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The Mexican Government and the Mission Indians of Upper California, 1821–1835

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

C. Alan Hutchinson
C. Alan Hutchinson*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
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Extract

The Newly independent government of Mexico became concerned in 1821 about the lack of progress made by the Franciscans in preparing the California mission Indians to take their place in the new nation. The government feared that Upper California might well be lost to the encroachments of the Russians or the Americans if it were not settled by a thriving community of Mexican citizens able to exploit its great natural resources. Influenced by the new egalitarian and humanitarian concepts of the day, the authorities felt that the mission Indians were more like serfs than citizens. Unimpressed by the arguments of the experienced Franciscan Fathers that the Indians would either revert to their wild life in the hills or be enslaved by the white settlers if they were prematurely released from the missions, the government decided to instigate a series of experiments, reminiscent of those made in the days of Father Bartolomé de las Casas, to see what actually would happen. A program was begun involving extensive research in the culture and civilization of the California Indians.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , April 1965 , pp. 335 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1965

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References

1 The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Wilson Gee Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and the Research Committee of the University of Virginia in preparing this article.

2 Father José Gasol to José Manuel de Herrera, Ministro de Relaciones, Colegio de San Fernando, Mexico, March 21, 1822 (MS), Californias, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (cited hereinafter as BL, Californias), vol. 45, pp. 18–19.

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4 Gonzalo Ulloa to Augustín de Iturbide, San Blas, February 21, 1822, BL, Californias, v. 45, p. 25; Juan Gomes to Nicolás Basilio de la Gándara, on board the schooner Concepción, February 23, 1822, Bancroft Library, Provincias Internas (cited hereinafter as BL, Provincias), v. 23, p. 136; Father Guardian Baldomero López to Arizpe, Miguel Ramos, Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Fernando, San, Mexico City, November 18, 1826, “Informe de las Misiones de California,” Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación, XXX, No. 2 (1959), p. 235 Google Scholar; Tays, George, “Revolutionary California,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1932), p. 368.Google Scholar

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9 Forbes, Alexander, A History of California (London, 1839), pp. 225-226.Google Scholar

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11 Cook, Indian Versus Spanish Mission, pp. 94–101.

12 Engelhardt, Zephyrin O.F.M., The Missions and Missionaries of California (4 vols.; San Francisco, 1912–1915), III, 116.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., p. 211.

14 “Informe de las misiones,” Boletín, XXX, No. 2, p. 251.

15 Ibid., p. 280.

16 Engelhardt, Missions of California, III, 398.

17 Wilkes, Charles, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (5 vols.; Philadelphia, 1845), V, 176.Google Scholar

18 Hittell, History, II, 77.

19 Engelhardt, Missions of California, III, 211.

20 For legislation by the liberal Spanish Cortes see Dublán, Manuel y Lozano, José María, Legislación mexicana (52 vols.; México, 1876–1910), I, 331–332, 336, 340–341, 425–426Google Scholar; and also the Spanish Constitution of 1812, Title I, chapter II, art. 5 and Title II, chapter IV, art. 18.

21 Constitution of Apatzingán, Chapter III, art. 13; Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of Mexico (6 vols.; San Francisco, 1883–1888) IV, 163Google Scholar; The Plan of Iguala, art. 12. Neither the Acta Constitutiva nor the Constitution of 1824 mention the Indian.

22 Dublán y Lozano, Legislación, I, 628–629.

23 Luis Mora, José María, Obras sueltas (2 vols.; Paris, 1837) I, cclxiii.Google Scholar

24 Navarro, Moisés Gonzales, “Instituciones indígenas en México independiente,” in Caso, Alfonso et al., Métodos y resultados de la política indigenista en México (México, 1954), p. 122.Google Scholar

25 Código de colonización y terrenos baldíos de la república Mexicana, ed. Francisco de la Maza (México, 1893), pp. 152-153Google Scholar; Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of California (7 vols.; San Francisco, 1884–1890), II, 431.Google Scholar

26 José Gasol to José Manuel de Herrera, March 21, 1822, BL, Californias, vol. 45, p. 19.

27 Las misiones de la Alta California (2 vols.; México, 1914), II, 252.

28 Ibid., p. 244.

29 Ibid., pp. 245, 211, 212.

30 Harrington, John P., A New Original Version of Boscana’s Historical Account of the San Juan Capistrano Indians of Southern California, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 92, Number 4 (Washington, D. C., 1934), p. 43.Google Scholar

31 “Informe de las misiones,” Boletín, XXX, No. 2, p. 237.

