Comparative Paper
Mortality Crises and Demographic Patterns in the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay and the Baja California Missions
Scholars of the European-Native interface in the Americas after 1492 generally stress demographic change among the indigenous populations of the
Americas as one of the more important consequences of sustained contact between the Old and New Worlds. However, many discussions of the process of
demographic change during the first centuries after 1492 do not benefit from detailed sources that enable a detailed analysis of mortality crises that
decimated native populations. A mortality crisis is generally defined as x3 normal mortality, and the general assumption is that recurring mortality
crises decimated the native populations, causing drastic population declines.
This essay examines a series of mortality crises in the Jesuit missions of Paraguay between 1730 and 1740 that is well documented in contemporary
documents. Three epidemics spread through the missions in 1733, 1735-1736, and 1738-1740. Epidemics usually spread along established trade routes, or
when large numbers of people were on the move and carried infection in their bodies. The Jesuit missions of Paraguay participated in regional trade,
and the coming and goings of people and goods facilitated the spread of contagion. The larger Rio de la Plata region was also a contested borderland,
and thousands of Guarani militia from the missions participated in periodic campaigns against the Portuguese or were mobilized for possible military
action. Royal officials mobilized the Guarani militia in the mid-1730s for possible action against the Portuguese in the disputed borderlands during a
period of undeclared warfare that lasted until 1737. Moreover, the 1720s and 1730s also witnessed civil disorder in Paraguay known as the Comunero
Revolt, and civil war, and royal officials also mobilized Guarani militiamen to defeat the rebels. The movement of goods within the region, the
mobilization of thousands of Guarani militiamen, and the movement of troops created conditions ideal for the spread of highly contagious crowd
diseases such as smallpox and measles. It follows with a discussion of disease and demographic patterns in the Baja California missions established
after 1697, which show a different pattern of continued decline in the wake of periodic epidemic outbreaks.
Many scholars assume that the native peoples of the Americas had no natural immunities to the Old World diseases introduced into North and South
America after 1492, and that the survivors of outbreaks acquired a degree of immunity. However, there is no evidence to support this assumption, and
reference to demographic patterns in early modern Europe helps place the affects of epidemics on the native peoples into context. Epidemics of
smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, and other maladies swept through Europe?s populations, and killed both adults and children. These epidemics usually
occurred once a generation when there were enough potential hosts for the pathogens to spread and sustain the contagion, and then faded away.
Moreover, disease killed thousands of young children every year, and respiratory ailments killed the young and old during the colder months of the
year. However, the periodic epidemics and chronic ailments only slowed population growth, and the European populations recovered following the
periodic mortality crises and during most of the early modern period experience slow to moderate growth.
How did the populations of the Jesuit missions of Paraguay compare to contemporary European populations? Did the mission populations recover following
severe mortality crises? This essay outlines mortality patterns during the three epidemics that occurred during the 1730s, but also mortality and
fertility in the years following the epidemics to determine if the mission populations recovered and grew. This in turn will document the short and
long term consequences of the epidemics for the mission populations. This essay first examines the chronology and then the affects on the native
populations of the epidemics. The first is the 1733 outbreak. The final section outlines the effects of epidemics and chronic ailments on the native
populations of Baja California.
The timing and trajectory of the 1733 outbreak suggest that it may have traveled northward from Buenos Aires along the Parana River and Uruguay River
following established trade routes, and/or with the return of thousands of Guarani militiamen from service in the Banda Oriental. In 1733, the
heaviest mortality was in the missions in what today is southeastern Paraguay, including San Ignacio Guazu, Nuestra Senora de la Fe that experienced
the largest number of deaths among the thirty missions with a total of 2,618 on the year, Santa Rosa, and Itapua. Several of the missions located east
of the Parana River also experienced high mortality, including Loreto and Santa Ana. Mortality was not as high among the missions along and east of
the Uruguay River, with the exceptions of La Cruz and San Luis Gonzaga.
A second epidemic spread through the region in 1735 and 1736, although total mortality was not as high as in 1733. The epidemic appears to have been
localized. The highest mortality was in two clusters of missions. One was centered on Loreto, which experienced the largest number of deaths of all of
the missions on the year with a total of 1,321. Other missions affected included San Cosme, Santa Ana, San Ignacio Mini, Corpus Christi, and San Jose.
There were smaller numbers of deaths at neighboring missions. The second cluster of missions was located on both sides of the Uruguay River, in close
proximity to each other. This group included Santa Maria la Mayor, San Francisco Xavier, San Nicolas with a total of 726 deaths, and San Luis, and
again with lesser number of deaths at several neighboring missions including Martires and San Lorenzo Martir.
The third epidemic during the decade identified as smallpox broke out between 1738 and 1740. The heaviest mortality was in 1738, but the continuation
of large numbers of deaths into 1739 and 1740 suggests that the contagion first spread through the western part of the mission region and then to the
eastern part of the mission region at the end of 1739 and into the first months of 1740, summer in the Rio de la Plata region which is when epidemics
would be most likely to occur. The contagion struck all three mission communities located on the west bank of the Uruguay River in what today is
Corrientes, but did not cross over the river to San Francisco de Borja located on the east bank of the river opposite Santo Thome which suggests the
implementation of quarantine measures. Among these three missions the largest number of deaths was at La Cruz, where 1,605 died in 1739 and another
186 in 1740. The number of deaths at the neighboring missions Yapeyu and Santo Thome was lower, showing variation in mortality from mission to
mission. The epidemic killed 1,279 at Santa Maria la Mayor and lesser numbers of people at Martires and Concepcion. all located on or near the Uruguay
River. These mission communities may have suffered higher losses in the previous year as well.
