daring to enter the town for fear of the Christian Indians who remained loyal to Méndez, they placed a glowing corncob at the tip of an arrow and from afar sent it flying to the straw roof of the church. Soon flames burst forth and the fabric was destroyed, but not before some faithful Tehuecos had rescued a pious painting that was set in a beautiful frame. Méndez rushed back only to find numbers of his children making ready to leave the pueblo and follow their leaders to the mountains of the Tepahues. He did what he could through persuasion and threat, the terrible threat of the Captain's vengeance, to hold them; but with only partial success. Great numbers made off. Hostile bands roved about the fort and watched the roads leading to it, looking for occasion to murder Hurdaide. Méndez was in great danger. His faithful Indians, however, were on the alert.

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They guarded him constantly and at night kept fires burning about his dwelling, that no man might approach unseen.18 Now Hurdaide decided to move. Finding the persuasion of many months futile, he prepared for a military expedition into the mountains to punish the leaders and bring back the fugitives. He could use his soldiers, recruit Indian allies, and ask the services of Spanish residents on the Sinaloa and Fuerte. These latter were known as encomenderos, that is, they held from the King of Spain encomiendas or grants of Indian serfs, and farmed or mined landed estates. There were a few such pioneers at this time in the vicinity of San Felipe.19 It was now the year 1612. Leaving a sufficient guard at San Felipe and Montesclaros, the Captain departed with a company of forty Spanish soldiers, a few encomenderos from near-by haciendas, and two thousand Indian allies, both Christian and pagan. Ribas was ordered to join the expedition. The pagan Indian allies consented to follow the Captain, provided they could have the scalp of every Indian they killed and hold high revel with it. He assented and made another proposal: that for each captive whose life they should spare, especially woman or child, they should receive a horse. To this they also agreed. The hope of the rebels was that Hurdaide could not provision so large an army for the time it would take to penetrate into the mountains. But the Captain swore that he would seize and punish the rebel chiefs even if he had to winter in their fastnesses. He said he would even drive a herd of cattle before him to be his provision. Good as his word, he ordered four hundred head to be got ready for the march. Meanwhile, because of the danger to his person, Mendez was replaced by Father Laurentin Adame, recently arrived in the missions. The new padre was well received by the faithful group, while Mendez was disappointed not to have been honored by the martyr's crown.80

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The expedition took Hurdaide north past the site of the present town of Alamos, across the Mayo through the country of the Conicaris, and up the Cedros River away to the northeast of Quiriego, from which town one beholds the high blue ridges of the sierra. Hurdaide received a report that the Conicari cacique would hold a narrow pass and destroy his army as it went through. Perhaps it is the same pass through which the road now runs to Quiriego. If so, Hurdaide's danger was great. The chief attempted to deceive the Spaniard; he came to visit and to offer help. Hurdaide at first dissimulated and then suddenly threw off the mask. Having two flints prepared, he grasped two pistols and two bullets and twice struck fire to the powder. "I can shoot you now" threatened Hurdaide angrily, "but I will wait till I kill you among your own people!' The cacique, thunderstruck, beat a hasty retreat, and acted as Hurdaide surmised; he ordered his people away from the pass and forbade them to give any help to the Tepahues. Then he came a second time to Hurdaide, but now sincerely to offer his services, begging only that his fields be not devastated. After two days' march the Spaniards saw a crowd of women on a hill. Hurdaide knew what it meant. They were Tehuecos who, seeing the Captain's determination and losing heart before it, had come to ask for pardon and to return to their pueblos. They had been deceived, they said, by the Tepahues, and now they wanted to return. Behind them were the men. It was arranged that these should be punished, but that when it came to the women's turn Ribas should intercede for them. So it was. The bows and arrows were all confiscated and burned. Then each of the men was whipped. When it came to the women, Ribas interceded as was planned and the Captain let them of! with a scolding. Foolish creatures they, to have allowed their husbands to be drawn into such madness. They listened to his

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rebuking words with submission. Three hundred were thus reinstated. As Hurdaide advanced into the wilder country several other groups asking pardon were similarly dealt with.21 The enemy kept retreating into the mountain fastnesses, but not without causing great annoyance, for they set fire to the hills to deprive Hurdaide's cattle of food. Fodder could now be had only near the banks of the streams and in deep canyons. As the army advanced they got into most formidable country, pointed with sharp rock, prickly with spiny and poisonous cacti, and overhung by dizzy summits. Hurdaide tried diplomacy. He sent the rebels word that he was not making war but desired only the imprisonment of those who had set fire to the church at Tehueco. There was no result; so war it had to be. He instructed his men and his Indians not to kill, but to try to take the culprits alive that they might be punished later. They must rather look for stores of grain which the enemy had hidden. Especially he warned that the women and children were not to be slaughtered. The mutilated bodies of two women pointed out the direction which the enemy had taken. The Captain sent the allies to the summits to reconnoiter. The danger was great and before entering a narrow defile the men confessed and wished to receive Communion, but there was no bread for Hosts. All this time they had been eating only meat, and they began to suffer for lack of salt. Even on Friday meat was their portion; the law did not bind, explained Ribas, when nothing but meat could be had. They plunged into the pass with some fear but greater courage. At its mouth the enemy had collected to give battle. As the Indian allies had preceded the Spaniards, they bore the first brunt of the fight. Hurdaide was on the alert. Without 'waiting for his charger, he spurred his mule ahead, followed by the mounted soldiers. The enemy, seeing the dreaded Captain

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at hand and the arquebuses of the Spaniards now within easy shot, broke and fled. The Spaniards pursued them hotly. Some of the rebels were killed and others were taken, among them the ringleaders of the revolt. Other successful skirmishes followed. That night the pagan allies burst forth in great celebration, dancing and shouting through the darkness as if hell had broken loose. Ribas was horrified by the way they held the scalps of their victims by the gristle of their noses, the hair dangling at the end of the slice of skin. The Christian Indians held aloof from this bedlam, which Hurdaide could not well have forbidden, for had these pagans become disgruntled and turned against them the Spaniards were lost. The whole expedition took a month and a half, and of the four hundred head of cattle only twenty were left over. These Hurdaide gave to the Indian allies. The herd had been a great help, not only for the food provided, but also in breaking down brambles and briers for the advance of the army. Only one of the party was lost, a friendly \aqui Indian who had been wounded accidentally, not, as one narrative implies, by a poisoned arrow in the foot, but by the thorn of a poisonous herb which pierced his heel. He died within twenty-four hours, stark mad, but baptism saved his soul.22 Seven of the ringleaders of the Tehueco revolt had been caught and these were summarily hanged, and so that the Indians might be impressed with the evil of rebellion, the horse on which the incendiary had escaped was taken back to the village, shot at by all the tribe, and then burned. The Tepahues soon recognized the folly of their ways and asked for missionaries.23 This event occurred in the year 1612.24 It was a great experience for Perez de Ribas, and it is most fortunate for the modern reader that the historian of these missions was himself an eyewitness to the events which he chronicles. He returned, after

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this campaign, to his Suaquis and Ahomes, who in the years that he had been among them had made good progress, as had the tribes of the Rio Sinaloa. In the meantime, on the banks of that river a great event had taken place. It bespoke a magnificent achievement, and deserves a chapter to itself.

Chapter X I V EIGHT THOUSAND

T

CONFIRMATIONS

^HE FLOOD OF 1604, which ruined the churches among the Guasaves, did not damage the one that had been built at San Felipe, though it did destroy parts of the town, including granaries holding quantities of corn. But years later there came a flood which worked greater havoc, demolishing not alone the fine mission church that had stood for years and been sanctified by many spiritual victories, but also the entire lower part of the town. San Felipe from that time was laid out on more elevated ground toward the north, and a new church was built higher on the hill. This was in 1769, two years after the Jesuits had been expelled by Carlos III from all his dominions.1 The town today enjoys a fine relic of the past—the tower of the ancient Jesuit church. Built in recessive tiers of red brick, the tower rises a hundred feet and ends in a small cupola surmounted by a cross. Part of the top is crumbling and from the soil thus created there grows a thorny cactus, and even from the broken dome there spouts a broom of brushwood thicket. Upon the western front is a plaque of white marble dappled in red with the Jesuit symbol I H S, the first three letters of the word JESUS written in Greek capitals. This tower is not the one that Ribas saw on his entrance to the mission. The quality of its red brick and the fineness of its lines testify to its later date. It was in an earlier structure that the events which we are about to relate took place, and they belong to the year 1611, the year after Hurdaide built his fort on the Fuerte. The need of confirmation had been long felt in the missions, for things had been constandy moving forward on the Sinaloa and Fuerte rivers. The fathers of the Mexican province through C1403

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their representative, Martin Pelaez, had asked the General, Claudius Aquaviva, to obtain from the Pope, for the superior of the Sinaloa mission, faculties for the administration of the sacrament of confirmation."It is twenty years!' says the petition, "that these people have been without the sacrament!' The response, like the request, has come down to us in the Aquaviva Papers. This great leader was here as always the acme of prudence. In a letter of April 20,1605, he says concerning this point: "In order that a remedy may be had without our seeming to meddle in that which does not concern us, it would seem the better and more discreet thing to request the Bishop himself to ask the Holy Father for this favor, or to get the ambassador to mention it in the name of the King!' 2 What followed we do not know. But the whole difficulty was later solved by the action of the Bishop of Guadalajara himself. Nueva Vizcaya and its district of Sinaloa were in his diocese and he resolved in 1611 to visit his new and far-off missions and to administer to the neophytes the sacrament of confirmation. Juan del Valle was of the Benedictine Order.® Never before had a bishop visited Sinaloa, never before had it been so necessary. Thousands of souls had been carried out of paganism into the bosom of the Church—good reason, indeed, why the pastor should visit his flock and confirm them in the faith of the fold they had but recently entered. From Guadalajara the Bishop went north on the east side of the mountains to Durango. Thence he crossed the sierra, following the ordinary route by way of Topia to Culiacan. The Superior of the missions residing at Sinaloa, at this time our Martin Perez, went down to Culiacan to greet the Bishop and escort him north. A s the party came up they were met by Hurdaide and his soldiers. Not only that. The Christian Indians had been got together in great numbers. They went down to meet the

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party with bows and arrows in their hands and plumage of colored feathers on their heads. They were in hiding along the way as the Bishop approached. Suddenly they burst as from ambush with yells and shouts, to his great alarm—an alarm that turned to pleasure when he understood the purpose of this noisy salute. Thus escorted, he came in triumph to San Felipe and was led directly to the church. A sermon of welcome was delivered.* The fathers of all the missions round about were notified. They came in with troops of Indians for the Bishop to confirm. Never before had San Felipe seen so large a throng of natives. From all the rivers and the valleys and the mountains they poured in, until thousands had come, and the administration of the sacrament was begun. For five days, morning and afternoon, the Bishop labored. Two or three fathers were always in attendance, helping the soldiers keep order among the Indians, instructing those who were backward, exhorting all to fervor, and trying to put into some sort of condition those who came in rags or almost entirely naked to the sacrament. White cotton gowns were ready for the purpose. But no matter how ill-clad some appeared, the Bishop received them kindly, for he was a benign father, and even when in the press of humanity some dropped down before him almost totally unclothed, he confirmed them also as they were. He gave instructions to the soldiers who were keeping order that they should prevent no one from coming to him. Laboring thus for five days, he blessed all the eight thousand with the oils of the sacrament.6 This visit did much good to the Indians far and wide. They were struck with the dignity and gracious reserve of Bishop Juan del Valle and by the beauty and richness of his robes. They called him the "Great Father" and were impressed through him with the dignity of the Church. To the padres he granted many favors and indulgences and told of his joy in beholding such a

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harvest o£ souls in a land so distant, so rugged, and heretofore so spiritually sterile. The annual report of 161 x speaks of the Bishop's delight at this visit and of his affection for the Society of Jesus." We learn, too, from this report that Father Juan Gallegos was with the Bishop. The padre wrote back from Guadalajara telling of His Grace's joy at what he saw in Sinaloa. Neither was Del Valle himself backward in expressing his satisfaction. To Rodrigo de Cabredo, Provincial of the Jesuits of New Spain, he wrote as follows: "I have seen almost all the fathers of those missions, from which I return greatly consoled and greatly edified. For it has appeared clearly to me how much the Church, His Majesty, and the Society owe to these fathers for the notable progress they have made in those districts and for the great sufferings they endure among their savage charges. Wherever I go I shall have to be the herald of the fathers and of the good things that I have seen and touched God willing, we shall some day be able to speak to you about it all. And so far as I can I shall have to be the great protector of these missions and of the fathers who labor in them. I am greatly fatigued, but I am very happy, though I should die tomorrow, to have made this visitation!" These events offer a demonstration. They show that at the time of Bishop del Valle's visit to the missions the Jesuits had brought into the fold the Indians of the first two rivers. With the exception of Juan Bautista de Velasco, who was working on the Mocorito a little to the south, the padres were all on the Sinaloa and the Fuerte. With Villafane on the lower Sinaloa and Pedro de \felasco up the river, with Ribas on the lower Fuerte, Mendez on the middle river, and Villalta far upstream— with all of these converting the immediate pueblos and the neighboring tribes, we can well understand that by 1611 eight thousand Indians were ready for the Bishop to confirm.8

Chapter X V O N T O RIO M A Y O

T

^HE THIRD of the rivers was the Mayo, named from the tribe of Indians who lived upon its banks. They too, like the Sinaloas and the Suaquis, belong to the Cahita family. 1 The river is sixty miles north of its sister, but is not so full a stream as the Fuerte. Like the latter, it gathers the waters of the high Sierra Madre and carries them southwest into the Gulf of California. Relics of the padres still stand on the Mayo's banks and hoary fabrics attest the heroism of long ago. A t Conicarit, some seventy miles upstream from the sea, there is a ruin; at Camoa, twenty miles down, the long narrow church is almost intact, except that on the east side the outer crust of wall has fallen and lays bare the inner bricks of mud and straw; at Tesia, about ten miles farther down, we do not wonder that the whole structure is preserved, for its walls of adobe brick measure six feet through. It was in 1614 that the mission frontier advanced to the Mayo. Hurdaide had long been with these Indians and for many years now they had been ready for the gospel. In a letter of 1610 to Viceroy Velasco the Captain spoke of the progress of these Indians and said they were asking for padres/ Paucity of laborers had been the only obstacle to the advance. As early as 1605, Juan Bautista de Velasco had visited the Mayos, found them amenable to instruction, and heard their petition for baptism.8 While Ribas was working among the Suaquis some Mayos came to visit him, seeking the favors of Christianity. Ribas was at that time impressed by the preparedness of these people, for he wrote a letter to his superiors that although formerly the Mayos had not held commerce with the Suaquis, nor friendship D44 3

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of any kind, they now trudged down in numbers to see the pueblos and churches of the missions on the Fuerte.4 Many caciques came and in their hearts there was awakened a curiosity about this Christian religion which had entered the land. "Having seen all, they became so much attracted to that kind of life and so desirous of seeing the same introduced into their pueblos that they begged me to instruct them just as I had instructed the Suaquis. Some even offered to come and live with the Suaquis until such time as padres could come among them!'1 The Mayo chiefs remained several days, for they could not tire of wondering at the great happiness the Suaquis possessed in their churches and devotions. Ribas sent them off well gratified. The presents of beads he gave them increased their satisfaction. They told their people all that they had seen and how the padre promised that if they remained in their good desires they would soon have fathers among them. Thereafter, larger crowds came to visit and to see the churches. It is no wonder, then, that when Hurdaide began the construction of the fort of Montesclaros in 161 o, these Mayos were happy to give aid to one whom they trusted and admired.6 Nor are we surprised to learn that when two years later Hurdaide made his great expedition to the mountains of the Tepahues it was the Mayos who formed the greater number of the pagan allies of whom we have spoken, though a few friendly Maquis also accompanied him.7 Indeed, Perez de Ribas in a letter sent back to headquarters, which gives the details of this expedition, makes a digression to beg for missionaries for the Mayos, saying they are ready for the Faith.8 Formerly the fierce Suaquis had acted as a barrier to keep the Mayos from contact with the Spaniards and the fathers, but ever since the taming and conversion of the tribe a decade previously and the opening up of the Fuerte there had been a good

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deal of intercommunication. There was really an infiltration of the spirit of the missions into the Mayo nation even before the missions came there, on a small scale much like what happened to the Goths of the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era in their contact with the Romans along the Rhine, when the influences of civilization began to filter in among them and gradually transform their habits of barbarism. Like the Goths with the Romans, the Mayos joined Hurdaide's army even before they were Christians, offering their services to him on his punitive expeditions. They would come in troops to help him, and if he desired it they would make a levy for him from all their tribe. This they did especially, as we have seen, in the dangerous expeditions the Captain made up to the fourth river, the Yiqui, when he was several times repulsed by these savages. Hurdaide returned these good offices by giving the Mayo chiefs passports into the provinces to the south, and by gifts of horses to their leaders. Moreover, through the Captain's prestige in the country they were freed from molestations by various enemies, chief among whom had been the Suaquis and the Yaquis. This of course had been quite the general result of the acceptance of Christianity among the tribes. Ribas informs us that throughout all this country, except on the Yiqui, it was only necessary to say, "I am a Christian; I am baptized," to be able to enjoy safe passage throughout the land.9 Then too, by nature these Mayos were well prepared for the coming of Christianity; far more so than their harsher neighbors the fighting Maquis to the north, or the warlike and fickle Suaquis and Tehuecos to the south. In this the Mayos resembled the gentle Ahomes. They were, moreover, industrious. They fished in their river, and those farther down fished in the sea. Of course they were still barbarians; polygamy, carousals, and wild dances made up a part of their existence. They were very

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many, numbering some thirty thousand, and they could muster eight or ten thousand warriors. But remembering their long friendship with Hurdaide, their frequent contact with Ribas and the Christian Suaquis, their naturally mild and docile disposition, we shall not be surprised at the joyous and triumphant entrance of the gospel when finally padres could be spared. Hurdaide was anxious for missionaries; Ribas had been pressing his superiors for men. Finally the authorities in Mexico acted. The Viceroy, the Marquis of Guadalcázar, gave Hurdaide permission to extend the frontier up to the third river and to found the missions of the Mayo. He wrote to the Captain ordering that the Mayos be taken under royal protection; he wrote to the Provincial of the Jesuits, requesting fathers to fill the prospective missions.10 All things were accordingly carried out, and our old veteran Pedro Méndez was the man chosen for the new mission. After his departure from Tehueco in 1611 at the time of the revolt, he had spent a few months in the missions of the Sinaloa and then had gone back to Mexico for a rest. Méndez was now beyond fifty and well-nigh worn out with work. But now that a third river was inviting the Faith, he was the man thought fit to go because of his long previous experience of twenty-four years. He made with alacrity the long and difficult journey from Mexico City, of nine hundred miles, for he was most happy to return to his Indians. Such was his ardor to be up and at work that in passing through San Felipe he did not tarry even long enough to be greeted by the fathers of the surrounding missions. Hurdaide desired to accompany him. He organized a company of thirty soldiers with arms and horses and these went to witness a new triumph for the father and the Faith." Let Méndez describe his entrada as reported in a letter to the Provincial: "At a distance of two leagues from their country

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the principal cacique came to welcome us in the name of his people. There followed him fifteen other caciques, and before we arrived at the first pueblo of that river more than three hundred Indians with their wives and children came up to welcome us.12 Their heads were adorned with great crops of feathers of different colors, and joy beamed from the countenances of all. They had erected crosses along the way which made us shed tears of devotion. They had set up arches and, though not triumphal ones like those of Mexico, they well declared the glorious triumph which Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, enjoyed over His enemies. They came out in great troops on horseback and on foot, arranged in order so that we could count their number, the men and boys in their sections, the women and girls in theirs!'13 Within eighteen leagues there were seven pueblos and by careful count the Captain and the soldiers, helped by the caciques, counted 9000 souls, not including those scattered off in the hills and rancherías. Others that lived near the sea were not included." The exact date of these events we have in a letter that Hurdaide wrote to the Viceroy, January 20, 1614, in which he says that it was the 10th of that month when Méndez reached the Mayo. 15 During the first fifteen days, Méndez baptized 3 1 0 0 infants and 500 adults, not counting old men and women. Evidently he considered these adults already sufficiently instructed in the Faith, and he gives further reason for this action: "It occurred to me, already much fatigued, that these numbers should not be allowed to disperse without the sacrament, so I baptized five or six hundred successively until all had been included. While I was doing this I was edified by the great patience of the Captain!'" Later, Méndez conferred baptism on a few with the longer and more solemn rite. He united 70 couples in wedlock, making the men choose from several with whom they had been

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living the woman of their predilection. The old padre writes of the good effects upon them of Christian matrimony, and how, once joined to their wives by this holy tie, they put away their old-time drunkenness and ancient profanities. As women entered the church they would help each other in taking off their earrings, and they offered to cut their long hair according to the fashion of the other Christian peoples. In a letter at the end of that first year, Méndez reminds his superiors how at his first entrada he had baptized 3000, and tells how he had united 400 couples in marriage, "which is a greater number than I have counted in all my former twentytwo years in Sinaloa!'17 N o repugnance to baptism was shown, as sometimes happened among the other tribes, and after they had been christened these Indians came of their own accord to be married. Méndez was struck from the first by their great piety. "Whereas formerly!' he writes, "they went about carrying knives, now they go about in prayer!' In the cold of the morning they would make the stations of the cross with arms outstretched. A t night the murmur of their voices at prayer was as sweet music to the missioner, and when they would come to him, their faces wreathed in smiles, and say, "Father, how happy I am!" or, "Padre, what is this new joy that I feel in my soul?" Méndez would experience the high and serene happiness of spiritual paternity. When some liaqui chiefs came for a visit and said the padre would have soon to go to them, a Mayo chief replied: "By no means! He has baptized us and he belongs to us" All these things led Méndez to remark in a letter at the end of 1614: "I have not seen in any other tribe which I have so far instructed such evident signs of divine grace and of the presence of the Holy Spirit!'18 All of which is not to say that Pedro Méndez had no abuses to fight among the Mayos or difficulties to overcome. One abuse

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was the habit the men had o£ marrying their own mothers, daughters, or sisters. It had always been the custom of their fathers, they explained. Also, the women with slight reason procured abortion or killed the suckling infant. Their excuse was that they did this in order to generate other children. Midwives sometimes counseled abortion, though Méndez reports that this evil was not so widespread among the Mayos as among some other tribes. Idols among them were few, although the ever-present sorcerer was there. One such asked for baptism. He was bidden to bring all his instruments of magic, and he brought them. One charm was to prevent drought; another, flood from the river; a third, earthquake; and a fourth, plague. The articles were surrendered, the wizard was baptized, and he lived happy ever after." There is page after page of almost ecstatic letter-writing on the part of Méndez as he comes back to the subject of his Mayos' devotion and piety. The details of the Lenten penance are interesting. There were numerous confessions at this season and the padres remained fifteen days at each village. The churches were always full of people and the spirit of penance was strong. Processions were organized, during which the neophytes flogged themselves with switches until the blood flowed. This was the classical "discipline to blood" which we hear often mentioned in the lives of the saints. It was a commonplace thing in all these missions and the annual letters frequently mention it. We have heard of it before in our story. But Méndez now gives us the details of these whips or switches, and they are sufficiently bloodcurdling. The Indians made these instruments of penance from fiber which they got from the mescal plant. Upon the stringy cords thus procured they tied little balls of wax into which they inserted broken needles or thorns of cactus. No wonder there was bleeding. "And there is no one" continues the enthusiastic

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padre, "be he old man or child, chief or servant, who does not use his scourge!'20 There is some humor, too. Poor old Méndez was a light sleeper and in some of the other missions he had been tortured to despair by the nighttime roisterers of the tribe, who, still pagan, used to keep up a ghastly howling and dancing until all hours. Here it was different. The missionary writes that when the Superior of all the missions, Martín Pérez, came on an official visit, he was struck by the supreme peace and quiet that reigned over all the river. "To confess the truth" continues Méndez, "one of the great objections which presented itself against my coming here was the prospect of those routs and riots of dancing all the night long indulged in by the pagan element, the hubbub and racket of which was for many years a great trial to me on former missions. But it has pleased Our Lord, owing to the prayers of 'Your Reverence and as a rebuke to my cowardice, that there has here been nothing of the sort, but only the sweet murmur of prayers, which, as I have said, they go through in the night!'21 Some years later, when the old missionary was sent far up to the Batucos, it was again the ungodly nocturnal dancing and yelling that he feared. But here again, fortunately, he was spared.12 Soon a helper came for the old priest. Father Diego de la Cruz was sent from San Felipe to learn the language of the Mayo missions. When he was ready, Martín Pérez sent him up to assist Méndez. By 1616 he was well at work.28 Some natives of the outlying districts had not been baptized and the new missionary was able to do what Méndez' age prevented. Charge over three pueblos was given to De la Cruz and with his help the whole nation was gathered into the fold of Christianity. Hurdaide in a letter of 1619 to the Viceroy says that Méndez had baptized nine thousand Indians in seven pueblos, and that

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after the arrival of De la Cruz the number was advanced to fifteen thousand. Four fathers were therefore needed here, urged the Captain.24 By the year 1620, five Christian pueblos, like diamonds on a silver thread, were strung along the river to the sea. They began with Tesia and Camoa upstream and ended with Navojoa, Curimpo, and Etchojoa near the coast.25 It was thirty miles from one end to the other. The number of their inhabitants ranged from five and six hundred to a thousand families and altogether on this river bank thirty thousand souls were alight with the grace of Heaven.26 Gradually the missions crept up the river to the tribes inhabiting the hills that front the tall sierras. Sauer says of them: "Conicari, Tepahue, and Macoyahui were tribes in the middle Mayo drainage pretty certainly closely related to the Cahita in speech. The Conicari lived above the junction of the Mayo and Cedros rivers, the Tepahue farther up the Cedros, and the Macoyahui on the Mayo above the Conicari and in the hills southeastward from the Mayo!'27 Diego de la Cruz in a letter of 1616 tells how the caciques of the near-by pagan nations came to visit the fathers on the lower Mayo and to see the churches. "One of the chiefs came to me and said: 'Father, since there are two of you here, come with us to our country, for we shall love you as much as do this Yiquimi nation.281 live at most only a half-day's journey from here! I responded that \our Reverence [he is writing to his superior] loves them as a father and that you had already sent to Mexico for a priest to baptize them. The Tepahues, another half-day's journey away, are strong in their demand for missionaries!'29 The Tepahues, because they had harbored the rebel Tehuecos, were ordered down from their mountains, and they obeyed, fifteen hundred of them. They formed a community on the upper Mayo and were commended by the Captain to the care

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o£ De la Cruz. Likewise, the Conicaris settled down on the river, two hundred families totaling upwards of a thousand people. But Father de la Cruz could not at this time give them sufficient attention to prepare them for baptism. The Captain is found urging the Viceroy to send more reapers into these fields that are white for the harvest.30 When more padres were sent, after 1620, the Conicaris and the Tepahues were able to have their father—Michael Wading of Waterford, called Godinez, the only Irishman on the mission. All these tribes were soon received into the bosom of the Church.31 The year before the advance to the Mayo River, the missions on the Sinaloa lost the very priest who had first made contact with the Mayos eight years previously. He was the first, too, since the missions began, to suffer a natural death there and the first after Tapia to die. This was our old friend Juan Bautista de Velasco. He had come to the missions, it will be remembered, with Father Alonso de Santiago in 1593 and had spent most of his twenty years south of San Felipe on the Mocorito. He had for a brief period served as Superior at San Felipe, interchanging that office with Hernando de Villafane, Martin Perez, and others. It has been a usual practice of the Jesuit system, though not stated in the constitutions of the Order, that the Superior shall hold office for a certain period only.32 Velasco during all the years from the coming of Hurdaide in 1596 was the confessor of the Captain and his particular adviser and counselor upon matters of importance. His virtues are eulogized in the annual letters by his colleague, Luis de Bonifaz, who had followed him to the missions,33 and in a manuscript biography of different fathers compiled by Francisco de Florencia in the second half of the century.31 Ribas devoted a whole chapter of his Los Triumpbos de la Fee to the life and virtues of Velasco.36 If these eulogies do not exaggerate for purposes of edification, he was a

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saintly man indeed and a mirror of all the virtues o£ the religious life. The recounting of these qualities becomes less impressive, however, when we find that most of the other fathers written about possessed them all in quite an equal degree. But undoubtedly they all were saintly men. Velasco's thought seems to have been constantly for others rather than for himself. What money came to him from the government for his support, he spent for the improvement of the churches, and he lived in such poverty that when he died he was using the same blanket he had brought from Mexico twenty years before.80 In the summer of 1613 Velasco was summoned from the M o corito to San Felipe to attend the semiannual meeting of the fathers to discuss the affairs of the mission. H e was very sick, but bestirred himself to the call of obedience. H e returned to his pueblo thirty miles away in a condition of great suffering, in fact critically ill. It soon appeared that he was dying. The Indians came about their father and he exhorted them to carry out the teachings he had given them. H e received the last sacraments on his knees and yielded his generous soul to God on Monday, July 29, 1613, being only fifty-six years of age. His corpse was carried to San Felipe, escorted by Hurdaide and a company of soldiers. Eleven fathers gathered to sing the office of the dead and perform the last rites. H e was buried in the church at San Felipe.*7