32 Ibid., p. 235.

33 Engelhardt, Missions of California, III, 339.

34 Las misiones de la Alta California, II, 90–91, 92, 101, 109; Okun, S. B., The Russian American Company, trans. Ginsburg, Carl (Harvard, 1951), pp. 122-123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 José Antonio de Andrade to Presidente del Supremo Consejo de Regencia, December 10, 1821, BL, Provincias, vol. 23, p. 134. For further information on the treaty involved, see Perkins, Dexter, “Russia and the Spanish Colonies, 1817–1818,” American Historical Review, XXVIII (1923), 657, n. 4Google Scholar, and y Medina, Manuel de Saralegui, Un negocio escandaloso en tiempos de Fernando VIl (Madrid, 1904), pp. 119–123.Google Scholar

36 “Dictamen presentado a la soberana junta gubernativa del imperio mexicano,” Dictamenes numeros 3–4–5-6–1-8- y 9, ed. Rea, Vargas, Biblioteca Aportación Histórica (México, 1944), pp. 19 Google Scholar, 55–56; [Lucas Alamán], Memoria … leída en la sesión de 8 de noviembre de 1823 (México, 1823), pp. 33–34, 52–53.

37 This quotation is taken from part of the title to the collected published works of the Commission: Colección de los principales trabajos en que se ha ocupado la junta …. (México, 1827).

38 A list of the men on the Commission, in the order of their appointment, is given on page 44 of the Commission’s “Iniciativa de ley que propone la junta para el mejor arreglo del gobierno de los territorios de Californias,” which forms a part of the Colección mentioned in footnote 37.

39 “Dictamen que dió la junta de fomento de Californias,” p. 3 in Colección.

40 The following paragraph reveals the attitude of Father Venegas: “The characteristics of the Californians, as well as of all the other Indians, are stupidity and insensibility; want of knowledge and reflection; inconstancy, impetuosity, and blindness of appetite; an excessive sloth and abhorrence of all labour and fatigue; an incessant love of pleasure and amusement of every kind, however trifling or brutal; pusillanimity and relaxity: and in fine, a most wretched want of everything which constitutes the real man and renders him rational, inventive, tractable, and useful to himself and society.” Venegas, Miguel, A Natural and Civil History of California (2 vols.; London, 1759), I, 64Google Scholar. The first edition was published in Madrid in 1758. An edition was published in Mexico in 1943.

41 “Dictamen,” p. 6. Venegas himself remarked: “It is not easy for Europeans, who were never out of their own country, to conceive an adequate idea of these people.” Venegas, California, I, 64.

42 “Dictamen,” p. 8; “Plan para el arreglo de las misiones de los territorios de la Alta y de la Baja California,” p. 7.

43 Campillo y Cosío, José del, Nuevo sistema de gobierno económico para la América (Madrid, 1789)Google Scholar; Ward, Bernardo, Proyecto económico (Madrid, 1787)Google Scholar. Campillo apparently wrote his work in 1743 but it did not appear in print until 1789, after Campillo had died. Ward is supposed to have written his book in 1762, but it also was published posthumously, in 1779. Those portions of Ward’s work dealing with the Americas are almost identical with Campillo’s previous work so that a controversy has arisen as to who did write the book. The controversy cannot yet be resolved, but it should be pointed out that, although Ward is frequently accused of plagiarism, it seems possible that one of the many manuscripts of Campillo’s work may have been found among Ward’s papers by the Conde de Campomanes, who is credited with publishing Ward’s book, and sent by him in error to the printer. Ward has been defended by Priestley, Herbert L. in his José de Gálvez: Visitor-General of New Spain, University of California Publications in History, V (Berkeley, 1916), pp. 36-37, n. 50Google Scholar, and accused by Hamilton, Earl J. in “The Mercantilism of Gerónimo de Uztáriz: A Reexamination,” Economics, Sociology and the Modern World, ed. Himes, Norman Edwin (Harvard, 1935), p. 112, n. 1.Google Scholar

44 “Proyecto para el establecimiento de una compañía de comercio,” p. 8, Colección.

45 Campillo, Nuevo sistema, pp. 209–210. This passage does not appear to be in Ward’s book.

46 For further details on this movement see: Sarrailh, Jean, L’Espagne eclairée de la seconde moitié du xviiie siècle (Paris, 1954), pp. 505-541.Google Scholar

47 On this question see Hanke, Lewis, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America (Philadelphia, 1949)Google Scholar. That eighteenth-century liberalism in Spain was greatly influenced by Spain’s past has been documented in Herr, Richard, The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton, 1958), pp. 337-347.Google Scholar

48 “Plan para el arreglo de las misiones,” pp. 6–7, Colección.