The contagion killed the largest number of people in the mission communities located east of the Uruguay River, and even here the spread of the
epidemic was limited to four of the seven mission communities located east of the river. A total of 1,708 people died at San Nicolas, the westernmost
of the missions, 2,445 at San Luis, and 2,681 at San Lorenzo located east of San Luis. The contagion apparently arrived at San Juan Bautista at the
end of 1739, and 376 died on the year at that mission. However, most of the victims of the epidemic at San Juan Bautista died in the early months of
1740, and 2,400 died on the year at the mission. Interestingly, the epidemic did not kill many people at the last two and easternmost of the missions
east of the Uruguay River, which again suggests the effective implementation of quarantine measures. At Santo Angel Custodio mission 258 died in
1739, and mortality at San Miguel was within normal ranges in both years.
How did epidemics change the populations and social organization of the missions, beyond the simple reduction in numbers? A detailed 1735 census for
Trinidad mission, prepared two years following another severe epidemic, provides clues. In 1731, the population of Trinidad totaled 3,569 and 3,598
in 1733 before the epidemic hit the community. The 1733 epidemic killed nearly half the population of the mission, and in 1735 only 1,837 remained.
However, the population of the mission rebounded following the series of epidemics in the 1730s, and stood at 2,680 in 1756 and 2,558 in 1767. The
contagion claimed the lives of Guarani across the full spectrum of the mission society including the families of the caciques, and there was a degree
of generational change in leadership in the mission. Five caciques listed in 1735 were young boys under the age of ten who replaced parents killed
during the epidemic... The epidemic also destroyed families as evidenced by a large number of orphans (154) and widows (101). Moreover, the census
recorded many fugitives (109), primarily males, as well as women (43) abandoned or left in the mission by their fugitive husbands. The fugitives left
the mission most likely to avoid military service, but also to escape the epidemic.
The epidemic reduced the number of large families at Trinidad with three or more children. In 1735, 888 (58 percent) people were grouped in families
with a size of two or three, meaning either a married couple or a couple with one child. These small families constituted seventy-three percent of all
families at the mission. In contrast, there were only fifty families (six percent) with three or more children, or eighteen percent of the population
grouped into families. A 1759 census for Santa Ana places the data for Trinidad into context. In 1731, Santa Ana had a population of 4,527, but this
dropped to 3,716 in 1733. The numbers rebounded, and stood at 5,040 in 1756 and 5,141 in 1759. A total of thirty-one percent of the families at Santa
Ana had three children or more, and as many as seven children. This was forty-seven percent of the people grouped in families. The population of Santa
Ana had recovered from the epidemics of the 1730s, and was growing robustly as evidence by the large number of families with three or more children.
The profile of the Santa Ana population in 1759 was similar to the structure of the mission populations prior to the epidemics.
A detailed census of Corpus Christi mission prepared in 1759 provides additional insights to the age and gender structure of the mission populations,
the affects of the epidemics between 1730 and 1740, and the rebound or recovery of the populations following the epidemics. There are many detailed
mission censuses that divide the populations down into family groups, but the 1759 Corpus Christi census is unique in that the Jesuits also noted the
date of baptism of the bulk of the population, that enables a reconstruction of the age structure of the population. The population totaled 4,530,
plus another 112 identified as Guananas, most likely a group from the Chaco region, congregated on the mission in 1724, 1730, and 1754. The Guananas
population at Corpus Christi has not been included in the analysis here, because the date of baptism of the adults, when given, does not translate
into the date of birth as it does for the bulk of the population. The mission population evidenced a gender imbalance, with more females than males,
2,321 to 2,209. Moreover, women who reached an age of fifty or over outlived men. There were 206 men over the age of fifty, and only six over seventy.
In contrast, there were 220 women over the age of fifty, and twenty over seventy.
Data from the census shows that Corpus Christi was a relatively closed community as regards the selection of marriage partners. With the exception of
a handful of women originally from the Chaco region and from neighboring missions, the vast majority of Guarani men at Corpus Christi married women
from the mission. Corpus Christi men married eight Guanana women from among the groups congregated in 1724, 1730, and 1754, and one Abipone woman,
also a Chaco group. Corpus Christi men also married eight women from neighboring missions: San Francisco de Borja 1; Loreto 2; Santa Rosa 1; San
Carlos 1; Itapua 2; and San Ignacio 1. Guarani women generally married shortly after reaching puberty, in a range between the ages of twelve to
sixteen- nineteen. Women bore numerous children, but gaps between living children who were generally born two years apart also indicates high infant
mortality. Nevertheless, enough children, particularly girls, survived to puberty to form new families and contribute to the growth of the population.
The age structure of Corpus Christi shows the effects of the epidemics, including those in the 1730s, as manifested in age cohorts that were smaller
than they should have been given the age structure of the mission. The age 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 cohorts were smaller than the cohorts before and
after, showing losses during the epidemics of the 1730s. The 20 to 24 cohort among females was smaller than that of males, and both show losses from
the smallpox epidemic that struck the region between 1738 and 1740. Similarly, the 1733 epidemic culled the population of young children, as reflected
in a small age 25 to 29 cohort. The epidemic that broke out in 1738 was the strongest of the three during the decade, and the mission population
recovered losses during the decade through natural reproduction. Another strong epidemic killed off large numbers of children of both sexes between
1714 and 1719.