Chapter X V I

T H E RIM OF REVOLT

E

URING ALL these years missionary progress was being • made on the eastern as well as on the western slopes of " the great Sierra Madre. In 1594, Fathers Gerónimo Ramírez and Juan Agustín began a mission in Cuencamé, in the present Mexican state of Coahuila. In 1598 the center and capital of these Coahuila missions was founded, and was called Santa María de las Parras. The missions of Topia and San Andrés among the Acaxée Indians were definitely begun in 1598. These were in what is now the state of Durango, and west of the divide. In 1596 Father Gerónimo Ramírez began a mission among the numerous and more highly cultured Tepehuanes, who inhabited a broad stretch of the fertile valley lands, near the lagoon country, which lies southeast of San Felipe and far to the other side of the sierra. But the Tepehuanes ran up also into the mountains and even over the divide and down the western slope, especially to the north, and here they were neighbors of the Comanitos among whom Pedro de Velasco of the Sinaloa missions worked.1 It was on this borderline between the missions of the east and of the west that a great danger was to come to our padres of the west. Among the Tepehuanes the fires of a terrible rebellion broke forth in 1616. That year eight Jesuits, a Franciscan, and a Dominican were killed. Among the Jesuits was the former missionary in Sinaloa, Hernando de Santarén. The fathers at San Felipe were nervous for fear the rebellion might spread to their side of the mountains, and Captain Hurdaide doubled his vigilance, especially on the border, that no sparks from the eastern conflagration should fly over to spread fire to the west. The situation C r55 U

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was the more acute because the tribe which had given Hurdaide and the fathers most concern was the very one which bordered most upon the region of the Tepehuanes. Already before the rebellion there was trouble among the Comanitos, especially with that particularly troublesome group, those in and about the pueblo of Cahuemeto and the sierra of Bazapas. It will be remembered that Father Pedro de Velasco came to these regions of the upper Sinaloa in 1607. After achieving the successes already described, he was joined in 1611, the year of the Bishop's visit, by Father Juan Calvo. The two, laboring together, carried their activity still farther into the mountains, to where these missions of Sinaloa touched those working out from the eastern slope and from Topia and San Andres. The center of the mission field of Velasco and Calvo was two pueblos of rival groups of the Comanito family, Chicorato and Cahuemeto,* situated a few miles apart. Six miles north from Chicorato was the newly organized pueblo of Chicorato Indians called San Ignacio. The trouble started here as early as 1613. This we know from a letter of Juan Calvo, dated January 13th.8 The Cahuemetos had long harried the Chicoratos4 and into the dry tinder of their ancient enmity was thrown the spark that roused a destructive flame. It all started with a game. Ribas calls it correr al palo.6 A dispute arose; they divided into sections; anger flamed and arrows were grasped. Velasco was present and succeeded in quieting these his savage children. But irritation smoldered underneath and a few of the restless spirits of Cahuemeto came to the crucial resolution: they would flee the pueblo and in the mountains regain their ancient liberty. Their leader was Barocopa. They did as they had resolved, but not before they had wreaked vengeance upon their enemies. One morning at San Ignacio the Indians came out from Mass to find two of their

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Chicorato brethren slain.6 The rebel Cahuemetos then fled to the neighboring unchristianized nations.7 Here their appetite for blood was whetted and they returned, their number augmented by some pagans, with the intention of killing \felasco when Calvo should be temporarily absent. A band of pagans whom they met on the way, to whom Velasco had been kind, forced them to desist. Thwarted in this design, they relieved their malice by killing two Christians whom they found fishing in the river near Chicorato. They burned two churches and set fire to stores of maize and to many of the dwellings. The rebels tried to get others to join them; they continued harrying the pueblos, and life was no longer secure. A pitched battle was fought between the factions and it looked as if the mission were breaking up. A t this, Hurdaide was appealed to. H e sent six soldiers and fifty Indian bowmen to the troubled district. Under the protection thus offered, the two fathers went from pueblo to pueblo, trying to quiet the spirit of their neophytes and to recall the rebels to their old Christian fidelity.8 But the trouble was far from over. Juan Calvo was saying his beads one evening before his hut when an inexplicable fear came upon him. H e went inside with a vague idea of seeking protection, when an arrow whizzing by almost struck his servant boy who had just left the dwelling to draw water.8 The disturbance continuing, Hurdaide wrote to both the Viceroy and the Governor for military aid.10 There was trouble likewise still farther up the Sinaloa, where its banks turn south and then east again farther into the mountains. Here the river is known as the Petatlán. Father Diego de Azevedo was working here in the pueblos of Tecuciapa and Carantapa, which belonged to the Topia missions. Three of his neophytes had been so badly mauled by the rebels that they were left for dead and the padre himself was in danger. Near by,

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Father Santaren was laboring among the Acaxee Indians. He called in Captain Martin de Olivas, who had charge of this district from the east. But the latter, not succeeding in quieting these sierras, departed, having left no protection to Santaren and Azevedo. Hurdaide, therefore, went into the country himself in 1614 and left there seven soldiers for the protection of the fathers.11 In the meantime Calvo and \felasco were having scant success with the rebel Cahuemetos. Months and months went by and still many were restless and rebel bands roamed about. A s a final effort at pacification, early in 1616 Pedro de Velasco called in from the neighboring Acaxee district Father Santaren, who had spent some time among the Cahuemetos in the early days of the Sinaloa mission and who was still greatly esteemed by them. Aided by Hurdaide's iron hand, he seems to have enjoyed complete success, for most of the rebels appear to have been reconciled, five hundred consenting to return and live in San Ignacio. Pedro de Velasco in a letter of that year speaks as if the long-drawn-out conflict were wholly settled.12 But this seeming content was only on the surface. Events soon to occur east of the divide were to precipitate further trouble in the west. It was this very year that the Tepehuan revolt broke forth to scatter fire and blood over the eastern mountains. Hostilities began on November 16,1616. Ribas had gone to Mexico seeking more missionaries for the advance to the liaqui and he returned to hear of the revolt. It is no wonder that he and the rest of the fathers on the coast feared for the whole Sinaloa mission, particularly since the most troublesome portion of that mission was the section which bordered on the country of the Tepehuanes.13 Indeed, upon this border there was a mutual infection. Before the outbreak of the Tepehuanes some of their number had caught the ugly spirit of the rebel Cahuemetos, and an anonymous

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letter from the district dated M a y 16,1618, informs us that the outbreak had been brewing for three or four years." Sparks from the eastern conflagration soon began to fall in the west. Rebel Tepehuanes from the near-by ranges joined themselves to the troublesome Cahuemetos and came down to the upper Sinaloa. The cacique Barocopa, for long now the chief of unrest on the Sinaloa, led this rebel band.1* These men used all their powers of persuasion upon the Chicoratos to get them to join. The chiefs came arrayed in the booty they had taken from the murdered Spaniards on the eastern slopes, and they carried down into this mission of the upper Sinaloa a shirt covered with blood which had been worn by one of the murdered fathers.18 They came into the village of San Ignacio when they knew Father \fclasco was absent and harangued the people, displaying their loot and showing the gory shirt. Let the Chicoratos do what the Tepehuanes had done, kill their padre and make off to real and old-time liberty! A few were won over, and these passed on to other villages, to "Vecorato and Chicorato. But in the latter pueblo there were two chiefs who held the whole tribe steady, and to them can be given much of the credit of preventing the revolt of the east from entering the west. Their names were Luis Tutuqui and Pedro liotoca." Persuasion failing, the rebels resorted to violence. One morning as the Indians were about the church awaiting the coming of the father for Mass a troop of Tepehuanes burst into the pueblo for slaughter and destruction. A boy had seen them from the tower of the church while they were yet some distance off, and he now gave the alarm. A sharp skirmish ensued. Many Christians caught without their arrows had to run at great risk to their huts to get them. Velasco himself barely escaped a dart. Fortunately some soldiers of Hurdaide's were at hand. Their arquebuses spread confusion and destruction, the Chicoratos

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fought with determination, and the enemy were driven off, leaving in the village some dead and wounded.18 Now Hurdaide took matters in hand himself. Leaving six soldiers at Chicorato, with fifty Indian warriors he went in search of the rebels. Two of the leaders he caught and hanged, having gone for them far up the Sinaloa to Tecuciapa, following the river south and then east again. A t Tecuciapa likewise he placed six soldiers, and seventy allied Indians of war, for the protection of Fathers Azevedo, Najera, Gonzales, Cueto, and others. All this had its effect.19 The Tepehuanes were driven back to their own ranges and the revolt was kept from spreading into this western section. Not satisfied by tampering with the Cahuemetos, the Tepehuanes tried to stir to revolt the Yaquis and the Nuris far to the northwest. The Maquis they tempted with horses, blankets, and fine garments, loot they had got from the Spaniards. They offered the Nuris arrows, plumes, clothes, and sixteen mares and horses if they would join the rebellion. They made a special effort to corrupt the Nuri chief Coyovera, but Hurdaide kept him firm in his refusal. The Maquis and the Nuris on this occasion proved the mettle of their loyalty.20 The revolt was therefore kept from spreading to the western side of the sierras and to the missions of the West Coast, even though for many months it caused Hurdaide and the fathers the gravest anxiety. Indeed, in a letter of March 5, 1617, the Captain speaks of the great menace the revolt was continuing to be to Cahuemeto and Ifecorato, and how the rebels were boasting about their great victory over the Spaniards. He tells his superior, the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, that there is need of more soldiers, and he offers a plan for the pacification of the rebellious areas of the mountains to the east and south. Entradas must be made, he writes, from the west into the Tepehuan coun-

T H E RIM OF REVOLT

try, not only by way of Ocotlan in the south, but likewise through the districts of Yecorato and Cahuemeto. From Tecuciapa, protection must be given Atotonilco, Batoyapa, and the mines of Los Caballeros. Hurdaide is careful to add that if he be sent upon these expeditions against the Tepehuanes, his orders must not take him far from San Felipe, willing enough as he would be to go, for this would jeopardize the safety of that mission.21 In a letter of January ioth of that year he asked the Governor for supplies of powder, arquebuses, cannon, and parts of ordnance, because of the great danger menacing from the east.23 Thanks, therefore, to the strong arm of Hurdaide, the revolt not only did not spread to the Sinaloa missions, but was even kept from doing serious damage on the upper Sinaloa River, a district restless and close to the revolt, where Juan Calvo and Pedro de Velasco worked. In spite of all, the Chicoratos and most of the Cahuemetos remained loyal. However, the missionary career of Pedro de \felasco, highborn son of the great viceroys, was drawing to a close. His powerful family in Mexico wanted him in the city and already in 1616 his superiors hinted at his recall. A t this time he wrote a letter of great human interest, telling of his willingness to obey, but of his desire to remain in the missions where he had had such long experience and where, with two Indian languages at his disposal, he was doing so much good. "I am the first father and minister of these people. There are three languages in these pueblos, and though I have done what I could with two of them, I am attacking now a third!'23 One can understand Velasco's attachment to his mission. Thus it has always been. Thus it is, for instance, with the modern American missionary who is sent to Alaska, or China, or India, or Africa. The hardest trial for these men is to be called home from the mission. The blow for

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Velasco, postponed, fell in 1621, near the time of the changes in the Sinaloa mission, when Ribas was recalled from the Yiqui and when many new fathers went to the north. Velasco traveled south to fill the chair of scripture and moral theology at the college of San Pedro y San Pablo in Mexico City. He had been on the upper Sinaloa from 1607 to 1621—in terms of other history, from the founding of Jamestown to the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers.24 The year before f i a s c o ' s recall the Tubares were converted and settled together in the pueblos of l&corato and Cacalotlan, far up the Ocoroni River. In January, 1620, these people sent representatives to Hurdaide, then at Montesclaros, to ask for padres. Juan Calvo was sent to them. Some time after his arrival, others from farther up the river asked for his presence among them. Calvo sent these to San Felipe to interview the fathers there.They were kindly treated and regaled with presents.They returned with promises of missionaries for themselves too. On departing from San Felipe their chief said: "In order that you may understand, father, that this request comes from the heart and that we speak the truth, we shall send you as soon as we arrive in our country, four of our sons, that you may instruct them and baptize them here. Later they will return and teach us when they come back with you!' And this promise was carried out. However, they were sent not to San Felipe, but to Juan Calvo at Ifecorato, where they lived happily and, with religion, learned also manners and good behavior. That they made rapid progress is not surprising, for they seem to have been exceedingly well disposed toward the gospel. A t the time of a plague in 1617, which was three years before Calvo came to them, a pagan Indian baptized his own wife and children. He himself died, one would surmise, with the grace of baptism of desire.25 Calvo,

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moreover, sent an intelligent Indian farther up into the country of the Tubares to gather information about those parts in order that missionaries might soon enter there. This scout reported that eleven hundred and twenty-three individuals were living in houses above \ecorato, and that they could be reduced to three or four pueblos of about a day's journey apart. Two totally different languages were spoken here, one being a language familiar to the padre. So the work went on, high up the Ocoroni, just as it had high up the Sinaloa. Although these districts were on the rim of the revolt, Hurdaide kept the fires from spreading across his lines. In the east Santaren was dead and with him seven of his fellow workers.

Chapter XVII DON BAUTISTA'S H O N E Y M O O N

W

E MUST now trace another river into the mountains, just as we have traced the Sinaloa. It is the Fuerte, on whose banks Father Villalta was working among the Sinaloa tribe. These Indians bring us up to the rougher country, but not into it, for their highest pueblo, Vaca, rests on the edge of the high sierras. T h e padre resided at Toro. A few miles above Vaca and a hundred miles from the sea the Fuerte River divides as we follow it upstream into the mountains. One branch runs directly east until it divides again into the Rio Verde and the Rio Urique. T h e other, the one that we shall follow upstream, continues north, for this has been its general direction from Vaca on, where it is known as Río Chinipas, from the tribe that lived upon its banks. Farther on, turning a little east, it is called Rio Oleros. But our story will end for the present on the banks of the Chinipas and its eastern lofty ridges which rise in the present state of Chihuahua.1 R

T h e Huite nation lived at the first great fork of the Fuerte. A charming description of their conversion is given by Ribas, and is confirmed by the annual reports. They lived high up among the sharpest and most precipitous rocks and crags, "and seemed to desire the haunts of the eagle, rather than those of the deer!' Ribas remarks that if strangers wished to go to them they must help one another as in alpine climbing. Their only water was that which they caught from the rain in the clefts of the rocks, and their only planting ground was a glen walled about by such lofty peaks that the light of day was shortened two hours. Here, among the steep ridges east of the Fuerte as its banks turn north, removed from the Sinaloas some twenty C'643

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miles, three hundred families lived.3 There was no contact between the tribes when Villalta first went to the Sinaloas in 1605. The padre had been among the latter people many years when a boy of the Huite tribe offered the occasion of their conversion. The Sinaloas had taken him prisoner and handed him over to Villalta to be instructed in the Faith and educated. The father took this opportunity to encourage the Sinaloas to pay a visit of friendship and conciliation to the Huites, his own agility being unequal to their lofty ledges. The Sinaloas went. They carried into these rocks the tale of their grace and happiness; they were well received and returned with treasure. They had been able to prevail upon some of the Huites to send their sons to the missionary as a sign of the friendship they were now professing, that these boys might be educated and baptized by the father. When the lads should grow up they could in turn instruct their fathers in the flesh and lead the tribe to Christianity. It was so arranged. The Huites were willing and the Sinaloas promised to treat their young guests as their own sons. Thus, reflects the chronicler, the hard rock of this nation was broken through by the kindness and gentleness of the Sinaloas.8 High and fine the joy of the Christian tribe, to be able thus to plant these first young saplings of a new church. And their happiness continued, for soon others of the Huites came and brought their children for instruction and baptism. This movement amounted to a migration into the lower country, for finally three hundred descended from their rocky ridges to live on the banks of the river among the Sinaloas. The baptism of the children went on apace, and when the adults were ready and were baptized a celebration was held: music and dancing, and the shooting off of the arquebuses of some Spanish soldiers who were present. The process went on merrily. Other adults descended to the river. Those who did not come sent their children

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even as soon as they were born, that they might be baptized, and boys of seven years were willing to leave their fathers and mothers in the flesh to be fathered and mothered by the Church in the person of Villalta and in the environment of his school. The remainder of the Huite tribe after a few years let the father know that even though they remained perched upon their cliffs and crags, they were at his service always and would carry out his behests. They were now constantly urging him to come to them. It was most difficult for him, for his aging joints could ill ascend the steep and rocky paths and crawl up the slippery cliffs. But he went in spite of age and rocks. He was ardently received and given presents of maize, frijol, and calabash. An unlooked-for result of the visit was that the fame of it spread among the higher sierras and led the tribes there to desire contact with the missioner.4 Villalta, however, had in mind a definite plan and this he proceeded to carry out, for he must strike while the iron was hot. He determined to get the whole tribe down from their summits and settled into a lower pueblo where he could come to them and ultimately baptize them all. He selected a spot and asked his faithful Sinaloas and the Huites who were Christians to come to see and approve its location. They came and approved, for the place was good for living and for planting. Then, supported by their acquiescence, Villalta made his final proposal to the rest of the tribe. Come down from your peaks and crags, he said to them in substance, and settle in this glen we have selected; thus you can all be instructed and baptized and enjoy the happiness and well-being your Christian brothers have now for many seasons possessed. The invitation was listened to. They came down, almost all of them, they saw the place and decided it was good to live upon. Then they set to work with a will to clear the ground, felling

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trees and cutting brush and making a path to facilitate their descent. Soon this group became Christians, living in their new pueblo accessible to Villalta and to other fathers who would follow. Other tribes had become interested. Close up the river were the Chinipas, and beyond them and higher toward the east across the river were the Temoris, the Varohios, and the Guazapares. Toward these the missioner was now beginning to cast a wistful glance. He would get into touch with these too, so that in course of time the blessings of the gospel might penetrate their mountains. Here we must admire the padre's diplomacy. There was a cacique among the Sinaloas of high renown and a far-reaching prestige that leaped over mere tribal barriers. He was baptized by Villalta himself, and named Don Bautista, when a youth of twenty-six. From then on he became the missionary's right arm in all his work. A t the time of the conversion of the Huites he was still young and as yet unmarried. Now, there was an Indian girl of the Huite nation just returned from years of slavery among the Chinipas. Here, thought Villalta, could be welded the first three links of a chain that might run from the Sinaloas far up into the canyons of the Guazapares. He proposed to Don Bautista that he marry this girl. The young chief consented with good grace and the proper celebrations were held to publish the event. The friendship of the Huites was now assured, for they were proud to be thus allied with the strong Sinaloas. The other fruits followed fast. This girl was known well by the Chinipas, and the padre proposed a honeymoon trip up the river into their glens and vales. This, too, was accepted.5 Don Bautista was proud of his bride, for she was beautiful. For this journey into the higher mountains he arrayed her in the best of Indian finery: brightly colored skirts and petticoats,

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large and handsome earrings, and a silken veil for her head, a veil come all the way from China by way of the Philippines. Don Bautista went to those of the Huites who still held off from the new settlement; then on to the Chinipas, who appreciated the romance of a former slave girl among them now married to this noble chief and arrayed with the richness of a princess. The fame of the honeymoon spread, as Villalta knew it would, for rumor zigzags quickly up into these forky canyons. Témoris, Guazápares, and Varohíos came to see Don Bautista with his bride and to look upon the beauty of the romance of Christian marriage. The good effects were so encouraging that Don Bautista decided to extend his journey. H e took six days more and went farther into the sierra, that others of these nations might see his bride. H e made the best of his opportunity. H e and the padre had talked it all over. H e spoke to them of the peace and security and happiness enjoyed by the Christian nations, and, glancing toward the richness of his bride's regalia, hinted at the prosperity of the Christian tribes. But example may have gone farther than words, for as they had agreed with Villalta, this Christian group every morning and every evening assembled for prayer. They said their rosary thus every day, they carried the beads around their neck, and recited prayers for the souls in Purgatory. Then Don Bautista returned bringing in his train ten or twelve of the chiefs from the interior. When the Sinaloas heard of the approach of these distinguished visitors they prepared for them a merry welcome. Their arrival signaled a great holiday. Bells and trumpets and flutes led on the merriment; there was dancing and song and eating of the very best. Huites and Sinaloas celebrated together the return of their son and daughter and the coming of the mountain chiefs. The wives of these guests were taken in hand by the Christian women and made, through

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their kindly offices, comfortable and happy. Villalta was standing at the door of his hut atToro when the party first entered the pueblo. The neophytes pointed him out to the strangers as the Father of the Christians. He beamed as he welcomed them and received their homely but sincere manifestations of respect and affection. They quite surrounded him and plucked at his gown and kept repeating "Nono-Nono!" which means "Our father!' The interpreter made known to the padre the joy of his people at this meeting and their hearty good wishes. They said their contentment was the more solid because they beheld those who had been formerly their enemies and whom they feared, now their friends, extending kindly offices on every hand. Villalta replied in such sentiments as his excellent judgment told him were the best to employ.' The whole was crowned by a visit to the town of San Felipe. It was Easter, 1620, when the group arrived, ten caciques headed by Don Bautista, and their welcome surpassed the one they had enjoyed on the upper Fuerte.7 Diego de Guzman was there at the time as Superior, and Martin Perez and Captain Hurdaide were ready with a cordial reception. The missionaries received them as their children, Hurdaide was most gracious, placing all comforts at their disposal. All the chiefs were entertained in the house of the fathers, and on departing were made happy with gifts—salt, for it was rare in their mountains, blankets, and beans. They were asked upon their return to tell their people of the blessings of Christianity and to invite them down that they too might witness these same good things. It was a fine piece of propaganda and it succeeded well: soon the far mountain tribes were themselves asking for padres. Shortly after these events Don Bautista went to meet the God of the Christians, Whom he had served so well. His death was a blow to the missions of the upper Fuerte, and the fathers and

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Hurdaide felt the loss keenly. Villalta was not the only one to appreciate the quality of this young chieftain; Hurdaide, too, had early recognized his merit and had made him governor of Toro with baton, sword, and Spanish cloak. Both State and Church treated him as a Spaniard, and indeed both were grateful. He had made the first contact with the wild mountain tribes of the northern fork of the Fuerte, which led to their Spanish alliance and their Christian faith, and in his person there shone the luster of Christian virtue, excellent example and guiding beacon to surrounding barbarism. Liberality and forgiveness were his greatest qualities; his prestige among his people grew as the Christian quality matured. When, therefore, this Sinaloa chieftain entered upon his mortal sickness, the whole pueblo of Toro pressed about his pallet and those who were close by witnessed the devotion with which he accepted the last rites of the Church. He bequeathed his sword to the missionary, begging him to give it to some Spaniard who might use it in the interests of the missions with the same devotion and affection that he himself had always possessed. A solemn Mass was celebrated at his funeral and the padre preached a panegyric on his virtue and valor. Caciques from all the country round came in to witness the final rites. These chiefs carried the mortal remains of Don Bautista on their shoulders from the church to a sepulcher near by, where, according to their custom, they buried him. With dirgeful music and with tears, among his native rolling hills of the upper Fuerte, Toro and the Sinaloas laid their champion to rest.8 The first fruits of Villalta's diplomacy were the Chinipas, but he did not remain here long enough to gather in the new harvest. In 1620, Cristobal de Villalta was replaced on the upper Fuerte by Father Juan Castini, who continued the successes of his predecessor and who witnessed the death of Don Bautista."

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The Chinipas were next up the river and they asked Father Castini to visit them. He was happy to accept. He had to ascend nine miles to the summit of a lofty ridge and then make a dangerous descent into the valley where they lived. A hundred Indians went out to meet him. They had made a rough and hazardous path down into their first pueblo, felling trees and removing rocks. The journey required three days, and when Castini arrived at the village the Chinipas were all out to welcome him, the whole five hundred families. It was the experience of other missionaries all over again: they came out in procession through arches made of foliage; they held crosses in their hands; they sang hymns; they danced and beat their tambourines. They had built a church of wood, and the missionary, arrayed in capa de coro or cope, and having with him a painting of Our Lady, began the baptisms of the children of seven years or less to the number of three hundred and sixty. After his first labors Castini rested in the dwelling they had made for him. They had arranged their whole pueblo and the padre found the houses in order, the lanes well laid out after the Spanish fashion and a cross upon each dwelling. A pile of bones and skulls of their enemies, the fruit of years of warfare, he suggested should be burned, and it was. Seeing this excellent disposition, he regretted deeply that he could not stay among them to instruct and baptize the adults, but he promised to return.10 Besides the religious work, Father Castini was able to perform an important office of peace. A curious Guazapar, a traditional enemy, had prowled about during the first day, not daring to show himself. He was caught and carried to the padre. Castini, having won him through kindness and gifts, sent him on an important errand: let him go to his tribe and say that the Chinipas were now ready for a permanent peace. In two days two hundred Guazapares came, men and women and children,

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to see Castini. He charmed them by his princely courtesy and gave them gifts of corn and confirmed what his messenger had said. He prepared an elaborate banquet for the two tribes and saw to it that during the festivities the Guazapares mingled freely with the Chinipas and thus cemented the friendship.11 This began a peaceful relationship between these two tribes formerly enemies and was the tip of the wedge for the conversion of the remoter nation. Juan Castini after four full and holy days departed up the hazardous path and down into the country of the Sinaloas once again. He kept his promise to return, and his second visit forwarded all his designs. In the meantime, representatives of three tribes, the Chinipas, the Temoris, and the Guazapares, had been to San Felipe to ask for missionaries. The fathers there were sorry to have to refuse them and Hurdaide was saddened at this lack of workmen, saying that he desired to kiss the land in which Castini had worked such wonders. These visitors from three mountain tribes were assured that when more missionaries should arrive they should have their own padres. Castini then a second time went among the Chinipas. They began now to see that he could not remain without neglecting his work lower down. But he made an arrangement which softened their disappointment at his having to leave them. There was a fine young man whom he had educated to be a good catechist. This Christian the padre would leave among the Chinipas that he might gradually instruct them, so that later they might all be ready for baptism. The catechist was unmarried. Therefore, to protect him and to link him more closely to the tribe, a girl of the Chinipas was selected to become his bride. She demurred, however, and persuasions went on for long, for her parents were anxious for the match. In despair they came to Castini with the tale of her stubbornness. He must try, they said.

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The coy maiden yielded to these last persuasions which painted so consolingly the security and blessedness of Christian wedded life. The marriage was performed with joy and jubilation." Another fine thing happened on this second visit. Among the Guazapares was the important chief Cobameai, handsome and strong of limb, carrying well his fifty years upon him. He had held aloof during all these winters, but as his prestige was great Castini wanted to win him. The chief was invited through a messenger. He came with proud bearing, arrayed in a blue mantle reaching to his feet and with large mother-of-pearl earrings encircling his ears. The father expended upon Cobameai his finest courtesy and the Chinipas surrounded him with various attentions. They had prepared a dwelling especially for him and they flattered the appetite of the chief with their choicest meats. All this had the desired effect. Cobameai made a grand oration which lasted an hour. He expatiated upon the blessings of Christianity and said that for the future they would all be united in bonds of friendly alliance. He proposed intermarriage and ended by intimating that the padre might come to his people. Castini took up the cue at once and asked that he make a path for him to his tribe. After a day of music, dancing, and celebration, the work was begun. They made a feasible trail, even constructing a halfway house of foliage where the missionary might repose. He was surprised to find a church already built. Some Christians had been among them and taught them how. Here, too, some of the Temoris came, so that Castini found assembled about five hundred families. They made their dwellings near the summits and it was very cold with snow. While there, Castini had the pleasure of receiving some of the Varohios, and some of another more obscure tribe which Ribas calls Hios, who lived in the deeper folds of the mountains." To these the father would not go just now,

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for he had no permission to travel so far afield in such wild and dangerous country. But he could promise to come later, and they were consoled for the time. Although the Temoris and Guazapares on this occasion asked for baptism for their infants, the missionary resolved not to begin now, but to rest satisfied with the contact made and with promising the sacrament as soon as he or another could return." It had been an excellent campaign of religion, and the Jesuit must have descended the high mountains well satisfied and happy. There was also access to the country from the upper Mayo, where the Irishman Miguel Godinez was working after 1620 among the Tepahues and Conicaris. He penetrated to the Chinipas upon one occasion and baptized eighty children.16 But the permanent apostle of the Chinipas, the Temoris, and the Guazapares was to be the saintly Julio Pascual, who entered their country at the dramatic time of Hurdaide's death. This exceptional character and the things that befell him there will make up the crowning glory of our history.