49 “Dictamen,” pp. 12–13, Colección; cf. Hanke, Spanish Struggle, pp. 42–53.

50 The Las Casas enthusiast on the Commission was Father Servando Teresa de Mier. See Hanke, Lewis and Fernández, Manuel Giménez, Bartolomé de las Casas, 1474–1566: Bibliografía crítica (Santiago, Chile, 1954), items 582, 588Google Scholar; and especially Sánchez, Ernesto Mejía, “Mier, Defensor de Las Casas,” Boletín de la Biblioteca Nacional (México), 2 época, XIV (julio-diciembre, 1963, no. 3-4), 57–84.Google Scholar

51 Hittell, History, II, 82.

52 José M. Echeandía to José Figueroa, March 19, 1833 (MS), BL, C-A53, State Papers, tomo II, pp. 41–43.

53 Bancroft, History of California, III, 102–103. The proclamation applied at first only to the districts of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey. It was applied in 1828 to San Francisco.

54 “Informe de las misiones,” Boletin, XXX, No. 2, p. 252.

55 Beechey, Narrative, II, 320.

56 Engelhardt, Missions of California, III, 339.

57 Hittell, History, II, 93, 123–124, 166.

58 Bancroft, History of Mexico, V, 12–13.

59 Bocanegra, José María, Memorias para la historia de México independiente 1822–1846 (2 vols.; México, 1892) I, 414–440.Google Scholar

60 Bancroft, History of Mexico, V, 72–75.

61 A general law expelling all Spaniards, including those in Upper and Lower California, was issued on March 20, 1829 (Dublán y Lozano, Legislación, II, 98–100).

62 Mora, Obras, II, 134–152; Heroles, Jesús Reyes, El liberalismo mexicano (3 vols.; México, 1957, 1958, 1961), II, 62–69.Google Scholar

63 Engelhardt, Missions, III, 273–274.

64 Bancroft, History of California, III, 38. Governor José Figueroa on his way to California encouraged his men with a speech in which he said: “You will recognize in [California] the country of our ancestors. You will see the original homes where the Aztecs lived before they moved down to Tenochtitlan and founded the empire of the Montezumas” (Hittell, History, II, 165).

65 Cook, Indian versus Spanish Mission, p. 5; Bancroft, History of California, III, 406, n. 46.

66 Instructions for José Figueroa, May 17, 1832, BL, Superior Govt. State Papers, VIII, 88–89; El Telégrafo, July 16, 1833.

67 General de Brigada José Figueroa, Service Record, Archivo de Defensa, Mexico City, Archivo de Cancelados, expediente xi/iii/2–257; Zavala, Lorenzo de, Ensayo histórico de las revoluciones de Mégico (2 vols.; Paris, 1831) I, 386.Google Scholar

68 Bancroft, History of California, III, 328–329, nn. 49, 50.

69 Engelhardt, Missions of California, III, 478–481.

70 El Telégrafo, April 2, 1833.

71 Ibid., April 24, 1833.

72 Mora, Obras, I, cxcvii.

73 El Telégrafo, April 24, 1833.

74 Dublán y Lozano, Legislación, II, 548–549.

75 El Telégrafo, April 22, 1833.

76 Dublán y Lozano, Legislación, I, 712–713.

77 “Plan de colonización de nacionales,” p. 9, Colección.

78 Article 17, “Reglamento de 21 de noviembre de 1828,” Código de colonización, p. 240.

79 The original bill was sent to the Chamber of Deputies by Vice-President Gómez Farías on April 16, 1833, and it was published in El Telégrafo on April 22, 1833. The order of priority for land claimants differed slightly in the original bill, the military coming third instead of second. The Committee on Colonization apparently made this change, which was approved after debate on May 3, 1833 (El Telégrafo, May 16, 1833).

80 El Telégrafo, May 20, and June 6, 1833. Neither Bancroft, Hittell, Engelhardt nor Irving Berdine Richman mention the bill.