The epidemics during the 1730s claimed the lives of thousands of Guarani, and the populations of most of the missions dropped (see Table 1). The total
population of the thirty missions dropped from 141,242 in 1732 to 73,910 in 1740, following the final epidemic. However, the populations of the
missions in the Rio de la Plata recovered following the epidemics. The recovery or rebound of the Guarani populations demonstrates a major difference
from the indigenous populations living on missions elsewhere, such as on the northern frontier of Mexico. The Guarani populations were high fertility
and high mortality populations, similar to contemporary European populations. Birth and death rates were high and population growth low to moderate.
Epidemics slowed or stopped population growth, but the population did recover.
The Jesuits divided the missions administratively into two groups: those clustered around the Parana River; and those located west and east of the
Uruguay River. In 1724, the populations of both groups of missions evidenced a pattern of imbalance, with more girls and women than men. This
imbalance was related, in part, to the absence of men from the missions, the absence of thousands of men serving with the militia, and deaths while on
campaign. In the Parana missions there were 28,863 girls and women compared to 25,408 boys and men. Similarly, it was 33,107 females and 29,588 males
in the Uruguay River establishments. In random populations there generally is a gender imbalance, with slightly more females than males. The disparity
reflected, in part, migration by males from the missions. Interestingly, there were considerably more widows than widowers, with 2,980 and 3,880 of
the first category and 109 and 236 of the latter in the two groups of missions. This last category of information highlights the importance of the
cotiguazu, the separate residence for widows, as a social institution in the missions. It also shows that widowers remarried. The mission populations
evidenced similar patterns in 1740 and 1741 following the epidemics, with more females than males and considerably more widows than widowers.
Patterns of Fertility and Mortality
Figures on baptisms and burials can be used to tentatively reconstruct the vital rates of the Guarani mission populations. The number of baptisms does
not necessarily translate exactly to births, and without access to the original baptismal registers it would be difficult to establish if the Jesuits
congregated and baptized significant numbers of Guarani or other natives from outside of the missions. Nevertheless, the total numbers of baptisms
reported do give a notion of birth rates, but keeping in mind the caveat outlined above. The Guarani populations of the missions were high fertility
and high mortality populations, meaning that women bore children and birth rates were moderate to high. At the same time mortality rates tended to be
high, particularly for the most vulnerable segments of the population the very young and the old. In 1740, crude birth rates per thousand population
was 79.4/thousand and 40.8/thousand respectively for the Parana and Uruguay River establishments, as against crude death rates of 51.3/thousand and
34.1/thousand. The bulk of deaths occurred among young children, which more closely matches contemporary European demographic patterns. Disease
culled the population of children in Europe, and during the course of the eighteenth-century smallpox was the single largest killer in Europe.
Crude birth rates recorded per thousand population were generally higher than death rates (see Tables 2-4) except in epidemic years, and without
economic or social constraints the Guarani population grew robustly. The periodic mortality crises culled the population and slowed growth, but the
numbers generally rebounded. In examining the global figures for the thirty missions, there were four major mortality crises (x3 regular mortality) in
the years for which data are available. These were in 1733, 1738, 1739, and 1764. Major epidemic outbreaks not only raised death rates, but also
tended to lower birth rates or the rates of life births. On average, Guarani living in the missions lived between twenty and thirty years from birth,
but mean life expectancy at birth dropped as a result of major epidemics.
An examination of crude birth and death rates at the individual missions demonstrates the strength and also variation in mortality levels during the
epidemics in the 1730s as well as the geographic spread of contagion and patterns of fertility and mortality in non-epidemic years. I examine here
data for 1733, 1736, 1739, 1740, 1741, and 1745 (see Tables 2-4). In 1733, there was elevated mortality and death rates in excess of 100 per thousand
population at nine of the thirty missions, with the highest at 174.5/thousand at La Cruz on the Uruguay River which was three times normal mortality.
Death rates were elevated and higher than birth rates at another eleven missions. Crude death rates at these communities ranged between 50 and 99 per
thousand population. Mortality was high throughout most of the mission region, the epidemic centered on the establishments on both sides of the
Uruguay River. The 1735-1736 epidemic appears to not have been as severe as the 1733 outbreak, and in 1736 the contagion only affected a handful of
missions. Highest death rate of 239.2/thousand population was at Loreto, and it was 169.8/thousand at neighboring San Ignacio. Mortality was also
elevated at San Cosme, across the Parana River from Loreto and San Ignacio, and Corpus Christi close to San Ignacio. Death rates were high at San
Carlos and San Jose, at Santa Maria La Mayor, San Francisco Xavier, and San Nicolas on the Uruguay River.
The smallpox epidemic of 1738-1740 was a severe mortality crisis. The record of births and burials is not available for 1738, but there are data for
the next two years. The heaviest mortality in 1739 centered on the missions located between the Parana and Uruguay Rivers, and several of the missions
east of the Uruguay River. This spatial distribution of burials suggests that mortality in 1738 would have been heaviest in the missions located west
and northwest of the Parana River, the southeastern districts of modern Paraguay. The contagion most likely spread to the missions from Paraguay.
Crude death rates ranged between 100 and 200 per thousand population at three missions, including Trinidad located near the western bank of the
Parana. It was 230.8/thousand at San Thome on the west bank of the Uruguay River, which was between x4-x5 normal death rates. Deaths were extremely
high at five missions, and as high as x9-x10 or higher normal mortality. The CDR reached 336.8/thousand or nearly 34 percent of the population at San
Nicolas, 416.6/thousand at la Cruz, and 565.4/thousand, 565.1/thousand, and 556.9/thousand respectively at Santa Maria la Mayor, San Luis Gonzaga, and
San Lorenzo Martir. In other words, more than 50 percent of the population of the three communities died during the course of the year. The bulk of
deaths occurred in the mission communities along both sides of the Uruguay River, and east of the river.
