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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Our view of the Spanish missionary Church results from the convergence of two streams of historical writing. The first uses the activities of a particular religious order or its most illustrious members to frame the foundation and growth of a missionary enterprise. The second pursues a thematic approach, emphasizing the importance of the missions as foci of Spanish culture in a native world. Within this second stream falls the particularly North American interest in the frontier with its stress on the mission stations as the vanguard of Iberian religious, political, and social institutions.
Though widely divergent in organization and emphasis, both streams present a picture of isolation. Solitary missions existed as self-contained theocracies on the very edge of the viceroyalty. The missionaries themselves constantly stressed this view. Their correspondence cites the difficulties of operating stations at great remove from the seats of Spanish power in America. Professional historians, following the diaries and letters of the missionary fathers, have placed priests, neophytes, and — in North America — presidial soldiers beyond the aid or control of metropolitan authority touched only by an occasional visita or supply train.
I would like to thank Jay F. Lehnertz and Joe Hamilton, Jr. who made thoughtful suggestions after reading an earlier version of the manuscript and Adán Benavides, Jr. who generously offered some of his as yet unpublished material on the San Antonio missions.
1 Some of the best examples of this genre include Dunne, Peter M., Black Robes in Lower California (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1952);Google Scholar Cardiff, Guillermo Furlong, Misiones y sus pueblos de guaranies (Buenos Aires, 1953);Google Scholar and Geiger, Maynard, The Franciscan Conquest of Florida (Washington, D.C., 1937).Google Scholar
2 See Ricard, Robert, La “Conquête spirituelle” du Mexique. Essai sur l’apostolat et les methodes missionaries des ordres mendiants en Nouvelle-Espagne de 1523–24 a 1572 (Paris, 1933);Google Scholar de Armas Medina, Fernando, Christianización del Perú (1532–1600) (Seville, 1953);Google Scholar and the somewhat dated but still useful work by Rippy, J. Fred and Thomas, Jean Nelson, Crusaders of the Jungle (Chapel Hill, 1936).Google Scholar
3 In Latin America, the frontier has been the province of H. E. Bolton and his students. See Bolton’s, Rim of Christendom (New York, 1936);Google Scholar his Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century (New York, 1962); and Bannon, J.F. The Spanish Borderlands Frontier (New York, 1970).Google Scholar
4 One of the most accessible sources of missionary correspondence is the collected letters of Father Serra in Tibesar, Antonine, ed., Writings of Junípero Serra 4 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1955–1966).Google Scholar See Serra’s complaints to Vicerov Bucareli on the slow state of transportation between Mexico City and California in volume III, p. 117.
5 Mörner, Magnus. The Political and Economic Activities of the Jesuits in the La Plata Region: the Hapsburg Era (Stockholm, 1953).Google Scholar
6 In Lima two major repositories hold what remains of the viceregal materials. Of primary importance is the Archivo General de la Nación (hereafter cited AGNP). Other manuscripts are preserved in the Archivo de Límites of the Ministry of Foreign Relations (hereafter AdLP). In Bolivia, the Archivo Nacional (ANB) holds most of Charcas' documentation relating to Moxos.
7 “Expediente que contiene varias cartas escritas por el Obispo de Santa Cruz.” San Lorenzo, 7/VIII/1767. ANB, Audiencia de Charcas, Mojos V, f. 7r.
8 Robert Southey describes the visit of the Brazilian explorer, de Lima, Manoel Felix, in his History of Brazil, 3 vols. (London, 1822), III, p. 329.Google Scholar
9 “Inventario de la mision de San Pedro.” San Pedro de Moxos, 8/X/1767. ANB, Archivo de Mojos (hereafter AdM), 1, ff. 23v.-35v. . These inventories are published in Archivo Nacional de Bolivia. Boletín (Sucre, 1891), Tomo 2, no. 6, pp. 389–394.
l0 Altamirano, Francisco, Historia de la mission de los Mojos (La Paz, 1891), p. 83.Google Scholar
11 Parejas, Alcides, Historia de Moxos y Chiquitos (La Paz, 1976), p. 83.Google Scholar “Correspondencia epistolar y de oficio.” ANB, AdM, 1, ff. 85v-85r. Loreto, 20/X/1767.
12 “Carta de Antonio Marbán a S M.” San Lorenzo, 25/VII/1698. Archivo General de Indias (hereafter AGI), Lima 407, s/f. .