Chapter

XVIII

RIBAS TO T H E

YAQUI

D

URING the preceding years, and even during the great I Tepehuan revolt, activities had been undertaken along the coast which would carry the missions to the fourth river, the Ifaqui. Ever since the peace with the l&qui Indians in 1610, when they allied themselves with the Spaniards and asked for padres and instruction, Captain Hurdaide and the Jesuits were more anxious to send them missionaries than the Maquis were to receive them. But where were the fathers to be got in 161 o to supply this mission? There has always been a limited number of Jesuits, and the field inviting their activities has been unlimited. It was the same when King John III of Portugal asked for two Jesuits to be sent down around the Cape of Good Hope to the shores and islands of the East. Only one could be spared, Francis Xavier. It was the same when the Emperor Ferdinand I asked for apostles for Germany to stem the tide of the Protestant Revolt. Only one could at first be spared, Peter Canisius. So now, the Maquis asked for padres, but this time not even one could be spared and the river had to wait. The Mayos had asked for the fathers before the Maquis did and by 161 o they had not yet received them because none could be spared from the banks and tributaries of the Sinaloa and Fuerte where their energies were amply engaged. However, Captain Hurdaide and the fathers took immediate steps to see what could be done.1 A council was held. Martin Perez, Superior of the ecclesiastical administration in Sinaloa, Diego Martinez de Hurdaide, Superior of the civil administration, together with missionaries from round about, met to discuss what had best be done in response to the i&quis' request for the gospel. It was decided Ci75:i

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to send a priest to Mexico to represent matters to the Viceroy and to ask for more missionaries. Ribas was chosen. His long experience on the Fuerte, his mature judgment, his practical turn of mind, all fitted him to represent the cause of the ^Kaqui mission in Mexico City. The Mayos had been attended to in 1614. Mendez and De la Cruz had gone among them, meeting with the success we have already seen. It was not until September, 1616, that Ribas finally left for the south to plead the cause of the Yaquis.2 He first1 went east across the mountains to see the new Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, Don Gaspar de Alvear. The Governor's attitude was discouraging. In his inexperience he did not understand the situation, yet he took it upon himself to have definite views and to press suggestions. He had not approved of Hurdaide's earlier expeditions, nor did he think the Yiquis ready for Christianity. Fortunately, he was not the only authority. The Viceroy in Mexico City had, after all, the final decision in these matters and to him Ribas made his way.3 He was the Marquis of Guadalcazar, who had come into office in 1612/ Ribas was favorably received. The Marquis admired very much what Hurdaide had done, especially the chief role he had played in bringing about the Maquis' present request for missionaries. He desired Ribas to put the whole thing in writing. "It pleased God)' says the padre, "to bring about the conversion of this nation!' The Viceroy, in conjunction with others of his council, considered the facts and arguments of Ribas' memorial and looked favorably upon the project. The Viceroy decreed that the Maquis be taken under the protection of the King of Spain, that as soon as possible Christianity be introduced among them, and that two fathers of the Society of Jesus be sent to evangelize them. Notice was given to the Provincial, Father Rodrigo de Cabredo, that he was to appoint these missionaries.

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The royal officials were ordered to provide ornaments and fittings for two altars, with bells for each, and musical instruments, "in conformity with the great Catholic piety with which our kings administered the patronage which God and His Vicar gave them over the widely extended churches of the New World!' 5 The Jesuit Provincial acted. Two fathers were appointed, one being Pérez de Ribas himself, for the Yiqui was similar to the Suaqui language; the other, Tomás Basilio, who had just arrived from Spain.6 They traveled the four hundred and twenty miles up to Durango only to hear crushing news on their arrival. On the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre the Tepehuán nation had rebelled and had martyred eight Jesuit missionaries. It seemed almost certain to Ribas and Basilio that this would cause disturbance also on the western side of the mountains, perhaps affecting the Maquis and dimming the luster of golden hopes. The fathers could not, in any case, take the ordinary route across the mountains by Topia. They had to retrace many of their steps, descend the Río de San Pedro, and go up the coast to Culiacán and from there to San Felipe. The two fathers arrived in San Felipe in doubt and trepidation; it was very uncertain what the attitude of the Maquis might now be. But their dark suspense was turned to bright assurance at the action of the ^fequis themselves. For when that nation was given word that the fathers destined for them had arrived, they sent down chiefs immediately, and they made such grand promises of assembling into pueblos and of building churches that it was decided to send the fathers forthwith. The trouble on the eastern side might not be settled for a long time, and though there appeared to be some danger even in the west, such an opportunity might never again be had. Indeed, to strengthen his purpose, Ribas received a formal order of holy obedience to

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proceed. These missionary priests had courage; their superiors, determination.7 The padres decided to go up to the Mayo and there spend several weeks in better acquainting themselves with the language, and introducing themselves to the nation. When the Yaquis had word o£ their proximity, the chiefs hurried down to see the "fathers of the Christians!' as they called them. After a short while at the Mayo, Ribas and Basilio finally went up to the fourth river of this story, thus carrying the Church and the Spanish frontier sixty miles nearer to the boundaries of Alta California. It was the year 1617 when they arrived. This date is well confirmed. In the anua of that year8 Ribas, in a letter to the Provincial, recounts all the details of his entrance among the Yiquis, and in his Los Trittmpbos8 he says that he and Basilio departed from the Mayo on the Feast of the Ascension, 1617. Alegre cites a letter of Ribas from the Yiqui dated the 13th of June.10 Not a soldier was with them. Four of the Suaquis only, Ribas' former children, accompanied himself and Basilio to help in the language and in the administration of the sacraments. One of the fathers on the Mayo—it was probably De la Cruz, Mendez was aging now—accompanied them for six miles, and this padre tells us that on leaving the pair he feared greatly what might happen to them on the river, alone and unprotected. He felt that they were laying their heads upon a block, and for many weeks, he said, he arose each morning in dreadful suspense lest word be brought to him of the murder of the fathers. And his fears were not without reason. There were enemies on the ^foqui, as the sequel will show. We remember, too, that the peace party did not entirely prevail, and it was especially weak upon the lower river. When the caciques had recently come down to show their good will, some of the malcontents asked if the blood of the

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priests would taste the same as that of the other Spaniards. They sowed suspicion by asking how it happened that the leader dared go to meet the fathers without his bow and arrow.11 Excepting for one or two dangerous occasions, matters turned out far otherwise than the good padre feared. It was for the most part the welcome of the Mayos all over again. The first pueblo, probably Cocorit, came forth in full to meet the fathers, the crowd increased by many from other villages. They carried crosses made of reed or cane, and when they arrived at the enramada prepared for the fathers they attached these crosses to its posts and supports. The chiefs saluted, hand upon head, and Ribas preached a sermon. "The Maquis pride themselves upon their strength" he said, "but prayer and the divine word has the power to split rocks. This life is short; the next is eternal!' He reminded them of their expressed desire for baptism, and the mothers forthwith brought forward their children of seven years and less. Ribas, wearing surplice and stole and arrayed in capa de coro, baptized that first day two hundred children. At evening the two priests retired to the huts prepared for them, encircled constantly by a press of savages attracted out of curiosity and devotion. Food was brought to the missionaries, corn and calabashes, and as twilight deepened the Indians warmed to their own celebration. It soon became evident that the fathers would enjoy scant rest that night, for the old bugbear of Pedro Mendez was to be hard upon them—rout and riot, shout and yell. "They celebrated the whole night long with such uproar that although we stood in great need of repose it was impossible to obtain it!'12 In the midst of all this joy and jollity an untoward development marred the pleasure of the padres. A Mayo sorcerer had come with the company. During the celebration, that night, he scattered seeds of suspicion and fear. "If you want your children

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to die!' he said to the mothers, "then have them baptized!' This affected the more unstable.The next morning, when the remaining children were to receive the sacrament, none could be found. The chiefs gave the explanation. The sorcerer had been about, and the women, after the manner of their sex, had taken fright and gone off to their fields and to the hills. These children could be reached on the next visit to the pueblo, the caciques explained reassuringly. Then the group moved on from village to village, but Ribas and Basilio bore a weight of disappointment and misgiving in their hearts.13 Rumor sped ahead of them, for it was found upon arrival at what was probably Bahcun that the evil wind of the Mayo sorcerer had blown upon it. But the chiefs exerted themselves admirably. They did their best to disabuse the timid women and to gather together a large crowd for the reception. And they succeeded. The showing was good and many children were baptized, though Ribas noticed that often the mothers, still suspicious, would wipe the salt from the lips of their offspring, lest it cause death like the charms of the hechicero. Then they passed on down the river. In these first four groups one thousand children received the sacrament." What made a great impression upon these people was that Ribas, a total stranger come among them, spoke their language fluently and preached in their own tongue. They moved slowly into the district which had shown the most opposition to the coming of the missionaries. The caciques from upriver continued to accompany the fathers, which was good, for these leaders commanded universal respect for their bravery. But it was noticed that these caciques were a bit uneasy about the spirit of the lower pueblos. They arrived at Abasorin. Many from down the river came up. The welcome had been given, and Ribas was engaged in baptizing, when it was an-

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nounced that a dying man needed a priest. Ribas sent Basilio, who mounted his mule and followed his guides toward one of the plantations, where the dying man was supposed to be. They had already gone part of the distance when Basilio was haled back by faithful Indians who had heard rumors of violence. Indeed, murder was in the air; Basilio had been on the point of being killed. It was another example of the classical plot to lure a priest to his death by pretending that someone is in the last extremity." There remained to be visited a sixth pueblo, called Torin, or Torim—where today the ruins, walls intact but roof gone, of the old Jesuit church still stand on a hill. Some of the party thought they should not proceed thither, because of the danger of enemies, especially in view of what had just happened. Ribas weighed the reasons and decided to advance. It would look like fear to retreat now, and should all the settlements not be visited, jealousy would arise. So on they went. A large crowd accompanied the missionaries. When Ribas, through kindness or prudence, protested that they would tire themselves by this constant marching, they replied: "No, we want to go in your company. We want to see the baptisms and the kind of welcome they will give you. We shall have fun in going with you!' So they came, but Ribas suspected the motives of some, especially as they carried bow and arrow. Nothing untoward happened, however, and though all the people were not in from their fields, a goodly number had collected and hundreds of babies were baptized. Torin was one of the most populous settlements on the river. In the course of these first days three thousand souls, by careful count of the caciques, received the sacrament.18 Then Ribas returned to the upper river and baptized those who before had escaped his hand. Later he set to the task of baptizing the adults. Our old friend who had done so much to

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tame the Itaqui nations seven years before, Conibomeai, with another influential chief named Hymaimeai, were the first adults to receive the holy waters, the Christian Mayos acting as godparents. Once baptized, these chiefs exerted themselves in the preparations made for the baptism of the others. However, some were stubborn and held aloof. Nevertheless, after six months the number baptized amounted to four thousand. Churches were begun and the Faith ran on merrily, as on the southern rivers." So great a change came over this people as would regale the sight of the angels. Ribas had been shocked at the facility with which one woman, a wife, would go over to another man and take all her children with her. This evil was cured by Christian marriage.Their old-time riots and carousals were given over, so that even Pedro Mendez would have been able to sleep at night. Though proud of their long hair, they consented to have it cropped after the manner of the other Christian nations. Many on the lower river now came in, moved by the example of the upper, and while Ribas was down among them the chiefs lately baptized slept at night behind his hut with bow and arrow, ready against a possible murderous attempt. Finally, many chiefs with numbers of their subjects took the road to Sinaloa to see the other fathers and the Christian nations there and to be congratulated by them, seeing that now at long last they were admitted into the same Christian family of the Church of God. As our historian reflects, wolves had become sheep and lions lambs." Another attempt at violence was made on the lower river, but it seems not to have been premeditated. Ribas, working in Torin, was asked to visit a giant of a man who lay dying. When he arrived with two of his Christians at the bedside, the son, an hechicero, took offense and seized a bow and arrow. The Christians leaped upon him to disarm him. A scuffle followed,

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and Ribas was urged to make off on his mule. He did so, the Christians following. An arrow that whizzed by told them of their danger. Don Mateo, the cacique at Torin, was at great pains to make reparation for this outrage. He assembled all the pueblo and made a speech. When Hurdaide, who was then at Montesclaros, heard of the affair, he sent to the pueblo a quiver full of arrows, with orders that it be placed in the middle of the plaza with the message to the chiefs and people of Torin that the arrows should be taken up only when they were to be used for him. The hint was sufficient, and the arrows remained untouched. The would-be murderer was disgraced and lived in fear. But when the Captain came he pardoned him at the intercession of the priest.1' Later there was trouble with another hechicero, an old man who had been a Christian but who had suffered a relapse. He began to preach sedition. We are told that an evil spirit would speak through him in a loud strong voice and take on visible shape to those who came about. He appeared as an old man, and said he would bathe in the river and get back his years. Next day he came forth a comely youth. This would happen to all the old of the Maquis if they would but give over the fathers and then bathe in the river. An impression was being made and the beginnings of trouble were about. It was thought prudent to summon Hurdaide. The Captain demanded that the culprits be delivered to him, and they were. The wizard's defense was that the Devil had taken hold of him and would speak to him every day by a poplar tree, urging him to kill the fathers, murder the Captain, burn the churches, throw the bells into the river, sweat out the oils of baptism from his head and neck, and finally, to carry all the "Vaquis back with him to paganism. Here was a dangerous character, thought Hurdaide, one not to be allowed at large. He hanged him with several of his accomplices.20

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Hurdaide considered the agitations, partly successful, of this hechicero as the threat of a most serious uprising. He speaks of it in a letter of 1622 to the Viceroy. It was a period of want and famine. The Devil appeared in human form four times in the pueblo of ^eyequi and the fathers were in fear. They seemed to be critical of Hurdaide's apparent neglect in this crisis. He did come up, however, later on, accompanied by his son Cristobal.21 His conclusion as expressed to the Viceroy was that in the north two more forts were necessary, one on the Yaqui and another among the Nebomes.22 He would fight the Devil with bullets. Another serious attempt was made in 1622, again at Torin, which seems to have been a spot of evil. This was a plot to murder. Tomas Basilio was here at the time. A s he stood one day near his hut two arrows sped at him. One missed, but the other struck him in the breast. It made a deep gash, but not a mortal wound—though Basilio suffered for weeks from the effects of the poison, for the Yaqui River was the land of the poisoned arrow.23 The would-be assassin was a lad who had been put up to his evil deed by his uncle, Juan Suca, who had been forbidden a concubine by Basilio. This man had fled to the Nebomes. The Yiqui chief, Don Ignacio, had him pursued, captured, and sent down to Hurdaide for punishment. While being escorted to Sinaloa for trial, he snatched an arrow from one of his guards and killed himself.24 This incident occurred after Ribas' departure from the Yiqui. The first successes of Ribas and Basilio seem all the more surprising when it is recalled that this entrada took place just after the Tepehuan revolt. Though these rebels offered many presents to the Maquis if they would join them—mules, blankets, and other loot they had taken from the Spaniards—the Yiquis held loyal and there was no general outbreak. Hurdaide, to show his appreciation, paid them a visit of honor—which was likewise

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one of security, for he brought a strong guard of soldiers and kept constantly a careful watch.20 Added to the troubles was a plague that flared up, the cocoliztli or smallpox, in which many were carried off and the fathers menaced by the superstitious.28 But these were only the passing trials of life, which did not stop the substantial march of progress in the work of God. In 1620 a change was made in the organization of the missions. For one thing, late in 1619 Perez de Ribas was recalled to Mexico to receive offices of trust. It was then that he began to write his famous books. Not one, but four missionaries replaced him, namely, the Fleming, Diego de Bandersipe (or Van der Sipe), Francisco Olinano, Juan de Ardenas, and Juan Varela.27 Owing to the growth in numbers of Christian Indians to the north, the Mayo and Yaqui were partly detached from the administration at the Sinaloa and made a unit of their own, with Father Cristobal de Villalta, our old friend of the upper Fuerte, as Superior with headquarters at Torin on the Yaqui.28 Henceforth the anuas refer to these northern missions as those of San Ignacio. By 1620 there were in these missions of the West Coast fourteen districts or partidos comprising fifty-five pueblos and eighty thousand Christians.29 Many of the villages contained from five hundred to a thousand families, or even more, as on the lower Yiqui. By 1624, twenty-seven fathers and four brothers were laboring in Sinaloa and Sonora; the Christian pueblos were seventy, and the number of baptized had reached the total of a hundred thousand.30 On the l&qui and Mayo alone in 1627 there were twelve fathers laboring, exclusive of the Superior.*1 More and more workmen were then being poured into the expanding territory. Juan Varela was sent to the upper Sinaloa into the territory of the Chicoratos and Cahuemetos, which included the troublesome sierra of Bazapas. Juan Castini went to work among the Chinipas, where he achieved the success already

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described. Juan Barera and Juan Angel were sent to the lower Mayo, while Diego de la Cruz still remained upon the middle river.32 On the upper Mayo and to the north among the Tepahues there was laboring at this time the Irishman Michael Wading, alias Miguel Godinez, native of Waterford, teacher, writer, missioner.33 A Belgian who spoke French, Father William Otton, arrived in Mexico in 1617. Already in 1620 he was sent to Tehueco on the Fuerte. He wrote back home some interesting letters to a confrere about his journey and his mission. He tends somewhat to exaggerate the wildness of his neophytes.84 The figures given in the annual letters show the results of this increase in the number of priests, and from 1620 on there was a remarkable rise in the yearly number of the baptized. In 1619,1516 adults and 5069 children were baptized, and 837 couples were married as Christians;36 in 1620, 7486 were baptized, including 2196 children, and 2238 were married. In 1621 and 1623 each, more than 11,000 baptisms were recorded; in 1622, more than 8000; in 1625 and 1626 together, 13,056. These figures are for the coast missions. The same records tell us that on the two northern rivers there were at this date 21,000 Christians on the Mayo, 30,000 on the Yiqui, and 9000 among the Nebomes.38 The missionary in great part responsible for this increase in men and energy, and the reorganization of the western missions with the new Superior upon the northern rivers, was Father Diego de Guzman, Superior at San Felipe in 1620, and it is he, who was so intimately connected with the history of the Nebomes, of whom we have presently to speak. Indeed, it was the baptism of the Lower Pima Indians, of whom the Nebomes were a branch, and of the Opatas north of them, that accounts for the rapid increase of the total in 1620 and after.

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The General o£ the Jesuits in Rome took interested cognizance o£ this advance of the West Coast missions. Father Mutius Vitelleschi thus writes, August 8,1622, to the Provincial of New Spain, Father Nicolas de Arnaya: "It has been to me of especial consolation to note that the missions of Sinaloa have been so greatly augmented . . . and for my part I shall expend all possible energy to see to it that the increase becomes each day more abundant!'87 And the General goes on to speak of sending more men from the colleges so that the extreme spiritual necessity of the Indians may be adequately met.

Chapter X I X

CHIEF SISIBOTARI

T

^wo STREAMS flowing south in Sonora contribute at twentynine degrees latitude to the waters of the ^laqui: the Rio Bavispe drops down just west of one hundred and nine degrees longitude and then turns toward the setting sun with the main \aqui stream; the Rio Moctezuma flows likewise south, a few miles to the west of the Bavispe. It was not far from here that Cabeza de Vaca trudged in 1536 in the long journey he made from Texas and the northern wilds; it was up this watershed that for one and one-half centuries black-robed missionaries trudged bringing civilization to the heathen of Arizona in the march toward Alta California. The southern portions of this country comprised the land of the Nebomes. How the Black Robe first penetrated here is the story now to be told. A great people, these Nebomes, very interesting in mission lore. They were of Tepehuan speech and, together with the Ures, northwest, and the Yecoras, east, they made up a branch of the Lower Pima Indians.1 Their language was totally different from that of the Itaqui, though their social and religious characteristics were similar.2 A group of Nebomes are often referred to in the sources as Nuris because they formed a pueblo of that name on the banks of an arroyo which runs north into the Yiqui. A large number of these Indians went with Vaca more than two hundred miles to the south and settled at Bamoa on the Sinaloa, twelve miles from the future town of San Felipe, which became the center of our missions.3 This Bamoa colony, so far from its native hills, was among the first to embrace Christianity when Tapia and Perez came to the river in 1591. Christianity brought them the

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solace of peace and the light of inward happiness. After some years in the enjoyment of this blessedness, they remembered, for they had heard of it from their fathers and from those now very old, the land of their birth and the hills from which they had descended. Some went back to visit their country and to tell the romance of their present joy with the fathers. So moved were their kinsmen at this story that they, too, took up the idea of going south to see for themselves.4 They delegated some of their caciques to visit San Felipe and ask that missionaries might come up to them. The chiefs were kindly received by Martín Pérez, Superior at the mission, and by Captain Hurdaide, both of whom were forced very reluctantly to give to their request a disappointing answer. It was eighty leagues, said Pérez, up to their country, with pagan and barbarous nations in between. The Mayos and the Maquis not yet baptized must first be brought into the fold of the Church. The Nébome chiefs returned to their people and it was understood that the fulfillment of their desires would have to be postponed. But some would brook no delay. They took matters into their own hands and migrated south, three hundred and fifty of them, early in 1615. Later, another group of one hundred and seventy-four went, and in January of the following year two hundred and thirty more followed them. Soon the immigrants numbered almost a thousand. All the two hundred and forty miles they tramped to join their brethren at Bamoa.5 The first and largest group went first to San Felipe to pay their respects to Martín Pérez and to the Captain; it was thanks to the latter that they had been able to pass unharmed through the land of their enemies the Yiquis. Then they went down the river to Bamoa, reaching the town on the 4th of February." Father Diego de Guzman was missionary here at the time of the Nébomes' arrival, and he knew how to do things well. A great

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celebration should be made, he thought, at the flight from Egypt of these children of Israel.7 He ordered all his neophytes of the pueblos round about Bamoa to join in a procession of welcome and to go out to meet their brethren. He himself led the march, vested in solemn robes. Following him came the orchestra of the church's choir and other Indians carrying bells and the branches of trees. The Te Deum was intoned and as the arriving Nébomes met their fellow tribesmen of Bamoa, they too fell into line and joyously entered the town. They marched into the church. Prayers were said in thanksgiving to God for the safe arrival, the father standing, the people on their knees. Guzman made a sermon to explain the cause for all the rejoicing. They finished with adoration of the Cross, symbol of their salvation. Christian charity was delicately exemplified; to each of the new arrivals a guardian was assigned, who should see to his lodgings, his food, and his general comfort. The following day one hundred and fourteen children were baptized. Corn was distributed in quantities sufficient for the support of these Nébomes until they should be able to raise their own crops. One old man of ninety-six, lean of limb, lame, and almost blind, had made the long journey, nor did he die till he had been washed by the waters of baptism. When, some months later, the other groups arrived, they were received with equal charity and their children were at once baptized.8 Hurdaide in a letter to the Viceroy, the Marquis of Guadalcazar, dated April of that same year 1615, says that he promised these immigrants in the name of His Excellency one hundred pieces of iron for the easier cultivation of their fields and to each of four of the principal caciques a coat, a jacket, a shirt, a hat, shoes, and a sword with belt; and to each of their wives, dresses of rich stuff and four petticoats apiece: this, says the pious Captain, in order that their fidelity might be rewarded and that they

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and the others might see how good it was to become a Christian.8 It is plain that these caciques were being dressed in the style of Spanish officials, as, for instance, Don Miguel, chief of the Ahomes, had been clad on the Fuerte. That this engaging piece of mission history could actually have taken place, so that after three hundred years we can still enjoy the romance of its telling, we owe in good measure to Captain Hurdaide himself. He informs us in a letter he wrote to Martin Perez of a consoling contact he had with this nation in their home country some two years before their migration. Indeed, at this time they had given him obedience for six years. In his advance to the Mayo in 1613 the Captain ran out of supplies and had to seek them to the north and east among the Nuris and the Nebomes. "The latter!' he tells Perez, "received me with great demonstrations of affection!' They sprinkled his head with water as a mark of respect, and likewise the ground where he had camped. And when he had gone far into their country, the last pueblo received him with raised crosses and with arches and enramadas. They spoke of their desire for the fathers, and Hurdaide closes his letter thus: "They are a soil finely prepared for the sowing of the Divine Word and for the progress of the Gospel. M a y it please \our Reverence to beg Our Lord's help for this His cause and of our Father Provincial that he may send us priests for these his people who promise so fine a harvest. M a y God take them to Himself!'10 Not many years later the desire of these people was satisfied. The coming of Ribas and Basilio to the^aqui brought the fathers within easy reach of the Nebomes farther upstream. Soon now they were to have their own priests. They came to Ribas and Hurdaide, on the lower Yiqui, and pressed them for missionaries." One old chief among them, long a Christian, was particularly solicitous. They engaged to build churches and a house

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for the father so that all might be in readiness. In order not to disappoint such ardent desires, it was decided that he who had charge of their colony at Bamoa should come and baptize at least the children. This was Diego de Guzman. He came with two soldiers and on this his first entrada he baptized seventeen hundred and twenty-seven persons, both young and old. This was in June, 1619. But to their mutual disappointment the father could not remain with his children. By the end of the year he was gone." The readiness of these northern tribes for Christianity can be seen from the closing lines of the anua of 1619. The report says: "Many other nations came each day asking for baptism, jealous to see their neighbors honored and enriched by the precious grace of the holy gospel. To the fathers who are near their rancherias they speak in this wise: 'When will you come to finish baptizing us? Why don't you come to see us as you have gone to those others?' "M The following year, the missions were strengthened by the arrival of the group of Jesuits already mentioned. Some, as we have seen, were sent to the \aqui, making the number there five. Two of these were later sent on to the Nebomes: one the Fleming, Diego de Bandersipe, the other the Spaniard, Francisco Olinano." Bandersipe went to the Nebome Alto, east of the \aqui, including the pueblos of Onabas, Movas, and Nuri, while Olinano went to the Nebome Bajo and north. This was west of the "Vaqui, with the pueblos of Comuripa, Suaqui, Tecoripa, Aibine, Matape, and Toapa.15 There was the same jubilation, the same joyous welcome, and the work sped well along. These fathers, with others who afterwards came, had by 1625 worked far up the river to Onabas and up to the Opata country.1' Before Ribas definitely left the missions in 1619 he himself had a meeting with a principal cacique of the Opata tribes. The

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padre could be sent among them. We have seen that it was Castini who kept most in touch with these mountaineers. The year of Hurdaide's death, 1626, was the auspicious time for the Chinipas. Early in the year some of the tribes came to San Felipe earnestly asking again for fathers. They were in fear, they said, of eternal perdition.1 Julio Pascual had been in Sinaloa for two years. H e was sent now to fill the need among the Chinipas. Ribas, now in Mexico City, had met Pascual on his way to his labors north, and wrote: "As soon as I laid eyes upon him and conversed with him I marked the sanctity which shone from his countenance!'2 Pascual was a Venetian, and though the Jesuits were at that time excluded from the city as a result of the government's quarrel with Pope Paul V , the Pascual family loved them. The boy therefore was sent to the Jesuit college at Parma. H e entered the Society in 1611, taught in Faenza, and then went to Rome. In the meantime the young man had developed a desire for the missions. It was while he was at Rome that the Procurator from N e w Spain, Nicolas de Arnaya, came to the Eternal City and put in a strong petition to the General, Mutius Vitelleschi, successor to Aquaviva, for missionaries for N e w Spain where the fathers were always extending their activity. This was just at the time that Mendez was making his advance to the Mayo. The General had heard of the ambitions of Pascual, though he was given to understand that the young man looked rather toward the East, to India, Japan, or China. A s was the lot of Kino after him, who looked in the same direction, obedience ordered Pascual west to Mexico. Here he did his theology, followed by his tertianship. N o w he was ready for work and he was sent to the missions of Sinaloa. This was in 1624. Two years later he went to the Chinipas.8 He had made all preparations and was on his way to his mis-

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sion. He had gone as far as Vaca on the upper Fuerte and had been greeted there by many caciques and a hundred and fifty of his new children, overjoyed that their own father was at last coming to make his abode among them. But alas, after waiting for so many years, a further discouragement darkened their spirits. While Pascual was at Vaca making preparations to pass on into the mountains, the black report came that the great Captain was dead, and instructions arrived from Father Juan Varela, Superior of the north, that he should delay his movements.4 It was thought dangerous for him to enter into the midst of a new tribe at a time when the removal of the strong arm might be followed by restlessness among the Indians. Pascual could not give his reasons for the delay, and the poor Chinipas were miserably disappointed. Most went sadly back to their mountains, but some remained and swore they would not leave his side until they saw him safely among them. They were not long disappointed. The missions remained quiet, and in a few weeks Pascual received orders to continue his journey.6 This was in March. His welcome was what we can well imagine from repeated accounts of these joyous entradas. Here, added to all the other evidences, was a pile of food lying at the door of his hut, chiefly pinole and tamales. Next day from round about they brought in gifts. Within two months they were all baptized without help of Spaniard or Captain. Pascual's ambition rose with his success and we find him later this same year writing to his superior asking leave to pass on to the other nations, the Guazapares, Hios, Temoris, and Varohios. His request was granted and he went, entering their country on the feast of St. Sylvester, December 31st. For the two nights he was there, fine speeches and sermons were given by the chiefs, exhorting the people to Christianity and to the building of churches. Other groups came in goodly numbers to see the father. They were

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the Hapores, Bayecitos, Cozosopas, and Tzayeos, relatives of the Varohios." Pascual was able to gather the Varohios into two pueblos of fifteen hundred people each. He first baptized the children, a thousand of them, and then worked upon the adults.' Industrious likewise in study, Pascual had learned four Indian languages and was acquiring a fifth. He spent upon his neophytes all the income he received from the government.8 So his work went on for five years, and it was a glory to him; but a crowning glory was soon to rest upon his spirit. Trouble started when Chief Cobameai, converted years ago by Castini, became weary of the restraints of Christianity. The flesh and the devil grew strong within him and he began secretly to preach treason against the father. He gained some following. Secret conventicles were held, tobacco fumed and strong drink flowed. Like rusty tools the old-time arguments were refurbished which years before Nacabeba had used against Tapia."The priest has taken away our liberty and destroyed the ancient usages of our nation" he said. Faithful Indians reported to Pascual the gathering cloud of trouble. "But the holy priest with his heart of a white dove without a shade of malice" would give no credence to the reports. The rumor spread, however, and reached the ears of the Jesuit Superior. Father Varela consulted with Captain Perea and they decided to send six soldiers for the padre's protection. The men came and with the passing of weeks the trouble seemed to disappear. Pascual outdid himself in offices of service and conciliation. The Indians rallied round him and the soldiers returned to Montesclaros whence they had come.9 But the chief was only biding his time and with the removal of the soldiers he showed his hand again. He got in touch with pagans from the other side of the mountains, some of those who sixteen years before had spilled the blood of eight Jesuits on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre. Cobameai was even

T H E CROWNING GLORY

2 11

able to engage the cooperation of some o£ the Christians of his own tribe to help strengthen the plot.10 This was just at the time that Pascual's heart was rejoiced at the coming of a companion to help him in his labors and console his lonely hours. This was Father Manuel Martinez, now on his way up the mountains from far-away San Felipe. The details of the conspiracy were taking shape. The place of murder was to be the pueblo of the Varohios, which had seven hundred families. The pretext for summoning the father was to be the old false tale of a Christian sick unto death. The conspirators, however, did not foresee the coming just at this time of Father Martinez. This was the reason why, when Pascual did come and gave the last sacraments to the supposedly dying Indian, he hastened back to the Chinipas to greet his companion, who was expected that very day. This time the victim escaped. Father Martinez arrived among the Chinipas on January 23, 1632. The meeting was a most happy one when in these wild mountains the two Jesuits met. They were upon the threshold of death and the Mass of thanksgiving that was celebrated was a consecration of their martyr's crown. The new missionary having been greeted by the Chinipas, both priests set out, without suspicion, to the Varohios, that there too the Christians might greet and welcome their new father. They were received with outward demonstrations of joy; but it was all pretense. Underneath, murder was afoot. A few days passed. On a Thursday, the fiscal or master of the chapel, a most faithful Indian, came to Pascual and told him of the troubled state of the Guazapares. His story was sufficiently alarming. This tribe was coming with the Varohios to murder both the priests, and already the faithful catechist or temastian, though married to a Guazapar woman, had been slain, and with him one of his brothers. Pascual, through simplicity or through

212

BLACK ROBES O N T H E WEST COAST

overconfidence in his neophytes, did not give credence to all this. Besides, he did not want to alarm his newly arrived companion. But these dark rumors ran steady. The following day two other faithful Varohios came into the pueblo and with tears told the fathers that that night they were marked for death.11 Pascual was now genuinely alarmed. He took immediate measures for his own and his companion's safety. He sent word to his faithful Chinipas to hasten to the protection of the fathers and the mission. Unfortunately there were few in the pueblo of the Chinipas when the messenger arrived. Those who were there seized their bows and arrows and hastened to the Varohios. They had gone half the distance when they heard reports that the numbers who had joined the rebellion were so great that it would be madness to proceed farther. Their force was not nearly sufficient A t this the faithful but faint-hearted Chinipas withdrew and left Pascual and Martinez to their fate. The storm broke the following morning. It was Saturday, January 31. The fathers were in a straw-roofed adobe dwelling which had a patio in the center. With them were nine Indian workmen for the church which was being built, and eight Indian boys. They were awakened in the early hours of the morning to find themselves surrounded by a mob of hostile Indians. Soon they saw that the roof had been set afire. Pascual took the confessions of the men and boys, at the same time exhorting them to make their escape if they could. Then the two padres confessed each to the other and prepared for death. Pascual endeavored to appease the tumult. From within the walls he admonished the rebels. He reminded them of all that he had done, of the blankets, knives, and hatchets he had given them. They replied that they wanted his death. The fathers became nearly suffocated by the smoke of the burning roof and the beams that supported it, and were finally forced into patio.