Mortality returned to normal levels and levels at which birth rates were higher than death rates and the mission populations began to grow again. The
exceptions were La Cruz, where death rates were nowhere close to being as high as in 1739. Smallpox probably reached San Juan Bautista mission at the
end of 1739, and devastated the mission population in the early moths of 1740. Death rates reached 485/thousand, or 48 percent of the population, and
the numbers dropped from 4,949 in 1739 to 2,171. In the other missions the smallpox receded as the number of potential hosts dropped as the Guarani
neophytes either died or recovered. In the following years the mission populations slowly recovered from the losses during the epidemics of the 1730s.
Birth rates again outstripped death rates, and the mission populations slowly grew again.
Patterns in the Baja California Missions
The frequency of epidemics that generally spread northward from central Mexico along established routes of trade and communication, suggests that the
native peoples of Baja California populations did not build up immunities to the different pathogens. Rather, those individuals who survived an
outbreak acquired a degree of immunity (not for life), but the next generation not previously exposed would still be at risk. Epidemics were traumatic
and intense episodes that resulted in elevated mortality, and generated terror among the neophytes. However, epidemics only partially account for the
rapid decline of the indigenous populations of northern Baja California. The frequency of epidemics can be documented by calculating crude death rates
on a year to year basis. There are three clusters of severe mortality crises in Baja California following the expulsion of the Jesuits. The first was
in the mid-1770s. Crude death rates reached as high as 359 per thousand population at San Fernando in 1775, and 326 per thousand population at Rosario
in the following year. The second was the 1781-1782 smallpox epidemic (at San Fernando there was high mortality in 1780). Mortality reached a high of
459 per thousand population at Santo Domingo, indicating that more than forty percent of the neophytes died. The indigenous populations living in the
missions recovered somewhat was lower mortality rates in the late 1780s and some years in the 1790s, and in several years actually experienced net
population growth through natural reproduction. Epidemics struck the mission populations again in the years after 1800, and reached severe crisis
levels in 1805. In that year the crude death rate was 218 at San Fernando, 178 at Rosario, and 131 at Santo Domingo.
A detailed discussion of one epidemic, the 1781 to 1782 smallpox outbreak, provides further insights to the dynamic of population collapse in the
Peninsula missions. The smallpox epidemic broke-out in southern and central Mexico in 1779, and reached the northern frontier by 1781. A group of
settlers on their way to Alta California introduced the epidemic into the peninsula, and spread the disease as they marched northward. Dominican
missionary Luis Sales, O.P. wrote that
?there entered the port of Loreto a bark which brought families from Sonora, infected with the smallpox. Through the Commandant?s lack of precaution
they went into the town, and immediately it [smallpox] spread like lightning through all the missions.
Smallpox spread through most of the peninsula missions by the end of the year.
At three missions, San Ignacio, San Francisco de Borja, and San Fernando, the Dominican missionaries used the method of inoculation by variolation to
reduce smallpox mortality. First used in central Mexico in 1779, variolation entailed the intentional infection of a healthy person with puss from a
pustule on the skin of a smallpox victim. The expectation, realized in about 95 percent of the cases, was that the individual inoculated would develop
a mild infection and survive. The inoculation appears to have reduced mortality among the indigenous population at the three missions. A total of only
81 died at San Ignacio in 1781 and 1782. Deaths at San Francisco de Borja reached only 89 in the two years. Deaths at San Fernando totaled 94 in the
two years. In contrast, there were 296 smallpox deaths at Santa Gertrudis, one of the northern missions where the missionary did not inoculate the
neophytes.
Luis Sales, O.P. wrote a detailed account of the epidemic when it reached San Vicente, established only two years earlier in 1780:
I can say from what I myself have experienced that many dead were to be seen in the fields. If one went into the caves he saw the dying?At that time I
myself went out into the neighboring fields, the barrancas and caves to care for those who belonged to this mission of San Vicente?At a place called
San Joaquin I found six dead adults in a cage and by their sides five boys and three girls dying, of hunger rather than of the smallpox?I believe that
more Indians have died of starvation than of sickness?The heathen Indians crowded into the cages, when they noticed any infected with the disease,
[they] fled to another cave and abandoned those unfortunates, and the former, who were already infected, spread it to others?Some threw themselves
into the sea, others scorched themselves with firebrands, and the poor little children, abandoned beside the dead, died without help?
In the San Vicente mission burial register, Sales recorded the deaths of the adults and children that he found at San Joaquin. Dominican missionaries
at San Fernando and Rosario also reported the deaths of neophytes who had fled the missions when the smallpox appeared.
Smallpox killed many neophytes in the missions of the northern frontier, Including 35 found dead in the surrounding hills as reported by Luis Sales,
O.P.. Deaths during the epidemic reached 89 at Rosario. Smallpox deaths reached 40 at Santo Domingo, and 36 at San Vicente.
Lethal epidemics also struck contemporary European populations as well as the non-indigenous populations of colonial Mexico. However, these
populations gradually recovered as a result of increased birth rates following an epidemic. In the long run the post-epidemic ?rebound? made up for
losses during the outbreak. The mission populations did not rebound following epidemics. Rather, death rates were generally higher than birth rates in
non-epidemic years, and there was no increase in birth rates. The failure of the mission populations to rebound is crucial for understanding
demographic collapse.
While epidemics significantly raised death rates over the short run, these traumatic episodes alone do not explain the high level of depopulation
among the natives congregated in the missions. Death rates were chronically higher than birth rates, and as discussed above life expectancy was low.
