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3/6/1776
Wednesday, March 6.—At daybreak it was fair, and I said Mass. We set out from the Primer Vado at a quarter to eight in the morning, and at four in the afternoon arrived at the mission of San Antonio de los Robles, indicated on the map by the letter E, having traveled ten long leagues, some four to the west and west-northwest, two to the northwest, two almost to the north, two to the northwest, and a short distance to the west-northwest just before arriving. [Footnote 262]—Ten leagues. On the road yesterday we saw many oaks, but today there are many more and very large ones, and for that reason this valley is called the Cañada de los Robles. Through it flows the river which we forded three times. The valley at the beginning is rather narrow, but afterward it widens out greatly. About a league before arriving we passed the site of the old mission, which they moved to the place where it is now because it is a better location, with water from the river more permanent and more certain. The mission of San Antonio is situated in the Sierra de Santa Lucía, which, as I said, begins a little below the mission of San Luís, and, following the coast, comes to an end near the mission of San Carlos del Carmelo. The mission is in a rather wide valley some ten leagues long and full of large oaks, for which reason they call the mission San Antonio de la Cañada de los Rohles. The site is very good, with fine lands, and plentiful water from the river which runs through this valley. But it is somewhat apart from the sea, and although by air line it must be only about eight leagues, a long day's journey is necessary to reach the coast because of the roughness of the road across the Sierra de Santa Lucía, which lies between and its very high and broken, and on the coast forms great cliffs. And so the mission is almost at the head of the valley before turning into the sierra. In the range there is a great abundance of oaks, live oaks, and pines, and consequently plenty of pinenuts and acorns, for which reason the mission raises large numbers of hogs. The fathers of the mission were Father Fray Francisco Dumets (minister of the mission of Carmelo, who had come here because Father Fray Miguel Prieras was ill, and had gone to Carmelo to recover his health) and Father Fray Buenaventura Sitjar, all Malloreans. They welcomed us with special rejoicing, and with great generosity offered us what they had. They immediately gave a shoat to the soldiers of the escort from Tubac and another to the muleteers of the commander, and they forthwith took out a large quantity of fat and distributed it amongst the people, who for a long time had not tasted any. The construction of this mission is better than that of the others, being of adobe and having a good roof with terraplen and good beams, for they have timber to spare. It has a hall, two small rooms at one end, and another at the end through which one enters the church, which is next to it. From the hall one enters a patio around which there is sufficient room for a kitchen, oven, other work rooms, and corrals. Close by are the garden and the fields, about which the fathers, aided by the Indians, have made a very large fence, which completely encloses everything. It is very well made of good poles, most of it being built of a tree which they call brazil wood. In short, this appears to me to be a very good mission, with fine conveniences and advantages. The Christian Indians who compose it, who must already be some five hundred persons, are entirely different from the others whom I have seen hitherto. [Footnote 263] They are of the tribe which lives in the Sierra de Santa Lucía, but I did not learn what they are called or whether they have any name. They are small in body, degenerate, and ugly, both men and women, and they live in their heathendom scattered through those mountains and canyons without any special knowledge of God. The men go naked and the women wear some kind of a cape, although the fathers manage to clothe some of them, as I have stated. The women do not bang their hair, as I said of those of the Channel and at San Luís, and neither the men nor the women are particular with their coiffure. I saw several women with their faces striped and marked somewhat as the Pimas paint themselves. Their language is very rough and most difficult to pronounce because it has so many crackling sounds. It has been learned by Father Fray Buenaventura through continual application and hard labor, and he has written the catechism in the language; but since there are no letters to express such barbarous and ridiculous crackling and whistling and guttural sounds, he has made use of the K, and of various accents and figures, whereby the catechism is as difficult to read as to pronounce. But the Indians can already recite in Castilian, and in this language they say the prayers at least once a day. I think it would be a most difficult thing to find among heathen anywhere else in the world such a variety of crude and barbarian languages. And here I am reminded that perhaps to this may be attributed that reluctance which was felt by the Apostle Santo Thomás to come to the Indies to preach the faith of Jesus Christ, as is related by the Venerable and Illustrious Senor Dn. Fr. Julián Garcés, in the letter printed at the beginning of the first volume of the Mexican Councils, which he wrote in favor of the Indians to the Supreme Pontiff, Paul III, in which he says that this saint was accustomed to say to Jesus Christ, Quocumque mitte me praeterquam ad Indos. [Footnote 264] And by this feeling I think may be explained without misrepresentation that text of Psalm 104 which speaks of the suffering that afflicted the pure heart of Joseph when he found himself a prisoner in Egypt and unable to speak, or deprived for the time being from speaking: Ferrum pertransiit animam ejus, donec veniret verbum ejus, [Footnote 265] because he was in a land and among people of whose language he was ignorant and which he did not understand: Linguam, quam non noverat, audivit [Footnote 266] (Ps. 80, v. 6). For there is no thorn of grief which more torments the heart of a minister who desires to serve God in the ministry of the conversion of souls, nor any harder toil, than to find himself among people of such diverse and barbarous languages, without any means to converse with them, as is well stated by Father Vieyra in the sermon on the Holy Spirit, Volume One. [Footnote 267] |
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Revised June 23, 2000 |