T H E CROWNING GLORY

213

The rebels, however, seemed not to have the resolution to make a final attack and thus to finish with the missionaries. The day wore on in agony for the imprisoned men. Saturday night came and went, and the fathers and their Indians were still protected by the high wall of the patio, the roof being now completely burned. On Sunday morning Cobameai made his rebels a speech and led them to the final assault. Some leaped upon the wall of the patio, others pressed upon the half-burned house from behind, and still others poured a shower of arrows through the apertures of the wall. A n arrow struck Pascual in the stomach. With this Martinez shouted: "Let us not die sadly and like cowards, but let us die for Christ!'12 He ran out forthwith into the open, and an arrow pinned his right arm to his body. Pascual followed and they both knelt, beads in hand, waiting for the end. Arrows rained in upon them from every direction. T h e y fell mortally wounded, and were dead. Then Notimeai, brother of the rebel leader, headed an assault upon their corpses. There followed cudgeling, mutilation, disfigurement. To one extreme they did not go; they did not sever the heads to impale them on pikes and carry them in triumph through the pueblo. This martyrdom was on February 1 , 1 6 3 2 " The rebels sacked the church of the Varohios and then fired it. They held fiendish dances with its ornaments, even including the chalices. Then they went over to the pueblo of the Guazapares and did the same there. Faithful Chinipas came and gathered up the remains of the martyrs. They carried the sacred relics to their own pueblo and buried them near the altar of their church, happy in the possession of the mortal body of one who had begotten them in Christ. But Father Marcos Gomez, who was working among the Conicaris, considered the mountains an unsafe burial ground for the holy remains. He therefore went up into the Chinipas' country

214

B L A C K ROBES ON T H E W E S T COAST

and on February 13,1632, removed the relics to his own mission church at Conicari, sixty miles from the high and wild sierra. The fathers of the surrounding missions came to perform the last rites. The office of the dead was chanted by them and the dirgeful music of the requiem Mass was supplied by the Indian neophytes of this mission on the upper Mayo." Captain Pedro de Perea undertook an expedition of punishment for the revolt and for the murder of the padres. The Varohios and Guazapares trusted in their mountains, whither they thought the Spaniard could not penetrate. The Captain was aided, however, by faithful Indians, especially the Chinipas, so that he made a successful campaign. The Indians paid a terrible price for rebellion; eight hundred of the Varohios and Guazapares were destroyed, and of both tribes only eighty families remained. Most of these were soon after reconciled by Father Francisco Torices and, together with the Chinipas, went to live lower down on the Fuerte River in the territory of the Sinaloas. Here was easy contact with the fathers and trade with many other nations of the West Coast.15 The martyrs' blood enriched the soil of this mission field. More missions were built, farther up the Pacific Coast. Other Jesuit heroes came to carry them to the northern parts of Sonora and over into Arizona and then across the Gulf, to Christianize the dry and mountainous land of Lower California. Other revolts occurred and other martyrs were made, in the mountains of Sonora as on the coasts of California. The reinvigorated soil became then more fertile still and the missions were carried on and on. When the sons of Loyola were forced to abandon the field, the sons of St. Francis and of St. Dominic filled their place, and the frontier of Spain and of the Church advanced to Alta California and to the bay of San Francisco, which was reached in the eventful year 1776.

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX I A SYNOPSIS of the anua of 1624 contains the following list in Latin of pioneer Black Robes on the West Coast, with their missions and the number of their neophytes (cf. Archiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 15, fol. 427). Here the Spanish form of the proper names is given. Nobor and Baboria are not located on maps. Taucre in the manuscript was put probably for Tecori. Number of Missionary Mission neofbyU Diego de Guzmán . . . . Mocorito . . . . 900 Alberto Clerici . 3,000 Blas de Paredes Ignatio Zobola (Zavala ?) . . . . Babona . . . . . 1,050 Leonardo Latini . . Chicorato . . . . . 1,400 Juan Calvo . . Yecorato . . . . 920 Vicente Aguila . - Ahorne and Suaqui . . 5,068 Martín Azpilcueta . . . . • 2>567 Juan Castini . 6,570 Juan Varela • • Tecori . 10,400 Diego de la Cruz • 5,500 Miguel Godínez . . Tepahui . . . . • 5,400 Pedro Méndez • 7'25° Juan Ardeñas . . Vícam . 4,000 Guillermo Otton • • Tórin . 3,800 Guillermo Otton • . Tesamo . . . . . 5,400 Francisco Oliñano . . . . . . Tecoripa . . . . • 2>75° Francisco Oliñano . . . . 100 67.375

[217]

A P P E N D I X II AN OFFICIAL LIST of the numbers of Indians baptized from year to year in the Jesuit missions of the West Coast is to be found in Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 270. It gives the following: N b f Year

Indians

1591 to 1609 161 0 161 1 161 2 161 3 161 4 161 5 161 6 161 7 161 8 161 9 162 0 162 1 162 2 162 3 162 4 1625 and 1626 162 7 162 8 162 9 163 0 163 1

baptized

25,897 2,586 ''•745 2>°75 1.613 5>42° r>7°3 4>I55 4. 6 75 4>479 7>421 7,600 II>34° 8,343 11,221 6,000 13,056 4>r7° 5>474 4,762 8,697 8,808

Grand total

151,240

There is some discrepancy between the figures given here and the figures given in the anuas. For instance, for 1619 the anua gives the number 5096 for infants baptized and 1516 for adults, which aggregates 6612 all told, instead of 7421.The grand total given in the Archivo General for the list of figures above cited is 151,621 instead of 151,240, which is the sum as turned out from a modern adding machine!

O S ]

APPENDIX III A PARTIAL LIST of missionaries working in Sinaloa and Sonora in 1625 with the number of baptized Indians to whom they ministered, according to a contemporary report, gives the following: Number of Indians

Missionary Leandro Patino . Alberto Llarin . Martin de Aspilueta Juan Calvo . . . Juan Castini . . Francisco Olinano . Diego Bandersipe . Pedro Mendez . . Juan de Cardenas .

. . . . . . . . .

. . •

1,400 3,000 2,567

.

6,570

• 9-759 . 10,000 • 7> 2 5° . 4,000

Missionary

Number of Indians

Tomás Basilio . . . . 5,400 Guillermo Otton . . . 3,800 Miguel Gómez (Godinez) 5,500 Juan Varela 10,400 Diego de la Cruz . . . 5,500 Diego de Guzman . . . goo Blas de Paredes . . . 1,380 Ignacio de Zavala . . 1,500 Vicente de Aguila . . . 5,580

NOTE: Razon y minuta de los yndios que se administran en las provincias de la nueba Vizcaia Por los Vicarios Veneficiados y relixiosos de San Francisco y compañía de Jesus que hoy están bautizados (1625). Cf. Bandelier-Hackett, Historical Documents ,11, pp. 152 flf.

C 2I9 3

APPENDIX IV A LIST showing the increases among the West Coast missionaries year by year according to the available anuas beginning with 1604, gives the following: Year

1604 1605 1606 161 0 161 1 161 2 1614

Number of missionaries

6 7 8 11 13 15 13

Year

Number of missionaries

1615 13 1616 17 1622 26 1624 27 1625 27 1628 (South of the Mayo only)

Up to 1611 three brothers were helping the fathers; after that there were four.

£220]

ESSAY O N SOURCES

ESSAY ON SOURCES THE MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS for the history of the Jesuit missions narrated in the preceding pages are sufficiently abundant. Nearly all those used have been assembled by Bolton in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, which contains perhaps the best collection on this subject in the world. In the first place, because of their immediate connection with the matter in hand, there should be mentioned the Annual Letters {Litterae Annttae or Cartas Annas) of the Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus. These comprise the letters written by the missionaries themselves from their field of labor to the Superior of the mission at San Felipe or, as sometimes happens, direct to the Provincial resident in Mexico City. The ordinary arrangement was this: the fathers wrote in from their respective missions to the Superior; the Superior once a year, usually in the early spring, made a report to the Provincial concerning the state of all the missions under his jurisdiction, and his report often included verbatim the letters which had been sent to him by the missionaries, besides his own reflections on the state of the missions or accounts of what had happened. The Provincial received similar reports from each house and college of the province and from each group of missions; for instance, from those which lay east of the Sierra Madre divide, with their center at Durango. These reports he collected, and sent a summary each year to the General of the Society in Rome, keeping a copy for the provincial archives in Mexico City. The copies sent to the General were kept in the Roman archives of the Society. It is this collection of reports sent each year from Mexico City to Rome which comprises the Cartas Annas. Each province of the Society did the same. Hence the value of these reports for history, as is seen in this particular field; and as may be noted also, for instance, in the field of early Canadian history, in the collection of sources known as the Jesuit Relations. The Bancroft Library of the University of California contains a beautiful transcription of most of the annual letters referring to the Sinaloa missions almost from their beginning in 1591 to the year 1629. This collection is entitled Memorias fara la Historia de la Provincia de Sinaloa. There is another copy of these same anuas in the Bancroft

224

E S S A Y ON S O U R C E S

Library, in two volumes entitled Documentos para la Historia de Sinaloa. The Memorias is a very legible and very beautiful manuscript from a portion of a huge collection of copied documents made in 17901792 for Charles IV, King of Spain, under the direction of the Franciscan Father Francisco Figueroa. There are gaps, however, in this collection. For instance, the years from 1605 to 1609 inclusive are missing. These lacunae are partially bridged by other groups of anuas. The Bancroft Library possesses photostats of the anuas of 1615,1616, and 1617, the originals of which are in the Edward E. Ayer Collection at the Newbery Library, Chicago. The 1517 anua of this collection supplements portions of the Memorias group. The Bancroft Library possesses the original anuas for 1614 and 1615. Another set of anuas rests in the Jesuit archives in Mexico City. These have been consulted, but they are not so complete as the Memorias series and they add but few notices not contained in the latter. Some of them seem to be originals. These three groups of anuas are again supplemented by the collection in the Roman archives of the Society in Europe. The latter contain, for instance, the anuas for the years 1605,1606, and 1609, missing from the Memorias. These likewise have been consulted; a complete set of photostat copies are a recent addition to the Bancroft Library. A n important unprinted source is the Ribas manuscript, which is in the Jesuit archives in Mexico City. A photostat copy of it rests now in the Bancroft Library. This manuscript consists of one hundred and two folio pages, including the title page, written by the author of the Historia de los Triumphos de Nuestra Santa Fee, Father Andres Perez de Ribas. It is entitled Historia de la Provincia de Cinaloa for el Padre Andres Perez de Rivas. It begins with the first explorations into Sinaloa, expands into the history of the missions, and is notable for the number of letters of missionaries which it gives verbatim. It is incomplete, however. Of its three books, the second is entirely missing, and the third breaks off abruptly in recounting the happenings of the year 1620. Book One contains sixteen chapters, Book Three, fourteen. The chapters run in chronicle form, giving the events year by year, so that here may be found some of those dates which are so often lacking in the author's Los Triumphos. This account is enriched with greater details than the Triumphos and seems to have been written while Ribas was in

ESSAY ON SOURCES the missions. It doubtless formed the basis of his later and greater work. Many of the letters given in the manuscript are condensed into better narrative in the Triumph os. Alegre knew of this manuscript, for he mentions it in the second volume of his history, at page 62. Father Juan Albizuri, early seventeenth-century missionary in Sinaloa, wrote a life of Gonzalo de Tapia in twenty-four chapters, which forms one of the chief sources for the biography of this martyr. A copy of this manuscript is in the Bancroft Library. Its full title is Historia de las Misiones Apostólicas que los Clérigos Regulares de la Compañía de Jesús han echo en las Indias Occidentales de la Nueva España y Ilustres Conversiones de mas de Treinta Naciones que se han Seguido a la Religion Catholica. Also of biographical value are two collections of important and very substantial notices in the Jesuit Archives of Mexico City. The one is labeled Arch. Gral., Manuscr., IX bis, and is entitled Biografía Florencia, having been composed by the well-known Father Francisco de Florencia and consisting of the biographies of forty-four Jesuits of the province of New Spain. The other, containing longer but fewer accounts of Jesuit fathers and brothers, is labeled Archiv. Gral., Manuscrito, sin Fecha, and is entitled Varones Illustres Mexicanos. Many of the Sinaloa missionaries are written up in these two collections. Other Jesuit manuscripts pertaining to Sinaloa in the Jesuit archives of Mexico are of less importance to history. A volume labeled MS. Ant. VIII (i.e., Manuscritos Antiguos VIII) contains a history of the Jesuits of New Spain from their beginnings, written, as would seem to be indicated by a marginal notice, by Florencia. The second part bears the resounding title of Historia de Sinaloa, su Primer Conquistador, Entrada de los Padres de la Compañía a Ella, Principios de su Predicación de Aquellas Tierras y Docilidad de Aquellos Naturales para Recehir Nuestra Santa Fee. But it begins away back with Loyola and stops before it comes to Sinaloa. Another volume, labeled Miscelánea, MSS., XIII—I, carries this title: Noticia de la Provincia de Cinaloa en la América Septentrional. It is too general to be of importance. This same volume contains a general notice on Sonora written probably in 1769. In a volume labeled MS. Ant. Ill there is a long letter transcribed from a manuscript in the Royal Library of Brussels, MS. No. 3872. Its author is Father Martin

226

E S S A Y ON S O U R C E S

de Bruges, who incorporates two letters written from Sinaloa in French by Father William Otton in 1617 and 1618. The letters of both Bruges and Otton are too general and too exaggerated to be of great service. Many of the above-mentioned documents of the Jesuit archives of Mexico City are in volumes labeled MS. Ant. I, II, etc. (i.e., Manuscritos Antiguos I, II, etc.). The sources for early Sinaloa history are found in Volumes I to VIII, inclusive. For instance, the early anuas are in Volumes I and II, the Martín de Bruges letters are in Volume III, and the Ribas manuscript is in Volume I V Finally, to conclude with Jesuit archives, there is in the possession of Father Gerardo Decorme of Ysleta, Texas, a collection of letters written by the Jesuit generals, Aquaviva and his successors, to different provincials of the Mexican Province. Here are a few notices of interest to the early missions. Among these papers, too, are the acts of some of the provincial congregations and a few letters of missionaries. On the shelves of the Archivo General y Público de la Nación in Mexico City there are two volumes of the highest moment to our present subject, namely, Historia 316 and Misiones 25. In the Historia are preserved twenty-one original letters of Captain Hurdaide, some of them lengthy, all of them wordy and often almost unreadable. The labor of going through these letters has been greatly facilitated by the exact and neat copies made by Señorita Dolores Hurtado, of the Archivo staff. These facsimiles are in the Bancroft Library. It is quite certain that no other source can tell so much about the character of the great Captain, though Ribas may tell more about some of his activities. Misiones 25 contains the Cartas Anuas from 1622 to 1647. It has, besides, many good letters of missionaries and laymen, notices taken from accounts of the settlement and progress of Sinaloa as given by Juan de Grijalvá, Hurdaide, and other seculars, and by Fathers Juan Varela, Martín Pérez, Vicente de Aguila, and Andres Pérez de Ribas. This is an important source for the early years of the Sinaloa mission. A t the end of this volume is a history of the missions which Bolton in his Guide (p. 74) surmises might be from the pen of Ribas. The guess is correct, for a comparison of this Historia de las Misiones with the Ribas manuscript, Historia de la Provincia de Sinaloa, of the Jesuit archives, shows them to be by the same author, though the arrangement is quite different and the latter is by much the longer.

ESSAY ON SOURCES

227

Some added letters of missionaries are found in the W B. Stevens Collection, photostat copies of which are in the Bolton Collection. The originals are now in the library of the University of Texas. The Archivo General de Indias contains a certain number of pertinent documents. Transcripts or photostats are in the Bancroft Library. Of printed sources the chief is of course Ribas' Los Triumphos. This work exists in a rare edition of Madrid, 1645, and alone offers material for a magnificent story of the past. Ribas labored for sixteen years in the missions of Sinaloa, was an eyewitness of many of the events he recounts, and was a painstaking investigator of the truth of those he did not see. His faults are that he is often vague or silent with regard to names and dates, that he is sometimes given to exaggeration, and that he suffers from the credulity of his age with regard to supernatural phenomena. Ribas has a later work, Coránica y Historia Religiosa ..., in which are to be found important biographical notices of some of the men who worked in the Sinaloa missions. Other printed works containing biographical notices are Tanner's Societas Jestt usque ad Sanguinis et Vitae Profusionem Militans, the Menologio de los Varones mas Señalados en Perfección Religiosa of Francisco de Florencia augmented by Juan Antonio de Oviedo,1 and Drews's Fasti Societatis ]esu. Drews and Oviedo are of the eighteenth century, Tanner is of the seventeenth. The two former are too brief to be of any great help. A n important biography of Pedro de Velasco, however, was written by Father Francisco Xavier de Faría and published in Mexico in 1753. Francisco de Florencia's Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de Nueva España has an account of the Florida effort, as has Ribas in the twelfth and last book of his Triumphos. But the best account is in the first volume of Alegre. Father Joseph Neumann's Historia Seditionum . . . , which was printed in Prague in 1730 at the press of the Jesuit University of Carolo-Ferdinand, is a rare book, to be found in the old library of the Jesuits in Prague; a photostat copy is now in the Bancroft Library. For our story, the work contains only a general account of the deaths of Pascual and Martinez. Father Francisco Javier Alegre, writing in the second half of the eighteenth century, draws from most of the above-mentioned sources, both printed and manuscript. His Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en

228

E S S A Y ON SOURCES

Nueva España, in three volumes, comprises an invaluable work, published by Carlos María de Bustamante in 1841. Alegre gives many of the letters found in the anuas and in Ribas, and certain other details that help complete the story of the Sinaloa missions. Father Gerard Decorme, S.J., has recently edited and augmented this work, but his effort is still in manuscript form. Of printed documents other than the Jesuit ones, three are important. The finest of these is the Información hecha por el Gobernador Urdiñola, which came out of Sinaloa in 1603. The others are Mange's Luz de la Tierra Incógnita, and the translated documents of the Bandelier Papers edited by Hackett. Of ancient books of travel having importance for the present subject mention may be made of Parchas His Pilgrimes, which gives in quaint English a translation of a letter of Martín Pérez.

NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE N O T E S Archiv. Gen. Hist.— Archiv. Gen. A/is.— Archiv. S.J. RomanArchiv. Gen. MS.— Memorias— MS. Ant.Ribas MSDecorme MSS.—

Archivo General, Historia Archivo General, Misiones Archivum Romanttm Societatis Jesti Archivo General, Manuscrito Memorias para la Historia de la Provincia de Sinaloa Manuscritos Antiguos The Ribas Manuscript The Decorme Manuscripts

Ribas, Historia de los Triumphos . . . , has been cited according to book and chapter; Alegre, according to volume and page; and so with the other authors generally, unless otherwise indicated.

C H A P T E R I: FAR-FLUNG M I S S I O N S 1

Macaulay in his famous essay (Edinburgh Review, October, 1840) on Ranke's History of the Popes. 2 Cardinal Come in II Sacco di Roma, ed. C. Milanesi (Firenze, 1867); cf. A . F. Pollard, Henry VIII (London, 1930), p. 171. 8 J. Crétineau-Joly, Histoire Religieuse, Politique et Littéraire de la Compagnie de Jésus, I, 474 f. 4 Thomas Campbell, The Jesuits, p. 85. 6 Crétineau-Joly, op. cit., I, 475. 6 Ibid., I, 476. 7 Campbell, op. cit., p. 91. 8 Crétineau-Joly, op. cit., I, 489. ° Campbell, op. cit., p. 87. 10 Antonio Astrain, Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España, II, 305. 11 Herbert E. Bolton and Thomas M . Marshall, The Colonization of North America, 1492—1783, pp. 62 f. 12 Francisco Javier Alegre, Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en Nueva España, I, 4. This is the famous work in three volumes by Father Alegre of the Province of New Spain. He was one of the expulsos and finished his history in Italy. 13 Ibid., I, 5. 14 Ibid., I, 6; Astrain, op. cit., II, 289; Mathias Tanner, Societas Jesu.... pp. 443 ff. There are accounts of the Florida mission by John Gilmary Shea in History of the Catholic Church among the Indian Tribes of the United States (New York, 1881), and by the same author in Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, II, ch. iv. Tanner gives in Latin an illustrated account of each of the martyrs mentioned in the present work. Pedro Martinez is here shown being struck down upon the beach in the midst of the breakers. Andrés Pérez de Ribas, Historia de los Triumphos, XII, 13 and 14, seemingly as an afterthought, gives an account of these Florida missions. C f . also Francisco de Florencia, Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de Nueva España, I, 3 and 9. A recent study is by Michael Kenny, S.J., The Romance of the Floridas. The most minute narrative of this present incident may be found in John Tate Lanning, The Spanish Missions of Georgia, ch. ii. The sources do not perfectly harmonize. 15

Lanning, op. cit., p. 38. Alegre, op. cit., I, 9, says the Jesuits returned for a while to Havana. 16 Alegre, op. cit., 1 , 1 7 . "Ibid., 1 , 1 8 . 18 Lanning, op. cit., pp. 49 f.; Alegre, op. cit., I, 25. 19 Shea in Winsor, op. cit., II, 279, says that Segura was sent by Menéndez in order that the coasts of the Chesapeake might be occupied for Spain. 20 Op. cit., I, 25. 1*3*1

232 21

NOTES

The Romance of tbe Floridas, ch. xvi. Cf. also Lanning, op. cit., p. 52, and Alegre, of. cit., I, 25; Florencia, op. cit., I, 9; Astrain, op. cit., II, 297. Alegre, op. cit., I, 30. 23 Astrain, op. cit., II, 297 n. 24 Alegre, op. cit., I, 43 f. 25 Ibid., I, 43 f. M Ibid., 1,45. 27 Ibid., I, 50. 22

CHAPTER II: GONZALO DE TAPIA 1

Alegre, op. cit., I, 51. Ibid., I, 53 f. 3 Jerome V. Jacobsen, Educational Foundations of the Jesuits in Sixteenth-Century New Spain. 4 Alegre, op. cit., I, 64. 5 Ibid., I, 65 f. 6 Rafael Heliodoro Valle, El Convento de Tepotzotldn, p. 16. 7 Old altars of this type may be seen in the mission church of San Juan Capistrano, California, and in the chapel of the Glenwood Mission Inn, Riverside, California. 8 Alegre, op. cit., 1 , 1 9 0 f. " Anua of 1595, MS. Ant. II. This anua is in the Jesuit Archives of Mexico City, in the second volume of ancient manuscripts (i.e., in Manuscritos Antiguos, II). 10 Alegre, op. cit., 1 , 1 8 3 . 11 Ibid., 1,199. 12 Gonzalo de Tapia. 13 W. Eugene Shiels, Gonzalo de Tapia, ch. v. " Ibid., ch. vi. " Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas, I, 119, calls Tapia's companion Nicolas de Ardoya. But this evidently is a mistake. Arnaya's name appears frequently in the early annals of the Province of New Spain. He later became Master of Novices and then Provincial. C f . Ribas, op. cit., X, 42, and Shiels, op. cit., p. 69. 2

[>333

C H A P T E R III: S I N A L O A E N T E R S M I S S I O N HISTORY 1

Shiels, op. cit., ch. vi. Ribas, op. cit., I, 8; Memorias, intro.; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 309 f. 3 Ribas, op. cit., I, 9; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 312; Juan Albizuri, Historia de las Misiones Apostólicas, ch. vii. 4 Ribas, op. cit., I, 9. 5 Ibid., 1 , 1 0 and n; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 316 f.; Albizuri, op. cit., ch. viii. 8 F. Ibarra de Anda, Geonimia Indígena Mexicana, p. 80. 7 Carl Sauer and Donald Brand, "Aztatlán . . . " p. 49. 8 Sauer, "The Distribution of Aboriginal Tribes and Languages in Northwestern Mexico" pp. 22 ff. 8 Ibid., p. 21, n. 4. 10 Memorias, intro., pp. 2 ff.; J. Lloyd Mecham, Francisco de Ibarra, p. 185. 11 Memorias, intro., pp. 2 ff.; Mecham, op. cit., passim. 12 The sources all give this story: e.g., Ribas, op. cit., I, 8 ff.; Memorias, intro.; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 306—332, 385—389. A s to secondary works cf. Shiels, op. cit., ch. ii; Bancroft, op. cit., I, 3 and 5; Mecham, op. cit., passim. 18 Op. cit., I, n. " Ibid., II, 1; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 3 3 3 f.; Albizuri, op. cit., ch. ix; Bancroft, op. cit., 1 , 1 1 9 ; Shiels, op. cit., ch. vii. 15 Shiels, op. cit., ch. ix. 2

[>34:i

CHAPTER IV: A GLORIOUS BEGINNING 1

Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 333; Shiels, op. cit., p. 96, n. n. Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 334; Alegre, op. cit., I, 242 ff.; Shiels, op. cit., p. 97. 8 Years before the coming of the Jesuits, the Spanish explorers and colonizers led by Francisco de Ibarra were similarly received by these Indians of the Mocorito and Sinaloa rivers. Cf. Mecham, op. cit., pp. 135 f. I Ribas, op. cit., II, 2; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 334, where a detailed description of this entrada is given by Antonio Ruiz and Grijalva. Also ibid., pp. 383 ff., for another and more general account; Shiels, op. cit., p. 97. s Anua of 1593, Memorias, p. 29, letter of Father Pérez to the Provincial. 6 Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 385, where the terms blandura y affabilidad are used. Cabeza de Vaca noted the meekness of these "comely and kindly people" (Morris Bishop, The Odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca, pt. i, ch. xi). 'Ribas, op. cit., II, 3; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 335, 385. There is some difference of detail here; e.g., p. 385 says Tovoropa was given to Pérez. 8 Ribas, op. cit., II, 3. " Ibid. 10 Memorias, p. 27. II Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 337, 389. This latter account is enriched with details omitted by Shiels. 12 Ribas, op. cit., II, 5. 13 Ibid.; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 340, 390. 14 Catholic Encyclopedia, V, 399. 35 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, I, 30. Cf. J. P. Migne, Patres Latini, X C V , 70 f. 16 Ribas, op. cit., II, 5; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 340; Albizuri, op. cit., ch. xiii. 17 Memorias, p. 32; Ribas MS., I, 7. 18 Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 373; Shiels, op. cit., ch. xv. 19 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 34. 20 Shiels, op. cit., p. 134. 21 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 35; Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 25; Archiv. Gen. MS., sin Fecha. 22 Ribas, op. cit.. Ill, 35. 23 Ibid., II, 6. 21 Ibid. 25 Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 346 f., report of Martín Pérez. We learn here, too, that Father Santiago was still on the mission; was, indeed, Superior. This may have been during Tapia's absence. 26 Anua of 1593, Memorias, p. 41, letter of Martín Pérez to the Provincial. 27 Ibid., p. 45, letter of J. B. de Velasco. 28 Herbert Ingram Priestley, The Mexican Nation: A History, p. 64. 28 Francisco A . Flores, Historia de la Medicina, I, 112 f. The sources, e.g. Father Martín Pérez and Antonio Ruiz, mention viruelas y sarampión, namely "smallpox and measles!' Cf. Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 346 f. These two diseases took terrific toll in the Culiacán Valley in 1531 and 1535. C f . Sauer and Brand, 2

C2353

236

NOTES

op. cit., p. 61. For a detailed and exhaustive study of the causes and effects of disease among the Mexican Indians cf. S. F. Cook, "The Extent and Significance of Disease among the Indians of Baja California, 1697-1773," Univ. Calif. Ibero-Americana, No. 12. 30 The writer agrees with Sauer, who considers this to have been a cause of epidemic in Sinaloa. 81 Anna of 1593, Memorial, p. 45, letter of J. B. de Velasco. 32 Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 25; Archiv. Gen. MS., sin Fecha. 33 Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 25; Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 35. 31 Ribas, op. cit., II, 6; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 348. 35 Ribas, op. cit., II, 6.