Endemic disease also killed many, and further explains the collapse of the indigenous populations in the missions. The most serious chronic ailment
was the venereal disease syphilis that spread through the native population of Baja California, and in particular affected women and women of child
bearing age. The spread of syphilis hastened the demise of the native population of the Peninsula, and is an important factor in explaining the
failure of the native population to rebound following epidemics as did the Guarani population of Paraguay.
Syphilis spread through Baja California during the second half of the eighteenth-century, and became a serious health problem for the mission
neophytes. The venereal disease known today is a milder form of the disease that ravaged the mission populations.. In colonial times it assumed
epidemic proportions, and was largely without cure. The most common treatment, mercury pills, could be as deadly as the infection itself. In a more
virulent form the symptoms of syphilis included high fever, intense headaches, joint pain, eruptions on the skin, the characteristic chancre,
prostration, and even death. Syphilis could spread in several ways: by contact with a moist chancre on the skin of an infected person, through sexual
intercourse, or by drinking from a cup used by a person infected with the malady. It could also be transmitted through the placenta to an unborn
fetus, and in a congenital form contributed to high infant and child mortality rates.
Syphilis first appears to have spread to the southern Cape by soldiers brought from Sinaloa to help suppress a major indigenous uprising in the years
1734-1737. One royal official noted in the late 1760s noted that
The number of natives is so slight that in the three missions in this country-San Jose del Cabo, Santiago de las Coras and Nuestra Senora del Pilar,
which is also called Todos Santos-there are scarely one hundred of all sexes and ages, the majority of whom have syphilis. Many are entirely castrated
and others are contagious?because it is caught by some and it is spread to all by not avoiding in time the uncleanliness of their [sexual]
communications, or by separating and curing the sick ones. In fact, even the children here are born infected.
Dominican missionary Luis Sales, O.P. provided additional insight to the spread of the malady throughout the peninsula. Sales noted that
What afflicts these unfortunate people now is the French disease [syphilis] which has been introduced with such force and violence that since it
exterminated the nation of the Pericues [in southern Baja California] (which was very widespread and inhabited the southern part of this province, and
of whom not a single one is left, their lands depopulated and deserted0 it has penetrated into the northern parts and in the same way has finished off
the pueblos.
Sales also accepted the prevailing interpretation that soldiers brought to the peninsula from Sinaloa during the 1734-1737 uprising brought the
disease with them. The Dominican further wrote that:
Some are of the opinion that this French disease [syphilis] is endemic, based on the fact that the most remote heathen (and I have seen many) show it.
But I have also noticed that this is a mistake, because it is not ulcers that they show but tumors [chancres] that appear in the groin and then
disappear. But that which shows up only in the converted pueblos are malignant ulcers which make them useless for work, which are promptly
transmitted, and which end up with almost all infected?but of the Christians, no matter how many remedies are used, few are those who are cured.
Sales concluded by saying that
It is worth noting that in the middle of their rebellion [1734-1737] the galleon from the Philippines arrived in the year 1735, anchored in the port
of the mission San Jose del Cabo as was the custom every year, and the Indians trapped all the sick crew and killed them, but directly afterward the
malefactors caught the same disease and died.
The disease transmitted from the galleon crew probably was also syphilis. Sales described symptoms that included pustules that developed into
malignant ulcers on the genitals.
Syphilis may have been introduced into the peninsula on a large scale during the 1734-1737 Cape rebellion, but it also seems more likely that it
already existed on a small scale and rapidly spread when infected soldiers from Sinaloa ranged across the southern reaches of Baja California. By the
time of the Jesuit expulsion in 1768, as noted by Velasquez de Leon, the surviving Cape Indians were thoroughly infected. Following the Jesuit
expulsion and the movement of new personnel into the peninsula and northward to Alta California, the malady spread. Moreover, for a year following the
Jesuit expulsion soldier-commissioners managed mission temporalities, and enjoyed more contact with and control over the neophytes. Sexual relations
between infected soldiers and Indian women would have been particularly easy following the removal of the Jesuits. By the 1780s, civil officials
complained of the debilitating effects of the disease on the neophytes, and throughout the peninsula syphilis contributed to labor shortages in the
missions and population decline. [xxvii] By 1800, the disease had spread to the mission populations of the northern frontier in the Peninsula. Writing
of Rosario mission in the 1820s, Dominican missionary Troncoso noted that the ?Frightful mortality which its sons have suffered from the very active
syphilis has caused it almost total ruin.? Soldiers and settlers living in Alta California also spread syphilis among the indigenous peoples living
in the missions, with equally devastating effects.
Syphilis had multiple effects on the mission populations, and even begun to spread beyond the frontier to non-Christian indigenous populations.
Children born with congenital syphilis rarely survived. The malady rendered indigenous women infertile. Syphilis also debilitated its victims, and
weakened natural defenses to other infections thus increasing to high death rates among the mission populations. One can also speculate as to the
psychological effects of having to live which a painful and debilitating malady.
Syphilis also was a problem in the California missions. In their response to the 1814 questionnaire, the Franciscans stationed at San Deigo wrote
that
?the most widespread malady is the morbo venereo. For the last four years, in this part of the territory, deaths have exceeded baptisms. In the last
year of 1814, the deaths were 118, while the baptisms were only 75.
Syphilis hastened the decline of the natives congregated on the California missions.
