Sales catalogue 491: Maggs Bros

Date:
1927
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/50
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 491: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/326 page 24
    THe Mariana Mission THE STEPPING-STONE TO THE COLONIZATION AND CONVERSION OF AUSTRALIA. 1669 A.D. [34] SAN VITORES (Father Diego Luis de). Memo- rial que el P. Diego Luys de San Vitores, Religioso de la Com- pafiia de Jesus, Rector de las Islas Marianas remitid 4 la Congre- gacion del glorioso Apostol de las Indias S. Francisco Xavier de la Ciudad de Mexico, pidiendo le ayuden, y oscorran para la fun- dacion de la Mission de dichas Islas. Small 4to. 80 pp. Full morocco, gilt, g.e., by Riviere. Mexico, Francisco Rodriguez Lupertio, 1669. £500 Medina, ‘‘ La Imprenta en Mexico,’’ 1017. Sabin 76901. This exceedingly scarce and valuable Memorial was dedicated to the Viceroy of New Spain, as patron of the St. Francis Xavier Congregation in Mexico, being written by one of the pioneer missionaries in the Mariana Islands, with the view of persuading the Jesuits in Mexico of the great need of their founding a Mission in the Marianas, with a view to the development and conversion of unknown Australia and the ‘‘ Southern or austral islands.’’ The first section of this Memorial, which is divided into nine parts, contains forty-three pages, and in it Father Luis de Sanvitores points out the advantages offered by the Mariana Islands as a stepping-stone to Australia, and states that he is appending the text of a memorial which the famous Pedro Fernandez de Quiros addressed to Philip III of Spain in 1610, in support of his opinion that Australia would be well worthy of conversion. He calls attention to the statement of Quiros that ‘‘the unknown land of Australia comprises one quarter of the globe’s territory, inhabited by poor uncivilised heathen, without king or law, and free from the stumbling-blocks which have been placed in the path of our faith in other countries by the tyranny of Princes, the greed and craft of Indian Chiefs or Priests, the infernal sect of Mahomet, and diabolical superstition of idolatry and witchcraft; free, too, from the vices common to other peoples.’’ Among other important matters, he mentions that the old name of the Islands, the Ladrones, was changed to that of the Marianas, both as a dedication to the Virgin Mary and in honour of the Spanish Queen, Maria Anna. He also refers to Japan, and to an offer he had received from a Portuguese Captain and some Chinese sailors, of a passage there. The second section gives a short account of the various islands forming the Mariana group, ‘‘ ranging as far as Japan.”’ The third section is exceedingly important; it occupies six pages, and gives
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3