CHAPTER V: TAPIA IS MARTYRED 1

Ribas, op. cit., II, 27. Ibid., V , 15; anua of 1617, Memorias, p. 585; Hurdaide's letter to the Father Visitor, dated June 12,1627, in Archil>. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 172. 3 Ribas, op. cit., II, 7. 4 Variously spelled: Tovoropa, Deboropa, Torobepa. C f . Ribas, op. cit., II, 7; Memorias, p. 56; Arcbiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 385; Mariano Cuevas, Historia de la Iglesia en México, II, 509; Gerardo Decorme, La Obra de los Jesuitos, 1 , 1 5 3 , map, etc. 5 Ribas, op. cit., II, 7; anua of 1594, Memorias, p. 56. This part, written by Martín Pérez, contains this note: "Taken from the letters which the fathers and Spaniards who live in this province have sent us!' Cf. also Arcbiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 385; Ribas MS., I, 9. The Archivo speaks as if Tovoropa were on the south bank of the Sinaloa River. 6 Ribas, op. cit., II, 7; Memorias, pp. 56 if.; Shiels, op. cit., ch. xvi. 7 Tanner, op. cit., pp. 451 ff.; Joannes Drews, Fasti Societatis Jesu, III, 43; Shiels, op. cit., ch. xvi; Ribas MS., I, 9. 8 Ribas, op. cit., II, 8; anua of 1594, Memorias, p. 58. It was a Spanish custom to form a cross with the thumb and index finger. Tanner, op. cit., p. 454, says the cross formed thus by the fingers remained fixed in spite of force used to change the formation. Here we seem to witness the birth of legend. 9 Ribas, op. cit., II, 12; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 355; Anna of 1594, Memorias, pp. 56 ff., where are letters of Fathers Velasco, Pérez, and Méndez telling of the murder. Likewise there is here the letter of a Tarascan Indian who had followed Tapia north, back to his people of Pátzquaro, where Tapia had formerly labored. 10 El Mensajero del Corazón de Jesús, México, Enero de igoi, pp. 41 ff. For further information cf. Shiels, op. cit., ch. xvii. 11 Anua of 1616, Memorias, p. 533 (this anua contains a letter by Martín Pérez); Ribas MS., III, 1. 12 Shiels, op. cit., ch. xvii. 13 W. B. Stephens Collection: Letter of Father Vicente de Aguila to the Father Provincial in Mexico City, dated December 12, 1637. 11 Cuevas, op. cit., Ill, 410. 15 Shiels, op. cit., p. 117, and Decorme, op. cit., I, 153, seem mistaken in their maps in placing Tovoropa off from Sinaloa to the northeast and at least five miles from the town. 16 The names of these men have been recorded and are still preserved in documents, but no single one except the leader is famed enough to be recorded here. C f . Albizuri, op. cit., ch. xxiv; Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 177; Shiels, op. cit., p. 163. 17 Pedro Méndez, in the anua of 1595, Memorias, p. 73. 18 Ribas, op. cit., II, 9. "Ibid., VIII, 18. 2

C 2 37 ]

238 20

NOTES

Ribas, op. cit., X, 21. Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 41. 22 Ribas, o f . « i . , II, 9. 28 Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 357 f. 24 Ibid., p. 363. 25 Ribas, op. cit., II, 10. 20 Ibid., II, 11; Memorias, p. 73. Ribas gives the date 1596, but this must indeed be an error, since both the Memorias and its original in the Jesuit Archives in Mexico City (MS. Ant. II, anua of 1595) put the arrival a year earlier. Alegre (pp. cit., I, 306), says Diaz and Peláez arrived in January, 1595. Diaz had served long and honorably under the governors of Nueva Vizcaya. C f . Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 360. 27 Letter of Méndez, Memorias, pp. 73 ff.; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 356; Ribas MS., 1 , 1 0 . 28 Memorias, loe. cit. 29 Ribas, op. cit., II, 16; Memorias, pp. 73 ff.; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 361. 30 Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 361. 31 Anua of 1595, Memorias, p. 76, letter of Méndez with which this part of the anua is taken up. 32 Ibid., p. 78; Alegre, op. cit., I, 308 f. 33 Alegre, op. cit., I, 307 f. 34 Anua of 1601, Memorias, p. 888, where Father Nicolás de Arnaya says that Santarén had then been in the Topia country three years. Ribas (op. cit., VIII, 18) seems therefore mistaken when he says that after two years in Sinaloa Santarén went to Topia. 36 Anua of 1595, Memorias, p. 85; Alegre, op. cit., I, 308. 36 Anua of 1595, Memorias, p. 85. 37 Ibid., p. 84. 38 Anua of 1596, Memorias, p. 96. 39 Anua of 1597, Memorias, p. 116; Ribas MS., 1 , 1 3 . 40 Ribas, op. cit., II, 10. »•Ibid. 42 Anua of 1598, Memorias, p. 128. 43 Anua of 1599, Memorias, p. 157, letter of Méndez to his superior at Sinaloa. 44 Anua of 1601, Memorias, p. 342, letter of J. B. de Velasco to the Provincial. 46 Anua of 1602, Memorias, p. 404. 46 Ribas MS., Ill, 8. This is Pedro de Velasco, whose detailed letter is given here. 21

CHAPTER VI: THE GREAT CAPTAIN 1

Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 360, 362, where the account is by Antonio Ruiz and Father Vicente de Aguila; Ribas MS., 1,12. It is difficult from Hurdaide's letter to calculate the exact date of his coming to Sinaloa. In 1619 he tells the Governor of his twenty-one years of service in Sinaloa (Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 121), and in 1623 he speaks of his twentythree years of service! [ibid., p. 147). Such statements were probably not meant to be exact to the year, nor is it certain whether he was always speaking of his whole residence in Sinaloa or only of the years since he was created Captain. However, in 1603 he tells the Viceroy he has been on the mission eight years, which would fix the date of his coming at 1595, with the entrance of Alonso Díaz (ibid., p. 53; cf. above, ch. vii, n. 16). This is confirmed in the report found in Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 356, which says that he came with Alonso Díaz, January 15,1595, as his alférez y caudillo. 8 Ribas, op. tit., II, 20. 4 Francisco Xavier de Faría, Vida y Heroycas Virtudes del Vble. Padre de Velasco, ch. viii. This is the best source for Pedro de Velasco. Faría spent many years among the Chicoratos, the mission where Velasco worked, and possibly was Velasco's immediate successor there. He wrote the biography upon his return to Mexico City in 1653. He was very close, therefore, to his subject matter. 6 In his letters to Viceroy or Governor, Hurdaide mentions every now and again his financial difficulties and asks for advance of pay. For instance, in his letter of April 10, 1615, he says his expedition to the Mayo cost him 3300 pesos, so that now his personal debt amounts to more than 40,000 pesos (Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 94). He comes back to this point toward the end of the same letter (ibid., p. 95). On January 20, 1614, he asks the Viceroy for an advance of 2000 pesos (ibid., p. 138), and on March 5, 1617, for an advance for two years of 4000 pesos (ibid., pp. 108 f.). His debt of 40,000 pesos is spoken of again on June 5, 1619 (ibid., p. 121). In the letter of April 6,1623, to the Governor, he tells of the expenses of his brother, Martín Sánchez de Hurdaide. His expedition to the Yaqui increased his debts (ibid., pp. 146 ff.). 2

6

Letter of Hurdaide to the Governor, January 10, 1617, Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 100. 7 Ribas, of. cit., II, 20. 8 Ibid. " Anua of 1599, Memorias, p. 148; Ribas MS., 1,14. 10 Ribas, op. cit., II, 17. 11 Anua of 1599, Memorias, pp. 148 f. u Ribas, op. cit., II, 17; Ribas MS., 1,16. 13 Ribas, op. cit., II, 19. Bancroft, op. cit., 1,123, 207, gives this date as 1600. 14 Ribas, op. cit., II, 21. 15 Ibid., II, 21-22. 18 Bancroft, op. cit., I, 210, condenses the story without comment. 17 Mecham, op. cit., pp. 171 if. E 2 39 H

CHAPTER VII: THE THRUST TO THE FUERTE 1

Ribas, of. cit., II, 27; anua of 1602, Memorias, pp. 400 f. Ribas, op. cit., II, 27; anua of 1602, Memorias, pp. 398 f. 3 Ribas, of. cit., II, 24; Hurdaide's letters, fassim, Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, pp. 40 ff. 4 Ribas, op. cit., II, 27; anua of 1602, Memorias, pp. 398 f. 5 Ribas, of. cit., II, 27. 6 Ibid. 7 Anua of 1602, Memorias, pp. 398 f. 8 Ribas, of. cit., II, 27. 0 Ibid., II, 28. 10 Anua of 1602, Memorias, pp. 398 f. 11 Ribas, of. cit., II, 28. 12 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 167. 18 Ribas, of. cit., II, 28. 14 Shiels, of. cit., p. 136. 15 Ribas, op. cit., II, 28; Alegre, of. cit., I, 425. 16 Ribas, op. cit., II, 29; Hurdaide's letter of 1623 to the Jesuit visitor of the missions. C f . Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 167. 17 Ribas, of. cit., II, 28. 18 Ibid.; anua of 1604, Memorias, p. 410. 2

[2403

C H A P T E R VIII: S I N A L O A JOINS THE CHURCH 1

Anua of 1598, Memorias, p. 124; Bancroft, op. cit., 1,121 n. Ribas, op. cit., II, 25. Anua of 1602, Memorias, p. 392. 4 Ribas, op. cit., II, 25; anua of 1604, Memorias, pp. 408 f.; anua of 1605, Archiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 14, fol. 429. 5 Ribas, op. cit., II, 25. 8 Ibid.; Alegre, op. cit., I, 424. 7 Ribas, op. cit., II, 25. s Ibid. " See the instructions of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros, President of the Council of the Indies, sent in 1516 to the Hieronymite Fathers who were carrying out a reform in Hispañola. Part of the document runs thus: "The officers of the government of a town, such as regidores, alguaciles, etc., are to be placed and named by the said superior cacique and by the religious or priest together with the person who will be named administrator of that town and in case of disagreement by the two latter!' Cf. Lesley B. Simpson, "The Encomienda in New Spain" App. I, pp. 191 ff. Cf. also Recopilación de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias (Madrid, 1791), t. 2, lib. vi, tit. vii, "De los Caciques" pp. 245 ff. 10 Ribas, op. cit., II, 25. u Ibid., II, 26. 12 Anua of 1602, Memorias, pp. 380 f. 13 Frank Tannenbaum, Peace by Revolution, ch. xxv; cf. George I. Sánchez, Mexico, a Revolution by Education, passim. 11 Anua of 1601, Memorias, p. 356, letter of J. B. de Velasco. 15 Ribas, op. cit., II, 26. 18 Ibid., II, 36. 17 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 53. The Captain says here in the first paragraph: "The religious of the Society of Jesus who have been instructing the natives here now for twelve years will give Your Excellency . . . an account of how God Our Lord and His Majesty are served in the instruction and conversion of these savages!' The twelve years' service would make the date of this letter, counting from 1591 when Tapia and Pérez came, 1603. Hurdaide further on says he has been on the mission eight years, which would make the date of his coming 2 3

I

595Anua of 1604, Memorias, p. 413. Memorias, p. 413; Decorme, op. cit., I, 167, and Bancroft, op. cit., I, 213, repeat Ribas' 40,000. 20 Anua of 1611, Memorias, p. 446. The anua of 1609 speaks of Father Andrés Pereció as having worked among the Indians of the coast. Cf. Archiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 14, fol. 527. 21 Alegre, op. cit., II, 9. 18 w

[>40

242 22

NOTES

Anita of 1617, Edward E. Ayer Collection, where Clerici's interesting and detailed letter is given. This same letter is in Ribas, MS., Ill, 13. Cf. also Alegre, of. tit., II, 175. 23 Ribas, op. tit., II, 35. 24 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 54. 25 Mecham, New Spain and the Anglo-American West, I, 54, where the report is given verbatim. Cf. the Archivo General de Indias, 66-6-17, where the full reports of the ten witnesses are given. Transcripts are in the Bancroft Library. See also Appendix II, above. 26 Anna of 1604, Memorias, p. 412. 27 Ribas, op. cit., II, 36; Archivo General de Indias, loc. cit.

C H A P T E R IX: RIBAS W I N S A RIVER 1

Reuben Gold Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1896), I, 45. Bolton, Rim of Christendom, p. 4. 8 Thwaites, op. cit., I, 310, n. 24. 4 Ribas, of. cit., Ill, 2. The historian here narrates events of which he was the leader and organizer. 5 Ibid. • Ibid. 7 Anua of 1605, Archiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 14, fol. 432. 8 Anua of 1606, Archiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 14, fol. 488. 9 Ribas, of. cit., Ill, 4. 10 Ibid.; Alegre, of. cit., I, 427. Alegre here says the date of entrance to the Fuerte was 1605. 11 Ribas, op. cit.. Ill, 3. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Ribas, op. cit.. Ill, 11. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. Ribas here writes: "This history is written principally for our fathers of the Society of Jesus, that they be encouraged to employ themselves in these holy missions and in order that they may learn of the marvels which God is able to perform in conquering all difficulties in the winning over of nations as proud and as rebellious as this!' 18 Cf. above, ch. viii, n. 9. 19 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 5. 2

[>43 II

C H A P T E R X: T H E SKIRTS OF T H E SIERRAS 1

Ribas, op. cit., III, 14. Cf. above, ch. v, p. 45. 8 C f . above, ch. vii, pp. 64-65. 4 Anua of 1599, Memorias, p. 157; anua of 1602, Memorias, p. 402. 0 Anua of 1601, Memorias, p. 343, letter of J. B. de Velasco. 6 Ibid., p. 3 5 1 . 7 Anua of 1604, Memorias, pp. 408 f. 8 Anua of 1602, Memorias, p. 390. 9 Ribas, op. cit., II, 29; Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 41. 10 Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 41. 11 Ibid. 12 Carlos Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, VIII, 541. 13 Ribas, op. cit., III, 21; Flos Sanctorum o Libro de las Vidas de los Santos . . . (Madrid, 1599), p. 708. Cf. Sommervogel, op. cit., VI, 1737. 14 Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis., No. 41. 16 Ribas, op. cit., III, 14; Alegre, op. cit., II, 55. 16 Ribas, op. cit., III, 3. "Ibid., III, 14. M Ibid. Ribas here gives a long passage from the letter of Méndez describing his entrada. It was sent to the Superior at Sinaloa to be forwarded to Mexico City. 18 Ibid., III, 8, 9. 20 Ibid., III, 26, 27. a Ibid„ III, 14. 21 Ibid., III, 15. 23 Ibid. 24 Alegre, op. cit., I, 460. 25 Ribas, op. cit., IH, 24. 26 Sauer, op. cit., pp. 28, 32, 37. 27 Ribas, op. cit., III, 26; anua of 1612, Memorias, p. 461; Alegre, op. cit., II, 55. The anua gives Villalta's letter. 28 Cocoliztli among the Aztecs was a generic term referring to any kind of infirmity. After the.Conquest it became more specific and was ultimately used to designate the dreaded smallpox which decimated the Indians. Cf. Flores, Historia de la Medicina, 1 , 1 1 2 f. 28 Ribas, op. cit., III, 25. 80 Ibid., III, 26. Whether this was the same herb that the Yaquis used for their poisoned arrows does not appear. C f . Mecham, Francisco de Ibarra, pp. 167 f. 31 This term is more usually applied to the catechist, whose function of teaching was sometimes performed by the fiscal. Cf. above, ch. viii, p. 73. 82 Ribas, op. cit., III, 26. 2

C244]

CHAPTER XI: MOUNTAIN A N D COAST INDIANS 1

Ribas, op. cit., II, 18; anua of 1611, Memorial, pp. 442 f., where this same letter is found. 2 Ribas, op. cit., II, 30. 8 Sauer, op. cit., map opposite p. 1. 4 Ribas, op. cit., II, 30. 5 Faria, op. cit., ch. i. Cf. Manuel Rivera, Los Gobernatores de Mexico, I, 65 ff., 86 ff. 6 Faria, op. cit., ch. iii. 7 Ibid., ch. viii; Ribas, II, 30; Alegre, op. cit., II, 28. 8 Ribas, op. cit., II, 30. •Ibid. 10 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 98. 11 Ribas, op. cit., V, 18. 12 Sommervogel, op. cit., II, 1894 ff. The first edition appeared in 1599, and was entitled Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex in Tres Tomos Partiti, Louvain, 1599. Within a few years it had passed through edition after edition, 1601,1603, 1606, etc. This work undoubtedly contributed to the mad witch superstition in Europe. C f . Henry C. Lea, Materials towards a History of Witchcraft (Philadelphia, 1939), II, 640 ff. 18 Ribas, op. cit., V , 18. 14 Anua of 1611, Memorias, pp. 442 ff. 15 Ribas, op. cit.. Ill, 11. 10 Ibid., Ill, 13. Ribas again speaks as an eyewitness, as also about most of the events that follow. 17 Ibid., Ill, 12. 18 Ibtd. 19 Ibid. Some sources say this earthquake occurred at the time of Tapia's death as punishment of the murder, Tanner, op. cit., p. 454; Albizuri, op. cit., ch. xxv; while Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 12, implies the same. Tanner is sadly overcredulous and his ubiquitous miracles are such as to provoke the scoffer and invite skepticism. 20 Ribas., op. cit., Ill, 6. 21 Ibid., Ill, 7; anua of 1609, Archiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 14, fol. 528. 22 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 8. 23 Ibid., Ill, 9. 24 Ibid., Ill, 10; Alegre, op. cit., II, 77 f.; Bolton and Marshall, The Colonization of North America, 1492-1783, p. 240; Manuel Orozco y Berra, Apuntes para la Historia de la Geografta en Mexico, p. 178. 25 Bolton says that the ship was captured on the return voyage (Bolton and Marshall, op. cit., p. 240). 28 Just to mention two such maps which come right to hand: Bancroft, op. cit., [>45II

246

NOTES

I, 169, prints a Dutch map of 1624-1625 representing the insular theory of California's geography. This map is reproduced in Bolton and Marshall, op. cit., p. 241. The error lasted for more than a century, even though the Jesuit Francisco Eusebio Kino had dispelled it at the end of the seventeenth century. As late as 1736 the geographer H. Moll of London published a comprehensive map of the Western Hemisphere in which California was still represented as an island. This map is reproduced in Carlton J. H. Hayes's Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe (ed. 1932), I, 404-405. The first maps were correct, however, on this point. The first Ortelius atlas of 1570, in a map entitled "Teatrum Orbis Terrarum" shows Lower California as a peninsula. Cf. Sauer and Brand, "Aztatlan . . . , " p. 5. Similarly the portolano map of 1580 and Willem Janszoon Blaeuw's globe made in Amsterdam, in 1617. These two latter pieces may be seen in the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 27

Alegre, op. cit., II, 77 f. Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 10. 29 Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 159. M Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 10. 28

CHAPTER XII: THE UNCONQUERABLE YAQUIS 1

Sauer, op. cit., p. 23. Bandelier, Final Reports . . . , I, 46. Kroeber, "The Uto-Aztecan Languages of Mexico" has a highly specialized study of the Indian languages of Sinaloa and Sonora. 3 Bandelier, op. cit., I, 46. 4 Ribas, op. cit., V , 1. 5 Ibid.; anua of 1617, Memorias, p. 579, where is found Ribas' letter to the Provincial. 8 Ribas, op. cit., V , 1. ' Ibid.; anna of 1606, Arcbiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 14, fol. 491. 8 Ribas, op. cit., V , J. ' Alegre, op. cit., II, 3 1 ; Ribas MS., Ill, 3, says Lautaro now pretended to be a Christian. 10 Ribas, op. cit., V , 1. 11 Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 173. In the revolt of 1541 of the Indians northwest of Mexico City, called the Mixton War, the Indian allies of the Spaniards were hazardously allowed the use of firearms. Cf. Priestley, The Mexican Nation, pp. 59 f . 13 Ribas, op. cit., V , 2. 13 Ibid.; Alegre, op. cit., II, 32 f. Alegre speaks as if this delegation of Tehuecos departed not from San Felipe, but from Hurdaide's camp on the Yaqui. Ribas, however, explicitly says San Felipe. 14 Ribas, op. cit., V , 2. 15 Ribas, V , 3, says fifty soldiers marched north with Hurdaide; Alegre (op. cit., II, 33) gives the number as forty; Hurdaide in a letter of 1610 to Viceroy Salinas (Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 64) says that eighteen fled and nineteen remained with him. Many years afterward, in a letter of June 12,1623, he gives eighteen as the number that fled (ibid., p. 168). Later on in the same letter he repeats these figures (ibid., p. 173). All agree on 4000 Indians. 10 Ribas (op. cit., V , 3) says twenty-two remained. But if fifty came, as he states earlier, he does not account for eight. 17 Ribas, op. cit., V , 3; Alegre, op. cit., II, 34 f.; anna of 1610, Memorias, p. 427; anna of 1609, Archiv. S. J. Roman., Mex. 14, fols. 522 f. 18 Anna of 1610, Memorias, pp. 426 f . 19 Ribas, op. cit., V, 4. 20 Ibid. 21 So says Ribas (op. cit., V , 4). And it appears from Hurdaide's letter to the Viceroy the following year that the Captain was on the defensive concerning the defeat. Nevertheless, he avers that he had full permission for the expedition from Governor Urdinola (Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, pp. 64 and 66). 22 These cannot have been the ships of Iturbi, for he did not appear upon the Gulf until 1615. There were no organized expeditions on a large scale to the 2

CM?]

248

NOTES

coasts of California between 1603, when Vizcaino sailed from Acapulco, and 1615. C f . Francesco Saverio Clavigero, Storia delta California, I, 160 f. Small, private expeditions, however, visited the coasts of Lower California from time to time in search of pearls. Cf. Miguel Venegas, Hiitoire Naturelle et Civile de la Californie, 1,229. It was most probably the sails of one of these expeditions that the Yaqui Indians beheld. 23 Ribas, op. cit., V , 4; Ribas MS., Ill, 3. 24 Ribas, of. cit., V , 5. 25 Called, in the anna of 1610, "Bavilomo" (Memorial, p. 431), and by Alegre (II, 32), "Babilomo"—an instance of the frequent interchange of the letters " b " and " v " in older Spanish. 28 Ribas, op. cit., V , 5. The anna of 1610, Memorial, p. 430, gives only two conditions, slightly different from those of Ribas. Alegre, op. cit., II, 36 f., gives three substantially the same as those of Ribas, omitting the first we have given in the text. 27 Ribas, op. cit., V , 5; Alegre, op. cit., II, 37, who gives us the date; anua of 1610, Memorial, p. 430, which mentions April merely. 28 Archiv. Gen. Hiit., t. 316, p. 69.