Conclusions
A conjuncture of events contributed to a series of lethal epidemics during the decade 1730-1740. This included civil war and an undeclared war with
the Portuguese. Local royal officials mobilized thousands of Guarani militiamen from the missions, and the militiamen had to be supplied. Moreover,
the missions provided supplies to the other colonial forces involved in the campaign. The Jesuits and the Guarani themselves participated in local and
regional trade, which meant that there was a movement of people and goods between the missions and the Spanish communities. Spain and Portugal agreed
to a conclusion of hostilities in 1737, and the Guarani militiamen returned to the missions as smallpox spread through the region.
The Guarani populations in the missions experienced a drastic short-term population decline, but then rebounded or recovered following the series of
epidemics. In the Baja California missions, on the other hand, the native populations living on the missions did not recover following the outbreak of
epidemics. Infant and child mortality rates were chronically high, and there was a growing gender imbalance in the mission populations with more males
than females. Syphilis was one of the factors contributing to the pattern of demographic collapse in non-epidemic years. Unlike the Guarani missions
of Paraguay, the Baja California mission populations declined once the Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican missionaries had brought the natives under
the sphere of influence of the missions (see Table 5).
Notes
For Europe see Michael Flinn, The European Demographic System, 1500-1820 (Baltimore, 1980).
Burials in the Guarani Missions in 1733, 1736, 1739, & 1740
1733 1736 1739 1740
Mission Adults Parvulos Adults Parvulos Adults Parvulos Adults Parvulos
Guasu 560 632 50 40 22 66 27 84
La Fe 1365 1253 58 13 46 98 36 83
Sta Rosa 900 1363 43 37 26 56 30 64
Santiago 76 131 58 61 38 57 37 55
Itapua 243 568 89 102 98 164 18 31
Candelaria 52 194 49 101 13 66 10 70
S Cosme 80 182 117 99 32 14 5 14
S Ana 377 471 151 174 35 89 31 84
Loreto 515 471 779 542 17 50 11 44
S Ignacio 192 257 275 236 148 80 15 54
Corpus 324 261 161 95 20 52 20 47
Trinidad 138 204 68 64 143 85 48 60
Jesus 136 154 66 64 50 45 20 42
S Carlos 44 201 68 111 6 23 8 32
S Jose 117 249 167 125 19 47 9 19
Aposteles 149 178 92 69 15 18 5 25
Concep. 102 229 90 190 102 46 7 38
Martires 154 337 72 127 388 207 40 55
La Mayor 223 298 133 132 1047 232 6 11
S Javier 172 289 166 163 22 48 14 24
S Nicolas 204 595 362 364 1050 658 58 31
S Luis 218 718 163 138 1457 988 37 34
S Lorenzo 400 371 119 140 1655 1026 31 18
S Miguel 240 296 50 80 68 78 43 53
S Juan 226 272 49 152 241 135 1502 898
Stos Amg 129 207 117 102 137 121 66 74
San Tome 60 140 54 71 332 139 13 20
S Borja 124 235 97 79 76 35 25 63
La Cruz 246 617 77 129 1086 519 81 105
Yapeyu 174 559 38 169 45 163 52 162
Sources: ; Enumeratio Annua, 1733, Archivo General de la Nacion, Sala lX-6-9-6 Enumeratio Annua, 1736, Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires,
Sala lX-6-9-7; Catologo de la numeracion annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Parana Ano 1736; Numeracion Annual de los Pueblos del Rio Uruguay Ano de
1736; Catologo de la numeracion annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Parana Ano 1740; Numeracion Annual de los Pueblos del Rio Uruguay Ano de 1740,
Archivo Nacional, Asuncion, Paraguay; Pablo Hernandez, S.J., Organizacion social de las Doctrinas Guaranies de la Compania de Jesus, 2 vols.
(Barcelona, 1913), vol 2, 616-617.
The net decline in population is was as follows:
Mission 1733 1736 1739 1740
Guasu -1076 5 68 23
La Fe -2472 51 143 131
Sta Rosa -2153 19 44 52
Santiago -86 37 107 43
Itapua -604 27 -122 89
Candelaria -50 -14 67 -15
S Cosme -192 -154 -6 39
S Ana -758 -187 140 128
Loreto -723 -1182 75 108
S Ignacio -247 -437 -115 88
Corpus -306 -178 111 118
Trinidad -227 -48 -122 -14
Jesus -154 -24 60 35
S Carlos -91 -30 -2 69
S Jose -201 -159 -25 88
Aposteles -179 67 2 76
Concep. -86 5 -118 62
Martires -289 -11 -463 75
La Mayor -323 -169 -1235 44
S Javier -329 -182 -5 89
S Nicolas -304 -496 -1654 125
S Luis -669 -112 -2357 101
S Lorenzo -491 -82 -2521 -4
S Miguel -150 83 70 155
S Juan -289 -19 -53 -2329
Stos Amg -142 -18 0 99
San Tome 20 3 -309 160
S Borja -212 25 13 101
La Cruz -602 114 -1540 5
Yapeyu -407 283 191 179
A detailed examination of the vital rates of two missions, Loreto and San Lorenzo, provide additional insights to the affect of epidemics on the
mission populations in the 1730s (see Table 7). Prior to the first epidemic, in 1724, Loreto mission counted a population of 6,113, and 6,077 in 1733
at the end of the first outbreak. The numbers dropped to 1,756 in 1739, but then grew over the next two decades and reached 4,023 in 1756. Crude death
rates in non-epidemic years averaged 36.0 per thousand population, which put in other terms meant that 3.6 percent of the population died on the year.
Two years evidenced a mortality crisis, which is defined as x3 normal mortality. The crude death rate in 1733 was 146.3, or slightly more than x4
normal mortality. In 1736, the crude death rate was 239.2, or x6.6 normal mortality. Crude birth rates were moderate to high, except in the years of
severe mortality crisis. In 1736, for example, the crude birth rate was 23.4, much lower than in non-epidemic years. The average family size, a crude
measure of family size, declined during the decade, and stood at 3.6 in 1739.