13 “Real Cédula 1723.” Buen Retiro, 1723. AGI, Contratación 5548, s/f.. “Relación de todos los religiosos que destos reynos han pasado a las yndias.” Cádiz, 17/X/1737. AGI, Indiferente General 2979, s/f. . “Real Cédula 1747.” Aranjuez, 27/V/1747. Biblioteco Nacionel del Perú (BNL) 747, C880, s/f.
14 Medina, Armas, Christianización, pp. 154–155. Jay F. Lehnertz, “Land of the Infidels: The Franciscans in the Central Montaña of Peru, 1709–1824.” (Ph.D. Diss., University of Wisconsin, 1974), pp. 315–316;Google Scholar Lehnertz’ study suggests that royal subsidies were paid only sporadically in the first half of the eighteenth century.
l5 “Carta de Padre Zapata.” in Maurtua, Victor M., ed., Juicio de límites entre el Perú y Bolivia, 10 vols., maps (Barcelona, 1906), X, p. 25.Google Scholar
16 Métraux, Aldred, “The Revolution of the Ax.” Diogenes, 26 (Spring 1959), pp. 25–40.Google Scholar
17 “Carta del P. Phelipe del Castillo al Sr. Presidente.” Cadiz, 25/1V/1736. AGI, Contración 5548, f. 2v.. The magnetic attraction of manufactured goods for tropical forest people remains an important part of the strategy for their present-day contact and removal to reservations in Amazonian Brazil. See von Puttkamer, W. Jesco, “Brazil’s Beleagured Indians: Requiem for a Tribe?” National Geographic. 147:2 (February 1975). pp. 254–268.Google Scholar
18 Mörner, , Activities, pp. 100–101.Google Scholar
19 “Expediente obrado acerca del remate de la hacienda de chalguani.” La Plata, 20/IX/1768. ANB, Audiencia de Charcas, Mojos III, f. 14r. . Altamirano, Historia, p. 9.
20 “Expediente obrado acerca del remate de la hacienda de chalguani.” La Plata, 20/IX/1768. f. 14r..
21 “Traslado de la ynposición de un censo.” Lima, 20/X/1698. AGNP, Compañía de Jesús, Censos, leg. 8, s/f. .
22 “Testamento del General D. Juan de Murga.” Lima, 25/II/1726. AGNP, Compañía de Jesús, Cuentas Generales, leg. 100, s/f. .
23 For the financial activities of the secular Church in Mexico see Costeloe, Michael, Church Wealth in Mexico (Cambridge, 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for Peru see Hamnett, Brian, “Church Wealth in Peru: Estates and Loans in the Archdiocesis of Lima in the Seventeenth Century.” Jahrbuch fur Geschichte von Staat, Wirschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas 10 (1973), pp. 113–132.Google Scholar
24 Hamnett, , “Church Wealth,” pp. 115–124.Google Scholar
25 “Catálogo del estado temporal.” Archivum Romanum Societatis lesu (ARSI), Peru 6,ff. 175r., 282v., 286v. . “Catalogus Rerum” ARSI Peru 6, f. 414r.
26 “Traslado de la ynposición de un censo.” Lima, 20/X/1698. AGNP, Compañía de Jesús, Censos leg. 8, s/f.
27 Ramos, Demetrio, Trigo chileno, navieros del Callao y hacendados limeños entre la crisis agricola del siglo XVII y la comercial de la primera mitad del XVIII. (Madrid, 1967), pp. 26–27,31.Google Scholar Hamnett, , “Church Wealth,” p. 128.Google Scholar Burga, Manuel, De la encomienda a la hacienda capitalista (Lima, 1976), pp. 126–128.Google Scholar
28 “Libro de la hacienda de Motocache.” Motocache, no date, AGNP Compañía de Jesús, Cuentas de Haciendas, leg. 87, f.lv.. “Testimonio de el ymbentario del colegio del noviciado de la Compañía de Jesús. Año de 1767.” in Eguiguren, Luis Antonio, ed., Las Huellas de la Compañía de Jesús en el Perú (Lima, 1956), p. 56.Google Scholar
29 “Libro de la hacienda de San Antonio de Motocache.” Motocache, no date, f. 2r. .
30 Riley, James D., Hacendados jesuitas en Mexico (Mexico, 1976), p. 16.Google Scholar
31 “Libro de la hacienda de San Antonio de Motocache.” Motocache, 1709. ff. lr.-2r.