C H A P T E R XIII: T H E C A P T A I N BUILDS A FORT 1

Cf. above, ch. iii, p. 16. Bolton, "The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish American Colonies!' American Historical Review, Vol. 23, No. 2 (October, 1917). 8 History of the North Mexican States and Texas, Vol. 1. 4 Lectures, University of California. 6 Anua of 1598, MS. Ant., II. 6 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 17. I Ibid. 8 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 317, p. 86. • Ibid., p. 176. 10 Ibid., pp. 168 and 176. The Visitor whom Hurdaide was writing to was Luis de Bonifaz. The office of Visitor seems to have been that of Vice-Provincial. II Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Memorias, p. 428; Alegre, op. cit., II, 30. 14 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 17. 15 Dr. Conrad von Schoech. 18 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 17. 17 Alegre, op. cit., II, pp. 46 f. 18 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 18; anua of 1611, Memorias, pp. 439 f., where Méndez' letter is given. 18 When Francisco de Ibarra resettled the country after Guzman's conquest, he distributed encomiendas to his followers. For instance, in Petatlán or Sinaloa two men held large grants of land, namely, Pedro de Tovar and Cristóbal de Tapia (cf. Mecham, Francisco de Ibarra, p. 136). Hurdaide himself was an encomendero, as was his brother Martín Sánchez (cf. Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 146 and passim). 20 Anua of 1611, Memorias, p. 441; Alegre, op. cit., II, 55. A letter of Laurentin Adame from Tehueco telling of further trouble and danger to himself is given in Ribas MS., Ill, 5. 21 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 19, as eyewitness of this whole expedition. He tells this story in his MS., Ill, 7. 22 Anua of 1613, Memorias, pp. 466 ff., which gives one of Ribas' letters; Alegre, op. cit., II, 61. Modern science has discovered the death-dealing quality of certain species of Mexican cactus. 28 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 20. 24 Anua of 1612, Memorias, pp. 456 f. 2

CM9 3

CHAPTER XIV: EIGHT T H O U S A N D CONFIRMATIONS 1

The date is on a stone of the present ruin. Cartas del P. Aquaviva, ano de 1605. 3 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 16; Alegre, op. cit., II, 53. 4 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 16. 6 Ibid. Ribas must have been one of those called in to help. 8 Memorias, p. 449. 7 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 16. 8 The year prior to the Bishop's visit Sinaloa celebrated the beatification of Ignatius Loyola, which was declared in Rome, July 27, 1609, in the pontificate of Paul V (cf. Ribas MS., Ill, 1). 2

C25°3

CHAPTER XV: ON TO RIO MAYO 1

Sauer, of. tit., p. 23. Archiv. Gen. Wist., t. 316, p. 67. 3 Anua of 1613, Memorias, p. 480. This is a letter of Luis de Bonifaz, who was twenty years on the Sinaloa mission. 4 Ribas, of. tit., Ill, 13. 5 Ibid., Ill, 13. 6 Ibid., IV, 1. 7 Anua of 1613, Memorias, pp. 465, 467. 8 Ibid. 9 Ribas, of. tit., IV, 1. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid.; Archiv. Gen. MS., sin Fecha. 12 The letter as given in the anua of 1614 says 400 Indians (Memorias, p. 497). This letter appears in four different places in the sources: in the anua of 1614; in Ribas MS., Ill, 9; in Ribas, of. tit., IV, 2; and in Alegre, of. tit., II, 71. 13 Ribas, of. tit., IV, 2; anua of 1614, Memorias, p. 497; Alegre, of. cit., II, 71. Ribas, of. tit., ch. ii., and Memorias, p. 502, give also a letter of Hurdaide to Martin Pérez. 14 Ribas, op. cit., IV, 2, says 20,000. But the letter of Méndez in the anua of 1614 gives the number as 9000 persons (Memorias, p. 498), and Alegre (of. tit., II, 71) has this same letter which says "more than 9000!' The figures of Ribas seem, therefore, exaggerated. 15 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 133. C f . Memorias, p. 480, where this entrada is mentioned in the anua of 1613. 18 Ribas, of. tit., IV, 2; Ribas MS., loc. tit.; Alegre, of. tit., II, 7 1 . 17 Anua of 1614, Memorias, pp. 506 ff., which gives the second letter of Méndez. 18 Ibid., p. 508; Ribas, of. tit., IV, 2. 13 Ribas, of. cit., IV, 3. All this Ribas draws from Méndez' second letter. 20 Ibid. 21 Ribas, of. tit., IV, 4. In this chapter Ribas quotes the second letter of Méndez. 22 Ibid. 23 Anua of 1616, Memorias, p. 561. This anua was written by Martín Pérez, as Superior of the mission, to the Provincial. It contains two fine letters written to Father Pérez himself, one from De la Cruz concerning the M a y o (Memorias, p. 561) and one from Pedro de Velasco concerning the upper Sinaloa (Memorias, p. 556). 24 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 1 3 1 . 26 Decorme, of. tit., I, 235, map. Méndez mentions likewise the pueblo Aviringo. Tesia is spelled Tessia in the Bancroft maps. 28 Ribas, of. tit., IV, 5. 27 Of. tit., p. 31. 28 Yaquimi as used in the sources refers generally to the Yaqui Indians. Here the cacique evidently applied the name to the Mayos. 2

252 29

NOTES

Anua of 1616, Memorias, p. 561. It is to Martin Perez as Superior of the mission that De la Cruz writes this letter. C f . above, n. 23. Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 97. 81 Ribas, op. cit., IV, 6. His figures differ somewhat from Hurdaide's, which we have given above. For Godinez cf. below, ch. xviii, n. 33. 82 Epitome Soc. Jem. (Romae, 1924), p. 311, N o . 743. Canon Law in 1918 made the three-year term, admitting of one repetition, the usual regime for the local superiors of religious orders. C f . Codex Juris Canonici, Can. 505, p. 145, Neo Eboraci (New York: R J. Kenedy & Sons, 1918). 83 Anua of 1613, Memorias, pp. 473 ff., letter of Luis de Bonifaz. 94 Archiv. Gen. MS., IX Us, No. 26. 85 Ribas, op. cit., Ill, 34. 86 Ibid. 87 Ibid.; Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 26; Alegre, op. cit., II, 63. On November 2d of this same year 1613 the eighth provincial congregation of the Province of New Spain petitioned the General of the Society for colleges to be attached to the residences of Sinaloa and Guatemala. C f . Alegre, op. cit., II, 66. 80

C H A P T E R XVI: T H E RIM OF REVOLT 1

Sauer, op. cit., p. i, map. Spelled often Caguameto in the sources, e.g., in the anua of 1617. 3 All the sources refer to it: Faria, op. cit., chap, x; the annas of 1613 ff.; Hurdaide's letters of 1614; Ribas, op. cit., II, pp. 31 f.; Alegre, op. cit., II, 62. The anna of 1613 contains Juan Calvo's letter. 4 Faria, op. cit., ch. x. s Ribas, op. cit., II, 31. 6 Alegre, op. cit., II, 62. 7 Anua of 1614, Memorias, p. 485. 8 Ribas, II, 31; anna of 1613, Memorias, p. 470; Hurdaide's letter of January 20, 1614; Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 134; Alegre, op. cit., II, 62. 9 Alegre, op. cit., II, 62, where he corrects both Ribas and Faria for saying that this incident happened to Pedro de Velasco. Alegre says that Ribas made this mistake en su historia y manuscrito. 10 Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 134. "Hurdaide's letter to the Viceroy, Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 93. N o other section does the Captain mention so often as this of the upper Sinaloa; e.g., Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, pp. 95, 100, 102, 107, 108, 110, 134, 135, 137, 139, 142, 144, 146, 156, 157, 158. 12 Alegre, op. cit., II, 78; Ribas MS., Ill, 11; Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 156; anua of 1616, Memorias, p. 556. This anua gives the letter of Velasco. 13 Sauer, op. cit., p. 27. 14 Bandelier-Hackett, II, 101 ff. 15 Alegre, op. cit., II, 82 ff. 16 Velasco's letter on these details is given in Ribas MS., Ill, 13, and in the anua of 1617. 17 Anua of 1617, Edward E. A y e r Collection; Ribas, op. cit., II, 32; Faria, op. cit., ch. 11; Ribas MS., Ill, 13. 18 Ribas, op. cit., II, 32. 10 Ibid., X, 24; Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 102. Father Azevedo had sought security for a brief period in San Felipe, ordered thither by his superiors. C f . Ribas, op. cit., X, 24. 20 Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 96. a Ibid., pp. 108, no. 23 Ibid., p. 108. 23 Ribas, op. cit., II, 3 1 ; Faria, op. cit., ch. xiii; Alegre, op. cit., II, pp. 28 ff. Faria, Ribas, and Alegre give this letter. 24 Faria, op. cit., ch. xv; Pérez de Ribas offers a long account of Pedro de Velasco in his second magnum opus: Coránica y Historia Religiosa de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de México, I, 206. This work does for the urban activities of the Jesuits what the Los Trittmpbos does for the missions. 25 Ribas MS., Ill, 12, and Ribas, Los Triumphos, II, 33, where Calvo's letter to the superior at San Felipe is given. 2

L 253 3

CHAPTER XVII: DON BAUTISTA'S HONEYMOON 1

Cf. Atlas Geográfico de la República Mexicana, ed. Dirección de Estudios Geográficos y Climatológicos, 1929—1930. 2 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, III, 28. 3 Ibid.; Ribas MS., Ill, 6; anua of 1612, Memorias, p. 461, where Villalta in a letter to the Superior at San Felipe speaks of these his first contacts with the Huites. The Zoes, their neighbors, speaking the same language as some groups on the Sinaloa, had made peace with the Captain in 1610 and promised to prepare for baptism (Ribas MS., Ill, 3). Baptized, their group was augmented in 1614 by the merging of another pueblo. That same year another group came to Toro to join the Sinaloas in their Christian faith (Ribas MS., Ill, 8). 4 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, III, 28. s Ibid., 1 1 1 , 2 9 . 6 Ibid. 7 Anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 652. 8 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, III, 30. 9 Ibid., Ill, 32; anua of 1620, Memorias, pp. 649 ff. 10 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, III, 30. 11 Anua of 1620, Memorias, pp. 652 ff., where Castini's letter containing these and other interesting details is given. 12 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, III, 33. 18 Sauer, op. cit., p. 36. 14 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, III, 33. 15 Anua of 1626, Memorias, p. 745, where Julio Pascual says in a letter of M a y that, some years before, Godinez had been there and performed the baptisms.

C2543

CHAPTER XVIII: RIBAS TO THE YAQUI 1

Ribas speaks as if the whole story were continuous—as if as soon as the Yaquis made their submission the padres were immediately sent up. This makes a better story, but it neglects the years in between, namely, from 1610, when the Yaquis made peace, to 1617, when Ribas and Basilio first went among them. 2 Alegre, op. cit., II, 92. 3 Ribas, Los Triumphos, V, 6. Ribas in all this story tells of events in which he was the most important participant. 4 Bolton, Guide to the Materials for the History of the United States . . . , p. 469. 5 Ribas, Los Triumphos, V , 6. e Ibid.; Alegre, op. cit., II, 92. 7 Ribas, Los Trittmphos, V , 7. 8 Memories, pp. 579 f. •V,8. 10 Op. cit., II, 94. 11 Ribas, Los Trittmphos, V, 7; anna of 1617, Memorias, pp. 579 fï. A large part of this anna is made up of the letter of Ribas himself to the Provincial. Ribas offers his own letter in his MS., Ill, 12. 12 Ribas, Los Trittmphos, V, 8; Memorias, loc. cit.; Alegre, op. cit., II, 94. 13 Ribas in his letter mentions the pueblos of Hahome and Yusimey. 14 Ribas, Los Trittmphos, V , 9. 15 Ibid., V , 10; anna of 1617, Memorias, p. 585, and Edward E. Ayer Collection; Alegre, op. cit., II, 113. 16 Ribas, Los Trittmphos, V , 11. " Ibid., V , 12. 18 Ibid. Christianity sank deep into the soul of the Yaqui Indian. The famous Yaqui dances, for instance, of modern times as exhibited by these sons of the Jesuits in Tucson, Arizona, are impregnated with Christian symbolism and are performed in close conjunction with the Roman Catholic ritual of Holy Week and Easter. C f . Phebe M . Bogan, Yaqui Indian Dances of Tucson, Arizona. T o crop the hair at baptism was a practice in Mexico from the earliest days of the Conquest. C f . Ricard, La "Conquête Spirituelle" du Mexique, p. 28. 18 Ribas, Los Trittmphos, V , 13; Alegre, op. cit., II, 113. 20 Ribas, Los Trittmphos, V , 18. 21 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 96. 22 Ibid., p. 98. 23 For some interesting observations on the nature of the poison cf. Mecham, Francisco de Ibarra, pp. 167 f. 24 Ribas, V , 15; anua of 1622, Memorias, p. 685, and Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 37 ff.; Alegre, op. cit., II, 140. 25 Ribas, Los Triumphos, V, 14; Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 112. 26 Anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 622. 27 The anua of 1620, Memorias, pp. 646 fï., contains a letter of Varela. According to this anua, the new arrivals came in 1619. It says (Memorias, p. 610): "The seven fathers who were sent last year aid these missions greatly!'

[>55 3

256 28

NOTES

Anua of 1622, Arcbiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 87; Memorias, p. 655; Alegre, op. cit., II, 122 f. Anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 606; Ribas, Los Triumphos, V , 16. A partido or district was a group of pueblos or Indian villages served by one or several missionaries. Those pueblos which did not enjoy a resident priest were called f t ó tas. A group of partidos formed a distinct mission with its own Superior. Mission San Ignacio, comprising the banks of the Mayo and Yaqui rivers, was the first unit of this organization to appear in these missions of the West Coast. In 1678 the Provincial of New Spain, Father Tomás Altamirano, ordered Father Juan Hortiz Zapata to make a general visitation of all the missions of northwest Mexico. A n exact official account has been preserved (cf. Arcbiv. Gen. Mis., t. 26, pp. 241 if.). A t that time there were, according to this report, in the two provinces of Sinaloa and Sonora three missions: San Francisco de Borja, with nine partidos containing 10,871 Christian Indians; San Ignacio de Hiaqui (Yaqui), with nine partidos numbering 19,560 Christians; and San Felipe y Santiago (on the Sinaloa), with ten partidos and 9689 Christians. Most of the partidos had two or three pueblos each. Some had four, Ocoroni only one. 80 Anua of 1624, Memorias, p. 707. 31 Alegre, op. cit., II, 122. 32 Anna of 1620, Memorias, p. 658; Alegre, op. cit., II, 122. 33 Cf. Francisco de Florencia and Juan Antonio de Oviedo, Menologio, p. 210. His real name, Wading, was changed to Godinez when he came to Mexico, probably to pass for a Spaniard, for the Spanish government had put a ban on aliens which was not lifted until 1664 (cf. Anton Huonder, Deutsche Jesuitenmissionare, p. 21). Michael was a brother of two other Jesuits, Peter and Luke. Among other things he wrote Pratica de la Theologia Mystica, which went through several editions. He left behind him at death three known manuscripts and was honored with a biography from the pen of one Don Pedro Salmerón (cf. Sommervogel, op. cit., Ill, 1521 {.). 31 Decorme MSS. The originals are in the library at Bruges, M S . N o . 6818. He signs himself and writes in French. The letters are found in a communication of Martin de Bruges. Cf. also the anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 669. 35 Anua of 1619, Memorias, p. 605. 36 Anua of 1620, Memorias, pp. 655 f.; Alegre, op. cit., II, 122, gives 7500 as the total number baptized. For a list of the baptized year by year from the beginning to 1631 see above, Appendix II, p. 218. 37 Aquaviva letters, Jesuit Archives, Ysleta, Texas, under date of August 8,1622. 29

C H A P T E R XIX: CHIEF SISIBOTARI 1

Sauer, op. tit., p. 38. Bandelier, Final Reports ..., I, 54. 8 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, II, 34. 4 Ibid. ' Anna of 1615, Memorias, p. 531; anua of 1616, Memorias, p. 567; Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 93, in Hurdaide's letter of April 10, 1615, to the Viceroy, and ibid., p. 155, in Hurdaide's letter of November 26, 1615. The figures differ slightly; for instance, Hurdaide gives 160 for the second group, whereas the anna of 1615 gives 174. The Captain in his letter of November tells how these Nebomes "migrated with Albar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca as he relates in his commentaries and offered their children for baptism!' Ribas (MS., Ill, 3) says that as early as 1610 the Nebomes and their neighbors the Nuris voluntarily ofEered peace to Hurdaide and asked for fathers. Some from each of these tribes visited San Felipe this year. • Ribas MS., Ill, 10. 7 Alegre, op. cit., II, 79. 8 Ribas, Los Trtumphos, II, 34; Ribas MS., Ill, 10. Guzman's letter narrating this event and describing the Nebome people is found in three places in the sources: in the anua of 1615, Memorias, pp. 530 if.; in the anna of 1628, Memorias, pp. 793 ff.; and in Arcbiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 236 S. Ribas summarizes it in his MS., Ill, 10. * Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 94. 10 Ribas MS., Ill, 9; anua of 1614, Memorias, pp. 503 if. Hurdaide's letter is found in both these places. Cf. also Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 94, where in a letter of April 10,1615, to the Viceroy the Captain gives many of the same details. 11 Ribas, Los Trtumphos, VI, 3. 12 Anua of 1619, Memorias, p. 603; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 239; Arcbiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 117. Here is given Hurdaide's letter to the Viceroy, dated June 15,1619. He asks for bells, tables, musical instruments, two Spanish carpenters, two bricklayers, and wants a seminary here for the sons of caciques. Ribas, Los Trtumphos, VI, 3, mentions about 500 infants. The others may not have been baptized until the end of the year. u Memorias, p. 604. 14 Anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 664. 15 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, VI, 1; anua of 1622, Memorias, pp. 689 f.; Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 41; Sauer, op. cit., p. 38; Bandelier, op. cit., I, 55. 10 The Opatas were a tribe living to the north of the Lower Pimas. Cf. Sauer, op. cit., p. 40. 17 Anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 611; Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 96; Sauer, op. cit., p. 46. u Ribas, Los Triumpbos, VI, 13; Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 96. u Ribas, Los Triumpbos, VI, 13; anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 611; Alegre, op. cit., II, 122. Ribas mentions only one eagle. 2

i257l

258 20

NOTES

Ribas, Los Triumfhos, V I , 13. Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 96. Anua of 1620, Memorias, p. 611. 28 Ribas, Los Triumfhos, VI, g; anua of 1622, Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 40. Ribas advances the date by two years. 24 Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 4; anua of 1626, Memorias, p. 759. 25 yinaa of 1628, Memorias, p. 793. The letter is dated September 16, 1629, but it is found in the anua of 1628. As a matter of fact, Guzman had written this letter years before. Cf. above, n. 8. 20 Ribas, Los Triumfhos, III, 16. "Ibid. 28 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 63. 20 Ribas, Los Triumfhos, III, 16. 30 The year of Bishop Hermosillo's death is not definitely known. Ribas, Los Triumphos, III, 16, speaks as if the prelate came to Sinaloa to die shortly after Hurdaide's letter, which would make the year 1622. But Ribas has the bad habit of passing over in silence intervening years. Alegre (op. cit., II, 197) likewise mentions the Bishop's death, but gives no date. From the context, however, and from comparing the names of the Provincials the date would seem to be prior to 1627. Bolton however in his Guide, p. 472, gives the year as 1631, which seems to be confirmed by the Constituciones of the Archbishopric of Durango, which gives the date of the Archbishop's death as January 2 8 , 1 6 3 1 (cf. Constituciones del M. 1. yV. Cabildo Metropolitano de Durango, p. 5). In the chapter room of the cathedral there hangs, together with those of his successors, a portrait of Bishop Hermosillo.

a

22

CHAPTER XX: HURDAIDE'S LAST CAMPAIGN 1

Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 8. Ibid. There was a minor expedition of Hurdaide's in 1624 to the Zoes near the upper Fuerte (anua of 1624, Memorias, p. 708). Castini's life was in danger. "But Captain Hurdaide, who is now in Heaven, put an end to the trouble with an army of Spaniards and Indians . . . and today the men of those pueblos are quiet and docile. They have built one of the finest churches on this river [i.e., the Fuerte]" (anua of 1626, Memorias, p. 740). 3 Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 8. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 The rainy season, July in this country, made the mountains cold. 7 Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 9; anua of 1622, Memorias, p. 689, and Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 40. Ribas quotes this whole letter with the wording sometimes different from that of the anua. Strangely enough, the date of the letter as Ribas gives it is 1624. 8 Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 9. 8 Archiv. Gen. Hist., t. 316, p. 166. 10 Ribas, Los Triumphos, II, 20, VII, 10. 11 Anua of 1627, Memorias, p. 768. 12 The Sinaloa section of this anua, written partly by Juan Varela (i.e., for Mayo and Yaqui), mentions Hurdaide's death in three different places. First in the reference given above (n. 2), where we find, "Captain Hurdaide, who is now in Heaven, put an end to the trouble" and again later in the same report Varela says, " A t the beginning of this year 1626 Indians (Chinipas) came fearing H e l l . . . . I promised to send the padre (Pascual) within one month, with which they were happy. In the meantime Hurdaide died!' And third, toward the end of the anua Varela praises the Mayos and Yaquis for their fidelity at the time of the decease (Memorias, pp. 740, 749 f „ and 759). Then, fourth, Varela includes in this section of the anua a letter written to him by Pascual from the Chinipas, dated August 28, 1626, in which the latter says: " I did not divulge the cause of my delay (in going to the Chinipas), which was the death of Diego Martinez de Hurdaide" (ibid., p. 752). And a few lines below, Pascual says he entered the Chinipas' pueblo in March, 1626. The Captain, therefore, must have died early in the year. 2

" Op. cit., II, 169. Archiv. Gen. MS., sin Fecha. 15 Ribas, Los Triumphos, V , 22; Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis, No. 23. 16 Anua of 1623, Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, p. 86. 17 Ribas, Los Triumphos, III, 35; Arcbiv. Gen. MS., sin Fecha; Alegre, op. cit., II, 173 f.; anua of 1628, Archiv. Gen. Mis., t. 25, pp. 206 ff. 18 Anua of 1624, Memorias, p. 708. 18 Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 4; Alegre, op. cit., II, 170. 14

059]

26o 20

NOTES

Anua of 1627, Memorias, p. 768. Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 11. a Anua of 1627, Memorias, p. 770. 23 Ribas, Los Triumfhos, VI, 14. 24 Letter of 1627, Memorias, p. 784, a report by Juan Varela to the Provincial which incorporates a part of Méndez' letter; anna of 1628, Archiv. Cert. Mis., t. 25, p. 204. 28 Ribas, Loí Triumphos, VI, 14, where this same letter of Méndez is quoted. " Alegre, op. cit., II, 174. 27 Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 14. 28 Archiv. Gen. MS., sin Fecha. ** Ribas, Los Triumphos, VI, 21. 30 Archiv. Gen. MS., IX bis. No. 41. 31 Coránica y Historia Religiosa . . . , t. 1, bk. iv, ch. xxv.

a

CHAPTER XXI: THE CROWNING GLORY 1

Anua of 1626, Memorias, p. 749. Varela writes this anua and includes a letter of Pascual. C f . above, ch. xx, n. 12. 2 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, IV, 7. 3 Ibid., IV, 13. Tanner, op. cit., p. 490, gives 1627 as the date. A long and pious account of Pascual's life is contained in the anua of 1632. Cf. Arcbiv. S.J. Roman., Mex. 15, pp. 461 ff. 4 Juan is several times called Julio in the anuas. 6 Anua of 1626, Memorias, pp. 745, 751. The former passage says he arrived in May; the latter, being Pascual's own letter, says March. 'Ibid., p. 754. 7 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, IV, 7. 8 Tanner, op. cit., p. 490. " Ribas, Los Triumpbos, IV, 8; Alegre, op. cit., II, 190. 10 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, IV, 8. 11 Ibid.; Alegre, op. cit., II, 191. 12 Tanner in his Latin text (p. 492) gives a slightly different version from that of Ribas and Alegre which we have cited: "Prodeamus in aciem et strenue moriendo decertemus, ne mori pro Deo nostra reformidare videamur" 13 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, IV, 9; Alegre, op. cit., II, 192; Tanner, op. cit., p. 492; Joannes Drews, op. cit., I, 136 ff. Joseph Neumann in his Historia Seditionum, ch. i, has a very general account of these two martyrdoms. 11 Ribas in his Historia de los Triumpbos, IV, n, says that the heads of Pascual and Martinez were severed before burial at Conicari and conveyed as relics to Mexico City. This was verified in May, 1907, when Father Manuel Piñán, a modern Black Robe, was sent to Conicari to tiy to find the bodies. Father Piñán was able after diligent search to locate the site of the ancient church edifice. Then digging for the bodies began. To the surprise of all, the remains were discovered, enclosed each in a wooden casket, about a yard under the surface of the ground. Pieces of black vestments and other cloths were covering the bodies and the bones were found intact though exceedingly fragile. In one of the bodies were embedded two flint arrowheads. What confirmed the whole discovery was the fact that the heads of these bodies had both been severed. C f . Silvestre Terrazas, "Los Mártires de la Tarahumaraj' Boletín de la Sociedad Cbibuabuense de Estudios Históricos, Mayo y Junio de 1940, pp. 340-35115 Ribas, Los Triumpbos, IV, 12; Alegre, op. cit., II, 192 f.

[261]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY MANUSCRIPTS Letters and anuas from 1593 to 1632 in six collections: The Roman Jesuit Archives of Europe. The Jesuit Archives of Mexico. The Bancroft Library. Memorias para la Historia de la Provincia de Sinaloa. The Edward E. Ayer Collection, Newbery Library, Chicago. The W. B. Stephens Collection, Mexico. The Ribas manuscript entitled Historia de la Provincia de Cinaloa por el Padre Andrés Pérez de Rivas. Albizuri, Juan, S.J., Historia de las Misiones Apostólicas ... Biografía Florencia, in Archivo General, Manuscrito, IX bis, Jesuit Archives, Mexico. Varones Illustres Mexicanos, in Archivo General, Manuscrito, sin Pecha, Jesuit Archives, Mexico. Noticia de la Provincia de Cinaloa en la América Septentrional, in Miscelánea, MSS., XIII—I, Jesuit Archives, Mexico. The Martín de Bruges letters in MS. Antiguos III, Jesuit Archives, Mexico. The Aquaviva letters, Jesuit Archives, Ysleta, Texas. The Hurdaide letters, Archivo General, Historia, tomo 316, Mexico City. Letters and narratives concerning Sinaloa, Archivo General, Misiones, tomo 25, Mexico City. Reports made for Governor Urdiñola, 1603, in the Archivo General de Indias. One of these has been published by George P. Hammond. Cf. Printed Documents, below. The Decorme manuscripts: Letters of missionaries. PRINTED DOCUMENTS AND EARLY

TREATISES

Alegre, Francisco Javier, S.J., Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en Nueva España (Mexico, 1841). 3 vols. Bandelier, A . E and Fanny R., eds., Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya and the Approaches Thereto to 1773 (ed. Charles Wilson Hackett; Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1923 ff.). 3 vols. Bede [the Venerable], Historia Ecclesiastica. Various editions and translations. Clavigero, Francesco Saverio, Storia delta California (Venezia, 1789). 2 vols. Drews, Joannes, S.J., Fasti Societatis Jesu (Pragae, 1750). Epitome Instituti Societatis Jesu, Editio Minor (Romae, 1924). Faria, Francisco Xavier de, S.J., Vida y Heroycas Virtudes del Vble. Padre de Velasco, Provincial que fué de la Compañía de Jesús de Nueva España (México, r 753)Florencia, Francisco de, S.J., Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de Nueva España (México, 1694).

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Florencia, Francisco de, and Oviedo, Juan Antonio de, S.J., Menologio de los Varones mas Señalados en Perfección Religiosa de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de la Nueva España (Mexico, 1747). Mange, Juan Mateo, Luz de la Tierra Incógnita en la America Septentrional y Diario de las Exploraciones en Sonora (Mexico, 1926). Migne, J. R, Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Patres Latini (Parisiis, 1878). 221 vols. Neumann, Joseph, S.J., Historia Seditionum quas Adversus Societatis Jesu Missionarios eorumq. Auxiliares Moverunt Nationes Indicae ac Potissimum Tarahumara in America Septentrionali Regnoque Novae Cantabriae (Pragae, 1730). Pérez de Ribas, Andrés, Historia de los Triumphos de Nuestra Santa Fee entre Gentes los mas Barbaros y Fieras del Nuevo Orbe (Madrid, 1645). Coránica y Historia Religiosa de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de México en la Nueva España (México, 1896). Purchas, Samuel, Purchas His Pilgrimes ... (London, 1625). 5 vols. Recopilación de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias (Madrid, 1791). 3 vols. Ribadeneira, Pedro de, S.J., Vida del P. Francisco de Borja que fué Duque de Gandía y Después Religioso y III General de la Compañía de Jesús (Madrid, 1592). Tanner, Mathias, Societas Jesu usque ad Sanguinis et Vitae Profusionem Militans in Europa, Asia, Africa et America contra Gentiles Mahometanos, Judaeos, Haereticos, Impios pro Deo, Ecclesia, Pietate (Pragae, 1675). Thwaites, Reuben Gold, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1896). 71 vols. Urdiñola, Francisco de, "Información hecha por el Gobernador Urdiñola cerca del Estado de la Provincia de Sinaloa" ed. J. Lloyd Mecham, in New Spain and the Anglo-American West, ed. George P. Hammond (privately printed, 1932). 2 vols. Venegas, Miguel (Burriel), Noticia de la California, y de su conquista temporal, y espiritual, hasta el tiempo presente (Madrid, 1757). SECONDARY

WORKS

Astrain, Antonio, S.J., Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España (Madrid, 1902). 7 vols. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of Mexico (San Francisco, 1883). 5 vols. History of the North Mexican States and Texas (San Francisco, 1884). 3 vols. Bandelier, A. F., Final Reports of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States (Cambridge: Papers of the Archeological Institute of America, American Series, 1890). 2 vols. Bishop, Morris, The Odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca (New York: The Century Co., •933)Bogan, Phebe M., Yaqui Indian Dances of Tucson, Arizona (Tucson: The Archeological Society, 1925). Bolton, Herbert Eugene, Guide to the Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico (Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1913).

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The Spanish Borderlands (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1921). The Padre on Horseback (San Francisco: The Sonora Press, 1932). Rim of Christendom (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1936). Bolton, Herbert Eugene, and Marshall, Thomas Maitland, The Colonization of North America, 1492-1783 (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1925). Campbell, Thomas J., S.J., The Jesuits (New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1921). Chapman, Charles Edward, Colonial Hispanic America: A History (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1933). The Founding of Spanish California (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1916). A History of California: The Spanish Period (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1930). A History of Spain (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1930). Cook, S. F., "The Extent and Significance of Disease among the Indians of Baja California, 1697-1773" Univ. Calif. Ibero-Americana, No. 12,1937. Crcrineau Joly, J., Histoire Religieuse, Politique et Littéraire de la Compagnie de Jésus (Paris, 1844-1845). 3 vols. Cuevas, Mariano, S.J., Historia de la Iglesia en México (El Paso: Revista Católica Press, 1928). Cunningham, Charles H., "The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies as Illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila" Univ. Calif. Pubi. Hist., Vol. IX (1919). Fisher, Lillian E„ The Intendant System in Spanish America (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1929). Flores, Francisco A., Historia de la Medicina en México desde la Epoca de los Indios hasta la Presente (México, 1886-1888). 3 vols. Huonder, Anton, Deutsche Jesuitenmissionäre des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1899). Ibarra de Anda, Fortino, Geonimia Indígena Mexicana (México, 1932). Jacobsen, Jerome V , Educational Foundations of the Jesuits in Sixteenth-Century New Spain (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1938). Kenny, Michael, S.J., The Romance of the Floridas (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1934). Kenton, Edna, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1925). Kroeber, A. L., "Uto-Aztecan Languages of Mexico" Univ. Calif. Ibero-Americana, No. 8,1934. Lanning, John Tate, The Spanish Missions of Georgia (Chapel Hill: Univ. North Carolina Press, 1935). Lea, Henry C., Materials towards a History of Witchcrafì (ed. Arthur C. Howland) (Philadelphia, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1939). 3 vols. Mecham, J. Lloyd, Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Viscaya (Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1927). Mendoza y Herrera, Francisco, Constituciones del M. I. y V. Cabildo Metropolitano de Durango (Durango, 1920). Merriman, Roger Bigelow, The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1913). 3 vols.