The population of San Lorenzo experienced drastic decline during the decade, and had only begun to recover at the time of the so-called Guarani War in
the mid-1750s. In 1731, the mission had a population of 6,420, but this dropped to 974 in 1739. It then slowly recovered over the next decades, and
reached 1,563 in 1745 and 1,459 in 1756. Crude death rates average 44.2 in non-epidemic years, and the two epidemics documented in the sample were
extreme mortality crises, particularly 1739. In 1733, the crude death rate was 117 per thousand population, or x2.7 normal mortality. Mortality in
1739 was extremely high at a crude rate of 557, or x12.6 times normal mortality. The year 1739 must have been hellish for the residents of San
Lorenzo. The population of the mission had already shown signs of recovery following the earlier outbreaks, and totaled 4,814 at the end of 1738.
Smallpox spread to the community, and 1,655 adults and 1,026 young children died. A mere 974 remained at the end of the year, reflecting mortality and
a net loss in population of 2,521 as well as flight as Guarani fled hoping to avoid a horrible smallpox death. The crude death rate indicates that
55.7 percent of the population died. Several neighboring missions experienced equally high death rates. Burials at San Luis Gonzaga reached 2,445 in
1739 and a crude death rate of 565.1 per thousand population, 1,708 burials and a death rate of 336.8 at San Nicolas, 1,279 burials and a death rate
of 565.4 at Santa Maria la Mayor, and 1,605 burials at La Cruz and a death rate of 416.6. In the following year 2,400 died at San Juan Bautista, and a
crude death rate of 484.9.Birth rates at San Lorenzo were moderate to high in the years following the epidemic, but recovery was slow as noted above.
Vital Rates of Loreto and San Lorenzo Missions in Selected Years
Loreto Burials
Year Families Population Baptisms Adults Par. CBR CDR AFS
1724 1543 6113 380 46 119 64.4* 28.0* 4.0
1733 1484 6077 263 525 471 38.6* 146.3* 4.1
1736 549 1937 129 779 542 23.4 239.2 3.5
1739 486 1756 122 17 50 54.6 54.6 3.6
1740 560 2246 163 11 44 92.8 31.3 4.0
1741 635 2422 209 15 94 93.1 50.8 3.8
1744 703 2789 246 29 93 92.3* 45.8* 4.0
1745 738 2855 195 19 84 69.9 36.9 3.9
1756 853 4023 216 40 74 55.1* 29.1 4.7
S Lor. Burial
Year Families Pop Baptisms Adults Paru. CBR CDR AFS
1724 1246 5224 423 63 173 84.0* 46.9* 4.2
1733 1359 6100 280 400 371 42.5* 117.0* 4.5
1736 899 4405 177 119 140 34.2 50.0 4.9
1739 165 974 160 1655 1026 33.2 557.0 5.9
1740 242 1173 45 31 18 46.2 50.3 4.9
1741 340 1311 71 12 20 60.5 27.3 3.9
1744 429 1573 121 8 50 80.1* 38.4 3.7
1745 464 1563 140 28 54 89.0 52.1 3.4
1756 358 1459 80 23 82 53.9* 70.8 4.1
Source: Individual annual censuses of the Jesuit missions for 1724, 1733, 1736, 1739, 1740, 1741, 1744, and1745, titled ?Catologo de la numeracion
annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Parana Ano; Catologo de la numeracion annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Uruguay; Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos
Aires; ; Ernesto Maeder, ?Fuentes Jesuiticas de informacion demografrica misional para los siglos XVll y XVlll,? in Dora Celton, coordinator,
Fuentes utiles para lose studios de la poblacion Americana: Simposio del 49o Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Quito 1997 (Quito, 1997), 45-57.
Juan Valdeviejo, S.J., Trinidad, September 9, 1735, ?Estado del Pueblo de la Santissima Trinidad,? Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires,
?Padrones de Indios,? Sala 9-17-3-6.
Structure of the Population of Trinidad in 1735
Family Size # of Families # People/Families Orphans
Boys Orphans
Girls
Widows
Widowers
2 258 516 94 50 101 6
3 124 372
4 93 372
5 34 170
6 13 78
7 3 21
Not all missions experienced the same level of population loss and particularly of the destruction of families as a result of the epidemic. A 1735
census of San Cosme, located fairly close to Trinidad, manifests a somewhat different population structure, although there was still a large number of
orphans and widows. Nevertheless, there was a larger percentage of families with more than one child that survived the epidemic, which is a sign of a
population that was reproducing itself.
Structure of the Population of San Cosme y Damian in 1735
Family Size # of Families # People/Families Orphans
Boys Orphans
Girls
Widows
Widowers
2 141 282 126 167 133 8
3 121 363
4 95 380
5 64 320
6 45 270
7 19 133
8 3 24
Source: Ventura Suarez, San Cosme y Damian, August 16, 1735 ?Padron del Pueblo de S. Cosme y Damian que se hizo este presente ano 1735,? Archivo
General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires, ?Padrones de Indios,? Sala 9-17-3-6.
?Padron del Pueblo de Sta Anna 1759,? Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires, ?Padrones de Indios,? Sala 9-17-3-6.
Structure of the Population of Santa Ana in 1759
Family Size # of Families # People/Families Orphans
Boys Orphans
Girls
Widows
Widowers
2 350 700 128 121 131 8
3 264 792
4 245 980
5 180 900
6 127 762
7 53 371
8 21 168
9 3 27
Source: ?Padron del Pueblo de Sta Anna 1759,? Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires, ?Padrones de Indios,? Sala 9-17-3-6.
