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David K
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1956 translation of book: Observations On California 1772-1790 by Sales
Just added to my collection, to increase our awareness of Baja's past...
There is very little in the way of first hand details of what Baja was like once the Dominicans took over the peninsula mission operations. Father
Luis Sales was in Baja California from 1772 until 1790. Sales founded and was stationed at San Miguel from 1787 (that is the mission north of Ensenada
at La Misión). Three letters greatly detailing mission life survived and were published in Spain in 1794 and only 10 copies were known to have
survived when Charles Rudkin and Glen Dawson published their English translation, in 1956.
I now have much to read...  If and when I find some earth-shattering data, I
will report back!
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Taco de Baja
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Is that one of the Dawson's 50 book series on Baja?
My dad bought many, many books from Dawson's over the years on Baja and all other topics; including the entire 50 book series on Baja.
As an amazing side note, I Goggled "Glen Dawson" and discovered that he is still alive at 101! What an incredible life story he has too. Wow!
Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions
-Herbert Spencer
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John M
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Dawson
Taco de Baja - et al
No, this is not one of the Baja California Travel Series books. It is from an earlier set - the Early California Travel Series - much harder to find
and much more expensive - they published far fewer copies than the 500 or so for each volume in the Baja series.
Dawson actually expanded the BCTS by one after volume 50 - the Index was published - it is Modest Fortunes Mining in Northern Baja California by
Chaput/Mason/Loperena and published in 1992 (the Index was published in 1991).
These are treasures for the history minded person.
John M
[Edited on 10-12-2013 by John M]
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BajaBlanca
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wow, that is a book I would love to read. I guess the original is in Spanish ..... that is the one I would opt for!
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David K
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10 copies of the 1794 Spanish book vs. 300 copies of the 1956 English translation... Good luck! The attention to detail and accuracy is very high in
this English version, with plenty of footnotes. The details on how the natives of Baja lived are greater than any previous description I have read...
I got to page 72 last night (218 page book) which was the first of three letters Luis Sales wrote to his friend in Valencia, Spain. This letter was
written while Sales was at Mission San Miguel 1787-1790.
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David K
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Finished the book (218 pages) and it indeed contains one of the most complete descriptions of the Indian life and day to day living in Baja, through
the eyes of a missionary.
Father Baegert of Mission San Luis Gonzaga also wrote much detail of the (Guaycura) Indians in his 1772 'Observations in Lower California'. Baegert
was a Jesuit who was expelled along with all other Jesuits from New Spain back to Europe.
This book is by a Dominican Priest who was on the peninsula from the year Baegert wrote his book to 1790... so not a lot of time after. Naturally,
experiences are different since Sales was stationed along the cool northern Baja Pacific coast instead of the Magdalena desert plain of San Luis
Gonzaga mission.
In the long run, the Indians of Lower California did not impress them very much after the many years spent with them... and near the end of Luis Sales
book (which are the contents of letters he wrote to a friend describing Baja) he says this:
"You have seen that all that there is here in California is starvation, nakedness and misery."
Since very little text has survived from any Dominicans serving in Baja (1773-1855), this book is indeed a treasure (to me).
[Edited on 10-15-2013 by David K]
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elbeau
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| Quote: | | Father Baegert of Mission San Luis Gonzaga also wrote much detail of the (Guaycura) Indians in his 1772 'Observations in Lower California'. Baegert
was a Jesuit who was expelled along with all other Jesuits from New Spain back to Europe. |
Baegert's book is tremendously important for its detail about the Guaycura, but WOW...he wasn't exactly a cup-is-half-full kind of guy. My favorite
part is his description of trying to pray in front of the cross in his room each day while the c-ckroaches were constantly busy procreating on it.
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bajacalifornication
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Everybody have a different perspective. "You have seen that all that there is here in California is Starvation, Nakedness and Misery"
Starvation= Diet, Nakedness= Al Natural and Misery= Material Wealth does not equal Happiness.
Todo por servir se acaba. Y acaba por no servir.
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David K
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That he found many starving and in misery had a lot to do with changing what was natural for the Indians, to the Spanish/ European lifestyle... which
obviously didn't work well.
What the modern-day admirers of Indian life may not know or accept was how easily the Indians of (Baja) California committed murder, abortion, war,
etc. on each other before becoming neophytes (Christian converts).
What was interesting to read was how quickly they tossed an unconscious body onto a fire (before confirming death). There was population control,
adultery, elder abuse, child abuse and other behavior that was stopped by the missionaries. As with most things, there are more than one version of a
story. Reading the words by people alive at the time is a great look into the past... a time machine!
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captkw
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WOW,,david ...thats a cool read
please fax my issue to 555-555-000..thanks in advance..
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David K
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There are still some copies available for $70 + on Amazon, or do what some do, and get your library to bring in one.
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David K
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A year later...
Almost a year since we chatted about the Dominicans and lack of written materials from their time in Baja, and low and behold I found a gold mine of
data collected from documents that have survived. I am compiling them into useful data sheets for future casual history researchers.
