Sales catalogue 496: Maggs Bros

Date:
1927
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/53
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 496: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    129/344 page 113
    HUIDOBRO (MANUEL DE)—continued. The Jesuits had asked for copies of these dossiers, and the authorities in Mexico, being of the opinion that the Governor’s report was not derogatory to the Jesuits, had refused. As the passages quoted from the Governor’s report, however, are very disparaging to the Missionaries, the manuscript was evidently the work of a Jesuit, or someone who had the Jesuits’ interests at heart, and who was anxious to prove that the company of Jesus had a real grievance against the Governor of Sinaloa. For the most part, the contentions arose on a question of administration; the civil and ecclesiastical rulers of the Spanish King’s vassals being unable to co- operate for the common good. The first point dealt with in this manuscript is the allegation that the Yaqui and Mayo Indians had retreated, on account of the bad treatment they had received at the hands of the Jesuits, and that this had caused the sullen hostility of the natives. Secondly, the Missionaries had aggressively usurped the civil authorities’ powers and prerogatives. Furthermore, “the whole Island of California is in the hands of the decrepit old Rodriguez and his son, because they allow themselves to be ruled by the missionaries,” and Huidobro himself had been deprived of his governorship through the machinations of the Jesuits. Briefly, “it is the Jesuits and their coyote familiars who are the principal cause of the rising.” Although the story of this dispute is given principally in précis, there are many lengthy quotations from original documents, which add greatly to the. value of this manuscript. One of them is a Royal Decree, dated 24th June, 1742, in which reference is made to the fact that Huidobro had appealed to the King, and informed him officially of the native rising in March, 1740, and of his difficulty in holding back the rebels with only thirty men, until help came from Nueva Vizcaya, and the rising was quelled on 15th October, 1740; “‘ and that, in spite of this, the religiosos of the Society of Jesus, prompted solely by the fact that since he (Huidobro) had taken up the Governorship, he had opposed their arrogating to themselves superior judicial powers, they had made false accusations against him to the Viceroy, the Duque de la Conquista, who was influenced by the malicious information he had received, and had ordered the Governor to hand over the Governorship of those provinces, to Don Augustin de Vildozota.” Instead of the Governor illtreating the natives, as had been asserted, “‘ it was the Jesuits who wished to acquire absolute power, so that they might, without restraint, make the Indians work like slaves in the cultivation of the land and in other work which would be of benefit to the Jesuits themselves, and not to the Missions which they administer.” It is only by the recovery of documents like these that the true history of California and the adjacent provinces can be gradually unfolded.
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