?Matricula deste Pueblo de Corpus Christi,? Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires, ?Padrones de Indios,? Sala 9-17-3-6.
Age and Gender Structure of Corpus Christi in 1759
Age Cohort Males # Percentage Females # Percentage
0-4 339 15.4 372 16.0
5-9 346 15.7 324 13.9
10-14 324 14.7 380 16.4
15-19 261 11.8 269 11.6
20-24 160 7.2 133 5.7
25-29 82 3.7 89 3.8
30-34 146 6.6 148 6.4
35-39 159 7.2 177 7.6
40-44 104 4.7 97 4.2
45-49 70 3.2 64 2.8
50-54 85 3.9 89 3.8
55-59 53 2.4 47 2.0
60-64 49 2.2 42 1.8
65-69 13 0.5 22 1.0
70+ 6 0.3 20 0.9
Not Given 12 0.5 48 2.1
Total 2,209 2,321
Guananas 52 60
Total 2,261 2,381
Total Population 4,642
Catologo de la numeracion annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Parana Ano 1724; Catologo de la numeracion annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Uruguay-1724;
Catologo de la numeracion annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Parana Ano 1740; Numeracion Annual de los Pueblos del Rio Uruguay Ano de 1740; Catologo de
la numeracion annual de las Doctrinas del Rio Parana Ano 1741; Numeracion Annual de los Pueblos del Rio Uruguay Ano de 1741. The originals are from
the Archivo Nacional in Asuncion, Paraguay. I would like to thank Barbara Ganson for providing copies of these documents. Detailed censuses for
individual missions confirm the patterns outlined in the general censuses. I cite here a 1759 census for Corpus Christi, that shows that large
families were common, but that there were also a large number of widows and orphans. The summary below records the actual family size, or in other
words the number of families with a size of two people, three people, etc., as well as the number of people in each category of families, the number
of orphans, widowers, and widows.
Structure of the Population of Corpus Christi in 1759
Family Size Number of Families Number of People in Families
Orphans:
Boys
Orphans:
Girls
Widows
Widowers
2 314 628 137 137 122 6
3 211 633
4 157 628
5 153 765
6 143 858
7 58 406
8 17 136
9 8 72
Source: ?Matricula deste Pueblo de Corpus Christi,? Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires, ?Padrones de Indios,? Sala 9-17-3-6.
A small fragment of baptisms survives for Santa Rosa in the 1750s and 1760s, and shows large numbers of births. A figure on the number of burials for
1756 from the census for that year places the number of baptisms into context. In 1756, the net growth in the population of Santa Rosa was 67, not
factoring in out-migration.
Baptisms Recorded at Santa Rosa, 1754-1763
Year Baptisms Burials
1754 176
1755 153
1756 180 113
1757 185
1758 161
1759 168
1760 203
1761 190
1762 202
1763 183
Source: Santa Rosa Baptismal Register, Santa Rosa Parish, Paraguay; Maeder, ?Fuentes Jesuiticas de informacion demografrica misional.?
Calculated by Robert McCaa using Populate and included as a dataset with Populate, a microcomputer program that uses inverse projection to calculate
sophisticated demographic statistics including mean life expectancy at birth. Populate analyzes five year samples of data, and reports statistics at
the mid-point in the quinquennium. McCaa used data from the research of Ernesto Maeder, and used Populate to fill in the gaps in missing data.
Quinquennium Mean Life Expectation at Birth* in the Guarani Missions, 1692-1767
Year MLE Year MLE Year MLE
1692 29.7 1722 26.7 1752 30.0
1697 28.6 1727 34.8 1757 23.2
1702 26.6 1732 8.8 1762 6.1
1707 26.7 1737 0.2 1767 8.3
1712 32.3 1742 20.1
1717 19.3 1747 23.0
*Calculated using ?Populate.?
McCaa?s figures give an average of the mean life expectancy of 26.8 years at birth in quinquenniums without major epidemics, and 5.9 years at birth in
quinquenniums with major epidemics. We calculated the same statistics using a sample of only complete data for the years 1736-1755, and 1762 to 1766.
The figures we calculated for Mean Life Expectancy may be a little different from McCaa?s, but are in the general range: 1736-1740=4.5 years;
1741-1745=24.8 years; 1746-1750=24.4; 1751-1755=29.9; 1762-1766=9.4 years. The average in non-epidemic periods was 26.4 years at birth, and 7 years at
birth in periods with a mortality crisis.
Luis Sales, O.P., Observations on California, 1772-1790, trans. and ed. Charles Rudkin (Los Angeles, 1956), 60.
Robert H. Jackson, ?The 1781-1782 Smallpox Epidemic in Baja California,? Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 3 (Summer 1981),
138-143.
Ibid., 138-139.
Sales, Observations, 168-169.
Jackson, ?Smallpox,? 140.
William Pusey, The History and Epidemiology of Syphilis (Baltimore, 1933), 11.
Ibid., 37-39.
Iris Engstrand, Royal Officer in Baja California 1768-1770: Joaquin Velazquez de Leon (Los Angeles, 1976), 51-52.
Sales, Observations, 57.
Ibid., 57.
Ibid., 55-56.
Ibid., 59.
Ibid., 59.
One example is found in the California Archives State Papers, Missions and Colonization, 1.
Quoted in l Meigs, The Dominican Mission Frontier, 57.
Quoted in Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., San Diego Mission (San Francisco, 1923), 181.
[Edited on 12-4-2003 by academicanarchist]
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