A correction to last years comment about Padre Luis Sales: He did not arrive in California until September, 1773. See the final three paragraphs for
the details on why in this preview of an upcoming article I am working on:
(the following is still under construction)
Dominicans at Baja California Missions (1774-1849)
Once the 1767 Royal order was delivered to the Jesuits and they were removed from all their missions in the New World, an opportunity for other
Catholic Orders to have a hand in the mission field was available. The Franciscans were already chosen to replace the Jesuits, but the Dominicans had
pleaded for some responsibility in California. Years of negotiations and revisions would transpire before the Dominican priests actually began serving
the Baja California missions. The following is a summary of some of the events leading to the Dominican arrival in Antigua (Old) California, later
called Baja (Lower) California.
A request for the administration of some of the Jesuit founded missions of Baja California was made on July 24, 1768, by Dominican Fray Juan Pedro de
Iriarte y Laurnaga. Iriarte was Procurator General for the Province of Santiago de Mexico, residing at the Royal Court of Madrid. He asked especially
for those missions between the twenty-fifth and twenty-eighth degrees of north latitude.
On December 17, 1769, the King decided that ten Dominican fathers, destined for the nearest former Jesuit missions, should go there, but left the
exact posts unspecified.
On January 17, 1770, the Procurator-General, Fray Juan de Dios de Cordoba, recommended that Iriarte's petition be granted, that the requested
territory of Baja California be allocated, since there was urgent need tor the conquest of Nueva (New) California as a check against foreign
encroachments.
On June 15, 1770, Juan Pedro de Iriarte and Juan de Dios de Cordova asked the King for a grant of twenty four missionaries, at royal expense, for the
missions of Baja California. Iriarte, on July 10, 1770, issued a circular to the convents of the three Spanish Provinces of the Dominican order,
announcing that the King had granted them a mission field in Baja California, and calling for volunteers.
On April 30, 1772 the division of California was settled and the Dominicans accepted all of Baja California and the Franciscans had Nueva California,
later called Alta (Upper) California, as far north “as they can extend their spiritual conquests”. This arrangement was approved by the Council of the
Indies on May 11, 1775. [p39]
Two boats were used to bring the Dominicans to California sailing from San Blas in September, 1772. Storms separated the boats and disaster would fall
upon one. A storm-caused shipwreck, disease and bad food forced one boat back to shore at Mazatlán. On board the doomed boat was their leader, Padre
Iriarte. After arriving at Mazatlán he was taken to San Sebastián, where he died.
On October 14, 1772, nine Dominican priests and one laybrother arrived at Loreto. Ten days later one of the priests died. Nearly six months would pass
before the news of the other ship carrying Dominicans had wrecked and their leader, Padre Iriarte (and two other priests) had died.
Nearly seven months passed before two boats brought the eighteen Dominicans who survived the shipwreck. They arrived at Loreto on May 12, 1773, and
three days later were given their assignments. Now with 26 Dominicans, each of the missions would be assigned two, except for the far north missions
of Santa María and San Fernando, which shared the same two priests. The Indians of Mission Santa María were transferred to Mission San Fernando the
next year. Padre Luis Sales arrived on September 21, 1773 being delayed by his illness from the disastrous events of a year earlier.
Stay tuned for more from Baja's fascinating history!
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sargentodiaz
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Prior to the coming of Europeans, the Stone Age natives of the California peninsula lived almost like the animals around them. They covered themselves
in tattoos and paint, lived day-to-day with death always on their mind, and ate anything that came to hand. That means reptiles, insects, and anything
else they could find edible.
They had no sense or understanding of love or compassion or morality. Women basically led society and, as in the animal word, selected a sexual
partner based upon his strength and ability to provide. If he failed to do so, she simply walked away and found someone else.
The main person of authority was not a tribal chieftain in our understanding but a "healer" claiming superiority by being "touched" and able to tell
them how to survive. As for the use of the many medicinal herbs available in the area, I can find nothing that says they knew of or how to use them.
And there are many "modern scholars" who wish to claim that Europeans took these poor people living an idyllic lifestyle into slavery and caused their
deaths by European disease.
I don't see any of their descendants - anywhere in the Americas - regressing to that life!
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mtgoat666
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| Quote: | Originally posted by sargentodiaz
Prior to the coming of Europeans, the Stone Age natives of the California peninsula lived almost like the animals around them. They covered themselves
in tattoos and paint,...
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Hmmmmm, sounds like many people I know today...
| Quote: | Originally posted by sargentodiaz
They had no sense or understanding of love or compassion or morality.
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That sound like a loaded statement! What's your basis for throwing out that indictment?
| Quote: | Originally posted by sargentodiaz
Women basically led society...
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Oh, the horror! Dios mio!
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BajaBlanca
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history- just love reading about it too.
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David K
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Working on the Dominican period in Baja (1773-1855), and finding more and more details that have not been published before... See some of it in my new
articles that Discover Baja is posting on their blog and newsletter... more to come.
Mission treasures are all in books and papers, and they are still more to be discovered!