81 José Figueroa to Mariano Vallejo, San Diego, August 17, 1833, BL, Cowan.

82 José Figueroa to Secretario de relaciones exteriores, October 5, 1833, BL, C-A53, State Papers, II, 71, 73–75.

83 Ibid., pp. 74–75.

84 Figueroa to Mariano G. Vallejo, August 17, 1833, BL, Cowan.

85 Figueroa to Agustín Zamorano, December 2, 1833, BL, Departmental State Papers, I, 189.

86 Provincial Deputation, Monterey, May 1, 1834, BL, C-A60, Legislative Records, II, 46–48.

87 Garcia, Carlos to Híjar, José M., México, July 16, 1833, BL, Archives of California, State Papers, Missions and Colonization, II, 207–208.Google Scholar

88 Diario de las sesiones del congreso de Jalisco, legislatura de 1825 y 1826, tomo 1, num. 1 (Guadalajara, 1825), passim; y Navarro, Juan Suárez, Historia de México y del General Amonio López de Santa Anna (2 vols.; México, 1850, 1851), II, 81Google Scholar; J. M. Híjar to Min. de Relaciones, Monterrey, January 30, 1835, MS, BL, Colonización y terrenos baldíos, legajo 6, exp. 173.

89 El Telégrafo, July 16, 1833.

90 Prieto, Guillermo, Memorias de mis tiempos, 1828–1853 (2 vols.; Paris and México, 1906), I, 94.Google Scholar

91 José Fernando Ramirez to Francisco Elorriaga, October 13, 1833, (MS) University of Texas Latin American Collection, Farías Papers (cited hereinafter as TLAC, Farias).

92 Carlos María Bustamante, Diario de México, November 4, 1833, Microfilm. Original in Zacatecas State Library, Zacatecas, Mexico (cited hereinafter as DM).

93 Ibid., November 27, 1833.

94 El Telégrafo, August 11, 1833. For a discussion of the cholera outbreak see Hutchinson, C. A., “The Asiatic Cholera Epidemic of 1833 in Mexico,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, XXXII, No. 1 (Jan.-Feb., 1958), and No. 2 (March-April, 1958).Google Scholar

95 El Telégrafo, December 8, 1833.

96 Ibid., December 9, 1833.

97 Ibid., December 6, 1833, December 12, 1833.

98 Ibid., December 3, 1833.

99 Ibid., December 16, 1833; December 20, 1833.

100 Valentín Gómez Farias to person unnamed, September 2, 1834. TLAC, Farías.

101 El Telégrafo, April 15, 1834.

102 Bustamante, Diario de México, April 21, 1834, DM.

103 Copy of Híjar’s instructions made by Agustín V. Zamorano, November 4, 1834, BL. It should be pointed out, however, that Híjar thought of the Indians themselves as future colonists. See Figueroa, José, Manifiesto a la Républica Mejicana (Monterey, 1835), pp. 39, 70, 85.Google Scholar

104 Figueroa, Manifiesto, p. 95.

105 Deputation, session of May 1, 1834, BL, C-A60, Legislative Records, II, 47.

106 Ibid., May 20, 1834, p. 87; May 22, June 12, July 31, pp. 30, 93, 113.

107 Ibid., session of May 15, 1834, p. 73.

108 Ibid., session of June 3, 1834, pp. 101–103.

109 Ibid., session of May 20, 1834, pp. 86–87.

110 Ibid., June 12, 1834, pp. 112–113.

111 Ibid., p. 113.

112 Ibid., July 30 and July 31, 1834, pp. 15–30.

113 See supra, at note 82.

114 Deputation, July 31, 1834, p. 23.

115 Ibid., pp. 15–30; Bancroft, History of California, III, 328–330, n. 50.

116 Figueroa to Vallejo, September 13, 1834, BL, Cowan.

117 Deputation, October 22, 1834, pp. 32–33.

118 Ibid., p. 34.

119 Figueroa, Manifiesto, pp. 12, 14, 25, 30, 62, and passim.

120 Ibid., p. 70.

121 Ibid., pp. 71–72, 111, 143, 167.

122 José María Híjar to Ministro de Relaciones, Monterrey, January 30, 1835, Microfilm, BL, Colonización y terrenos baldíos, legajo 6, exp. 173. Father Ramón Abella stated in 1826 that the missionaries were hated by both razones and Indians (“Informe de las misiones,” Boletín, XXX, No. 2, p. 263).

123 Hijar to Min. de Relaciones, January 30, 1835, BL, Colonización y terrenos baldíos, legajo 6, exp. 173.

124 Ibid.

125 Engelhardt, Missions, III, 398.

126 Figueroa, Manifiesto, p. 169.