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Moses, Bernard, The Spanish Dependencies in South America (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1914). 2 vols. Orozco y Berrà, Manuel, Apuntes Para la Historia de la Geografia en Mexico (México, 1881). Paxson, Frederic L., History of the American Frontier (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924). Priestley, Herbert Ingram, The Coming of the White Man, 14.92-1848 (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1929). The Mexican Nation: A History (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1930). Ricard, Robert, La "Conquête Spirituelle" du Mexique (Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie. !933)Rippy, J. Fred, Historical Evolution of Hispanic America (New York: F. S. Crofts and Co., 1932). Rivera, Manuel, Los Gobernadores de México (México: Imp. de J. M. Aguilar Ortiz [1893 •2 Sânchez, George I., Mexico, a Revolution by Education (New York: Viking Press, 1936). Sauer, Carl, "The Distribution of Aboriginal Tribes and Languages in Northwestern Mexico" Univ. Calif. Ibero-Americana, No. 5, 1934. Sauer, Carl, and Brand, Donald, "Aztatlân: Prehistoric Mexican Frontier on the Pacific Coast" Univ. Calif. Ibero-Americana, No. 1, 1932. Schmitt, Ludovicus, S.J., Synopsis Historiae Societatis Jesu (Ratisbonae, 1914). Shea, John Gilmary, History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States (New York: J. P. Kenedy, 1881). Shiels, W. Eugene, S.J., Gonzalo de Tapia (New York: The United States Catholic Historical Society, 1934). Simpson, Lesley B., "The Encomienda in New Spain: Forced Native Labor in the Spanish Colonies, 1492-1550" Univ. Calif. Pubi. Hist., Vol. 19, 1929. Smith, Donald E., "The Viceroy of New Spain" Univ. Calif. Pubi. Hist., Vol. I, No. 2, 1913. Sommervogel, Carlos, S.J., Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (Paris, 1890). 11 vols. Stephens, Henry Morse, and Bolton, Herbert E., The Pacific Ocean in History (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1917). Tannenbaum, Frank, Peace by Revolution (New York: Colum. Univ. Press, 1933). Valle, Rafael Heliodoro, El Convento de Tepotzotlân (México, 1924). Winsor, Justin, Narrative and Critical History of America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co., 1889). 8 vols. Wyllys, Rufus Kay, Pioneeer Padre: The Life and Times of Francisco Eusebio Kino (Dallas: The Southwestern Press, 1935). RECENT MANUSCRIPTS,

UNPUBLISHED

Decorme, Gerardo, S.J., La Obra de los Jesuitos en México en la Epoca Colonial, l^yz-ijij. 2 vols. Treutlein, Theodore Edward, Jesuit Travel to America, 1678-1756.

INDEX

INDEX (Pages i—220, text and appendixes; 221-261, sources and notes.) Abasorin, pueblo, 180 Acaponeta, town, 22 Acapulco, 12, no, 248 Acaxees, tribe, 2 7 , 1 5 5 , 1 5 8 Adame, Laurentín, 135, 249 Aguila, Vicente de, 108, 217, 219, 226, 237,239 Agustín, Domingo, 5 Agustín, Juan, 155 Ahorne, pueblo, 28, 58, 78, 80, 93, 217 Ahornes, tribe: description, 58, 80, 84— 86,146; protected by Hurdaide, 5 9 62, 85; request baptism or padres, 62; missions among, 80, 83-86, 88, 90, 9 1 , 1 0 6 - 1 1 1 , 1 3 9 , 1 9 1 Ahumada, Pedro Ruiz de, n Aibine, pueblo, 18, 28,192,198, 201 Albines, tribe: location, 18,192; request for baptism or padres, 194, 204; visited by Francisco Oliñano, 195, 198, 201; Tomás Basilio missionary to, 195, 201; uprising, 198; expedition of Hurdaide against, 198-200; peace with Spaniards, 200; Pedro Méndez missionary to, 206 Alamos, town, 136 Albizuri, Juan, 225, 234, 235, 237, 245 Alegre, Francisco Javier, 6, 178, 202, 225, 227, 228, 231-233, 235, 238, 240-253, 255-261 Algonquins, tribe, 81,119,129 Alonso, 6, 7 Altamirano, Tomás, 256 Alvear, Gaspar de, 50,176 Anabailutei, chief, 118 Anamei, Cristobal, 102,103 Angel, Juan, 186 Anza, Juan Bautista de, 21 Apaches, tribe, 57 Aquaviva, Claudius, 16, 141, 208, 226, 256, 265 Archivo General, 22.6, 227

Ardeñas, Juan de, 185, 217 Ardoya, Nicolás de, 233; see also Arnaya, Nicolas de Arizona, 20,114,188, 214, 255 Arnaya, Nicolas de, 14,187, 208, 238 Arteaga, Juan de, 8 Aspilueta [Azpilcueta], Martin de, 217, 219 Astrain, Antonio, 231, 232 Atotonilco, settlement, 28,161 Augustinian, see Hermosillo, Gonzalo de; Coruna, Agustín de la Avellaneda, Diego de, 16 Aviles, Pedro Menéndez de: conquest of La Florida, 3, 4, 5, 7, 231; grandfather of Pedro de Velasco, 98 Aviringo, 251 Axacán, 5 Ayer, Edward E., 224, 242, 253, 254 Ayllón, Lucas Vásquez de, 3 Azevedo, Diego de, 157,158,160, 253 Aztec Indians, 32, 244 Babilomo, 248; see also Babilonio Babilonio, 1 1 5 , 1 2 5 , 1 2 7 Baboria, pueblo, 25, 37, 217 Baciroa, pueblo, 28, 205 Baciroas, tribe, 18 Bacorigues, 91,106-108 Bacubirito, 28 Bacubiritos, tribe, 28, 30, 65, 91 Báhcun, pueblo, 28,180 Bamoa, town: location, 20, 28; settled by Nébome Indians, 25, 188-190; Blas de Paredes missionary at, 217 Bancroft, Hubert H., 129,130, 233, 234, 239, 241, 245, 251 Bandelier, A . F., 219, 247, 253, 257 Bandersipe, Diego de: replaces Ribas on Yaqui, 185; sent to Nébomes, 192, 195, 203; menaced with death, 198, 203, 204; station in 1625, 219

C270

272

INDEX

Baptism of desire, 162 Baptisms, 5, 24, 26, 29, 31, 33, 43, 52, 55, 56, 67, 74-77, 81, 84, 87, 88, 91, 92, 93, 97,100—102,106,117,127,128, 148, 149, 151, 152, 162, 165-167, 171, 174, 179, 180-182, 185, 186, 190, 192, 196, 198, 201, 202, 209, 210, 217-219, 256 Barera, Juan, 186 Baretto, Nunez, 2 Barocopa, 156,159 Basilio, Tomas: mission to Yaquis, 177181, 184, 191, 201, 255; mission to Aibines, 195, 201; near death, 35, 181,184; station in 1625, 219 Batoyapa, settlement, 161 Batuc, 18 Batucaris, tribe, 106 Batuco, 28 Batucos, tribe, 18,151,195, 204, 206 Bautista, Don, chief, 167-170 Bavilomo, 248; see also Babilonio Bayacatos, tribe, 99 Bayecitos, tribe, 210 Bayra, Juan, 2 Bazan, Francisco, 10 Bazan, Hernando, 17, 21, 56 Bazapas, sierra, 156,185 Bazapas, tribe, 99,156,185 Beltran, Vicente, 42 Benedictine, see Del Valle, Juan Biard, Father, 81 Bishop, Morris, 235 Black Robes, see Jesuit Blaeuw, Willem Janszoon, 246 Bogan, Phebe M., 255 Bohlg, P. I., 12

Bustamante, Carlos Maria de, 228 Butuang, R I., 12

Bolton, Herbert E., writings, 81, 129, 130, 226, 227, 231, 243, 245, 246, 249, 255, 258 Bonifaz, Luis de, 153, 204, 249, 251, 252 Boothisuame, chief, 124 Borgia, Francis, saint, 4, 7 - 9 Brand, Donald, 234, 235, 246 Brazil, 2 Bruges, Martin de, 225-226, 256 Bucareli, 21

Carapoa Cárdenas, Juan de, 219 Cardona, Tomás, 109 Carigara y Palo, P. I., 12 Carlos, settlement, 5 Carlos III, King, 140 Caroline, Fort, 3 Castini, Juan: succeeds Villalta on upper Fuerte, 170; missionary to Sinaloas, 172; life endangered, 259; visits

Caballero, Juan, 22 Cabeza de Vaca, see Vaca, Núñez Cabeza de Cabredo, Rodrigo de, 143,176 Cacalotlán, pueblo, 34, 97,162 Caguameto, see Cahuemeto Cáhita Indians, 17, 18, 58, 77, 112, 144, 152 Cahuemeto, pueblo, 28, 98, 156, 160, 161 Cahuemetos, tribe: location of, 97, 99, 156; Pedro de Velasco missionary to, 156-158, 161; feud with Chicoratos, 156; uprising, 156-160; peace, 161; Juan Varela missionary to, 185 Caimán, settlement, 38 California, Alta, 2,15,19, 21, 69, 78, 79, 95,129,178,188, 214 California, Baja, 72,109,110, 214 California, Gulf of, 16-20,109,115,144, 214, 247 California, insular theory, 109, no, 246 Calvo, Juan, 156-158, 161, 162, 217, 219, 253 Camoa, town, 28, 144, 152 Campbell, Thomas J., 231 Canada, 81,129, 223 Canary Islands, 3, 5, 9 Canisius, Peter, 175 Cape of Good Hope, 175 Cape San Lucas, 109 Capirato, town, 24, 40 Carantapa, pueblo, 157 Carapoa, 56; see also San Juan de

INDEX to Chinipas and baptisms, 171-174, 185, 208; contact with Guazapares, 171-174, 210; contact with Temoris, Varohios, and Hios, 173,174; at Sinaloa mission, 217, 219 Castro, Francisco de: birth, 30; entry into Mexico, 30; vocation, 30; service as cook in Mexico City, 31; service in Sinaloa mission, 30, 31, 33, 62, 63, 202, 203; affection of Indians for, 33, 203; death of, 203 Catholic Church: union with state in Mexico, 48, 63, 72, 176, 177, 195, 202, and passim, organization of, in M e x i c o , 1 9 5 ; see also Hurdaide, Diego Martinez de, activity of; Missions; Mexico, Archbishop of; and Chiapas, Durango, Guadalajara, M a nila, Michoacan, Popayan, Bishops of Catubig, R I., 12 Cavihuri, pueblo, 36 Cebu, see Zebu Cevallos, Sancho, 7 Ceylon, 2 Ceytez, R I., 12 Champlain, Samuel de, 81,119 Chapman, Charles Edward, 130 Charay, mission, 28, 78 Charles IV, King, 224 Charles V , King, 9 Chesapeake Bay, 5, 6, 63 Chiapas, Bishop of, 8 Chichimecos, tribe, 13, 14, 27 Chicorato, village, 28,156,157,159,160, 217 Chicoratos, tribe: location of, 97, 99, 156; Pedro de Velasco missionary to, 99, 101, 156-159; feud with Cahuemetos, 156; refusal to revolt, 159,161; Juan Varela missionary to, 185 Chihuahua, state, 14,164 Chile, 14 Chinipas, tribe: location, 18, 28, 59,164, 1 6 7 ; numbers, 171; expedition of Hurdaide against, 59, 89, 206; request for padres or baptism, 133,172,

2

73

208, 259; Villalta sends emissaiy to, 167,168; visited by Miguel Godinez, 174; visited by Juan Castini, 171—173, 185, 208; Julio Pascual apostle to, 174, 208—213; Manuel Martinez missionary to, 211—213; allies of Pedro de Perea, 214 Cibola, 21 Cinaloa, 17; see also Sinaloa Cisneros, Cardinal Ximénez de, 241 Clavigero, Francesco Saverio, 248 Clerici, Alberto, 75, 217 Coahuila, state, 155 Cobameai, chief, 173, 210—213 Cócorit, pueblo, 18, 28,179 Colegio Maximo, 12; see also San Pedro y San Pablo Comanito Indians, 18, 9 7 , 1 5 5 , 1 5 6 Come, Cardinal, 231 Comoporis, tribe, 91,107,108 Comuripa, pueblo, 28,192, 200 Concha, Hernando Suárez de la, 11 Conchos, tribe, 18 Conibomeai, chief, 124,125,128,182 Conicari, town, 214 Conicaris, tribe, 18, 136, 152, 153, 174, 213 Conicarit, town, 28,144 Cook, S. F., 236 Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de, 21 Coronado, Pedro, 131 Cortes, Hernando, 1, 9, 32, 57, 81 Coruna, Agustín de la, 8 Council of the Indies, 195; see also Royal Council of the Indies Counter Reformation, 1, 46, 80 Coyovera, chief, 160 Cozosopas, tribe, 210 Crétineau-Joly, J., 231 Cruz, Diego de la: on the Mayo, 128, 151,152, 176, 178,186, 251; at Nobor, 217; station in 1625, 219 Cuba, 3 Cubili, pueblo, 25, 26, 27 Cuencamé, settlement, 155 Cueto, Father, 160 Cuevas, Mariano, 38, 237

INDEX Culiacán, 22, 39, 44, 47, 65, 131, 141, 177; location, 18, 28; description, 23; Cabeza de Vaca enters, 21; presidio at, 44, 119; stay of missionaries at, 23, 24, 39, 40; Christians of, 34 Curiel, Juan, 11 Curimpo, 28, 152 Deboropa, 237 Decorme, Gerardo, 226, 228, 237, 241, 251, 256 Del Castillo, Juan Martinez, 22, 24 Del Portillo, Gerónimo Ruiz, 2 Del Río y Losa, Rodrigo, 14-17, 22, 50, 129 Del Valle, Juan, 141-143,156,195 Delrío, Martín Antonio, 101 Díaz, Alonso: arrival at Sinaloa, 42,202, 238, 239; captain at first presidio at Sinaloa, 42, 51, 53; pursuit of Nacabeba, 43; departure from missions, 48 Diaz, Pedro, 16 Díaz, Porfirio, 112 Disease, 31-33, 35, 75, 94,162,185 Dominic, Saint, see Dominicans Dominicans, 5, 21,155, 214 Don Luis, 5-7, 63 Drews, Joannes, 227, 237, 261 Durango, Bishop of, see Hermosillo, Gonzalo de Durango, city (formerly Guadiana): location, 141, 177; Jesuit college and mission at, 12, 14; capital of Nueva Vizcaya, 15, 22; center of Jesuit missions east of Sierra Madre, 223 Durango, diocese, created, 195 Durango, state, 14,155 Earthquakes, 33, 84,105 Eclipse, 94 El Altillo, 132 El Capitán, see Hurdaide, Diego Martinez de El Fuerte, 18, 28,132 Encomenderos, 16,135 Enríquez, Martín, 9

Española, island, see Haiti Etchojoa, 28, 152 Expeditions: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés against the French, 3, 4; Hernando Bazán against Suaquis, 21, 56; Díaz against Nacabeba, 43; Hurdaide against Suaquis, 53-60; 116; Hurdaide against Chínipas, 59, 89; Hurdaide against Sinaloas, 59, 116; Hurdaide against Tehuecos, 61, 62, 116,135; Hurdaide against Tepahues, 65, 102, 116; Hurdaide against Yaquis, 116-122, 128, 146; Hurdaide against Tehuecos and Tepahues, 135138,145; Hurdaide against Tepehuanes, 160; Hurdaide against Aibines, 198-200; Hurdaide against Zoes, 259; Pedro de Perea against Nébomes, 204; Perea against Guazápares and Varohíos, 214 Explorations: Pizarro to Inca Empire, 1; Ayllón to Florida, 3; Narváez to Florida, 3; Ponce de León in Florida, 3; De Soto in Florida, 3; Menéndez de Aviles in Florida and the Alleghenies, 3, 4; Ibarra and Río y Losa in northwestern Mexico, 16; Ñuño de Guzman in Sinaloa, 21; Cabeza de Vaca in Texas and northwestern Mexico, 21, 188; Coronado up the coast of Mexico and beyond, 21; Ibarra northward on the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre, 21 Faria, Francisco Xavier de, 49, 227, 239, 245. 2 5 3 Ferdinand I, King, 175 Ferro, Juan, 13 Figueroa, Francisco, 224 Floods, 69, 70, 89,140 Florencia, Francisco de, 153, 225, 227, 231, 232, 256 Flores, Francisco A., 235, 244 Florida, see La Florida Francis of Assisi, Saint, see Franciscans Franciscans, 17, 21, 24, 40,155, 214, 224 Fuerte, river, see Rio del Fuerte

INDEX Gallegos, Juan, 143 Gálvez, José de, 21 Gandía, Duke of, see Borgia, Francis, saint Galarraga, bailiff, 39 Georgia, see La Florida Godinez, Miguel, 153,174,186, 217, 219, 252, 254, 256 Gómez, Gabriel, 7 Gómez, Marcos, 213 Gómez, Miguel, 219 Gonzales, Father, 160 Gozopas, tribe, 99 Grijalva, Juan de, 226, 235 Guadalajara, Bishop of, see Del Valle, Juan Guadalajara, city, 11,12,141,143 Guadalajara, diocese, 195 Guadalcázar, Marquis of, 110, 147,176, 190 Guadiana, see Durango, city and diocese Guale, settlement, 5 Guanajuato, city, 11,12 Guanajuato, state, 14 Guanacevi, town, 51 Guasave Indians, 58 Guasave, town, 20, 28, 31, 69, 217 Guasaves, tribe: location, 18, 28; Martin Pérez missionary to, 31, 45, 67; assisted by Juan Bautista de Velasco during plague, 31, 67; Hernando de Santarén missionary to, 43, 67; flight of, 43, 45, 52, 67, 75, 128; Hernando de Villafañe missionary to, 67-70, 89; Pedro Méndez missionary to, 89, 206; flood among, 70, 89, 140; Alberto Clerici missionary to, 75, 217 Guatemala, 11,12, 202 Guatemala College, 202, 252 Guazápares, tribe: location, 18, 28,167, 168; contacts with emissary of ViUalta, 168; request for baptism or padres, 172, 174; contact with Juan Castini, 171, 172, 173; Julio Pascual apostle to, 174, 209; revolt of, 210—

213; expedition of Pedro de Perea against, 214 Guzman, Diego de: mission at Bamoa, 189, 190, 192, 257, 258; in land of Nebomes, 192,195; Superior at Sinaloa, 169, 186, 194; at Mocorito, 217; station in 1625, 219 Guzman, Diego de, Captain, 113 Guzman, Nuno de, 21, 249 Hackett, Charles Wilson, 219, 228, 253 Hahome, pueblo, 255 Haiti, 3 Hapores, tribe, 210 Havana, 3-8 Hayes, Carlton J. H., 246 Hechiceros (sorcerers, witches, medicine men), 31, 33, 35, 59, 85-87,100, 101, 123, 126, 133, 150, 179, 182-183, 200 Henriquez, Martinez, n Hermosillo, Gonzalo de, 195-197 Herrera, Antonio de, 113 Hiaqui, see Yaqui Hieronymite Fathers, 241 Hinsemeai, chief, 125 Hios, tribe, 173, 209 Hispanola, 241 Hogueras, tribe, 99, 101 Holy Orders, 196 Horcom, Cristobal, 51, 52 Huites, tribe: location, 18, 94, 164; numbers, 165; influenced by Christian neighbors, 91; request for baptism, 94; conversion, 164-168, 254; marital union with Sinaloas, 167,168 Huonder, Anton, 256 Hurdaide, Cristobal de, 184 Hurdaide, Diego Martinez de: birth, 50; character and personality, 48-51, 55, 56, 67, 226; encomendero, 249; arrival at Sinaloa, 48, 202, 239, 241; appointed head of secular government at Sinaloa, 48, 52; secular organization and service in general, 48-51, 71, 72, 75, 80, 82, 83, 85, 88, 97-99, 102, 110, 141, 144, 147, 152,

276

INDEX

Hurdaide, D i e g o M a r t í n e z de (Continued)— ' 5 4 ' ' 5 5 ' T57> '5®' ^ i ,

7°>

1

175, 183, 189-191, 196, 202; captures Ñ a c a b e b a , 52; first official visit to M e x i c o City, 49, 52, 63; punishm e n t of Guasaves, 52; expeditions against Suaquis, 5 3 - 6 2 , 82,116; near disaster at Chinipa, 59, 8 9 , 1 3 3 , 206; capture of Taxicora, 60, 61; wins friendship of Sinaloas,Tehuecos, and Suaquis, 62; second official visit to M e x i c o C i t y , 6 3 - 6 5 , 81, 89, 115; penetration of Tepahue country, 65, 102, 116; pursuit of Ocoronis and Bacubiritos, 6 5 , 1 1 6 , 1 1 7 , 1 2 7 ; capture and punishment of Toroacas, 75; p r o m o t e r a n d b u i l d e r of f o r t on Fuerte, 81-83, 9'> y » y 1 » : 33> '4°> 145; expedition against Tehuecos and Tepahues, 135—138, 145; expedition against Tepehuanes, 160; wins C a huemetos and Chicoratos, 98; req u e s t s erection of m i l i t a r y f o r t s a m o n g Yaquis and N é b o m e s , 100, 184; welcomes a n d assists J u a n Iturbi, no; financial difficulties, 49, 110,123, 239; opinion of Yaquis, 113; expedition against Yaquis, 118-122, 131, 146; peace with Yaquis, 124-128; efforts to obtain missionaries for Yaquis, 127; friendship with M a y o s , 1 4 4 , 1 4 6 , 1 4 7 ; maintains order on Yaqui, 183-185; contact with N é b o m e s , 189, 191; entrada into country of the Ópatas, 193; requests missionaries for Opatas, 194; urges Bishop of D u rango to visit W e s t C o a s t missions, 196; expedition against Aibines, 198— 201; minor expedition to Zoes, 254, 259; death, 174, 201-203, 2 ° 8 . 209; references to writings of, 74, 226, 237, 239, 240, 247, 2 5 1 - 2 5 3 , 257, 258 Hurdaide, M a r t í n Sánchez de, 2 3 9 , 2 4 9 Hurons, tribe, 81, 129 Hurtado, Señorita Dolores, 226 H y m a i m e a i , chief, 182

Ibarra, Francisco de, 16, 21, 57, 235, 249 Ibarra de A n d a , Fortino, 234 Idols, 31, 35, 43, 45, 67, 94, 108, 133, 150 Ignacio, D o n , chief, 184 Indian: dwellings, 67, 68; names, 113, 114; tribes, see Acaxees, Ahornes, Aibines, Algonquins, Apaches, A z tecs, Baciroas, Bacorigues, Bacubiritos, Batucaris, Batucos, Bayacatos, Bayecitos, Bazapas, Cahuemetos, Chicoratos, Chichimecos, Chinipas, Comoporis, Conchos, Conicaris, C o zosopas, Gozopas, Guasaves, Guazápares, Hapores, Hios, Hogueras, Huites, Hurons, Iroquois, Jovas, M a coyahuis, M a y o s , Mocoritos, N é b o mes, N i o s , N u r i s , Ocoronis, Opatas, Oroniratos, Ottawas, Pimas, Seris, Sinaloas, Sioux, Sisibotaris, Suaquis, Tahues, Tarahumares, Tarascans, Tehuecos, Témoris, Tepahues, Tepehuanes, Toroacas, Tubares, T z a y e o s , Ures, Varohíos, Yaquimis, Yaquis, Yécoras, Yumas, Zoes Indians: with firearms, 81, 247; without firearms, 5 7 , 81, 117; flights of: pueblos east of Sinaloa, 37, 39, G u a saves, 43, 45, 52, 67, 7 5 , 115, 128, N i o s , 45, 115, 128, Ocoronis, 45, 65, 66, 89, 115-117, 127, 128, Tehuecos, 45, Bacubiritos, 65, Toroacas, 7 5 ; political organization, 27, 71, 72, 103; requests of, for b a p t i s m or padres, 24, 34, 46, 62, 80, 82, 9 1 - 9 4 , 1 0 7 , 1 2 7 , 128, 133, 138, 144, 152, 162, 169, 174, 189, 192—194, 200, 204, 208; revolts: M i x t o n War, 247; A x a c á n against J u a n Bautista de Segura, 6, 7; Ñ a c a beba against Tapia, 35—37; Tehuecos, 102, 133, 134; Cahuemetos, 156— 160; Tepehuanes, 155-160, 175, 177, 184; Aibines, 198; N é b o m e s , 203; Varohíos and Guazápares, 210—213; Yaquis against Díaz, 112 Indies, Council of the, see Royal C o u n cil of t h e Indies

INDEX Iroquois, tribe, 76, 81, 119 Isabella, Queen, 42 Iturbi, Juan, 109, no, 247 Jacobsen, Jerome V., 233 Jamestown, Virginia, 5, 6 , 1 1 7 , 1 6 2 Jesuit: archives, 223-226; churches, in Mexico, 10,11, 27, 29, 43, 67-69, 78, 79, 82, 88,103,104,107,108,115,140, 144; Generals, see Loyola, Borgia, Aquaviva, Vitelleschi; houses, 10,11; martyrs, 3, 9, 155, 163, 177, 210, 214, see also Cevallos, Gomez (Gabriel), Linares, Martinez (Manuel and Pedro), Mendez (Juan Bautista and Luis), Pascual, Quiros (Luis de), Redondo, Santaren, Segura, Soli's, Tapia (Gonzalo de), Vallez; missions, see Arizona, California Baja, Canada, Chesapeake Bay, Havana, La Florida, Mexico, Paraguay, Philippine Islands; mission ruins, 20, 27, 43, 58, 68, 69, 78-80, 105, 115, 140, 144,181; Provincials, see Altamirano, Arnaya, Cabredo, Diaz (Pedro), Lopez, Plaza, Ribas, Sanchez (Pedro), Segura, Velasco (Pedro de); schools: in Guatemala, 202, 252, in Mexico, n-13, 16, 26, 40, 66, 73, 74, 89, 103, 127,162, 166, 223, 252, in the Philippine Islands, 12; Visitors, see Avellaneda, Bonifaz, Pelaez, Zapata Jesuit Order: founded, 2; first route to North America, 2, 3; building and development of Indian communities, 26, 27, 46, 71, 72, 92; limited number of, 144, 175; number in West Coast missions, 220; excluded from Venice, 208; expulsion from lands of Spain, 20, 38, 140, 214; memory of, at Culiacan, 23 John III, King of Portugal, 175 Jovas, tribe, 18 Kenny, Michael, 6, 231 Kino, Eusebio Francisco, 20, 208, 246 Kroeber, A . L., 247

La Florida: extent of, 3; conquest of, 3, 4, 98; missions in, 3 - 7 , 9, 227, 231 Lanning, John Tate, 231, 232 Lanzarote, chief, 43, 52, 82, 89 La Playa, village, 68 Latini, Leonardo, 217 Lautaro, Juan, 115-117,119,125,127 Lea, Henry C., 245 León, Ponce de, 3 Linares, Pedro, 7 López, Manuel, 8 Lopoche, pueblo, 26, 29, 30, 37 Los Caballeros, mines, 161 Los Mochis, town, 58 Loyola, Ignatius de, saint: creation of the Society of Jesus, 2; fame in New World, 8; death, 8; work of first companions in cities of Italy, 12; beatification, 250 Luisa, interpreter for Hurdaide, 54, 60; secures freedom of Venturo, 55; envoy from Suaquis, 82; welcomes and assists Pérez de Ribas, 86, 87, 102 Llarin, Alberto, 219 Macapule, island, 18, 20, 28, 7 5 Macori, pueblo, see Tehueco Macoyahuis, tribe, 18,152 Magallanes, 2 Maldonado, Miguel Ortiz, 37, 39 Mange, Juan Mateo, 228 Manila, Bishop of, n Manila, city, 12, no Marshall, Thomas Maitland, 231, 245, 246 Martin, Diego, 76 Martin, Gonzalo, 17, 21 Martínez, Manuel, 207, 211-214, 227 Martinez, Pedro, 4, 5 Martyrs, see Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuit martyrs Masse, Father, 81 Matahoa, plain, 28, 60 Matapán, pueblo, 26, 37 Mátape, pueblo, 28,192, 201, 204 Mateo, Don, chief, 183 Mayo River, see Rio Mayo

2 7 8

INDEX

Mazapil, town, 51 Mazatlan, 22 Mecham, J. Lloyd, 234, 235, 239, 242, 244, 249, 255 Medicine men, see Hechiceros Mendez, Juan Bautista, 7 Mendez, Luis, 2 Mendez, Pedro: birth, 206; entry into the Society of Jesus, 40; studies and early experience, 40; in Sinaloa mission, 38, 40, 41, 63, 89, 206; at Culiacan, 40; at Capirato, 40; mission to Tahues, 40, 47, 89; to Nios, 43, 67, 89, 206; at Ocoroni, 45, 74, 89, 206; baptizes Suaquis, 55, 56; organizes school at Sinaloa, 66; assists during Sinaloa flood, 70, 89; trains orchestra at Ocoroni, 74, 89; missionary to Tehuecos, 83, 8 9 - 9 3 , 1 3 3 135, 143, 206; on expedition to Chinipa, 89, 206; knowledge of Indian languages, 90, 206; rest in Mexico City, 147; to Mayos, 128, 147-151, 176, 178, 206, 208; mission to Batucos and neighbors, 151, 204-206; distaste for Indian noises, 151, 179, 182, 205; recalled to Mexico City, 206; at Potam, 217; station in 1625, 219; death of, 206; references to writings of, 237, 238, 244, 249, 251, 260 Mendoza, Antonio de, 13 Mendoza, Antonio de, viceroy, 13, 32 Mendoza y Luna, Juan de, see Montesclaros, Count of Mendoza y Zuniga, Garcia de, 64 Menendez, see Aviles, Pedro Menendez de Mexico, Archbishop of, see Mendoza y Zuniga, Garcia de Mexico, conquest of, 1; maps of, 18, 28; government of, 74, 112; Jesuit missions in, 8-13, 256 (see also Sinaloa missions); University of, 195; Viceroys of, see Enriquez, Guadalcazar, Mendoza (Antonio de), Monterey, Montesclaros, Velasco (Luis de, I and II), Zuniga