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El Vergel
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
There are still some copies available for $70 + on Amazon, or do what some do, and get your library to bring in one. |
I know I'd enjoy this read, thanks David!
My local Library doesn't have a copy. There are three of these books in Los Angeles. No kidding! One is in the UCLA Library ($125 for a non-student to
get a card!) and two are in the special collections/rare books section in the Downtown L.A. Library. None of the the books may be checked out but can
be perused in the Library only. Maybe getting one from Amazon is the ticket!
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elbeau
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| Quote: | Originally posted by sargentodiaz
...the Stone Age natives of the California peninsula lived almost like the animals around them... |
I'm always on the lookout for new information about Baja so maybe you can enlighten me:
Which "animals around them" built balsas and canoes and safely navigated them miles out into the open ocean?
Which "animals around them" were experts in carving fish hooks and crafting atlatl-propelled harpoons?
Which "animals around them" mined and crafted obsidian to an extent unparalleled in the North American southwest? (Valle de Azufre)
Which "animals around them" utilized weapons and tools like the bow, the arrow, the quiver, the atlatl and dart, the javelin, the wooden
scimitar, or the ornate knives that they created from shark teeth embedded in wood and secured there by strong glues?
Which "animals around them" possessed bull-roarers for long-distance communication?
Which "animals around them" kept a written history by carefully inscribing symbols of that history into impressively-prepared wooden tablets?
Which "animals around them" would carefully carve and inscribe figures into mother-of-pearl to be worn as decoration.
Which "animals around them" skillfully carved intricate religious idols of human figures wrapped with a snake?
Which "animals around them" carried on two distinct cultural patterns, one being a coastal pattern and the other inland with vastly different
modes of subsistence?
Which "animals around them" engaged in trade across distances so large that those at the tip of the peninsula had their own word for "maize" and
recognized it as a food product that could be obtained from other tribes hundreds of miles to the North.
Which "animals around them" crafted intricate silk-like nets for decoration and utility?
Which "animals around them" created stone structures to trap fish with the outgoing tides?
Which "animals around them" placed foundation stones in the ground for their dwellings or ceremonies with specially placed stone pointers in
each of the cardinal directions?
Which "animals around them" worked as a community to build special roads and resting places for their religious leaders?
Which "animals around them" had a language system that encompassed "every sound" used by Europeans, making it easy for them to learn Spanish?
Which "animals around them" had specially carved hooks for harvesting fruit from high overhead?
Which "animals around them" utilized wooden tools to harvest roots effectively?
Which "animals around them" used manos and metates to grind legume seeds, cactus seeds, and a wide variety of grains?
Which "animals around them" developed tools specifically for weaving fine linens?
Which "animals around them" kept dogs and caged birds as pets?
Which "animals around them" created well-woven blankets in an artistic pattern and kept clean and which "could have been used anywhere as a fine
coverlet or rug"?
Which "animals around them" crafted musical instruments?
Which "animals around them" dug wells for water?
Which "animals around them" crafted ladders in order to harvest palm fruits?
Which "animals around them" would organize large gatherings in order to practice religious ceremonies, to trade with each other, and to compete
in sporting events.
Which "animals around them" utilized a large case to carry their items and which they would attach to their ear-piercings, leaving their hands
free for hunting and warfare?
Which "animals around them" were capable of weaving bowls that, without any sealant, were watertight and which could be used to roast seeds.
Which "animals around them" invented their own way of popping seeds to create a food similar to popcorn?
Which "animals around them" mixed and prepared cement grave markers so strong that modern archaeologists still have trouble breaking it 2,000
years later?
There are plenty of other things to list, but we'll let that suffice for now. The point is that you are trying to simplify complex prehistoric
cultures into zippy one-liners that give you some perverted sense of moral superiority.
Your pretended understanding of the life of Baja natives is short-sighted and pretentious. You try to paint the world in black-and-white terms where
anyone who disagrees with your European-superiority world view is automatically stereotyped as being believers of the "idyllic lifestyle" of the
"noble savage".
Your closed-mindedness prevents you from seeing the world as it is and leads to many prejudices. Even before they became physically extinct, the
natives of the peninsula went through a systematic, forced, cultural extinction. The Spanish had to continually use military force to keep the Baja
natives from deserting the missions and going back to their old habits. But, of course, you "don't see any of their descendants - anywhere in the
Americas - regressing to that life!".
Your view of other cultures is closed-minded and petty. You're so shocked by things like the nakedness and eating habits and warfare of the Indians
that you can't even begin to look at those things as cultural traits rather than as barbarisms and then you add to your ignorance by proclaiming some
kind of moral superiority upon the noble, peace-loving Europeans as if they brought peace to the Indians. They brought cultural and physical
extinction to the Indians.
I guess there is an upside though, now that they are all dead they no longer "cover themselves in tattoos and paint, or live day-to-day with death
always on their mind".
Thank you for your priceless gems of wisdom.
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David K
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In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some,
back then.
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elbeau
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some,
back then. |
If so, then my apologies, but I still don't see the sarcasm that you're seeing in his post.
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