Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 341

Price Realized: $ 1,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS.) Diego Rodríguez de Rivas y Velasco. Letter describing the missions of northern Mexico and California. Partial manuscript letter as Archbishop of Guadalajara, to the King Charles III of Spain. [20] manuscript pages on 5 folding sheets, 12 x 8 1/4 inches, numbered 13 through 17; lacking sheets 1 through 12 and at least one concluding sheet, and the surviving sheets all torn and lacking portions of text. [Guadalajara?], [1767]
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A tantalizingly incomplete and apparently unpublished letter of substantial historical significance. The angry and frustrated Bishop of Guadalajara addresses the current obstacles to Spain's spiritual and military dominion over the Natives of northern Mexico and California. For many years, Jesuits had handled missionary work and helped establish a Spanish presence on New Spain's northern frontier, but had also generated deep mistrust of their considerable resources and power. In 1767, Spain had recently expelled the Jesuits from its colonies. Bishop Rodríguez had been criticized for being a supporter of the Jesuits, but here points to their excellent and effective work in the frontier missions. He dismisses reports of Native revolts, claiming that they had sunk into ennui and despair over the Jesuits' expulsion.
The sudden departure of the efficient and productive Jesuits was, in the bishop's estimation, a tremendous setback to the missionary effort. With the Portola expedition in the planning stages to deliver reinforcements, Rodríguez bemoaned the lack of qualified candidates to serve as replacement missionaries, and implored the king to establish improved facilities to educate aspiring missionaries, arguing that the 'foolish' and 'wild' Natives were difficult to accustom to a Christian lifestyle. Also, the isolation in the far north encouraged all but the most principled missionaries to set a bad example for the indigenous neophytes. For this reason, he was extremely pessimistic about the recently established missions in remote California: barring a 'miracle' from God, he wrote, the few missionaries there would become 'perverted' by the 'licentiousness which solitude grants, [and] the lack of subjection.' According to Rodríguez, the number of missionaries in California needed to be doubled to 30, at least, and a whole host of officials would be needed to provide oversight.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Bishop Rodríguez' letter, however, is the detail he gives on the missionaries' pragmatic diplomacy towards the Indians. Although the bishop spoke of the necessity of military intervention and violent conquest (with the aid of friendly Indian allies and spies), he also revealed, nevertheless, that they frequently won Natives' trust with gifts, celebrations, feasts, and sweets rather than force. Bishop Rodríguez implores the king for more funding to purchase glass beads, metal tools, and sundry trinkets and crafts. As he explains, Indians were often unwilling to comply without receiving these objects as gifts. Food too, particularly chocolate and candy, along with tobacco, was necessary both as bargaining chips and as provisions for priests, secular officers, and settlers. Unfortunately, with the missions being in remote locations 'deprived of what is necessary for human life,' access to these vital goods was scarce. The solution to this and most of the missions' maladies, the bishop writes to the king, was ultimately more support from the crown. Bishop Rodríguez puts it bluntly: 'For all conquests, as a general rule, the first thing needed is money.'