32 Investors included sources as disparate as the Bishop of Concepción de Chile and the Indian caja de comunidad in Casma. “Libro de la hacienda de San Antonio de Motocache.” Motocache, no date, ff. 4v., 6r., 26v. . “Notario Juan de Avellán.” Lima, 20/V/1710. AGNP, Compañía de Jesús, Hojas Sueltas, leg. 126, no. 3. . “Testimonio de el ymbentario.” in Eguiguren, , ed., Huellas, p. 59.Google Scholar
33 “Libro de la hacienda de San Antonio de Motocache.” Motocache, 1 /VIII/1713, f. 9v., Motocache, 14/IX/1720, f. 19r. .
34 Accounts of the 1730s show that the missions received interest from a 10,000 peso censo, but this amount corresponds to the debts assumed by the Jesuits at the time of San Jacinto’s purchase. “Borrador, Año 1731.” San Jacinto, 24/III/1731. AGNP, Compañía de Jesús, Cuentas de Haciendas, leg. 93, ff. 424–443.
35 “Libro de rezivos y gastos de San Jacinto.” San Jacinto, 31/I/1712. AGNAP, Compañía de Jesus, Cuentas de Haciendas, leg. 93, ff. 424–443.
36 “Libro de la hacienda de San Antonio de Motocache.” Motocache, 31/X/1710, f. 6r., Motocache, 15/XI/1718. f. 19v. .
37 A 2,000 peso censo established in 1710 by Juan Básquez de Súñiga was cancelled February, 1724. “Testimonio del ymbentario.” in Eguiguren, , ed., Huellas, pp. 59, 60.Google Scholar
38 “Censo de 22U718 p. de principal a favor de las misiones de Moxos.” Lima, 22/III/1725. AGNP, Compañía de Jesús, Hojas Sueltas, leg. 126, nos. 11, 12, 16. “Libro de la hacienda de San Antonio de Motocache, 6/V/1724. ff. 27r., 29v.. “Inventario de la hacienda de viña de Humay.” Los Reves, 23/XII/I739, ANB, AdM, f. 98v. .
39 Lynch, John, Spain under the Hapsburgs, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1969), II. p. 216.Google Scholar
40 Riley notes that Mexican Jesuits were advised by their lay benefactor, Antonio de Villaseca, to invest in semi-developed properties. However, Riley concludes that the Jesuit investment policy was governed more by potential profits than advice. Riley, , Hacendados jesuitas, pp. 23, 51.Google Scholar
41 “Inventario de la hacienda de viña de Umay.” Los Reyes, 23/XII/1739. ff. 98v.-101v. .
42 “Razon o Resumen General.” Conde de Superunda, Memoria del. Memorias de los virreyes que han governado el Perú. 6 vols. (Lima, 1874),Google Scholar IV, appendix, “Estados o Documentos,” pp. 2–3.
43 Between the Jesuit census of 1752 and the 1773 count made by the Governor of Moxos, total mission population fell from 31,325 to 17,191. “Catálogo y numeración de las misiones de Mojos a cargo de los Padres de la Compañía de Jesús.” Memorias de los virreyes. IV, appendix, “Estados o Documentos,” pp. 4-5. “II Estado del numero de gente de las misiones de Mojos.” Loreto, 20/XII/1773. ANB, AdM 4, s/f. .
44 Mörner, , Activities, pp. 100, 130–131, 203.Google Scholar
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47 Scholes, France V.. “The Supply Service of the New Mexican Missions in the 17th Century,” New Mexico Historical Review. V (1930), nos. 1–3, 1, pp. 100–105; 2, p. 108.Google Scholar
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49 “Expediente sobre eximir a los misioneros de correr con los caudales de temporalidades. Texas, 1780, Archivo General de Historia del Estado de Coahuila, Saltillo, no. 342, ff. 937v-940v. Bolton, Herbert, Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century, p. 19.Google Scholar Weddle, Robert S., San Juan Bautista, Gateway to Spanish Texas, (Austin, 1968), p. 182.Google Scholar
50 “Informe acerca de visitas y derroteros de las misiones de California, Pimería, Sonaloa, y otros lugares, 1690–1753 (sic).” BLAC, WBS 67, pp. 51–100.
51 Truetline, Theodore, “The Economic Regime of the Jesuit Missions in the Eighteenth Century in Sonora.” Pacific Historical Review. 8, 3 (September 1939), pp. 295–296.Google Scholar
52 Lehnertz, , “Land of the Infidels,” pp. 131–132.Google Scholar
53 Ibid. pp. 315–327.
