The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish-American Colonies

Abstract

OF the missions in Spanish America, particularly those in Cali fornia, much has been written.But most of what has been pro duced consists of chronicles of the deeds of the Fathers, polemic discussions by sectarian partizans, or sentimental effusions with literary, edifying, or financial intent.They deal with the heroic exploits of individuals, with mooted questions of belief and practice, or with the romance that hovers round the mission ruins.All this is very well, and not to be ridiculed, but it is none the less true that little has been said of these missions in their relation to the general Spanish colonial policy, of which they were an integral and a most important part.Father Engelhardt's learned books are a notable exception, but his view is confined closely to Cali fornia, whereas the mission, in the Spanish colonies, was an almost universal establishment.'H.. Bolton and the significance of the Spanish-American frontier, there awaits a recognition not less marked or less deserved.Whoever essays this 'task, whoever undertakes to interpret the forces by which Spain extended her rule, her language, her law, and her traditions, over the frontiers of her vast American posses sions, must give close attention to the missions, for in that work they constituted a primary agency.Each of the colonizing nations in America had its peculiar frontier institutions and classes.In the French colonies the pioneers of pioneers were the fur-trader and the missionary.Penetrating the innermost wilds of the continent, one in search of the beaver, the other in quest of souls to save, together they extended the French domains, and brought the savage tribes into friendly relations with the French government, and into profitable relations with the French outposts.In the English colonies the fur-trader blazed the way and opened new trails, but it was the backwoods settler who hewed down the forest, and step by step drove back the Indian with whom he did not readily mingle.In the Spanish colonies the men to whom fell the task of extending and holding the frontiers were the conquistador, the presidial soldier, and the missionary.All of these agents were important ; but in my study of frontier institutions in general, and in my endeavor in particular to under stand the methods and forces by which Spain's frontiers were ex tended, held, and developed, I have been more and more impressed with the importance of the mission as a pioneering agency.Tak ing for granted for the moment its very obvious religious aspects, I shall here devote my attention more especially to the mission's political and social meaning.My point of view embraces all of New Spain all of the Spanish colonies, indeed but more particularly the northern provinces, from Sinaloa to Texas, from Florida to Cali fornia.My conclusions are based on the study of documents, unprinted for the most part, which have been gathered mainly from the archives of Mexico and Spain.The functions of the mission, from the political standpoint, will be better understood if it is considered in its historical relations.The central interest around which the mission was built was the Indian.In respect to the native, the Spanish sovereigns, from the outset, had three fundamental purposes.They desired to convert him, to civilize him, and to exploit him.To serve these three pur poses, there was devised, out of the experience of the early con querors, the encomienda system.It was soon found that if the savage were to be converted, or disciplined, or exploited, he must H. E. Bolton tricts.The semi-civilized Indians of central Mexico and Peru had been fairly docile, had had a steady food supply and fixed homes, were accustomed to labor, and were worth exploiting.The wilder tribes encountered later the Chichimecos, as they were called were hostile, had few crops, were unused to labor, had no fixed villages, would not stand still to be exploited, and were hardly worth the candle.Colonists were no longer so eager for encomiendas, and were willing to escape the obligation to protect and civilize the wild tribes, which were as uncomfortable burdens, sometimes, as cub- tigers in a sack.Moreover, the sovereigns, with increasing em phasis, forbade the old-time abuses of exploitation, but as strongly as before adhered to the ideal of conversion and civilization.Here, then, was a larger opening for the missionary, and to him was en trusted, or upon him was thrust, consciously or unconsciously, not only the old work of conversion, but a larger and larger element of responsibility and control.On the northern frontier, therefore, among the roving tribes, the place of the discredited encomendero was largely taken by the missionary, and that of the encomienda by the mission, the design,being to check the evils of exploitation, and at the same time to realize the ideal of conversion, protection, and civilization.*..These missionaries became a veritable corps of Indian agents, serving froth Church and State.The double capatky in Which they served was-ijiMe &Jer and more natural by he close union betweenĈ hurch and State in Spaffish*America^where theking exercised the real patronato, and where the viceroys were sometimes archbishops as well.Under these conditions, in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen turies, on the expanding frontiers of Spanish America, missions became well-nigh universal.In South America the outstanding examples were the Jesuit missions in Paraguay.Conspicuous in North America were the great Franciscan establishments in AltaCalifornia, the last of Spain's conquests.Not here alone, however, but everywhere on the northern frontier they played their part in Sinaloa, Sonora, and Lower California; in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Nuevo Santander; in Florida, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.If there were twenty-one missions in Cali fornia, there were as many in Texas, more in Florida, and twice as many in New Mexico.At one time the California missions had over thirty thousand Indians under instruction; but a century and a half earlier the missions of Florida and New Mexico each had an equal number.

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