Mexico City, 8 - 1 3 , 1 7 , 30, 40,147,162, 176, and passim Michoacán, Bishop of, 8 Michoacán, diocese, 13 Migne, J. R, 235 Miguel, chief, 88,107-109,191 Miguelito, 43 Milanesi, C., 231 Mindanao, P. I., 12 Missions, see Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuit missions Mixton War, 247 Mochicahue, pueblo, 28, 34, 43, 60, 61, 78, 86, 8 7 , 1 0 3 , 1 0 4 Mocorito, river, see Rio Mocorito Mocorito, town, 18, 20, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31.154. 2 I 7 Mocoritos, 18, 24, 30, 71, 9 1 , 1 4 3 , 1 5 3 Moll, H „ 246 Mondragón, Bartolomé, 22 Monterey, Count of, 52 Montesclaros, Count of, 50, 63, 64,130 Montesclaros, fort, 130-132, 135, 145, 162,183, 210 Montoya, Pedro de, 21 Morelia, n Movas, pueblo, 28,192 Múñoz, Bartolomé, 76 Nacabeba: meaning of name, 35, 36, 113; leader of murderers of Tapia, 35, 36, 210; perpetuation of name in Mexican village, 39; fugitive and trouble-maker, 41, 42, 51; wife and son of, slain, 43; befriended by Suaquis, 56; capture, 52, 89; baptism and execution, 5 2 Nacabeba, village, 28, 39 Nájera, Father, 160 Narváez, Panfilo de, 3 Navojoa, pueblo, 28, 152 Nayarit, state, 22 Nébomes, tribe: location, 18, 25, 188; descripiton, 188; settlement at Bamoa, 25,188—192; Martín Pérez missionary to, 25, 67; northern, 100,184, 186, 188-192, 194, 195; fort among,

INDEX proposed, 184; reception of H u r daide, 191; request for missionaries, 189,191; Diego de Guzman missionary to at Bamoa, 189, 190, 192; at homeland, 195; Diego de Bandersipe missionary to, 192, 203; Francisco Oliñano missionary to, 192,198, 200, 201; Blas de Paredes among, 195; revolt of, 203, 204 Neumann, Joseph, 227, 261 New France, 81,129 New Mexico, 16 Nio, town, 20, 28, 43 N i o s , tribe: location, 18, 28; Pedro Méndez missionary to, 43, 67, 89, 206; flight of, 4 5 , 1 1 5 , 1 2 8 Nobor, 217 Nobrega, 2 Notimeai, 213

Ogma y Alangalbang, P. I., 12 Oliñano, Francisco: replaces Ribas on Yaqui, 185; sent to Nébómes, 192, 198, 200, 201; reaches Aibines, 195, 198; menaced with death, 198; goes to Aibines with Tomás Basilio, 201; at Tecoripa and Onabas, 217; station in 1625, 219 Olivas, Martín de, 158 Onabas, pueblo, 18, 28,192, 203, 217 Opahi, settlement, 38 Opatas, tribe, 18,186,192-195,198 Orobato, pueblo, 30 Oroniratos, tribe, 99 Orozco y Berra, Manuel, 245 Ottawas, tribe, 129 Otton, Guillermo, 186, 217, 219, 226 Oviedo, Juan Antonio de, 227, 256

Nueva España, 14; see also Mexico Nueva Galicia, 14, 51 Nuevo León, 14 Nuevo Santander, 14 Nuevo Vizcaya: description, 14, 141; governors of, see Alvear, Bazán (Hernando), Del Río y Losa, Urdiñola, Velasco (Diego Fernandez de) Numanán, pueblo, 14 Núñez, Melchior, 2 Nuri, pueblo, 28,188,192 Nuris, tribe, 160,188,191

Pacheco, Don Fernando, 9 Palmar, town, 18, 24, 28 Papacy, 1,141 Paqueco, pueblo, 14 Paraguay, 72,129 Paredes, Blas de, 195, 217, 219 Parras, 155 Pascual, Julio: birth, 208; education, 208; personal characteristics, 208; vocation, 208; teaches in Faenza and goes to Rome, 208; arrives in Sinaloa, 207, 208; apostle to Chinipas, Témoris, Varohíos, and Guazápares, 174, 208-212, 259; death plot against, 210-213; martyrdom, 213, 227; remains removed to Conicari, 214; references to writings of, 254, 261 Patino, Leandro, 219 Pátzcuaro, u-14, 237 Paul III, Pope, 2 Paul V, Pope, 208, 250 Pearl hunting, 109, no, 248 Pedro, chief, 88 Peláez, Martín, 38, 42,141, 238 Perea, Pedro de, 203, 204, 214 Pereció, Andrés, 241 Pérez, Martín: sent to Sinaloa, 17, 22; baptisms begun, 24; arrival at Sina-

Oaxaca, 11,12, 30 Ocoroni, river, see Rio Ocoroni Ocoroni, partido, 256 Ocoroni, town, 20, 26, 28, 30, 34, 39, 68,103, 204 Ocoronis, tribe: location, 18; Tapia missionary to, 25, 26, 34; Alonso de Santiago missionary to, 30; faithful at time of Tapia's murder, 41; attacked by Tehuecos, 45, 89; flight of, 45, 65, 66, 89, 115-117, 127, 128; Pedro Méndez missionary to, 74, 89, 206 Ocotlán, settlement, 161 Ofameai, chief, 124

280

INDEX

Pérez, Martín (Continued)— loa, 25, 80, 188; in charge of Cubiri and Bamoa, 25, 67; work during plague in Sinaloa mission, 31; mission to Tahues, 34, 47; called in to San Felipe, 37, 39; Superior at San Felipe, 40, 41, 50, 82,121,122,141,151, 153, 175, 189, 191, 202, 251, 252; succeeds Santarén at Guasave, 45, 67, 133; on Sinaloa River, 63, 74; type of church first used by, 68; converts Indians of Cacalotlán, 97; welcomes Don Bautista and Fuerte chiefs, 169; death, 202, 207; references to writings of, 226, 228, 235, 237 Pérez de Ribas, see Ribas, Andrés Pérez de Pericos, 18, 28 Petatlán, state, 249 Philip II, King, 3, 4, 6 Philip III, King, 109 Philip IV, King, 195 Philippine Islands, 1 1 , 1 2 , 1 0 4 , 1 6 7 Pichilingues, Dutch freebooters, 109 Pimas, tribe, 18,186,188 Pinamonte, 12 Pizarro, Francisco, 1 Plague, see Disease Plaza, Juan de la, 12 Pollard, A . F„ 231 Ponce de León, 3 Popayán, Bishop of, 8 Pótam, 28, 217 Powhatan, 6, 63 Priestley, Herbert Ingram, 32, 235, 247 Puebla, 9-12, 40, 202 Puerto Rico, 5 Purísima Concepción, 78 Quiriego, town, 136 Quiroga, Don Vasco de, 8 Quirós, Diego de, 48, 51, 52 Quirós, Luis de, 6, 7 Ráhun, 28 Ramírez, Gerónimo, 155 Redondo, Cristóbal, 7

Religiosas de la Compañía de María, 38 Ribas, Andrés Pérez de: arrival in Sinaloa missions, 31, 56, 64, 80, 81, 116, 140; description of victims of plague, 31; missionary to Ahornes and Suaquis, 83-88, 102-111, 121, 130, 139, 143-145; records accounts of manifestations of the spirit world, 100; accompanies Hurdaide into Tepahue country, 102, 135-138; converts Comoporis, 107, 108; welcomes Juan Iturbi, 108—in; goes to Mexico City seeking missionaries for Yaquis, 158, 176; work among Yaquis, 100, 101, 113, 128, 130, 162, 177—184, 191, 193; near victim of violence, 182, 183; acquaintance with Mayos, 144, 145, 178; contact with Sisibotaris, 192194; given offices of trust in Mexico City and writes famous books, 185, 206, 208; sent to Rome as procurator, 206; references to writings of, 4, 8, 22, 56, 71, 74, 77, 83, 90, 129, 131, 153,164,178, 201, 202, 206, 207, 224228, 231, 233—260 Ribadeneira, Peter, 90 Ribiera, 2 Ricard, 255 Río Bavispe, 188 Río Cedros, 2 8 , 1 3 6 , 1 5 2 Río Chínipas, 164 Río Culiacán, 28, 47,195, 235 Río de la Villa, 19; see also Río Sinaloa Río de San Pedro, 177 Río del Fuerte: location, 17, 18, 20, 22, 28, 33; description, 58, 90, 144, 164; tributaries of, see Río Chínipas, Río Oleros, Río Urique, Río Verde; early settlements on, 21; earthquake on, 33, 34, 105; visit of Tapia to, 34; efforts to advance missions to, 44, 49, 63; request of tribes on, for baptism or padres, 76, 82, 169; Nacabeba takes refuge on, 42; missions to, authorized, 64; missions on, 20, 44, 69, 74, 78, 8 0 , 1 3 0 , 1 4 3 , 1 6 4 , 1 7 5 (see also Ahornes, Bacorigues, Batucaris, Ba-

INDEX yecitos, Chínipas, Comoporis, Cozosopas, Guazápares, Hapores, Hios, Huites, Sinaloas, Suaquis, Tehuecos, Témoris, Tzayeos, Varohíos, Zoés); fort on, authorized, 130; fort built, 131,140 (see also Montesclaros, fort); mission ruins on, 78 Rio Guadalquivir, 9 Río Mayo: location, 17, 18, 28, 80, 114, 116, 123, 144; description, 114, 144; tributary, see Río Cedros; missions on, 20, 69, 80,144, 151-153, 174,185, 186, 256 (see also Conicaris, Macoyahuis, Mayos, Tepahues); made mission unit with Rio Yaqui, 185; V i Ualta Superior on, 185, 202, 207 Rio Mocorito, 18, 26, 28, 44, 51, 143,

/53- 235

Rio Moctezuma, 188 Río Ocoroni, 18, 19, 28, 34, 44, 70, 97, 162, 163 Rio Oleros, 164 Río Petachán, 28 Río Petatlán, 19, 157; see also Rio Sinaloa Río San Sebastián de Ebora, 44; see also Rio Mocorito Rio Sinaloa, lower: location, 17-19, 28; description, 19, 20, 70,110; tributary, see Rio Ocoroni; missions on, 25, 26, 44, 76, 143, 175 (see also Guasaves, Nios, Toroacas); flood on, 70, 140; colonizers on, 235; see also Sinaloa missions Rio Sinaloa, upper, missions on, 9 7 101, 105, 155-163, 175, 185, 251; see also Bayacatos, Bazapas, Cahuemetos, Chicoratos, Gozopas, Hogueras, Oroniratos, and Sinaloa missions Río Sonora, 123 Río Suaque, 20; see also Rio del Fuerte Río Urique, 164 Río Verde, 164 Río y Losa, Rodrigo del, see Del Río y Losa, Rodrigo Río Yaqui: location, 17, 18, 28; description, 114,115; tributaries, see Rio Ba-

281

vispe, Río Moctezuma; missions on, 20, 35, 80, 185, 192, 256 (see also Albines, Batucos, Nébomes, Nuris, Opatas, Pirnas, Sisibotaris, Ures, Yaquis, Yécoras); flight to, of tribes from Sinaloa River, 115; combined with M a y o River as mission unit, 185; Villalta Superior on, 185, 202, 207; fort on, proposed, 100,184; Juan Varela Superior on, 202, 209, 210 Rivera, Manuel, 245 Robles, alcalde, 39 Rogel, Juan, 4, 5, 7 Rolfe, John, 6 Rome, i, 38, 63,146,187, 206, 208, 223 Royal Council of the Indies, 4,195, 241 Ruiz, Alonzo, 12 Ruiz, Antonio, 22, 24, 235, 239 Si, Calixto, 8 Sacchini, 7 Sahuaripa, pueblo, 28, 57, 205 Sahuaripa, valley, 193, 204 St. Augustine, city, 4, 5 St. Johns River, 5 Salinas, Count of, 131, 247; see also Velasco, Luis de, II Salmerón, Pedro, 256 Saltillo, 50 Salvatierra, Juan Maria, 20, 72 San Andrés, mission, 110, 115, 155, 156 San Blas, town, 20 San Felipe, pueblo, 14 San Felipe y Santiago, mission, 256 San Felipe y Santiago, town (Sinaloa): foundation, 17, 22; location, 17-19, 22, 23, 28,93; description, 19, 20, 53; mission center, 27,154,169, 172, 177, 186,188,194, 223; fort established at, 42; flood in, 70,140 San Felipe y Santiago de Carapoa, town, 21 San Francisco de Borja, mission, 256 San Gregorio, college, 12 San Ignacio, island, 18, 20, 28 San Ignacio, mission, 28, 156, 158, 159, 185, 256

282

INDEX

San Ignacio de Hiaqui, mission, 256 San Ildefonso, seminary, 12 San Jacinto Mountains, 69 San Juan Bautista de Carapoa, 21; see also San Juan de Carapoa San Juan Capistrano, 233 San Juan de Carapoa, 17, 21, 56, 9 3 , 1 3 2 San Lúcar, 4, 8, 9 San Luis de la Paz, pueblo, 14, 72 San Luis Rey, 69 San Miguel, California, 69 San Miguel, Mexico, 28, 78, 7 9 , 1 0 3 San Miguel de Culiacán, 23; see also Culiacán San Nicolás, college, 13 San Pedro y San Pablo, college, 11, 162 San Sebastián, pueblo, 205 Sánchez, Alonso, 11 Sánchez, George I., 241 Sánchez, Juan, 11 Sánchez, Pedro, 8 Santa Bárbara, 51 Santa Clara, 95 Santa Cruz del Valle, pueblo, 27 Santa Elena, 4-6 Santa María, mission, 6, 7 Santa María de las Parras, see Parras Santa Inés, 79 Santarén, Hernando de: missionary to Sinaloa, 39-40, 63; stay at Culiacán, 39, 40; temporary mission to Tahues, 40, 47; work among Guasaves, 43, 67; at Ures, 44; mission to Acaxees, 40, 44, 63, 158, 238; urges establishment of fort on Fuerte, 131; helps pacify Cahuemetos, 158; martyrdom, 4 0 , 1 5 5 , 1 6 3 Santiago, Alonso de: sent to Sinaloa mission, 3 0 , 1 5 3 ; heroic work during plague, 31, 235; called in to San Felipe, 39; return to Mexico City, 30, 40 Santiago, Conde de, 98; see also Velasco, Luis de, II Santo Espíritu, college, 11, 40 Sauer, Carl, 152, 234, 236, 244-247, 251, 253, 254, 257

Schoech, Conrad von, 249 Sebastián, 43 Sedeño, Antonio, 8, 9 , 1 1 Segneri, 12 Segura, Juan Bautista, 5 - 7 Sens, tribe, 18 Serra, Junípero, 21 Shea, John Gilmary, 231 Shiels, W. Eugene, 13, 36, 233-235, 237, 240 Ships, on west coast of Mexico, 108111,123, 247, 248 Simpson, Lesley B., 241 Sinaloa, missions: proposed, 16, 129; authorized, 17; missionaries sent to, 22; baptisms begun, 24, 26; Cubiri chosen as center of, 26; Cubiri abandoned, 2 7 ; San Felipe becomes permanent center, 27; first public celebration of Christmas, 27, 29; progress, 25, 26, 27-30, 33, 44, 45, 71, 139, 140, 226; plague, 31-33, 35; murder of Tapia, 36—41; disorganization of pueblos, 37-42; assistance from Culiacán, 39, 119; recovery, 39-43; petition for presidio at Sinaloa, 42; presidio established, 42, 76; Christmas celebration of 1595, 44; statistics of, for 1595, 44; Hurdaide arrives in, 48; importance of, recognized, 51; capture and hanging of Nacabeba, 52; Hurdaide in command of secular government, 52; Suaquis, Tehuecos, Sinaloas, and Ahornes request baptism and padres, 62; dearth of missionaries, 62; mission to Río Fuerte authorized, 64; flood, 69, 70, 140; building and development, 67-77; e x t e r i o r church organization, 72; visited by Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, 76; on to the Fuerte, 80 ff.; to the upper Rio Sinaloa, 99 if.; ships sighted, 108, 123; trouble with Yaquis, 118-122, 128; peace with Yaquis, 1 2 7 , 1 3 2 , 1 3 3 ; to Mayos, 144 If.; revolt of Tehuecos, 135-138; peace with Tehuecos

INDEX and Tepahues, 138; confirmations by Bishop del Valle, 140-142; to Tepahues, 152,153; petition made for college at Sinaloa, 252; revolt of Tepehuanes, 155-160, 175, 177, 184; uprising of Cahuemetos, 156-160; peace with Cahuemetos, 161; changes on, 162, 185, 186, 192; to the upper Ocoroni, 162, 163; to Yaqui, 176 ff.; division with headquarters at Tórin, 185; 1620-27 statistics of, 185, 186, 196, 202, 217—219; to Nébomes, 192; in diocese of Durango, 195; confirmations by Bishop Hermosillo, 27,196; uprising of Aibines, 198; peace with Aibines, 200; death of Hurdaide and Martín Pérez, 202; revolt of Nébomes, 203, 204; to Sisibotaris, 204; to Chinipas, 174, 207 if.; revolt of Guazápares and Varohios, 210-213 Sinaloa, province or state, 14, 17-19, 21, 93, 185, 219, 249, 256 Sinaloa, town, see San Felipe y Santiago, town Sinaloas, tribe: location, 17, 33; numbers, 76; description, 17, 45, 93, 94; request baptism or padres, 34, 62, 76, 80, 82, 93; betray Hurdaide, 59; allies of Suaquis, 60; won over by Hurdaide, 62, 116; Villalta missionary to, 83, 93-96,164-170; Christian influence, 91,165,169; marital union with Huites, 167, 168; Juan Castini missionary to, 170 Sioux, tribe, 57 Sisibotari, chief, 193,194, 205 Sisibotaris, tribe, 192,193, 204 Sisinicari, pueblo, 31, 69 Sivirijoa, 28, 78, 90 Smith, John, 6 Soberanes, Tomás de, 22 Society of Jesus, see Jesuit Order Solis, Gabriel de, 7 Sommervogel, Carlos, 244, 245, 256 Sonora, state, 14, 18, 20, 57, 185, 188, 214, 219, 225, 256 Sorcerers, see Hechiceros

283

Soto, Hernando de, 3 South Carolina, 3; see also La Florida Soyopa, 18, 28 Spain: contribution of, to growth of missions, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 17, 21, 42, 63, 64, 71, 72, no, 127, 129, 176, 214 (see also Hurdaide; Diego, Martinez de; Mexico, viceroys of; Nueva Vizcaya, governors of); expulsion of Jesuits from lands of, 20, 214; ships from, on west coast of Mexico, 108m , 247, 248 Spain, New, see Mexico Spirits, 99-101,133,183,184 Stephens, W. B., 227, 237 Suaqui, pueblo, 28, 192, 198, 217 Suaquis, tribe: location, 3 3 , 5 3 , 5 8 ; numbers, 76, 86; description, 34, 45, 146; reputation of, among Spaniards, 80; destruction of San Juan de Carapoa, 21, 56, 132; request of, for baptism or padres, 34, 62, 76, 80, 82; delivery of remains of Tapia, 43; trouble-makers, 52, 53, 56, 58, 85; defeat by Hurdaide, 55-62,102, 116; Ribas missionary to, 83, 86, 87, 90, 102-105, I2I> *39> J44> '45' members of, accompany Ribas to Yaqui, 178 Suarez, Bartolome, 110 Suca, Juan, 184 Suicides, 43, 95,184 Superstitions, 31, 94, 95, 101, 108, 114, 133,180,185; see also Spirits Sutariva, pueblo, 5 Taa, chief, 55 Tacuba, town, 11 Tahaa, 36 Tahues, tribe, 18, 34, 44, 47, 65 Tamazula, pueblo, 28, 69 Tannenbaum, Frank, 241 Tanner, Mathias, 227, 231, 237, 245, 261 Tapia, Cristobal de, 249 Tapia, Gonzalo de: arrival in Mexico, 13; work among Tarascan Indians, 13,14, 27; foundation of San Luis de la Paz, 14, 72; meeting and friend-

284

INDEX

Tapia, Gonzalo de (Continued)— ship with D o n Rodrigo del Rio Losa, 14-16; e s t a b l i s h m e n t of I n d i a n school at Zacatecas, 16; sent to Sinaloa, 17, 21, 22, 80, 188; baptisms begun, 24; in charge of pueblos on upper Sinaloa River, 25; founds mission center at Cubiri, 26; ministrations to workers in mines of Topia, 27, 31; work among Acaxees, 27, 72; first public celebration of Christmas in Sinaloa mission, 27, 29; return to Mexico C i t y for recruits, 30, 63, 203; fruits of visit to Mexico City, 30, 39, 40, 63, 203; baptism of infants who died soon after, 33; visit to Suaquis and Sinaloas, 34; death of, plotted, 35, 36, 210; murder of, 36-41, 89, 206; beatification of, 38, 41; i n f l u e n c e of v i r t u e s of, 46; builder of churches, 26, 68, 71; biography of, 225 Tarahumares, tribe, 18 Tarascans, tribe, 13, 14, 27, 29, 237 Taucre, 217 Taxicora, wizard, 35, 59-62 Taybay, R I., 12 Tecori, 28, 217 Tecoripa, pueblo, 28, 192, 198, 200, 217 Tecuciapa, pueblo, 28, 157, 160, 161 Tehueco, pueblo, 28, 43, 61, 78-90,132, 133,196, 205, 217 Tehuecos, tribe: location, 60, 78, 79, 89; numbers, 76; description, 89-92, 146; flight of, 45, 134; attack on Ocoroni, 45, 89; murder of tribe member, 51; vengeance on Nacabeba, 51, 52, 89; expedition of Hurdaide against, 61, 116, 135-138; request for baptism or padres, 62, 76, 82; desertion of Hurdaide by chiefs of, 64, 65, 80, 89; ready for the gospel, 80; Pedro Méndez missionary to, 83, 89-93, 133-135, 206; revolt of, 102, 133, 134; emissaries to Yaquis, 118; Laurentin Adame missionary to, 135; William Otton mis-

sionary to, 186; visited by Bishop of Durango, 196 Tellez, Melchior, 22 Temastidn, 73, 95, 211 Temoris, tribe, 18, 28,167,168,172—174, 209 Teotlalco, town, 11,12 Tepahues, tribe: shielders of rebel Tehueco chiefs, 65,102; location of, 18, 152; expedition of Hurdaide against, 65, 102, 116, 145; in league with revolting Tehuecos, 134-138, 152; request of, for padres, 138, 152; number of, 152; Diego de la Cruz missionary to, 153; M i g u e l Godinez missionary to, 153, 174,186 Tepahui, 28, 217 Tepehuanes, tribe: location, 18, 98, 99, 155; description, 98, 155; revolt of, 40,155,156, 158-160, 177, 184; Geronimo Ramirez missionary to, 155; expedition of Hurdaide against, 160 Tepotzotlan, 11 Teresa, saint, 11 Tesamo, mission, 217 Tesia [Tessia], town, 28, 144, 152, 251 Thwaites, Reuben Gold, 243 Toapa, 28,192, 201, 204 Tonichi, 28 Topia, mission, 155-157 Topia, mountains of, 40, 63 Topia, town, 21, 22, 27, 47, 54, 65, 110, 115,141,177,196, 238 Torices, Francisco, 214 Torim, 181; see also Torin Torin, town: location, 28, 35, 115; mission ruin at, 115,181; visited by Ribas and Basilio, 181-184; headquarters of missions on M a y o and Yaqui rivers, 185; Cristobal de Villalta Superior at, 185; Juan Varela Superior at, 202, 209, 210; Guillermo Otton missionary at, 217 Toro, 28, 78, 79, 93, 164, 169, 170, 254 Toroacas, tribe, 75 Torobepa, 237 Torres, Antonio de, 12

INDEX Tovar, Pedro de, 22, 249 Tovoropa, 25, 36-38, 235 Tubares, tribe, 18, 162, 163 Tutuqui, Luis, 159 Tzayeos, tribe, 210 Ugarte, Martin de, 203 Urdinola, Francisco de, 50, 76,122,131, 247 Ures, pueblo, 44 Ures, tribe, 188 Vaca, pueblo, 28, 78, 79,164, 209 Vaca, Nunez Cabeza de, 21, 25,188, 235, 257 Valladolid, city (now Morelia), 1 1 , 1 2 , 1 4 Valle del Cuervo, 97; see also Cacalotlan Valle, Rafael Heliodoro, 233 Vallez, Pablo, 2 Van der Sipe, 185; see also Bandersipe, Diego de Varela, Juan: replaces Ribas on Yaqui, 185; sent to upper Sinaloa, 185; Superior at Torin, 202, 209, 210; accompanies Pedro de Perea on expedition against Nebomes, 204; at Tecori, 217; station in 1625, 219; references to writings of, 201, 226, 254, 259— 261 Varela, Julio, 261; see also Varela, Juan Varohios, tribe: location, 18, 167; contact with emissaries of Villalta, 168; contact with Castini, 173; Julio Pascual missionary to, 209-213; revolt of, 211-213; expedition of Pedro de Perea against, 214 Vaz, Jorge, 2 Velasco, Diego Fernandez de, 42 Velasco, Juan Bautista de: birth and entry into the Society of Jesus, 30; sent to Sinaloa mission, 3 0 , 1 5 3 ; heroic work during plague, 31, 32, 67; called in to San Felipe, 37, 39; baptizes Lanzarote and Miguelito, 43; sent to Tahues, 47; baptizes condemned Suaqui chiefs, 55, 56; on

2 8 5

Sinaloa River, 63, 70; writes grammar of Câhita language, 77, 90; confers with Hurdaide with regard to taming of Yaquis, 118; on the Mocorito, 30, 143, 153; with the Mayos, 144,153; Superior at San Felipe, 153; confessor and adviser of Hurdaide, 153; death of, 3 0 , 1 5 3 , 1 5 4 , 207; eulogized by colleagues, 153; buried at San Felipe, 154; references to writings of 74, 235—238, 241, 244 Velasco, Luis de, I, 98 Velasco, Luis de, II, 6, 42, 98, 128, 131, 144 Velasco, Pedro de: birth, 98; education, 99; vocation, 99; volunteers for missions, 99; arrives at Sinaloa, 99; work on upper Sinaloa, 99-101, 105, 143, 155-162; 251; pleads to remain in missions, 161; assigned to chair of scripture and moral theology at San Pedro y San Pablo, 162; Provincial of New Spain, 49; biography of, 49, 227, 239, 253; references to writings of, 238, 250, 253 Venegas, Miguel, 248 Venturo, 55, 82,102 Vera Cruz, 3, 9-11 Vicam, 28, 217 Villafane, Hernando de: arrival on Sinaloa River, 63, 67; work among Guasaves, 67—70, 89,143; builds permanent churches, 67, 68, 70; Superior at San Felipe, 153 Villalta, Cristobal de: sent to Sinaloa missions, 64, 80, 81, 116; on Fuerte River, 83; missionary to Sinaloas, 83, 93-96,105,143,164-170; contact with Zoes, 94; conversion of Huites, 164, 254; contact with Chinipas, Témoris, Guazâpares, and Varohios, 168; replaced on upper Fuerte, 170; Superior at Torin, 185, 202, 207; appointed rector of college in Guatemala, 202; death, 202, 207; reference to writings of, 244 Villareal, Francisco de, 4, 5

286

INDEX

Villaseca, Alonso de, 8 Villaviciosa, 206 Vinqua, 12 Vitelleschi, Mutius, 38,187, 208 Vizcaino, 248 Wading, Luke, 256 Wading, Michael, 153; see also Godinez, Miguel Wading, Peter, 256 Waterford, 186 Winsor, Justin, 231 Witches, see Hechiceros Wizards, see Hechiceros Xavier, Francis, saint, 2, 9 , 1 7 5 Yaqui River, see Rio Yaqui Yaquimis, tribe, 152, 251 Yaquis, tribe: location, 17; description, 80, 100, 101, 112-116, 146, 182, 184, 244, 255; numbers, 113; threat of revolt of, 100,183; Perez de Ribas missionary to, 1 0 0 , 1 0 1 , 1 1 3 , 1 2 8 , 1 3 0 , 1 6 2 , 177-184, 191, 193; corruption of, 115; expedition of Hurdaide against, 116— 122, 128, 131, 146; treachery of, 118;

threats of Hurdaide against, 123,124; peace overtures of, 1 2 4 - 1 2 7 , 1 3 2 , 1 3 3 ; request for baptism or padres, 127, 1 2 8 , 1 3 3 , 1 7 5 ; allies of Hurdaide, 145; missionaries sought for, 158, 175, 176; missions to, authorized, 176; refusal to revolt, 160, 184; Tomas Basilio missionary to, 1 7 7 - 1 8 4 , 191; Diego de Bandersipe and Francisco Olinano missionaries to, 185,192 Ybalco, P. I., 12 Yecoras, tribe, 188 Yecorato, village, 28,159-163, 217 Yeyequi, pueblo, 100,184 Yotoca, Pedro, 159 Yumas, tribe, 57 Yusimey, pueblo, 255 Zacatecas, 1 1 , 1 4 , 1 6 , 51, 64, 80 Zamora, 1 1 , 1 2 Zapata, Juan Hortiz, 256 Zavala, Ignacio de, 217, 219 Zebreros, Perez de, 48, 51 Zebu, E I. (now Cebu), 12 Zobola, Ignatio, 217 Zoes, tribe, 18, 91, 94, 254, 259 Zuniga, Alvaro de, 30