October 24, 1842.

[Leg. Mex., 1841-1844, p. 301.]

April 3, 1845.

[Leg. Mex. 1845-1850, p. 13.]

TRANSLATION OF EXTRACTS REFERRED TO IN THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PIOUS FUND OF THE CALIFORNIAS," AND TO BE FOUND ON PAGES 187 TO 221 OF THE RECORD IN THE CASE OF ALEMANY. MEXICO.

EXTRACTS FROM THE WORK ENTITLED "ACCOUNT OF CALIFORNIA, AND OF ITS TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL CONQUEST UP TO THE PRESENT TIME, TAKEN FROM THE MANUSCRIPT HISTORY, MADE IN MEXICO IN THE YEAR 1739, BY FATHER MIGUEL VENEGAS, OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, AND FROM OTHER REPORTS AND ACCOUNTS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, DEDICATED TO THE KING OUR LORD BY THE SOCIETY OF JESUS OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE INQUISITION, 1757." MADRID: PRESS OF THE WIDOW OF MANUEL FERNANDES AND THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE INQUISITION, 1757.

This work is commonly called Venegas California, by which title we have cited it. It is believed to have been compiled from Venegas' MS., and original documents by Andres Marc Buriel.

In the early part of the year 1697 Father Salva-Tierra, having been given permission by the superiors of the society to ask alms with which to undertake a work that the Kings with such increased expenses could not accomplish, arrived in Mexico from Tepotzotlán. He found in Mexico a good companion in Father Juan Ugarte, who was reading philosophy in the college. Father Ugarte was imbued also with the same desire for this undertaking. Among other qualities which made him highly esteemed within and without the house, was a singular ability for dealing with temporal affairs and for bringing them to successful culmination.

The spiritual conquest of California could not be undertaken unless there should remain in Mexico an active and diligent agent (procurador) who would overcome any difficulties and look after the collecting and forwarding of continued support to those who were engaged in the work. Father Ugarte did this with zealous activity, thus aiding from Mexico the conquest which Father Salva-Tierra took up in California. God rewards the constancy of His servants after having purified them, since in the remaining days of January Don Alonso Davalos, Count of Miravalles, and Don Matheo Fernandez de la Cruz, Marquis de Buena Vista, promised them about two thousand dollars, and, following their example, from other benefactors they collected about fifteen thousand-five (thousand) cash and ten (thousand) on promise. Don Pedro Gil de la Sierpe, treasurer of Acapulco, offered to lend a vessel for the transportation and to present them with a small launch. But as this did not assure the conquest, since it had no estate with annual incomes, the congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows of Mexico, founded in the College of San Pedro and San Pablo, gave eight thousand dollars for the establishment of a mission, to which was afterwards added two thousand more, because an annual income of five hundred dollars was deemed indispensable for each mission, since the location was remote and without supplies. In addition Don Juan Cavallero y Ozio, priest in the city of Queréto, agent of the Inquisition, a man of great wealth and of no less religious liberality, to which his famous pious works all over the Kingdom testify, offered twenty thousand dollars for the endowment of two other missions and promised Father Salva-Tierra that he would cash all drafts bearing his (Father Salva-Tierra's) signature.

With such an auspicious beginning it now seemed necessary to ask authority from the viceroy, who at that time was His Excellency Don Joseph de Sarmiento y Valladares, Count of Montezuma, distinguished knight, whose memory should never be forgotten by New Spain and, much less, by the society. The father provincial, Juan de Palacios, addressed this officer by means of a carefully drawn-up memorial. There were great embarrassments in the royal assembly, but after some representation, and inasmuch as now nothing was asked of the King, and as, according to the royal accounts, which were examined, the expedition of Admiral Otondo had cost His Majesty two hundred and twenty-five thousand four hundred dollars, the authority was at last granted on the 5th of February, 1697-a special day for the society, because the feast of the three Japanese martyrs is celebrated on that day. The venerable Father Juan María Salva-Tierra received the despatches permitting him and Father Kino to enter California upon two conditions: First, that they should incur no cost or charge against the royal treasury without an express order of the King, and, second,

that they should take possession of the country in the name of His Majesty. Their powers were construed to be, to take with them at their own cost soldiers, who should escort them; to elect their commander; to dismiss him or the soldiers upon making a report to the viceroy; that the soldiers be furnished with all necessaries and their services be rewarded as though rendered in active war, and, lastly, that the fathers should appoint justices in the new country for good government. (Part 3, sec. 1, Vol. 2, p. 11, etc.)

This apostolic Jesuit (Father Kino), who, as we remarked, had enthused Salvo-Tierra to undertake the enterprise in California, had endeavored, from Sonora, where, on account of physical disability, he was held prisoner, to support the work by collecting alms and sending through the ports of Guaymas and Hiaqui furniture, milk animals, and supplies gathered in the mines and missions. But his great mind was not limited to the present time, nor to little things, nor was that of the venerable Salva-Tierra. Both hoped to conquer, and make subject to God and the King, the vast countries of America which border upon the Pacific, one of them spiritual conquests through the north of California, and the other across the American continent at least as far as the country along the frontier of the port of Monterey and Cape Mendocino, in case California was found not to be an island, Christianizing the intermediate countries. These great men could not execute all they had planned, nor have the Jesuits, who succeeded them in their missions and work; hitherto been able to accomplish it. (Part 3, sec. 5, vol. 2, p. 75.)

In this same year (1716) the venerable Father Salva-Tierra had, among many trials, the consolation of seeing secured in the way he desired the donations made by different benefactors of the missions already founded and a better form of temporal government established. This affords us the opportunity of touching upon the spiritual and temporal branches of the policy inaugurated in California by Father SalvaTierra, before we give an account of his death. Immediately upon his arrival in California, the venerable father saw that it was necessary to have in Mexico an agent (procurado), whose duty it should be to collect the incomes for the missions founded, alms and assistance contributed by benefactors-the goods, clothing, and provisions which should be bought for the fathers, soldiers, and seamen engaged in the "reduction," and for the churches and Indians; that he should also be charged with the despatch of any business of the mission pending before the real audiencia or the viceroy; that he should look after the purchase, construction, and repair of vessels; and in a word, that he should watch over the temporal needs of so distant, so dangerous, and yet necessary an undertaking. Father Juan Ugar te was charged with this duty for the first few years, until he became a missionary. Father Alexander Romano, of the order of N. P. General, succeeded him as agent of California, representing Father Salva-Tierra, so that the latter had only to conduct the affairs of the missions. This was not only because there was needed an agent unhampered by any other occupation, but also in order that the funds of California should not in any way be mixed with others of the colleges or of the province; and that they should not be touched, confused, or employed for any other purpose than that desired by the benefactors. Father Romano carried on this work for eighteen years with great zeal-until, in 1719, he became provincial of New Spain. Father Joseph de Escheverría succeeded